This e-mail has been sent to you from Slovenia - yesss, we're back! Everything was developing so fast in the last month of traveling so unfortunatelly there's was no time to write to you. But we'll make it up with this mail.

The last time we sent an e-mail was when we were in Kikoura. The next morning we went swimming with playfull and curious dolphins. Amazing experience as that was, a beautiful sunrise made it even more unforgetable!

In a camp we met a German called Stefan who had a similar journey plan as we did. We originally planed to hitch-hike through south part of the South Island because we were running out of time. So eventually we agreed that we would join Stefan with his mini van, brand Toyota. We again left our bikes on a safe spot in one of the backpacker's and hit the road...with a car.

We first stoped in Christchurch which is one of the cities we liked the most (if not even the best). Architecture in the city reflects a history which we missed in other cities. We spent most of our time in a beautiful botanic garden and in Arts Centre where during weekends a lot of different artists (clowns, singers, painters...) entertain the visitors.

After Christchurch we passed by turquoise coloured lakes Tekapo and Pukaki and continued our journey to the highest mountain in NZ - Mount Cook (3755m). Near the mountain we could also see a glacier with an interesting name - Hooker glacier. Afterwards we returned to East coast and stoped in a city Oamaru which is famous for a pinguin colony which we unfortunatelly didn't see. You see, the pinguins search for food in the sea from sunrise till sunset.

Something special were big round rocks called Moeraki Boulders. It's origin is still unknown but scientists suppose that they were developing for 4 million years under an influence of a weather.

We also visited land of the fjords (Milford Sounds), one of main tourist attractions despite the amount of rain that falls in this area per year. For a short while we stoped in Queenstown which is the most expensive city in the country and also a centre of adrenalin sports (bungee-jump, white water rafting, skydiving,...).

We spent couple of days also on the Westcoast where we experienced a tipical day for that area (rain, windy, rain, windy...) that's why we couldn't visit two famous glaciers (Franc Josef g. and Fox glacier).

We crossed one of the most famous passes, Arthur's pass, said goodby to Stefan in Christchurch, picked our bikes up and cycled to one of the most charmful villages - Hanmer Springs. We relaxed for few days in HANMER SPRINGS FOREST CAMP (www.hanmerforestcamp.co.nz) which is located couple of kilometres out of the village centre in a beautiful surroundings. We met kind and friendly people there who take care of the camp which became one of our favourite camps we stayed at in NZ. In time we spent there we were cycling around the village, experienced mountainbiking, went hiking...

After that we cycled back to Christchurch from where we flew back to Slovenia. We spent the last night at the airport because we had to sell our tent so we kind of became homeless. After waiting 9 hours at Sydney airport and after all together 52 hours of travelling (flying, waiting at airports) we finally steped on slovene grounds.

Traveling through New Zealand was one big adventure which we enjoyed very much, learned a lot from it, also from less pleasant moments. The nature is very diverse and wonderful what Newzealanders are aware of and what resulted in they becoming experts in marketing of tourist attractions. What we missed the most was a ťrealŤ (very old) history we are used to in Europe. The country was starting to massively immigrate not until 150 years ago. That's why we were more amazed by Maori history which is more than thousand years old. What surprised us the most was the openness and amazing friendliness of locals.

Thank you for reading our e-mails and sending us ones with news from homeland and words of encouragement - it meant a lot to us. Besides sponsors we also thank Mrs. Lindsay from BEACHAVEN MOTOR CAMP (Waihi Beach) and Mrs. Judi from HANMER SPRINGS FOREST CAMP for hospitality, phone use and their friendliness. We were namely reporting couple of times to radio stations VAL 202 and RADIO SLOVENIA INTERNATIONAL live from NZ.

We would specially like to thank our families and apologize to them in case we caused any sleepless nights because of worring.

M & S

Hi!

We arrived to Lake Taupo which is located approximately in the middle of North Island.On the way to Tauranga after a few ten kilometres we had to decide for hiking to the nearest bike shop. And what had happened? Spokes of back wheel on both bikes had broken under pressure of too much weight (laguage). The mechanic exchanged them with silver ones which are thicker and stronger from the black ones we had had before.

Anyway, since we've ben here we had a few other problems with our bikes: torn wires on meters, banded stand, flat tires,... what drove us crazy and cleaned our wallets good.

We stay only in camps (or in holiday parks as Newzealanders call them) who are usually neat and clean. Each has a laundry room (washing and drying each 2 NZD), TV room, joint kitchen with a fridge and somewhere you can also find dishes. Most camps also have (noisy!) ducks who ťcleanŤ grass around the place. The most annoying are mosquitos, sand flies and possums. The possum sits beside a tent (at night!) and makes the most impossibly annoying and loud sound for hours, like it would be telling us:ŤGo away, this is my territory!Ť We'll show him his territory when we'll come out of our tent, armed and pissed off and he'll meet two woman-terminators!

We spent some nights in a camp in Rotorua which has naturally heated spots for camping (who are totaly uncomfortable during summer). The city is known for it's geothermal activities (thermal springs and lakes) that's why you can see smoke almost everywhere and it smells all over the place.

We toured around the city and visited ťBurried villageŤ and went zorbing. The village had been more than one hundred years ago floded with lava from a nearby volcano called Tarawera. Later on they partly excavated the village and made an open air museum out of it. On the way to the village we freshened up in a Blue lake which is similar to our Bohinj lake.

Zorbing is one of many - in NZ invented - adrenalin sports. You get rolled down a hill in a zorb (looks like a big baloon). There are several different kinds of zorb you can pick from: harnessed zorb (you are fastened with a harness), hydro zorb (before the descent they fill it up with a bucket of water - very refreshing)... You can read more about it on the web page: www.zorb.com. We visited the location because Sasha has been writing a diploma on the subject zorbing (ťMarket communication on a study case of adrenalin sport zorbingŤ). We mentioned that to guys from a zorb crew and they were so fascinated by it that they surprised us with a free offer of hydro zorb experience which we of course could not resist. It was amazing!

On the way to Lake Taupo we visited a thermal park Waiotapu which is a unique vulcanic area with colourful thermal and muddy lakes and vulcanic craters. We also witnessed a geyser erruption which they stimulate with a soap alike substance at the exact time every day for tourists.

With a permission of kind park personnel we spent a night (for free!) on their picnik spot - unsleepy night (possums!).

In Taupo we experienced for the first time since we've been here rain and mostly cloudy weather. We've got used to summer pretty fast and we've kind of forgotten how cold must be in Europe. Anyhow, we still envy you a little the winter idyll you have right now.

Thanks for your e-mails and news - way to go Tina Maze!. Enjoy winter delights for us and read to you soon!

Ciao bao
S & M

Here we are again - after two weeks reporting from Plenty Bay. There's several kilometres long sandy beach which supposed to be New Zealand's most popular and the most safe beach for surfing. So you can imagine how many good looking surfers hang arround the beach...

From Auckland we traveled up north to Orewa. Because of windy and cold weather we went swimming only once. Rest of the time we used for sightseeing and among many places we visited a rain forest and went hiking through Shakespear regional park. The park has magnificent view points, sandy beaches, large pastures with sheep, cows and colourful peacocks.

Then we traveled back south and owing to advice of a local we landed in Omana regional park where a staying fee is a lot cheaper (8 NZD) than in ordinary camps/holiday parks (12-16 NZD). Of course without hot showers and with toilets in not such a good shape.

After few-day stops at different holiday parks we settled down in a coast of Waihi Beach.

We've met a lot of interesting people so far, like Karin from Germany who is obviously even more optimistic as we are - she's not fit at all but she bought a bike in NZ anyway and she's determined to cycle all the way to the South island - way to go Karin! We aslo met a couple from Switzerland, Iwan and a three-month pregnant Elizabeth who have a similar journey (cycling!) plan as we have. We also made friends with a New Zealand pilot who has a house on Bali, a company in Jakarta and flew Mick Jagger, Toma Cruz and Penelope Cruz.

We were very surprised by some locals who could instantly tell us where Slovenia was when we mentioned it. They namely had spent some time in our country because of work or private reasons. Ex-Jugoslavia and Tito are still the key words that allways work for people to imagine where Slovenia is.

There are a lot of tourist information centres on the way. In a case that we don't find them right away, there's allways a friendly local that approaches us and fills us with useful information. That's why it's hard to get lost. Sometimes we would stop only for a minute to relax and right away somebody comes over to talk to us and asks us where are we from and where are we headed.

We sunburnt pretty much already but we try to stay in a shade because there's a big ozone layer above New Zealand.

Unfortunatelly we've found out that photos made with a digital camera are of bad quality. We haven't figured out yet what was the cause: the camera or us. We sent some photos to our webmaster anyway - hopefully he'll manage to sharpen them. Anyhow, you can take a look of them anyway, to get an idea what we've been experiencing on our journey.

You were very busy with sending us e-mails and we are looking forward to receiving some more.

Regrads,

Sasha & Mateja