Exploring Wellington (Final day)

We spend our last day in New Zealand in the capital Wellington. After almost nine days traveling in Jamaica and in New Zealand we all were a bit tired, but we had a lot of things on our schedule.
Wellington is the second largest city in New Zealand with it's 600 000 inhabitants. The first thing we noticed about this city was that it seemed very clean and nice. The city can remind a bit of Bergen (except skyscrapers) with all of the mountains located nearby.

Wellington

When we were awoken by church bells at 10 o'clock, we understood that we were running late.We started off the morning with a heatry breakfast. Since the culture in New Zealand is very simlar to the britsh we were served some egg and bacon. During the delicious breakfast we got some time to read a newspaper called "The New Zealand Herald". There we could read for example about a neo-Nazi environment in Auckland that has driven vandalism. Afterwards we hurried away from the hotel to the nearest metro to reach everything we had on our schedule.

We started our day at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. There we got to learn a bit of the history of New Zealand. Actually all of us thought it was quite exciting there.
After our museum-tour we went to Wellington Zoo. The we got to see a lot of animals, like ions, kangaroos, but also some weird New Zealand natives like the Brown Kiwi.

To end our 8day long journey we decided to go to a rugby match. New Zealand is famous world wide because of their haka they are doing befor each international match. "All Blacks" played against England, and the match ended with a home victory 31-28 for New Zealand. It was an exciting experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqnimvUMCAk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10842076
http://www.museumswellington.org.nz/museum-of-wellington-city-and-sea/
http://www.wellingtonzoo.com/net/explore/animals.aspx?id=43
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_national_rugby_union_team#Haka

The waitomo Caves (day 6)

On the second day in New Zealand we decided to go to another cave because of the amazing view we got in Jamaica. So we went to the  Waitomo Caves, The limestone Waitomo Caves attract more than 400,000 visitors every year to their spectacular glow-worm grotto and caverns. The cave system was first explored in 1887, and from 1905 it was managed by the New Zealand government’s Tourist Department. Today black-water rafting is popular with more adventurous visitors.



We wanted to go rafting, but the waitlist was to long so we decided on a normal tour instead. The cave had a different color than the green grotto caves, but i think that is mostly because they had placed some spotlights that had a blue-ish light. The difference was the glowworms they give a beautiful lighting, like stars in the sky.



In this tour the guide had more people with him so we didnt get as much focus as in the green grotto caves, but still we had an amazing time!
On the way back to the hotel we went to the bank to take out some cash, but soon found out that someone had slid and chares into the bank. Luckily noone was hurt in the accident.
After an exhousting day we went to the hotel to sleep of some of the tiredness so that we were in good shape when we are going to mount reapehu to go boarding and skiing in the best snow facility in New Zealand.

glow worm picture
http://www.newzealand.com/us/article/the-underground-glories-of-waitomo-roadside-stories/

first day in New Zealand (day 5)

we arrived to the magnificent country of New Zealand after an 30 hour long flight. We had to make several stops  on the way and spent up to two hours on the ground for each stop. The flight was long and tiresome and when we arrived at Auckland international airport all we wanted was to get to the hotel.

Piha beach

Finely we came to the hotel and it was very nice, but we where most interested in the beds in our hotel room. We were so exhausted that we could sleep in the street. the beds was very comfortable and we fell asleep right when the head touched the pillow.The next morning we all woke up at about the same time, well except for Per Kristian that slept an hour more than the rest of us. When we all where awake and fully rested the tree of us headed out to get some breakfast and we found a nice place to eat. After we had got some food we went to a famous surfing beach named Piha. When we arrived the at the beach we rented some surfboards and went out surfing. None of us had surfed before so it was tricky, but after a while we started to get the hang of it. When we was done surfing we ate some fish and ships at a restaurant near the hotel in Aukland. It was a late night so when we got back to our room we went right in our beds and dreamed about what we were going to do the next day.                 

The Green Grotto Caves (day 4 final)

On the final day in Jamaica we desided to go to Ocho Rios and visit the green grotto caves. They are known as the Runaway Bay Caves, Cave Hall Caves, Discovery Bay Caves, Dry Harbour Caves, Hopewell Caves, Rum Caves and Dairy Caves. The various names were given because there are traces of indians who sheltered there and the remains of smugling of running arms to cuba between the two world wars.

Green Grotto is 1,525 metres long and 12 metres deep and has numerous chambers and light holes and a subterranean lake, the Grotto Lake.


They are among Jamaica's most prominent natural attractions. They are of international repute and have been seeing visitors since the 18th century.

Entering the cave was a beautiful sight, you could see the limestone hanging from the roof like ice taps.

 

As we went deeper into the cave we found out that the cave was like a neverending labyrinth. At one point we acually saw the Grotto Lake, it was amazing, a lake in the cave there were waterfalls to! 

The guide showed us one of the chambers in the cave where we could eat our lunch. To eat lunch in that amazing natural laburinth was defintly a memoriable event. After that the guide showed us the way out and we went back to the hotel to pack our things.
As we checked out of the hotel we went to the airport and said a final goodbye to jamaica.
Of to New Zealand!


http://www.greengrottocavesja.com/v1/main_frame.htm
picture waterfall

Saint Ann's Bay (Day #3)

Saint Ann's Bay  (Day #3)

This morning we stood up at 7am because we was going to leave Kingston and take the bus up to the village Saint Ann's on the North side of the Island. The bus was leaving at half to eight so we had to hurry a bit. After a tasty Jamaican Porridge for breakfast, we was ready to check out and hop on our bus to Saint Ann's Bay.

Lovley Jamaican Porridge:


All of us was very sleepy durning the bustrip, but we had to keep our eyes open so we didn't miss beautiful jamaican landscape. After nearly 2 hours on the Bus we arrived Saint Ann's Bay. An idyllic small village just by the coast. The sun was shining over the crystal clear occean. We walked down to the beach where our luxurious hotel was placed. After we have finished the check at the hotel, we went surfing on the sea. It was a lot of fun, but really hard as well for beginners as us. After surfing we found a resturant nearby to get us a better meal. All of us order the traditional Jamaican spice "Jerk Chiken".

As we enjoyd our chinked we started to discuss how funny the jamaican accent is, but non of us did really know why they speak english here. Many places got spanish names, so we was pretty sure that they spoke spanish here on the island earlier. So we checked up some the history of the jamaican language immediately, and this is what we found out: In 1494 Colombus discovered Jamaica, and 16 years later the first spanjols settled down in Jamaica. This influenced the Jamaican language, but in the middle of the 17th century Jamaica was under British rule, and since then English has been the official language here.
23 pm we all went tired to bed, with even more impressions of Jamaica


http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica

Exploring Kingston (Day #2)

Exploring Kingston (Day #2)

We woke up at 9am, and started planning what we should do on this beautiful day. The sun was shining and the temperatur was about 30 degrees. Before breakfast we checked out som infomation about Kingston. Kingston is the capital of Jamaica, and it's the biggest city on the island with it's population of 600 000. Kingston is located on the Southeaster coast of Jamaica. The atmosphere is relaxed and it consist of two main parts; the historical district and New Kingston.

Maps of Jamaica;

    Jamaica is placed in the Carribean Sea                                          

At 11am we leaved the hotel and took the bus to the devon house. The devon house is a 127 years old site and one of the most visited attractions in  Jamaica. The house was founded by Jamaica first black millionaire and it's a beutiful place to relax and just enjoy the weather. There we bought some ice cream and just walked around watching the luxuary area.

                    The devon house:

We had a tight schedule, so we rushed to the Bob Marley Museum which was nearby and were going to close at 4pm. We arrived just in time for the last tour of the day. the tourguide showed us several artifacts of Bob Marley and gave us the basic facts we allready checked up at the hotel.
As we rushed on we went to Spanish town where a house was recently burned down by a fire worth 12 million dollars. What a tragedy.
Then we took the bus back to the city.
Throughout the bus trip we saw all the differences of rich and poor in Jamaica. We drove past several slums area in Kingston. It made ​​a strong impression on all of us. Afterwards we went back to our Hotel to get some sleep after a long and hard day.


Sources:
www.devonhousejamaica.com

• http://www.wordtravels.com/Attractions/509
• http://www.wordtravels.com/Attractions/513

Arrived at Jamaica! (Day #1)

Finally we arrived at the beautiful island of Jamaica! The trip was long and the plane had to stop twice to tank up. We checked in  at a 5 stars Hotel in the capital of Jamaica, Kingston. 

Jamaica is the 4th largest island nation of the Greater Antilles in the carribean. At the hotel we checked up local facilities where we  could spend the evening. We found a romantic nightclub at pearly white beach. As the twilight sun fell down from the crimson sky we decided to head back to the hotel. 

At the hotel we checked up some facts about Jamaica before we went to bed. We found out that the population Jamaica is about 3 millions which is much less than all of us thought, because that is even less than Norway's population. Their motto is "Out of many, one pepole".  Since we first were in Jamaica we thought that we could check out the famous musician Bob Marley.

Bob Marley is seen as a national hero that give pride to the jamacian people. One of his guitar was sold for a staggering price of 22billions kroner. 

Jamiaca is famous all over the world because of their incredible sprinters. The legend Usain Bolt is considered as the fastest man alive, and has set multiple world records in his sprinter career.

We ordered some room service to get some food before we went tired and full of impressions to bed.