New Zealand    traveldate's : 

dec 1998 - jan 1999
dec 2000 - jan 2001

 
Check our nicest travel pictures

on North Island

Coromandel peninsula (1998)
Tongariro NP (1998)

on South Island

Marlborough Sounds (1998)
Abel Tasman NP (2000)
landing on glacier with ski-plane (1998)
glacierhike (1998)
glacierhike (2000)
Otago & Fjordland (1998) 
Mount Cook NP(2000)
Dunedin-Christchurch
Kaikoura (1998&2000)
Banks Peninsula (2000)

actual time in NZ :

Brussels - London : 1 hour
with Air New Zealand :
London - Los Angeles : 12,5 hrs
short stop (cleaning the plane..) in LA : 2 hrs
Los Angeles - Auckland : 12 hrs
departure Brussels : thursday at 10.30 am
arrival Auckland : saturday 05.30 am
(crossing the international dateline=day+1)

Some features

* difference in time : +12h
e.g. New Year 2001 : 12.00 am in NZ = in Europe still 31/12/00 - 12.00 pm
* winter in Europe = summer in NZ ("the summer of 2001" = jan/feb 2001 !)
* traffic on the left hand side, steering wheel on the right, gear on the left
* approx.. 3,7 million inhabitants (3m on North Island and 1m on South Island) 
* 14 inhabitants/kmē
* 70 million scheep
* 270.000 kmē (9xBelgium)
* many small things are very peculiar to us, Europeans. e.g. to lock a door, you have to turn the key to the left instead of to the right, even the sink is organised completely different (warm water is on the right)
* jetlag ? arrival in NZ : 2x absolutely no problem !
travelling back:  2x very sleepy during a whole week...