words from the world

As I get off the plane, I must get through a draconian sanitary control. The agent auscultates the hiking shoes and confiscates my tent to check no clod of earth remained clung to the poles. I meet a Frenchman and a Belgian I spend the afternoon with and we land into a youth hostel. According to the number of the wall-hanging brochures, we understand New Zealand is extremely well-prepared for tourism. It's probably here the modern nomadism was invented and never stopped improving.
12 hours of jet lag, hard to go farther except getting on a boat and sailing more eastwards. I'm exactly at the other end of the planet, at the bottom right in the geographical map. New-Zealand is a country that will remain perfectly unknown for many people if it didn't house the best rugby team in the world. Despite the recent feat of the French coqs during the worldcup, this small 4-million-inhabitant island lives at the rate of the rugby and its teams such as the Auckland Blues or the Wellington Hurricanes.
In a bookshop, the Tana Umaga's autobiography has its stall and I rush up to glance through. He talks about the fervour of the Toulon (the city where I live) spectators and 2 beautiful pictures are within the book. For sure, the inhabitants of the country of the long white cloud will know where to pinpoint the harbour of Toulon in the southeast of France.
After several months of a disjointed life, I find back a European-like atmosphere, a country where we pay attention to the road signs and where the horn is pushed down only in case of a compelling necessity. The city of Auckland is calm with a low traffic.
I leave the youth hostel to meet my Couch Surfing's hosts who will house me for 2 nights. Jenny and Tamz welcome me with a large smile and I feel at home in their house. Another guest is here as well with whom, the next day, go to visit Auckland. The harbour and its boats of the America's cup, the lively Queen street and the sky tower we can jump off from, hanging on a rope.









As we go back, I meet my brother I haven't seen for several months and I'm happy to meet him. He rented a small car that makes the trip easier and planed a full programme to do. There are all these activities that are tempting and have the strange name of : bungie-jump, cave-abseiling, hydrospeed jet, rafting, kayak, tramping, sky diving and the zorbing (rolling downhill within a big ball). The activities are expensive but we will probably succeed in doing some of them. Let's go for one month of adventures in the kiwis' country!