New Zealand-01 (Auckland, Hamilton and Waitomo)

Hi, welcome back. Today I'll talk about my first days in New Zealand.
I arrived on the 28th of February in Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the hostel I was gonna stay in cancelled my reservation, so I had to go look for another place to stay. But it turns out I was even more unlucky, as every hostel and hotel in the city was full, because of a Bruce Springsteen concert. In the end, I managed to find a very expensive apartment where I stayed for the night.
The next day I decided to get out of Auckland, and tried hitchhiking. After waiting approximately 40 minutes, I was picked up by a friendly couple, who took me to Hamilton, a smaller city where it was much easier to get accommodation.
Hamilton is a very nice and beautiful city. It is right by the shore of the Waikato river, and has some interesting attractions. I visited the Hamilton Gardens, where I found a lot of different garden varieties, and the Waikato Museum, with many expositions, from Roman Machines to Maori culture.

The Waikato River

Replica of a Roman machine

Roses at the Hamilton Gardens

On the 4th of March I took a bus to the Waitomo Caves. There I went for some walks, where I could appreciate the beautiful nature, visited the Discovery Center, and took a tour to the famous glowworm caves, filled with tiny little shining glowworms.

Landscape at Waitomo Caves

Moa skeleton at the Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre

Glowworms (no, this wasn't taken by me, it was too dark for my phone's camera, so I  am using a photo the tour company sent me. It's a bit exaggerated, but trust me, the sight of the worms is really amazing)

On the 6th I took a bus to Rotorua.

Australia-02 (Cairns and Sydney)

As mentioned before, I flew to Cairns on the 20th of February.
Cairns is a small and nice town in the Northern part of the Australian East Coast. The weather is very humid and hot, but fortunately the hostel had a nice swimming pool where we could cool down. The city itself has a big artificial lagoon with sand and everything. People use it a lot, because even though the city is by the coast, people are not allowed to swim in the ocean water, due to jellyfish/sharks/crocodiles/etc...

The Lagoon

Cairns is one of the best places to go diving in the Great Barrier Reef, and since I'm an Open Water Diver, I took a day tour there. The tour included the boat ride there, three dives, and some snorkelling. It really is a beautiful place, and I even got to see a turtle.
I also took a day trip to the rainforest nearby. The trip included a walking tour in the forest itself, a river tour where we saw some crocodiles, a stop where we could try some ice cream with exotic flavours, an aboriginal cultural experience, among others.

Crocodile in the river

Trees in the rainforest

Goji berry with honey and yoghurt ice cream

Paints used by the aboriginal people

Apart from that, I just relaxed in the hostel, walked around in the city, went out, and ate some kangaroo meat.

Kangaroo meat

 On the 27th I flew back to Sydney, and on the 28th I flew to Auckland.

Australia-01 (Sydney)

I arrived in Sydney on the 15th of February, the day after I left Seoul (it was a long flight). I got there, and took a shuttle to the hostel, in the Central Business District. The hostel was quite nice, filled with people from different countries. It had a lot of activities, and a bar in the same building.
Sydney is also a nice city. Not too big, next to the sea, with a lot of interesting places.... One of the things I did was take a free guided tour organized by the hostel around the city. We visited some parks, monuments, The Rocks neighbourhood, the botanical gardens, the famous Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbour, Chinatown, among others. I also took a beach tour, where we walked from Coogee to Bondi beach, but unfortunately it rained that day.

Part of a war memorial

One of the many cute animals in the Botanical Gardens

The Opera House (with Harbour Bridge in the background

The Rocks

Apart from going on tours, I visited the Wild Life Sydney zoo, where I got to see a lot of native Australian animals, such as kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, cassowaries, Tasmanian Devils, etc... I also watched a movie on the largest IMAX screen in the world, and visited relatives (far cousins) I had living in Sydney.

A cassowary

Koalas

A Kangaroo resting

On the 20th of February I flew to Cairns,  a small town North of Sydney.

Seoul-1

I didn't stay in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, for long. I arrived on the 11th of February and left on the 14th. So, as you might have guessed, I didn't have time for much. But I got to see a bit of the city.
Seoul, like Tokyo, is quite a modern city, with a lot of big buildings and high-tech stuff.
I took the metro from my hostel to the Gangnam district (famous thanks to a certain song), where I got to see shops, buildings, parks, and the Kukkiwon (the World Taekwondo Headquarters). From there, I walked all the way to the Han River, and later visited the Bukcheon Hanok Village, a traditional village filled with traditional Korean houses, the Hanok. I also saw a stream close to the hostel, the Cheonggyecheon stream.

Gangnam

In case you were wondering what song I was refering to

The Han river

The traditional village

Cheonggyecheong

The Kukkiwon