Düsseldorf

So this is it. My last post on my travel blog. Unbelievable that 2 months have passed by so quickly. We have left our hotel in Auckland at 11am, but when we tried to start our car the battery was empty. So we had to call the Automobile Association to get us going. We had lots of time, so that wasn't to bad, but still it is unfamilar to refuel and clean the car with the engine running. The flights from Auckland to Sydney, Sydney to Dubai and Dubai to Düsseldorf were all on time and we got our luggage in Düsseldorf, so everything was fine. So right now I enjoy quite a jetlag, but Düsseldorf shows itself from the brightest side, lots of sunshine and the spring is about to start. I very much enjoyed my trip, and I am pretty sure that this wasn't the last time I do a longer trip (hope my boss doesn't read this ;-) ).

Auckland

So this was our last full day of our holiday. We have made a small city walk around the city ending in the harbour of Auckland.

After heading back to our hotel we started again to go to Mount Eden , a nice hill giving a good view over Auckland.

Tomorrow we will have to give back our rental car and go to the airport, where our flights back to Düsseldorf will start at 6pm.
So this is it. Our last post from our holidays. Next and last post will be from Düsseldorf.

Coromandel Peninsula / sober eastern

So yesterday we went up from Rotorua to the Coromandel Peninsula to Whitiangi.
A small winding road went up there, and the landscape changed to look like the Shire from Lords of the Rings. Lots of small hills, all green with grass and trees.
When the night came we went out to find a nice bar, but all of them were only allowed to serve alcoholic beverages, when you also buy a big meal. This is a weired law on Easter Sunday to prevent people from getting drunk. I later found out, that we could have had a drink in a strip club. Wow. So as we already have had dinner, we kept beeing sober.

Not too bad, as we jumped into our car to do some stargazing out of town. Very beautiful. The stars were so clear and the milky way was very easy to see, while the southern cross shined from above.

Today we went drove to our last station in New Zealand: Auckland.

Huka Falls / Rotorua

Wow, we were really lucky with the weather. The forecast said that today should have been the best day for the Crossing, but it definitely was not.
While we went up north to Rotorua, we passed many heavy rain falls, so that we felt pity for the guys in our hostel, who waited for one more day to do the hike. It must have been horrible.

Our first stop was at the Huka Falls. We went down a small hike trail just to find out, that there was a car parking with tons of tourists. The falls were nice, sure a lovely spot for kayaking.

Next was the Waimangu Vulcan Valley, a 2 hour long hiking trail with hot acid pools, geysirs, fountains and boiling lakes. It was an impressive landscape, quite unique and something you sure can't see in Europe.

Tongariro Crossing

Yesterday we went further north to Turangi.
The weather was really bad, lots of rain and wind. Not the best conditions , as the plan for today was to do the Tongariro Crossing.

We got up at 5 am in the morning, quite a job during the holiday, and drove to Ketetahi Car Park, where we left our car and jumped into a bus. The bus took us to the starting point, Mongatepopo. At 7am we started our hike.

I had done this track 8 years ago, but I forgot that it was quite exhausting. And this time we were very lucky with the weather, good view until but the very end.
So I was able to see Mount Ngauruhoe ( Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings),

the red crater

and the Emerald Lakes.

After 6 1/2 hours and 19,4 km we reached our car.
For dinner I made my famous Chili con Carne alla Joeman. But I am so tired that I don't know how to keep awake until tonight.

Wellington

Bye, bye South Island.
This morning we stood up early to catch the Interislander Ferry from Picton to Wellington. We sailed across the Cook Street where a school of dolphins escorted us.
In Wellington we visited the Te Papa Museum, which is said to be the best museum in New Zealand. Well, you can spend days in it, but we just had 2 hours.
After a small diet coffee (iced coffee with vanilla ice cream and a marshmallow stick covered in chocolate)

we continued to Plimmerton , our hostel for the next night. This is our view out of our window..

Marlborough Sounds

Yesterday we travelled from Ngatimoti to the Hopewell BBH hostel, the best rated hostel in New Zealand.
It's located in the Marlborough Sounds at the end of a road even Google Maps doesn't know.
It is quite a long drive down there, 2 1/2 hours per way, but we were rewarded by a nice swim in the Fjord and a hot spa under cloudless skies while watching the moon. Wonderful.

Today we went back the whole way to get to our last station on the south island. So now we are at the tombstone hostel in Picton. Tomorrow we will be taking the ferry to Wellington.

Punakaiki / Pikitangi

So, I was a little bit lazy the last days concerning my blog, so I am just sitting on the veranda in Pikirangi and looking down to the valley and start writing.

2 days ago we went from Greymouth to Ngatimoti.
We visited the Punakaiki Pancake Rock formation that looks like stapled pan cakes. It's still not clear how exactly they had been produced, there are some theories, but it is still not clear.

Next day we went to the Abel Tasman National Park, where we booked a water taxi to drop us off Anchorage Bay and walk back along the coast line to Marahau. Swing bridges, rivers, plants, trees and beaches guided the way, and the weather was friendly to us. Nice.

At night time we joined a party of a really amazing guy, who had been told 10 years ago, that his blood cancer will kill him soon, so he throws a party every month, that he's is still alive. He smiled the whole time and is really in a good mood. Impressive..

Today we then went to the market at Motueka, which was very kiwi-like. Good food, but some shops selling alternative ways of healing cancer or aura readings. But the coffee was perfect....

Greymouth

This morning we visited the end of Fox Glacier after a small hike through the debris field of the glacier.
I slipped once, because I hadn't expected the hike to go through difficult terrain, but I could regain balance. A nice panorama view rewarded us.

We then continued to Greymouth.
On the way we met Martina and Lars, two good friends from Wuppertal. We had a nice coffee and a good talk, but as they are travelling South and we north we split up again.

In Greymouth we had some good spicy Indian food and then went to the harbour to enjoy the sunset while 3 Dolphins circled through the water.

Fox Glacier

On the road again.
We went up from Wanaka to Fox Glacier passing the Haast Pass, passing lakes, mountains, rivers and waterfalls. It's a really beautiful road, which was new to me, as last time I drove it, I had just pouring rain with no vision to enjoy at all.

When we reached Fox Glacier, we made a small detour to Lake Matheson, a small lake which mirrows the mountains and looking quite fabulous when doing so. Unfortunately it's still very clouded and the wind stirs up the water, so no nice pictures there. But still a nice walk.

Wanaka

Yesterday we left Lesley and Paul and continued to Queenstown.
We only spend some hours in the town and made no fancy stuff there, just some walking around the city. So no bungee for me this time.

We went on to Wanaka, along a nice mountains path.

We planned to do a hike at Mount Aspiring. Unfortunately the weather changed. We had a completely rainy day, so no hike, no plane. Just a good swimming hour in the public pool, and later a cinema visit in the evening (Hail Cesar).

Tomorrow we will continue to the west coast to Fox Glacier.
Hope the weather will be better over there.

Alpes2Ocean Trail

Well, good morning
We are just back from our 3 day long bike trip with Lesley and Paul.
It was part of the Alpes2Ocean trail.
We started at Lake Tekapo along a man made canal towards Twizel. We passed some nice woods and had a nice view across Lake Pukaki towards Mount Cook. The perfect spot for a picnic.

We went on oj the Pukaki Flats Track to Twizel back to our home. At the end of the day we spend 42 km on the bike, and my bum started to complain..

Next day 32 km long Section 3 was to be made. It lead us from Twizel to Lake Ohau Lodge.
The first part was again along a canal, but when we reached Lake Ohau we were rewarded by a wonderful view across the lake on a small bike trail running through the bushes, a small rock beach for picnic and a wonderful maintain Lodge hotel with great food and a comfortable room.

Yesterday the last section of our trip was ahead of us. Section 4 from Lake Ohau Lodge to Omarama. The first part was the hardest as the trail went up on a gravel track with lots of false summits, making me believe 5 times we already reached it, but the trail still went upwards. But again the landscape and view was just great.

After 41 km we reached Omarama, where we rewarded ourselves with good food, some beers and an evening in a hot water tub with sauna..

Akaroa

So finally he's here. Frank has arrived safely in New Zealand. After a 40 hours long flying marathon he touched town in Christchurch, where I picked him up.
We drove to Akaroa, into an absolutely gorgeous, cosy hostel, the halfmoon cottage. It has a nice garden, surrounding an old manor with spacious rooms and a lounge with piano.
This is the look out of our window..

Today we made a 3 hours hike around the Hinewai Reserve, which is a 1250 nectar nature reserve at the southeastern part of the Banks Peninsula.

Then we went onward to Akaroa, a small French village here, where we had some good Spanish food. Yeah, no crepes for me...

So tomorrow we will have to get to Twizel, where I will meet my aunt Lesley and Paul to do a 4 days long bike trip around the southern alpes.
Hope the weather will stay dry.

Christchurch - The shaky city

I have spend my first day in Christchurch.
The city had been struck by a severe earthquake in February 2011 where 185 peoples died and 10000 houses had been destroyed. 100000 houses needed repairs. The damage can still be seen at many places, most visible at the Christchurch Cathedral.

It's a strange situation as even 5 years later there are construction sites all over the city, repairing or rebuilding the damaged houses.
But Kiwis don't give up so easily, so they build the Re:start shopping Mall by using only shipping containers. Safe, cheap and stylish...

Next I hopped on onto the Christchurch Tram, a tram round trip with very lovely heritage tram cars.

As I write this, Frank has just landed in Bangkok, and will continue in 8 hours towards New Zealand where I will pick him up tomorrow .

New Zealand

Hooray!
I have arrived safely in New Zealand!
I had to get up quite early at 3.15 am and had to go by taxi to the airport. My flight went to Sydney and 2 hours later I continued to Christchurch.
Through I didn't do anything wrong I have to admit that I ended up in jail.
Nah, nothing bad, the hostel is named The Jailhouse Accommodation, and is a former jailhouse.

Car pickup also went fine, and the car looked way better than the australian one.

Brisbane

So this is it.
I have reached my last waypoint in Australia: Brisbane
After I made my way down from Caloundra, where I had a really disgusting idiot as a room mate, I gave my car back in Brisbane.
I had to drive to a car wash first, where I've spend 40 AUD to let it get cleaned. Insane, no self service car washes around. That was more than the car was worth...
In Brisbane I will move around by using bike sharing and Uber. Worked pretty  nice so far.
In the evening I cycled to the South Bank Parklands, an artificial beach, which is free to use and quite nice. A little bit kitsch, but nice..

Today I went to the Gallery of Modern Art. I must admit, that I am usually not much of a museum fan, but that was really good.
At first it was just art, so a pile of wood, strange paintings without any meaning to me.
But after the guided tour started, it was really interesting and cool, what the artists actually were criticising and were trying to express.
For instance there was a picture with the number 1998, which was inside a computer window containing a "x" to close it. Not too impressive.
But it was a critic of a chinese artist about the Tianmen massacre, which is about to be deleted or closed out of the chinese peoples memory.
So you just can not understand art, if you don't know the background.

After that I made a boat trip on the Brisbane river.

Australia Zoo.

So today I left Noosa and went to the Australia Zoo.
I have to admit, that I am not much of a zoo fan, but this place was really good.
The zoo was founded and is operated by the family of Steve Irwin who was quite well known for his TV series named crocodile hunter.
The exhibitions and especially the show was quite good. It contained a bird and a crocodile part.
During the bird part, lots of very different birds performed tricks and flight shows, which was hard to catch on camera, but impressive nontheless.
The crocodile part showed a big salt salt water crocodile which was attracted by water splashs and movements. Impressive, how these huge hunters can approach without doing a single wave. Don't want to meet them in real.
So the time went by quite quickly.

Now I am back in Caloundra and tomorrow I will goto Brisbane..