Day 88: Neverending exploration, neverending fascination

No matter how long you stay in NZ, I think your fascination about the beauty and diversity of this country never ends. Even after traveling around for more than three months now, I discovered a new form of vegetation that pretty much reminded me on my time in Mongolia: the grasslands surrounding Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki. Endless views, shadows of clouds, only very few single trees. It seems you're never done traveling here.

#newzealand #southernisland #laketekapo

Day 87: Inclined trees

Those trees were hilarious, because obviously there were heavily shaped by the wind of the Southland, but they still keep growing. They were all over the place, but only in the very Southern part of NZ. They became quite characteristic for my time down there, because they told me from which direction I can expect the gusts.

#newzealand #southernisland #southland

Day 86: Dolphins in the waves

Not kidding. I took this picture in Curio Bay, in Southern New Zealand, just 5 minutes after I got to beach. Yes, there are dolphins in the waves in front of me - dolphins! One, two, three of them...probably more that I missed. Just there! In the waves! I couldn't believe it.

#newzealand #southernisland #curiobay

Day 85: The rare Yellow-eyed Penguin

The Yellow-eyed Penguin is the rarest penguin species in the world. Only 209 couples remain. Thus, it's a great honour for me I was given the chance to watch them in their natural environment twice. Even more so, because they used to be my favourite animals when I was a child. Such sweet encounters make you smile for the rest of the day.

#newzealand #southernisland #oamaru

Day 84: Mind crossing surfer children

My second favourite traffic sign (after the Kiwi one) is this one. Mind the two children with their surfboards crossing the road. Clearly there for good reason in Riverton.

#newzealand #southernisland #riverton

Day 83: NZ portion sizes

It was a long, endless drive from Hokitika to Haast, but we made the whole thing by 10pm, catching a lovely clear Westcoast sunset. We didn't have much hope finding any places to grab a late dinner, but surprisingly there was this one pub that was still open with lots of noisy, drunken tourists inside. We decided to go for potatoe wedges, expecting maybe 10-15 pieces to keep us filled for the rest of the day. What we got though was this BUCKET of deep fried potatoe wedges with ketchup and mayonaise. Thank god this is a holiday, so we didn't need any excuses.

#newzealand #southernisland #haast

Day 82: Hokitika in a nutshell

The Westcoast of NZ was one of my favourite destinations. Aside from the the nature being just beautiful and unique, the citys have a somewhat rough, basic, workering class attitude which I liked a lot. Everything's more pragmatic, rather then beautiful. There are not many people living there, and there is even less work, leaving lots of houses empty, and a lot of windows broken.

#newzealand #southernisland #hokitika

Day 81: English, Chinese, German

It's a funny thing if you rent a camper van in NZ and everything in it is trilingual: English - Chinese - German. The three most spoken languages in NZ, covering 99% of the people here. Lol...

#newzealand #southernisland #somewhere

Day 80: Back home in NZ

Coming back to NZ felt like coming back home for me a bit. The green grass, the blue water, the untouched nature, the empty beaches, the unique landscape, the intense sun...the more time I spend down here, the more I feel this was one of the best steps I could ever make. There's something very special about this country that I feel very connected to. Something special that makes me feel like home, although I'm so far from everywhere I've been to.

#newzealand #southernisland #bankspeninsula

Day 79: On board a massive carrier

On my way back from Sydney to Christchurch I boarded an A380. My very first time on an aircraft of that size. It's hard to imagine how such a massive thing with more than 500 people can take off. The take off though, was one of the smoothest I've ever experienced. Not a single shaker.

#somewherebetweenaustraliaandnewzealand

Day 78: 23 beaches

People told me I should try the beaches in Sydney, but I had no idea there were soooo many of them. It's actually hard to miss them once you're moving along the coastal lines of the city. During my four night stay, I got to see Balmoral Beach, Obelisk Beach, Chowder Beach, Taylor's Creek Beach, Athol Beach, Whiting Beach, Little Sirius Beach, Milk Beach, Shark Beach, Parsley Beach, Gibson's Beach, Watson Beach, Camp Cove Beach, Lady Bay Beach, Bondi Beach, Dixon's Beach, Nelson Beach, and 6 more unnamed beaches...making it 23 beaches in total.

#australia #sydney

Day 77: Having a November bath

Spending Novembers on the Southern hemisphere is a unique experience. I don't think I ever swam somewhere outside at that time of the year. Now that people back home start to unpack their umbrellas, rain coats, and scarfs, I just put my bath pants on and have a swim in clear blue, turquese water with the Sydney skyline in front of me. Please don't wake me up from this dream.

#australia #sydney 

Day 76: Sydney - not an illusion anymore

Who hasn't dreamed of coming to Sydney one day? It's one of those places of the MUST SEE/WANT TO GO category like New York, Rio, Paris, London etc. It's one of those places where people go like "Oh you were there?".
I still remember the Olympic Summer Games in 2000, and the final day fireworks which were broadcasted live on TV when I was a child. Back then Sydney was a far away, untouchable, and out of reach place. Now, in November 2017 I'm standing at the Harbour Bridge with my own feet, seeing the Opera Hourse with my own eyes, feeling the Australian sun on my own skin. I'm in Sydney.

#australia #sydney

Day 75: Australian train experience

Train rides are always an experience of its kind. I've trained the US, Russia, Mongolia, China, Austria, Poland, and of course Germany and my experiences were all quite different.
In Australia I took the train from Melbourne to Sydney, and it was an endless ride through the Australian farmlands of Victoria and New South Wales: few forrest, few kangaroos, lots of cows, lots of sheeps and horses, and really quite long. It was an interesting experience, but I wouldn't do it a second time.

Day 74: Being cool in Melbourne

When I visit new cities in foreign countries I always try to see the secret tipp underground places that only locals would guide you, too. I guess the Brunswick neighbourhood in Melbourne is not that much of a secret tipp anymore, but I was glad I spent a few hours walking down the main street there. It was a warm, sunny spring day and my agenda was tough, so I haven't had enough time to go look for all the little street art details, but I got a feeling of what it's like there.

#australia #melbourne #brunswick

Day 73: Pretty birds with ugly sounds

Cockatoos were birds I only knew kept in captivity. It was quite exciting seeing them flying around in the nature...over the rooftops of Melbourne. They are lovely, cute, white parrots but they make one of the most annoying sounds I've ever heared.

#australia #melbourne

Day 72: A real big city

I like big cities, but in a very different way than I like nature. I have to admit I really underestimated the size of Melbourne and that it took me a while to arrange myself with this real big city. Real big cities to me are all cities that are bigger than Berlin. Melbourne is a massive place. Lots of cars, lots of people, lots of shops, lots of buildings, lots of things happening everywhere. Even though, it was a bit of a cultural shock, I liked spending four days and four nights in Melbourne.

#australia #melbourne

Day 71: The 5th continent

Day 71 is the day on which I do the jump over the Tasman Sea to my 5th continent: Australia. It will be a comparably short stay, and I'll barely even scratch the surface of what there is to see and to do, but I couldn't keep myself from including it in my trip down under. So, here I go Australia!

#somewhere

Day 70: Airport feelings

Berlin, London, Moscow, Beijing, New York, Cape Town, Toronto, Barcelona, Zagreb, St. Petersburg, Doha, Rome, Vancouver, San Francisco... I've been to many of this world's airports, but the feeling of taking off to somewhere is an excitement every single time. It seems I never get used to it. I usually find myself being restless and not very calm. It's a place you see first or last or both. I feel that even more intense than sitting on the plane. It's hard to determine.

#newzealand #southernisland #christchurch

Day 69: The shaken city

I was quite curious about how I'd feel about Christchurch. I've asked many people about their opions and received quite mixed reviews. Arriving there, I felt a bit disoriented, lost, looking for something I won't seem to find there. It's a city with a strange vibe to me. It's a city that has seen lots of destruction due to a series of severe earth quakes just a few years ago. Even though I've seen Christchurch on a very warm and sunny spring weekend, I could still feel the slightly groggy calm after the storm. Empty buildings, vacant spaces, collapsed roof tops. Abandonment.

#newzealand #southernisland #christchurch

Day 68: Emotions that pictures can't capture

Driving from the coast to coast on the Southern Island of NZ reveals dramatic changes of the weather and the landscape. High mountains, far and spread out river beds, sun, clouds, rain, sun. It's a stunning drive with never ending beauty. Every panorama picture I took didn't seem to properly capture and appreciate the mountain ranges of Arthur's Pass. In fact pictures can hardly ever reflect what I feel in those moments.

#newzealand #southernisland #arthurspass

Day 67: Turning bleakness into freakiness

Greymouth is just as awesome, small, and boring as I expected it to be. A more or less isolated town at the West Coast of NZ, in an area that counts 270 rainy days per year on average. Difficult cirumstances, but the city knows that streetart can turn grey and bleak places into funky, freaky, vibrant places. This was my favourite.

#newzealand #southernisland #greymouth

Day 66: Incredible streetviews

Moving along the West Coast of NZ is a true adventure. They say it's one of the most beautiful and scenic coastal drives in the world. I've never doubted that, because NZ has been a country of superlatives in terms of nature and prettiness. It pays being the passenger and not the driver on this road.

#newzealand #southernisland #westcoast

Day 65: My first meat pie

Another typical NZ dish I recently lost my virginity to is the meat pie. A pie filled with meat, served warm and with ketchup. Nice snack, but belongs to the fish'n chips category "tried once - done".

#newzealand #southernisland #springfield

Day 64: West coast sunsets

The special feature of the west coasts of this world is that you can see the sun disappearing in the distant horizon of the ocean. The event only lasts for seconds, but it is a true phenomena for me to catch the very last bit of sunlight of the day. It fills me with excitement, even more so than counting down the last few seconds to the new year or my birthday.

#newzealand #southernisland #westcoast

Day 63: Threesome dilemmas

I read that Oyster Catchers live in a monogamous relation ship for all their lives. Fascinating, although this seems to be an exception in the animal life. However, even Oyster Catchers seem to have a passion for threesomes sometimes as this picture indicates. I wonder if that's an MMF, MFF, FFF, or MMM though...? Anyway, we all know how challenging it is to find a good threesome constellation. This certainly is not less the case for birds.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 62: Enjoy the view, the nap, the ride

Actually I really like going on buses, especially long distance bus rides. There's hardly something that's so relaxing and calming to me. I just sit there, listen to 100s of songs on my MP3 player, looking outside, and let the busdriver do all the work. I don't have to move a single finger, don't have to think, don't have to talk, don't have to work. It's a fairly easy way of getting around with plenty of time to do just nothing. Love it.

#newzealand #southernisland #somewhere

Day 61: The world from the kayak perspective

I was lucky I had such great weather conditions on my first kayaking tour. The sun was very warm and intensifying all those colours surrounding me. I had a lot of respect being out there in the bays of the Tasman Sea, and I felt grateful I could see all those lovely places from this new perspective. I really enjoyed my first kayaking experience, and I'm more than keen in giving it another try in a different ocean.

#newzealand #southernisland #abeltasman

Day 60: The hidden peace inside

The beach you can see in this picture was really that empty all the time. I didn't wait for a window with no people, dogs, children, boats, cars...it was just as empty as it is displayed here. The perfect place to have an afternoon break with an apple, some coffee, and a piece of chocolate. Also a very good place to close my eyes, breathe deeply, and go on a search of my inner peace. My head has been quite busy, especially during my last few weeks in Germany. I figured out my mind was quite occupied by all sorts of things, but I eventually managed to get rid of all those distracting thoughts and found back to the peaceful mode of meditation for about 15-20 minutes. I felt very fresh and positive afterwards, and was happy I'm still capable of doing that.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 59: There is only ONE now

The end of the day in NZ is usually accompanied by a lovely game of colours in the sky. It's stunning, and it also reminds me that another day in life has passed. Most of the time I can smile, because I did something nice and it was a good day. It's important for me to do that, because there is only ONE now. This now will never come back again like that. It's gone, so it's important to make it special and good.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 58: Purple freaky mushrooms

Have you ever seen, heard of, or even tried purple mushrooms? No? Me neither, but they do exist, deep in the NZ native bush.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 57: Off the grid

I'm glad that my NZ journey also taught me to live off the grid for a while. Not having a flushing toilet, only having power and warm water when the sun is out and (almost) only living by what I planted and harvested. It not only made me appreciate it all a bit more, it also made me see that we're wasting so much energy and water for unnecessary reasons, and that the vegetables I have planted and harvested suddenly taste so much different, because I have a somewhat personal connection to them. It's a great feeling, and I think many people miss out on something, if they don't experience this way of living for at least once in a lifetime.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 56: How far I've come

I've been in New Zealand for 56 days now, which makes exactly 8 weeks. If somebody asks me if the time has passed quickly, I'd say yes and no. Yes, because I can't believe this is my 9th week already. No, because my first few awkward days in Auckland seem so far away already that I can't even believe they were part of this journey. So in the meantime I've made to a bunch of places on the Northern Island and few ones on the Southern Island. I'm not done yet. Time is not up yet. I won't stop blogging yet.

#newzealand

Day 55: Travel is my priority

Some of you may have asked themselves how I get along here, where do my funds come from? And I'm going to share my secret with you: I don't have any. My bank account has seen far better days. However, there is a way of getting along without paying: Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, wwoofing. Doing that at least kept my cash flow low. And yes, there is the flight you need, and the chocolate you want, and the coffee with cream on top. But hey.....some things are so worth the investment...

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 54: Too much beauty, too little time

The Papapara Peak Track was very demanding, physically demanding. A 10h return track up to the 1300m peak overlooking the mountain ranges of the Southern Island and the Tasman Sea. I only had one hour at the peak in order to make it back before dusk. I wish I had had more time so I could have paid my environment more attention and appreciation. Same on the way up through native bush: blue mushrooms, freaky trees, deformed tree routes, small birds, big birds...it all deserves attention and appreciation, because I won't see such things outside of NZ ever again.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 53: The orange triangle is your life saver

The tracks in New Zealand are very well maintained, but can be very wild and hard to find at times. Therefore, it is always good to watch out for this orange triangle. If you go on long tracks in remote and rural areas, this orange triangle can be a life saver. It tells you you're on the right way.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 52: I saw a kiwi!

I saw a kiwi...it was furry, sweet, and not shy at all. I wonder why people keep searching for it in the dark? I found this one in the brightest daylight ever.

#newzealand #southernisland #somewhere

Day 51: Hot shower = $5

Ah...finally, a hot shower was all I was looking for!

#newzealand #southernisland #takaka

Day 50: I'm a hippie now

...okay, I don't walk barefoot and I don't smoke weed, but I kind of got into the "enjoying life" mode. The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, life is easy and good. It's okay to spend the day chilling on the couch or in the grass, walking around naked or sing your catchy song loudly...it's Golden Bay, it's okay! What a nice kind of vibe, far away from all the commitments waiting for me in Germany. It's great to be a hippie...even just for a few weeks.

#newzealand #southernisland #goldenbay

Day 49: 3:00pm...we're closing

In most places of New Zealand you better get your shopping and appointments done before 3:00pm, because it's the general closing time of banks, flower shops, libraries, hair dressers, services, bakeries, organic food shops, and even cafes.

#newzealand #southernisland #takaka

Day 48: Being part of the Golden Bay community

I like my current life here in Golden Bay. It's very easy, basic and it's all about enjoying the sunny side of life. Not only because Golden Bay is one of the sunniest areas in New Zealand, but also because the community here is small and therefore everybody knows everybody and everybody helps everybody. It's one of those places where you don't need to lock your door, or bike, or where people would always run after you, if you forget your wallet somewhere. It's great to be a part of that...for some time.

#newzealand #southernisland #takaka

Day 47: A day in the dunes

Today I hitchhiked to Farewell Spit, the northern most point of the Southern Island. I didn't really inform myself of what I may come across there, and I was glad I didn't, because I loved being surprised by this impressive landscape of endless, huge, white sand dunes.

The wind and rips of the Western side push the sand towards the wind and rips of the narrow but stormy Cook Strait between the Northern and Southern Island. As a result there is 30km long peninsula of nothing but sand dunes with lakes and some vegetation. This reminded me of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia (where there's hardly water though).

#newzealand #southernisland #farewellspit

Day 46: Hitchhikers' paradise

Takaka is a place of a little more than 1,000 people. The way that public transport works here is that you stand on the street, raise your thumb, and jump on the next car to give you a lift along the way. OR if you find one of those signs, just sit on the bench and do nothing. The next car will stop and also give you a lift. No need to exhaust yourself by standing and raising your thumb...fortunately!

#newzealand #southernisland #takaka

Day 45: The German bread that everybody loves

Everywhere outside of Germany I go people tell me how they love the German bread. Everywhere outside of Germany they complain about the 100 types of toast, but 0 types of sourdough bread. And everywhere outside of Germany there is one German bakery per ~10,000 people. So how come the retailer and wholesaler still don't stock these kind of breads? Why do I always have to ask for the German bakery to get my bread déjà-vu? #firstworldproblems

#newzealand #southernisland #takaka

Day 44: Fat seals, not a matter of luck

When you see your first seal in New Zealand you think how lucky you are. But turns out they are basically all over the country. I've seen quite a few now - big ones, small ones, dead ones, alive ones... On Wharariki beach I saw this fat seal full of fish and not even remotely bothered by my presence.

#newzealand #southernisland #whararikibeach

Day 43: Selfies on remote shores

Today I got my day off work and because our neighbour was so gentle to lend his car, I went to the remote Wharariki Beach on the northern tip of the Southern Island. It was so worth the getting up at 7am and so worth the one hour ride and so worth the sunburn I got. It was a rough beach with high waves, strong rips, fat seals and bright dunes. What a pretty peace of land. A nice place to lean back, relax, listen to the sounds of the sea and take a Heidi Klum style selfie picture.

#newzealand #southernisland #whararikebeach

Day 42: Fish & Chips - ticked off

This is what an NZ Fish&Chips takeaway snack looks like. Nothing special, but apparently a MUST TRY here. It was only the second time I tried (after trying and disliking it once in the UK). It was an okay experience. I was really hungry and longing for a snack that would fill me for a fair amount of time. And so I gave it a try. Category: must try, ticked off and done.

#newzealand #southernisland #collingwood

Day 41: The Tui bird

This bird is really fun to listen to. I'm amazed by how many different sounds this little black bird can make. I've seen it a thousand times already, but only found out a few weeks ago this lovely creature is called Tui, an endemic New Zealand bird and right after the Kiwi bird an icon of the local bird life.

#newzealand #southernisland #abeltasman

Day 40: Feet in the water

The Abel Tasman National Park embraced me with the loveliest sunshine ever. I can feel it getting warmer every week. On clear and calm days like today the sun is quite burning already. It's a mercyless sun down here. You will get dark, red or frackeled - more so than back home in Europe. So this day was good enough for me to put my feet in the clear blue water of Golden Bay. It's not freezing anymore. The swimming season is close.

#newzealand #southernisland #abeltasman

Day 39: Taking the ferry to the South

Shame on me I decided to go South one day later than I initially planned, BUT it was the right decision, because the weather was so much better, so sooo much better. I slept quite shitty, but the view on the Interislander Ferry that had just arrived from the South at 8:30am was excusing it all. It was warm, sunny and just the perfect day to do the crossover from the North to the South. I was excited seeing the white mountain peaks of the Southern Island getting closer and closer and the green hills of the Northern Island getting smaller and smaller. At 12:30: touch down in Picton, Southern Island.

#newzealand #cookstrait #interislanderferry