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