Archiv für den Monat: März 2011

Good to stay with locals! They know what to do and where to go. They recommended a little river in the mountains where you can swim, not far away from Nelson. Alone the scenic drive up into the mountains is very nice, but the river is a real insider’s tip. A bridge crosses the river, four meters above a slow, deep bend and the pool below is deep enough to jump into. Owing to the late season only a few hikers started their hiking there and we had the whole place to ourselves. As expected the water was chilly but the … Continue reading →

Rain forest and awesome beaches, but no use for it! You will find yourself getting eaten by sand flies! Awful!

After changing the room in the morning I went to breakfast and back to bed, I was tired and in a bad mood. I canceled the planned day trip to Rob Roy Glacier and went to the beach of Lake Wanaka instead. I enjoyed the sun and had a short walk along the Clutha river. The colors were beautiful – the blue water, the green woods and the dark blue sky with scattered clouds. Back in Wanaka, I had a short walk through the „city center“ – about two or three blocks – and got some supplies from the supermarket. … Continue reading →

What an awesome, great, wonderful, amazing day! Went with Flightseeing Wanaka to Milford Sound – the best thing I’ve ever done! It began a bit stressful since of course we were late. How else should it be, when I’m involved! In addition we took a little detour because we overlooked the airport in the first place. I was anxious about missing my flight, so we parked Harry somewhere and went looking for the right hangar. After a short search we found the check in and our pilot R. welcomed us with a handshake and smalltalk. I got a coffee to … Continue reading →

Arriving in Queenstown we checked in at Bungi Backpackers which has rooms with names instead of numbers, my room was named Earnslaw (whoever that is…). The hostel looked like Queenstown was promised to be like, young, party-like atmosphere and walls full of comics and murals. We got organized and walked to the Gondola to do at least one of the fun things in the city. We rode up the hill and first enjoyed stunning views to the surrounding mountains (the Remarkables – they are remarkable) and Lake Wakatipu. After that we had two rounds on the Luge, you ride little … Continue reading →

Today we are driving back up the country towards Queenstown to meet the students of Lincoln on their road trip. E. is driving while I get to sit in the passenger seat writing my blog. Of course I have to take the occasional break to look at the countryside that we are passing through – oh, and look at a crashed car that we drove past. Somehow the driver had managed to get his car off the road and leaning up on a barrier, without actually crashing through the barrier or even doing any damage to it. It looked like … Continue reading →

It’s a lazy Sunday today! We decided to stay one more night and to have a day off after a long week full of hard work with driving, walking and taking pictures. We went to the Farmers‘ Market and bought sweetcorn (tasty stuff – I could live off it!), strawberries, plums, jam, chillies and lamb chops all fresh and of course only happy free range animals. It’s crazy the fresh stuff is cheaper than any packaged food. Same thing in the supermarket, better to go to the deli section than to buy it shrink-wrapped, the deli has better quality and … Continue reading →

Our itinerary today took us out of the Catlins and on to the city of Invercargill. Of course there were a number of tourist sights for us to see along the way, most of them hidden down the end of a little gravel road. The first of these was Slope Point – the Southernmost tip of the South Island. It was the furthest south that I had ever been and I stood looking out over the ocean thinking that there was nothing between me and Antarctica. It was very windy and cold. E. insisted that it had to be cold … Continue reading →