Rolo on Tour

Arriving on the South Island I decided it was time to go trekking again. For that I chose the Abel Tasman National Park lying directly at the coast. There I did a 3day-trek called the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. It is kind of unusual as many parts are just beaches and often you have to take off your shoes to cross parts flooded by the sea. And the temperature of the water did not help at all, but what does not kill you….

Which one is it: Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo or Raphael?

One of the various beaches at Abel Tasman NP

In difference to previous treks this time I was on my own. And I did not meet many people along the way as the winter appears to be a unpopular time to do things like this. I have to say that I prefer to do it with people as it can get a little bit boring sometimes, especially when the sun disappears and well, what do you do?
However 3 days on your own does not make you go crazy or maybe it does:

WILSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Back from the trek the journey continued. I had a short stop at Punakaiki having a closer look at the so-called Pancake rocks. The following picture explains the name best:

Various layers of Pancakes

But of course what is missing is the topping:

I’m much higher above sea level than it appears here

That place is also where I saw a very fitting advertising slogan on the van of a plumber which I like to share with you:

🙂 🙂

Further south I had a pause at Franz Josef Glacier, but as I have seen the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, it is now very hard to impress me – being a glacier.
But that changed when I arrived in Wanaka. There is a place called Puzzling World and it is just amazing. Let alone the first impression does not promise too much:

Why does that thing not fall over??

Let’s have a look at the bathroom next:

A roman bathroom

I had to join them

What else is there? Besides many (very difficult) puzzles and games there are some illusion rooms. In some of those your eyes will suggest you things that are just not the way they tell you. The most interesting one was a room were you could appear like a dwarf or a giant depending on which position in the room you locate. But even when you knew why – the optical impression would stay the same.

One of the optical illusions

Also outside there was a big labyrinth where you could try to find some points and afterwards the way out.
Of course that was no difficulty for me as I knew a strategy how you will solve that problem in any such labyrinth: Just follow the wall on your right! That way you will pass all points in the labyrinth until you finally reach the point of origin again.
If only the greeks would have known that!  If so, in one of their mythological stories Theseus would not have needed Ariadne’s ball of thread when entering the labyrinth where the Minotaur lived. But probably the story would lose some entertainment value.

Continuing the trip I stayed in Queenstown for a couple of days. Saving money not doing any fancy stuff I just did a litte trip to the area of Milford Sound. It started passing some beautiful viewing points,

Oh yeah

and curious parrots:

He was so adorable

Getting there we went on a short boat cruise

On the cruise

and to the joy of everybody the boat got followed by dolphins.

Dolphins: Who does not love them?

So what was missing of the South Island was the East Coast. The first stop was the city of Dunedin, where the main attraction is the world’s steepest street. The fact that you can find that record in Dunedin is no coincidence as there are lots of other streets in the area which are hardly more fun to get up to.

View of „the World’s steepest street“ from the top

What I still wanted to do in New Zealand was to go on a Whale watching tour and the town of Kaikoura is supposed to be a good spot to do that so I went there. But I was unfortunate as there was some snow coming which prevented any activity. Furthermore the officials panicked and closed basically all roads in the country, which was a problem as I had to catch a flight the next day. I met some other people with similar problems and we decided to give it a try and the road was no problem whatsoever. The „worst“ part was something like 2 cms of snow over the course of 5 kms. Thus I suggest New Zealand’s inhabitants to change their name from ‚Kiwis‘ to ‚Chickens‘ ;-).
That way I did make it into Christchurch. Very sadly for the city there have been a couple of earthquakes recently and the city centre is closed. Many buildings have to be rebuilt and it will take time for the city to recover. That way there is not much to do than use the airport, which remains an important transport hub for New Zealand.

Back in Auckland I relaxed a bit and prepared myself mentally for the last section of my trip: South East Asia is awaiting me – starting today with Thailand!
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In a basketball game the last quarter of a game is often referred to as ‚Crunchtime‘. For me the last 3 month of my 1year-trip started when I set foot on New Zealand (or Aotearoa as the Maori call it). So we can say that the Crunchtime of my travels has just started and the last energy is needed to finish the trip in a good way. Lets see if I am a crunchtime player!

Arriving in Auckland I entered a different world from what I have experienced the 9 months before. And something felt especially weird when I was walking in the city. After one day I realized that the problem were the cars which were driving on the ‚wrong‘ side of the road. As that fact can just not enter my brain I kind of look everywhere now every time I cross a street. Always it’s a relief to reach the other side :-).

Auckland and its landmark, the Sky Tower

Of course there are lots of other differences. First of all the people coming to travel here are different from the people I met before. Especially the following groups have a lot of members here:
Asians who never speak a word, 20 year old Germans who talk all the time about how good they were at school and spoiled british guys happy that the party buses organize everything for them and that they can sit next to each other on them ;-).

A pretty nice thing about New Zealand is that it is such a green country. Of course the reason for that has to be taken into account as well: It rains a lot…

Everywhere you look, it’s green

Also the bus rides here are quite different. First of all the bus takes so many breaks, it is unbelievable. 25% of all travel time is needed just for the coffee/breakfast/2nd breakfast/lunch… breaks of the driver.
Being well fed maybe that is why they have still so much energy left that they are all trying to be entertainers. One for example started a snowball fight on a break 😉

A good place to throw some snowballs at your passengers

So let me tell you a bit about my travels on the North Island. From Auckland I went to a small place called Waitomo, which has many caves nearby. On the way I could see an eel beeing feeded, but of course the highlight was to come later.

No, the finger is not part of the food

And that highlight consists of the many glowworms who live in these caves. Once all the lights are out they produce a quite amazing sight:

I want them on the ceiling of my bedroom!

Afterwards I got to know a place called Rotorua which has a smell of sulfur all around caused by the geothermal activity in that area. I wonder if that causes thirst:

„Let’s all meet up at the lake for a drink or two“

Next was the capital of New Zealand: Wellington. There I spent a whole day in their national museum ‚Te Papa‘. It  has many interesting things to offer and it was free – a rare thing in New Zealand. Also I could visit their national parlament and have a quick insight in how their democracy works just before catching the ferry to the South Island.

Arriving on the South Island just in time for the sunset

Welcome to the South!

I wondered what might expect me on the days to come.

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