NZ99
I had a great seat with extra legroom and a window… not for free, Air New Zealand makes you pay for that privilege, but I thought for an 11 hour flight, that’s worth it… The flight was good, even though we had to wear the seatbelt a lot flying through some ultra-high and grey clouds. […] Read More
Up north
Time to say good-bye to Te Waipounamu, the South Island. I’m flying north to Auckland for one last night at the airport, before taking the morning flight to Tokyo the day after. Here are the flight statisticss: Flight 17 to Auckland Date: 01/04/2014 Code: ANZ648 from ZQN to AKL Airline: Air New Zealand Plane: Airbus 320 Distance flown: […] Read More
Auckland budget
New Zealand money is pretty similar to the Australian dollar. Maybe it comes from both being made of polymere… same feel. The 10$ note depicts Kate Sheppard, suffragette, who won her country over to give women the vote already in 1893. Those Kiwis are progressive. Speaking of which, of course the Kiwi is on the […] Read More
Coromandel Peninsula
I got my car at 10 in the morning, then packed up my stuff, got a coffee for the way and my repaired bag, and ran into Clint and a friend. Final hugs, and off I go. My first stop tonight is Hot Water Beach, however I took quite a detour via the Coromandel Peninsula. Separated by […] Read More
Travel rhythms
Time to say good-bye to Auckland, already. I’m heading out on my NZ road trip today. As always, I don’t want to leave, now. I always have to leave when I just start to feel a bit at home. It sucks. Well, #firstWorldProblems, I know. But I can see a pattern evolve in every city: […] Read More
Movie day
Friday afternoon, everybody was ready for the storm. Events cancelled, clouds hanging low…. and in the end, hardly a drop of rain. I went to a birthday party with Clint and his friends. As we don’t have a TV in the house, I had missed out on Kiwi television. However, the host and birthday boy […] Read More
Auckland Transport
Auckland is a car city. They pretty much built it on, around and for the car. While the CBD now has a couple of pedestrian zones, the main means of transport for Aucklanders are their four wheels. First time you realize that, is when you have to wait for green on any crossing. I seems […] Read More
Hatches down for Lusi
The weather has been great yesterday, and I enjoyed a good time in Albert Park with a bunch of shirtless students from the nearly university, and my NZ travel guide. I also managed to get some Japanese Yen, as I realized it might be wise to have at least some local currency before heading north. […] Read More
Matariki
After 6 months on the southern hemisphere, I finally made it to a planetarium…. What I wanted to do already in the first week, but scrapped because of language issues, children’s programs of some comic figures hopping on the moon, renovations or the usual I’ll do that tomorrow…. It was worth it. We had a […] Read More