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
So many names here in New Zealand remind me of Britain, of course. I understand the settlers wanted to remember the home they left, but it’s also somewhat weird. I can’t really think that they were reminded by the landscape…? With those high mountains? I drove from Kaikoura to Christchurch today, taking the scenic Alpine Pacific […]Read More
This morning I boarded the ferry to the south Island. 3h10 for the passage from Wellington to Picton, passing through the Cook Strait and Marlborough Sounds with its islands and waterways. The coast line in this northernmost part of the South Island is outright ridiculous, and reminds you of a fractal, in its endless repetitions. […]Read More
I woke up to a great sky and decided I’ll hit the road early, no detours… choosing the fastest track, an easy-to-navigate highway. The cliché that there are more sheep in New Zealand than people is surely true. I stopped counting… Farmland, forests and hills make up most of the scenery. Sheep, cows and bulls! […]Read More
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
I booked my second RTW ticket. I’ve been on and off the phone and Skype with the Lufthansa Round-the-world desk in Frankfurt in the past couple of days. It took a bit longer this time, but they’ve been super helpful as ever. It took more time, especially deciding where I wanted to go in Asia, […]Read More
It took some time to figure it out, because I have no idea about Istanbul and because there were so many offers on Airbnb. Prices varied a lot, too. Some places looked fantastic and had corresponding prices, some looked great, and the price was ok… I think I found middle ground. I’ll be there from […]Read More
Today, five months ago, I arrived in Rio de Janeiro. It seems like an eternity. Then again: it also seems like just a few days ago that I thought: wow, four months! Time is really relative, and it’s playing its tricks on me. It seems to go faster and faster, the longer I travel, after […]Read More
I have been busy planning my road thrip through New Zealand in the past weeks, and I think I am pretty close to sorting it all out. It’s prime travel time in NZ, the backpackers are everywhere and the hotels and hostels are pretty full, that’s why it took some time to plan it… It’s […]Read More
It’s time to say good bye, Australia! It’s been fantabulous! I’m flying to New Zealand today. For more adventures! Here are the flight statistics: Flight 16 to Auckland Date: 22/02/2014 Code: ANZ124 from MEL to AKL Airline: Air New Zealand Plane: Boeing 777-300ER Distance flown: 1820 Miles Duration: 2h55Read More
Zigzagging across Australia, it’s time to head back to Melbourne for two final days. On Saturday I’ll head back east to New Zealand for three weeks in Auckland and two weeks of driving around. It got a slightly bit rocky at one point and I saw we did quite a detour.. but all fine here. […]Read More
On we go… I had the rough itinerary in my mind for a long time, but it took a couple of intense sessions of playing around with the Star Alliance Round the World App to figure it out… But here it is, the projected itinerary for the second trip around the globe, starting in June […]Read More