Great Ocean Road and Return

Apr 17, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey

In our car, we rode out of Melbourne then.
Direction Great Ocean Road.

This part of the coastal line offers many stations and didn’t leave us disappointed! On the contrary!
See here some impressions of the far and wide country:

 

 

Cockatoos on the side of the road like pigeons. The sacrifice of a bread roll in exchange for pictures and the experience was totally worth it! 😀

 

 

Exotic birds everywhere!

And sleeping Koalas.

This one had expunged all of his current radius and seemingly would rather take another nap than move on. Likeable beasts. 😀

Who started this one day??

Late that night we arrived at the 12 apostles, a remarkable chain of free-standing rock pillars, of which not all 12 exist anymore.
Punctually at sunset we joined hundreds of tourists to take our pictures…

 

 

Back in Melbourne, we followed the advice of our fellow travelers and ordered a ‘Freakshake’.
It’s something else… 🙂

 

 

The War Memorial. A place of remembrance.

The second highest building in Australia, the Eureka Tower. Almost 300 metres tall.

And this is what Melbourne looks like from above. The Eureka Tower has a visitor floor, which is worth it!!

 

 

 

 

Now we are on our way to Sydney. One of the many stations on my journey home…

The Dessert

Apr 12, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey

Up high.
Down low.

Scattered clouds. Window seat. Wing. Daybreak. Picton! Next to it Blenheim. The gate to the South Island. My heart is filled with content, seeing the country I have traveled for the last time at dawn of a new day.

 

 

 

 

The plane swiftly carries us over the sea towards Melbourne. We land there. And we are in Australia.

Suddenly, New Zealand is far away. And we find ourselves in a city that holds almost as many people as New Zealand as a whole.
Gigantic skyscrapers make our heads tilt. We realise very quickly: Australia is somewhat larger of an undertaking.

 

 

 

 

The first days I struggle through a clogged ear from the flight. It was to take a few days, until the water had vanished and I could hear the same on both ears.

Another hurdle we took and now we are owners of a massive backpacker’s station wagon. This car is to bring us up to Brisbane and to be Elvis’ loyal companion from there. Or to be replaced with an off-road truck. All up in the air. 🙂

The first stop with the new vehicle we took at the St. Kilda Beach. Fittingly, we arrived at sunset…

 

 

 

 

Thus, the adventure Australia awaits! I will let you know of all impressions.

Next to that, anticipation and longing for home rise every day. Soon I will wake up in my own bed again and only think back on how many beds I woke up in…
And I will cherish these memories.

 

At this point, saw news: Poppy (from popcorn), one of the chickens at the flat in Hastings, died. To her I said the last goodbye back then…

R.I.P. Poppy

Beloved Wellington

Apr 7, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts

‘It has been a great summer, the best summer of them all!’

For real. Back then in December, when the summer began I came to Wellington and now this summer slowly gives in to the harvest. Somewhere in there was some kind of winter and 16 months have passed by now.

Today, when the last sun set over Wellington, I finally have passed on my car to a local student. I have bid farewell to the last people I know here, as long as they were at home, and now my time here in New Zealand has come to an end.

In my last days I have made full use of Wellington where I could and got closure to my heart’s content. Where it all began, it should have an end.
Thus, the last entry from New Zealand on my blog shall be about my beloved city Wellington. See a collage of the loveliest places here:

With a number of friends and even with my parents I sat here at the production site of the ‘Six Barrel Soda’ and drank wondrous sodas.

The grand museum ‘Te Papa’ in which you can see new things all the way! It’s free of charge and a great meeting point! 😉

On my way to the hostel. As it used to be and as it is today.

The way up Mount Victoria coming from the Oriental Parade. Yes, I love to walk about at night.

A unique cafe hides in a street corner and shines with its cool concept and siphon coffee. You should google Lamason, I suggest. 😉

In this place, you find 4 amazing cocktail bars, which each impress with their individual ambiance and character. I always was together with lovely people and we had a sweet time!

Chews Lane is a good place to spoon some takeaway or ice-cream sitting on the benches…

Oh, how many people I have ‘forced’ to THIS iced coffee! 😀 But everyone likes it, how else? It gets served at the Enigma Cafe and we got an extra portion marshmallows and cream for the last time. 

The ultimate cinema from the visitor’s perspective. At The Embassy we saw the Kiwi movie ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’. A worthy conclusion at my all-time favourite movie theatre!

And this is what it usually looks like stepping outside after the movie…

The Majestic Centre, the great anchor point for lost backpackers.

I loved to eat at Chef’s Palette many times, as pricing and concept make for a superb meal!

Cuba Street, one of the veins of Wellington.

And that’s the end of my trusty (and maltreated) car. A large burden is gone now!

This is the place where on the very first day I met my first friends in New Zealand. On this last evening I passed by it one more time…
At that moment, something had come full circle.

You have all been part of my great journey through New Zealand. With you I have shared my 16 months here and you were there. I want to thank you for that!

 

 

‘Many places I have been
Many sorrows I have seen
But I don’t regret
Nor will I forget
All who took that road with me’

The End Of All Things

Apr 5, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts

After the great event in Wellington, about which I will tell further down, we went to Napier one last time. But this city you already know about sufficiently. 😉

State Highway 2 north of Hutt Valley.

Our last route was from Napier to Mahia. You will surely remember the road trip I went on there about half a year ago.
This place I revisited with Elvis one more time and we watched the sun rise:

The last corner of New Zealand I hadn’t seen yet, the East Cape, we went along after that:

We didn’t have much time for the last ride down to Wellington. Therefore, we took only small station at the most important places:

Rain clouds gathered in Rotorua.

The Juka Falls from above. Here in Taupo for the last time we met up with Tina and her friend and shared a campsite. That also was the last night camping in New Zealand…

A rainbow in the Tongariro.

Of unique experiences you can tell quite often on a journey like mine, but some of them are more unique than others.
That applies to the movie marathon we took part in.
That one was about the ‘Lord of the Rings’- and the ‘Hobbit’ movies, which were being filmed in New Zealand in every aspect and all.
So, the place we spent 24 hours in was located at the heart of all the studios and production sites, as well as the residencies of the workers. Even the cinema is owned by the moviemakers. Thus, it was being decorated magnificently by a employee of WETA Workshop.
The probably greatest works of the New Zealand movie industry you couldn’t possibly experience in a more special way!

 

 

Some people were quite serious about their costumes. 😀

That was the agenda. During the breaks we got rid of the coffee, got new coffee, got more sweets and got some fresh air. 🙂

Courtenay Place.

 

 

And now we are back in Wellington. The place where it all began.
Did you keep count of how many months on my blog have been filled with New Zealand tales? It is 16. An entire 16 months are going towards its end now.

The last burden is my car. But on that there is going to be a way, too. No matter the price in the end. The most important is that I enjoy the last days in Wellington.

And that is not that easily done to begin with. But the more I walk the well-known streets of Wellington and ponder about the times, I close in to the conclusion: It is plenty. Wellington is going to go on without me.

I want to go home. To a normal life with my family and my home.
Life as a traveler is an exciting, diverse and never-ending composition of goodbyes, new circumstances and the overall realisation that you are here IN ORDER TO experience something.
The people walking the city in the golden autumn afternoon sun all have a home to go back to. Every day, for a long time. They have people they know and see. Every day, for a long time. They have a place they live in and that they discover laid-back. Every day, for a long time.
And one day, the same I will have too. When I am home.

I like to compare New Zealand with a buffet. I walked up and down it and filled many plates. Now I scrape together the last bits of my last plate and enjoy the last flavour.
The dessert awaits in form of 3 weeks Australia with Elvis and after that the cordial (more like a cocktail, actually) is in sight over in Southeast Asia.

It doesn’t end. It continues!

May It Be. Long Ways To Go Yet. Into The West.

Toktok-Toktok – Part 2

Apr 3, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey

Have I mentioned Napier to be most special and unique?
I hope you will agree with me, while browsing through the pictures that I have collected over more than one whole year…

 

 

Klaus and Jennifer, the heroes of the first hour!

The city is being dominated by its Art Deco after being rebuilt after the earthquake in 1931.

What compares to a cup coffee?

 

 

The Centennial Gardens in Napier are well worth a visit! Some pictures of the flowers are scattered around the blog. 😉

 

 

Cape Kidnappers in the background.

 

 

Clive Square. A prototype of a city park.

But Napier doesn’t stay passive, being a special city with its Art Deco, the wonderful places and people.
In Napier, every February the Art Deco Festival takes place.
What that means? That means that the ENTIRE city lives like in 1930 for some days. Music, clothing, activities and most prominently the cars get put back in time.

See for yourselves:

One of the greatest attractions is the car parade. Over 300 vintage cars, bicycles, motorbikes and even soapboxes ride through the city in a chain.
And in my 16 months here I had the chance to experience the whole festival twice.

 

 

Next to antique steam machinery, there was a military search light from the old days at the beach…

 

 

By the way, this is one of my last blog posts from New Zealand. For it is not more than 5 days until I have to leave this place.
But I am prepared for that. I have taken much with me and left much here. The last days I spend in the same hostel as in the beginning to strike a clean balance. After 1 1/3 years you can look back quite a deal…