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…

Toktok-Toktok – Part 1

Mar 29, 2016 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

I have experienced many things in New Zealand, have seen many places and have shown you pretty much everything in pictures and reports.

But one place I have yet always skipped. A place I knew from the beginning would be special. From which I knew right after the first visit I wasn’t done with. The one I am sitting in right now and have the great task to write something fitting about.

Napier.

Here I first arrived after I had one month in Wellington and had visited Rotorua. Here I came back often, when I lived in Hastings and worked in the orchard. Here I went in the last days before setting out to the South Island after leaving the family. Here I returned with my parents and now even with Elvis.
Here I have friends.

But that is a long story.
And you shall hear it:

Those who especially in the beginning of my time here read my blog carefully, must know about the ol’ tragic tale about my travel bag. Against all the vendor’s promises that one has not been sent to New Zealand, so that I have to travel with a substitute. So far, so bad.
My actual bag would have had shoulder straps and I am sure I would have carried it on my bag, walking up and down the hills of Wellington when I lost my way.
Yes, my first official act back then was to lose my way in Wellington.

But I sure got aid. From Klaus and Jennifer. Those two lovely ones were quite easy to get talked to and even offered to drive me to the hostel, which I accepted.
In fact I was on the other end of Wellington and not as much central as was planned.

The following is history. We met again several times in my time in New Zealand and at the moment I sit in their house at their table and sip, you could have guessed it, tea.

But only at a later stage I got to hear Klaus’ and Jennifer’s side of the story. That one is quite different from what I thought it would be.
For they didn’t coincidentally stopped at the shopping window, where I started to talk to them, but the waited on purpose for the person behind them.

As my trolley produces this monotone ‘toktok-toktok’ noise as I pulled it across the pavement. And that exact noise made them stop after a while, to see who had been following them for a while now towards the city border.

Without this sound, that my ‘false’ bag produced, they would just have entered their car just there in the next minute and would have driven off.

And, oh, what would I have missed!
I would have seen Napier as a beautiful city, but nothing beats friends in the end.

No Milford Sound or sunrise at the beach or the majestical mountains; nothing beats a get-together with friends!

Not only in Napier I found friends, in many corners of New Zealand I now know lovely houses and I am profoundly grateful for that.

This entry I will leave without pictures and thus, finish with a cliffhanger.

For in over a year, at every visit in Napier more and more pictures were shot and collected, from which I now have to pick the best, to show you this special case of a city

As to give this town its due, pictures are needed. And I’ve got heaps of them. 😉

TO BE CONTINUED!

The Full Package New Zealand

Mar 23, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey

I rarely know the exact title of a photo post, before tinkering with its text a little beforehand.
But with this one it is quite easy. On our way up the North Island we came across some classic images of the country.

 

 

A street sign with some typical names…

I finally had the chance to get my passport decorated with the stamp of the republic at the heart of the Forgotten World Highway!

This stick insect was a patient model at a camping site.

 

 

The camping guests that don’t pay.

Tane Mahuta, the biggest Kauri tree in the world! Over 50 metres tall, he hosts whole trees in his crown!

Life goals for Germany: A microwave for a postbox! 😀

In New Zealand, a house is not bound to the place it can be found…

A most special highlight was the visit at an old friend’s, who gave me a lift over a year ago when I was hitchhiking. We were being hosted lovingly, saw an iconic corner of Auckland and most of all we talked just as back then, when we first met. To meet people (again) is better than any sight!

 

 

Lion Rock at Piha Beach.

 

 

Actually, you might not want to admit that, let alone do, but we are sleeping at the side of the road from time to time due to the lack of a free campsite around.
An one morning there just was this sunrise and the grass and morning dew adding to it… 🙂

 

 

 

 

There are the most different fences in New Zealand, one full of bras, one full of toothbrushes, one full of hubcaps, one full of jandals and so forth… 🙂
But from all of the above I would not have wanted to miss anything, so just the shoes were left. As they were as much worn out and patched up and I didn’t want to take them any further, given the new ones as well!
So we stopped at the State Highway 3 and I performed the traditional ritual…

 

 

A part of me in New Zealand, how’s that? 😉

 

 

Now it is but little time until the great event goes down. For I take part in a movie marathon in Wellington, featuring both Middle Earth trilogies. By that, I will see New Zealand in New Zealand in a certain special way.
But more on that later, as we have to go there now…

South Island, Final Take

Mar 17, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts

I have come a long way.
I sit inside the premium lounge on the newest Interislander ferry, eat the complementary breakfast, get free coffee from the Jura fully automated coffee machine, charge all my devices with my dearly held multisockets, around me only older, quieter people and I am all good with myself and the world.

In which way could the 8th and last crossing between the islands look better? Maybe if I could have shared the luxury with Elvis, but there was only one coupon to my Nautical-Miles-Card. That one I only own for saving one to two dollars at the ferry…
Well, even best friends need a break from each other from time to time. 🙂

I am convinced that no other backpacker takes the ferry a crazy eight times from one island to the other. But it had to go this way. One time for a almost magical weekend with the best au pairs in the world, one time for an unknown future, one time with my parents and one time with Elvis. That’s how I traveled the South Island. My readers are in the know. 😉 And I always came back content and happy. And I always look forward to see beloved Wellington again.There it all began and there it all will end…

The last days on the South Island were filled with pondering about this ‘last time’, as expected. And we made the most out of these last times!

 

 

A last and unique goodbye from Ric, my flatmate/ landlord for 2 weeks in Dunedin. A funny bloke, but not too little on the nice side. 😀

born ’94

After the farewell visit in Dunedin, we made our way up north to Queenstown. One adventure after the other was awaiting us!

 

 

The ‘Remarkables’, a spectacular mountain ridge!

Part of the adventure was the food! As you know, in Queenstown you find the Ferg chain and enjoys its legendary status. For one last time we ate the unbeatable burger, some incomparable ice-cream and one inimitable meat pie there!

 

 

Even the menu of the Ferg Burger is a work of art in itself! 🙂

 

 

Queenstown offers all kinds of sports and activities imaginable. But it didn’t lure us onto the water…

Instead we were being attracted towards a rugged canyon in the outer areas…
The same, with its depth of 134m, is home to the highest bungy in New Zealand.

 

 

The abyss opens up deep and vast.

 

 

Not from utter fear, but from pure anticipation my heart beat fast. The own decision when to jump, which I missed at the skydive, would be in my hands now.

Without any thought about going back I jump. Free for a few seconds, only the sensation of the fall and the increasing noise of wind in my ears, I rush towards the ground. The bungy cord gets me and lets me bounce up and down for a few times.
Awesome! And if it were not for the pretty high cost and the scheduled departure, I would have done it again right away!

 

 

So, we worked ourselves up to the north of the South Island. All the closer to the area that I saw first of this wondrous island…

 

 

The rocks on the shore of the Pelorus.

 

 

The fjord we spent a weekend with my dear friends back in the day at.

Thus, the chapter is concluded. The last path I take off the South Island is the same we took onto it back in the days…

And I sit here and think about the time. The time to come and the time that lies behind us all. And what effect it had on us.
And we can all be but happy about this grand opportunity. And the times to come shall be not less great as those we look back at in satisfaction!

 

 

A component of my sumptuous breakfast at the premium plus lounge. As I said, you might just deserve something nice as a smelly backpacker. 🙂