South Island

Greetings from Franz Josef

Since my last post on the blog I have made my way even further south. I spent the first day on the Bus from National Park to Wellington. On my one and only evening there I stocked up on some supplies (books, Deodorant etc.). I stayed there only one night because on my way back to Auckland I will have another stop there. Also have to mention that I went through the official Gum-boot Capitol of the world and we stopped to throw some gumboots, this was a rather interesting activity.

On the next morning I got on the ferry to take me to Picton on the South Island. Even the first glimpses of the south Island were stunning. After a 3 hour journey from Wellington to Picton, I jumped on the Stray Bus again. After a short drive we were in Marlborough doing a Wine tasting. The effect of this was rather interesting. Considering I hadn't had anything to eat yet that day, this wasn't really a surprise. Let's just say I spent the next couple of hours on the bus sleeping. We ended the days drive at Old Mcdonalds Farm at the Abel Tasman National park. Here I stayed for 3 Nights.

The Hostel was neither nice nor cheap but with the location they have and no real competition, I guess they can do whatever they want. The first day in Abel Tasman I spent mainly on a sailing boat and walking along the coast. It was a really nice day. A bit cold maybe (during the sailing anyway) but it's not getting warmer the further south I will get. This is really weird for me. I am used to the fact that it gets warmer the further south you get.

The next day was a day off. Doing nothing, in what really felt like a long way from everything. I ended the day with a few friends around a fire.. with wine... which got pretty merry.

From Abel Tasman I journeyed on to Barrytown. Now this my friends, is more Barry than town. There can't be more than about 100 people living there. We stayed at something that is Pub and Hostel at the same time. Beside that place there is one more Motel (why would they need 2?), a school and maybe 20 houses. That's it. Ate dinner, went to sleep, got up, took some pictures and on the road again. That was my Barrytown experience. I suspect we only stopped there because the drive to Franz Josef is a bit too long to do in one day.

Franz Josef is where I am at the moment. We arrived here earlier in the afternoon. The Town's name is the same as the famous Glacier's just up the Mountain. I was supposed to stay here for 4 nights but as soon as we got here I checked the weather forecast and due to bad weather in the next few days, decided to only stay 2. The plan is to walk to the Glacier and back. I thought about doing a heli-hike but 400$? nah not really.

From here I will go on to a place I can neither spell nor know why we go there. I will find out soon enough I guess.

Thanks for reading, till next time :)


Simon trying to through a gum-boot and failing.
Simon arriving on the south Island.
Simon enjoying sailing.
Simon enjoying fire and wine.
Abel Tasman is just as stunning as Tongariro but very very different.
Home is a far far way away.. and oh... surprised Zurich is on there.
The drive along the coast from Abel Tasman to Barry town was just absolutly stunning.
The famous pancake stones.
Hello there south Island. You are beautiful so far.

Heading further south

Haere mai (welcome in Maori BTW)

I welcome you all to the newest edition of my blog. I have been in the wild the last few days and therefore I am a few days behind my usual post-rhythm. I dearly hope you forgive me! First and most important:

My thoughts are with the people of Christchurch!

So what have I been up since I last updated my blog? I have made my way to Rotorua and on to Taupo and even further to the Tongariro National park. I am currently close but not quite in the National park. I am at a place called the “Blue Duck Lodge” more about this place a little later.

I returned from my detour to the east coast and to catch the next stray bus southwards, I stayed overnight in Rotorua. I am glad I didn't stay there any longer. Why? Because essentially it sits on a giant volcano. You can spot steam rising to the sky everywhere in this city. You also get another strong indicator; the whole city smells like rotten eggs.

From there I went on to Taupo, which sits on an even bigger Volcano. It is on the edge of lake Taupo (622 square kilometers!!!) which happens to be the crater of a super Volcano. I also only stayed overnight since there is not really much to do here.. well that is not quite right. Actually there is lots to do. Things like Bungy-jumping, Skydiving, River rafting etc etc. If your in the mood for adventure activities, New Zealand seems the place to be. Since I didn't feel like killing myself in a spectacular way, I moved on to the National park.

I stayed 3 nights at the National park. What do you do at a National park? Well enjoy the scenery and go for hikes for starters. You can also do nothing at all, which I also chose to do (or not do). There is a really famous walk here that everybody does, the Tongariro Alpine crossing. It takes 6-7 hours to do it. No, I didn't do it. I did a few smaller walks ranging from 2 to 4 ½ hours. I think 4 ½ hours is quite enough for me. After that I get bored. I might do more down the line but that has to be seen. Funny fact for you: Every walking track in New Zealand seems to lead to a waterfall.

I really like the scenery at the National park. If you walk around here, you feel like you landed in Middle-earth! No coincidence then that the Volcano you can see on my pictures was actually Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movies.

From the National park I went even further off the beaten track to the Blue Duck Lodge. This Lodge is literally in the middle of nowhere. It takes 1 ½ hours to get to the next settlement with a shop. What did I do here? Not much and I loved it! No Internet, no Cellphone reception and hardly anybody comes through here.

On a side note; I am cutting my stay in NZ short. The way I have the next few weeks planned I will have seen everything I wanted to see and still have two weeks to spare. Since I don't want to waste these two weeks, I changed a few flights. I will fly earlier than planned to Fiji and will also leave Fiji earlier (seriously I don't think I need more than 2 weeks to see Fiji). I will spend more time in Hawai'i though. Initially I had 2 weeks planned and now it's nearly 4 weeks . Two of those weeks I will meet up with Francis ( a good friend from Switzerland). I am really looking forward to meet him there!

I can't believe that I am just a wee bit more than 4 months away from flying back to Switzerland. Feels like it's just around the corner :(.

stay healthy, safe and enjoy life!

Haven't seen one yet (that's a Kiwi btw) and since most Newzealander's haven't either, well, my hopes are not high.
A hot, steaming body of water with such colours? Can't be healthy!
Steaming puddles like this are all over Rotorua
I felt like being in Rohan. But in truth it's Tongariro Nationalpark
Lo and behold Mt. Doom.. and for all those wonderin what it's real name is.. well i forgot
View from the hostel at the Nationalpark. Neat ehy?
I like taking pictures of random little critters that I happen to find.
Somewhere near the blue duck lodge. loved the vibe here.
This is the Lodge... against all odds, no it's not blue.
the guy doing the blog.. i am happy... don't believe the picture ;)

(I wrote most of the blog at the blue duck lodge but uploaded it in Wellington)

The stray adventure continues

Wow, the days fly by!

I travelled heaps around the north island in the last few days and visited places of which most I can't remember the name. Might have something to do with the fact that they are mostly in Maori and very hard to pronounce and even harder to remember.

Let me try to get this in some kind of order though. After I left Raglan (remember that's where I surfed until my leg told me not to anymore) we headed to Waitomo. Waitomo itself is a little town with maybe 100 inhabitants. What's special about this town though is the fact that is sits right on top of a huge cave system. Naturally the Kiwi's have found a way to exploit this. You wouldn't believe how many adventure activities that can be done over here!

Long story short, I went caving!!! An expensive thing but lots n lots of fun. We crawled through tiny spaces. Swam and tubbed through ice cold water. Saw eels and glow worms and just had a good time.

You might think that was enough excitement for one day but no. It doesn't end here. After that it went straight on to Maketu where they promised an authentic Maori experience. I was rather sceptic about this and expected something really cheesy. I was kinda right but it was fun anyway. We were welcomed into a traditional meeting house, in the way a rival clan would have been welcomed in the old days. After our clans "made peace" we watched a group of Maori's perform some traditional dances. After that we were asked to learn the "Haka" (see movie below) and the perform for the girls (only about 30 of em). It was awesome. I couldn't remember the moves but I have a good scary face! To end the day, the whole group slept in the meeting house.



In the morning I left that bus to head to the "go east" part. This part is only included if you have the most expansive tour booked with stray. Naturally we were only a small group then. This part of the stray tour is the "get to know Maori" part. In the following 3 days we had a Maori driver (Jason, he was awesome!). We had a lot of Maori culture and history explained to us. Visited some Maori towns and went to see how the traditional carvings are done and so on.

The best part of that trip was the Hostel on first night though. It was in a little cove, just 5 meters away from the water. It had a tree house (dunno how to better describe it) feel to it. Really really cool. As it was only 11 of us on this part of the tour we all had BBQ together.

We did lots more like hot pools, scenic lookout stops, wine tasting and eating traditional Maori food (Hangi). But I am cutting the post short now because I could go on and on and on.

let's conclude with the fact that it is all very good fun and that I am really enjoying my stay in NZ

enjoy the pictures and prepare for some more awesomeness very soon (with stray there is hardly room for a breather)

Simon's first caving experience
Simon's first underground tubbing experience. Yes that's mud in my face
Even little dudes are scary when they do the Haka
But Simon looks scary too
Probably my favourit Hostel so far.. when it comes down to location!
Simon dreaming and enjoying
Traditional Maori carving
beautiful east coast
beautiful east coast part 2.

Orca's!!!!!

Hey all

I saw Orcas in the wild!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But let me start at the beginning. After my short trip to the very north of New Zealand we made our way back to Auckland where we stayed (with we I always mean the people on the Stray Bus BTW. [these keep changing all the time]) for one night. This must have been the scariest night of my life. I shared the room with one other guy. Nothing special about that yeah BUT.. this dude started laughing and talking to himself randomly all evening. I was really uncomfortable!

Next day we made our way to Hahei where we stayed on a camping ground. On our way there we stopped at a lookout above Auckland. Which happened to be a volcano. I then realized how many volcano's they have here.
In Hahei there is a superb scenic cove but sadly the walking path to it was closed. Only other option to get there, was with Kayak and seriously, I am not paying 85.- for a Kayak trip. TOO. MUCH! We also went to a beach that had hot spring, it was really funny to see the people dig a hole and sit in them. In the evening we had a group BBQ. Nice food and nice people --> great evening.

Next day we made our way to Raglan, which is the surf capital of New Zealand. When we got here, this dude ran to the bus and told us that orcas have been sighted. From what I got told they come here to feed on Manta ray's. I was very sceptical. I thought this was a scam to get the group to come on his "cool" boat trip. But because it was only 20 dollar and the alternative would have been waiting for the people on the boat, I agreed to go.

The first 1 1/2 hours we saw nothing and i was really getting upset about this whole thing and suddenly somebody shouts: "there they are".. and behold a group of 5 Orcas or so. Oh my god, what an experience to see these creatures in the wild! I am so glad I spent those 20 dollars. This must be one of the best experiences of my trip! Luckily I got a few good shots!

Right now I am in Raglan. I hopped of the bus to stay and surf for a few days. Let me tell you, the waves here are a complete different story to the one's in Australia. They are sooo strong and big! I have to fight just to get out to them without getting thrown back to the beach all the time. Today I also had the bad luck of pulling something in my leg. I can walk but it hurts. I hope it's better tomorrow morning. It would be a shame if I couldn't surf on my last day here.

On Sunday I will hop on the the stray bus again. I don't really know where it takes us next. I kinda like that. Usually I have to plan a bit ahead where I am going next and what I'll do there. I enjoy being able to sit on the bus and just see where it takes me next.

That's all for now, stay healthy n happy my friends.

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Skyline of Auckland, just behind Mt. Eden volcano
People sitting in hot spring pools they dug themselves
Coast just 5min from my Hostel in Raglan. Welcome to the centere of NZ surfing.
Fear my Foto skillz

Welcome to New Zealand

Haere mai

I have safely escaped the country that tries to kill you at every turn (Australia) and landed in New Zealand a few days ago. I flew to Auckland and to be honest it hasn't impressed me that much yet. It might have to do with the fact that I was dead tired (it's not easy to sleep if you know some one dear to you is in the middle of a cyclone), or that the weather was shitty, or that maybe I wasn't that happy after all to have left Australia, or that I wasn't feeling that well. Take your pick but probably it was a combination of those factors.

After stumbling around for a day in Auckland (it's what I like to do on my first day in an unknown city) I realized that I booked a night to long in the hostel cause I would get picked up on Saturday and not Sunday as I had thought. Picked up by whom? The Stray Bus. Let me explain.

So far (with exception of Tasmania) I have done everything alone on my trip. I planned day by day, booked all the excursions by myself etc etc. For New Zealand I wanted to try something new. There are a few company's here that offer Hop on/Hop off buses. How does it work? Essential you book a tour with them (they have thousands of options) and choose when you want to start it. You will then travel around New Zealand with them. You pay for transport and nothing more. You can stay on the same bus for the whole of your tour or you can hop off where ever you feel like it and stay there for a few days. When you get sick of that place you can hop on again.

The nice thing about this is, that they take you to all the tourist attractions. If I would travel around Australia by a normal intercity bus (like Greyhound for example). I would only get from town to town and then book a tour or find another way to get to the tourist attraction. The other nice thing about this way of traveling is, that you get to meet lots n lots of other people.

I have to admit I haven't really hit it off with the people on this bus. So since I will stay in Raglan (to surf) for a few days and hop on another bus, I have to the chance to meet people I get along with better.

So far it's really good fun. We drove up to Paihia and on the way we looked at a waterfall and famous toilets. No joke. We went to look at toilets! Might have something to do with the fact that they were designed by Hundertwasser! We were supposed to do more but because the weather was bad those parts got canceled. Today we headed up to Cape Reinga. This is the most northerly point of New Zealand. I was surprised to see Tasmania from here. After that we headed to 90 Mile beach to do some dune boarding. Great fun I tell you! Sadly the guy who was supposed to take a picture of me failed. After wards we drove along the beach for a good hour. The perfect end to this nice day was the visit to a famous fish n chips place.

I like the fact that Stray offers you the option to do a lot of different things everyday but you are in no way forced to do anything. I can't wait to see what the next few days bring!

On a side note, my stuff is really starting to show that I have been traveling for 7 months now. My Jeans have holes, My Backpack is slowly falling apart, my headphones stopped working today, my shirts have stains I don't get out. Really feels like I am traveling around the world now haha!

Hope you enjoy the pictures

Haere rā


Found Hemingway's brother. Big brother that is
I had to giggle. Read the small writing on the bottom!
Just to prove they were really designed by Hundertwasser!
Maybe a picture of the inside of the toilet?
We went to see how some stuff was made in the old day.. it involved trees and gum or something, I didn't really pay attention. Loved this old car though!
The far north of New Zealand
This bloody tourist at the far north of New Zealand. See those waves down there? Would have loooooved to surf them!
Dune boarding for dummy's: walk up a steep sanddune for 20min, lie on a boogyboard, slid down the dune. Try not to fall over. Fail and get sand everywhere.
This was our sexy bus for today. Fancy ain't it?

Warm kiwi welcome.

I have left the land of OZ and landed amongst the Kiwi's.


more soon

One city, one skyline....

... four different views.

Just wanted to show you guys the results of my twilight skyline picture sessions. I was out in town (Sydney) 3 nights in a row with the goal to learn more about low-light photography. I know they are not perfect but I am quite happy with the result. Feel happy to leave comments on how I could improve these pictures!

cheers