Traveling the world

December 2019 - April 2020

A 139-day adventure by Christina Read more

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4countries
139days
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- Dec 17, 2019, 4:09pm
- 🌧 18 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- New Zealand Wellington Wellington City Kaiwharawhara Kaiwharawhara Stream -41.262613, 174.78990341°15’45” S 174°47’24” E
Day 17
Mangaweka to Picton
December 17, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 18 °C
I woke up this morning from a thunder.
But the thunderstorm never came to the camping ground. It was obviously not raining during the night and after 15 minutes the sun was starting to come out. I took it easy, as I have just around 3 hours left to Wellington and don’t need to be before 3 pm in the afternoon.
So I took a small walk around the campground as it is closed to a river and a big grey wall.

Then I slowly started to drive toward Wellington. I stopped for some shopping and had lunch at McDonald's, was just feeling for it today 🙈
Also nice with some free WiFi as I had over one hour to waste. It’s raining now, so no sense to find seething to do or see.
When it was time I went to the Ferry terminal.
It’s still raining but luckily it’s not blowing at all! I was a little bit worried the last days as the weather forecast was saying there will be a lot of wind today and I have heard many times that it is not funny to cross over the Cook Straight when it is really windy.
So I am really, really lucky again with this trip! Cheap and perfect sea conditions 🥳🤗
Can’t be more satisfied 😊
We left Wellington in time! Not so much to see from inside the ferry as it’s still raining and you can barely look out from the windows.
Unfortunately, the weather never got better so it was no sense to go out and enjoy the scenery.
But the ocean was calm all the way so it was a really nice ride at least and to be honest I prefer it this way!
For the night I will stay on a campground in Picton.
Hopefully, the weather is already getting better tomorrow. I cross my fingers for this 🤞🏼Read more
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- Dec 18, 2019, 11:01am
- 🌧 12 °C
- Altitude: 35 m
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Havelock Suburban Atuhaua Creek -41.370792, 173.76365541°22’15” S 173°45’49” E
Day 18
Takaka
December 18, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 12 °C
After a night and a morning with a lot of rain I went from Picton to Takaka. It was still raining when I left Picton but got less and less and after while it finally stopped and the sun started to come forward!
I amgont to meet a woman in Takaka with whom I am planning to do the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk together! It's much nicer and easier to do longer walks with someone together. 😊
After a stop to fuel up and having a quick lunch in Motueka I arrived at around 3 pm in Takaka. We me at the I-Side and directly got along really good. We decided to have a relaxed afternoon to get to know each other better.
We found a beautiful free campground beside a river and was getting settled there. We talked a lot about everything and a little about how we gonna do the Abel Tasman Walk best.
That worked out really good and we decided to go to the I-Side tomorrow morning to book everything.

We was the cooking together and having a nice dinner before it got to fresh to sit outside together any longer.Read more
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- Dec 19, 2019, 1:38pm
- ☁️ 16 °C
- Altitude: 49 m
- New Zealand Tasman Tasman District Puponga Cape Farewell -40.500255, 172.69879240°30’1” S 172°41’56” E
Day 19
Pakawau
December 19, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C
After a good breakfast in the sun, we went to the I-Side to book the water taxi and accommodation for the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. Unfortunately, we had to move our plans one day back, as there was no free accommodation in Onetahuti on Friday.
So we are now driving to Totaranui on Friday, staying there for one night and then catch the first water taxi on Saturday morning to go to Anchorage and from there we are going to walk to Onetahuti, stay there overnight and then walk on Sunday back to my car in Totaranui. The weather forecast is good for these days so we are really looking forward to it! 🤗

After that, we went for a fast shopping trip and then we were decided to go north for today. So we went to Puponga and Wharariki Beach. We stopped at Cape Farewell on the way and then we were enjoying the beach. We were even finding two fur seals in a little cave 😊
Unfortunately, the weather was getting worse after a while so we went back to the car.
On the way back to the Farewell Spit I got a flat tire and we had to find some help to fix it as I don't have the equipment to change a tire in my car, something I will need to buy as soon as possible!
Luckily this happened close to some houses and the people were so friendly and helping us to change the tire and gave me the name and number for the next garage in Collingwood as well. So we called them and went there straight away. He looked at the tire and said, that this can happen on the gravel roads. It’s a big crack in the tire from a stone and it is just bad luck.
They will look until tomorrow morning if they have a new tire or an old one I could use at least until I come to Nelson. So hopefully I will be fine! 🤞🏼
It’s just not feeling so good as I need to drive over a long gravel road tomorrow to come to Toturanui 😳🙈
As it looked more and more like we will get a lot of rain soon, we decided to find a nice campground for tonight not too far away from Collingwood.

We were just ready with putting up Lu’s tent as it started to rain.
We then had a nice hot shower and a good dinner together before we just were getting ourselves into our tent/car.

The weather was horrible over the whole night. A lot of rain, wind and thunderstorm.
I was sleeping really bad I must say. And when I woke up from water dropping on my arm I got a little bit panic 😳😬
But I found the problem!! One of my Flipflops obviously was stuck in the door and the door not completely closed. So it was dropping in from there. But as soon as I fixed it, it stopped!! Lucky me! 😅Read more
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- Dec 20, 2019, 8:39am
- ⛅ 15 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- New Zealand Tasman Tasman District Pakawau Pakawau Creek -40.599925, 172.68795840°35’60” S 172°41’17” E
Day 20
Pakawau-Toturanui
December 20, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
After a horrible night, we took it easy in the morning. At least the sun is shining again but it's still really windy.
We had even some eggs for breakfast today 😉

Then we went to the garage in Collingwood. They told me that there was no way to repair the tire and they, unfortunately, don't have one in the same size. So we had to drive to Takaka with the reserve tire. But at least there are supposed to be 4 garages so we had a lot of hope, that one would have the tire we need. 🤞🏼
At the first garage, they didn't have a tire for us straight away but they were supposed to get them in the afternoon.
We then said, we go and ask at the other place next to them if they have one as we need it as soon as possible, so we can keep on going with ou plan, but at least we knew, we definitely gonna be a new tire today at least.

The other garage actually at the right tire but they didn't have the time to put it on until Tuesday. So we went back to the first place and ask if they could put on the tire and they had time for it straight away! So we got the tire from the other place and left the car there for around one hour!
We went to the small market that is in the town center today during the time we were waiting for my car and bought some really nice fruits!
And we even met the little rotti girl! Isn't she adorable? 😍

Then we picked up my car and started our trip for today. We stopped by the Rawhiti Cave first. I have been here last time as well, but I forgot how difficult the hike to the cave is 🙈
It was really slippery from last night's rain and took us more time than expected. But the cave is still very impressive!

After that, we also stopped by the Wainui Fall.
Last time people were swimming in the pool under the waterfall, this time it was impossible because the waterfall was so strong and carried so much water, that it would be dangerous to swim there! A bit different from last time.

We then went to Toturanui for the night. Finally, the wind was starting to slow down more and more and we spent some time just relaxing and enjoying the weather before it was time to get some food ready.
While I was cooking Lu was playing a little bit on here guitar!

After that, we started to back our backpacks for the next two days, as we gonna hike the middle part of the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk! 🤗
Hopefully, I get a good sleep tonight because tomorrow we gonna sleep in her tent together, because the huts are so expensive and we just don want to spend so much money for it!
Gonna be fine like this! We are going really got together and it’s really nice to have company for this!Read more
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- Dec 21, 2019, 12:03pm
- ⛅ 16 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- New Zealand Nelson Observation Beach -40.954637, 173.05194240°57’17” S 173°3’7” E
Day 21
Abel Tasman Coastal Walk Day 1
December 21, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
After a good sleep, we had plenty of time to wake up, eat breakfast and pack everything ready for our two days hike!
The water taxi was supposed to pick us up at 11 am. As we were ready on time, we went to the best earlier! To sit there and enjoy the view and sun!
Our water taxi was actually early as well and arrived already at 10.30!
It took some time to collect all the people and get them and all the stuff on board but we left Totaranui a little bit earlier as planned anyway.
We stopped 2 different bays on the way until it was our time to jump off the boat and start our adventure. 🤩
We first went to the toilet, washed our feeds and got the shoes on and off we were at around 12 o’clock. The first part was really easy. We are so lucky that we are arriving at low tide so we can cross over the short way to Torrents Bay. We had to pass some water streams which were deeper than expected and we got wet all the way over the knees 🙈 But the weather is good, so it’s nothing to worry about. If just the wind could Stopp soon...
The next part of the track was worse, as we had to walk up the hill for quite some time. At least we saw a lot of different birds on the way and the view from up there is just amazing and so worth it to walk all the way up!

We took some smaller stops on the way for some peaches or apples and arrived in Bark Bay around 3.30 pm.
Here we took a longer break, were eating our sandwiches and had a swim in the ocean as well. The water was quite fresh but still very nice and refreshing!

From here it was supposed to be around 2 hours to Onetahuti so we were back on the track at 16.20 for the last part. 💪🏼

What we didn’t know, it’s gonna be the worst part of it 😳
Oh my god, the way up this hill was so long and so steep that we had to Stopp many times on the way to catch our breath and relax our muscles a little bit. We were really relieved when we reached the top of the hill!
At least the rest of the way was mostly going down the hill and we arrived in Onetahuti around 6.15 pm.

We first were relaxing for a while and the building up the tent and started to cook something.
We were so exhausted from the day so we went to bed around 8 pm already. 🙈😂
Hopefully, I can sleep something as the Wekas here are really annoying and trying to steal everything and even trying to get into the tents as well!
Otherwise, it's a really nice place to spent one night on the beach 😊Read more
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- Dec 22, 2019, 10:14am
- ⛅ 15 °C
- Altitude: 67 m
- New Zealand Tasman Tasman District Awa-iti Reef Point -40.872066, 173.04846240°52’19” S 173°2’54” E
Day 22
Abel Tasmen Coastal Walk Day 2
December 22, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
After a tuff night, we woke up early from the Wekas and the boats that were already arriving so early with some kayaks.

The Wekas kept me awake quite long as they were around the tent and in the front part of the tent almost all the time searching through our stuff. 😬
I start to hate them, they are really annoying, trying to steal everything they can get at any time. You really need to be aware of your stuff all the time.

We had a simple breakfast and was then without any stress pacing our stuff.
We have a big low tide crossing in front of us at Awaroa Hut and low tide is at 1 pm today, so no need to stress around and get going, as it’s around 2 1/2 hour there from Onetahuti.
We started our walk at 9.35 am. It was compared to yesterday a quite easy walk. It was also going up the hills but not as steep as yesterday.
So it was nice for the muscles to get going like this again.
I can say, I feel my muscles but mostly I have pain in my shoulders and hips from the backpack! At least it’s not as heavy anymore!
Halfway it was quite a steep way up that cost us some time and a lot of energy but compare with the last one from yesterday it was not to bad.
We arrived in Awaroa around 12 o’clock! We took a short break there, filling up our water bottles and eating an apple.
Then we started our walk over the low tide track. Some parts of the track were extremely muddy, others were full of shells and that was hurting like hell to walk over them without shoes. But to put the shoes back on was no option as we hade to pass like 4 streams of knee-deep water. The crossing took us over 30 min and at the other end to took another break and cleaned and checked our feeds for wounds from the shells. Lu actually got a small part of a shell stuck in her foot. 😳
Luckily it was just a small piece and she got it out and had no problems with it afterward!

From there it was only 2 hours left to Totaranui!
The first part was very easy but the last 30 min was a real test again. Tired as we are already the steep and long climb up the last hill was almost horrible 🙈😅
But we made it!!!
We arrived in Totaranui at 14.45 pm.
We stopped the backpacks in the car and went to the beach to have lunch and just relax for like an hour in the sun!
We walked almost 30km in total yesterday and today 💪🏼
Think we can be proud of us! 😊
After that, we drove back to Takaka where we were splitting us up again, as we have different plans for the next weeks!
It was really nice to have company for some days, especially the walk and we gonna stay in contact and maybe meet up later again if it fits our plans 😊

I will spend the night at the campground in Takaka and I can’t tell you, how nice it was to take a long and hot shower after two days of hiking!!Read more
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- Dec 24, 2019, 9:01am
- ⛅ 16 °C
- Altitude: 124 m
- New Zealand Nelson Marahau Astrolabe Roadstead -40.974385, 173.0392840°58’28” S 173°2’21” E
1
Day 24
Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures
December 24, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
Today I got up pretty early, 6.30 don’t feel right but I have plans for today so I need to get going on time!
I had anyway a good breakfast and then I left the campground shortly after 8 am.
I went to Marahau to walk the first part of the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk from Marahau to Anchorage! 💪🏼
I liked the other parts so much, so I also wanted to do the first part as well!
And for the way home I booked a sailing trip because it is Christmas and it is much nicer to sail bcc then just take the water taxi.
They recommended starting the walk at 8.30 am to have enough time to come to Anchorage where the boat will leave at 1.30 pm.
I started my walk at 8.50 am and arrived in Anchorage at 12.15 pm and I walk almost all of the side tracks to some beaches and lookouts as well.

It was quite cloudy in the morning what was a little sad because I can imagine the view is much nicer when the weather is really good. Anyway, it was a really nice and very easy walk! Just a little bit uphill and never steep or anything so it was going very easy 😊

I then had a lunch break at the beach, watching all the boats coming and going.
We left Anchorage on time. We are only 10 grownups and 2 small kids plus our skipper. So a really nice small group and we had a lot of space on the boat to move around 😊
The weather was really nice now, almost no clouds left but pretty windy, what is good in one way, as we need the wind to sail back to Kaiteriteri, but also a little bit annoying because the wind is quite cold. Luckily I had my jacket with me!

I was really hoping to see some Orcas but we had no luck with that. I away I knew it already before 😉

I really enjoyed the tour, it took us 3 hours to sail to Kaiteriteri and we were chasing some Kayakers around here and there 😂
Our skipper loves to play cat and mouse with them 😉😂

We arrived at 4.30 pm in Kaiteriteri and got a ride back to our cars in Marahau.
So I arrived at the campground in Motueka around 5.30 pm, tired but happy!

Merry Christmas everyone!Read more
Alexandra Häggman Jag hade stannat där på stranden. Bara långa lata dagar 👌
12/30/19Reply
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- Dec 25, 2019
- ☀️ 18 °C
- Altitude: 4 m
- New Zealand Tasman Tasman District Port Motueka Kina Beach -41.167393, 173.03086941°10’3” S 173°1’51” E
Day 25
Merry Christmas
December 25, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Today is the most important Christmas day here in New Zealand and everything ist closed.
So I will have a day off at the campground, mostly doing nothing at all, recovering from the last days of walking, washing, and cooking.

Tomorrow I will start to travel south!

I hope you all have a lot of good food and some nice days!

Merry Christmas everyone from the other end of the world! 🎄🎅🏼Read more
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- Dec 26, 2019, 1:36pm
- ☀️ 17 °C
- Altitude: 185 m
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Redwoodtown WITHER HILLS -41.555662, 173.97056741°33’20” S 173°58’14” E
Day 26
Mt Vernon
December 26, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Today it was time to say goodbye to Motueka and the beautiful Abel Tasman as it’s slowly time for me to travel south, I also want to see places I haven’t been to before. 😉

I was a long time unsure where I should go but was, in the end, deciding to go to Blenheim, as I had never been there before. I took with a woman from Greece, as she needed a ride and we had a nice trip together sharing our experiences with each other!
I dropped her off in Blenheim and went to Mt Vernon!
My plan was to walk up to the lookout and the over the loop track back to the Carpark. I may have missed, that this is a really steep hike up the hill. The first part was very easy and very nice but then the steep part started and I was asking myself, what the hell am I doing here?! 🙈😂
This was a real challenge to motivate myself to walk all the way up to the top, but it was sooo worth it!! The view was amazing over the hills, Blenheim and to the ocean! 😍
I was up there for around 40 minutes, as I a conversation with a woman from France who was tried to get work here as a teacher and told me, that it is so hard to get the paper and so on to get the working visa, even though she had found a job already, it’s was kind of impossible.

As she is going home soon but wants to come back in February with her son to travel I could give her a lot of tips for that and we also walked all the way back to the Carpark together in the end!

Being back by the Carpark I had to find a campground for the night.
I could not choose better! I went to Ward and found a lovely small campground, not busy at all and cheap as well! I really liked it here!

I spend the evening with a couple from Germany talking about everything and went to bed way too late again 🙈😂Read more
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- Dec 27, 2019, 10:33am
- ☀️ 17 °C
- Altitude: Sea level
- New Zealand Marlborough Marlborough District Ward Flaxbourne River -41.844458, 174.1860541°50’40” S 174°11’10” E
Day 27
Ward - Hanmer Springs
December 27, 2019 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
After breakfast, I went to Ward Beach. Nice place with some smaller boulders and some nice small rockpools here and there.
I took a short walk on the beach and then I went down State Highway 1 to Kaikoura!
I stopped a few time to enjoy the view and I also saw a lot of seals 😊

In Kaikoura, I bought some fish and Chips! Really cheap actually and really good as well! I took them with and drove a few more kilometers until I found a beach where I had my lunch break, surrounded by a lot of birds 🙈😂

Guess they were hungry as well, but I don't like to share my food so they were waiting for nothing 😂

After lunch, I started to drive to Hanmer Springs. I to the scenic road through the inland.
It was a really nice road, ok not nice to drive but the view was amazing!!
I don't know how many times I stopped but it must have been a lot!
The nicest one was the Waiau River with its ice-blue water! 😍

And then suddenly all the cars stopped. The police were there and making an alcohol test from every diver! That was very unexpected but no problem for me! They have really good machines. I should just could out loud to ten while they hold it in front of my mouth and that's all. Not blowing in there for like a minute or so!

My plan was to check out the city before I go to the campground, but it was so full in the city, to find a parking place there was impossible, so I went straight to the campground.
I found a cheap one again, luckily a little bit outside the city closed to the forest.

The weather started to change shortly after that and I got really windy, later in the evening, it was almost like a storm. 😳
I am soo glad I can sleep in my car now and not in a tent anymore!!Read more
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