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Going Down Under

January - March 2020
A 52-day adventure by Michael Read more
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  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 1

    The adventure begins

    January 28, 2020 in Germany ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    One our before start... Boarding should start in a moment. Nervosity is more and more changing to happiness. I am looking forward to my first A380-flight. Next stop will be Dubai.

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 2

    Unbelievable - Upgrade to Business

    January 29, 2020 in the United Arab Emirates ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Flight from Frankfurt to Dubai was pretty smooth. The space in the A380 is impressive. I almost did not feel the take off in that big bird. Security check at Dubai Airport was super fast. Dubai airport is not very spectacular, the waiting areas outside the gates are nice though. Just got to the gate and then came the big surprise: I have been upgraded to Business Class. So now I am superexcited😁Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 2

    WiFi in the sky

    January 29, 2020, Indian Ocean ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    Flying Business Class with Emirates is really an experience. A really luxurious start into eight weeks of adventure - not necessary, but nice. I have so much space here, unlimited drinks and nice food. Sleeping is also great when being able to lay down completely.

    Right now I am making use of 2 hours of free WiFi (would also be possible in Economy.

    Another 4.5 hours to go. Then I will be in New Zealand :)    Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 3

    First (little) volcano - Mount Eden

    January 30, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 22 °C

    Yeah, I am in New Zealand. Immigration was fairly easy. If I had realized on time, that, as a German, I could have used the automatic passport control, it would have been even faster. Baggage inspection was relatively quick and no control at all because of the corona virus. Showering at the hostel after such a long travel was a pleasure and helped to get a little over the tiredness. The weather is perfect, a bit cloudy though, but a very nice temperature between 25 and 30 degree centigrade. In the evening I went up Mount Eden, a dead volcano almost in the middle of Auckland. The view over the city is wonderful. Just came back into the hostel and am very tired now. Hopefully I can sleep well and adapt fast to the twelve hours of time difference🙃Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 5

    The green Auckland

    February 1, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C

    After a "not having to tell much about"-day yesterday - I basically was strolling around Auckland downtown until the early afternoon, did not like it very much because of loads of traffic and construction sites and spent the whole afternoon in the hostel then (tired, jetlag?) - today was a really nice day again. I have been walking more than 25 km and hit many green spots of the town. I really enjoyed Albert Park, was impressed by the parts of the university campus I was walking through, went through the "wild" parts of "Auckland Domain" (somehow the "English Garden" of Auckland), was pleased by the "Wintergarden" greenhouses and particularly by the fernery ("Farngarten") and walked along Hobson Bay on a partly adventurous walkway ending in an deadend. In between I spent some two hours in the "Auckland Museum" with e.g. historical Maori stuff, New Zealand's flora and fauna or New Zealand's war history on display.

    Tomorrow in the early morning I am going to head off Auckland some two hundred kilometer northwards to Prahia. I certainly have not made the optimum made of my stay in Auckland but, anyway, I will at least come back once before my flight back to Europe.    Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 6

    About sheep, dolphins and a hole

    February 2, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    This morning I had to get up very early (after a night of having slept very badly) to catch the bus up north (into the heat!) at 7:30 from Auckland downtown. The four hour drive was mainly through an area that could look alike in Central Europe. Where are all the New Zealand sheep? I saw many cows but only a few sheep. Probably, I even saw more horses than sheep. Today's destination was Paihia in the Bay of Islands at the Pacific shore. The area is beautiful, but also remembers me a bit at the area around Split in Croatia. I did not have a lot of time to relax because for the afternoon I had booked a boat trip in the bay going to the hole in the rock. The hole is nice but not unique. On our way back we saw dolphins. However, unfortunately, they were gone again very quickly and not so easy to see from the big vessel. After the trip I was really tired and only got up once again to have a nice dinner. I hope to be able to sleep better this night, what, however, is unlikely because it is tremendously hot in the hostel.Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 7

    Driving on 90 mile beach

    February 3, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    First of all: Today has been by far the best day of my trip so far😀Again I had to get up rather early because I was picked up by a tourbus at 7:20. Sunrise was just over and it looked like another beautiful summer day. We were a group of sixteen people heading up north to the Ninety Mile Beach and Cape Reinga, the most northern point of New Zealand where Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean come together. Our driver and guide was a funny guy and had prepared a nice playlist for the long drive. Our first stop was Puketi forest and I have to say I was completely flashed by this awesome beauty of nature with many ferns, so many different tones of green and the quietness - except from the birds - that originated from the forest. The actual highlights were the Kauri trees - the tallest trees in New Zealand -, but for me it was the forest in total. Unfortunately, we had only 10 minutes in the forest, I could have spent at least half a day there. I think, that was the first moment of my trip when I really felt why I wanted to come to New Zealand and to do this journey. The further drive went through landscape I would call a mixture between Central European and Mediteranean. When we arrived at Ninety Mile Beach, the driver had to check the entrance way first and then he drove with high speed through the deep sand close to the dunes to reach the flatter and harder part of the beach. Ninety Mile Beach is an official highway! Well apparently it was too fast because the fan belt tore and it took about two hours for a mechanic to come and fix it. So, we had a very long stop on the - particularly because of its dimensions - impressive beach. Although being a highway there was not much traffic. Two hours later we could finally drive on the beach. After driving on the beach we made our way further towards Cape Reinga, but one more highlight waited before: Sandboarding on a huge and beautiful dune. That was real fun, but also exhausting walking up the dune. Anyway, it was worth it. I was the only one doing it four times😄Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 7

    Cape Reinga

    February 3, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    After the sandboarding we basically were sandy everywhere and brought a lot of sand into the coach. Cape Reinga was not far away - another impressive and awesome place. Though certainly being comparable to Cape of Good Hope, I very much enjoyed its beauty. The different colors of Tasman Sea and Pacific were well to be seen. Well, nevertheless, we had to start our way back to the Bay of Islands - being two hours behind schedule. Our driver had a surprise for us: to indemnify for the inconvenience we had because of the mechanical breakdown the tour company would pay the fish and chips for us. We would have stopped to have it anyway, but it would have been at our own expenses. That was nice and tasty. Back at the hostel I took a long shower to get rid of the sand. Now, I am really tired, but happy. It feels as if now my trip has actually started.

    By the way, today I saw way more sheep than yesterday, but also many cows again. Sheep have definitely overtaken horses now, however, about cows I am not really sure. I think cows are still in the lead...    Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 8

    Power breakdown, Waitangi Trail and bus

    February 4, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Today was a travel day, at least from 1:30 pm to 10:30 pm. After waking up and checking out from the hostel, I actually wanted to visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, where back on February 6th 1840 the Waitangi Treaty between several Maori tribes and the British Crown had been signed which in fact is New Zealand's founding document. February 6th today still is the National Public Holiday, Waitangi Day. Well, when I got there I was informed that one building could not be visited due to presence of the Prime Minister and all the other buildings because of a power breakdown (as I later got to know that the breakdown was in the whole village of Paihia or maybe even in the entire Northland region). I decided not go in: I considered 40 dollars for just seing the grounds without any buildings too much. An alternative was quickly found: I walked the Waitangi trail through a Mangrove forest up to the Hauru falls - a decent 5 km-trail in a once again breathtaking forest with only the sounds of birds and insects and - especially on the way forward - only facing very few people. The area is even kiwi habitat but, of course, I could not spot any of these nocturnal national birds of New Zealand. Anyway, I very much enjoyed the forest and wished not being in a little hurry because I had to catch my southbound bus. Afterall, I guess, I took more out of this nature experience than I could have out of the cultural one on the treaty grounds. Then, the long bus journey began: first four hours back to Auckland, then another three and a half to Rotorua. Let's see how the next days in this area of volcanism and Maori tradition will turn out...Read more

  • TravelerGoing Down Under
    Day 9

    Te Puia

    February 5, 2020 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    I started my first day in Rotorua with a great breakfast in the café next to my hostel while waiting for my laundry that I had put into the washing machine of the laundromat next door (doing laundry was necessary, I can tell you :)). I am going to have a longer stay here in Rotorua (until Sunday). I am going to do some organised tours from here. After having gotten the better part of it organised in the visitor centre, I went out to wander around a bit in the Government Gardens of Rotorua - a beautiful park, gifted by a Maori chief to the public in the second half of the 19th century, with the amazing building of the Rotorua Museum at one end of it. There was also free tour around the gardens provided by a volunteer of the museum (the museum itself is closed for making it earthquake-safe). The tour was pretty interesting giving a lot of information about the area and how the geothermal activity of the region was used for healing purposes. At 4:00 pm I was picked up to go to Te Puia ("The springs"). Te Puia belongs to a Maori tribe and is the heart of the geothermal activity of the region - Magma is only two kilometers below the surface😧. In Te Puia they also have a Maori village, a school and workshop for Maori handcraft and a Kiwi Conservation Centre. Yes, I saw my first kiwi, but only in the Conservation Centre🙃 There was a guided tour through the workshop a well as the Conservation Centre and the geothermal area. Unfortunately, we did not see the Pohutu geyser (the tallest in the southern hemisphere) erupting, but the landscape is gorgeous (of course reminding me of Iceland😄). After the tour we received a Maori welcoming and cultural ceremony - very interesting - and then a Maori dinner with parts of it cooked in a traditional way under the surface. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed of the dinner. It was more like a "mass feeding" in a modern buffet restaurant; with way more than a hundred participants it is probably not possible in a different way. It all tasted well, but the atmosphere was not really welcoming. What I enjoyed then very much again was another walk to the geyser during twilight. You cannot imagine the beauty and atmosphere! It would have been nice, though, to have more than 15 minutes to walk around.Read more

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