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Half around the world and back
  • Susanne and Machiel
  • Susanne and Machiel

Half around the world and back

Susanne & Machiel attempt to travel for a bit. Meer informatie
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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    2
    3

    Mount Cook

    23 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We woke up to the sun hitting our tent straight on. It was nice to open both tent layers and let the sun shine in, while we had a view of the lake right in front of us. We didn't waste time and drove towards Mount Cook Village up north. There we visited the DOC office and asked some information about hikes and camping options. We were a bit overwhelmed by the many possibilities. The decision was made by ruling out options.

    Hiking to a hut on non-marked trails without a GPS and detailed paper map - no (sorry Wilhelm)
    Hiking up 1km in altitude to Mueller hut with all our gear in 27 degrees to camp there in possibly strong winds - no.
    Hiking an easy but most popular trail in the area in the middle of the day - no.
    Hiking up half of the 1km altitude hike to Mueller hut and turning around after a viewpoint - yes.

    This made it possible to do it as a day trip when starting only after lunch. It was still very hot and the sun was strong, but we were only carrying 2 to 3 kg's thanks to our lightweight bags. And this was helpful because the trail was incredibly steep with mostly stairs. It's probably for a reason that it took us 1.5 hours to hike only 2.7km. We had a great view on top.

    Back at the campsite our British neighbours (who called us crazy for hiking under this strong sunshine) gifted us a cold beer, a very welcome refreshment. We spoke a bit about how things were here 20 years ago when they used to travel and camp here.

    After a shower in the town about 2 km from the campsite, we had a pretty plain lentils curry as we ran out of vegetables and found no place to buy them nearby. The plan was to go to bed early to be able to hike the Hooker Valley track (that is the most popular one) before everyone else does. This didn't work out as we suddenly saw lots of Kea birds, New Zealand's parrot. They are the only alpine parrot in the world, and they are capable of... killing and eating sheep. They also like to take apart things for fun. We witnessed several of them destroying the rubber of cars parked at the campsite.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    2

    Penguin safari

    24 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Our first alarm went off as early as 1:00. The sky was clear, there was no moon, no city anywhere close to us, so the perfect spot to watch the stars. That was pretty awesome. A few hours later an early alarm again as we wanted to avoid the heat and the crowds on the Hooker Valley trail. The sun had risen but wasn't anywhere close to warming us up yet due to the surrounding mountains. We managed to set off at 7:30 with our fleeces on, and they stayed on the whole way to the glacier lake as we were in the shadows the whole way. When we arrived at the lake it was really still quite empty here and we spend some time here while waiting for the sun to hit it. There were some icebergs in the water as well. We spotted a tent just off the beach, turned out to be of a French couple who spoke decent English against all odds. Would've been a cool (and free!) place to stay as well with a stunning view, but alas, we hadn't really considered it. We walked back to the campsite and packed our tent.

    Time to leave the Mount Cook area and head back towards the east coast. We realised our fuel tank was almost empty, and the only station in the touristy alpine town was out of order. The next one was in Twizel, some 65km further. This added some extra excitement to the trip but we eventually made it without having to push the car. From Twizel we drove further east through a landscape of yellow grassed hills and dammed lakes. We had a quick stop to look at some elephant rocks (movie set of Narnia) and not very spectacular whale fossils, before arriving to Oamaru, the self-proclaimed penguin capital of New Zealand. Most obviously we had to stop here and do every effort to spot these little cute creatures.

    We arrived at the campsite at 17:00 but the first penguin species, the yellow eyed penguins, were gonna arrive on land just one hour later. This meant we had to be very time efficient. By now we are very good in setting up our tent, so that was no challenge. We got some quick noodle takeaway and drove off to Bushy Beach. Here we hurried to the viewpoint on the cliff above the beach. Some people were just leaving and we were a bit worried that we had just missed the landing. We asked a guy holding binoculars, and indeed one had landed on the beach and gone into the bushes. We looked a bit around the beach but nothing was happening, so we got our noodles and had an enjoyable dinner with a beach view. The weather was perfect. Then Susanne spotted something in the water, and it was a yellow eyed penguin! For how far away it was, it was remarkably exciting. The guy with the binoculars was kind enough to let us have a look through them for a bit. He also knew a whole lot about them since his job is counting penguin landings every evening. Was interesting to talk to him a bit.

    However, there was also another penguin species in town. Handily their landing time is right after the sun sets. So we changed location to the harbour and walked a bit around. The official way to see these little blue penguins - the smallest penguin species in the world - is by paying 40 dollars to sit on a tribune. We were not sure if we wanted to pay for that, and by the time we informed about it the show was already fully booked, and it had already started as well. We knew where the tribunes were however and just beside it you could also have a bit of a look. We saw some small penguins jump up on the rocks, making their way to their nests. The whole thing gave us the feeling that those tickets were overpriced though. We walked a bit around the harbour area and it didn't take long before we also saw penguins trying to get on land outside of the tribune area. They climbed up the rocks but then had to cross first the pedestrian path and later on the parking lot and street. Some people were watching them respectfully from the distance trying to be quiet and still. But as always not everyone does. At some point the penguins were what seemed paralized and afraid to move any further. They were hiding in some small bushy area between the rocks and the pedestrian path. Eventually they went for it and crossed the path. It looked super cute.

    We are happy we could finally see some penguins and it was certainly special but the whole thing about how we humans ruin and scare nature left a bit of a bad aftertaste.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Between E and A

    25 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Machiel had already woken up with a partially deflated mattress for a few nights now, so once again Operation 'Find The Leak' had begun. This time not with a hose on the grass, but in a playground pool at a park next to our campsite. Once again it seemed like a hopeless mission, until we heard a sissing sound and then consequently saw bubbles going up from a hole so small it was impossible to see. We didn't have time to patch it as we had to check out of the campsite. But it wasn't hard to remember where it was as it was on a circle right in between the 'E' and the 'A' of its brand 'Sea to Summit'. By now Machiel's mattress is nicknamed Seal to Summit.

    We hadn't slept too well for some nights and had some busy nights, so we decided to take it slow. We bought groceries, had lunch in the park, wrote some blogs, had a walk through the historic city center and then made our way further south. We decided to skip the Moeraki boulders because it was raining and it looked very busy even though it wasn't anywhere near low tide which is when you can see them. Instead we went to Shag Point, where we were the only ones enjoying a short walk at the coast to see some lazy seals. We were lucky as the sun was shining again.

    Shortly before reaching Dunedin, we pulled into a free campsite. It wasn't 18:00 yet but it was already very crowded. We managed to find a small spot for our tent and car. Then it was time to fix Machiel's mattress. While the campsite itself wasn't so nice because of the crowds the nearby beach was and provided a good evening walk.    Meer informatie

  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    1

    Following Suzanne's advice

    26 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We have had some very cool but very long days. So we really needed some rest. Also, we were running behind in picture backups, our devices batteries were almost empty and we still hadn't figured out what to do on Fiji or afterwards. On the way to the campsite we visited Port Chalmers which offered a nice view over the Otago peninsula and harbour. There was a campsite nearby in Dunedin where lots of reviews commented on the free unlimited quick WiFi. So the decision was made - we spend our day here. Dunedin also provided the facilities to help Machiel to a less tired spork. He went for Dutch Orange.

    The campsite turned out to have quick WiFi indeed, so that was great. We store all our pictures on Google Drive, and at this point we were running some weeks behind, which isn't a safe feeling. The campsite wasn't bad either for the rest, just incredibly cramped.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Sea lions!

    27 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We took it slow in the morning with showers, breakfast and some more research. Machiel managed to get a check up appointment for his returning flight-ear-problem. Since that was gonna be on Wednesday, we needed to stay in the area. With the Otago Peninsula in front of us, we didn't mind.

    Our first stop was Allan's Beach. Apparently it was possible to see sea lions here. We weren't too convinced because that's what they say at many beaches in this area and then you might see some seals. This time it turns out we were too pessimistic, because right when we arrived at the beach we saw one rolling back into the ocean. Then further down the beach we saw another one. They're pretty big, and they weren't too impressed by us making some pictures. There were some seals too, and on our way walking back to the car we spotted a sea lion coming out of the ocean onto the beach. They like to roll in sand, we learned. And they're a bit picky and it takes awhile before they find their perfect spot to lie down in.

    Right after we drove to the Royal Albatross center up north. Being surrounded by hundreds of seagulls apparently smells like shit, and is very noisy. We didn't know what else we expected. The center had a little free museum which wasn't bad to wander through. We didn't feel like it was worth the money however to go on a King Albatross tour. We had a look around the viewpoints in the area. More loudness and smell.

    The campsite in Portobello was nice, and the weather was too, so we spent some time researching in the grass. Our spot for the night was as big as 6 in the previous campsite. So we really enjoyed it here.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Visiting Otago museum

    28 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    We extended our stay at the campsite a bit, as they had a very nice cooking area with good WiFi.
    It was finally time to get some fun books (instead of travel guides) onto our ereader. Thanks Christoph, Sanne, Herman & Chantal for the boekenbonnen! Yeay, we can read books now. 🙂

    The Otago museum was pretty cool. It was free and had lots of things from Maori culture and South Island's history to a big collection of stuffed animals and information on New Zealand's extinct and surviving animals. But eventually our parking time ran out and our energy as well.

    We drove further to a cheap campsite at Sinclair Wetlands. It was in the middle of nature and there were only four spots, each with great grass and a picnic table. So that was really perfect. We went for a walk in the wetlands, had a pasta dinner and enjoyed the evening with once in a while an airplane from Dunedin airport crossing over us.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Time for our horizontal rain jackets

    29 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Machiel's appointment was only at 14:00. So we had a very relaxed morning. The doctor had some good advice and with some new nose sprays we continued our way further south-west.

    On the way we found a shoe fence, so we added one of our own. That's just the rules here. Near our campsite for the night we visited Nugget Point, a lighthouse in a cool location. While we arrived at the parking the weather got a bit bad, but we have excellent gear so that won't stop us, right? We had rain gear on, but only our sport shoes and that turned out to be a mistake. It was a bit of a walk and the rain only seemed to intensify. At section without wind protection we got hit hard by horizontal rain, so we had to stop looking in that direction and couldn't make any pictures of that part either. Still fun, but arriving back at the car our feet were swimming. We were a bit afraid the grass at the campsite would be a swimming pool as well, but thankfully it was okish.Meer informatie

  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    2

    The little tent that wanted to fly away

    30 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After last night's bad weather, the sun was back in the morning. We welcomed it with open arms, as a lot of our stuff was still wet. There was a strict 10:00 checkout time so at some point we had to leave. We visited Jack's blowhole, a canyon 200 meter inland with rough sea water. We didn't see a blowhole though as we've seen in small at other beaches, and neither did we see anyone called Jack, so it was slightly underwhelming, especially as it took 40 minutes of hiking to see it.

    On the way to our next stop we drove through Papatowai. This town hosts the Lost Gypsy Gallery, a place where someone with lots of free time and creativity created lots of small or big toys that would move when either pressing a button or turning a handle. Very random and somehow cool.

    After lunch we decided to visit only one of the many waterfalls, our choice were the McLean Falls. A short walk through awesome forest brought us there. Having seen plenty of living forests here, we also went to see a petrified forest at the coast. There were mainly tree stumps and some logs. Hard to really tell that they were stone and not still wood but the weird look in that specific location made the stop worth it.

    We had been driving south for the last few weeks, now this came to an end, as we reached the southern most point of the South Island of New Zealand and didn't intend to visit Steward Island or Antarctica. From here on we noticed how incredibly windy it had gotten at the coast. Going west from here, we reached a nice little light house and found yet another sea lion. This time he was up for a selfie.

    The campsite of the day tried everything to provide wind shelter for us. We were basically surrounded by trees, bushes, a campervan and our car. But it was nonetheless so windy that we had to go rock searching around midnight because our pegs were being pushed out of the ground by pure wind force. When we were trying to fall asleep, we noticed one of the corners at the feet was not attached anymore. We secured the 4 main pegs with one rock each and hoped we'd survive the night.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Blown away

    31 januari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    We woke up in our tent. Which is the standard opening of our footprints, and we're sorry for the repetitiveness. But this time we were literally glad our tent hadn't flown away. It was still very windy. We took a much needed shower and had breakfast in the common kitchen area. Then we paid at the reception, as they weren't open anymore when we arrived yesterday evening.

    After some grocery shopping and getting some cash, we went to Demolition World: a 'village' of trash that someone built in their huge garden. It was interesting to look around, but nothing spectacular either. Mainly a lot of mannequins in differently styled houses like a trainstation or barbershop. It could've been set up better.

    We drove further northwest towards Fiordland. And had lunch on a parking with ocean view in Riverton. Then we made a stop in 'Cozy Nook', a bay with some fishing huts. We got out of the car and were literally blown away. The view of the wild ocean waves hitting rocks was also nice to see.

    The problem with such strong wind is that it really doesn't feel very inviting to leave the car. It also makes you very tired. So we did that only once more before leaving the coast: at Gemstone Beach, a beach with some very nice cliffs.

    Further inland the wind decreased and we choose to camp in the sunny and calm Tuatapere.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Running from the rain

    1 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    The alarms went off extra early, because we wanted to be as flexible as possible with what we wanted to do with the weather forecast not looking too pretty later in the day. So bad actually that we booked a hostel for the following night, as there was continuous rain of many mm's predicted for several days. We drove to Manapouri, Machiel gave his best. So we actually were about half an hour quicker than maps.me predicted.

    We entered an office for boat tours on the Doubtful Sound. We'd like to do this, but weren't sure when to do it. There was an option for the afternoon/evening, but as the weather was only going to get worse, we preferred to use the good weather of now to do a hike. After visiting the DOC office in Te Anau, we decided to walk a part of the Kepler track. This was actually disappointing us a little as we had hoped the Fiordland area around Manapouri and Te Anau would be able to offer us a nice 3 hour walk up a mountain to get some nice views before the clouds would hide all peaks for the next 2.5 days. Turned out walking that flat part of the Kepler track through forest was our best option if we didn't want to drive an hour further or pay a watertaxi of 50 nzd per person to bring us across the lake to the start of another steeper Kepler track part. We decided to go for it. After all forest in New Zealand isn't that bad either 😉

    It took us most of the afternoon including a late lunch break at a picknick bench of a hut that was also our return point. The forest was nice, there was a river view once in a while and somewhere in the area they also filmed some parts of Lord Of The Rings, so we had a look there too. After that it was time to go to our hostel in Te Anau. We really prefer camping with our tent over hostels, partially because we have noticed so far on our world trip that we tend to sleep better. However due to the ridiculous amount of rain it felt like we had no choice for these few days in Fiordland. The hostel we were at for the night didn't turn out to be too bad.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    There's a waterfall right above us

    2 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Today we had two options: do nothing, or do a road trip to the famous Milford Sound. What we didn't do today, we'd do the next day. The weather forecast for both days looked simply terrible, so that couldn't decide it for us. We had to move hostels anyway today, so that made the difference: road trip!

    It was actually quite simple. We would just try to enjoy as much nice landscape as possible from the car and see if we could find some drier moments to get out in between. We set off on our 240km retour journey. The further we drove, the nicer the nature but the heavier the rain. While the clouds were also hanging low blocking the nice mountain views, they also added a mystical atmosphere. And when we reached the last third of the road the mountains came closer, the valley became more narrow and there were waterfalls everywhere, as if huge lakes on the mountain tops overfloated. Very very cool.

    We arrived in Milford Sound around 14:00, had lunch in the car and decided to wait on a parking for better weather. This turned out to be a bit naive. While reading and playing phone games in the car the weather got worse. It was suddenly thundering and the rain at times was so loud it led Susanne to joke "there's a waterfall right above us!".

    We were brave enough to get out nonetheless to take in whatever was actually visible. It wasn't too much at this point as mountains right next to us were only visible occasionally and most of the fjord just disappeared in the clouds. No sign of Mitre Peak, the mountain everyone takes pictures of usually. We didn't even see its bottom nevermind it's top. But we saw plenty of waterfalls and especially one of them was just enormous.

    On the way back we saw some waterfalls literally at the side of the road, with some of the water hitting the asphalt. While being such shit weather it was actually very cool to see the massive amount of water coming down the mountains. And on our way back we were even lucky enough to get to see the mirror lakes in dry conditions, so there was actually some sort of mirror effect.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Reading books

    3 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    Our night at our new hostel wasn't fantastic, it was hot in the room and the air was bad. But it was all alright because today was a chill day. In the morning we went to an agency and booked a cruise trip to the Doubtful Sound for the next day. We were told that the tickets for it were being sold fast, because the other popular cruise option in this area (the Milford Sound) was cancelled. Turns out the entire road to Milford Sound of 120km, the road we drove the previous day, was closed due to flooding and 380 tourists were stuck there. Back at the hostel we saw some videos of landslides and parts of the road had just been washed away. How lucky were we to have done this yesterday! It was hard to realise how close we were. Just because of our hostel change we actually did it the day before. Lucky us!

    We did some grocery shopping and then just read some books. It was amazing to have this lazy day while the rain was pouring down outside.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    The Doubtful Sound

    4 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    Our alarms went of at 5:30. We had a quick breakfast, drove to Manapouri, and checked in to our Doubtful Sound Tour. It was raining and the clouds were hanging low when we boarded the boat. Behind us some German girls were joking about New Zealand colors being the different shades of grey around us. The boat ride took about an hour. But this was only to cross the Manapouri lake. While still being rainy and cloudy, the further we got the higher and steeper the mountains around. A nice appetiser for the fjord. At the other side of the lake a bus ride through the jungle over a pass took us to the Doubtful Sound. We couldn't see the fjord from the pass though because the visibility was too poor. When we got on board and went up the deck for the view it still rained a little bit. But amazingly that soon got less and less and eventually stopped altogether. Most clouds moved up so we saw most mountain tops and the few that didn't were just adding to the picturesque view. We actually had almost 100 percent visibility. Way more than we had hoped for after the past days. Just like at the Milford Sound, there were many waterfalls. Although not as many but this time we could see them much better. Unlike the Milford Sound it didn't take long here until our boat was all that reminded of civilisation. We were surrounded by calm dark water, islands and steep mountains with thick temperate rain forest and waterfalls dropping from their tops. It was impossible to get tired of the view even if it was slightly cold. Handy that there was free coffee and tea on board.

    After almost reaching the end of the fjord, our skipper moved the boat into a side arm. The water there was incredibly calm. The skipper turned the engine off and requested us all to stop talking and moving. The water was a mirror and all we could hear was the sound of waterfalls around. The Sound Of Silence.

    It was time to return and when our boat reached its platform after this 2.5 hour cruise, the sun came out. On the way back to the lake, we had some spare time and our bus stopped at several viewpoints. So this time we could view the wonderful Doubtful Sound from the pass. Afterwards the boat took us across the Manapouri lake once more.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    1

    Stuck in a flood

    4 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    We returned to Manapouri at around 14:30. The goal was to drive towards Queenstown and sleep in our tent again on a campsite along the way. It was raining here again however, and it would likely not stop until midnight. Nevertheless, we figured we could camp as the weather the next morning would be dry and likely sunny. We had already researched some good campsite options as well. The car was thirsty for fuel, and our app Gaspy said the best place for that would be in Mossburn. But on the way there it didn't take long before the road was closed. A friendly guy in orange vest told us that due to flooding we'd have to take a detour. In hindsight, this is when we should have turned around and found accommodation back in Manapouri or Te Anau. But we weren't aware of the severity of the situation. Sure, it was raining, and this particular road was just closed, but surely it's not as bad as in Fiordland?

    We only just made it to Mossburn taking the detour, with less than a liter left in the tank, and we fueled the car. But we started wondering if we could camp tonight at all. We saw more and more puddles on grass fields and also close to the road. We realised we couldn't camp tonight unless we wanted to try out how good our mattresses can float. Queenstown accommodation was booked out unless we felt like spending over 240nzd. There was a nice camping with cheap cabins 4 km north of Mossburn, which sounded perfect. But... the road to it was closed due to flooding. We figured we could still get there via a different road taking 44km. That turned out to be wrong. At the crossing to it near Lumsden another nice guy told us that this road was closed too, which also happened to be the road to Queenstown. He mentioned it might still be possible to go to Queenstown via Gore but that he expected more road closures throughout the day as the water levels were rising. Airbnb and Campermate mentioned some motels and hotels in that direction and Lumsden already looked a bit crowded and what was there was expensive. Not knowing where else to go, we continued in direction Gore.

    The rain got more intensive and the road conditions worsened. Several times we had to pass through flooded road parts, which were tricky to control our Suzuki Swift in as the water tried to push it to the side. We reached Balfour, but their only Motel was booked out. We continued another stretch to Riversdale. At this point it was getting a bit desperate, we were sick of driving in these conditions. Riversdale's Hotel was booked out, too. They told us Gore was also booked out. We felt stranded. We considered sleeping in our car or pitching a tent on a small not too flooded piece of grass in the center of Riversdale. Both didn't sound too good. A Suzuki Swift isn't really the car for sleeping. The Internet now told us there was a state of emergency issued for the area. We decided to go back to the hotel and asked if they knew someone with a couch or a floor or at least a roof. They discussed a while, called someone else in the town until eventually two road maintenance workers who stayed in the hotel offered to share a room (they had one each) and give their other one to us. We were incredibly thankful. Especially when we later in the evening received an emergency SMS alert asking inhabitants of Gore to prepare for evacuation, and the river that caused that was flowing nearby Riversdale too. The hotel room wasn't cheap but cheap enough, and the in-house cafe served us a nice pizza dinner. We were mainly glad we could finally relax, and that we didn't end up trying to camp.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    The great escape

    5 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    The curiosity was high. How would the streets look? We moved the curtains away and... they were fine. It was sunny, as we had expected, and Riversdale hadn't flooded. The state website however still maintained that the road to Queenstown was closed due to flooding. So were most of the roads on the other side of us. We received another emergency alert: the inhabitants of Gore and Mataura were going to be evacuated and Riversdale should prepare to do so. We had a shower and packed our stuff. Another alert: Wyndham was also going to be evacuated. As this was further down the river, that didn't worry us too much. But we learned that a paper mill near Gore could release chemicals when damaged by the floods, so it felt better to get away from there. It didn't look like we'd be able to get to Queenstown through Gore anyway, so we drove back to Lumsden and put our hopes on that road opening again. The road conditions were fine on the way back there, a world of difference compared to the horrors of the night before. We drove to the closed crossing near Lumsden, monitored by a nice guy in an orange vest, to try and find out what the deal was. He claimed it was purely flooding holding them back from opening it, not slips or damage. With it looking quite good everywhere else that gave us some hope: surely it couldn't be that bad then.

    We went back to Lumsden and joined what felt like hundreds of other cars, vans and campers on a parking waiting for the road to open. Officially this was a legal overnight parking/camping for self contained vehicles only. However, joining an old train under a roof we found some tents that found shelter here last night. Just like lots of other people we were just hanging around on the parking lot, napping, writing postcards, eating lunch and once in a while checking the road status online. At 16:00 our parking spot neighbour told us the road was being opened between 16:00 and 19:00. It wasn't online yet, so we had no idea how they knew, but we and others got excited enough to give it a try. And indeed, orange vest guy was gone! In karavaan style we drove towards Queenstown, sometimes quickly stopping along the way because the nature around us was amazing. Apparently they opened the road for convoys in both directions, so sometimes we had to wait on stretches where only one lane direction was open. There was no flooding on the road anymore but in parts the fields next to the road gave a good impression that it was different here last night. And there were also parts with lots of dirt on the road and machinery to move it onto piles next to the street.

    About 1.5 hours later we made it to the other side. Campings in Queenstown were expensive and we had already lost quite some days and money because of the weather, so we decided to go further. A camping in Cromwell was our aim for the night. Our question if their grass was wet or a swamp, they answered with a laughter and an assuring 'it has dried up quite well'. So that sounded perfect. And we had just enough time to squeeze in the Halfway Remarkable viewpoint and a visit to the world's first commercial bungee jumping site before going there. From the viewpoint we could also see the effect of the flood on the water color and size of the river.

    When we finally went to bed, we really thought 'what a day' but like usual everything worked out well.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    2

    Stuck again

    6 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Despite the fact that we had quite some time the previous day waiting for the road to open, we didn't really have a good plan on what we wanted to do today. Knowing that we only had 5 days left in New Zealand and more than 700km to go, we knew it would be almost impossible to do any complete day or multi day hikes. We decided to drive to Wanaka straight away. There we wanted to have a look at the Puzzling World, which had illusion rooms and the world's first 'Great Maze'. The illusion rooms were fun and playing with our minds. The Maze was also fun originally but soon drove us crazy. The challenge was to reach specific points in a specific order, and we utterly failed and got stuck several times. We also read that the average visitor walks around 3.5-5km while the maze only has 1.5km... So that was our unvoluntary hike of the day. It was a good maze. The center also had very social toilets.

    Afterwards we felt mentally and physically tired. So we decided to leave other hikes for the next day and went to the DOC office to ask for nice walking possibilities in the area. Turned out there was a nice one right behind our chosen campsite for tonight. So that sounded perfect for tomorrow. For now we just visited #thatwanakatree and then left Wanaka behind to drive north. The campsite was very crowded but the view of the bay was gorgeous. We could chill on the grass next to our tent at sunset watching some water skiing.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    1

    The Haast Pass

    7 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Woke up extra early for a morning hike towards the Sawyer Burn Hut. Not a particularly long one, but we did have to climb over 500 meters. So that was steep, but the view over Lake Hawea was worth it. Just when we wanted to leave the sun broke through, which made it even better. We walked back down to the campsite and packed our tent.

    A stop at the Blue Pools proved to be an excellent lunch spot. The naming was a bit odd as it was a river, but we'll take it. The car park was busy and the trail too, but once at the river we found a relatively quiet spot in half shade to eat lunch while watching others swim in the cold water or attempt stone skipping. Naturally we also tried to skip stones, but we weren't very successful. Probably in the tennis category for us.

    The route we took went through the Haast pass, but we were not in a hurry. There were mountains all around us, some with snow on top. Very pretty! Next stop was the Thunder Creek Waterfall, which had a great free fall. We stopped at one more waterfall, roaring Billy, before turning into our campsite of the night in Haast. A bit pricey and nothing special but we took it for the lack of alternatives. It wasn't that late yet either so we could still enjoy the sun on the grass field before cooking dinner.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    New Zealand forests at its best

    8 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    There was heavy rain predicted at 8 in the morning, so we woke up before 7 to pack the tent. We had breakfast in the camping hangar and then went to the DOC office around the corner. Our plan was quite ambitious as we wanted to travel the 300km westcoast part up to Kumara today. And along the way, so our hope, do some short walks to stretch our legs and see the landscape. The DOC woman was helpful in telling us where to find the first one of those. Just 16km north we could visit a swamp forest with a 20 minute walk. Once there we first waited a bit until the rain stopped though. Luckily the weather forecast was quite accurate and we didn't see any rain anymore after 11 just as predicted.

    The swamp forest was quite cool. Even more than usual everything is growing on top of each other here, lots of moss everywhere, water on the floor. Very pretty, maybe our favourite forest so far. After a quick and not so spectacular viewpoint stop, we drove straight to Fox. Fox and 30km further Franz Josef are the two towns that are known for their glaciars. Susanne had done a glaciar hike here 10 years ago. Turns out by now those walks are apparently only doable by helicopter transfers. We are not sure why exactly but it might have to do with the shocking retreat. Already back then not comparable in size to some we had seen in Patagonia, a documentation book showed that now there was almost nothing left of the glaciar tongue in the valley. We got a bit sad and decided to skip this area. Instead we opted for lunch with a nice lake view and no sandflies. We were prepared for the worst, as we were finally at the West Coast, their homeland. But they were not home apparently. Lucky us!

    Along the way we also saw some damaged road parts with landslides and construction workers. Later on we had two more nice but not too special forest walks at lake Mahinapua and Mananui Bush. In Hokitika we got some delicious burger takeaways and then drove further to Kumara, where we camped at the Greenstone Retreat. Funny to imagine a town called Sükattoffel or zoete aardappel. The place was cute but maybe a little too hippie and alternative for us.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger
    2

    The sandflies strike back

    9 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    The day started with picture management and buying more ebooks. Then we checked out and started another great road trip day. Today's plan was driving at least half of Arthur's Pass. The first part was still through a wide valley with farm land and enormous river beds but then the valley got more narrow and the climb up slowly started. Along the way we found Gandalf and a viewpoint. At around 11:30 we arrived at the car park of Devil's Punchbowl. It sounds worse than it is though. We were preparing for our 1 hour walk to the waterfalls there and that's when we realized. Where is Machiel's small bag? We searched the whole car just to conclude that we must have left it at the previous camping. A call to the camping confirmed it. Since Susanne's Swiss knife was also in there, it made sense to pick it up. Sucks, but after hiking to the waterfalls we drove back and forth to get it, eating lunch while driving to win a little time back.

    When we reached the same location again, we drove to the Bealey Spur track for a longer hike. It was a nice trail, not too steep, through the forest with views of the valley. At the top the wind was very strong which made it hard to make pictures of us. We tried our best and then went further to lake Pearson where we wanted to camp. It was cheap and the landscape was nice. We went out of the car. A little later there were a couple of sandflies. Not too bad though. We walked to the grass field to find a nice spot for our tent. There were a few more sandflies now. We got the tent from the car and set it up. Even more sandflies now. When cooking dinner it felt like by now the sandflies had called their mates from all over the country to celebrate our arrival. It was simply horrible. To make it all even worse, Susanne's spork broke in half. We had dinner in the tent and only left it once more to brush teeth before sleeping.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Goodbye tent?

    10 februari 2020, Nieuw-Zeeland ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    New Zealand really wanted to get rid of us, or at least the sandflys made us think so. As soon as the sun rose behind the mountains and it got pleasantly warm in the tent, they were all up again swarming between the tent layers, around the entrance or just chilled on top of the tent. It was a shame because instead of enjoying breakfast on our beach towels at the lake surrounded by mountains we had to flee into the car. And the most annoying thing about it is that none else seems to have this problem. It's as if all the sandflies in the wider area collectively decide that we are the target. The 2 other tents at the camping were totally fine and the guy next to us almost couldn't believe it when he saw the sandflies around us and our tent. So apparently we just smell really good, as does our tent, and our car, apparently... After hastily packing our stuff we drove off to brush our teeth somewhere else. We just wanted to get out of there.

    On the way back to Christchurch we stopped at the Castle Hill Limestones. A fun walk among humongous boulders. Like the elephant boulders we saw some time ago, but then even better. We had a typical New Zealand pie somewhere for lunch, and had a few other quick stops with not so noteworthy viewpoints. Arriving in Christchurch, we still had quite a few things to do before our flight. Grocery shopping, a stop at the farmacy, laundry, and a much needed hairdresser for Machiel. Especially the laundry at the campsite became an issue when it just didn't want to dry quickly enough. At least no sandflies though. In the meantime we made a wraps dinner and booked the transportation for the Fiji islands. After a shower it was time for bed. The weird thing was that we didn't know if this was the last time we would sleep in this tent. For the next 3.5 months we most likely won't sleep in any tent and seeing how the front zipper slowly stops working and the tent is more than 6 years old, it would be an easy way to save some space and weight. And while Machiel can think about this very rationally, Susanne struggles more as this became our home over the past months.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Bula!

    11 februari 2020, Fiji ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    So last night we struggled to get our clothes dry. This morning we had a little bit of time to get them properly dry, and the sun was there to help. Nevertheless, we had to really leave 10:30 the latest, to get fuel and to deliver the car. So it felt like a race against time. But the sun did its job and despite all pessimism dried it all just on time.

    The flight went well, Machiel's ears were OK so it seems the efforts taken for that in New Zealand paid off. But time will tell. We landed in Fiji! "Bula!" is what everyone likes saying to greet you. So that's a new word learned. The first thing we noticed was the warmth and humidity. How were we going to get used to this? This nice feeling of every single part of your body becoming sticky...

    While on the plane we had to fill in two forms this time: one for bio security, and one for corona. We still had some leftover nuts and cookies with us, that in New Zealand or Chile would properly not have been allowed in, but here the check was incredibly relaxed and we were allowed to take it all as long as we "declared it". Not sure if that's how bio security works, but OK.

    In the arrival hall, we got some cash from the ATM, and exchanged our booking confirmation for proper vouchers for the boats we had booked. After a long wait for our shuttle bus to arrive, we were driven to our hostel. Except the formula works a bit differently here, because it's more like you have a dozen or so hostels all owned by 1 organisation, with one reception and restaurant where everyone who stays at any of these hostels will end up having to go to. We eventually figured it out and made it to our nicely air conditioned dorm room. Not too bad. But we were still missing dinner. So we had to go back out into the hotness. Back at the restaurant we ordered a pizza and fries. The very long wait for those was made more interesting by the Dutch couple we had met in the shuttle. We could share some nice sandfly traumas and got to know that corona will make them get stranded in Hongkong Airport for 3 days.

    Eventually we were fed well, packed our bags or better the bag-we-will-store-here-until-we-return-in-6-days for the following morning (we really didn't intend to take all our camping gear on the 2 islands we were going to stay on) and went to bed again.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Barefoot Manta

    12 februari 2020, Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    With the pizza delay from yesterday's dinner in mind, we left the hostel extra early. We dropped off some luggage we didn't need for Yasawa, and had some toast and cereal at the breakfast bar. We had heard that buying water on the islands was expensive. The advice was to buy water on the boat that taxis between Nadi and the island, the "Yasawa Flyer" . Better yet we figured we would buy water on the mainland. There was a little shop next to the hostel that advertised 6 bottles for 10FJD, but unfortunately it was closed when we had arrived and also when we left in the morning. A fancy airconditioned bus took us and 30 others to Port Denarau. After searching there for awhile, we bought 6 bottles for 20FJD. Then we boarded the Yasawa Flyer. The waves at times got rough and made us a bit seasick, but after all it was OK. After 3 hours we reached our island. We were picked up by smaller boats and then brought to resort Barefoot Manta. It's called that due to the chance of swimming with manta rays, but they're only here between April and November.

    Arriving at the beach, we were received by a small group of employees playing a welcome song for us. We got some instructions, had to sign some papers and pay the meal plan. Then we were led to our 'bure', which was surprisingly nice. It was a beach hut with 4 beds but we were for today the only guests and our beds were not even bunk beds. Right in front of it we had 2 beach chairs and our own private beach excess. After a quick look we had lunch. We could choose between a fish meal, chicken vegetable pasta and lemon couscous. We went for the first two options and it tasted quite nice. We also realized that buying water here is cheaper than on the boat, so it all doesn't really matter.

    Afterwards we felt quite defeated by the hot humid weather. We went back to our bure, read books and napped and wondered if we would get used to it. Too bad that not even the water can cool you down as it is just as warm as the air. At 7 we went for dinner to the sunset bar. A big buffet with salads, rice, bread, fish, meat and grilled vegetables was waiting for us. It was very tasty and while talking to a Flemish girl and listening to live local music, we had a very nice dinner at the beach next to a campfire. It got dark early, we were quite tired from this long day, so we went for a shower and made it back into our private bure.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Snorkeling

    13 februari 2020, Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    Early in the morning the air wasn't too bad. We shortly enjoyed the non-sweat moment before the sun got strong again. The breakfast buffet was pretty good: toast, fruit, and pancakes. We relaxed a bit in the hammocks, then tried out the water with our borrowed snorkeling gear. It wasn't hard to find some fish, some were practically already visible from the shore. Further into the water we found some great coral, fish of all kinds, and even a pretty big blue sea star. There were swarms with thousands of maybe 2cm small very blue fish. We saw lots of different 10cm big fishes, some were striped like zebras, others blue with a bit of yellow or white and some where simply incredibly blue. There were also bigger fish, like trumpet fish which were maybe half a meter long but only what looked like 3cm thick. Another type was combining purple with blue, yellow and a bit of red. And our favorite, called pennant coralfish. And lots of others. But the most amazing thing was probably the coral and its intensive blue color. We hadn't seen this before in Langkawi or Lombok.

    After lunch it became low tide, and we went in again for some more exploration. It felt even better as the low tide meant we were so close to the coral right from the beach. The low tide also meant that getting ashore was trickier, which we found out the hard way when we tried to reach another beach but didn't find a way between the coral to safely get there. So our last snorkeling of the day was stretched out a bit further than we would have liked. It was still amazing to see the underwater life but we were exhausted when we got back. Perfect time to try the hammocks for a bit more.

    In the evening we again had dinner with live music. This time not a buffet but a nice three course meal, including ice cream :)    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Plastic soup

    14 februari 2020, Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

    The day started with the simple thought of going snorkeling in the awesome coral reef on the sunrise beach where we had such a great time the previous day. But it was a bit windy from the east, so that didn't look ideal. We borrowed rental gear again and first tried the sunset beach on the other side. Unfortunately it turned out there wasnt much going on there, few fishes and no coral. Worst of all, there was basically just sand so the visibility was poor. We tried the north beach, and despite the eastern wind making it also wavy and tougher to swim, we did see some coral and a few fishes. But it wasn't all that, especially after yesterday's experience. So we went back to sunrise beach. Another snorkeler just got out of the water. We asked him about his experience but he didn't sound too positive and the waves looked even tougher than on the north beach. So we decided to skip snorkeling for the morning.

    Instead we thought we'd make ourselves useful and do a beach walk. This was announced to us at breakfast as a 9am activity in which we'd collect plastic trash from the beaches. Now it was already 10:30 though. The guy organising it seemed very disappointed that no one had shown up at 9am but he seemed very thankful and happy when we volunteered to do it now. With a pair of plastic gloves and a trash bag each, we made our way to sunrise beach. Within an hour we had collected a significant amount. Plastic straws, tooth brushes, lighters, clothes pegs, shavers, cookie bags, flip-flops and countless of plastic bags in all sizes and huge pieces of hard plastic whose origin we couldn't figure out. While knowing about the plastic soup in the oceans, it was still shocking. We went snorkeling at this same beach the day earlier and you generally didn't even notice it much, even at the shoreline. But walking by it now specifically looking for trash, you keep finding more and more of it and it never ends. When lunch time arrived, our bags were heavy and we handed them in. After lunch we wanted to try more snorkeling, but the wind was only gaining in power. Susanne still bravely gave it a go. Still the same fishes and coral as the day before just a bit more tiring as you had to fight the wind, waves and resulting current.

    The wind kept increasing, to the extent of everyone leaving the sunrise beach and finding somewhere to chill on the other side of the main resort building. We did as well, and it wasn't bad at all there because the clouds and strong breeze made it a little cooler. We asked employee Sam for a coconut and even though it wasn't on any menu, he got us two fresh ones. Later in the afternoon we went for a little walk along sunset beach. At the very end we discovered some small sharks that were hunting small fishes near the shore. Sometimes they were as close as a meter from the rocks we were standing on. Around the corner would have been the perfect wind shaded private spot for a valentines day sunset. Just the clouds weren't playing along. So we headed back to the resort to have dinner with a pasta buffet. Our table was joined by one of our new roommates and another girl and we kept talking until it was time for bed.

    In the meantime the wind got so strong that we were seriously a bit worried about all the coconuts above our heads. Luckily they didn't fall when we passed but we still heard the wind the whole night and for the very first time here we slept with the door and windows facing the ocean closed.    Meer informatie

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  • Susanne and MachielHalf around the world and backReiziger

    Blue Lagoon

    15 februari 2020, Fiji ⋅ 🌬 29 °C

    After 3 nights we were going to leave the Barefoot Manta resort on Drawaqa Island. Despite the worsening weather we've grown to like it here, mainly because of the sincere kindness of the staff. We had a relaxed morning and one employee told us the story of Fiji, as a thank you for the beach cleaning the previous day. Then part of the staff performed a farewell song for us. They are really good here in putting lots of emotions in songs. We were taken to the Yasawa Flyer and then we went up north to Nacula Island.

    On arrival we were given a short briefing about the resort by the Australian owner and were taken to our dorm. No beach hut this time, but a simple airconditioned room. It was quite different here compared to the last resort. Airconditioning, a pool, proper huts with real walls, a beach bar with (loud) music etc. In a lot of way it's fancier here, including the food. But we grew to like the simplicity, quietness and especially the caring employees of the Barefoot Manta. To phrase it with the words of an Israeli we met: 'Here they told their employees to serve the guests. Back there they told them to host the guests.'

    After lunch we wanted to try snorkeling. Machiel realised at this point that his water shoes were still at Barefoot Manta. After a few visits to the reception, they managed to contact them and request them to be sent over with the next shipment of tourists the following day. The only thing we were missing was a confirmation that they were found, so we were far from sure this was going to work.

    Anyway, we borrowed an extra set of fins and went snorkeling. It was very much low tide which meant it was difficult to swim over the coral. Despite the limited options, we still saw quite some fishes. The coral however wasn't as nice as on the previous island. Less colorful and, if our limited knowledge is correct, also quite some dead or unhealthy coral. After a shower, we were tipped to walk up the hill behind the resort for sunset. We quickly put on our shoes and left, but unfortunately we were just a few minutes late. We enjoyed dinner talking to a US-Ukrainian couple, and further enjoyed the nice view.    Meer informatie

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