NZ Part two: Mt Cook to Invercargill

Mt Cook to Dunedin

Our next stop was Lake Pukaki .. the best view of Mt Cook in the back. aahhhh soooo big and blue and the mountains behind!

and then to Mount Cook Village close to glacieres and high peaks. and what a scenery! even if you are used to mountains, this here is so much bigger (but not higher).

arriving with an empty tank and the petrol station was broken.,..

A summerly hot hike to the first glacier lake there and on the next day to another one (did a 2 hours walk including a Moraenen-climb cause we missed the 20 min. viewopint way)

like in Europe the glaciers are melting rapidly (now> 27 km. 2020> supposed to be only 23 km) and they were just grey with rocks on top and are quite far away from the viewpiont. but still the ice at the end of the lake is 30 to 50 m high! must be great to go there by boat or kayak!

after a nice coffee and cake break in the Alpine Style Mountaineers Lodge we got our petrol with the help of John Justice from the hotel there and had to leave this wonderful place and wather too earlly, as far as I am concernede. and poor Bernd had to stop again, and again, for another look back and one more picture ;)


We drove southeast to the coast again, passing beautiful lakes and leaving the sun behind :( (my heart was still there.... but: dont regret decisions!....)
we spent the night and the next morning in the surprisingly nice city of Oamaru at the east coast. another nice cafe, lots of old buildings, the old market with old handicrafts, museums, galleries, arts and other shops and a farmers food market where we got some dark bread, made by a dutch baker, but it is nothnig compared to KOTZBECK bread! but still, it was better than the usual choice of very soft toast slices you get in the supermarkets.



and on we went south along the shore , to the Moeraki Boulders,

and soon the sun came out ;), towards Dunedin, a scottish foundation and university city with lots of young folks, and to the aaahhhh and ooohhhhh Otago peninsula.
albatros, penguins and seals live there, but we only saw a seal which came out of the water to pose just for us, scratch himself with pleasure and rub his fur drey in the grass...

the landscape on the peninsual is gorgeous, I really loved the scenery (thats wyh I fogot my jacket at the viewpoint and we had to go again in the late evening sun hihi)
along the shore through the village of Portobello (yes! only the villas are made of wood instead of  brick) and on the other side hills and steep roads with sheep and windschiefen pine trees and bay views...

I think B. is sometimes really fed up with me cause I want so many foto stops but he is a patient guy :)

Our evening with street musicians and a beer in Dunedin was a nice finish for this nice day! we stayed on a private property for the night for free, nice people!

Dunedin to Invercargill
The next day brought as further down south after a sunny breakfast by the beach, along the coast through the "Catlins", a remote part with just a few houses and villages. nice beaches, lots of thick forest, dry grass and beautiful views again. as we made a stop in a mini village we found a"curiosity theatre". a guy lives there in an old bus and invents the most incredible and funny moving things, made of old stuff and electric parts. would be a great physics teaching place!
you can push the button or move a wheel and something will move or light up or sound or jus "happen". great! creativity just for fun and he can even live on it and he was in some papers already!
checkout http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/television/236636/lost-world-found-catlins or pictures of "Blair Somerville"!

We drove on to the most southern city on the south island, Invercargill (80 ha of botanical garden!!), where we just dropped off a young  french hitchhiker and took a few pictures as we wanted to find a campsite before it was dark. and we found one! just for us, on the beach, evening sun!

New Zealand! Part one: Christchurch to Lake Tekapo

Heute ist SO der 17.3. und ich bin in Queenstown auf der Suedinsel. Rekapituliere zwei intensinve Wochen!

4.3. Christchurch
Bernd and I met on the airport in Christchurch and had a long bus ride through the city including a sightseeing ride with an elderly lady bus driver who took us for free to the village of lyttleton by the sea!
arriving at our nice hostel it was cold! 16 degrees only, coming from 30! for Bernd it was warm, coming from zero ;)
but then we had a nice sunny and warm day in Christchurch including B's first sunburn!
Christchurch is still under construction after the 2011 earthquake, lots of houses are torn down and a lot of empty space there, you can imagine how terrible this was and how much effort and money it means to completely rebuild the city center. 70.000 people left the city... it is so quiet and empty, especially after Asian towns and even Melbourne and Sidney!

but they already built a very nice container city center with lots of nice cafes and shops and you can imagine how nice and lively the city was before, as you see on old postcards, they even had a pedestrian zone and a tramway!

there is a small river running through the city and a big botanical garden, which together with the private gardens (no Mehrparteienhauerser, everyone has his own house, only one store, made of wood and most of them VERY simple and with thin walls and thin windows, no cellar, must be terribly cold in winter!; they somehow hide behind their trees and bushes), makes a really green impression, though the city area is much larger than you mnight think (what we noticed the next day when we had to get our van on the other side of the city)

we then spent the afternoon with a long and windy beach walk, it is always be good to be out of town!

6.3. Christchurch to Lake Tekapo

Our first day with the camper van!

it feels a bit strange for me to travel like this after weeks on public transport with so many people around me. gives us a lot of freedom and comfort, but also some kind of isolation. and I am cooking again after 3 months of eating out on the street! but as you know, I love the camper life.

the road led us southwest through a great huge empty wide endless landscape with yellow grass,  lots of pine trees and thousands of sheep and through a bit of a rain (karin was sad) over the Burkes pass to a> rainbow! and the sun again! and there it iwas! wonderful turquoise shining lake Tekapo in the evening sun! yohoooo! I AM IN NEW ZEALAND! In the middle of the Fototapete!!!! I was sooo happy, poor Bernd had to hear it quite a few times ;)

we stayed two nights on great campsites by the lakes and went for a long hike over mt St John with an observatory (oih what a starry sky!!!! with the bright milky way just so close you think you might touch it!), with a great cafe on top, by the way (ja ich liiiiebe essen noch immer!) through the yellow meadows and along the lake including a final short bath in the lake with its incredible colour!

  

a GREAT day! what a great place. what a great scenery. happyyyyyyyyyy :) and BLUE and WARM :)))

Yara Valley, Great Ocean Road, Mardi Gras, Sidney Ende

Ausflug!
Mit Peter und 2 sehr netten "desperate housewives" aus Dtl und einer dt. Familie fuhren wir Richtung Norden ins Yarra Valley von Melbourne zum CHANDON Weingut und noch zwei anderen und liessen uns Wein, Sparkling und Pizza schmecken.

Schoene Gegend!! Und man bekommt eine Ahnung davon, wie riiiiiesig dieses Land ist. Dabei ist ja dort eh noch dicht besiedelt.

Schoen: gelbe trockene Wiesen, schwarze Rinder, blauer Himmel, weisse Wolken, gruener Eukalyptus...

Great Ocean Road

I am so happy I did it! It was a far ride and a kind of rush with a lot of short stops, but perfect for a first impression and I know I will be back with more time. Great morning light and great scenery!

Even seen some wild Kangoroos and Koalas.And including a rain forest walk with 100m high eucalyptus trees and fern trees.
Nice and funny very personal tour with Chris www.wildwombatescapes.com and 2 from Kanada and 1 from Hongkong.

Auf jeden Fall waren Louis und Wayne nette Begleiter :)

War ein super Tag! und der hat noch fein mit einer expat party mit grillen und lagerfeuer und kids bei den Zornis geendet.

Melbourne last day and back to Sidney

Natuerlich JETZT wo ich wieder heimfliege wird es schööööööööön! blitzeblau und strahlend! HACH! hab noch eine kleine Radltour am Meer entlang und durch die Vororte Brighton und Hampton sowie durch die Wohn/Villenviertel gemacht. seeeehr nett! und ca 10000 Radlfahrer unterwegs! WEnn man da nicht sportelt, kriegt man glatt ein schelchte Gewissen...

Und dann ab nach Sidney. Um die Mardi Gras Street Parade zu sehen. Riiiesen Party STimmung und Masen von Leutenund wirklich sehr lustig und sehenswert und hab wieder, nur kurz, ein par nette Leute kennengelernt, einfach so. Allerdings gefiel mir das graue Nieselwetter nicht so gut wie der blaue Himmel den ich in Melbourne zurueckgelassen hatte, noch dazu mit der Option heute Sonntag mit den -Zornis Bott fahren zu gehen... hätti wäri tati...!

and so it is, agian: decisions, decisions. I still try to learn not to regret them, but sometimes it doesnt work, if you feel it was not the right one. but still sometimes you dont know before, and after you find out they lead you to something else instead.

 

So today I went to watch Gerolf hanggliding and soaring by the beach. It is still quite windy but became really sunny, at least I dont have the floods that are happening near Brisbane now!

Tomorrow: Christchuch, New Zealand!!! :)

3.3.13

Melbourne

Teil zwei meines Australien Aufenthaltes!


Ich kann erfreulicherweise bei Peter und Regina in einem Vorort von Melbourne wohnen (bei St. Kilda,falls das wem was sagt) und das ist echt ein Glück, denn in 2 Monaten werden sie nach vier Jahren hier nach Frankreich uebersiedeln! Seeeehr schönes Haus samt Pool und 2 kleinen Jungs Felix und Leo sowie der 18 jaehr. Tochter Lena! In einer,wie mir  gesagt wurde, desperate housewives Gegend, mit Villen die sich gewaschen haben.

Der Tag hatte schon so gut begonnen mit einem unglaublich netten libanesischen Taxifahrer, dann gings weiter mit meiner Retterin Jenny, eine Taxibusfahrerin die erstens unglaublich liab und toll war und mich zweitens gratis bis zum Zug mitnahm, da ich den Airportbus verpasst hatte!
Peter holte mich am Bahnhof ab,und da es gerade nieselte,gingen wir gleich mal was essen, und es ist wieder mal food paradise ;)

Dann wurde das Wetter immer besser,  und nach einer ersten Überblicksfahrt mit der gratis ring circle tramway zu den neuen docklands am Hafen und rund um die city war ich schon mal begeistert von Melbourne. Gefällt mir viiiiel besser als Sidney! Viel offener, mehr Platz und Licht, interessanter, mehr alte Gebäude, interessante Kontraste mit dem vielen Neuen ,viel Wasser und Grün und etliche nette kleine Seitengassen "und überhaupt"! Auch die skyscraper erschlagen einen nicht so wie in Sidney.

Am Nachmittag kam dann schon die Sonne raus und ich war wieder mal glücklich: auf dem RAAAAAAAD! Endlich wieder nach der vielen Hatscherei in Bangkok und Sidney!

Bin am Meer entlang geradelt und da stehen zB SOLCHE Villen herum:

 oder solche:

Die Wohnungspreise sind hier absolut irre,ein normales Haus kostet zwischen 1,5 und 4 Millionen Dollar... Die besseren halt. Tja!

...und auch solche:

und da kostet eine solche Badehütte ca 50.000 Dollar. und manchmal auch mehr,wenns wer zahlen will. HA!

Tag zwei,also heute, habe ich den ganzen Tag auf dem Rad in der Stadt verbracht und bin kreuz und quer und hügelrauf und runter und hin und her geradelt und hab ziemlich viel gesehen und seeehr viele Häuser fotografiert... Melbourne hat ca 4 Mio Einwohner und dazu kommen sicher noch mal 1Mio Touristen. Also in der Stadt wimmelt es, und es gibt viele neue Viertel mit viel Glas und Stahl, aber durch die breiten Straßen und den Fluss und den Hafen und die Parks und die Hügel ist es nicht so stressig.

Die Schuluniformen sind auch sagenhaft! Unglaublich schlechter Geschmack.

War auch im wunderschönen botanischen Garten, beim Victoria Market, in Southbank am Fluss (bissl steriles neues Viertel) und dann bin ich - am Nachmittag wurde es wieder grau und feucht und seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehr windig - gegen den Wind entlang heimgeradelt. und jetzt sitze ich bei MANNER Schnitten da! :)


Morgen geht es ins Yarra Valley in die Weingegend mit Peter und ein paar desperate housewives.
Und amFreitag werde ich mit einer kl.Gruppe mit dem Bus an die Great Ocean Road fahren. Weit aber sicher schön! Wenn ich nun schon mal da bin!

Am SA geht es zurück nach Sidney, wo das 35rd anniversary of the Mardi Gras Gay Pride Parade stattfinden wird. Das wird ein halligalli party lustiger abend!


HACH MIR GEHTS SOOOO GUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!

Also bis bald wieder.