Finally it is raining. Thank goodness, it gives me time to slow down and write a post in our blog. Traveling is not vacation, as you guys might think. It is hard work.
Why does it rain? Because we are far south in New Zealand. Dunedin is the name of the town. Founded by Scotsmen with many historic buildings. It looks like an European town. Probably the nicest city in New Zealand. It has a really cool railway station, which runs two historic trains a day.
New Zealand is not known for its railway network. It is the country, where the bus line is called Intercity and has a lousy train network. Single line railways between the major cities and not electric trains. This is definitely the land of air transportation. Every little village has an airport and/or a helicopter hub.
How did we get all the way to the south? An air plane from Auckland to Dunedin or Nelson on the South Island would have needed less than an hour. But we want to do slow travel.
So we jumped on the intercity bus from Auckland to Wellington, which is the capitol of New Zealand. This ride takes 12 hours, gives you free WIFI (which was not working) and nice views. For example the bus stop in a small village called Bulls, where every sign uses the word Bulls.
The trip could not be done in one day, so we stayed in a big hotel in Wellington. The next morning we went onto the InterIslander Ferry to go over to the South Island. Normally, there are big waves, where Uli would have got sea sick, but we were lucky and had calm seas. The wind was strong on deck and we got really cold. It is the windiest country, I have ever been in. Their winds are called Northerly, Easterly, NorthWesterly and the cold Southerly.
Another 3 hour bus ride to the city of Nelson and we arrived in our first target. Michelle felt really comfortable in the city named after her last name.
We stayed in a very nice hostel. And we brought up the average age of the guests by 1 year. This might not seem to be a lot, but it is just math. You have 50 people staying in the hostel with an average age of 20. Then 2 people arrive with an average of 50. This brings the average up from 20 to 21. See how cool our blog is. It does not only help you to learn new facts about the world, you also learn how to improve your math skills.
Since we have 4 kids in the 20s, we felt at home in the hostels. Michelle tried to give good advice to the kids, but we also learned new things, for example how to use a hostel kitchen (put a name on the food or beer you store in the fridge or else you will lose it).
I did not feel like another bus ride down south. Some young people hitchhike. Especially for girls it works quite easy. Like for the French girl we met. Many youngsters also buy a car and sell it after half a year. Hitchhiking with two big suitcases and two big backpacks wasn’t an option for us. So we returned to the adult world and rented a car.
We stopped at a place called Kaikoura on the east coast. Another one of these difficult names to pronounce. Many thanks to my friend Heiko. He was helping me a lot with this name. I thought about Heiko´s watch (Heiko Ura). By now he probably has an Apple watch, because he one of the serious Apple techies.
The town is famous for its marine life and you can do lots of dolphin, seal, bird and whale watching.
The sea was rough and we wanted to see whales, while we were here. The boat was not an option, because Uli gets sea sick and the boats did not go out due to big seas. So Uli forced Michelle to do something against her principles.
(All members of the Green party stop reading here. This might jeopardize Michelle´s political career.)
We went on a helicopter to see the whales !!!
The first night we spent on a camp ground with huge campers next to us. These big campers are 90% driven by Chinese people. Nothing against Chinese people. They are really interesting people. But they take pictures everywhere and all the time. I came out of the toilet after my morning business and there was already a Chinese lady taking a picture of me or the toilet. I think she was more interested in the toilet building, since I am not a movie star.
Why does it rain? Because we are far south in New Zealand. Dunedin is the name of the town. Founded by Scotsmen with many historic buildings. It looks like an European town. Probably the nicest city in New Zealand. It has a really cool railway station, which runs two historic trains a day.
New Zealand is not known for its railway network. It is the country, where the bus line is called Intercity and has a lousy train network. Single line railways between the major cities and not electric trains. This is definitely the land of air transportation. Every little village has an airport and/or a helicopter hub.
How did we get all the way to the south? An air plane from Auckland to Dunedin or Nelson on the South Island would have needed less than an hour. But we want to do slow travel.
So we jumped on the intercity bus from Auckland to Wellington, which is the capitol of New Zealand. This ride takes 12 hours, gives you free WIFI (which was not working) and nice views. For example the bus stop in a small village called Bulls, where every sign uses the word Bulls.
The trip could not be done in one day, so we stayed in a big hotel in Wellington. The next morning we went onto the InterIslander Ferry to go over to the South Island. Normally, there are big waves, where Uli would have got sea sick, but we were lucky and had calm seas. The wind was strong on deck and we got really cold. It is the windiest country, I have ever been in. Their winds are called Northerly, Easterly, NorthWesterly and the cold Southerly.
Another 3 hour bus ride to the city of Nelson and we arrived in our first target. Michelle felt really comfortable in the city named after her last name.
We stayed in a very nice hostel. And we brought up the average age of the guests by 1 year. This might not seem to be a lot, but it is just math. You have 50 people staying in the hostel with an average age of 20. Then 2 people arrive with an average of 50. This brings the average up from 20 to 21. See how cool our blog is. It does not only help you to learn new facts about the world, you also learn how to improve your math skills.
Since we have 4 kids in the 20s, we felt at home in the hostels. Michelle tried to give good advice to the kids, but we also learned new things, for example how to use a hostel kitchen (put a name on the food or beer you store in the fridge or else you will lose it).
I did not feel like another bus ride down south. Some young people hitchhike. Especially for girls it works quite easy. Like for the French girl we met. Many youngsters also buy a car and sell it after half a year. Hitchhiking with two big suitcases and two big backpacks wasn’t an option for us. So we returned to the adult world and rented a car.
We stopped at a place called Kaikoura on the east coast. Another one of these difficult names to pronounce. Many thanks to my friend Heiko. He was helping me a lot with this name. I thought about Heiko´s watch (Heiko Ura). By now he probably has an Apple watch, because he one of the serious Apple techies.
The town is famous for its marine life and you can do lots of dolphin, seal, bird and whale watching.
The sea was rough and we wanted to see whales, while we were here. The boat was not an option, because Uli gets sea sick and the boats did not go out due to big seas. So Uli forced Michelle to do something against her principles.
(All members of the Green party stop reading here. This might jeopardize Michelle´s political career.)
We went on a helicopter to see the whales !!!
Sperm whales like Moby Dick dive 2000 meters deep and stay up to 2 hours under water.
(Green party friends. You can continue reading from here on. The helicopter pilot promised us, the whale did not even notice us)
For the last week we got our nice little camper van, which brought us back in time to the 70s. We had a beautiful bird panted on the van.
The first night we spent on a camp ground with huge campers next to us. These big campers are 90% driven by Chinese people. Nothing against Chinese people. They are really interesting people. But they take pictures everywhere and all the time. I came out of the toilet after my morning business and there was already a Chinese lady taking a picture of me or the toilet. I think she was more interested in the toilet building, since I am not a movie star.
The camper and we felt much more comfortable on small camp
grounds like the one next to Mount Cook, where we went on a wonderful hike.
Michelle is not afraid of heights anymore and ready for the Himalaja trip.
Now it is time to leave New
Zealand. (There is a German saying:
“Wenn es am schönsten ist, soll man aufhören”)
What was the very best of New
Zealand?
There were many beautiful things
to see, but the best of all were the New Zealand people. A few we got to know
better like Debbie, Johnny, Wally, Sue, Laurence, Donna, Earl, Louis and their
family members. They were extremely friendly to us. Many thanks again.
But there were also all the
people we met (bus drivers, waiters, rangers and so on). There was always a
friendly talk and helpful advice. Really amazing.
I want to end the New Zealand
with some more information for you. What is a KIWI?
- A green fruit with a lot of vitamin C
- An endangered bird, who cannot fly and is New Zealand’s best known animal
- What the New Zealand people call themselves.
Reading your posts is very entertaining! "Travelling by reading" is not the real thing, but better then no travelling at all. Keep it up and have fun in Sydney - perhaps you should practise using the word "mate" in every second sentence :-)
ReplyDeleteBest wishes, Constanze
Hi Constanze, thanks for the tip. I read they even had a referendum to add the term "mate" to their constitution. A song comes to mind"your my mate, and I will stand by you..." .Argh! Now I have an ohrwurm....
DeleteMichelle
Mate? My British colleagues come into my mind. Guess who use this term more often ...
DeleteWho? They also use "mate" in new Zealand.
Delete