Monat: Januar 2007

Kapiti Island, reprise: Should you ever be in the Wellington region, get a permit (from the Wellington DOC office) and go there, it was one of the best places I visited so far, on one level with Kakadu National Park in Oz and the Coromandel perhaps. There are two different areas to visit, you need…

Today I married a parrot. Unfortunately I can’t upload the pictures right now, but believe me, we were quite intimate. I went to Kapiti Island, which is a nature reserve, i.e. enjoys the highest level of environmental protection. They began to clear the island from mammals and other European animals and plants 100 years ago…

Oi. Ich bin nun im wahrscheinlich besten Hostel, in dem ich je war, gelandet. Plimmerton Beach, Moana Lodge. Zimmer mit Ozeanblick vom Bett aus. Killer. Romantik pur. Ich und meine Fleecejacke. Werder forever. Hier stimmt von a-z einfach alles und Wellington liegt auch quasi vor der Haustuer. Apropos Wellington: Heute mal wieder einige Stunden im hervorragenden Te…

This will be of interest to climatologists as well as tourism managers. Let P(Aw) be the likelihood of rainfall in a given area A. Let further be R the average amount of rainfall in A and let v be the standard devation to R. So far, so good, no worries. I have now discovered a…

Yesterday I went on a trip up the Whanganui River Road which was really interesting. Should you ever be in Wanganui I recommend staying at Tamara Backpackers (24 Somme Pd), Roy also runs Whanganui River Road Tours. The hostel itself is a nice place, quiet, friendly, clean (though they could do with more wash basins…

I have to correct something I posted yesterday: While „wh“ is usually pronounced „f“ in NZ this is not the case for Whanganui. Here, the local Maori dialect is a bit different, hence Whanganui is pronounced with an aspirated ‚wh‘. Enjoy. Wanganui itself is a small city, well worth spending a day or two in.…

I just arrived in Wanganui (that is the city, the river is spelt Whanganui and pronounced Fanganui …), more about this picturesque little town tomorrow. I just wanted to post a quick warning: don’t never ever waste time going to National Park Village.It sucks. I just spent two hours there waiting there waiting for my…

I hope I didn’t sound to negative in yesterdays post. But I was fucking hungry. After I’ve had had a really nice dinner I felt better instantly. Today I got up at five to get an early start for the Tongariro Crossing. It had rained the whole night but „forecast“ said it should clear up…

Yep, auch hier war alles noch so, wie ich es hinterlassen hatte. Lonely Beach immer noch lonely und schoen und natuerlich Cathedral Cove, still absolutely amazing and fabulous. It was a bit crowded because a) I had to go there on a Saturday and b) it had been closed for two days because of bush…

I finally reached my dream destination: back on the Coromandel again. Apart from Wellington and Auckland this is the only location I’m coming back to this time and there’s a reason for it. The hostel is absolutely marvelous, if I were to revert to the old Hitler ratings it would be a 11 out of…