New Zealand
No, this is not about vacation. It’s about the terrible terrorist act in Christchurch and its consequences. A couple of remarkable things: 1. Jacinda Ardern’s reaction, the empathy she has showed. Great leadership, great inspiration. Almost all other world leaders should learn from this. But never will unfortunately. Just looking at our AKK here in…
Year of the Dog
We arrived at the right time, on (Chinese) New Year’s Eve. That meant some of the eatery choices were a bit limited, but even on a day like this Singapore has to offer so much … . So, we had a supernice breakfast at „Plentyfull“ (Millenia Walk) and then another great lunch at „Sufood“ (Raffles…
Leaving NZ
I’ve already fallen behind again, but rest assured, you haven’t missed too much. After four very nice days in Ohope, we drove across the Island to spend our last night in Piha. I still remember very fondly the beach and the waves I was enjoying a few years ago together with my faithful Harald, his…
Ohope Beach / Whakatane
Fourth time we come to this wonderful, fantastic, beautiful, quiet, relaxed, marvelous, paradisical spot. Probably fair to say that this is our favorite place in NZ. I’ve written about Ohope so many times, so I won’t repeat myself. 11km of wonderful, almost empty, sandy beach. Nice surf. Great food. Lovely ice cream. Berry orchards. Macadamia…
Tongariro Northern Circuit
We left beautiful Cape Palliser with a heavy heart early Wednesday morning for the long drive to Whakapapa Village, which is the starting point for the Tongariro Northern Circuit multi-day hike. We took it slow, meandering through the Hutt Valley and the took the Manawatu scenic route, very beautiful and definitely a spot we need…
Cape Palliser
Remote, rugged, beautiful. Cape Palliser. That’s were we headed to Monday morning, taking it slow through the Hutt Valley and then a superbly scenic drive down to and along the coast. Wow. It’s really hard to stay focussed on the road here with fantastic ocean views on the one side and sheer cliffs or bluffs…
Fiji, Fiji, Fiji!
Hamilton? Hamilton! Hamilton? Wtf are they doing in Hamilton? That doesn’t make any sense, logistics wise. True. But I always thought that the traveling salesman should be fucked up his NP-complete arse anyway. It was the Reisebegleitung’s birthday and the NZ Sevens Tournament was on and I’d bought tickets for the finals day as a…
Windy Wellington
Here’s a confession: I really like Wellington. To me, it’s one of the nicest cities I’ve ever been to. Even though the weather tries to convince me otherwise each time I visit. Maybe that’s part of the appeal, who knows. This time, it all started out very smoothly. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and walked in…
Blue Mountains, Tapanui
On the spur of the moment we decided to actually forfeit two of the three nights we had booked in Surat Bay and drive up to Tapanui instead after we’d finished the Catlins River-Wisp Loop Track. I found something really nice on the loathsome AirBnB portal, super value for money and we got there shortly…