You keep what you kill

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…

Nuff said. 😁 🍦 😍 💕 💞

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

So, it’s the Catlins once again, an area I’ve first travelled to and through 14 years ago. Back then, all the roads were gravel and there weren’t too many people around. I’ve been back twice since and the main road is sealed (fortunately side roads are not) and there’s a lot more people now. But…

Stewart Island had some more things to offer … a telephone connected to a tree, clear and unambiguous signage, and last but not least some shots from the Rakiura track.