Chilling out in Byron Bay

11. Feb 201511. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ Leave a comment

Byron Bay is said to have a special vibe. It was originally called “meeting place” (Cavvanbah) in aboriginal language, indicating that it was a place to gather. It is a sacred place to Aboriginals and the spirits are said to proceed from Mt. Wollumbin, an ancient volcano, which erupted 23 million years ago and which can be seen from many points in Byron Bay. It was not an aboriginal settlement, because they believe that the area’s spirit is too strong and therefore people would go crazy if they lived here. That seems to be true, as there are loads of crazy people to be found in Byron Bay! It has been a hippie haven ever since the 70s and I imagine it could be quite similar to Goa… Apart from that there are plenty of surfers (pro’s and wannabes) around. Even though locals keep telling me that I must learn surfing I have yet to try it. But 1) I don’t have enough time and 2) one surfer has been killed and one severely injured as a result of two shark attacs in the past week. I was brave enough to join a sea kayak tour by the local “Go Sea Kayak” company, though. As opposed to NZ the sea was calm and warm. We went along the shoreline to the more secluded bays and saw sea turtles popping up their heads as well as a small group of the resident bottlenose dolphins (including a baby!). THIS truly is a sacred place.

Manly, beautiful Manly!

11. Feb 201511. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ Leave a comment

I payed Manly another visit last Saturday, this time with my bike (which you can take onto the ferry for free). Arriving in Manly around noon I made my way up, up, up the steep hill to get to North Head. When I finally reached it, I was rewarded by this:

What a stunning view of the city and the sea! I also rewarded myself with an iced coffee at the cute café up there (probably the 20th during my travels, but as long as I keep active it hopefully won’t show)…!

Going downhill to secluded Shelly Beach was so much more fun. A quick change into my bikini and “ziiiisch …” I joined the saturday crowd for a swim to cool down on this hot day.

The Australian Open of surfing started off that day, too, and later that afternoon I watched the juniors (girls) riding the waves from Manly Beach. Another reason why Manly has become my favourite destination around Sydney is the fact that they have 6 beachvolleyball nets at the beach. Today they had a fun tounament going – just like every other saturday. Wish I could have joined them…

The 30 min. ferry ride back to Cicular Quay at 7.30 pm was spectacular, as the sun was setting behind the city:

What a wonderful day!

6. Feb 20157. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ 1 Comment

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes!! I had a wonderful day!

The day before I did something you shouldn’t do as a traveler: I bought myself a dress (I know, more luggage. Something else will have to be thrown out… and I will most probably get rid of it in Buenos Aires, because I won’t really wear it thereafter). It was my birthday present and it did it’s job: it made me feel special yesterday! And I even got a compliment for it from a random lady on the street.

Plus, two people individually took a guess at my age this week and came up with 31/32! Apparently travelling is doing me good…!

I am in Sydney for a week and I’m glad I was here for my birthday. It has a special vibe to it. Yesterday I took the ferry to manly and enjoyed beautiful views of the city. I took a stroll at the beach, watching the surfers (plenty) and even some beachvolleyball players and chilled at a café. It was wonderfully warm and I was grateful for the clouds as the sun can be really scorching. I headed back in the afternoon to get ready fo the night out: I took myself to the opera! Madame Butterfly! It was most enjoyable. Not only did I like the play and the opera house, which is truly a masterpiece, it was elevating to see the harbour dipped in light and the ships going by while sipping a glas of sparkling wine (or two, for the occasion). When it was finished I walked home through the pleasant evening air, the full moon rising behind the opera house.

P.S. Of course “the golden ones” had their performance again!

Wanaka, West Coast, Wanderlust, Wine & Whales

4. Feb 20154. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ 1 Comment

Now that I actally have access to free, unlimited and reliable wifi, I’ll give you a wrap up of the two wonderful past weeks in NZ.

Wanaka was a very relaxed place with many Kiwis spending their vacation there. Our hostel is my no. 1 for this journey: the Wanaka Bakpaka has recently been refurbished, offers great views of the lake and has a good vibe.

Unfortunately I did not meet the owners of the Rippon Valley vineyard – certainly a great place to live, with great views of the lake and delicious wines…

On our way to Franz Josef we must have past over 20 one lane bridges, indicating how few the traffic is on the west coast! The sea is amazing and just behind throne huge mountains covered by rain forest! And at the top, Franz Josef glacier disgorges… but much of the glacier has melted and those of you who’ve already been there would be shocked as to how much has gone. If you want to walk onto the glacier you now need to take a helicopter, a rather costly affair! The day we spent at Franz Josef was the only rainy day we had in three weeks (and we were the only ones geared up with rain jackets and rain trousers while walking up to the bottom of the glacier, where the clouds and the rain prevented a proper look at it). Luckily, it was much better at 7.30 the next morning and we could actually see the glacier!

Hokitika was a pleasant stop to satisfy our daily 11 am hunger. We had the most delicious raspberry chocolate muffin at the “fire brigade” along with the daily flat white and long black!

The YHA Westport could have been my first choice if it weren’t for the bunch of teenagers (17-19 year old germans and brits are hard to take, especially in the morning)… but the room with ensuite bath on the first floor was lovely. And the walk along the coastline was beautiful: Wanderlust enthraled us again in Abel Tasman and the Marlborough Sounds. With the southeaster blowing like mad the kayak trip in Abel Tasman was far mode adventurous than expected. It was nothing like a leasure paddle and it was a bit of a challenge to cut across the waves from onetahuti beach (“now paddle as hard as you can…”, our guide told us). Once we were further out we fought our way along tonga island (saw some seal mums and their little ones) and moskito bay to bark bay for lunch. Since the waves constantly poured over us there was no way I was going to take out my camera! We decided to walk the second part on the abel tasman coast track and had a very pleasant overnight stay at the aquapackers houseboat in anchorage bay, walking back to marahau the next morning.

After a pleasant stay in Nelson, where we enjoyed some good food, town flair and listened to passer-by playing the piano on the pavement, another two days of walking on the queen charlotte track with stunning views of the Marlborough Sounds and a hilarious evening with three Kiwi ladies at Furneaux lodge followed:

We chilled in Picton, playing an appallingly round of minigolf (does that ring a bell, V.?),

and sipping some wine at several of the wineries around Blenheim.

The Kaikoura coast was all about animals: seals playing in pools

Albatrosses,

A large (18m – as large as the boat!) Sperm whale

and a crowd of playful dusky dolphins.

A marvellous three weeks, thank you Iris!!! (Eeeexcellent!)

Lakes, Glaciers and Fjords

18. Jan 201524. Jan 2015 ~ Nina ~ 2 Comments

The sun has been travelling with us ever since we reached beautiful lake Tekapo with its amazing turquoise blue colour created as a result of “rock flour”.

While I quickly adapt to driving on the left hand side of the road it always takes me a couple of days to get used to WALKING on the left. Resulting in many of those situations where the poor person walking towards me and I perform the “right-left-right-left” dance. Now that I’ve gotten used to it I diapprovingly shake my head at those continental europeans who just don’t seem to catch it.

The day at Aoraki Mt Cook was amazing: it was the hottest day (28°C) at the highest destination of our journey through NZ (1.000m) with a clear blue sky and amazing views of Mt Cook, the glaciers and the scenery.

We renamed MtCook….

GRUMPY! Can you see why?!

Fjordland was very kind to us, too. For some reason my booking hadn’t gone through so Bob & Maxine, the owners of the same-named hostel, kindly offered us a room in their house (instead of their next door hostel). “You could be doctors”, Maxine proclaimed. Close, very close!

As to the beauty of Milford Sound and its surroundings, see the following pics – we lucky devils!

Btw: I had the most delicious venison pie at “Miles Better Pies” in Te Anau, but I was too hungry to take a photo…

Good to be back, New Zealand!

18. Jan 201518. Jan 2015 ~ Nina ~ Leave a comment

I cannot recommend to arrive in Christchurch at the unearthly hour of 5am – it sucks to spend a whole day fighting against the jetlag. That said, even without suffering from jetlag Christchurch is not exactly exhilarant. That has nothing to do with the wonderful people that live here. They are as amicable as everywhere else in the country. It’s because Christchurch has the look and feel of a ghost town with many houses blocked up or torn down, leaving empty houses and open spaces. It was depressing and I admire the people that still live there and are trying to rebuild the city – despite of a certain fear of further eartquakes.

On the positive side we had tickets for the ODI series cricket match between NZ Blackcaps and Sri Lanka at the Hagley Oval – which turned out to be a cricket field with a grass rampart. The interesting part was not the game, the rules of which we barely knew, but the crowd that enjoyed watching: people of every age basically having a picknick on the lawn while sitting there as if watching TV (with a few cheers in between), the kids amusing themselves on the bouncy castles outside the rampart, all dressed for the occasion with shorts and skirts (not many brand-name clothes), barefoot or in flip flops. So relaxed! A great spot to people watch!

Here is what I love about NZ: when entering we were kindly asked to empty our (half empty) water bottles. When seeing the ??? on our faces the woman apologised, explained that it was to make sure that we don’t bring any alcohol in (luckily they don’t know that trick at the Waldbühne yet) and handed us two full water bottles in exchange. Plus everyone could get a free water refill at the many refill stations around the field. Unimagineable in Germany!