You surely agree that toilets are a huge issue when travelling! You can never be sure if you find one when you need one, what it looks and smells like and if it is well-equipped or not.

Well, let me tell you this much : NZ is a toilet haven! Every tiny village (and I also mean the ones where you don’t have to slow down to 80 km/h, let alone 50km/h, when driving through) has a public toilet that’s well-signposted, open 24/7, clean, equipped with toilet paper, water and soap and most of them also provide disposable towels!!! What’s more, they even provide public toilets at the starting/ending point and often also along the walking tracks. Some of them might be a little less luxurious, but even most long drops are OK, because of their ventilation systems.

Australia seems to be quite the same. At the Sydney International Airport I even found this: It’s a mother and child cabin that contains a normal size toilet for the mother and a smaller size toilet for the child. Wonder if they provide the same at the men’s toilet?!

I seriously wish we had a similar approach to public toilets and they’d be valued just as much in Germany … Instead, the few free public toilets out there are best avoided and many others are strictly guarded by some unhappy cleaning person that rubs its dirty cloth over the toilet seat and expects me to pay for the service. Admittedly, the job sucks and I would not want to do it myself. But it seems to work well in NZ and I’d happily pay more taxes to contribute to better public toilets at home.

Rounding up and down – the missing coins in NZD and AUD

19. Feb 201519. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ Leave a comment

I still can’t get used to the fact that rounding up or down is not only common in NZ and in Australia, but a necessity. While Australia lacks 1 and 2 cent coins, NZ further lacks a 5 cent coin. Meaning that all cash transactions have to be rounded up or down. If you pay in cash in an Australian supermarket for a bill of 10,02 AUD it will be rounded down to 10 AUD. If you have to pay 10,03 AUD you’d have to really pay 10,05 AUD. This is due to the withdrawal of the 1 and 2 cent coins in the 1980/90s (and later withdrawal of the NZD 5 cent coin). However, if payment is made by credit card, no rounding is necessary.

I’ve now learned that this practice is called swedish rounding, as it was first introduced in Sweden following the removal of 1 and 2 öre coins from circulation in 1972. Surprisingly, coins at the denomination of 0,01, 0,02 and 0,05 have been removed in many countries and although I’ve definitely visited some of these I cannot recall it. The Swiss Reserve Bank, for example, removed the 2 Rappen coin in 1978 and the 1 Rappen coin in 2007 (because it cost 11 Rappen to produce it).

I find it strange, though, that shops in NZ and Australia do not simply avoid the need to round up or down by having all prices divisible by 0,05 or 0,10. However,it seems that it works well and that its balanced out.

Kiwiness

4. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ 2 Comments

Once again I was amazed as to the friendliness of the Kiwis – I’d like to call it the kiwiness. It endet as it started: with a very friendly customs officer. Have you ever met a customs officer with a friendly nature and a smile on his face chit chatting with you about your vacation, the weather, his country and if you’ve enjoyed being there? Well, it has certainly only happened to me in NZ and I still can’t get over it!

Not quite the same, but similar: I took the bus #29 from the Christchurch airport back into town when we had dropped off the car. The driver listened to opera which gave the bus ride a whole new experience. At some stage he turned around and shouted to the back of the bus: “the lady who bought the return ticket, where do you want to get off?” I shouted my station and that’s where he stopped for me – I didn’t have to keep track or press the “stop” button! He even showed me the direction to the YHA. Perfect!

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!)

Hokey Pokey and Sea Salt Caramel

1. Feb 2015 ~ Nina ~ Leave a comment

…are two of the most popular ice cream flavours in Wanaka and of course I had to have them! Hokey pokey (Vanilla with toffee) is the most popular ice cream, but sea salted caramel is definitely my new favourite. It’s salty, yet sweet. You’ve got to try this!

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!