Last post from New Zealand

I am in Auckland right now and flying to Fiji tomorrow at 1:00pm. I arrive in Nadi at 4:00pm.
I hitchihiked all the way up from Napier yesterday! It took me around 8 hours and i had to find a new ride 3 times. The first ride was from Napier to Taupo, then Taupo-Tirau, then Tirau-Hamilton and finally Hamilton-Auckland. I met a lot of very nice people and it was much more fun than riding a bus! Plus I didn't spend any money and I was about as fast as a bus.
Well this the last post from New Zealand. I had very nice time and made a lot of friends who I hopefully will meet again sometime!
The next post will be from somewhere in Fiji!
So farewell New Zealand, I love you! See ya later! I'm definetely coming back!

Nationals and Dolphin Swimming Review

Hi there!
I had a lot of fun playing in the Nationals with Nude Dude (Nelson Ultimate Disc Experience and Dunedin Ultimate Disc Experience), although I did not play very good. I dropped a lot of easy and important passes and I wound up myself in this mentally... But I made a spectular dive after I ran over the half court! Hell yeah! Now I have a scratch on my shoulder and my hip. We made the 5th out 6 place, which is good for a team that never played together and was looking forward to the tournament for about one week! The first place was Magons from Auckland, second was Christchurch 1 or Whisky Tango, then the Wellington Sluts (or Lasers), fourth was Bookaki from Christchurch, then the Nude Dude, then Christchurch 2. I'm not sure about the women's results, but I think Wellington made the first place. The party had the theme "The Pants Party", so I wore my boxers over my jeans. One jug of beer was only 4$, that's a REAAAAALLY good deal! I stayed at the house of the parents of one player from Dunedin, who wasn't even with us! The parents were very nice people. They offered us dinner, breakfast and coffee and they gave us a bed, of course. No, not one bed, one bed each!
Today I was in the Banks Peninsula to swim with Dolphins. The Akaroa Harbour is the natural habitat of the world's smallest and rarest Dolphin, the Hector's Dolphin, that can only be found off the East Coast of New Zealand. We were a group of ten people on the boat. When we saw some dolphins, we went into the water and they came pretty close to us, but did not stat very long at all, they only swam through our group very fast. Then we went out of the water to try and find more dolphins and we spotted some, but did not go back into the water. Because of this unsatisfying trip, the company gave us a refund of 50$, which I gladly spent on an Indian meal in Christchurch. Not completely, of course, it was 15,50$ only! I had lamb Vindaloo (hot) and Chicken Mango with rice, a Naan (Indian bread) and a mango lassi (mango and yoghurt drink). After that I had another cheese Naan, because I was still hungry...and I am still a little bit hungry!
Tomorrow morning, after I took a shower at the airport, which is for free, I'm going to Kaikoura!
Alright, have a nice day!

Open and Women's Ultimate Frisbee Nationals 2010 in Christchurch

As some of you have already heard, I'm playing in Nelson/Dunedin's Open team in the New Zealand Nationals! Sweet as, bro! Nelson and Dunedin are forming a team together because one guy from Nelson (Dean) studied in Dunedin and they don't have enough players in each city who want to play the tournament. I played Frisbee in Nelson and they asked me if I wanted to join their team for the Nationals and I said that I did not know where I'd be when the tournament goes off, which is this weekend. Stupid me, why didn't I just say "Of course I'll be there, that's great!!!"?!? Later that evening they convinced me to play with them. Since I'm staying in Dunedin at the moment, I played with their team on Sunday and today, and yeah, I'm in!
The tournament fee is 45$ + a lunch option for 10$, which I paid as well. The tournament is held at Nunweek Park in Christchurch, if anybody is interested in googling it!
Tomorrow we will probably go hiking again with two girls (from Canada and Germany) who are staying in our hostel. This hostel is reeeaaaally laid back, the only people who are "managing" the hostel are the two girls and one guy from England. The owner never shows up. It's very quiet and relaxing.
We are leaving Dunedin on Thursday and go to Christchurch with a stopover in Omaru.
Alright, that's about it for now.
Jannis

Wanaka, Roy's Peak Track

In Wanaka we did Roy's Peak Track. As you can tell by the name, it lead us up to the summit of a mountain, which is about 1500 meters high! It was really exhausting but totally worth it, just take a look at the pictures!

The Abel Tasman just doesn't want to be uploaded, sorry...

This is the Fox Glacier!

Woooohoooo free internet again!
So here are some pictures of Franz Josef glacier and the track we walked there! It was a really good track, which took us about 4.30 hours return, leading to a lookout and back.

Abel Tasman National Park

I wanted to upload some photos of my trip in the Abel Tasman National Park with Erik, but of course it does not work........I'll try it again later!

Forgotten World Highway

Okay, on demand of some very special persons, I will upload some pictures now!
This is a bridge and me on the Forgotten World Highway + a picture for Tobe, which I took on the Camping ground Ohinepane, also on the FWH. The Forgotten World Highway is highway no. 43 that leads to (or starts in) Stratford. Or is it no. 41? I don't know....

South Island!

Hey guys!
I'm on the South Island finally.
I've been in Nelson last week and I went to the Abel Tasman National Park last weekend with Erik, whom I know from Hastings. Now I'm in Franz Josef Village enjoying some fast and free Internet, so it would be the perfect time to upload some pictures, but it's too late and I'm tired......
Cyas later!

Cape Kidnappers 2

Cape Kidnappers

Hi there!

I went to Cape Kidnappers with Erick last friday. We walked on the shore for 2 hours each way, but it was very beautiful and totally worth it! Cliffs and the sea and rocks and Gannets (you will see on the photos what Gannets are ;-)) and sun... it was nice!

The famous waterfalls again! From left to right: Regis (France), Javier and Damian (Argentina) and me. The other photo shows where you jump off the tree and the swing.

This is my left arm with a lot of scratches I get from pear picking. The trees really don't like me. Yesterday after 15 minutes of working I looked like I had taken a shower wearing my clothes. Bloody rain that makes the trees wet!!

In the row next to me worked a Maori guy whose very great grandfather emigrated from Germany to New Zealand and married a Maori woman. That guy hes done fruit picking for 11 years! He's faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast!! But I was only one bin behind him the day before and it was my third day! HAHAHAHA! But there was now work today and it doesn't look good for tomorrow, either.....

A Street-Art piece found in Auckland and Auckland's blurry skyline at night.

This is on a camping ground near Taupo at the river whateveritsnameis. It was free!
That day on our way from Napier to Taupo, we went out of gas and had to pay 40$ for 10 litres at some restaurant. Then, some time later the fanbelt (a belt for the power steering and it's somehow connected with the battery) ripped. We stopped at a car parking spot next to the road and met a Maori family, who drove with us to Taupo to see if we are alright and they showed us a mechanic. Nice people! We had the fanbelt replaced and that was 82$. The next morning the car locked itself with the keys inside. We called a mechanic - I had to ask somebody for a mobile phone and found a woman from Berlin, who lives in New Zealand for several years, with her family and her daughter gave me her mobile - from Taupo and that was another 65$.

So the first three pictures were made from our bed in the back of the car and the fourth shows a duck. There were heaps of ducks!

Hi folks!

I still haven't uploaded all photos of my trip with Nils and Jule.

Here are some photos of the place where we stayed the first night in the Coromandel Peninsula.

The next morning, we got a warning from the Thames District Council not to stay overnight on parking spots next to the road. Guess where we slept the next night.

Hello again!

I was a lazy blogger the last weeks, I`m sorry...

Anyways, I`m picking Pears near Hastings now, before that I picked Peaches and Nectarines. The Pear picking is on contract, so I have to be really fast in order to make money. I get 30$ per bin, which is about, I don`t know, maybe 500kg. Sounds hard and is hard.

The last few days we had really nice weather, so we went to Ocean Beach on Saturday and Sunday. Nice waves and everything.

I`m planning to hit road at the end of February again. I want to go to the "Craters of the moon" near Taupo and see what that is, then I want to go to the "Lost Highway", just beacause it sounds cool. It`s a 130km long highway, that it kind of lost, that means there are no petrol stations, no towns, no nothing. Then I`m going to the South Island with stopovers in Palmerston North (on a Monday!) to play Frisbee in their "competitive social Ultimate Frisbee pickup" and Wellington. The first thing I want to do on the South Island is going to Abel Tasman National Park and hire a kayak. Cross your fingers that I can earn enough money till the end of February! If I can`t, I will get money from my savings account in Germany...

That`s it for today, maybe I will upload some more pictures in the next days, so come back to see them!
Jannis

Taupo Bungee

I did bungee jumping in Taupo, it's good, but not as good that I would do it again in Taupo. It's about 40 metres high and it's the highest "water touching" bungee jump in New Zealand. Next time I'm going higher ;-)

I'm getting bored of uploading pictures now. But there are more to come!

Langs Beach

The first night of our journey we spend on a car park near the beach at Langs Beach.

Beach at the Maori camp

We spend New Years Eve at a Maori camp up in the Northland. We had kind of a photo session on the beach there.