our transfer to the north island started somewhat hectically:
we were woken up 15 minutes before the ferry was supposed to depart, had to leave behind a wonderful breakfast that was prepared for us by the friendly hosts of forget me not b&b, and rushed over to the ferry area — where we waited in line for just as long as the breakfast might have taken…
the ferry took us through part of the marlborough sounds, turned back south, and continued on its s-shaped route to wellington [G].

we spent most of the day in wellington itself, and then drove to palmerston for the night.

[view photos: picton to wellington]
 

our next stop was taupo, right in the center of new zealand’s north island [G]. a lot of people say that lake taupo (the giant volcanic crater lake) is best viewed from above… so of course we wanted to see for ourselves. :-)

there was only one question i had to ask before booking our skydive with freefall:

me: if my parachute doesn’t inflate, will i get my money back?
ticketing lady: don’t worry – you’re paying afterwards.

from her reaction, i’d guess that she gets that question about 15 times a day…

i didn’t tell my family about it until i got home, then just told them i wanted to show them something, and played the video. the looks on their faces were priceless!

[view photos: skydive in taupo]
 
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back to the mainland (i was so used to being on an uninhabited island that i forgot looking left before crossing a street) there was a markus&julieanne-reunion, and we …how should i put it… basically, we drove all over the place. :-)

we didn’t get a spot on a doubtful sound cruise right away (milford sound’s little brother; it’s less popular, and therefore less overrun), so we drove into the east first, and came back later.

on the way from invercargill [G] to dunedin [G], we paid a visit to curio bay (catlins) to see the petrified forest, which is (said to be) 180 million years old.
apart from old dead trees, there’s also a colony of yellow-eyed penguins (megadyptes antipodes) and a …pack of hector’s dolphins (cephalorhynchus hectori) living close by.
given the timing and time-frame when we were there, the odds for seeing a dolphin were very long. we did get to see one penguin, though*.
*the “singular tendency” that i mentioned persisted. by then, we had stopped being surprised to see just one animal of every kind…

[view photos: invercargill to dunedin]
 

the following day, we made a visit to the otago peninsula, and then drove back west on a different route.
in the early afternoon, i wrote down this note:

memo to self: the universe is out to get me today.

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on dec. 14th 2005, a small government-chartered airplane (the smallest airplane that i’ve ever been on) took a total of 4 passengers to a small island off the coast of a small island off the coast of new zealand: codfish island [G] (whenua hou in maori language) is located east of steward island, which is just south of NZ’s south island.

in the 1980s all non-native predators (possums, rats, stouts, cats, …) were eradicated from the island, which is now one of new zealand’s bird sanctuaries. apart from endangered species like the kaka¹, kakariki² and the southern short-tailed bat³, it is also (and most importantly) the home of the kakapo (strigops habroptilus).
to be exact, it’s one of the two homes of the kakapo: codfish and chalky island.

the kakapo is a critically endangered parrot species that has some pretty exceptional qualities. i’ll just name a few:

• it can’t fly, and weighs up to 4kg (which makes it the heaviest parrot).
• it’s nocturnal.
• it has facial feathers like a typical owl, and “whiskers” like a cat.
• it has a sophisticated “lek” breeding system (unique in the order of parrots).
• courtship behaviour also includes “self-inflating” of the males until they look like green basketballs, then producing very low-frequency sounds (“booming”) to attract the females.
• it only breeds every few years, probably depending on rimu fruit abundance.
• it’s probably the longest-living bird overall (the oldest living kakapo, richard-henry, was captured over 30 years ago and is believed to be about 50 years old).
• and – much to its disadvantage – it doesn’t really know what to do when a predator is near, which is why there are only 86 (!) individuals left on.

i was already …”in the general area” (new zealand, that is), so i seized the chance [more...]

back at sydney’s airport: 15 minutes after the plane started rolling to the runway, the captain announced “it may feel like we’re driving all the way to new zealand, but we’re not. in fact, we’ll be at the runway in a few minutes!”

i received a warm welcome to new zealand by julieanne and her friend martin, who spent a lot of time showing me around, and …basically made me feel like they were my personal 24-hour-tourguides (i was also staying at julieanne’s).
they took me out on scenic drives around the banks peninsula [G], namely to the port of lyttelton (the location of one of the last working time-balls) and akaroa, a little town way out in the east of the peninsula.

back in 1840 (the same year that the british claimed the south island), the french created a settlement there and tried to establish a colony. it’s still considered an artsy french town, and still has lots of french place and street names.

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originally posted on 2006-10-17

many people say sydney is the most beautiful city on earth. i haven’t nearly seen enough cities to make that statement (yet), but it’s definitely among the top 3 of my favorites.

when i arrived there , i had already booked a youth hostel (for a change).
i was staying at the blue parrot backpackers for the first few days, and was welcomed by a friendly middle-aged woman (first photo here) with a smoky voice, calling me (and supposedly everybody else) either honey or sweety. her voice and way of talking strongly reminded me of the oracle…
one of the first things she explained to me on the city map, was the house of “famous australian actor russel crowe”*. she seemed to be proud of him :-)
* he’s actually from new zealand, but talking to new zealanders later on, they didn’t really want to claim him being their nationality…

on the first evening, a man (in his 40s or 50s?) stopped me in the hallway and said “you must be the austrian”. i was stunned. [more...]

this will be the last post concerning my july spain holiday…

photos of a second trip into the hinterland with anton – with xativa [G] as the main destination – are online now, those of a short trip to altea/calpe* [G] will be there soon are online now as well.
you can even see xativa’s castle on google local: [G]
* mullets seem to be “in” in spain. we’ve encountered lots of people with mullets – on this trip there even was a mullet dog!

[view photos: trip to xativa]
[view photos: trip to altea & calpe]

there are LOTS of roundabouts in spain! when we drove home from xativa, however, we encountered the two biggest ones i’ve ever come across: [more...]

after a being-sick-weekend, at least i can say that i’ve also had some time to upload more photos:

[view photos: denia impressions]
[view photos: a drive into the hinterland]

[view photos: montgo natural preserve, part 1]
[view photos: montgo natural preserve, part 2]
 

a few not-so-exciting notes that my mind apparently thought were interesting enough to keep in my longterm memory:
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