Cycle Tour (Day 17) Rotorua to Tauranga (62km)

Not much to tell.


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It should have been an easy 60km day. But somehow mapmyride.com could not tell me, that there where several steep climbs in my route. It looked like it was going all the way down to the coast and several climbs and downhill where just normalized.

Nevertheless a nice trip. Almost all the time I was in the Shire (Hobbit land).

Von 20100330-Tauranga

Now I am in Tauranga and staying for three nights because I could not find accommodation that was suitable for me up to coromandel. I have maybe four true cycle days left and I am already planning my departure from New Zealand and my stay in Australia.

Hells Gate

They promised me in the brochure that I don't need to heed the warnings and that I just want to hug the path. Somehow it was not that exciting.

After walking a bit through the city yesterday.

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I was picked up early in the morning to visit another thermal field. Hells Gate. This is the entrance:

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Von 20100329-RotoruaAndHellsGate

Von 20100329-RotoruaAndHellsGate

Von 20100329-RotoruaAndHellsGate

Almost all of the pools where beyond 90°C and therefor cooking. That is why you can get your thrill when you hold your hand into one of those pools.

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Ok... You are right it is only 38°C in that pool. But it could have been cooking... ;) Just imagine cooked Klaus.

Under the line. Nice scenery, no thrill and to expensive for one hour of fun.

Tomorrow I will be cycling again. Something aroud 70km. Back down to the coast. Beaches here I come.

So many decisions...

The last few hours I was planning my next stops and having a further outlook on my trip including the budget. Right at the moment I am a bit fed up, with the really touristic parts of New Zealand. I can spent a lot of money in each town and would find a great experience. But that just shortens my trip in the long term.

Australia will not be any different. At least it will be far more expensive. Bunkbeds should cost almost the double than in NZ. I am really not looking forward to it. On the other hand I just took a peak at accommodations in SE Asia (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam). Maybe I should really head there. It is cheap. The landscape is amazing and the culture is several thousand years older than NZ and Australia.

I went looking for a flight to Fiji and I really think at the moment that this sidetrip will not be worthwhile and really expensive. Fiji has some nice beaches to offer and I did another notch in my gun. But the same is true for SE Asia and I need to go there anyway on my way back to Germany.

I am fairly sure, that I will cut my trip to Australia one month shorter and only doing major attractions. For instance skipping Hobart, because Tasmania is only a small version of New Zealand according to a few people I have met. I am not sure about going the additional way up the coast from Brisbane but perhaps I should really go straight on to Sydney. I need to decide too, if I like to take the bus or if I start flying.

Right now I just want to lie somewhere at a beach. End of the coming week I will do exactly that. Opoutere sounds like a nice undeveloped retreat and I was really lucky to get a room on Easter Weekend. I will probably and hopefully arrive in Auckland on 9th or 10th of april with the last real cycle day will be the trip to Coromandel the day before.

Sometimes I think I should start looking for work. It is really nice, that there are still several inquiries to several of my networking accounts. So it should not be to hard to get back into business.

Cycle Tour (Day 16) Taupo to Rotorua (86km)

This time a longer distance again. But it was rather easy.


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I went from Taupo on a parallel route to the SH5 and was hopeful that I won't encounter much traffic. And my guess was good. I had a blast sunshine the whole way. Nice highland scenery always with a few steam outlets. It was exactly what I wanted. The first 45km just flew by and I did not really realize that I was already on the road for 2.5 hours.

All good things come to an end when I was going back on to SH5. But after a few km I met the participants in a cycle race. They where all coming from the direction where I intended to go. One of the track guides told me that I was going in the wrong direction. *smile* It was a big race. With at least four separate start groups. There where a lot of nice people in the field who even had time to great me. By the way I was really surprised how many accidents happen during a race. I was passing several minor injuries and saw the ambulance at least seven times.

After this intermezzo I had 30 more kilometers to go and it was the beginning of the nearly 15km climb. The last hill before it goes all the way down to Rotorua. I was expecting it and it was rather easy. I was not fast and needed to take several breaks but I was cycling the nearly 300m altitude difference all the way up to the pass. I arrived half past one after 5.5 hours of cycling in the city of Rotorua.

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Von 20100327-ToRotorua

I simply don't know what I want to do here. Somehow the city has very little appeal to me and I lost my interest in doing something Maori. It is saturday. Maybe I find some people to go in to a bar.

Lake Taupo, Waikato River, Huka Falls and Crater of the Moon

Somehow you can't always top any experience. At least not immediately afterwards. I settled back to do a bit of nature walking and sightseeing.

The weather was fairly great so I got the first really good pictures of Lake Taupo.

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Lake Taupo is a crater lake. The lake is considered a dormant volcano and after talking to a few peoples, the volcano is overdue some release. The last explosion was bigger than Mt. Pinatubo on the Philippines in the last years. So there is some wild action to be expected. Maybe not in our lifetime.

I cycled to the Waikato River. New Zealands longest river. There is a nice MTB Track I wanted to take. But somehow I ended up on the pedestrian walk and was not allowed to cycle. But I got some nice shots in:

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Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

Pushing and cursing I got my bike to the first destination of the day. The Huka Falls. One of the nices waterfalls in New Zealand. I think a lot of the waterfalls on the downhill from Haast Pass are actually nicer. Maybe I like high falls with less water better than not so high falls with impressive amounts of water.

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Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

After the short snack at the Huka Falls Cafe I went cycling through the tunnel under Highway 1 and came to second destination of the day: Crater of the Moon. CotM is a thermally active area with vents, hot mud pools and craters. It really looks nice and despite the danger signs quite peaceful.

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Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

Von 20100326-HukaWaterfallsAndCratersOfTheMoon

After coming back to Taupo I am relaxing. Tomorrow I will be cycling again. Destination is Roturoa and it will be 90km ride.

Skydive Taupo Part II

It took a long time till I finally fell asleep tonight. The last hour I was busy ripping and converting the DVD and finally uploading the video to youtube:



Have fun. :)

Skydive Taupo

I finally did it. It was not easy and it made a real dent in my budget but I don't want to miss this experience.

The morning started fairly normal. I got up but was to excited to eat anything. That is why my I was waiting far to early for my pickup. When they finally drove up to the hostel I was surprised by a white stretch limo.

We went to the airport of Taupo and after a nice greeting I was watching a video about what to expect. Nothing special. The three girls in the video where especially cheerful. I was not that enthusiastic. But at least I was not crying like the girl whose boyfriend went on to the plane with us.

A few minutes later I met my skydive partner/pilot/savior how ever you call this guy. Laci was pretty cool and with his really professional behaviour you really felt safe. We geared up and got into the plane. The company is quite sure of themselves otherwise I can't think why they did not want to get paid before the skydive. But after coming down in the plane again after reaching 15000 feet or 4500 meter because we could not jump, I finally understood there reasoning. So no refund and free scenic flight of Taupo for all of us.

We were rescheduled for two o'clock in the afternoon. But the clouds did not break up. So rescheduled again and started watching Return of the King when I finally got the green light. Again driving with the limo to the airport. Everybody was expecting me already. Gearing up again and wow...

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Von 20100325-SkydiveTaupo

...it was amazing. Awesome. I still can't decide if the Haast Downhill with 40km/h is more exciting than the skydive or not. Definitely both are at the top of the experiences here in New Zealand. The close third are the AJ Hackett Nevis Bungy Jump and the Canyon Swing.

The first few seconds where disorienting but then you start finally taking in the view and scenery and landscape and clouds and sea and aeroplanes and the camera guy. When third part of the experience starts you already can't imagine how different it is to sail down on a parachute than free falling.

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Von 20100325-SkydiveTaupo

Von 20100325-SkydiveTaupo

I am alive and kicking ass. ;)

Cycle Tour (Day 15) Turangi to Taupo (50km)

The next big challenge is done. I finally reached Taupo. Taupo is famous for a lot of stuff, but essentially the only interesting thing for me is skydiving. Maybe I should have done it in Wanaka or Queenstown or one of the dozen other places where you may jump out of a perfectly fine plane.


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After getting my bike back from the cycle repair shop I went on to Taupo. I needed to repair my bike because I could not use the front gears anymore. And that is rather inconvenient for hilly rides. Yesterday it did not really matter anymore, because when I lost the front gears I was rolling mostly downhill and it was flat after that.

The mechanic asked me, where I am headed and to my answer he replied, that it should be a fairly easy ride 50km and one hill. As you know I am rather suspicious if a kiwi tells me something about the trip ahead of me. I was right again. At least after 25km.

Somehow the street just flew past me at the beginning and I was like 45 minutes on the road and already had 15km behind me. I could not really believe that the mechanic is right. So on I went and I was rather surprised that I still could not see Lake Taupo. If I have had a really good look at the map there was no need to be surprised. But as always I am more into lucky guessing where to go next. That was when I pulled out my cellphone and asked Google Maps where the heck I am. After obtaining my position I was right that this is the correct way to Taupo.

Five minutes later I finally glimpsed the Lake.

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Von 20100324-Taupo

As you can see the weather was not all to good and it was deteriorating fast. I met my first hill. And thought wow. That was easy. Maybe I am through and the mechanic is a wise man? Nope. The mountain followed. The hill was like 2 to 3km climb with lots of traffic trying to kill me. When I finally reached the top I got my next surprise. I could not keep a straight line with the bike. I knew I was a bit tired but I definitely was not drunk. So I stopped and had a look at my front wheel. Flat. Fantastic. So I got my stuff out and went to change the wheel. After a while a happy camper with two nice old folks stopped and asked me if I was alright. :) That would never happen in Germany.

I was alright and nearly done. So I told them thanks and have a nice day. After putting the front wheel back on the next surprise happened. It began to rain. Five minutes later I was soaking wet again and the should be fun part, the downhill was drowned in rain. Damn. After that there was a small hill following. On my count: two hills, one mountain, one flat tire, rain and headwind sums up to not an easy ride.

I reached Taupo half past one and I must say I have a really nice hostel. But somehow while I was in the shower, they started cleaning the bathroom and while they are cleaning the bathroom there is no hot water. Cold shower and I needed to get warm again. So the sun began to shine again. :) I had a nice afternoon in Taupo and now I am fairly tired.

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Tomorrow I will jump out of a perfectly fine plane into a(n active?) volcano.

Cycle Tour ( Day 14) National Park to Turangi (50km)

Yesterday I was riding in the Trans Scenic Overlander from Wellington to National Park. I wanted to catch up the time I idled away in Wellington and I wanted to avoid the traffic of Wellington. As it is with trainrides, my conditioning while nearly always using the train during the weekend did it's best and after maybe one hour I was fast asleep.

Watching the astounding nature from a bus or a train is simply not working for me. I managed to shoot a few pictures out of the train, but they are not good.

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Von 20100322-ToNationalPark

After that I just wanted to have a nice afternoon at the hostel. I did not meet any interesting people until far later, when I met Robert, a polnish guy writing his doctor thesis in Australia. But I had the opportunity for a 2.5 hours New Zealand sightseeing tour. Also named watching the Lord of the Rings Part I movie.

Today started with the knowledge I will be wet. It was raining and I knew there are only 50km to go. But still why am I doing this?


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I stopped in National Park to see the volcanoe. The highest mountain of the north island: Mt. Ruapehu.

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Essentially I have not seen all the big mountains of new zealand with my own eyes. Next time I will simply buy picture postcards.

Where was I? Oh yes. I was cycling 50km through rain today. The landscape was really cool. The first half was like on the left side green grass and on the right side brown and lilac bushes. I did not get my camera out of the backpack because it was simply to wet. So I was fighting my way uphill with headwind and rain. until I finally reach the half point. Then I was fighting my way downhill with headwind and little raindrops that feel like small needles all over my face. And there are a lot of raindrops if you try not to use your breaks.

Now. All my cycling stuff is wet and I hope it gets dry till tomorrow. I will be going to Taupo and hopefully the rain stops soon. Otherwise I won't be able to jump out of a perfectly fine plane.

Cycle Tour ( Day 13) Wellington Scenic Circuit (38.7km)

After relaxing my first days in Wellington and having a nice evening on St. Patricks Day. I went for the Wellington Scenic Circuit today.


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Essentially going around the peninsula and looking at the ocean. Start and end are at my hostel directly located in the city. I was going with really light luggage and equipment. I did not want to take all my stuff for this trip and boy, cycling can be so easy.

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Von 20100319-WellingtonScenicCircuit

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Von 20100319-WellingtonScenicCircuit

It was rather windy on several parts of the road. But while going in a circuit it means tailwind and headwind. Without pushing myself to hard and taking a few breaks I was back in the city after three hours of cycling.

The best way to this route depends on your preference. One steep climb at the beginning and then a flat road means counter clockwise. An easy but really long climb at the end means clockwise. I went clockwise. After cycling up the back of Mt. Cook I am not sure enough if I really want to go to the lookout on Mt. Victoria tomorrow. Maybe I am just relaxing my day away.

I booked my train to National Park for monday. Two more full days in Wellington left.

Wellington, Te Papa on St. Patricks Day

Bad Weather kept me indoors on St. Patricks Day Morning. So I went to the Te Papa Museum here in Wellington. I like the free entry and donation based policy. The museum is a great place. Not as big and filled like the really big european museums but still a place where you need to choose what you like to see.

I went for the giant calamari.

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And the void:

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After that I forgot to take pictures. But it is still worthwhile.

Wellington, Capital City of New Zealand

So today I moved to Wellington.


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After seeing the cities of Blenheim and Picton from the bus and watching the scenery I think I have missed nothing. Nice was the departure from Picton with the ferry. At least as long as I was on the sundeck. I went downstairs and woke up in Wellington.

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Von 20100316-Picton

to drift

So I met those two in Greymouth. Tanja and Max where writing poems the whole time. Last evening in Nelson I tried it myself. This is a first. Poem and english.

to drift

once in life I just wanna drift
no destination on my mind
I look around me really swift
no destination would be kind

once in life I want to live
no work and duty should be near
I want to receive as much as I give
loosing hope is my greatest fear

once in life I hope to find the star
that brightens all the world
hopefully I don't drift to far
intend to stay in this bright world

once in life I stop to drift
the destination in my reach
my mind and body get the lift
to happiness at the final beach

(C) KK 2010

Nelson an hour at the museum...

Sometimes I wonder what small provincial museums could have for their potential and what I essentially get from it. I was not expecting much when I went to go to the museum here in Nelson. Several people have told me, that the museum is not that great but today was definitely indoor weather. At least in the morning.

I like local museums. They have the opportunity to show you some of the history of the region you are in. They could be able to show the life and events that influenced normal people. And especially that one was really great here. Right now there is a exhibition about the first chinese immigrant to Nelson. I really liked the way they described his life and the challenges he faced round 150 years ago. They even went that far and put the door to his house on display.

On the other hand the normal exhibition is just a big potpourri. No real storyline just one piece of old stuff to the next. Sad. But there is so much potential. At least the entry fee was on honor base as they only liked to have donation of 5 NZD. I paid and I hope they try to improve themselves along the way. There is history here. Even if it is not several 1000 years like most museums can present in Europe.

Wellington tomorrow. I hope I won't get seasick from the bus and then 3 hour ferry ride.

Miyazu - Japanese Garden in Nelson

Not much to do... so I went this fine morning to the japanese garden in Nelson. It is a sign of friendship between the city of Miyazu in Japan and Nelson in New Zealand.

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Von 20100314-NelsonJapaneseGarden

Von 20100314-NelsonJapaneseGarden

It is a small garden so walking will take you through the garden in no time. But I believe the essential part of these kind of gardens is finding your preferred spot and settle down to contemplate and meditate. When I finally found a nice spot the peace and quiet (except traffic noise) was disturbed when three guys arrived. One obviously with a mind damage and the other two must be his nurses. Be it they chose to occupy my preferred spot, so I decided to move to my other preferred spot. Starbucks. And this ends my brief visit to the garden.

Tomorrow I am going to the beach and then I will pack my stuff again because I am going to Wellington.

Nelson, the Centre of New Zealand

So today is my official first day sightseeing of Nelson.

What is the first thing to do? Right: Booking bus and ferry to Wellington. ;) By the way I was thinking this morning about some important stuff. I bought a bus ticket to Picton a small town I really don't want to see to get to the ferry in time to leave the same day. So the ticket cost like 39 NZD. If I would have taken the bike I needed someplace to stay in Picton and I would have needed to go eat in a restaurant, because I don't carry much food, when I am cycling. Let's say accommodation including dinner would be 50 NZD. Now the question is: did I actually save 11 NZD while not cycling?

After planning the escape I went to my first objective of the day. The saturday market here in Nelson. It was nice. Maybe because I was done after 15 minutes of window shopping. But I believe it was more the fact that there where so many special NZ stuff on display and not like in germany, where you just know what will be next.

After that it was Starbucks time, before I went to the cathedral on Trafalgar Square.

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Not as old as the last few cathedrals I have been too. But here in New Zealand nothing is old. It was nice but not really a dayfilling activity. So after buying dinner and booking the hostel for Wellington I went cycling. Destination: Centre of New Zealand. Actually it means the geographical center of New Zealand.

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Nobody can tell me, that it is a big random thing that the actual center is right on top of a hill in Nelson. By all means. The very top of the hill? This would be very convenient for a lookout over Nelson.

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That was by the way one of the most stupid things I have done during my holiday so far. I was talking to my roommate yesterday what she has done the day. She told me something like this:

I have been to the Centre of NZ. *shrug*

She did not sound very enthusiastic about it.
In the evening we asked the old guy from the room next door, what he has done the day:

I have been to the Centre of NZ. *shrug*

He did not sound impressed either.
So I was standing at the bottom of the hill looking at the map and there was a MTB track on it. Maybe I can push the bike up this side of the hill and cycling down the other side? Cycling was not allowed where I was starting. So I started pushing until I was up that damn hill. 15 minutes killing myself. And for what? Imagine it. The cycle track was going uphill from my point. So I was cycling a 4WD Track up the hill until I reached the downhill part. You may guess what happened now.

Right. It was to damn steep to actually go down cycling. I had street tires with almost no profile and it was to damn dangerous to sit on the bike while going down. So I was pushing/pulling again. Oh man I really must hate myself. But seems like I don't hat myself enough to actually cycle down a steep zigzag. So what did I do today?

I have been to the Centre of NZ. *shrug*

Two more days in Nelson. Don't know what I should do tomorrow.

Cycle Tour ( Day 12) Marahau back to Nelson (67km)

Google Maps does not know the street I took back.


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There is a road from Marahau to Kaiteriteri. It is 5km longer but the climbs are not so steep. Otherwise there are several of them. Nothing much was happening. To much traffic. Uninteresting road. I am done for the day. I have a whole weekend in Nelson ahead of me. And hopefully I find transportation to Picton or Wellington tomorrow for the next week.

A walk in the park. (Part II)

Like I said I did a very short walk today.

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Von 20100311-AbelTasmanShort

Tomorrow I will be on the road again. Back to Nelson and having fun for the weekend. And while I am there I will be planning my transfer to the North Island. Somehow I will miss the south. But the autumn is starting and I really like to see some cities again.

A walk in the park.

So this is Abel Tasman.

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I booked a Water Taxi to go up to Tonga Bay and then I wanted to walk down to Torrent Bay. Should be a half day trip and in the afternoon the Taxi would get me back to Marahau. Not everything goes as planned.

But all in all everything went well. The day started with getting into the boat while the boat was still on the street.

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They essentially drove the boat into the water until it started swimming.

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And then it picked up speed out of the bay.

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It was actually quite a nice ride. No bumpy waves and lots of sunshine until we reached a seal colony.

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After that I disembarked at Tonga Bay and was half way to the track, when I noticed that I forgot the map. :) Decisions... I just thought, stick to the sign that is saying Bark Bay. Bays are a good thing. There you'll have a chance to get back into a taxi.

So I walked and hoped my first hour on the track today, that this is the correct way to Torrent Bay. And the track was going up and downhill the whole time. I would have vomitted, if I needed to push my bike these steep climbs. Whoever said, that this will be an easy walk, won't get me to take an intermediate walk.

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The nice thing about the track is, that there are many tourists. This is a worse thing too. You are never alone. So I walked until I finally found a map at Bark Bay. I was good on the foot and went on to the first pickup point at torrent bay.

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Von 20100310-AbelTasman

Von 20100310-AbelTasman

Von 20100310-AbelTasman

Von 20100310-AbelTasman

I arrived like three hours ahead of pickup time. So after a short break I decided to go the Anchorage Bay the second pickup spot. I was so early that I did the low tide route there too. The guide has said, that we probably can't take that one, because of the timing.

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Von 20100310-AbelTasman

So I was there two hours before pickup time. And no taxi could take me earlier. I had while to relax in the sun and wait.
What a surprise: Hiking is definitely not my sport. The scenery was nice, but still with a nice road and a bike I would have had more fun. Still if You go to New Zealand You need to take a walk. Any walk through the bush will do. It is like Bungy Jumping. :)

Tomorrow I will probably going for a walk again. I haven't seen the entrance to the park yet and there is a lookout over the bay. Looks like easy walking distance.