Dunedin with Marie (~ Jan 1st 2017)

After Warrington I hitched a hike with some young german guys back to Dunedin. I checked into the hostel where I'd meet Marie (I met her a few weeks back in Wellington). We stayed in contact and so I stayed in Dunedin for New Years, because Queenstown would have been too expensive.

We first headed into town to see some things and decided to walk to the steepest road in the world (I mentioned before). When we finally arrived I realised how different it looked by foot. We climbeed up. And up. And up.
When we arrived we made some fotos, cause it actually is really steep! Wow!

What a climb up! Wow...

I'm standing straight, this is probably the steepest part of the road

The "view" down

The next day was going to be new years eve, so we did some shopping for a big asian peanut curry and prepared. The day over it rained, so we tried doing indoor activities. Like a visiting the cadbury factory again (though we only went into the store) and then did a tour through the Speights Brewery. It was fun, the guide was old and had TONS of anecdotes to share and he appeared to have met every important person in the world (premier ministers, chancelors and kings of any country). And the way he talked you could think he was living since forever... "Oh you're from Germany? Merkel was heree a few months back! Interesting person, though her politics aren't that popular at the moment, right?" ... "Denmark? The royal family visited here a few years ago" ... "The big world fair in 1925/26 was amazing and put Dunedin on the map! Wonderful thing"
The beer tasting was a little short, because the next tour walked in... But of course drinking beer is always nice ;-)

Now we had our "fancy" dinner with new years gin! We then headed out with some others from the hostel to the "ocatagon", the centre of Dunedin to see the fireworks and celebrate. Wooooo! Happy new year! :D

The next day we had made a date with a dutch couple to do a wildlife tour. We were picked up from our hostel and got to know our guide, well not really, he didn't introduce himself, so found out what his name was.
BUT we found out, that he runs the tours for sereval years and has a small museum in his house. He is building his house for some years now and is hoping to be able to sublet it to some backpackers at one point. He used many parts from different places and sites in Dunedin, like doors from an old cinema, chairs from a theatre and stairs from a other old house (or something like that).
Then he showed us around in his home, it was quite nice, then we came into the "Museum". There were many "statues" standing around, built by him! All in different costumes, with different weapons and so on. He collected them all around the world, from different travels, bought them from different stores and so on. It was impressive. Mostly they were just busts, some actually had arms and an upper body. Other than that he had many other "artifacts" lying around in his home in shelfs and glass vitrines (?).
He actually had about 2 rooms full of these manikins. He told us about all of them, where they are from, which culture they represent etc.
After this small detour we headed out to the Otago Peninsula.

View from our guides house over the Dunedin beach!

The wildlife tour started! The guide told us about the different animals we would hopefully see: seals, sea lions, albatrosses and penguins. Maybe some others on the way. Our first destination was the albatross place at the very point of the peninsula.
On the way we stopped a few times to take some pictures of trees kneeling to the wind, sheep staring at weird humans and just the beautiful coastline and view over the landscape.

Calm down Marie!

View from a higher point on the Otago peninsula and of course sheep

This sheep was just staring at us making pictures of the landscape

Close to the Albatross centre was a small beach where seals were hanging around, it was now closed off and only a walkway lead down to the beach. In the evening it gets closed by the albatross centre, who then sells tickets, so people pay to see penguins, who supposedly come there in the evening. Incredible. Everything was about making money for them, they let people walk up to the albatross nests or resting grounds, but only for about 20 minutes, so if no albatross was flying in during that time, you basically wasted your money. And a sitting albatross just isn't as spectacular as a flying one.

Because the seals were quite far away I used the binoculours to "zoom in" :D

Worked quite well I'd say ;-)

Our guy of course knew all the tricks and walked with us towards the edge of the cliffs where a walkway was built. He's hoping this will stay free for everyone to use and not be charged as well, but you never know...
Anyway we waited there and he told us the best position to wait at and how the albatrosses would fly in. And they did! In all we saw 5 of these huge birds flying past us, some "snuck" up on us, others were visible for a longer period (flying in from the ocean). He had some binoculars with him, so we could scout ahead. And he would be on th elookout aswell and yell when we should get our cameras ready! I hope the pictures are good, it's hard to get flying birds on camera...

This is where the Albatross' will most probably fly up using the winds breaking on the cliffs, so they can just glide on it

And surely: Albatross flying by!

Albatross incoming!!

After these successful moments we went back to the car and the next stop was the penguin place. It was a beach, that was apparently a breeding and living spot for the yellow eyed penguin, which is one of the rarest penguins in the world, and at the same time pretty big!
He said he'd wait in the car, because he's old and his hip hurts when walking too much and told us where to be on the lookout. So we headed down to the beach. Before we seperated he looked with his good binoculars and actually spotted a penguin! He said, if anything, we can probably still see that one standing there.

We started climbing down the dunes and onto the beach. There were only a few other people walking around and a few sea lions lying on the ground. The dutch couple didn't see one of them and walked past it by only a couple meters, luckily it was asleep, so nothing happened, but they were suprised, that they did not see it lying on the ground! We took some fotos of them, being so close to these sleeping animals and went further to the end of the beach. We got closer to the penguin our guide had spotted and now we all were able to see it. We went in closer and then.... WHAT?!
No....
How could this be?!

It's a fake penguin?!?!?!

Someone apparently put up a wooden or cardboard penguin for some reason. And we fell for it... as did our guide. Wow... That was sad... The wind was hurling sand around and we were happy to be able to head up a small dune, where the wind wasn't able to throw sand into our faces.

Beneath the grassy rock, you should be able to make out a small penguinish figure (foto made though binoculors)

These sea lions were just relaxing on the beach and some people walked past them not noticing

Sea Lion selfie

Am I not fabulous?

View over the beach from all the way up

There we sat. We talked and waited to see some real penguins. At one point there weren't any humans on the beach any more, so we hoped the penguins might show up now, but they didn't. We were quiet for a while (wondering if they might have good ears and not come when people talked?) but that didn't help.
The weather got worse and we were wondering if we should keep waiting or not. I said we should, because the penguins probably come out of the water, when the sun has set and not earlier (I had been waiting for Penguins in Warrington after all). But at that point people started walking to our end of the beach again, some waited down at the water, between sea lions. I was wondering if the sealions might scare the penguins away or if it was the humans waiting at the water. But the weather got even worse and the wind stronger. It started drizzling a little bit and so we decided to head back to the car and not wait untill the sun sets completely. We didn't see and penguins that day, but many more people were on the way to the beach, so maybe we were there too early. We didn't bother going back with the approaching storm. Out guide was devestated, that it was a fake penguin and apologized many times to us and was also sad, that we didn't see any real penguins. 

He drove us back to Dunedin and dropped us back at the hostel.

The dutch couple left the next day, Marie and I planned to visit a place called Tunnel Beach. We got there with a bus and a 20 minute walk. We arrived there shortly before lunch time. There was a small food truck at the entrance of the walkway (again it was mostly gated and only a walkway lead down to the rocks and beach.

A glitch in the matrix? Nope, just me taking a panorama foto

2nd attempt on taking a panorama, this time over 360°! With 2 Maries :D

First we walked across the cliffs and took in the view and the landscape. Again very nice, it reminded me of the great ocean road with all it's stone pillars, cliffs and "bridges". Very nice, we took some fotos, many other people were also hanging around there and walking about.

Look at the square rock that broke out of the cliff!

View from the cliff down on tunnel beach

Next we headed down a small tunnel which was artificially made with steps to get down to the beach. Because it was really small it basically was a one-way street and you'd have to wait till you could finally cross. The beach itself wasn't much of a beach to go swimming. And interestingly the water just kept on crawling towards the cliffs. This was suprising for many people. They sometimes watched the water slowly creep towards them wondering when it'd stop and had to jump onto rocks in the last second because the water didn't stop as they expected! But those waves weren't that often.

View from tunnel beach up the cliff

This reminded me of the great ocean road witht the apostels, london bridge and so on

Cthulu's offspring? Nope, just a certain type of fast-growing Algae on the rocks which sometimes just break off and gets washed up on the shore

We spent some time there, looking at the people running from approaching water to not get their feet and shoes wet and climbing around the rocks ourselves. THen we started walking home and got a bus back again. That was our last evening together in Dunedin. Marie was leaving for Fiji in a few days and I left to meet Sönke, because Ronja was on a hike for a few days we could use the car together.

I wonder if the Village People did their shopping here?

Christmas in New Zealand (~ Dec 25th *duh*)

Wooo! Merry christmas... well not really. A little late for that...

For Christmas I was in Dunedin. One of the bigger cities in NZ, second biggest on the south island (if I'm not mistaking). It's pretty far off in the south and more a uni city, but in my opinion with some nice things to do, even if you aren't studying there. But during holidays and such the city loses several 1000s of people, because the students all go home.

Here I camped - the first time in NZ. Because I arrived a day before my friends came along, I checked in a hostel to have a nice bed before sleeping on my air mattress and in a sleeping bag.
It was a rather small and cozy hostel and I was dropped off by my nice lift. The people inside were all in groups and in holiday spirit. I did some shopping and had dinner and checked the post office, my parents wanted to send me a christmas package :D
Of course it was closed, but I took fotos of the opening hours during the holidays, so I could come back, when it's open. And they close an aweful lot during the holidays. 25-27th december and then again 1st-3rd january. And some days with shorter hours (like the 24th and so on)
Wow... Anyway I got ready to head out the next day to meet up with my friends.
They arrived at about lunch time on the 24th and so shortly after I followed with my luggage and took a bus to their campsite. They were just returning back from shopping, when I arrived, so I put up my cheap 17$ tent (and additionally I bought a 3$ plastic, actually used for painting, to make it waterproof ^^ ). Luckily it didn't rain while we were in Dunedin, though the weather could have been a lot better! We had an awesome bbq session, made some music and I wore my blinking santa hat all day ^^
The next 2 days we hung out together, visited Dunedin and also the Cadbury Chocolate Factory! That was amazing! Of course we got alot of chocolate, which was awesome. We also got a small caramal chocolate santa, because we did the tour on the 26th of december! ;-)
On the 27th Ronja and Sönke left and I extended for another day, before I left as well and went to a small free camping site to save some money.

As quickly as I wrote this, is how I felt it happening to me. In a rush I was there, my friends arrived, we ate, had fun and suddenly they were gone again and christmas was over. It was nothing compared to celebrating at home with your family. Especially for me, because since 2009 I also had to drive home, it felt like a special place and in that time of year, you get the "christmas spirit" as you might want to call it. Time slows down and you enjoy everything. Now while I was travelling it seemed more like a normal day, except that there were some decorations here and there, people wearing santa hats and christmas music being played in almost every shop/ place in the cities.
It might also have to do with the fact, that it is warm, you know you are on the southern hemisphere and it is summer, no chance of a white christmas. Though our christmas was cloudy and not as summerly as people told me the previous years were.
But it was nice to be with friends at least, who you could spend this nice day together with. I really enjoyed hanging out with them and with them getting into the christmas spirit (before I didn't really feel much). But when I put on my hat and people wished me merry christmas and then finally meeting them and celebrating together, I got it. It was a good day!
We tried recording a "winter wonderland", but the wind destroyed all the audio I think but sang it just for us and just had a fun evening with christmas Gin Tonic and the great bbq food ;-)

Wow I look crazy.... And those santas blinked! ;D

VCP Beer! (VCP is my scouting organisation in Germany)

Woooo! Cadbury factory

The Cadbury trucks, these delivered milk to the factory and transported the chocolate around town

Ah yes, Kids love it! (right Benjamin? ^^)

The Dunedin Justice building and

the Dunedin Trainstation are built in the same old fashioned style

Christchurch (~ Dec 21st)

Thanks to my lift I was dropped off directly at the hostel. When I told him the name he wanted to see if it was the same hostel he once stayed in and when he saw the neighbourhood he remembered it and told me it's a nice place ;-)
A German girl who was just returning helped me get inside with all my luggage (you had to buzz the door or use a code to get inside). I met her later again for a little stroll through Christchurch. She showed me some sites (like the main cathedral, which is still pretty much destroyed from the earthquake 2011/2012).
Back then there were 2 big earthquakes, which devastated a big parts of the city. Now many people live more outside and the central part of the city is really open and empty. Most old spots of the buildings are now car parks and just not really pretty (instead of making them green areas or whatever...)
Max (the guy who brought me to Christchurch) told me everyone has a story about his night, when the earthquake struck. His was, that he couldn't sleep and wanted to grab a smoke, but because he was out he walked to an 7/11 and was on the street when the streets and land started shaking. The store was destroyed and his appartment as well. So he said you could think smoking saved his life, but he pointed it more to his sleeplessness.
After that earthquake in the end of 2011 many afterquakes happened, so many people got used to them. Later someone said, that sometimes he and his brother would watch TV, when the earth started shaking no one moved, when it stopped, they were still sitting on the couch and watching TV. It bothered no one... That wasn't too good, cause then in 2012 another major earthquake took place, closer to the earths surface and in daytime, so when one of the office buildings collapsed, it was full of people and many more died in that earthquake than the "stronger" one in 2011.

So anyway, you can still see, that the city has to recover. Many constructions sites , some buildings still in ruins, some just being torn down. And containers. Containers were for many people a popular way to "build" something quickly, such as shopping places, living spaces and even a church. Similar to what I have seen in Hamburg, where some classrooms are entirely made out of containers and many living places for refugees were also built out of containers.

One of the pieces of art on the walls, of course making a parking area more attractive...

The next day I did some shopping and walked around Christchurch some more, visited the botanical garden and later actually met up with Sönke to see "Star Wars Rogue One", the newest movie about a Galaxy far far away. Sönke and Ronja had a tattoo appointment the next day, so he was excited and couldn't stay for long, so he left and I once again said bye untill Christmas.

Some green thingy in the botanical garden

"O sole mio!" - a little fun boat ride on a canal through the botanical garden

The next morning I headed out to do a free tour of Christchurch (recommended by Sönke). These are nice and cheap possibilities for travelers to explore a city, they offer the tours in different cities, though I imagine there are by now several different companies doing them. By now I also did one in Sydney (Australia, Melbourne also has a free tour), but there is also one in Wellington and Auckland. You could of course not pay anything, but the tourguide isn't paid, so they are dependent on the tips of the people attending. So many give generously. Which made me think about maybe starting a similar business in Hamburg, if there isn't one already. The guy was friendly and told us alot of things and of course showed us around Christchurch, with its container shopping mall, container church and the different buildings which were bought for only 1$, because of the severe earthquake damage. Some smart investor buys it and tries to renovate it or tear it down to build a new building. But none of them are finished yet, if I remember correctly...
Many of the open walls (which were once covered by the neiboghring building) are now artwork, many street artists have painted, drawn or whatever on the walls. That is in fact cool. Just walking around and suddenly seeing a big painted elephant, on another wall a woman with feathered hair and so on.
At the end of the tour the guy started talking about the future of Christchurch and got a little dramatic. It sounded almost as if he was comparing the city to a phoenix: "Like a phoenix, it shall rise out of it's ashes and come to new glory! It will be a cultural hub for everyone, great art and more beautiful than any other in New Zealand!" That was a good ending, I had a feeling others were indifferent about his passion. I don't know. But it was worth it, if you ever go to Christchurch I can recommend it (I don't know if there are tour guides who aren't as passionate/ good as he is).

This building still has the old fassade! On the rest of the building is gone, so rebuilt by containers!

The new modern church in the central district of Chch!

The entrance and side of the building is made of containers, the roof built out of special tubes, so it is light and pretty much earthquake safe

The glas of the front window is made out of old church windows, which were destroyed in the earthquake

xxx empty white chars, each representing a person, that died in the earthquake, to the left is a small info board and on the back a list of everyone, who died there

The old cathedral, they are still discussing, if they will tear it down or just repair it

The church wants to replace with a new building, but the community and some others want to repair it

Many cranes, building sites and some new buildings, you see this alot in Christchurch

Another piece of art

Actually some of the oldest buildings, which survived the earthquake and are in the middle of Christchurch!

On the tour were all sorts of people, seniors from Australia, students from Australia and from the USA, backpackers from european countries and of course germans. One of them I hung around with later and had some lunch. Back in the hostel I got a free sleeping bag (2 asian guys had left in the middle of the night with 10.000 alarms) and left different things in the room, saying good bye, cause they're leaving back to their home country. I didn't get which one, they just said home and otherwise didn't speak alot of english (or didn't chose to). Then new people moved into my room. We talked and 2 of them were german students, who were studying abroad in Auckland and travelling aroung the south island for the summer break. They got a good tent, sleeping bag and mattresses almost for free from other people, who were also leaving back home. Apparently many people leave New Zealand from Christchurch.
In the night again at almost the same time as the night before again an alarm went off. It was the new asian guy in my room, who jumped off his bed and took his packed suitcase etc. to leave without a word. Weird thing was, that he came back at about 7am. We were wondering if he missed his flight or something... But we didn't want to wake him. Anyway he was back and I had to leave. Well wanted to. I had looked online for a good spot to hitch a hike to the south (before christmas all buses are expensive or booked out...). I took a bus all the way to the edge of the city and waited. It slowly started drizzling when a car stopped and took me to Ashburton, about an hour south of Chch. It was Arnheim, a half dutch half australian guy, who offered me to call him in case I didn't get a ride to Dunedin that day. He dropped me off at a busy road towards the south in Ashburton where I again dropped my bags and got ready for a long wait. Luckily it had stopped raining, though it still was really cloudy and didn't look too nice.
I only waited about 15 minutes when another car stopped. In the back a mountain bike, so just one seat left for me. David was his name, he works in Blenheim and is a biologist, interested in small birds and is a very active guy, doing many outdoor activities. He of course was on the way to his family for christmas, they live just a little west of Dunedin and he knows Dunedin well, because he lived and studied there. On the way he showed me a little around Oamaru. Well he just drove around and told me there was a great steampunk museum. I was interested, though of course didn't want to make him stop for me and had no clue if I could or wanted to spend a night here.
We drove on and finally arrived in Dunedin. Here again he showed me a few things, such as the steepest road in the world. Well the steepest residency road of the world (though I remember some very steep roads in Italy!). Anyway he drove up there! It was crazy! That road is really freacking steep! I felt like in a rollercoaster driving up, ready to rush down! But n the top there's not much to do/ see. Houses to the left and right, just a little view. But a few nice things saying it's the steepest residency road in the world. The street was big enough for him to turn around and drive back down again, slowly of course. He said in the past people actually died doing stupid things like jumping in garbage cans and rolling down the hill...
Another thing he told me was, that the cycle lanes in Dunedin are broad because once a famous professor was run over by a car, while riding his bike. That's why they made the cycle lanes broader, so this won't happen again (I guess). You could still see the old marks, which were nearly half as wide as the new ones!
He then dropped me off at the hostel, because it was basically on his way on to his family. I got out and checked into the hostel for a day, before going to the campsite to celebrate christmas with Ronja and Sönke =)

Near the Cathedral, that artsy thing in the background is a popular meeting place, closeby the "wizard of Christchurch" walks around and gives speeches!

FYI: The wizard is a old man, with long grey beard who walks around in a wizard robe and has a staff of Gandalf!!! Oh and he gets paid for doing that from the city...

I only saw the wizard for a short bit, he rushed past me, so I couldn't ask him any questions...