Wonderful walks in the Aoraki/Mt Cook national park
Mt. Cook village is a good base to explore the Aoraki/Mt. Cook national park. Accommodation is generally expensive, but the local YHA has normal prices and is a very relaxed place to stay. In the warmer months you can also use the excellent campsite close to the village, where some of…
From dorm room to Routeburn
There’s a new girl in the room. “I’m going to do the first part of the Routeburn track, sleep in a hut, and walk back.” “O, awesome. I’ve been looking into that.” “Do you want to come?” And so it happens that I will set off for the Routeburn track…
Through rough waters
My stay at the Headhunter village in Malaysia was followed by a boat trip through the jungle to start walking the headhunter trail. Honestly, I have no clue what the river was called. I only remember the trip. It was a very rainy day. We watched as the locals were…
Day trip to Norway
One day on our big Lapland road trip, we planned to go to Norway. The idealists, or fools, among us thought we should go to the North Cape. After two days of being late all the time they still hadn’t learnt this was just not realistic. We opted for a…
Weekly Photo Challenge: On The Move
One summer I was working on the island Sardinia in Italy. We were based in a small town called St. Lucia. A short walk brought us to the beach. On my day off, me and a colleague hired mountain bikes to explore a track down the coast. On our bikes…
Get your swag out!
Say what now? No, a swag has nothing to do with today’s oh-so-cool youth and their attitudes. One can swagger, but will never be as cool as sleeping in a swag. A swag is a big sleeping bag with a built-in mattress, a zipper along the side and a flap…
Hot pools and hot chocolate
Time is ticking away. I spent some awesome days in Pareora and did things I never thought I’d do. Queenstown is waiting though, and thus it’s time to hit the road! Since I don’t want to start working without having seen anything, I planned some stops along the way. First…
Pareora; family life
Travelling is all about new experiences. During one of my intense internet searches I came across Workaway. Workaway is an international platform where people can connect via volunteer work. I signed up as a volunteer and started browsing the ads. New Zealand seems like a perfect country to do this…
Roadtripping Lapland or Good news and Bad news
I’m excited about our road trip to Lapland when I walk over to my friend’s flat. The first thing he tells me is that we have good and we have bad news. The good news is that the car we rented, which he picked up the night before, works, the bad…
Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring!
Bright colors, wearing T-shirts, sitting outside even it’s still a bit chilly to catch the first sunshine, new flowers coming up… springtime! A few years ago I spent this time of year in Finland. It was gorgeous to see the snow melt and the flowers come up. We would go…