Weekly Photo Challenge: Work of Art
This work of art comes from Taipei. On a visit to the Sun Yat Sen memorial hall, I noticed this garden at the side of the building. The stern-looking statues are surrounded by all these pink flowers. A pretty sight. For more entries in the weekly photo challenge, check out…
Memories of spring
Ailsa’s weekly travel theme for this week is Blossom. At the moment I’m at the wrong side of the globe to find the blossoming flowers. Here, the air is getting chilly, the days are short, and the flowers have turned into dry, yellow and brown remnants of summer. So here’s…
A taste of the Routeburn
I’ve only been in New Zealand for about 4 weeks, and yet I’ve met plenty of people who claim the Routeburn Track is the prettiest of the country. This walk usually takes three days, but I set out on a two-day walk to see if all those comments were actually…
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…