Even with only two hundred thousand inhabitants, Wellington manages to boast a lot of cafés, bars, parks and museums. The city center has a lot of art around on the streets as well as nice places to meet, have a picnic or just relax. One of the days, despite winds and only 10 degrees in...Read More
An hour driving on narrow gravel roads from National Park Village we got to the Blue Duck Lodge in Whakahoro where we would be staying the next couple of nights. Upon arrival we where told a little about the endangered Blue Duck and why the lodge was named after it. The people in the lodge...Read More
New Zealand is known for its nature and good hiking possibilities. The most famous of the day hikes being the Tongoriro Crossing that starts and ends outside a small town simply called National Park in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. At first I thought I would be okay with my simple...Read More
Before getting to Rotorua I spoke to some people who had been there and advised me not to go. My guess is that they must have just judged the place from the smell of the sulfuric geothermal pools and not really looked around as there is heaps of stuff to do here! The main attraction...Read More
What I love about traveling with Stray is that they take you to places off the beaten track. The buses don’t just go from city to city like the local buses, but they make sure to stop for nice small walks and places of interest along the way to break up journeys. Our next stop...Read More
Just a twenty minute bike ride from Rotorua you find some fantastic bike tracks in what is known as the Worlds biggest man made forest. The bike park is free to enter, so all it costs to go would be the rental of bikes. Half a day set me back thirty dollars including a helmet...Read More
For the Lord of the Rings enthusiast the highlight of a trip to New Zealand would probably have been visiting the Hobbiton movie set. The tiny hobbit village lies on quite remote farmland between Rotorua and Auckland and day trips for around hundred New Zealand dollars are available from both these cities. The drive from...Read More
New Zealand has been the country to get the first sunrise in the World until 2011 when Samoa decided to jump across the date line. Not everyone here seems to know that and on a lot of the places visited around the Eastern Cape people seem to still brag about being the first. The fact...Read More
Gisborne is known as the surfing capital of New Zealand and the regional capital of New Zealand’s Eastern Cape. The region is known for its good conditions to grow fruits, nuts and wine grapes. Right when we got to Gisborne we went to a place called Smash Palace where we had ordered wine tasting, which...Read More
New Zealand has been the country to get the first sunrise in the World until 2011 when Samoa decided to jump across the date line. Not everyone here seems to know that and on a lot of the places visited around the Eastern Cape people seem to still brag about being the first. The fact...Read More
I am happy that all of Stray’s buspasses include some unique stop where travelers get to learn about the culture of the Maori people and stay in a traditional Maori Marae which is where the Maoris usually have their social gatherings. For us this place was Mourea, a small village on a lake where our...Read More
Wataimo town is a tiny place. There are just a few houses, a shop, a couple of cafés and then there are glowworm caves. For those of you who do not know what a glowworm is, it is a kind of a larvae that has a tail glowing like a led light to attract flies...Read More
When our Stray bus rolled up at the Kariori Lodge we had a quick introduction about our accommodation for the night before it was time for us to get ready to do what we came there to do, which was surfing. Board and surfboard hire was super reasonably priced at 20 bucks for an hour...Read More
Before getting to Auckland I had thought that the place was just another business city with nothing to do, but I could not have been more wrong. My couchsurfing hosts Jan and Matylda from Norway and Poland were both quite outdoorsy and showed me all kinds of hikes and day trips that could be done...Read More
Tonga was probably the country the country I had been looking forward to visiting the most on my South Pacific trip, mainly because I had booked my trip there on the perfect time for spotting heaps of Humpback Whales that would come up from the Antartic to give birth. The best part about it was...Read More
On the way back from the Yasawas (outer) Island group I jumped off at the tiny South Sea Island in the Mamanucas (inner) islands. It was just a 30 minute ride from “mainland” Fiji and therefore also attractive to day trippers coming over. The reason for picking this island was that everything, except drinks, was...Read More
It was time for my third national holiday this month. This time it was Fiji who had their 45th independence day, much like Papua New Guinea and Tuvaly, the indepence day was celebrating by eating lots and lots of food and watching songs and traditional dances performed by locals. Almost everyone had the day...Read More
When six employees from Nabua Lodge came out to welcome us with songs and a readily prepared meal, the five hour boat ride in rough sea was soon forgotten. We had landed on Nacula Island, which was as far out on the Yasawas Islands that scheduled boat transport could possibly take us. The island is...Read More
Rugby is one of many activities on the airstrip When flying into Tuvalu, there is no other way out than flying back to where you came from. Fiji Airways is the only airline that flies to and from the country, which is only done twice a week. The rest of the time, the airstrip is...Read More
Tuvalu is made up of eight inhabited islands. About half of them living on the main one where the capital is, the rest is spread out on the others. Having already been here for four days doing almost nothing I thought it would be nice to get away for a day and when a German...Read More
