Campervan

Yippi, I got the van! And it is brandnew, I call my baby Lucy!! (denn sie gaeht ab wie die Lucy!!)

The first day I drove to the Coromandel Peninsula



and stayed at the Hot Water Beach. I watched Haihai Beach and Cooks Beach and stayed my first night on top of Hot Water Surf Beach.

Then I drove to the East Cape and the coast road before the cape was the shit. I had better starview at night then in Chile.
Arrived at the cape I used my last gasdrop, so I needed a gasstation very bad. My only rescue was Te Ahoroa and as I arrived a long line was waiting for gas. All Maori people and they were so friendly that the shared their food with me. We had a really nice conversation as we all waited for the gasstation guy to open.

Then I drove to the Urerewa National Park which was so far my highlight on the North Island! Untouched nature, natural forests and nobody there! It was a 100km gravel road..awesome!!



Next stop was Taupo with the claimed so incredible Huka Falls and Water springs and Geysires, but I said fuck it... so expensiv as it was I watched it from small distance and figured out it was the right decision. I picked up 2 hitch hikers from Slovakia and they were my first entertainment since 7 days. I already started takling with myself and Lucy!!
The night I spent at this beautiful lake:

ion

Next stop were the Gloworm Caves ( yeah Dunstin!!!) in Waitomo. Not very long but impressiv! After that I drove on towards NAtional Park, buit because of the bad weather I couldn't see anything. Too bad, a waste of gas, but Kiwi radio doesn't work everywhere I wasn't aware of the weather. So, I decided to go to Mt. Taranaki.
I arrived late in the afternoon and didn't have a nice view, so I decided to go the other morning. The night I spent at Manaia Beach:



A thunderstorm at night disturbed my beauty sleep, but the result was sun the next morning and a slightly clear view to the Volcano.
After that I headed to Wellington, and on the way I picked up 2 hitchhikers, Adam from Wanganui and Pauline from France. Good entertainment till Wellington. And arrived in Wellington the weather was even shittier than the night before!

Tommorow I'm heading to the South Island!

New Zealand-Auckland

Hi,

I'm still alive! After arriving in Auckland I was chased by the firefighters, everywhere I showed up a fire broke out (no joke) even at night at a bar, the firemen stopped in front of the bar for 5 minutes and went on...I went to the museum and the firealarm went on...after the first time going downtown, after the first street to cross, the firemen showed up and closed the street...

After making the deal with the local car rental company, I got myself a small Hyundai for three days until I could pick up the campervan. So I tried to make my way out of the city but got lost and the next mess happened 50km after I picked up the car: a flat tire. After changing the tire, I found out that there is hardly any profile on the tires and that they are marked, so that the company will recognize when something happened. But smart as Podolski I bought me some handties that attracted the rimcap to the rim and fixed the reserve wheel so that nobody recognized the flat tire...(die bescheissen uns, wir bescheissen eine anderen!!)

But then I just drove by really nice nature.

Langs Beach-Cape Reinga- 90 Mile Beach- Ahipara- Waipoua Kauri Forest- Ruawai

Pics come later, not possible in this internet cafe

New-Zealand

Hola,

I'm doing great and have landed safely in Auckland, New-Zealand. Tommorow I will rent a car and drive up the north tip of the north island for three days until I get my camper.

Yesterday, after I arrived at 4h in the morning, I went to Waiheke Island and made a mountainbike tour. Beautiful beaches and an awesome landscape.

Today I went to the Skytower in the Center and later on to the Museum.

San Pedro de Atacama

I finally left Santiago to go to San Pedro in the Atacama desert, which is one of the dryest parts of the world. The 24h busdrive was definetly worth it. I saw the whole westcoast of chile and a beautiful sunset. In the morning I woke up in the middle in the desert. Arrived in Antofagasta, on the left was the Pacific ocean and on the right desert, nothing in between..really impressiv. In Antofagasta I saw Condors on a rooftop, that were dropping Mr.Hankys all over the place.

Here I also met my two french rommmates (Armine+Lea). In San Pedro de Atacama we took the worst hostel so far! Fuck the Florida hostel!! No warm water, the guy eats our food and runs after your money all the time. The same way is the city> they just want your money and the prices are twice as high as in Santiago.

But the best thing is the landscape. Everyday we took tours. The first tour was into the Moonvalley (Valley de la luna). There we were watching the sunset and the panorama of the Andes. In the evening we joint a star observation at Allans place. He and his wife explained us the stars of rhe southern hemnisphere and showed us stars, planets and nebulas through his telescopes.

The next morning we went to the Laguna Miscanti. We saw Flamingos, huge saltlakes and the laguna at over 4200m above sealevel. After a short lunch (Lllamameat...hhhmmmm) we visited Toconao, an old village.

Then we went at 4h in the morning to the Tatio Geysires, which are 4300m high. It was fucking cold (minus 11 degree Celsius). We had a breakfast that was cooked in the Geysires and watched the sunset. After that we took a bath in the therms, really nice!! Then we visited a village and had Cocatea, Llamameat and Empanadas. The landscape was awesome. A desert that changed within 500m to an oasis and back..
In the afternoon we rented three horses and went on an two hour ride...my first time! I had some unwanted sprints, but the rest worked out very well!!

The next day me and Armine rented a bike and made a little tour around San Pedro. We went to an ancient settlement and enjoyed the landscape.
My bus left San Pedro in the afternoon and I finally arrived again in Santiago.

Chile overall has a pretty nice landscape but it is way to modern in my opinion, people don't know nothing about their culture and just focus on the money. I knew more about their culture then the local guide. Nothing compared to Mexico. Time to leave to New-Zealand!!

San Pedro de Atacama

Mexico-Miami-Bogota-Santiago de Chile

Santiago de Chile

Hola Amigos,

I finally left Mexico to go to Chile, but it wasn't easy! After taking the metro from Julys place in Mexico City, I arrived at the airport and was sent from A to B for several times until I got to check in. Arrived in Miami I was supposed to have 4 hours, but bullshit...American customs took me 3 hours just for a connection flight. Then I checked in to Bogota. In Bogota everything was really uncomplicated. After short custom controls I checked in for Santiago de Chile. Arrived in Chile I had problems with the custom again. No description of the immigration form made me fill out the wrong form, and then I forget the second handout, so I ended up standing in line for two times. After 24 hours with action I finally stepped out the airport. Then I didn't get any money from the ATM machine so I was lucky to pay the taxi to my hostel with the visa card. Arrived in the hostel I couldn't get a bed because I was there to early but I could sleep for some hours on the sofa.
But then I enjoyed the chilenean capital. Not a very cute city, but allright, went to the museum of anthropology, had some food (cerviche) in the mercado central and walked through the Bellavista Quarter to climb the San Cristobal Mountain, where I had a Erdinger Weizen (german beer) in the Biergarten. Today I'm leaving to the Atacama desert in the north of Chile and I'm really looking forward to leave the city again, because the air is really polluted and my throat hurts already.

Thank you Jules!!

Muchas Gracias Jules!!

He tenido una tiempo buenito con tuyo y tengo mucho gratificacion!!!

Cuando vas a Allemana eres bienvenido todo el tiempo!

Tulum, Tulum..wir fahren nach Tulum!

Diesmal fuer Olli in deutsch!!!
Tulum ist der Hammer! Karibik vor der Cabana-Tuer, staubfeiner Sand und pipiwarmes Wasser. Claudia, Daniela und Ich haben vier Naechte gebucht, aber uns dann wegen der guten Atmosphaere und Gotteswillen (der wollte das wir wegen der Hitze uns mit dem Packen zeitlassen)noch ne Nacht gegoennt. Wat is looos? Ich hab die Zeit genossen! Und nach ein bisle Trennungsschmerz, gings weiter nach Playa del Carmen, Touristenmekka der Amerikaner. Nach einem kleinen Zivilisationsschock ueber die haessliche Stadt und den ballermannartigen Touristen, hab ich mein Zimmer bezogen.
Raumkollegen waren alle was komisch bis auf den Kollegen aus Estland! Ein beschraenkter Amerikaner und ein Alkoholiker aus Deutschland, der so abartig gestunken hat, dass man den schon vor dem Eintreten in das Zimmer gerochen hat und zur Kroenung stellt er die lebenswichtige Klimaanlage aus wenn er um 3h nachts total voll reinkommt, was seinen Geruch potenziert hat.
Nun ja, nach einem guten Essen in Mannes Biergarten (Schnitzel, Bratkartoffeln und Rotkohl),einer durchzechten ersten Nacht mit den nichtstinkenden Zimmerkollegen und einem gratis Salsakurs auf der Party hab ich dann schliesslich doch noch meinen Sonnenaufgang um 6h mogens mitbekommen!!
Den naechsten Tag hab ich natuerlich nix gemacht, nur abgequanzt... Heute gings morgens nach Cancun, von wo ich dann nach Mexico City geflogen bin.
Dort hat mir July, die ich aus Oaxaca kenne ihr Viertel gezeigt und ich bin mit ihrem Freund in die Uni und hab dort ne Runde Basketball gezockt und bin alleine durch die Stadt gefahren. Ich kann an meinem letzten Tag Mexico behaupten, dass ich mir hier wohl fuehle und Mexico lieben gelernt habe!!
Morgen werde ich dann nach Chile fliegen!

Tulum

Happy Birthday!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Mutter!

und alles Gute zum Geburtstag Kai!!

Ich hab versucht euch beide zu erreichen, aber es sollte nicht sein!

Merida-Chitzen Itza-Valladolid-Tulum

This morning we went to Chitzen Itza, but after taking a seat the bus broke down. So we came late to get our connection bus to Tulum. But fortunately another local bus came and took me and the german girls to Vallodolid, where we had to wait some hours for the bis to Tulum.
We ate the worst maxican tacos we ever had and Daniela was sick the whole day long. So we started keeping the moral high by singing german schlager (like country) songs.
We finally arrived at 22-30h in Tulum and went to a Cabana, where the security guy at the entrance wanted to fool us and take a high amount of money. But not with us, I gave him my identity card and payed the next day.
Really exhausted me and Claudia went to have a beer in the beach bar and we were pissed about the cheater at the entrance. But after we took a look into the sky we were happy to be at the Caribean...so many stars as I have never seen before and really fine sand.
At the next morning it was even better, 50m to the beach, a nice and clean beach, turquoise water and palms everywhere. Paradise!!!
We went to buy some food in the local supermarket because the guy at the reception said that they have a kitchen, but they didn't. So we asked them to cook all our spaghetti at once and the did it luckily.
So we had our own food in the fridge *the selfmade one* and didn't have to move for the next days.

Chitzen Itza

Campeche-Merida

In Campeche was not really a lot to see. I went with Daniela and Claudia in the Monkey Hostel right at the Zocalo. In the evening, me and Claudia went to see a unspectacular lightshow, which tried to show the history of the small town.
The most spectacular thing was an Alligator in the mexican golf.

The next day, we headed to Merida, a nice colonial town. There we met the danish while we were sitting in a bar and celebrated Claudias birthday with plenty of coctails.
The next morning I took a walk through the city and the market. After a little chessgame in the shadow with a mexican Kasparow. He kicked my ass.
It has become really hot, because we are close to the Caribean and so I made my siesta in a hammock at the hostel and went in the late afternoon to Progresso Beach.
There was a festival going on and all, really all the mexicans were drunk as hell.