My Journey Round The World

Brisbane, Australia’s third-largest city… Quite a shock after small NZ even though the city center is compact and easily manageable by foot. Modern city with it’s interesting pedestrian and cycle Goodwill Bridge, Queensland Art Gallery and Musuem on the South Bank area. Thanks to Patrick - my couchsurfer host for 2 nights – I found out about a hat exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery: Hats an anthology by Stephen Jones - http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/hats_an_anthology_by_stephen_jonesso glad about it as I love hat

On my third day, I went to visit Roma Street Parkland - http://www.romastreetparkland.com - the world largest subtropical gardens in a city centre – Baptiste you would love it! –  There are iguanas and other kind of reptile as well as scary animals all around!!! As they call it: Brisbane’s oasis… paradise in the heart of the city! Worth a visit and much better than the Botanical Garden who is no more and no less than a park…

Talking about paradise, this is exactly where I ended up after my 2 nights on a couch. Thanks to my dear friend Tanya I could reach Rachel by phone - a good friend of her I met when I was in Vancouver at the beginning of my trip and which I missed about few hours in Brisbane! – who offered me a wonderful place to stay in Fortitude Valley area close to Chinatown where I could enjoy a swimm everyday – it was a real pleasure after such a long time! THANK YOU SO MUCH TANYA & RACHEL!!!

I’m now heading toward the Great Barrier Reef with Gerhard - an Austrian travel partner – stopping at Fraser Island & Airlie Beach and maybe up to Cairns. We’ll see how the cohabitation in the jeep works!

New van, new travel partner, new adventure… As my travel mate - Frank – wrote it: sort of nice and challenging trip!

Not exactly the kind of  journey I was expecting, I have to say. It was sometimes pretty hard for me to deal with and I thought several times to escape this little nightmare… However isn’t it in difficult times that we learn the most?! Still, this was pretty hard and interesting to discover where I need to improve some of my behaviour to better face people and life situation! Just need now to find out how!

Anyway, we still had some fun in this beautiful NZ landscape and a great last laugh the last day, about his van partner - by the way, speaking about van, the Escape one we had on my first road trip was a bit more practical even if the Wicked one had perfect panoramic roof – Ariane you would have love that! –  to watch the stars ; unless our was broken!

It seems to  me that the Northland is a bit more busy than other NZ areas… Maybe because it’s Auckland closest region…

Our 5 days road trip brought us first to the Goat Island and his 547-hectare area established in 1978 as the country’s first Marine Reserve. You can snorkel or scuba dive from the beach – I know some people who would love that: Baptiste, Lulu, Renaud… We’ve seen many doing it but that day was too cold and windy for me! - So we ended up on a glass-bottom boat from where we’ve seen many Snapper and stripy Parora fishes, seaweed and a beautifull ray. The Marine Reserve also include excellent interpretative panels providing pictures of species you’re likely to encounter as well as explaining where one of the ancestral Maori canoes landed.

We continue our journey crossing Pakiri Beach and the undeniably pretty Bay of Islands before reaching The Far North Cape Reinga lighthouse, looking out over the endless ocean where the waters of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet.  The next day, after watching a shy sunrise behind the cloud, we made our way to the famous Ninety Miles Beach - Ninety Kilometre Beach seems to be more accurate according to Lonely Planet – a continuous stretch lines with high sand dunes where cars are allowed to drive at low tide.

In the afternoon after a short boat trip crossing between Kohukohu and Rawene, a short stop at the absolutely amazing Arai te Uru lookout – this is now in competition with Kaikoura for my favorite place! – we stopped in the Waipoua Kauri Forest to see Tane Mahuta, the largest Kauri tree alive: 51m – 13,8m girth & a wood mass of 244,5 cubic metres, standing here for somewhere between 1200 and 2000 years! Even my giant travel buddy looked really small next to it!

In the evening we arrived at a DOC (Department Of Conservation) campsite and went for a night walk in the Trounson Kauri Park where we missed the kiwis – seen by 2 german girls just before – but seen a lot of glow-worm. Heading the next morning toward Auckland in order to catch my flight to Brisbane-Australia while Frank will have 5 more weeks to discover breathtaking NZ…

After Ariane left, I had 1 more night planned in Auckland which I wanted to spend with local people. I ended up to Couchsurf by Anna – what a nightmare to drive in Auckland with the Van after such a quite road trip! - What was supposed to be 1 night turned into 4 which include a visit to the Domain Wintergarden & watching Alice in Wonderland – the last Tim Burton 3D movie – with Laure – another French Couchsurfer – a pillow fight in Auckland city center (!) as well as visiting the SkyTower and Mt Eden for a superb view of the city.

Thanks to Anna, I discovered Parnell which is one of my favorite area in Auckland! Nice little cafés and shops – of which a chocolate shop – , free internet access… (or you can always find an Esquires café: http://www.esquirescoffee.co.nz/ for 1 hour free when you buy someting) Thanks to Laure, I also found there a nice backpackers hostel where I’ll for sure stay if I’ll come back: http://www.lantanalodge.co.nz/index.htm if not staying by Anna – who also live in a nice area close to Ponsonby Road full of cafés and restaurants of which her favorite: Café Byzantium – 80 Ponsonby Road – with quite good food, prices and free internet access

I finally decided to stay a bit longer than normally planned in order to meet again Frank – a German guy I met in Bariloche-Argentina in February – to visit the Northland region before heading to Australia, my finale destination so far, where I’m supposed to stay for a while…

My favorites & The worst I’ve seen pages have been updated as well as My meetings

Don’t hesitate to have a look under My journey http://mon-round-del-welt.zoido.de/?page_id=8

Enjoy!!!

For my 200 days on the road – ok now 201, sorry! - I just want to send you a little present I’ve seen one morning when waking up to try to catch the sunrise… I missed the sun but the moon seems to tell me something I now want to share with you

Take good care and don’t forget, I think of you even so far away… Happy Easter

In Coromandel, after a short walk around the city where we met Yvon on the road, we finally enjoyed those giant mussels and one of the best carrots cake we had at the UMU café, before heading to Auckland…

Colville… Interesting lost little city on the Coromandel peninsula… In the middle of the mountains we discovered the buddhist Mahamudra centre with a Stupa and a meditation hall! And be aware, in the municipal room you were not allowed to walk with gumboots or stilettos…

Once again I don’t have any words for these breathtaking views… We had great time walking to Cathedral Grove – where Ariane discovered a mussels heart – even under a small rain…

Whangamata… Unusual crowded city as we arrived in the middle of the 10th birthday Beach Hop event!  http://www.thehop.co.nz/ We still don’t really know what is it exactly but it was fun… Our van was perfectly fitting – yes people did look at it and even took pictures even with so many funny cars around!