Leaving a rainy Auckland behind, I made my way to the Coromandel Peninsula on Wednesday and stayed in a town called Whitianga for 4 nights. On the way up there we stopped briefly at the Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove ( for a picture stop ). The beaches over here are spotless and the water is crystal clear - even the weather was lovely. If you walk along the beach in the evening, maybe after having some exportgold, and look down upon your sandy feet, you realise that it doesn't necessarily need much creativity to design the look of Frodo's feet. Did some kajaking with a german girl I shared the room with, we paddled along beautiful beaches, white cliffs and trained to navigate around rocks close to the coastline without getting stranded on a beach or a cliff that may be behind it. And finally it payed off to carry that backpack around all the time, because my arms and shoulders didn't get tired while paddling back. And while I waited for that little paddling point at the horizont to come ashore I realised that we were carried through the whole bay on our way back. I rented a bike the next day, and while I took the little passenger ferry over to the other side of the habour , I saw a dozen dolphins leaving the Whitianga habour, taking the same route along the coastline into the Bay of Mercury we had taken with our kajaks the day before, jumping and obviously having fun on their way out there ( WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN THE DAY BEFORE?? ) . I hiked to Cathedral Cove, not only to see the Cove again, but to explore all those magnificent bays around there...one of them, Stingray Bay, just looked like paradise......I went on to Hot Water Beach in the late afternoon just in time for the low tide, there were lots of people digging holes in the sand, mixing the cold ocean water with the boiling hot water that comes up there at this vulcano terrain, enjoying their natural spa, some of them even had brought along a glass of wine...but you didn't have to dig a hole to feel the heat, you could just let your feed sink into the sand for a few centimeters at the right places....here and there you saw someone jump from one feet to the other because he/she got to close to the hot spots. After boiling my feed for a while I had to start biking back and I was happy when I finally reached the ferry again, some of those hills drove me nuts ( Let's blame the bike! ). I did a hike the next day up one of those hills to have a nice view over the lovely Mercury Bay. "Sweet" - as a Kiwi would say ( I really have a hard time understanding them, but I love their accent, it's kind of cute ). There was a cycling race going on that day and on my way back I passed along some fans who cheered and clapped their hands to motivate the bikers on their way up the hill ( WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN THE DAY BEFORE?? I doubt that I would have made it up the hill with their help, but I would have used them as an excuse to get off the bike to have a chat). Did some horsebackriding in the afternoon, through the tropic rainforest to a small waterfall, up those green hills to enjoy once more an amazing view, chasing away cows, sheeps, lambs and turkeys (??)...took a bus to Waitomo on sunday when it started raining again, but fortunally they have 2 worlds over there.....the one you see when getting there and the other one underneath the earth.....saw the caves over there, filled with glowworms, thousands of blue dots over your head in the middle of the dark, did some abseiling into a canyon aswell......but it gets very quiet over there in the evening when all the tourist-busses have left, me and the girl I shared a cabin with went to the bar in the evening, just in time to get a beer before they closed the bar, that was at 8.30 p.m.(!) and we had half an hour to drink it and to talk to 2 local guys playing pool, as those were the only people in there. Just arrived in Rotorua today, it's nice to be at a place with a decent grocery store again.

I've been pretty lazy last week. Went up north to Paihia/ Bay of Islands for the weekend, took a backpacker bus up there - I'm not used to that many backpackers and it's way too comfortable...you get picked up at the hostel, get dropped off at the hostel, and they even have a prochure with all the hostels you can stay at and all the things you can do at your destination, you just have to tell the busdriver where you wanna stay and what you want to do and he will book it for you.....it just felt like - if you don't mind me using a german expression ( according to a british girl there's no english expression for that ) - " TWENS auf Kaffeefahrt" ...this bus is the cheapest way to get around, but I certainly have to think of a way to get off the beaten path a little, because traveling like this is not adventurous at all, I wouldn't even call it traveling as a backpacker. Anyway, I made a boat cruise over there in Paihia and saw some dolphins ( and some brave guys who jumped into the cold water to swim with them). Did some hiking aswell and saw lots of birds ( no kiwi so far ) while hiking through a mangrove forest and walked along the beautiful beach with crystal clear water. Spend the rest of the week in Auckland, when I returned to Auckland on sunday it started raining, and it rained all day on monday. Already one week gone and I'm still ( or let's say again ) in Auckland, I'm kind of stuck over here, but I'm gonna change that tomorrow and start traveling again!!!

Kia Ora from New Zealand !!!! I just arrived and I'm still wondering what happened to Oct, 17th on my fly over here- I just skipped the day. I spent my last few days in the states in L.A., went to Hollywood to see the Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Kodak Theater, the Hollywood Sign, and while walking around I almost didn't realise the stars under my feed- the Walk of Fame...spend a lot of time on buses just to get around- this city is so spread out, it's a mess....I stayed at a nice place in Venice Beach, and went over to Santa Monica ( along the beach ) almost every day, or just passed by on my way back from Hollywood....went to Beverly Hills, where all those "stars" live and saw the Rodeo Drive with all those expensive ( decadent ) shops. On my last day I went to see some movie studios- went to Sony Pictures Studios and made it just in time to Paramount Pictures Studios for the studiotour - it took me 1,5 hours on 3 different buses - but I got around in this city without a map, just had a glimpse at a map in the hostel in the morning, so that's not too bad. Anyway, I'm in Auckland/NZ right now, and there seem to be so many ways to get around on those 2 islands, I just have to figure out what works out best for me...first thing I should concentrate on is not to get under a car over here while looking the other way...and I guess a few more hours of sleep wouldn't do me no harm aswell...talk to you later!!!!

After spending the whole day at the bus station /welcome center of Merced I took the local bus up to the cabin mountain resort in Midpines (about 1 hour in the west of the np-entrance) in the evening. When I walked into the kitchen cabin I almost couldn't believe it: everybody but a woman from Hawaii and a guy from Wales was speaking german! Anyway, I didn't talk to them at all, but I remember that they thought me to be one of those crazy vegetarians because I was having two mangos for dinner. The next day I went to see those huge Sequoia- trees in the south of the Yosemite NP, and we hiked around for some hours, just accompanied by a raven and a bunch of deer, which were walking right next to us. Didn't see any bears or mountain lions- lucky me- I guess I would have mixed up all those nice advices they give you - how to behave if you encounter one of those animals: was it watch and slowly move away and lay down flat if attacked or make noise, throw stones and fight back ( how to fight back a mountain lion???) if attacked.....best way would be to have Katrin around and make her laugh every 5 minutes to frighten and warn all the animals which are somewhere around within 5 miles........I stayed one more day to see the Valley aswell, did a few smaller hikes around there as I was still struggling with a cold (it's always good to have an excuse), saw some waterfalls that were about to dry out. Probably 40 percent of the people passing by in the valley were speaking german, are there any germans left over there in germany?? Went on to San Francisco on Sunday- and finally made it to the ocean! The first day over there I just walked along the waterfront up to Pier 39, where all those restaurants are selling fresh seafood, and there are some candy & chocolate stores.....they all tried to torture me with those fantastic smells......kept on walking till I finally reached the Golden Gate Bridge- just in time- because the fog was coming in...I crossed the bridge and when I walked back many asian tourists were taking pictures of the fog were I had taken pictures of the bridge just an hour ago. Didn't take the cable car, but walked up and down all those hills instead and stayed till Wednesday to be able to go to Alcatraz aswell. Left San Francisco last evening and headed straight to L.A., took the bus down to Venice Beach...and here I am...wasn't allowed to check in yet because I arrived at 8 a.m. , so I just took off my shoes and walked down to the beach....well it's 1 p.m. now, maybe I should give it a try to check in now, before I fall asleep on this library seat. That's my last week over here, next thursday I'll be in New Zealand, maybe I should start to do some research about NZ!?!?

On my last day in Flagstaff I took the Antelope Canyon Tour.We went up north through the Navajo reservation to see Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell and a city called Page before we finally got to Antelope Canyon. This was the most beautiful spot I've ever seen, a slot canyon made of red sandstone, it becomes really narrow so that only 1 person at a time can pass through at some places, but when the sun lights up the red sandstone it has something magical. I left Flagstaff the next morning, heading to Las Vegas!!!! Took a walk in the evening, started at the Welcome to Las Vegas-sign and walked along the whole "Strip", can't remember how many hours it took me......made my way through all those hotel-casinos during the next days, saw some lions and white tigers, and a couple of weddings in the chapel on the other side of the street.....many blinking gambling machines in the casinos- sometimes I couldn't even find my way back out, but found myself on an assembly line, heading straight to the casino of the next hotel without seeing the sunlight in between....saw some shows in the evenings...but you don't necessarily have to go to a show, just watch the drunken women walking down the strip, especially on weekends....stayed there several nights, but every second day I took a day off to see one of the National Parks of Utah...Zion and Bryce Canyon...left Las Vegas last night and just arrived in Merced, California (this is the last state I'm passing through, and no.33 if I counted right), gonna take a local bus to Yosemite NP in the afternoon.