From Taupo I went on to Wellington to stay there for a night before taking the ferry down to the South Island. Arriving on the South Island on a very cloudy day, I went straight on to Nelson - which they call the sunshine city. Hahahahaha....didn't see the sun ( or even a dot of the blue sky ) for 2 days, it was raining straight for 2 days - you couldn't tell where the fog on the hillsides ended and the clouds began, I didn't have an idea what the surrounding of Nelson looks like till my last morning over there - when I left, the sun was shining from a blue sky, as if it would have been like that for ages....that's New Zealand, asking someone what the weather is gonna be like the next day will just earn you a strange look and a smile that says "How the hell to know what the weather is gonna be like, don't you know that you're in New Zealand? I took a bus up to the Abel Tasman Nationalpark and stayed at a little village called Marahau right at the start of the Abel Tasman coastal walk - trailhead...there was a lovely hostel over there, a real backpacker athmosphere, cozy with wooden funiture, a huge living room with soft big armchairs where everybody met for a chat in the evening !!! Did I mention that New Zealand is packed with germans ( especially those who just finished school and headed off for a year )? I'm speaking german all day long over here !!! A bunch of people from Dresden stayed at that hostel in Marahau, and talking to them and listening to our lovely accent made me feel like being home. I tramped one third of that costal walk that day towards Anchorage Bay, and walked back to Marahau in the afteroon to wait for another girl I met in Nelson, as we were planning on renting a kajak over there. My feet where like ice cubes that night, and it was cloudy again the next morning. When the girl finally arrived on a later bus it was to late to rent a kajak for that day, so we took the watertaxi to Awaroa Bay further north in the park, not without having a look on the that seal colony living on Tonga Island. We hiked through the rainforest ( now we know why it is called RAIN forest ) and along golden beaches, it was almost low tide, so we were able to take the shorter low tide route, althrough we had to wade through water now and then.... and finally made our way down south to Anchorage Bay just in time for the sunset and a barbeque on board of a boat over there where we spend the night. The next day was the sunniest day so far, so after been droped off by the captain of the boat we just lay on the beach of Anchorage Bay till noon ( must have had looked like the seals we had seen the day before ) and hiked over to the next cove in the early afternoon to wait for our kajaks to get ashore - to make a little guided seakajaking tour back to Marahau. I just loved it, unless we didn't make it to Marahau on our kajaks, althrough we would have had to surround just one more cliff. But some wind came up and the waves got so high and strong that we didn't make much process while paddeling and paddeling, so our guide advised us to turn and let us drift back towards the last beach we had passed to wait for the watertaxi, which was really busy with picking up all those kajaks along the shoreline of the nationalpark. I had a lot of fun out there with all those waves, our landing on the beach was funny too, because the last wave that reached us made our kajak turn over, so we finally went for a swim. I returned to Nelson in the evening, gonna stay here for one more night before heading down south towards a little town called St. Arnaud ( off the beaten path, eh??).

Rotorua - there's a light smell of rotten eggs everywhere due to all those geothermal spots over there. I asked a Maori guy how to get to a place called Hell's Gate and he just told me: drink a lot, drive fast and crash - but as he didn't want to lend me his car I had to take the bus to that mean-smelling ( worse than rotten eggs ) place, steam is coming up next to boiling mudpots- they've chosen the right name for it. In the evening I had a Hangi meal and saw a cultural performance of the Maori- a haka ( kind of war- dance). Went to see some more geothermal landscapes the next day, full of amazing colours, unfortunally I can't capture the smell of those spots for you, lucky you!!! I hiked through the Waimangu Volcanic Valley - there was a lake called Frying Pan Lake and due to all the steam coming up there was a layer of fog on it's surface that had something mystical --- I had to think of Lord of the Rings all the time. I went on to Taupo on Thursday, it was cloudy that day so I couldn't do what I had in mind. I did the Tongariro crossing yesterday ( Friday ) . That's a one-day-hike through the volcanic valley between Mt. Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe, the last one may be known to some of you as Mt. Doom in the land of MORDOR. It was pretty foggy when we started, so you couldn't see the summits of the volcanos, but it was still worth it, seeing lava flows, waterfalls, volcano craters ( hot steaming soil under your feet at a high of almost 2000 meters - while there was snow on the next mountain) and beautifully coloured lakes. And I got some fresh air again after all ! When I woke up today ( it's saturday althrough this diary says that it is still friday ) and looked at that blue sky I knew that I would get some more fresh air today -- while skydiving !!!!! Still can't believe that I jumped out of that plane at 12.000 ft--WICKED !!!!!

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!?!?