New Zealand

There are mainly two reasons why I wasn't able to upload any blog posts while traveling in New Zealand as I did it in Thailand: First of all, most of the time we didn't have any internet connection or in the case we had, only with our USB stick on the laptop. And secondly, as I was writing the blog most of the time on my iPhone, I couln't do that as I was most of the time running out of battery and out in the jungle, we had no power :) However, I can ensure that although I didn't let you take part of our activities as frequent as before, we had a truly awesome time and I hope that I can share some great moments here...

First of all, one has to say that NZ is a great country to travel through as there is still a majority of the country unpopulated or just scarely and thus, you see a lot of nature! and we were all deeply impressed by this nature as it has a great diversity to offer! It wasn't unoccasional that you were driving through completely different landscapes and weather conditions, only on a 100Km drive! Furthermore, this country has to offer just everything, from jungle, glaciers, vulcanos over sand dunes - and of course, lots of sheeps and cows :) and sometimes, it felt pretty much as being at home...

Here's a picture from Christchurch after picking up our camper vans and doing the first big grocery shopping :)

But next to a lot of driving and looking out of the window or walking through NZ's nature - there was also a lot of adrenaline and normal activities: Jetboating, Sea ayaking ,River Rafting and Sky Diving. Of course, sky diving was probably the most scarrying thing and the free fall from 15'000 feet was really just amazing and 'wow', but also the grade 5 River Rafting (highest category) with a 7 meter waterfall was definitely worth all the money and a lot of fun!

Another funny story was the fact that we stayed on a campground near Nelson that belongs to the parents of my friend Hayden who I met in Kingston during my exchange semester. I think it's pretty funny if a Swiss meets someone in Canada and then stays a couple of months later on his campground in the middle of nowhere (sorry Hayden, but you know that as well :) in New Zealand literally at the other end of the world! And another story to show how small the world is happened when going through the costums at Auckland Airport shen leaving for my flight back to Zurich, when I ran into John Sundy, a cyclist I met four years ago when staying in Sydney and with whom I was riding four times a week in the 6.20am Coluzzi Bunch :)

And after a last stay at my friends Mirjam and Andi's house in AKL, it was time to face the 30 hours journey back to Switzerland on which I currently am when writing this blog... and fortunately the sun was shining today once again what made a nice farewell from Auckland!

4 days in Sydney

Our four days in Sydney flew by extremely fast - well, I know, that's actually not such a big surprise as four days is obviously a very short period if time to stay in such a great city! However, I would say 'better four days than not a single one'! And even though the forecast predicted four days of rain when we checked it in Bangkok, the weather was pretty good and so we were very lucky from this point of view! And I can say that we really got the most out of these four days...

One highlight was for sure Saturday evening, as we hit a Club in Downtown Sydney. And even though we had a lot of fun going out in Bangkok as well, it was definitely different here in Sydney, as there was one very important ingredient there: nice girls and no hookers! And if you don't believe how many nice girls there were in Ivy Club, just ask Tobi as he's still raving about it :) And as the Club was actually a nice location with a pool, we ended up not soo surprisingly in our underwear in the pool around 3isch in the morning :)

The day after was a classic 'beach day' and we enjoyed te sun and other nice 'views' at the famous Bondi Beach. And as I soent a lot of time there and was living in this neighbourhood four years ago, everything was quite familiar in a way! And yes, it's still a great spot...

On the third day it was time to meet some friends - some. members of the Grabt family who I know since my last stay here and with whom I had a nice lunch before walking back over the harbour bridge to Sydney.
One last highlight I have to mention is the Aussie Open final: even though King Roger didn't make it to the Final (we watched that of course live in a bar in Bangkok), we were in Australia for the Aussie Open Final and thus I didn't want to miss that! Well, it was a pretty long night till the match ended (around 1.30am), but totally worth it as it was great tennis!

Bangkok - Part two

After getting back to Bangkok from Ko Tao, we had three days left in the crowded Thai capital. However, at least we felt a bit more 'local' this time and tried not to get ripped off at every corner. And of course we were visiting at least one of the numerous skybars again, as they are truly nice.
But in contrast to the forst stop in BKK, our activities were concentrated a bit less on drinking and partying, and so there was time for some shopping as well - and even a new haircut! The shopping was fun as well, as the big shopping malls are pretty crowded and the product range insane - and of course the fake products are the funniest :) And I even found a Canada Goose jacket, haha.

And after some last thai food dinners and lunches, it was time to leave Thailand and take off to our next destination: Sydney!