Category: Journeys

To travel is to take a journey into yourself.

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Relaxing in Charleston

As the trip from San Diego to New York was quite stressing (midday-evening – SD to LA Airport, the night at the Terminal, flight to NY in the morning, arriving at the hostel in the evening) and as most hostels were booked for the next weeks because of the republican convention I decided to move on and find some more relaxed place. Looking at the map, and by what others had told me I decided to take it down to the Carolinas. Looking for something at he coast I ended up with Charleston, SC wich seemed quite nice judging by it’s website and street-press.
The transfer to Charleston, a 15hrs overnight busride, wasn’t relaxing, but the Hostel and the town seem to be worth it.
With three colleges Charlestin is quite a student city and offers plenty of nightlive with a range of live-music to choose from. (reports on that will follow, so far I just recovered from all the restless moving around)

Cheers, Tim.

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Hang loose in San Diego!

Well, after a LONG travel taking me from Wellington to San Diego (11hrs nightbus well-auck 4hrs sleep, day in auck, 11hrs flight LA 4hrs sleep, 2hrs bus airport – greyhound, 3hrs greyhound LA – SD 1hr sleep) I had a good night with a few Dutch guys, two british girls and Peter (THE peter! ;-)).
Today I just had a looong sleep and then met up with the rest at the beach wich is just a 5min walk from the hostel. After a nice lazy day on the beach, bodysurfin’ ,we just bought all the stuff for a nice big BBQ!

Finally back to warm weather, sunshine and late sunset! 😉

Cheers, Tim.

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back to hitchhiking again

After caring for the official stuff like cancelling the rego, I spent a night at the “Lazy Cow” backpacker in Murchison. After rearranging all my stuff from car to backpack, I hit the road again. My first plan was to go down south along the westcoast, but as all the cars that stopped were going to Christchurch I decided to go there as well, meeting up with some fellow germans I met in Nelson.
Travelling comfy in two trucks (one of them with 25 tons of fish 😉 ) with a way better view, sitting so high I got to CHCH in just one afternoon, staying at the Foley Towers backpacker 5mins from Cathedral Square.
After walking around the city and the parks the second day, I decided that I like this place and will stay for the weekend with some live music and the [url=http://www.nzff.telecom.co.nz/]NZ Filmfestival[url].
On the left side I added a few more pictures from my time in the Marlborough Sounds and the time after.

Cheers, Tim.

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rest in peace Marvin!

1981 – 26th July 2004

After 23 years on the road, joining my travels for three weeks, Marvin’s life ended by a short and painless hit of a rock on the road which smashed his engine.
His last rest is in Murchison, a small town in the north-west of the southern NZ island with a really friendly small hostel. (the good luck with the bad 😉 )

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quick hop to the southisland

coming down to Wellington from New Plymouth, I stayed outside Wellington for one night (there was a rugby game NZ / OZ so everything was full). Driving towards Wellington the next morning, I decided I wasn’t in the mood for city, so I took Marvin to the Ferry Terminal and got me a ride to the south island of NZ. Taking over was really fun, getting some saltwater over the deck and a strong mindclearing wind.
Over in Picton I checked in at Atlantis backpacker and spent the next day preparing for a four-day-hike along the Queen Charlotte Track. Going for a walk to the Ferry Terminal with Jesse (an american girl) she spontaniously decided to change her ticket and join me. So we just got some more food, packed our backpacks and relaxed with a nice movie (Before Sunrise, with the sequel Before Sunset runnig at the NZ Filmfestival).
The days in the sounds where really nice! Other that the forecast we had good luck with the weather and with some modifications of our (not really existing) plans we had a dmn good time! One morning I even had to chase a sheep around wich tried to get into my backpack ;-). As we traded our return trip to Picton on the way, we hitchhiked back to Atlantis the last day.

check http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/tim/ for pics

riding to Ship Cove (video)

The next day she went off with the ferry to the northern island and I hit the road towards Nelson, giving an english girl from the hostel a ride. In Nelson we were just sipping on a nice long black, talking about where we’d been so far, when we realised that we had been neighbours for two months in Sydney!!! We even had talked across the fence once without seeing each other! The world is soooo small, especially down under ;-).

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New pics and a video!

(changed) check http://gallery.oh7eleven.de/tim/ for pics

video of Marvin driving on 90 Miles Beach

But sorry, I’m quite lazy so I’ll just write a rough timeline:
After a few rather relaxed days in Auckland I went up north to the Northland. (quite logic name 😉 ).
after lot’s of coincidences I ended up in Whangarei Backpackers, a really nice and cosy place with an interesting bar downstairs which should be open by the time you read this (it wasn’t really when I was around)
For two nights I went further north to the northern AND western most tip of NZ Cape Reinga (it’s neither most northern nor most western) and went back down via the westcoast where I stayed in a beatufil calm place called ‘The Treehouse’. Back in Whangarei (pronounced Phangarei) I went shopping at Pak’n’Save where I ran into freinds from the Backpacker who were preparing for Ruthy’s Birthday. We didn’t really stop celebrating that birthday for three days ;-).
After the weekend, we (Fab4 Ruthy[Wales], Matt[England], Gavin[Kiwi] and me) spontaneously decided to take it down to Auckland and just go on.
After another two days in Auckland we split up and I went further south, following the westcoast. At the moment I’m enjoying a few clam days in New Plymouth in a friendly place which even has a Sauna! (Shoestring Backpacker).

Enough for now, got longer than I though …
Cheers, Tim.