I am still in Sydney, inhaling it in a slow pace and enjoying every moment of it. I get up in the morning without real plans, and they sort of form themselves during the day. Like Friday - I thought of going to Manly beach but I called Chabad in the morning to reserve a seat in the Seder. Well, I should have thought that one has to come and buy the ticket in advance, as they can't take money on Shabbat. (Yes, I did decide to celebrate Passover with Chabad, and don't worry you'll hear the stories). Chabad are in [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was a gray and sometimes rainy day so I decided to start with some errands, hoping the weather will improve. And so I became the proud owner of a local Australian bank account, at the big ANZ bank. (If you wonder, it doesn’t mean I’m staying here forever, it’s just a way to save the horrible 2.35% commission of Visa). Since the weather didn’t improve I went to a museum. The book says that the Powerhouse museum is one of the best in Sydney, integrating technology, design, environmental issues, etc. Bullshit, it was so boring… Apart from a small exhibiti [View Full Entry]

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Yes, here I am: no longer travelling in islands, now I am in a real continent. It feels a lot more stable... Hello Australia! I arrived to the backpacker in Sydney around 7 last night. Even though I was warned that hostels here as not like in NZ, I still got the shock. It's a huge hostel, the common areas are not so inviting, and therefore you don't really meet people. The toilets were also not so inviting... but they have a dorm of 2 people so I don't share with too many strangers and in fact so far I had [View Full Entry]

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I have been thinking for some days how can I summarize that wonderful time in New Zealand. First of all, I noted that I spent here 9.5 weeks… not at all like the movie, but also very exciting 9.5 weeks. New Zealand has everything. The diversity is huge. I can’t even start summarizing, so you will have to read all my blog to know. What happened to me here? It was an amazing journey, both in the country and into my own self. I had two wonderful partners. I started with Shiri, a very old friend (we were friends since we [View Full Entry]

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Auckland… the biggest city in New Zealand… the end of my NZ experience! We arrive here late on Saturday, just in time to take the super fast elevator up the Sky City tower, about 200m high, and see the city and its surroundings before and after sunset. Surprisingly, there was another high adrenalin experience here: standing on the glass bottom in a height of almost 200m…it’s a lot scarier than sky diving :-) even though I knew it was totally safe, I was terrified! At night we finally felt that we reached a real city. The area where we stay is [View Full Entry]

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This is really an unbelievable phenomenon. As Israelis, we are used to hide our identity for security reason. We are used to the fact that many people don't like us. Even if I have never encountered real anti-Semitism in my travels around the world, I always know it's there. And suddenly in New Zealand we find ourselves privileged - there are families here that want to host us in their homes! They all belong to a group of Christianity called “Messianic”. They believe that Rome changed the original Christianity of Jesus. They want to go back to this. Their belief is [View Full Entry]

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We started in the south and we are moving north, and it's the last regios of NZ: Northland. North of Auckland, in a long and narrow land, a region rich in towns, forests of the huge Kauri trees, sand dunes (some of real white sand), bays with many islands (did you know? to be called an island it needs to have some vegetation. Otherwise it’s just a rock), and the northernmost point of the North Island. It’s the other side of the visit to Southland and the Catlins, about 7 weeks ago. If the Catlins were the end of NZ road [View Full Entry]

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We are getting close to Auckland… feeling the end of the trip in NZ getting closer. But still we have some more to see. The last two days we spent in an area called Coromandel peninsula. Again there are beautiful beaches in one side of the road and green hills on the other side. It is not amazing like in the beginning but I still enjoy it a lot. It’s so relaxing. We are tired of hiking and even though we planned one last hike, when we discovered it was longer than we thought we gave it up. A hike of [View Full Entry]

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One of the best (and scary) tours on NZ is to the active volcano on White Island. We planned to visit there on Sunday, the weather looked good, we boarded the boat and were cruising for an hour when the captain told us that the winds got to strong and we wouldn't be able to land on the island. Disappointed we cruised all the way back to Whakatane. Well, at least this time we didn't walk, didn't get wet... but again we missed a volcano :-) We tried again 2 days after that. The weather was still not clear and the [View Full Entry]

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From the Tongariro, with plenty of tears in my eyes (stupid, but it happens...) we drove all the way to the sunny east coast, to the Art Deco town Napier. Napier was almost completely destroyed in the 30s, when Art Deco style was in fashion, and was rebuilt in that style. With the palm trees and sun it makes a small Miami (so I have heard, as I only passed through Miami and never actually been there). It reminded me of Alesund in Norway, although Alesund was not so sunny, but I think a bit more beautiful in its Art Deco [View Full Entry]

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