From New Plymouth I went to Auckland, the biggest city in New Zealand. A fourth of the population lives here. At Auckland I met an English guy and a German girl. It was nice because with him I could share my experiences of Nepal because he and with her my experiences of being in Vanuatu. Nice to hear their stories and to refresh my memories again. We went to the museum that day after a small detour around the park. It was perfect weather to visit a museum because the rain was pouring down that day. In the evening we went for dinner at an Asian food court where I had nice Korean food. The next day I went to Mt. Maunganui. The name of the town is the same as the mountain. It has an ... read more

My stay at Dunedin was around three days. One of the days I went to the Otago Peninsula. I took a local bus and started walking from the point I got out. There I found a walking track going through the hills and from many points I could watch the sea banging on the cliffs. It was so beautiful to see. After walking for around three hours and getting back to the main road I saw a sign for the turn to the Larnach castle. It is the only castle in New Zealand and was build 150 years ago by a wealthy banker from Australia. He came to New Zealand when the gold rush started. Later on I learned more about the history of the gold rush in the Settlers Museum of Dunedin. I was surprised ... read more

From Vanuatu I went to Melbourne and flew again with Air Vanuatu. The funny thing was that we departed one and a half hour late because the check in went according to ‘Vanuatu time’. The people at the check in were checking their screens, adding a label to some luggage, looking around and taking it all very easy. It was the only plane leaving the airport that morning so you think there should be no reason for a delay. They didn’t bother about it at all and the captain of the plane told that the reason for the delay was uncertain. Well, for everybody the reason was clear: ‘doing it all by Vanuatu time’. But I didn’t mind, eventually the plane departed and with a ‘Vanuatu smile’ of one of the crew everything is all right. ... read more

I flew with Air Vanuatu from Brisbane to the capital city called Port Vila in the republic of Vanuatu. Let me first tell you something about the country Vanuatu before talking about my first experiences. The country consists of around 80 islands and has a total population of around 210.000 people. It has a tropical climate and lies in the South Pacific region. The first settlements of the French and English started in the 18th century and in 1906 the Anglo-French Condominium of the new Hibreidess was created. That means that British and French nationals had equal rights and retained their home country’s citizenship. Local people were officially stateless. Vanuatu became independent eventually in 1980 and is a member of many international organisations like the U.N, the French league of nations and the Commenwealth. The main ... read more

Time goes so fast. I can’t imagine I am now almost two weeks in Sydney. But I am enjoying it so much that there is no reason for me to leave, at least for this moment. I have visited a lot of musea: museum of contemporary art, maritiem museum, museum of Sydney and the Australian museum. Besides of that I like to just walk around the parks (especially the botanical gardens) and go to all the festivities that are organisised. Every day there is something new to do. Last week I visited the writers festival. It is a festival where writers can present their books. There were lectures given and discussions taking place about several topics. One of the things I attended was an English man being interviewed about his last book telling his story about ... read more