Wellington is New Zealand's capital and lies on the southern tip of the Northern Island. It's quite a pretty and pleasant city and not too big with just less than 400,000 inhabitants. The weather was very nice on the day I explored the city and I took Wellington's signature cable car up the hill to the Kelburn suburb and the botanical gardens. From the top, you have excellent views of the city. The botanical gardens run all the way back down the hill into the city. A pleasant walk back amongst the gardens and a picturesque graveyard of the first settlers of Wellington overlooking the city. As I walked back into the city, I walked past New Zealand's Parliament building, the "Beehive", named after its shape. Via Wellington's main shopping street and the harbour, I ended ... read more

(above is a panorama photo with me in it, on the right, taken by Kevin Hutchens) Tongariro National Park is an amazing volcanic landscape in summer and a ski destination in winter. It has three major peaks, Tongariro (1967m), Ngauruhoe (2287m) and Ruapehu (2797). The area is featured as the land of "Mordor" in the Lord Of The Rings Movies where the Ngauruhoe peak stars as "Mount Doom". There are some incredible walks around this area, most notably the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19km track through volcanic craters with sidetracks to the peaks of Mount Doom (as everyone calls it these days) and Tongariro (an extra 3km). I was staying in a city north of the park, Taupo, where I met up with an American guy, Kevin, whom I met once earlier in Australia but hadn't ... read more

Before visiting yet another great country (New Zealand), I had a couple of more days to spend in Sydney. I planned it that way, because the weather was not so good when I was in Sydney the first time, so I thought that I'd save some of the sights until the end of my Australia trip, hoping for better weather. The weather was better, luckily! Last year, I met a Canadian girl via couchsurfing, who stayed at my place for a few days in The Hague on her trip in Europe. She was travelling again now, but this time in New Zealand and Australia, just like me. She's doing work as a nanny in Sydney now, so we met up for an afternoon in Manly and did a beautiful coastal walk of 3 hours. I had ... read more

I received the sad news 2 days ago that Aghy, my Indonesian friend and brother of my former girfriend Nita, suddenly passed away. Shocking to hear. Just a few weeks ago, Aghy showed me around Jakarta. My thoughts are with Nita and her family who are going through the most difficult time now. Before all this happened, but after the adventure of sailing the Whitsundays, I was heading for Townsville. On the way to Townsville I passed the Inkerman hill. It's just a regular hill, but it has a lookout with amazing views of the surrounding Aussie land. On my way, I also encountered a strange looking chicken-like bird, who was trying to threaten me by flapping his wings a bit. It didn't work, so he left; smart choice :-) Much of the scenery along the ... read more

I left Brisbane behind and drove north via the "Steve Irwin Road", named after the famous wildlife expert who hosted the tv show "The Crocodile Hunter". Unfortunately, his love for animals also became his end, as he was fatally stung in the chest by a stingray, while filming on the Great Barrier Reef near Port Douglas (where I am right now as I'm writing this). I drove on to Noosa, one of Australias hippest beach town, and a pretty one! I met up with a German friend whom I met in Laos in 2005 and again in Bangkok on that same trip. She had moved to Australia a few years ago, and visited me in The Hague for a day, because it was closer to an Australian Embassy for her than elsewhere. So now it was ... read more