While New Zealand is famous for great nature in general, the North Island is known for its strong vulcanic and thermal activity. The scenic route, the "Thermal Explorer Highway" passes by Roturua, at Lake Roturua. Here the nature of the underground is omnipresent. Dozens of places have steamy holes, sulphuric smell, mud-bubbles, boiling pools and warm ground. Even in the city center you can smell it everywhere. Many of the locals are Maori and a Christian-Maori community has build an impressively nice church at the lakefront near their traditional assembly hall. Both show lots of traditional wood carvings. The power of the underground is used by the locals in many ways. Not only exist thermal power stations to produce electricity but the steam from drillings into the ground is also used in private households diretly. A ... read more

Arriving in New Zealand, North Island, Auckland we surely had a good plan. Three weeks is not much for two big islands. Thus, we had a little car, we had brought our tent from the working time near Melbourne, and first thing we did was to drive to "Foodtown" and "Warehouse" to stock up with eatables and buy a small stove. Our first experience with the locals (Kiwis, as they are called in NZ in contrast to Ozzies in Australia) was really good. In "Foodtown" a woman from Auckland gave us her shopping discount card when we asked her about the two different prices stated for most products. She said we could post it back to her before we leave NZ and she could share the card of her husband. So we enjoyed cheep shopping! Now ... read more

A friend back in Germany had first told me about Vipassana meditation. Being notoriously mistrusting against all kinds of esoteric organisations I first was sceptical about attending a Vipassana course. What finally persuaded me besides my curiosity was the fact that all the courses are given for free on a basis of donations from former students. Vipassana centers can be found all over the world with most of them running a more or less continuous course schedule. So it was not to difficult for me to integrate a course into my journey. Since I was traveling for almost six month already I wanted to use it as a short break and a time of reflection and recovery. With the latter I was off the track as I should find out because learning Vipassana can be quite ... read more

Once I had had a ride back to Alice Springs I just had to board the Ghan again to get to the south coast. Unfotunately the tain is only going once a week and was fully booked. After some fighting with the staff at the train station I still hoped on (a train is never fully booked...). Since some running with all the gear in the desert sun had been involved I was glad for the on-train shower. And a good-hearted Japanese traveler feed me with bread and smoked mussels. I didn't have any food or money... three cheers for the japanese traveler in general. He is usualy friendly, social-minded, and he knows all the good cheapies. In Adelaide I just walked the streets for half a day before I traveled on by Firefly bus to ... read more