10 Months 1 Week 5 Days - 315 Days!

That's the excact number of days since I left home for touring around the world last November... 

So here I am sitting at Bangkok Airport - I didn't even know that I'll be here when I started that journey - wondering if it's real. Did all that really happen? I've met amazing people, done things I would have never done before and learned a hell lot about myself! 

To sum up what happened over those past weeks since we've been to Queenstown - a lot! 

After Queenstown we did the Southern Scenic Route, a route through the very southern part of New Zealand. It starts in Queenstown and ends in Dunedin & inbetween you see amazing places! 

My favorite would be the sunset at Bluff, it was a hell of a walk to get to the lookout, but it was so worth it. The way itself & the sunset & moonrise! Just beautiful. 

Oh, and the sunset at Mc Cracken Rest, felt like we were up in the sky over the clouds and down there the beach, the ocean. 

And Kakanui - an amazing campsite where you wake up to the view on a beautiful beach. What I liked most about that place though was that it was full moon, it was warmer and the nice spot to sit to listen to the waves crashing and to watch the stars. 

And that lake (which name I forgot unfortunately), so beautiful! 

And, and, and... Basically everything was my favorite, especially my 2 travelbuddies Lennart & Jacqueline, we were such a great team, yo! Unbelievable that you can 'meet' people on facebook who happen to become real good friends. Those hours we had with Wolfgang will always be remembered! ❤️ 

After the southern scenic route we continued back up north to Christchurch to drop off Lennart and to go back to the North Island after. 

On our way up there we found this very lovely little town called Oamaru, it's like all old, vintage style! 

Then we had to say goodbye to Lennart... 

From Christchurch Jacqueline and I drove straight (after a small shopping trip) up to Picton where we met Patrick our new travel buddy for the next few days. That trip up there was a special one, Wolfgangs coolant/heater didn't work as usual so we nearly freezed to death in that car 😄 and it was a loong trip, we arrived in Picton at 1am... 

So after we had some nice talks and could feel our feet and hands again, we decided to take the ferry at 2pm the next day. We ended up staying awake the whole night and taking the ferry at 8am 😄 

We had a good trip back up to Auckland ((nearly) home). Te Papa in Wellington, a random museum in Wanganui, Surf Highway to New Plymouth, a german Gelato Café, Kawhia and Raglan - Raglans sunset is my absolute favorite! 

We arrived late in Auckland found a place to sleep and then met Philip the next day as we stayed at his'. We had a nice and sunny day in Auckland City and then finished off our trip with a really good night out - casette9 a place one should definitely check out! 

And then I had to say goodbye to Jacqueline... 

From then on I stayed at Philips' or travelled around with Wolfgang and..

Marvin to Coromandel - Cathedral Cove 

Vicky to Piha, Tauranga/Mt Maunganui, Opotiki/Tirohanga Beach, Gisborne, Okere Falls and back home to Kaiwaka! 

Nice trips! 

Favorites would be Piha, because we met Thom there and he took us to that amazing party of his friend and Piha in general is just beautiful. 

Here I do have to say how happy I am that I met Thom, he's an amazing person and I loved hanging out with him! 

Then I had to say goodbye to my lovely hostfam again... 

I sold Wolfgang to Marvin and then went with Philip, some other (new) AuPairs and Marina to Waipu Cove for a relaxed weekend at the beach. It's quite funny and also really cool that I met Philip for the first time at the excact same place on a similar trip 8 month ago! And now we spent my last weekend in the Northland there! Just love like everything seems to be so balanced and even at the moment, everything seems to happen for a reason and everythinh seems to work out. 

That's another point to say how overly glad I am that I've met Philip, he really is one of my very best friends now and I seriously don't know what I would've done without him 🙊 we had such fun times and amazing trips - so thank you for being there, Philip! 

Then it was Queenstown again! I nearly missed my flight or would have gone ti QT without any luggage but in the end everything worked out, apart from the fact that I forgot my ukulele in Philips car and some other stuff, but luckily Vicky did already send it home to germany, thanks for that! I do have to thank all 3 of you guys (Philip, Vicky and Johannes) for bringing me to the airport and helping me to not collapse under all that luggage 😄 seriously thank you, it means heaps to me! 

QT was awesome as always, I can't tell you what the weather was like though 😄 but the nights were great and the people for sure! 

Especially Nikita, my first welsh person (omg that accent!), it was amazing to meet her and we had lots of fun. It all started with that 6hr talk, loved it! 

Then Mike my roommate who's just awesome, a fun person, he can rap for sure and has some good advise for travelling, it was so good to meet you! 

Olivia, just how we started talking at the shop (that really beautiful one in QT, "the outpost" check it out if you're there!) we knew we're likeminded and get along well. So we talked for a loong time and then met for some drinks, definitely the best night out! Loved to meet you girl and I hope to see ya soon again somewhere in the world! 

Another goodbye to lovely people and then I went to Christchurch, my last 2 nights in New Zealand... 

Basically Christchurch was just sightseeing, packing my stuff and good talks with some lovely girls! Some good wine and food made the perfect end of that time and then I took the bus to the airport... 

At the airport I spent the waiting time with Sarah, a girl I met on the bus who took the same flight, and after a few struggles with my luggage I was finally on my way to Bangkok and then really soon Bali. About 30hrs later I arrived in Bali, yaay!! 

After getting used to that Bali vibe I did rent a scooter and then went to Ubud, such a nice place and a lovely hostel! 

But 5 days weren't enough for bali, you definitely need more time! A month cruising with a scooter around Bali would be perfect perfect perfect! That's what really feels like freedom! 

And here I have to say thank you to Robert who let me try to ride his scooter and helped me to find my scooter and did explain quite a few things to me, I had lots of fun with him and am glad that I met him! 

Now I'm at the end, sitting at Bangkok Airport after a day in Bangkok spent with some shopping and a bit sightseeing and meeting great people again! South-East-Asia I'm coming back soon! 

So now I'm sitting here and realize it's all real, it happened and did live my dream, it's an amazing feeling! That's the end of my adventure for now, but actually there is no end, it goes on and on and on and on...! And I will continue to travel and to learn and to grow with my experiences! 

So a big thank you to everyone out there who was a part of those last month, you're all amazing and I hope to see you all soon again! One day, somewhere around the world ✈️🌏❤️ 

Can't wait to get home now, but also can't wait to get back to travelling or back to New Zealand or back to South-East-Asia or whereever it'll take me! 

Whoever will be around germany I'll always have a spare couch 😉

Loooots of love from Bangkok, love you all ☀️✌🏻

PS: no pictures today just this one, more are to come real soon! 

I DID IT – I DID IT – I DID IT – YES, I DID IT!

And I still can’t believe it. But believe it or not, I jumped off that bridge. I jumped and fell 43m deep down towards that wonderful blue river. 

It’s a feeling that you can’t really describe. It is just amazing. In the first place you can’t really  realize what exactly you’re doing, but then you get the most amazing feeling or rather adrenaline rush and then it’s over and you’re stoked by what you’ve just done! 

Now we are (back) in Queenstown and are looking forward to a few amazing days here (with a proper bed & shower :D) 

Lots of Love from beautiful Queenstown ♥ 

2000 km and more!!

Hello everybody out there! 

It’s day 11 of our road trip & today we arrived in Queenstown. It’s so good to be back here, can’t believe that. But there is more that I can’t believe, just wait a bit.. (:

So far we’ve been to quite a few places since we left Auckland.

First we stayed in Taupo at Reids Farm which is a really nice place to stay and which was our first night in our car ‚Wolfgang‘.

Then we stayed at Jadens place in Wellington. He’s a friend of mine who I met at camp with the family. We had a good time there!

From Wellington we took the ferry to Picton. Finally in the South Island, but the phrase in front of it fits waay better. Wolfgang decided he was tired and so we had to push him off the ferry and then arrange a date for him with the AA mechanic.

That led us to Blenheim where we stayed for our first night in the South Island, but at a good place called ‚The Riverlands House‘ – it has amazing facilities and hot showers as well as powerpoints where you can charge your phone & it’s still so cheap to stay there!

After Blenheim we drove to Kaikoura. Kaikoura has the most amazing views, just stunning. You could actually stay there for quite a while and just look at the landscape!

From Kaikoura we took the road over Hamner Springs to Westport, which was quite a nice route with good views. In Westport we just stayed for the night and left early in the morning.

Our next destination was Greymouth. Again we had heaps of photo stops and we did the Truman Track (a nice short walk which leads to a beautiful beach) and stopped at the Pancake Rocks (again nice views!). In the evening we found a nice place to sleep right next to a lake, so we stayed there instead of driving another few kms to the next campground.

So this other campground was our destination on the next day as it had a hot shower! It turned out to be a wonderful place and it’s close to Franz Josef, so we stayed there. That was Okarito. The place where I wrote the post about the wine bottle. Okarito is just such a wonderful little community and they have a nice walking track which we did at night time (to hopefully see some kiwis, we didn’t ): )and in the morning (most amazing feeling and views!).

After our walk and my run in Okarito we drove to Franz Josef to see the glacier which was nice, but more the walk than the glacier itself. After the walk we went to our free wifi cafe again and then drove to Haast where we spent the night at a free overnight carpark.

Wanaka was our next stop after that. The road to Wanaka is amazing –lots and lots of photo stops – and Wanaka itself is just beautiful. Especially the lake and the tree in the lake J We spent the evening taking pictures and videos of that tree and the lake and then went to Subway as we were feeling to cold to cook something by ourselfs. Here I want to say thank you to Subway Wanaka again, because they did me a special gluten/dairy free combination on my own wraps :D That night we stayed at the DOC Campsite in Albert Town.

Day 10 was a late morning, some shopping, a late breakfast at 1pm and just hanging around at the lake and organising stuff on the internet as we had free wifi there. Suddenly it was about to get dark and we haven’t moved Wolfgang since we parked him at 1pm :D :D So we left towards Queenstown and slept at a free campground in Cromwell.

And today we finally started our tour to Queenstown which ended really fast as Wolfgangs‘ sunroof exploded so we spent some time at a wrecker/workshop to get Wolfgang fixed and then finally left for Queenstown. And here we are happy in Queenstown, each one of us has their own bed and we have a shower without a time limit – luxury!

And there was something else happening today, guess what?! I’ll tell you in my next post.

Lots of Love from Queenstown ♥

So below you find a rough selection of some pictures I took so far, enjoy! (: 

 

Drinking wine from the bottle

Sitting together at a campground in the wonderful Okarito at night. 

Discussing the feeling of drinking wine from the bottle, somehow we can't word this feeling. 

So we tried to find music to describe it: 

The soundtrack of "Ginger & Rosa" 

Or José González "Heartbeats" 

Any more ideas..? 

Or books: 

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Maybe it could just be described by young girls trying all kind of alcohol, maybe it's just nostalgia or maybe it's just simplicity, maybe, maybe, maybe... 

So we thought it might be a question to ask others, because somehow it's really bothering us or maybe just me and the others try to understand me. Anyway we can't word it or agree on something, so what are your thoughts on that topic? 

Lots of love from the far, far Okarito ❤️

I'm alive!

I am alive, but busy..☺

I decided that I am going to post all the pictures on my other blog (-> NinaClaraPhotography) as I am just not able to get everything updated on here.
So in the future I try to keep you updated here by writing and posting a few pictures if I have enough time and on my other blog I am going to post all sorts of pictures from different places and times.

So here I am alive but busy, working on some pictures, feeling good after spending a great time with amazing people(!) and spending the last days of school summer holidays.

And I promise to keep you more updated in the future!

lots of love, Carina ♥