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New Job starting on Monday. Hmm, we'll see...

Looking forward to...

From Summer to Winter in one night! ok it is not so bad, just Fall here. About 15 C.
But sadly, in Alaska it seems to be much colder, because everything, from Hostels to National Park to street is closed. So no Alaska for me. But it will stay very high on my list of the next destinations!

So instead going into the wild (and eating berries and not coming back (-: ), I preferred the Civilisation. Their food (and beer and Coffee) is much better than I could ever find or cook on my own.

The general character of Vancouver hasn't changed much since the time I was here 8 years ago (thank god), but a lot of construction is going, because of the Olympic Winter Games 2010.

Victoria is a really nice city, once it stops raining, well I guess, because sadly it didn't stop. I also haven't seen much of the rest of Vancouver Island, with all the fog and mist and rain.

Whistler on the other side was much better. Weatherwise. The Village itself is still too touristy and crowded for me. But they seem to be ready for the Olympic Games there, my inspection of the venues was ok. Even Inukshuk, the mascot, is waiting.

Next stop will be Seattle, then back to Vancouver, because I finally got tickets for a game (well "finally", it is only the second home game). Further Montreal(-Area ?) and New York(-Area?). As always not much planned yet.

Back in Auckland i met Eva and Geoff again, who were invited to a wedding on Waiheke.
A german couple, who just wanted to visit them took the chance of the beautiful scenery.
So, instead of walking through the city again, i found myself on this beach at a wedding of two unknown people.
But it was really fun. Afterwards we were all watching the Auckland Warriors Game in the Irishpub. Bride and groom felt a little overdressed. And silence over the result of the game.
Next day visit to a vineyard and the it was already time for the next country, continent, hemisphere.

Evening flight to Christchurch. Watching the All Blacks game (they won against Australia, woohoo!)

Getting the car in the morning and off we go:

- Dunedin
- Catlins and the most Southern Point of the South Island (well, was not accessible at that moment, a hint for future extreme points! at least there were some fun gravel roads!!)
- Invercargill
- Te Anau
- Queenstown (suddenly, skiers and snowboarders all over the place, very unexpected)
- Wanaka (still some snowboarders, but less crowded)
- over the Haast Pass to Haast
- Greymouth (even less crowded, completly dead after 7 pm (I arrived at about 6.30!, so not much to do there)
- Waiatu (ok, there I knew that it won't be crowded, a former goldmine- now ghost town)
- back over the Alps (the southern ones!!) to Kaikoura (not much more people than in Greymouth or Waiatu)
- Through the Wine-Regions of the Marlborough Sound (exactly on the other side of the World of the Bordeaux region) to
- Nelson (some more people there because it was Rugby evening, this time Auckland, and they too won (woohoo again!!). This is where the (THE) Ring was really forged (Jens Hansen Jewellery, the rumour of the Fires of Mt. Doom are all wrong!)
- to Picton and the Inter Island Ferry to
- Wellington, the windy city. It really lived up to its reputation. Te Papa, the National Museum
- Napier, after a earthquake completely rebuilt in ArtDeco.
- East Cape (inaccessible!)
- Whakatane
- Rotorua (very smelly, because of the active Volcanoes there)
- Taupo, on the shore of a gigantic crater lake
- Round the Tongariro National Park (very cloudy, foggy, misty that day, so no Mt. Doom (or Ngauruhoe) for me! also the other Volcanoes were not visible, and also the road further than 30 m))
- back to Taupo, playing a round of Golf, not at Wairakei (in the Top100 list of the World, but at Taupo Golf Club)
- to Auckland
- North to Kawakawa (Hundertwasser lived there his final years and left a toilet)
- Waitangi (where the famous treaty was signed)
- Cape Reinga, the most Northwestern Point, where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific come together, close is the North Cape, which is inaccessible
- now back in Auckland after just over 6000 km in 12 days (a little bit too much driving, but it was worth it)

As always: photos will follow (someday!)

arriving in the evening at Kings Cross, the entertaintment-district of Sydney (most of the entertainment red-light of course).
Next day really bad weather. So after strolling through the mall, visit of the Sydney Aquarium. Evening at a sportsbar on George Street.

Next day with Kris from Sweden, we decided to explore the city, but as the weather was still bad, we watched the Koalas and Kangaroos at Sydney Wildlife World (just next to the Aquarium, again). Evening-Program: Chicken and Cinema ("In Bruges", strangely funny, so really good!).

Opera house, Harbour Bridge, Olympic Park, Bondi Beach. All tourist sites in one day!

With hired car to North Sydney & Manly Beach on the last day. Last evening @ Kings Cross.