...south of Hamilton the capital of dairy farming in New Zealand. Obviousliy there´s is a need to put up a note like that.

On a last little road trip around the Coromandel Peninsula with french guys again. Sun, fun, beaches and a flat tire on my car. Luckily I found exactly the same tire within an hour for cheap. problem solved - la vie est belle!

Narrow windy roads another time.

New Zealand and it´s green reputation would be a long and interesting story to write. To be honest it´s like anywhere do not look to close.

Car saled, laundry done, luggage optimized, restored and already excited about the next chapter of my journey. to be continued ...

After New Year I hit the road north again. Endless driving reminds me on Canada.

Castle hill. A magic place on earth. Heaps of lime stone boulders waiting to be climbed.

I end up bouldering with a good growd of people. Sun, fun and couple of hard moves as well. Wish I could have stayed longer but I needed to catch my ferry back to the north island. Photo creds to Ashtyn Renée Photography. thanks.

Cristchurch is still suffering from that devastating earthquake in 2011. Quiet intimitating and intense how mother earth is able to shake us up easily.

Though it´s fascinating how people in a metropolis like that are dealing with such a catastrophe. Here the anglican cathedral temporarily built out of cardboard, designed by the japanese disaster architect Shigeru Ban.

Besides that a lot of freaky art is going on in Christchurch. Lucky that I got the chance to see this amazing performance. It´s all about processing the pain I learned that day... so "pain is temporary, glory last forever" is still a valid saying.

I was driving north from Wellington when I picked up Roger hitchhiking. He is a 65 year old maori guy who was going to surprise his sister for a birthday party after beeing away from home since 8 years.

While driving I learned a lot about maori culture and at some stage Roger got super excited about seeing "his" mountain - Mt. Taranaki - again. It was an easy thing for him to convince me doing a little detour to the base of the mountain. Felt pretty much like myself and Mt.Ötscha back home in Austria. Anyways, the maori legend says seeing the summit free of clouds is a good omen - so it might gonna be a good year for us!

Unlikely kiwi we celebrated christmas quietly and on the 24th the european way together with Nico and his friends Marion and Lena in Queenstown.

The various wheather conditions require maximum effort in short periods of time. Wye Creek is the best place for pumpy workouts above lake wakatipu.

Verena working her way up on this overhanging piece of schist.

The great journey went on to Milford Sound in Fjordland. Sunshine is supposed to be very rare there, lucky us. Less people but an incredible amount of sandflies were joining us for dinner.

Climbing in NZ is always a bit of an adventure, unsurprisingly in Milford as well. Proper route descriptions are difficult to access like the climbs itselfs. Besides that you have to find creative solutions getting down as well.

... but the scenery is worth the effort an other time.

Mt. Underwood glowing in the evening light.

Wind directions...

Steward island at sunset. Just epic!

The famous moeraki boulders attract people with there sphericaly shape.