Category Archives: posted by Florian

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Part 19 – A week in Dunedin

Monday was supposed to be my first day at work…until I checked again and realized that the Hocken Library is closed on Mondays. Thus, we had Monday to explore a little bit of the Otago Peninsula. Dunedin looked quite a bit similar to Wellington when we moved along the harbour (minus the high-rises). Our first stop, for lunch, was a playground next to Macandrew beach. The kids enjoyed the play time (and the ice cream), before we continued to Te Rauone beach where we spent the afternoon and the night freedom camping.

On Tuesday, we had a brief look around Taiaroa Head but couldn’t visit the Royal Albatros Center as now I had to be at the Hocken Library at 10am. After this, I was mostly out for the rest of the week.

Flo: So while Nina slogged away at the Hocken, both kids and I got to explore and go on adventures. We started local, but non-the-less awesome at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum. I remembered it fondly, and the broad selection of exhibits and topics was a hit with the kids as well. That night we cowed from first real rain on our trip right at the heart of town. Dunedin’s Freedom camping policy is awesome.

Another (rainy) day, another museum. Tūhura Otago Museum, a “British Museum” style potpourri of different exhibits. Including the fantastic “Relics” touring exhibition of “Where’s Waldo”-style Lego dioramas built into “relics” of humanity. Plus, a butterfly greenhouse, for some reason. Great fun was had.

The big one came on Thursday – hopping on to the Taieri Gorge Railway on the first sunny day after the rain had passed. The kids were 100% on board (get it?) and had heaps to tell mom, who came to pick us up after coming back to town and because why not, we added a whole steet art walking tour in the afternoon.

On Wednesday and Friday we came back to our friends Celia and Tig’s place to give the kids more chances to hang out (plus ok, maybe some personal hygiene). It was amazing getting the time to hang out. A personal marker for the outstanding quality of people we call friends is how effortlessly we find into a rhythm even after years of not seeing them. One more huge shoutout to them and their amazing tamariki! Our kids will sure remember the time here.

After that full week, we had more of a low key day on Friday, exploring the Dunedin Botanical Garden, catching up on sleep and preparing for a shared evening meal with our friends. The kids were suprisingly engaged in the “plants selected for their fragrence” section.

Part 17 – Must Do’s in NZ

Now that all is sorted, we are ready to do the most of the time remaining before heading to Dunedin. As we arrived late last night, we took our time at Kinloch and explored the estuary of the Dart River. Before heading out, Nina and I felt it was time to acknowledge the bravery and generally good behaviour of our Tamariki and present them with their Taonga, their Ponamu necklaces.

After the first 10 km of hoping not to rip Timmy apart on the shoddy gravel road, we were back on tarmak and ready to cover some distance. Almost. Just one more stop at Lake Wakatipu for a splash and Lunch and off we were.

The KM ticked up and the landscape changed. But the most memorable time came late this afternoon. We finally picked up our first hitchhiker, Taiga. A guy from Japan hiking the lenght of New Zealand, he has been walking for over 100 days and almost at the end of his journey. We dropped him off at Te Anau to re-stock his supplies and went off further down the Milford Road to make camp for the night.

After a rougher start, the day at Milford turned out to be an absolute stunner, with brilliant sunshine and reasonably calm seas. We enjoyed the cruise and also the leasurly trip back on the Milford Road. We passed through the tunnel once more and found another splendit DOC campsite along the road. A bit crazy to realise that I still work more than half a day every weekday night throughout this adventure.

Part 10 – Double the Fun Week

Faced with the tough choice of another week of school vs. a week of daytrips with me, Number 3 chose the latter. Not for lack of fun at school, but more out of fear of missing out. Nina did go all out this week, working basically nine to five.

It was quite the spectacular week, all in all. We ended up with all sorts of activities. A best-of-the-past walking tour, including the cable car, botanical gardens and CBD. One and a half days of Te Papa, including stalking mum over her work-coffee. A chill day with movie and snuggles.

But probably the highlight was renting an e-bike and one kids’ bike for Number 3 (sadly, he was still too small for even the smallest of the kids’ e-bikes) and going on an epic 30km ride along the eastern shoreline and over Mount Vic.

For convenience and to have a place for me to get a nap in during the day, we ended up taking Timmy into town on most of those days. Parking at Te Papa was both central and very convenient, and we were more flexible on when to leave and head back.

Part 3 – Always Auckland

We may be out of our AirBnB and fully reliant on Timmy now, but still in the grips auf Auckland. Two days and one night more for Nina to finish her research at the Auckland Art Galery.

Thursday was all about getting used to our new lifestyle and putting the final touches on our setup. Buying some camping chairs, a few bits and bobs. Picking up my NZMCA membership card, so that we can take full advantage of that. We did a loop around the eastern outskirts of Auckland and gave the kids a chance to spend some time at the beach. That night, we spent the convenient but louder of Aucklands two freedom camping spots. Right at the motorway, it attracted an odd collection, but we got through the first night just fine.

On Friday, we left Nina in town for her bus to the Auckland Art Gallery. I upgraded to “stay-at-mobilehome-dad” and took the kids west all the way to Whatipu. We did a bush trail to see kauri trees and visited the black sanded Whatipu Beach. The kids had a blast, even with the 2 hours of driving over windy and even gravely roads. At mid-afternoon, we headed back to Auckland to pick up Nina and leave Auckland for good this time. It was a mildy cursed endeavour, first clipping the side mirror on a badly parked contruction truck, then stuck in traffic and finally we got a send off gift from Auckland’s finest: Turns out, the CBD has a general 30 limit, so we got a kind 120$ information at the last turn before the motorway as helpful reminder.

This night, we tried a NZMCA “Park-over-Place” for the first time. What a great thing – safe spaces organised by NZMCA members where one can spend the night for a small fee. So we enjoyed the parking lot of Woodturners Café entirely to ourselves. Much more quiet. Now, the holiday part can start …

Part 2 – Pre-Lauch

As I am lying here, in the back of Timmy the Motorhome with a view of the beach, there is no other way than feeling our trip has just now entered Chapter 1 proper. The last week could be considered prolog, but in life – everything counts, nothing is extra. So let me tell you a bit about the rest of our first week in New Zealand.

We arrived on Thursday morning, as evidenced in our first post. By Saturday, we had pretty much settled in: All paperwork done, accounts reactivated and a motorhome purchase completed. Shoutout to Hennie, who was very supportive and patient with his personal “scammer” buying a pretty expensive vehicle for the most part remotely from Germany.

Sunday was a slow day for all of us, most of all me with the obligatory plane-pest now all the way at the fever stage. Nina: The kids and I still spent some time in Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Center on this Sunday.

So as Monday came round, it was time to direct our focus towards this place. Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. We decided to use the day to make good on Number 3’s birthday present and took the bus to MOTAT – the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland. He absorbed every minute of it, from opening time at 10am till the doors closed. The Agent of Entropy was less impressed but got distracted enough by some craft opportunity as part of the Auckland Anniversary Day weekend program. Her real highlight was the daring deeds to be had on the playground afterwards.

Tuesday was all preparations, getting Timmy ready for the road. It never ceases to amaze us that the unwritten NZ tradition when trading used goods seems to be that the buyer will clean. Nina: I on the other hand used the morning to get acquainted with the laudromat to do some proper washing of everything.

I was a bit high on isopropyl alcohol and glue (from fixing some sag in the headliner in the luton) when we met friends Elle and Nick in the afternoon. As perfect coincidence had it, Elle works at the Auckland Maritime Museum, so Number 3 got to see the Black Magic and America’s Cup replica first hand.

It was brilliant to catch up with old friends after 10 years. Things change, things stay the same, but everyone has a distinct memory of the covid years.

And so Wednesday came around. Nina’s first day at work and the reason (among others) why we are in New Zealand in the first place. So while she got real work done, thanks to amazing support from the Auckland Art Gallery staff, I got to play stay-at-home dad and took the little ones on a day hike up Maungawhau (Mt. Eden). The cafe up there was the perfect lunch spot. In my view, the view from the caldera beat spending over 100$ on the SkyTower any day. The Agent thought less so for all the walking up and down hill it entailed.

And so, we end our settled ways, sleep one more night at our AirB&B with Timmy ready to go tomorrow …

Even after a brief shower, the trampoline remained their favourite “toy”

Post 1 – On Time

Musings, considerations … literal appointments. A 30 hour transit FRA to AKL by way of LAX has it all. And we made it, on-time. To Auckland. To our rental car. But we are also out of our time … jet-lagged by a 12 hour shift in timezones. Removed by time, coming back after almost 10 year. On borrowed time, as this is not a “as long as we feel like needing” this time. New and interesting times, and for Number 3 and the Agent of Entropy the first time as well.

New Zealand has us back, and we are so elated to be back here, despite all the exhaution. The kids loved their first days, after getting over some of the trauma of the brutally long transit. Air New Zealand helped … sunshine helped, the beach definitely helped. And even the Peanuts helped a good bit.

Now, three months ahead of us. A lot of time … not enough? Who knows …

Nina: And also an inbetween…not quite a holiday as three out of four of us have to work for a good while. But also not only a work visit as we do get to see people and places we haven’t seen in forever. Or ever.

packed luggage — Luggage ready for New Zeland

Day 20 – Zagori and Vikos Gorge

Our felt last day was used for Vikos Gorge in an area called Zagori. It’s a mountainous area full of tiny villages and a big canyon. The best place to see the gorge is from Beloi viewpoint which you can only reach after a short hike.

Afterwards we drove to a lovely cafe in Kapesovo.

On the way back, we stopped at Kokkorou, an old stone bridge to take more photos.

Tomorrow is our last day in Greece and we won’t even get a full night’s sleep as we will have to queue for the ferry at 4am. To make it easier on us, we opted for a campground close to Igoumenitsa and returned to our first Greek campground, Sofas beach, for our last night.

Day 17 – Pelion Peninsula loop

We weren’t entirely sure what to do on the Pelion Peninsula. In the end, we decided to go on a round trip and give the kids some more time at a couple of beaches. The first beach we stopped at was Mylopotamos. It turned out to be lovely and we stayed to play with the stream and the rocks. Up the stairs again for a great lunch at Aggelika. Now, we wanted to move on but the Agent had found three girls to go exploring with for the second time. So a second exploration it was.

Afterwards, we finished the loop with a stop at Agios beach and a ride through the apple orchards in Zagora. Back to Camp Sirka for the night.

Day 13 – Cradle of Democracy

Our first day in Athens. Or: Anything but the Acropolis. We drove 45 min from the Campsite out in the sticks to a big mall (where we fit into the underground parking with our hight just shy of 2 meters) and after a breakfast used the great subway connection right into the heart of the City. Or more precisely: The ancient heart …

Destination: Inner city Athens. End of our looong journey to get here

Day 11 – Of castles and theaters

We went further up the coast to the town of Nafplio. A stroll through the castle later, we had our best food yet at a recommended restaurant. After our food stop, we went to Epidaurus to look at the amphitheater. One last camp along the coast which we first thought was abandoned.