volkermartin

Almost finished!

After lazy beach days in New Plymouth, it was time to move on. We had just under a week until Auckland, which is only 400 km away on the direct route. So there was still time...

Passing through the insignificant supply town of Stratford, we arrived at the roundish peninsula of Taranaki, with the eponymous volcanic mountain at its center. This shapely...

It was time for another motorcycle ride and a change of scenery. We continued on the north and west sides above Lake Taupo through a beautiful green volcanic landscape dotted...

From Napier we turned inland. The destination was the town of Taupo, located on the beautiful and largest lake in New Zealand. We initially drove on a small road towards the...

The first sign of the festival was already at the campsite since Monday evening: right across from us, an older couple arrived with a large motorhome and a big closed trailer....

For our next destination, it wasn't about nature, but about visiting a remarkable city, namely the town of Napier on the east coast of the North Island. Napier was designed in...

Whakapapa Village is a good starting point to do one of the most beautiful and spectacular hikes in New Zealand, the 19.4 km long Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Since this is no...

Whanganui River

The crossing to the North Island without significant waves in sunny weather was already pleasant. Since we only had the noon ferry, we could pack in peace and then set up camp...

In pouring rain, we reached the camping site a few kilometers north of Picton on an uneventful drive. Well, it stopped raining in the evening and we were able to set up our...

We only passed through Nelson on the way, so we stayed here for 2 days. Since there was no campground near the city, we took a double room in a backpacker. It was called 'The...

The attentive reader of this blog will have already noticed that we drove the South Island in a figure eight and are now well on our way back, we have been on the road for...

We left Fox in dry weather heading north and enjoyed the beautiful coastal route. As a highlight of New Zealand road construction, the quite busy coastal road led over an old...

From Wanaka we continued to the West Coast towards Haast and then up the coast to the town of Fox Glacier, where we had reserved a cabin at the campsite for 2 nights, as it...

Heading north and inland, the next destination was Wanaka, located on the eponymous lake in the mountains, just a pass away from Queenstown. We stayed overnight in Clyde at a...

Heading towards Dunedin, we drove along the Catlins Coast, a very remote and pristine area with lots of rainforest and a rugged coastline. There is hardly any infrastructure...

Invercargill is the southernmost city on the South Island and the starting point to reach the quite deserted Stuart Island by boat. We decided not to visit the island as there...

Heading to the next, if not the biggest highlight of New Zealand: Milford Sound, probably the best-developed fjord in the southwestern Fiordland of New Zealand. Although...

Finally some sunshine! The tour back to Lake Wakatipu was breathtaking, you could have stopped to take photos constantly. We bypassed Queenstown and headed to our next...

Our next stage led us to the alpine area around Lake Wakatipu. Queenstown is particularly well-known here, which almost all New Zealand tourists and many adventurous Kiwis...

Ranfurly is a small town - or rather a village in the high plains of Otago, west of Dunedin, in the hinterland, or one could also say in the middle of nowhere. The construction...

Note on pronunciation: in German I would spell it like this: Dannieden :-)) We reached our next destination Dunedin, a relatively large city for local standards, known for...

On the tour to the coastal town of Oamaru, you can see for several kilometers before the town what it is famous for: cream-colored sandstone is being extracted here, which can...

The next stage was the highlight of this trip so far, literally, because we went to Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand at 3,724 m. The tour was not far, but led...

From Christchurch we headed back into the mountains to Lake Tekapo, a beautifully situated reservoir with turquoise water. The tour took us southwest out of Christchurch to the...

Next stop on our trip was Christchurch on the east coast. We first drove on beautiful gravel roads past the mountain lakes Lake Coleridge and Lake Lyndon, and then continued on...

Rakaia Gorge

According to the weather forecast, it is expected to rain further in the coming days, and then it will pour heavily on the west coast. Therefore, we changed our plan and did not...

Next, we continued south toward Lake Rotoiti, a beautiful crystal-clear mountain lake that somehow looked like Lake Königssee, only with fewer people. There were already a few...