The West Coast

As the journey is now coming to an end, I am very behind with the reports, but I still don't want to withhold the beautiful landscape of New Zealand from you, so here are the last parts in summary. Sorry for that, but keeping the blog up to date has been more challenging here than expected.

The internet connection or reception in general is always a bit tricky in New Zealand. No problem in the cities, but as soon as you end up in the middle of nowhere (which happens very quickly here), you're sometimes unreachable - not even a phone network.

Before I started my trip, there were some heated discussions with Mom and Dad about me taking a satellite phone with me, just in case the reception would be bad in Asia!? ;D

Well, that was not a problem there - reception and wifi everywhere. I don't think I went a single day without internet in Nepal and Vietnam. The Asians are way ahead of us.

In New Zealand, on the other hand, it's normal not to have any network. Considering that only 4.5 million people live on 268,021 km², a comprehensive network is really unnecessary...

But back to our route:

West Coast (South Island)

The West Coast of the South Island is the least populated area of New Zealand (1.4 IW/km²) and is a mixture of coasts, rainforests and mountains.

Cape Foulwind 

Coastal walk and seal colony 

Punakaiki 

A hike through the jungle and to the Pancake Rocks. They are called that because they look like stacks of pancakes. They are formed by different layers of rock that weather at different speeds.

Hokitika Gorge

A gorge with incredibly turquoise water! The color is created by the glacial flour transported by the river.

Franz Josef Glacier

Hike to the glacier tongue. The German explorer Julius von Haast named the glacier after the Austrian emperor in 1865.

Ship Creek

A beautiful coastal walk.