Fiji: Sharkdiving

Arrived in Fiji on Friday and went down to the Pacific Harbour, 3 hours from Nadi and on the south of the main island "Viti Levu". Down here is one of the two only places all over the world, where divers can watch the underwater bull- and tiger shark feeding without any cage.


First try I did on Saturday and today morning the second time. The dive was again: AWESOME - even there was again no Tiger shark today joining the party.
This time I asked the staff and dive instructors, if I can go to the photographer’s area. That area is much closer to the happening and usually only real photographer-divers with huge cameras are allowed to go there. And actually, that makes sense. Cause the sharks cannot really differentiate between a piece of fish, with what they get fed, or my little underwater camera! So me and the other photographer with the huge camera, had our own security guard, who was armed with an iron bar to poke away the too close coming sharks and tell them “NO NO HERE”! But even with the security guy, who wasn’t able to watch out always in every direction in that feeding chaos, it was a quite special and tensioned feeling sitting there right in the middle of the dining table! These bulls are huge – and you clearly can see how aggressive and unpredictable that kind of shark is! Every other fish and even other kind of sharks down there move away, when a bull is coming to the buffet! And once they slowly move away and disappear in the blue, whereas just seconds or minutes later they suddenly they appear one arm length somewhere beside or above us divers - three times faster than they disappeared, focusing the camera with their little white eyes and show of their spiky, sharp, white teeth! 

Fiji is my last destination and it means this journey is coming to an end. On Wednesday I will fly to South Korea to have a one day stopover and then, I will finally arrive back in Europe on Friday.

New Zealand: Falling off a plane

Since today morning Im in Queenstown. Meanwhile I know, even when the city is printed in huge
capital letters on the map and its is considered as a famous city, it absolutely doesn’t mean ANYTHING :)! But at least, I knew before I came here, that Queensland is some kind of “famous” and a nice place to spend time and so on. And I also knew that I want to go skydiving here. And so I did this afternoon!

The trip lasted all in all about 3 hours. In my group we were 5 people. We had to drive 20 minutes to the special little airport, somewhere out in the prairie, got then some instructions and appropriate skydive clothes, hat and goggles. Then we had to climb into the little airplane, a cessna, wherein no chairs were mounted and where we had to sit on the floor, each attached to an instructor. Plane started, raised, went up pretty fast! It was loud and it was shaking and we just saw the cows and sheeps on the bottom getting small and smaller. Soon we reached the 12000 feet and they opened the
door :D! After the two in front of me disappeared, it was my turn! Damn, that FEELING – slowly moving towards to the open door of a flying plane and sit on the edge, letting your legs dangle outside. And then 5 seconds later: here we go! :D Its incredible, that Feeling of falling, and when you know theres no need to worry, but the instincts say “THIS IS WRONG”…hehe!
The scenery was just stunning with all the mountains and lakes so small below. Actually the free fall lasted for about 45 seconds, but if felt much shorter! Also awesome was to enjoy the scenery in slow
motion, after the parachute got opened and the last 100 meters when the ground comes close again so fast, before it slows down for the landing. Yes....

New Zealand: Chasing McDonalds

Moved on to Wellington, the capital city. Roamed around, explored, made some pictures. Its nice
here! Nice city! Compact, has a nice harbor, two mcdonalds and a huge amount of small restaurants and coffee shops. But here, it isn’t really a city where I would spend more than one/two days. So the next day it was time to change from the North to the South Island of New Zealand. Most common way is by the car Ferry.

After driving all these hundreds of kilometers along the westcoast, passing Westport and Punakaiki, my once not so optimistic view from New Zealand is now completely changed. The more I drive, the more I see the beautiful places, which make new Zealand so famous for! On the way here to greymouth, is especially the coastline an absolute stunner! But also the mountains. Most of mountains here are more like huge rounded hills, covered with grass and where the sheeps do their best to maintain it regularly. Nice nice!

The haunt for the next McDonalds continued and I found it a few hundred kilometeres south along the westcoast. Thankfully they had Internet and power sockets to charge the computer, but after using it for 10 minutes, I got kicked out of McDonalds for the first time in my life :D. As I didn’t order anything and just used the internet, I got approached and forced by the staff to buy something or leave their property immediately. Actually I was shocked, being approached and confronted by a mcdonalds dummy staff and didn’t say much more then a simple “yes”! So I went out to the car and came back with some coins to buy a small bag of fries for 1$..hahaha!!

New Zealand: Roadtrip North to South

Have now the first 300kms behind me and arrived this late afternoon in Taupo. Wanted to be here
much earlier. Actually it was planned that I got picked up at 10am from the hostel by the shuttle of the car-rental Company. But somehow they managed to forget me. The car Ive received is great. It’s a Subaru Legacy. Didn’t expect such a big one but its alright, so I have more space to sleep and stretch my legs.

This place here, Taupo, is famous for its hot springs and its lake that has the same size as Singapore. While Singapore and New Zealand have about the same amount of citizen, its an interesting perspecitve to imagine when all New Zealanders have to live in the place with the size of this Lake Taupo.

So after arriving here in Taupo and having dinner, I went to the swimming area, where they have steambath and in- and outdoor swimming pools, heated up to 40 degrees. Pure relaxation after driving the half day. The best thing while going to swimming pool facilities is, that they always have hot showers and as my car doesn't have any shower or bathroom installed and i dont want to spend much money on expensive NZ-accomodation.... yes... no comment - but I am now completely relaxed, fresh showered and ready to sleep in the car :D

The New Zealand i have seen so far is somehow really… dry! In reality, as well in metaphorical sense. Somehow I expected wonderful green mountains and a beautiful stunning scenery - like the movie "Lord of the Rings" with its Hobbits shows us. Until now, I didn’t see much of it .. However, I just have seen a little part yet and im already really excited, what the next days bring in!

New Zealand: Ice cold Auckland

Since about 1pm I’m in the hostel here in Auckland City. It’s quite new - just open since September
last year and therefore still everything clean and tidy! The 10 hour flight from Singapore was easier than I expected. I knew that the flight doesn’t provide any complimentary food or drink for Otto's like me. Arrangements initiated - I prepared myself with chicken adobo, biscuits and drinks from Singapore..hehe!! Watched one movie and soon, the sleeping/waking up routine started. But as I had two seats, I was able to try many different positions and combinations, and finally I remember, I found some really good sleep – even it was just a few hours. Arrived in Auckland at 4.30am Singapore-Time, whereas here in New Zealand it already was 9:30am.

AND IT IS COLD HERE!!! Just about 15 degrees and strong cold wind this morning!

This afternoon, after having some minutes of sleep, I already started to roam around the City. Based on what I saw, im little bit disappointed…:D! No, seriously, I knew that Auckland, the biggest city of New Zealand, has just a small business district compared to Sydney or Singapore. But I didn’t expect it so small and, for the first impression, sorry, boring…!! However, maybe I wasn’t just really in the mood this afternoon. Will make my final judgment on Saturday, when I leave Auckland and drive to the south.

Will have the car for 11 days and the plan is to move from Auckland to Wellington and then to the South Island. Following the road to the west coast with the famous glaciers. Further down to Queenstown and Milford Sounds, with its famous Fiordlands. On the bottom of the South Island, heading from westcoast to eastcoast and finally up to Christchurh - where I finally will leave for Fiji.

Singapore: My new home?

Arrived in Singapore and will remain here for a few weeks. Its time for Job search.

Sydney: Good Bye Australia

This was my last day in australia and I don’t know if I will go back in foreseeable future. Maybe just
when I got a job offer. So tomorrow morning, I will take the shuttle to the airport and then at around lunchtime the plane goes up to Singapore via Kuala Lumpur! There is a stopover for 1 hour and then the job journey continues to Singapore.

Enjoyed these last days in Australia. Beside contacting job agencies, doing all the remaining sightseeing places, drinking coffee, trying to win a ipad in the casino, watching movies, I yesterday went for a visit to Sydney's famous Blue Mountains. Its a 2 hour train ride from the City. Spectacular view and absolutely worth the visit even when its just to get a change in the surrounding landscape and getting some clean breaths outside the buzzing city.

Don't have much to share for the next few weeks while im in Singapore, cause it will be all about Job searching. On march 18th, I'll take the 10-hour direct flight to Auckland, New Zealand. The plan so far, hiring a car, moving it down to Queenstown and then along the coast up to Christchurch.

Syndey: Pure paranoia

The last car service went smooth. But as I had no idea if everything was alright with the car or if it
was for the trash, my pulse doubled while listening to the final judgment of the mechanic and in the presence of the not yet new owner - especially under the circumstance that I didn’t have the money yet. The funny thing: the new owner didn't even check, if all the additional equipment is in the car and so he left Sydney the same day. Therefore the chance that he comes back to hunt me in the case the Pajero fails or doesn’t have all its stuff in it, is quite small :)

Moved now into a hostel, in the center of Sydney. It’s a dorm room with bunk beds. Everything else was too expensive. At least it is just a 4 bed bunk dorm and currently just occupied by one indian immigrant, who is searching for a job. But he is alright, except that he snores, is depressive and has paranoia about being observed by the Australian government. He thinks there is some kind of conspiracy thingy running against him and that he therefore doesn’t get a job anymore. Actually it was little bit scary, as he told me the whole never ending paranoia conspiracy story and as he later brought me some coffee. Me, little bit skeptic about that while imagining “what if he suspects me as a spy and put some kind of anti-spy-fluid in the coffee to kill me?” – I just drunk a few milliliters and dumped the remaining toxic soup in the trash :D! Well, maybe, Im paranoid too.. haha!

Sydney: Pajero! You're fired!

Sydney Harbour

Sold the Pajero today. Since several weeks it was advertised on the net and since one week it is
advertised in many different hostels all around Sydney. Had 2.5 persons which were interested and thankfully one of them finally bought it. After testdriving checking everything, he bought the car – or at least a hand in hand agreement! My thoughts now: hopefully this mate does not decide else!! Is a handshake a definitive deal or might he undo his decision? Its not normal to undo a handshake, right?

The price is ok, and definitely better than I probably would have received from a garage or dealer. So now, on monday I have to call the garage for doing a last Service and then it is ready to hand over. It might be already next Wednesday. And from then on, I have to sleep in a guesthouse again for the rest of the time here in Australia! This means I have to check tomorrow if there is any hostel that has an affordable room available for me.

Sydney: Final destination

I finally arrived in Sydney. The last major challenge for the Pajero is done. Started the last 320

kilometers this morning. The devastation caused by the Superstorm was visible everywhere along the road. Some segments of the road were halfway flooded and trees and other obstacles were about of being removed all along the way. Sometimes complete roads were closed and it caused me to drive 150km's of detours. So it wasnt boring at all and i enjoyed it - it was the last part of my Australian roundtrip. Arrived at about lunch time in Sydney City - perfectly timed to the worst rush hour! Except some clouds and little bit rain, there wasnt any sign of the storm anymore.

Tomorrow i will go to the print shop and get some copies from my Pajero-Advertisment. Its time to sell it. Therefore I will drive to different guesthouses and backpacker hostels, to hang up the advertisments there.

Brisbane's Super Storm

Back to Australia, Gold Coast, right into the eye of the cyclone! Since Friday here in Queensland is a very severe super storm roaming around. The flight yesterday to Brisbane was scary and people were shouting around :)! But it was long time ago since i last time experienced passengers applaud and clap their hands for the pilots at the end.

Actually, I booked the train from Brisbane Airport to Gold Coast, but because of the storm it was out of service. Thankfully I booked the ticket in advance, cause now the train company had to organize my trip to Gold Coast.  They simply put me in a taxi – a business class taxi and the transport costs were over 200$ - including a swipe out to McDonalds :D

The Pajero seems to be alright. He is little bit sick cause one tyre is flat. But except of that and the parking fine, everything looks good and I already was able to start the engine this morning. I actually planned to leave Gold Coast today. Hopefully really everything is alright with the Car and so I can go pump the tyre, driving to the next shopping mall to get some foods and then continue the last part of my Australian journey! Its about 870km to Sydney… Will be a long way again, but accompanied with the south-moving-cyclone, I should have a very pleasant time…

New Caledonia: Roadtrip

Cause my leg didnt allow me go diving during the week, I didnt do much except that I roamed around in Noumea, doing sightseeing, some coffee tasting in many different coffee shops, ate many small snacks everywhere and enjoyed watching people rushing around and doing their daily business!

On friday I checked out from the youth-hostel and got a rental car to drive to the northern part of New Cale. So the trip was nice with lots of nickel mountains and mining areas everywhere, but somehow I had many many “déjà vu’s” from the other countries while driving the 900kms.. So the “stunning”moments were very seldom. Anyway, it was definitely worth the driving and a nice experience to see the country and especially its north-south flora and fauna differences. Up in Hienghene, a place in north-east, I went for a 2 dive trip. Cause of the rain and storms the diving conditions haven’t been the best, although it was an interesting dive in and around the caves and reefs with some awesome parts of coral fields.

Today evening I will touch down again in Brisbane, where I will go back to Yvonnes appartement in the Gold Coast. And tomorrow I probably already will start driving my way down to Sydney…. So far the plan :D!

 

New Caledonia: Running around Noumea

On last friday in Vanuatu, I again scratched open a mosquito bite on the under leg. And it got infected again. Two days ago, I thought it will go away by itself, so didnt bother much and went running. I guess this was an absolutly bad idea. Yesterday it went very worse and so I went to the doc in the morning, as simple walking around really started to hurt. He gave me antibiotics. Seems to be the same infection as I had in the Solomon Islands! I hate that! It destroys my plan for tomorrows diving activity and other plans for the next days. For friday, I reserved a car to drive around New Caledonia. Hopefully on Saturday my leg will be much better, so that I will be able to go diving on the east coast somewhere….

By today morning, my leg looks terrible. It was swollen nearly to the double size and it burnt like hell! I read little bit in the internet about the causes of it and found out that it might be something like “elephantitis”, a typical tropics infection! It is probably caused by the remaining bacteria in the leg, from the last time in the Solomon islands. When I imagine what now in my leg is going on, then it makes me little bit scary! Now its evening and the leg seems to be already a bit better. Hopefully it is going to heal completely, and, very SOON!!
But for sure I never ever will scratch again any mosquito bite!! I guarantee!! I also remember when I was in PNG and talked to this crocodile hunter, he told me a story from the 1970's, when he had something like that. I just thought – “yeah that wont happen to me!” – and now it happened! But his story was horrible. Cause he was in the 1970's jungle and had no hospital or anything around, he had to put his leg into nearly boiling hot water to kill the bacteria…. Autsch…!!

Today I jumped into a bus and just drove somewhere i-don’t-know. Somewhere direction south! Cause it was the same road on which I was running two days ago, I wanted to find out where exactly I was running along and for how many kilometers - it felt like a half marathon distance :)

New Caledonia: Merde ATM, pourquoi?



Noumea

Here in noumea its actually very nice - they have a McDonalds! Compared to Vanuatu as neighbour country, its is civilizied and clean and tidy! People are wealthy and out of 100 locals, i would say 40  are white. And I didn’t expect so much France-Style everywhere. Its like a little france somewhere out in the pacific. Also they have the typical French cars and restaurants and they all talk French, like in France. And nobody of them really wants to talk English. Like in France.

Yesterday when I arrived, I got a shocking moment. In arriving hall at the airport at about 9pm, I went to the ATM to get money for my pocket! The first ATM didn’t accept my card and spit it out. The second ATM the same. The third ATM the same, but after it spit out the card, it also spit out the 400 USD I asked for. And this was the moment the shock started!!! The ATM spits the money after spiting out the card? The hell!!! I rushed back to the second ATM and tried to find the women who was behind me in the row. Cause I knew she must have taken the money with her! I searched in and outside the airport for a woman which I actually didn’t recognize at all…. I just remembered it was a black and fat woman. So I asked several black and fat women, if she was the one behind me in the row of the ATM. But she wasn’t there - i didnt find her.

So I rushed to the airport security and asked if they can check the security cameras to find out who the woman was. It lasted and lasted and lasted. Finally the security officer who was allowed to see the records was found and after minutes, he found out that the camera didn’t work ….!!! Now my chance to find that woman and get my money back, was like ZERO!

Afterwards I went again to the this second ATM, cause I wanted to be sure that the ATM spits out any money! The ATM talked to me and told me to take my card out and seconds later didn’t spit out any money, these moments made my day!!

Vanuatu: Diving to "The Lady"

Today I was diving at the famous wreck "SS President Coolidge". It was a luxury passenger boat which was converted to a troop transport ship for more than 5000 soldiers. In 1942, it touched some mines and sunk. The wreck is now lying between 20 and 70 meteres under the water and it needs a minimum of 10 dives to see the whole wreck.

With my two dives i did there, i probably only saw a fraction, compared to the 28'000 dives the owner of the dive shop did there in the wreck. Well, 28'000 - I think he probably did little bit too much :D!

The dive was a one of the most impressive Ive ever did. Cause all the aisles through the wreck are very intact and the big and small stuff from the boat, crew and passengers are still there as they left it behind in 1942. Missiles, helmets, guns and rifles, furniture, personal supplies. And the most famous object is in the first class smoking room of the wreck. A porcelain statue, called "The Lady". It is on 40 meters below surface and therefore the time to observe it, is just about 1-2 minutes.

In the afternoon the dive shop organized a second dive at the “million dollar point"! From above it looks like a normal shore and swimming beach! But it is a dumpsite, where at the end of WW2 the americans throw ALL their "things" into the water. Probably they were too lazy to take it home :)! As of today many things have been removed or stolen. But spreaded over several dozen square meters, there are still cars, trucks, boats, canons and many more unidentified metal parts vegetating on the ground.

Vanuatu: A seajourney is fun

I finally arrived in Santo, the biggest island in the north of Vanuatu. Originally I wanted go to the island Malakula, the island below Santo. There are several cannibal sites and also the one, where the last human got munched in 1936. But somehow I found out that when I go to Malakula, then I have to stay there for about 5 days until the next boat comes and brings me to Santo. 5 days! 5 days? 5 days without any proper food like chicken, pork or beef from grill? I had that dilemma already in PNG and it teached me a lot! And one thing I learned was “never ever spend again so many days in a such a lost place”! (no wonder those people became cannibals..hahaha)

The way from Port Vila to Santo with the boat, was also one thing i probably never ever will do again. I knew it is a long long way up here and in worst case it probably will take up to 24 hourse until arrival. At least I sat 27 hours on that fully filled boat. On the boat were no beds. Just chairs. Small, uncomfortable plastic chairs without any paddings. No showers and no drinking water. Ugly smell from the cargo goods and the living pigs and chickens they've transported on the roof. There were big waves and strong winds. The bright lights were always on and the feeling finally finding sleep was like defeating the last big boss in a boring but though video game. That’s a nice list of negative things, isn’t it? But at least they had enough clean toilets and enough toilet paper. Also the view on the stunning passing by islands, were like bonbons that brightened up the journey. And thanks god I came to the idea buying tinned food and water before departure. The best play was brining a bucket of chicken wings from the take-away in Port Vila. Once i grabbed it out of my backpack, everybody in and around 10 meters catched up the delicious smell and some of them set up a look as they want to kill me to get those chicken wings! But I forgot buying bottled water and therefore had to drink the disgusting smells-like-shit water they had there from the tab. No wonder I had to vomit…..

No idea how many days I will spend here in Santo. Probably until Monday and then back to Port Vila. Will go diving here cause dive books say, Santo has with its “SS President Coolidge” one of the best diveable WW2 wreck all over the world.

Vanuatu: Lava

The last three days I have been on the island Tanna, to see the volcano Mt. Yasur. One of the most accessible active volcano around the world. After walking for hours and about 22 kilometers somewhere around the island, I would say Tanna is nice, but except the volcano isn’t much going on or to do on that place. The volcano is awesome and I went up two times, cause on the first day a cyclone has nearly blown away the whole volcano.

 

I went up there that  first day and I never experience such a storm around me. Sand, ash, stones flew through the air and my skin felt like being rubbed with sandpaper. Opening the eyes was also nearly impossible and walking or standing normally on the top was impossible. The only shelter were some half meter stones and even behind them the sand and the little stones smashed to the back and into the face. Indeed I had one of these cheap transparent-plastic-bag-raincoats with me. I unpacked this one and put it over me the wrong way, so that the hood is in front of me and I was able to put the hood over my face! It probably looked like I wanna kill myself…hahaha!! But actually it worked and with that shelter on my face I was able to walk around with open eyes. But the wind was so strong that the raincoat broke and my shelter became unusable. Noticing after one hour, that it doesnt make sense waiting and struggling up there longer, I escaped as fast as possible down from the rim. There I went to some locals who have been waiting behind a little house as shelter. After a while some cars came along full packed with other tourists and it was like a comedy show watching them climbing out of the cars. We had lot of fun watching them and running after their hats or other little things. Some of them had short sleeved clothes, no raincoat or anything. They probably thought its like a beach up there... I dont know...  And most of them immediately jumped back into the car and drove the way back down to town.

 

So I went up again yesterday. The cyclone was gone, but it was still very windy and it rained sometimes very hard. But standing on the rim of the volcano and hearing and watching these explosions right from edge, while lava and stones are shooting up 100 of meters into the air - so incredible!

 

 

Solomon Is: Cyclone's and other troublemakers

My flight from Munda to Honiara on Saturday was canceled because of the Cyclone "Freda". When i arrived at this small hillbilly airport, one guy told me that the flight i canceled and i should come and take a look again on Sunday. Funny guys!!

So I arrived in Honiara on Sunday morning. And I felt sick! My wounds on the legs got infected more and more and my body started having high temperature. I felt dizzy, had headache and felt some kind of cramps in my legs - so it was time to check into the hospital! They gave me a bag of antibiotic pills and I have to take them until the next few days and until the yellow fluid in the wounds is completely gone. As of today I feel very healthy and the wounds look nice and clean already. The cramps are also gone. So this was my second last day of 2012.

Accompanied by fever and the cyclone, with extreme strong n' heavy rain and winds, Ive spent my last day of 2012 with fixing visa expiration issue. After having a met a fomer "brass hat" in the guesthouse in Munda, who organized an appointment for me with another "brass hat" called "Heinz" in Honiara, I thought this problem will be solved in a few minutes. Finally I spent the nearly the whole day in and around the immigration department to clear this. Heinz is in the highest position in the immigration department, but he has no power to change the procedures of the daily business in his department. And the chief of the daily business in the immigration office was the big obstacle. He already knew me when I called him some days ago and as I went little bit aggressive against his beliefs and obstinacy that day. So he insisted that it was all my fault and wanted me to pay the fine or being taken in custody. I didn’t accept his suggestions and went to the next coffee shop to write a complaint. After long forwards and backwards that day, it was nearly closing time in the offices and so "Heinz" decided to pay the fine with the department money.

Now I got my passport back and was ready to join the crowd at a new year's eve event.