It has begun

Hi Folks
Some good news and some sad news. Good news first: I succesfully started the conquering of New Zealand from Cape Reinga. The bad news: I wrecked my tablet/phone that I used for blogging, so I now have to rely on good old internet cafes to upload new blogs. So I suspect I migth not be able to do that too often, but we will see.
About the skating in New Zealand, well, they have no clue how to build skater friendly roads. Seriously, the surface is about as comfortable as I have last experienced it in Laos. Not fun at all. But at least the temperatures are very comfortable and I have decided to give those roads a go for a couple of days and hope the surface gets better. And the people are helping too, I get a lot of positive feedback from people I meet along the road. New Zealanders are incredibly friendly and open, although for most parts the landscape has been empty of people so far. I have skated two days now, each day around 65km, which took me about nine hours and a steak pie for lunch each. And then it happened. I fell. Not too hard, but hard enough to hurt. The phone was already broken then though. But it was a good enough reason to call in my early first break day and get a rest at a nice and very hospitable campsite near Shipwreck Bay, where I went fishing and clam digging with some of the guys there.
For the next couple of days I plan to skate along the west coast, as there are fewer people there, and end up in Auckland in a little more than a week. Latest there I will update you guys with a blog post again. Cheers

Auckland

Hi Folks
So I made it into Auckland. Luckily. After a lot of struggles at the airport in Singapore. The airline refused to let me board the plane because I had no flight ticket out of New Zealand again. Gladly I was early enough at the airport to scramble and go buy one. Which in turn they refused to sell me because I lacked a visa to the destination country of that ticket. Which in turn I then also had to get last minute, luckily that was possible at the airport. Which allowed me to buy that extra flight and board the plane. Whew. What a stress.
On the other hand, Auckland is really nice. Kind of small, clean and friendly, reminds me a little of Zurich.
I spent three days here preparing for my epic skateboard journey accross New Zealand, and tomorrow I am going to travel to my starting point at the tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. I think it will take me about two days getting there with hitchhiking.
So stay tuned, there is a lot coming soon.
Cheers

Announcement: Conquering New Zealand

Skateawhile skateawhile. I have been away a while now, and have also skated a while.
I started with succesfully skating 1200 km in one piece through the amazing Baltic states, continued by failing to skate around lake Baikal thanks to insane Russian driving and a misconstructed skateboard trailer, skated 330 km through the outskirts of Tibet in northern Yunnan province, China, my highest altitude ever at 3500 meters above sea level, stubborned on for 490 km in constant rain on Vietnams infamous Ho Chi Minh highway, suffered through 200 feet killing kilometers on the roughest pavement so far in Laos, exchanged the board for a rowing boat for 150 km in Cambodia (I'm not going to count that in the skateboarding total but mentioned it because it was awesome) and skated another 500 km through blazing heat on Thailands east coast. That's a total of 2720 km in 9 countries.
But I am not done yet, no.
I have decided to step up the skateboarding a little. How about two thousand (2000) kilometers straight? From the very north of New Zealands north island, Cape Reinga, to the very south of the south island, Bluff. All in one go. As usually unasisted. Alone. And fast. I expect to have no longer than two months, in fact I imagine I could even make it in one and a half.
When am I going to do this? Well, very soon. In fact I am flying to Auckland, New Zealand on the 17th February. Taking a few days to prepare in Auckland and to travel to the starting point at Cape Reinga, I expect to start somewhen end of February.

Cheers

Cameron Highlands and Ipoh

Hi Folks
My sister and I made it to the Cameron Highlands, a area somewhere in the middle of Malaysia where tea farming is big busines. Besides that there is a bit of rainforrest left, through which we hiked. What started as a light walk in the woods soon turned to climbing through tangled roots and under fallen trees, until we reached the peak at 2130m. Quite chilly up here, but a welcoming break from the Malayian heat. Next day the obligatory tea farm visit was on. Quite a nice vista, I have to admit and the smell in the tea factory is uncomparable. Besides those two things, jungle and tea, there is not much to see or do in the Cameron Highlands, and the town itself, Tanah Rata isn't exactly a beauty.
That's why whe moved on to Ipoh, a former tin mining city. The first impression of this city wasn't good either. No life on the street, closed businesses, run down buildings and a reputation for prostitution. Not exactly a must see. But upon exploring the town, we found a nice little oldtown area, less preserved than Georgetown or Melakka, but with a more genuine feeling. And it also felt like progress, like the city is about to change and put its name on the map of a worthwhile destination. We found a couple of gorgeous cafés in discretely renovated buildings, still keeping the vintage chic, or "origin" as the call it here, alive. Coupled with a impressive cave temple covered with murals and a young progressive citizenship, I started growing fond of this town. Never the less we are restlessly pressing on and arrived in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, as my Sister is flying back to Switzerland very soon. Then I'll be travelling on my own again, for the first time in almost six months. How will that feel?
Cheers

Zipping through Malaysia

Hi Folks.
Since my last post I have travelled the Malaysian peninsula in its full lenght, picking up my Sister in Singapore. This included one day stopover at Kuala Lumpur, where I was approached by a highly religious muslim in the park behind the Petronas towers. In the ensuing diskussion I was granted a insight into the thinking and the logic of a believer. He must do an enormous effort day to day to ignore the facts that contradict his belief. Even on me pointing out the flaws in his argumentation did not have any effect but a change of topic. When I left I suggested the book "The god delusion" to him, and he at least agreed to have a look at it.
Next I went to Singapure to meet my sister, who supplied me with almost one kilogram of chocolate. Thanks! And I also have my old longboard deck back, so I am ready to skate again soon.
Then we spent two days in Singapore, poking around town, checking out the fancy new "Gardens at the Bay", walking through the impressive banking district, and somehow completely missing the Chinese new year festivities.
Next was back to Malaysia, first stop in Melakka. A nice little colonial town. There is quite many colonial towns in Malaysia I reckon. This one was occupied by Chinese, Portugese, Dutch and English, one after another and boasts the oldest Dutch building outside the Netherlands.
Cheers