Hi Folks
Greymouth now. On the way here I found unbelievable 50km with good pavement, which allowed a nice skate day from Picton to Havelock. Unfortunately thats it. Since Havelock the streets are back to the gravel-roads-with-glue style from the north island. I still skated on in the hope of finding better pavement again, but without much success, I had to hitchhike over large distances. I did manage to fall twice more though, which resulted in a gaping hole in my right elbow and a painfully sprained left shoulder. Yay skatebarding in New Zealand. Very frustrating, to pass all these amazing landscapes and not be able to skate them.
I think it is safe to say that I was overambitious when I announced to skate New Zealand in its length. That is not going to happen. I am very sorry to have disappointed those expectations. Those who know me do know that I do not give up very easily, but New Zealand beat me. I will still keep trying to find nice stretches to skate, but I have given up the hope on doing considerable long distance. Sorry guys!
Other than that, the landscape is as mentioned really nice, a very rugged coastline with green mountains in the background and some farms dotted in between.
I spent a nice weekend in Greymouth with a couple of couchsurfers and visited a knivesmith, very interesting. Next I will go direction Queenstown, because if everything else fails, they claim to have the worlds best burger there...
Cheers
Dienstag, 25. März 2014
Montag, 17. März 2014
Wellington
Hi Folks
Current location: Wellington. Lovely town, has the highest longboard and skateboard concentration I have ever come accross in a town. And probably also the highest concentration of hipsters. Correlation is no causation though.
Wellington is the southernmost town of New Zealands north island, and from here I will cross the Cook strait to the south island. Tomorrow. Very early in the morning.
Unfortunately I can report that besides inside of towns and a couple of glorious exceptions (see last post), the roads in the south of the north island are equally bad for long distance longboarding as they where in the north. Why chipseal? And why so coarse? Seriously New Zealand, you could build smoother roads, other countries can manage too. But I am getting tired of ranting about bad road conditions. Hope for smooth pavement on the south island.
I stayed for a couple of days here at a friends place, to wait out that Cyclone that was forecasted, it didn't hit Wellington as hard though, and to ponder and organize over my future. Came up with some interesting ideas that I will not foreshadow here now. Gotta wait until time is right.
Current location: Wellington. Lovely town, has the highest longboard and skateboard concentration I have ever come accross in a town. And probably also the highest concentration of hipsters. Correlation is no causation though.
Wellington is the southernmost town of New Zealands north island, and from here I will cross the Cook strait to the south island. Tomorrow. Very early in the morning.
Unfortunately I can report that besides inside of towns and a couple of glorious exceptions (see last post), the roads in the south of the north island are equally bad for long distance longboarding as they where in the north. Why chipseal? And why so coarse? Seriously New Zealand, you could build smoother roads, other countries can manage too. But I am getting tired of ranting about bad road conditions. Hope for smooth pavement on the south island.
I stayed for a couple of days here at a friends place, to wait out that Cyclone that was forecasted, it didn't hit Wellington as hard though, and to ponder and organize over my future. Came up with some interesting ideas that I will not foreshadow here now. Gotta wait until time is right.
Samstag, 15. März 2014
Freeriding Mount Ruahepu
I just finished my longest freeride so far, 17km long and 800m altitude difference. And if I am not completely mistaken this was on the flank of an old volcano.
Bäm!
Bäm!
Mittwoch, 12. März 2014
Central North Island
Hi Folks!
I have travelled south to the center of the north island, and you wouldn't believe it, but the pavement is worse. Plus there are more cars now. Nope.
To not be completely without adventure, I decided to do some lord of the rings fan things. I visited the Bilbos village, hobbiton, which was marvelous. On the outside, as all the insides of the buildings were missing.
Next thing I travelled to the Tongariro national park, where some scenes of mordor where shut. And at the center of the park there thrones mount Doom. Couldn't resist and hiked for three days through the barren landscape of the park, and climbed mount Doom. At 3.30 in the morning to be able to see the sunrise from top of an active volcano. That was pretty good. Although I did expect the peak to be loud and hot, in reality it was ice cold and so quiet that I started to make noise to make sure my ears still work.
Now I am heading towards Wellington and hope the roads are better on the south island.
Cheers
I have travelled south to the center of the north island, and you wouldn't believe it, but the pavement is worse. Plus there are more cars now. Nope.
To not be completely without adventure, I decided to do some lord of the rings fan things. I visited the Bilbos village, hobbiton, which was marvelous. On the outside, as all the insides of the buildings were missing.
Next thing I travelled to the Tongariro national park, where some scenes of mordor where shut. And at the center of the park there thrones mount Doom. Couldn't resist and hiked for three days through the barren landscape of the park, and climbed mount Doom. At 3.30 in the morning to be able to see the sunrise from top of an active volcano. That was pretty good. Although I did expect the peak to be loud and hot, in reality it was ice cold and so quiet that I started to make noise to make sure my ears still work.
Now I am heading towards Wellington and hope the roads are better on the south island.
Cheers
Mittwoch, 5. März 2014
Conquering New Zealand; The battle for Northland
Hi Folks
Whew, who would have thought that. New Zealand is the most difficult longboarding I have experienced on this entire skateawhile trip. By far. I have managed to skate 275km from Cape Reinga to Dargaville, took me five days of skating, up to nine hours a day to reach the daily 50+km. Hard work I tell you. The street surface is unmatched rough, up to a point where you have to push for going down mild downhills. Steep downhills on the other hand get very very icy with my wheels, and I have a destroied pant, gloves and a impressively colourfull bruise now. (Yes, I fell again). Oh and did I mention constant headwind and walking up steep uphills for half of the day.
To make it short it is slow and painful. In fact it is so skate unfriendly that I have decided to abandon the North, and hitchhiked the remaining distance into Auckland (around 225km). So there I am right now, struggling with my decision and feeling bad for already having a gap in my skating through New Zealand. Well, unexpected things happen while traveling.
I will still try to cover some distance further South though, and hike the Tongariro Nature Park crossing (also known as Mount Doom).
But there is positive to report aswell. The New Zealanders are still one of the most welcoming and hospitable people I have met so far. And the landscape is still incredible. I have seen the biggest, no most humongous tree in my life, at a sacred place for Maori, they call him the father of life. Unimaginably beautiful. I had one of the most amazing freeride experiences in my life after the tree, riding down a perfectly steep, windy road with not so bad street surface. Took me about 1h continuously. Simply awesome. The next day I was invited by a local farmer to spend the night at their house, and went spear hunting for flounders with him in the evening.
And in general I can start to feel a travel saturation setting in, now that I have reached the other end of the planet I have started to think about after traveling. I have yet to reach a conclusion and will continue for a while, but I at least feel satisfied with what I have accoplished so far, even though I have covered less distance than initially thought.
We'll see where I end up.
Cheers
Whew, who would have thought that. New Zealand is the most difficult longboarding I have experienced on this entire skateawhile trip. By far. I have managed to skate 275km from Cape Reinga to Dargaville, took me five days of skating, up to nine hours a day to reach the daily 50+km. Hard work I tell you. The street surface is unmatched rough, up to a point where you have to push for going down mild downhills. Steep downhills on the other hand get very very icy with my wheels, and I have a destroied pant, gloves and a impressively colourfull bruise now. (Yes, I fell again). Oh and did I mention constant headwind and walking up steep uphills for half of the day.
To make it short it is slow and painful. In fact it is so skate unfriendly that I have decided to abandon the North, and hitchhiked the remaining distance into Auckland (around 225km). So there I am right now, struggling with my decision and feeling bad for already having a gap in my skating through New Zealand. Well, unexpected things happen while traveling.
I will still try to cover some distance further South though, and hike the Tongariro Nature Park crossing (also known as Mount Doom).
But there is positive to report aswell. The New Zealanders are still one of the most welcoming and hospitable people I have met so far. And the landscape is still incredible. I have seen the biggest, no most humongous tree in my life, at a sacred place for Maori, they call him the father of life. Unimaginably beautiful. I had one of the most amazing freeride experiences in my life after the tree, riding down a perfectly steep, windy road with not so bad street surface. Took me about 1h continuously. Simply awesome. The next day I was invited by a local farmer to spend the night at their house, and went spear hunting for flounders with him in the evening.
And in general I can start to feel a travel saturation setting in, now that I have reached the other end of the planet I have started to think about after traveling. I have yet to reach a conclusion and will continue for a while, but I at least feel satisfied with what I have accoplished so far, even though I have covered less distance than initially thought.
We'll see where I end up.
Cheers
Dienstag, 25. Februar 2014
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
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
Donnerstag, 20. Februar 2014
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
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