While in Russia many cars are just right hand drive because they are cheaper and imported from Japan, it seams to be forbidden to drive a right hand car in Bolivia. So when you buy a car in Japan then just change the side of the steering wheel.
When I was playing handball, I hated running (probably because of my overweight). But when I stopped playing handball, I started loving running.
On the world trip we decided to do not bring the running shoes because of the weight with us so I wasn’t running for the last 6 month. This was way to long!
So in Nelson I just went into a shop called shoe clinic, bought nice running shoes and run them to the hostel right away instead of carrying them in the bag :). From now I’m planning to run at least once in a city I stay in.
Some of the titles just make more sense in german and this is one of them and is bit ambiguous.
Before going to Copenhagen I alway had the idea of sky diving together with some friends at Maido sky diving close to Braunschweig. But moving to Copenhagen changed my plans and never tried it out.
Till Anne came into the game.. While traveling in the camper, she just mentioned “lets go sky diving”… and I said yes as I always would :).
Few days later we slept close by an airfield with tandem sky diving possibilities and I just booked a 15.000 feet jump for both of us including a camera man filming us during the flight.
And I must admit that this was one of the best things I have done in my live. I have been pretty relaxed until we entered the plane and the door has been closed. Ascending for 15 minute gave me the chance to realise that we will jump out of the plane soon.
And than the door opens and you have to sit at the door and keep your legs hanging out of the plane.. At this time you brain is going totally crazy and you stop thinking because it does not make sense at all. An then you get pushed out of the plane and start falling which fells in your stomach like being in a roller coster for few seconds and then you start to enjoy the free fall.
And enjoy the video on youtube :).
After being in the camper van with Anne and Alex for few days it was time to go on the track again. I was missing hiking since my last hike has been more than 3 weeks ago in Nepal. Anne drove me to the DOC office in Turangi where I was hoping to get a lift to the nearby Tongariro national park. My plan was to hitchhike to the national park and it has been a full success. Normally you go to a road and put up your thumb up an wait until a car stops. In my case a car was already waiting for me. Apparently a friendly Kiwi has been bored and was waiting for hitchhiker like me :). He drove me into the national park and because of the great success, I will definitely hitchhike again in New Zealand!
Hiking in New Zealand can be different compared to Nepal. There are nice and modern huts around the official tracks so you do not need to bring your tent but you do need to carry food. This means you have to carry a lot of food and therefore additional weight with you. Luckily there is plenty of fresh water around the track where you can just go and drink it out of the streams, without treating it. Once I found a nice spring where I got the best tasting water I ever had in my live.
On the track, I met many local people and they are all so friendly: Everyone invited me to their home and left me the phone number in case I needed a place to stay. At one place I was just sitting and eating dinner at a parking lot and everyone just came by and asked me if I needed a lift. In the future I will try to be as friendly as the people in NZ :).
On one day I decided to do some sightseeing in Kathmandu and by chance Izzy had the same goal for the day we teamed up and went together. And because she is from New Zealand, I had a nice tour guide for my next destination which is New Zealand. Some people call the Swayambhunath Stupa also the Monkey Temple and I fully agree. There are more monkeys running around then dogs. You can get really close to the monkeys and you should avoid bringing food with you. They will probably try to get it from you. Have a look at the pictures.
