Yeah, here are the last blogpost about our long journey. We are looking forward to our flight home with the incredible airplane A380. I like the gold standard service from Singapur Airlines, especially the warm cloth before the takeoff.

One day during the recent weeks, we discussed which things we missed about our life in Switzerland and which points we’re going to miss in Zuchwil about our long journey.

	Jonas	Maggi
I missed	the best cat ever (Murri) friends and family including the cute kids Janosch and Mio High-speed internet my work including my team my own office the procap team proper washing machines for clothes and dishes	family and friends – and the two superboys 😉 the best two cats ever (Murri und Häxli 😉 ) My work at the Sonnehuus and the Steiner School a bed AND a table AND a bathroom AND two offices AND a kitchen AND a balcony AND a living room “my” bathtub reliable internet connection Maggitime
We are going to miss	the incredible staff in the supermarket (so patient and friendly – it’s a pleasure to do the shoppings here. And yes, I prefer the personal experience instead the use the self-checkout.) the endless JOGI-time (time for ourselves) the camping life (in general) the guided tours the stunning scenery and the great variation of landscapes here in New Zealand the plentiful breakfasts and dinners in a restaurant the hiking tours with Maggi	the amount of time we could spend together super tasty coffee 😉 😉 😉  the awesome and epic friendliness of the people here in NZ and OZ Variety of landscapes Driving a big car 😉 Great beers and wines Summer

Route

Day 77: Te Anau – Milford Sound

Day 78: Milford Sound – Invercargill

Day 79: Invercargill – Kaka Point

Day 80: Kaka Point – Dunedin

Day 81: Stay in Dunedin

Day 82: Dunedin – Moeraki

Day 83: Moeraki -Twizel

Day 84: Twizel – Mount Cook

Day 85: Mount Cook – Tekapo

Day 86: Stay in Tekapo

Day 87: Stay in Tekapo

Day 88: Tekapo – Christchurch

Day 89: Stay in Christchurch (visit Christchurch)

Day 90: Stay in Christchurch

Day 91: Day in Christchurch (packing day)

Day 92: flight back to Switzerland

special recommendations

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is part of the world nature heritage (UNESCO) and by sure one of the main attraction in New Zealand. Although the area is very crowded, the combination of numerous waterfalls, high and steep mountains and the unique light when the sun shines through the cloudy sky is spectacular.

What was awesome of our trip was the campsite. The campground was located in a light rainforest and included proper facilities and an amazing bistro. The guy from the office offered us a short guided tour in the evening. This tour was – as always – another invaluable experience. We made a typical boat trip through the fjords together with other tourists. There are about four or five boat operators in Milford Sounds and doing this kind of trip is almost a “must” for a typical visitor. We booked a middle vessel what it means, that we were less than one hundred people on board. Yes, there are bigger boats with a much more capacity.

However, we enjoyed the stunning waterfalls, the cute seals and the delightful excursion to the small but not less impressive swimming exhibition platform. This building contains an upper deck with some explanations about the platform itself and a lower deck made out of glass. There, you have a beautiful out view of the marine life in the fjord environment.

Milford Sound is one of the regions with the most amount of rainfall in the world. Because of this, the sea has two water layers, one pure water layer on the top and one salt water layer underneath. For this reason, there isn’t much light at the top of the salt layer. Therefore, many creatures who generally lives in the deep ocean, here can be observed (from the lower deck) in 20 meters deep water.

Penguin Safari at the Otago Peninsula

The penguin is right up on the top of the identify animals in New Zealand (besides the kiwi and the sheep, of course). Some of them are endangered (like the yellow-eyed penguin) but not all of them. Anyhow, the impact of civilization like human infrastructure and life activities along the shore is often badly for this birds.

The endangered yellow-eyed penguin is afraid of people and dogs. The penguins are not able to leave the sea until the beach is free of any potential danger (human and dogs). Sometimes, the young chicks are waiting too long for food and died of starvation. Another problem is the presence of the cats. They go around and eat some of the penguin eggs.

We did a private tour and learned a lot about the unique fauna in New Zealand and why all the plants and animals are so slowly and not made for the coexistence with mammals.

Milky way photography in the early morning

New Zealand (as well as Australia) is very suitable to take milky way pictures because there is very low light pollution. I also decided to take this chance and try to get some awesome pictures from the beautiful night sky.

For taking some magnificent photographs you have to consider some basic rules as to avoid the moon (expect empty moon), choose the summer time and set the right camera settings (ISO 3200, aperture 2.8, shutter 30 sec). And of course, you need a clear and cloudless night.

Unfortunately, the moon was almost full, and the moonrise was very late (4.15 am), I had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. The whole campground was like the lake in front of me – totally silent. I walked the short way down the beach and took some pictures from the beautiful sky panorama. The first day, Maggi was to tired to accompany me, but we did it a second time. I was interested in choose a better foreground. The first spot was not completely dark and not very appropriate to compose a well-proportionate photograph. 🙂

We got up very early (me again) and walked about ten minutes to a very silence and blackness place. Maggi took pleasure in catching the night sky, and I tried to get better pictures than the ones I had taken the night before. Sadly, I wasn’t able to make progress…

Schwiizerdütschi Zämefassig

Tschüss Neuseeland, danke für die geili Ziit! Bis wiedereinisch 😉
Und bis glii, Schwiiz 🙂