Christian's Travel Blog

Tlo-hon-nipts - those who drift in from the ocean ... Native Indian legends tell of a few pale-faced men with black hair on their chins, drifting ashore with the wrecked ships on tribal beaches, up the wild and rugged northwest pacific coast line in ancient times. It is told, beeswax, the ancient cargo of a lost Spanish galleon, was dug from the sands of northern Oregon for generations, first by Indians (First Nation people) and then by white settlers.    This week I "drifted" ashore on British Columbia's Vancouver Island , crossing the Strait of Georgia on a comfortable Ferry into the harbor of Nanaimo - visiting Mike , my former study colleague at the University of Cape Town . What an exciting home base for my next adventures: excursions into the giant rain forests , hiking up the rivers to meet the grizzly bears , and watching the beautiful orcas playing in the narrow deep blue straits (enjoy this video clip from Mike to create a bit of appetite).

Two weeks since my touch down in the USA, my acclimatization process reached an advanced level: I enjoy walking through the streets of San Francisco. Off course, that's not a big deal. SF is a sympathetic town with surprisingly far less than one million inhabitants. And the down town hostel I dropped in represents most of the city's two-sided  charm - including a cute, colorful hummingbird , showing up by the hour at the window next the computer. On a trip ATW+20, you feel instantly certain changes based on the contradictions of the new reality and your memories. Three of them seem mostly present since I'm touring the States. Somehow they are all related with the economy - but that's what obviously counts most here. The first big thing while driving 3000 miles through the States was about "new cars". Although the three big American car manufacturers again report profits (after the close-to-default situation in the aftermath of the financial c...

I'm new here - using the lyrics of Gil Scott Heron 's last album - landed in the country were the roadtrip was born. The radio plays Bowie's Ziggy Stardust while I wind down steep serpentines, diving deep into the dessert - below sea level. The digital info display indicates 40 degrees Celsius . I press the electric operating buttons to open the windows and switch the automatic gearbox in neutral position. The car takes up speed. Dry hot air blows into my face. I turn up the volume ... "Ground control to Major Tom ..." ... welcome to the Death Valley. Hard to believe that I had some morning frost on my tent. Nor that I crossed the Sierra Nevada at 9600 feet, taking a barefoot walk in the last snow - just to find myself midday below sea level at 40+C. This is what a roadtrip is all about. 9 national parks in 10 days; 3056 miles. Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, Canyonlands, National Monument, Grand Canyon. A route...

Spring is arriving in the northern hemisphere. And as I planned my journey along the sunny side of life - following for a year the warm seasons around the globe - my time in the South Sea comes to an end. Almost three months of island hopping: Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, Tikehau, Rangiroa, Vana Levu, Taveuni, Tongatapu, Fungamisi, Ofu, Lifuka. So what place I might select to say "good bye" before departing from Nadi towards North America? Just back from Tonga, I decided to stay only one night in Suva - watching the new SciFi-movie Oblivion - just to go back in time again: Levuka - the first colonial settlement and capital of Fiji back in 1874. And yes, visiting this world heritage nominee site, located on Ovalau island, rewards my efforts with another trip on a ferry boat - the M.V. Spirit of Harmony .    Indeed, Levuka - though a sleepy little frontier town - retains even today many of its pre-colonial and immediately post-colonial buildings. In simi...

Traveling around the world is one thing, exploring the South Sea another. It is a matter of time. Not in first place because "time" - still - is not as dominant in daily life as in most monetary determined economic communities and nations, but due to that vast deep blue space on our globe, called the pacific ocean, harboring thousands of islands on a surface that no continent matches. Mobility in person - as over the centuries - continues to be linked with bridging distances by navigation on sea: be it between the countless islands, a hundred of archipelagos, or its numerous nations. Indeed, exploring the South Sea still maintains that spirit of an adventure by sea. Sailing with the M.V. Hawaiki Nui to the Leeward Society Islands (French Polynesia), the M.V. Lomaiviti Princess to Taveuni (Fiji), and the M.V. Otuanga'ofa to the northern archipelagos of  Ha'apai and Vava'u (Tonga) slowed down my own pace; for the first time in almost nine months loafing around the...

"Oh yes, our daughter will arrive Friday, before we'll go back to Auckland together mid-April", a conversation across the tables at Cafė Escape - a recently opend, self-named Sophisticated Cafė with a Tongan Twist , located in one of the two new shopping arcades in what could be called the centre of the capital Nuku'alofa - passed over my head. I ordered a cappuccino  opting finally for the passion-fruit cheese cake, though the lemon-creme tart next did look delicious too. Meanwhile another Tongan couple found their way into the air-conditioned oasis. "Oh, how are you, when did you arrive?", followed by a few local phrases in exchange. "Oh, is it? You should join our club", some English is thrown into the conversations. "Join what?", came into my mind, "The club of 200 pounds plus?" And my sarcastic thoughts were not about money but weight ... body weight. I had the impression the only person not greeted warmly was an adolesce...

And here the road ends. Only the "Rich, Famous & their Beauties" make it further - just over the date line . I guess it's not the curiosity to re-live the day again to spend a night more thousand dollars than toes on your feet - in honor of the globetrotters that stay for less than 10 dollars at one of the neighbouring islands. "7 stars, yes, my son", Nau (granny) Tila insisted while jewing some herbal leaves from her tropical garden to ease her cough, "and he is Austrian like you!". "You mean Australian ...", I doubt. "No, no, he is ... Red Bull ... Arnold Schwarzenegger and his family, Oprah, they all come ...". Later I can find even a small note in the Lonely Planet budget travellers book: The billionaire and owner of Red Bull, D. Mateschitz bought (?) the island from billionaire M. Forbes, and turned it into Laucala Island Resort , including a 18-hole golf course and a private (?) international airport. Don't kn...