The 5 best hostels of New Zealand (+ Mackenzie bonus)

Today’s article is a bit different from the usual posts… a bit more touristy, if you will! If you are not interested, please scroll down to the last section, there’s a surprise 😉

You know I had a van in New Zealand, in which I drove kilometers on roads and tracks and slept countless nights under the stars. Sounds like a dream, doesn’t it? In many respects, it was; the flexibility I had was appreciable, for I could stop wherever I wanted (kinda) and be close to birds and views for sunrise and sunset. That said, my ride was a simple one, and while the bed was comfy enough, I was not protected well against the weather. If it rained, I had to get wet to eat anything. I was often cold. Oh, and I didn’t have a shower! All this to say that, even though it gave me freedom, life on the road was also tough sometimes.

Mackenzie Country, before it started to rain. Scroll down for more!

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NATURE, TRAVELING

One hand for yourself, one hand for the ship

As you know if you’ve followed this blog these past weeks, I spent two weeks in November aboard a ship for a cruise-expedition to the subantarctic islands of New Zealand and Australia. 50 tourists, 9 staff members and 30 crew members, we embarked in Bluff, at the bottom of New Zealand, and visited several island groups scattered around the Southern Ocean for a voyage of discovery to none the same.

In my previous articles, I revealed all we saw on or around the islands… but how was it in between, at sea? Indeed, we spent a lot of time sailing from one place to the other, sometimes spending more than a day without seeing any land. Here, I’ll try to give you a taste of what it was like. Before that, feel free to browse my previous publications, island by island:

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NATURE, TRAVELING

Teno/Tana

I had a terrifying morning. It had started well, I had woken up early and had breakfast at the back of the car, the air was cold but the sun shone from time to time. It looked like a fine day.

Then I tried to walk away, and in doing so, lock the car. Except it didn’t work. I pressed the button on the key, times and again, but nothing happened. I thought the fresh night in the tent might have depleted the battery, but I had managed to unlock the car with no trouble. I didn’t understand.
Sunday morning, 6 o’clock, basically in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and I didn’t mention my phone’s battery was completely empty. Stay calm, Samuel.

Fortunately, the car was open, and I had access to the car’s manual. Said manual was only in Finnish, but with the illustrations I hoped to gather some knowledge. First, I managed to understand I could still start the car without battery in the key, by bringing the key close to the “start engine” button. Big “ouf” of relief, I was not stuck there. I wondered whether the local town would have the specific battery needed to power the key, but at least I could drive wherever needed.

My second fear was to be able to lock the car (miracles happen), but then be locked out on the key’s whim. So I dived into the manual again, and learnt how to unlock the car manually. I was still annoyed, but I wasn’t lost anymore. And then I removed the battery from the key, put it back… and it started to work properly again. “Have you tried to switch it off, and switch it on again?”

As it turned out, I had no other problem until the end of the trip, and quickly forgot the incident. But what a fright!

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INFO, TRAVELING

To the end of the world

As hinted in my last article, I have a great announcement to make: I’m going to New-Zealand for a year!

Wait… what?

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TRAVELING

Snippets of autumn

Today, I would like to share with you a few more pictures of last autumn. Overall, I didn’t spend much time outside, for it rained a lot, especially… on weekends, of course. However, I spent a weekend at a friend’s cottage near Riihimäki.

We stopped in Hyvinkää, a small town.

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TRAVELING

Lapland (September 2017): a wrap-up

I have now finished my trip report regarding our week in Lapland last September. My original idea was to go there for the ruska, the colors of autumn. Then I “hired” two friends from France, Sylvain and Alexis, and their first question was: “can we see northern lights?”. So obviously the lights became our secondary goal, one we didn’t really dare believing in given the weather, but which we eventually reached!
As a result, this trip was a real success, and we were all very happy about it.

Please find below links to all the articles I wrote. I’m very happy to hear any comment you may have, or to answer questions 🙂

In this article, I explain some practicalities about our journey. Welcome 🙂

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NATURE, SPORT, TRAVELING

Saaristo

Finnish word of the day: saaristo = archipelago

In the middle of summer, my family came for a visit to Finland. This time it wasn’t about skiing, it wasn’t about figure skating, it was about sailing. Usually, it’s difficult to gather the whole family, because my brothers always have a sailing competition here, a sailing competition there… and in the end, there’s often someone missing. This time, everyone was there! That’s a growth, from my usual solo/duo trips.

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TRAVELING

Varanger: a wrap-up

I have finished telling the tale of our Arctic expedition. Before we move on, I wanted to share some practical tips about traveling in the region.
First, though, here are the links to all the previous posts, in case you’ve missed some 🙂

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