We are now definitely back to the northern hemisphere, all the mountains shine snow white. Definitely different to New Zealand, maybe even a white Christmas this year? This is the last posting about these great holidays, thanks to all the people who helped making them such an experience!
Just one more stop in Dubai, then off to Munich on EK049.
Before I forget – if you want to save roaming costs, just get yourself a prepay SIM card. Since Telecom NZ is not yet compatible with GSM (they will be next April or so), go into a Vodafone store and buy one! If I remember correctly, the card was about 25 NZ$, 10 NZ$ for talking included. 10 more, if you register in the internet. Topping up is very easy, just call 777 and register a credit card the first time. From then on you need you Vodafone PIN and the last 4 digits of your (registered) CC to top up. No charges for topping up! Oh, and for 1 NZ$ a day you get 10MB of internet traffic. Google for a possible APN, they have 4 of them with different features.
Sigh, still 9 hours to Dubai. I will take a nap under this aircraft sky full of stars 🙂
90 minutes relaxing in Sydney – then off to Dubai! Pics leaving New Zealand and approaching Sydney.
Finally this was the last location of our holidays. After some tram riding through Christchurch’s old city center, watching La Cage au Folles in the Court Theatre we are now waiting to board EK413 to Dubai via Sydney!
Lupines around Lake Tekapo make it even better. At night we saw more stars than ever on Mt John observatory – shooting stars, Tarantula nebula, Orion nebula and satellites included! We were taught how to locate the southern point which would be the Polaris star on the northern hemisphere. Thanks to the guides up there!
From Kurow to Lake Tekapo we had fun driving through sheep farms on gravel, getting rewarded by a spectacular mountain panorama!
North of Palmerston you can find these rock marbles on a beautiful coast…
We just crossed the mountains over Dansey’s Pass – a narrow winding mountain gravel road. No other traffic for almost an hour!
