Have you ever wanted to walk on an active volcano? White Island might be the place for you! If you don’t mind going to New Zealand

A few weeks ago, my New Years Eve plans were messed up by the extreme cold in Canada. I was stuck in my Airbnb and couldn’t get to my location. Every year I try to do something different on the last day of the year.

In 2015 I found myself motorbiking the NZ South Island and in 2014 I had the weirdest, alcohol-less New Year’s Eve in the Maldives. This year it was clear that life doesn’t always the way you want it.

Luckily the year before was still fresh in my head, because I WALKED ON AN ACTIVE VOLCANO.

I spent the day on the volcano, in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. First I took the boat with White Island Tours out there, seeing lots of dolphins, and then I walked in the inner crater of White Island – while the steam was getting out!

I also tasted the volcano… don’t ask me why

Here’s the White Island video!

As you can see, it was a beautiful day out. For more information on the trip, read my detailed volcano blogpost HERE.

Have you walked on a volcano?

The post VIDEO: Walking On a Volcano – White Island NZ appeared first on The World is a Circus.

The Department of Conservation works hard to fight the extinction battle, and luckily they get some help from the local community. Many New Zealanders are passionate about wildlife and I was lucky to meet one amazing lady and her team at Pohatu Penguins in Akaroa.

Pohatu Penguins

Pohatu Penguins is located in Akaroa, on the stunning Banks Peninsula, an hour and a half drive from Christchurch. They offer wildlife and adventure tours, but their main focus is penguin conservation. The White-Flippered Penguin in particular, the penguin colony in Flea Bay.

Power couple Shireen and Francis are at the heart of all this work.They bought the land as farmers 30 years ago and didn’t know a penguin colony was living on it. Speaking of a surprise! Now Pohatu Penguins runs a penguin rehabilitation centre, farm and adventure tour company.

Watch their story here:

The White-Flippered Penguin is one of the world’s smallest penguin species, with a height of about 30cm and weight of 1.5kg. It is officially a little blue penguin, but it has evolved a bright blue body with white bands on the flippers.

Pohatu Penguins has been doing incredible conservation work for over 30 years.

To list a few:

• Installing traps in the bay to kill predators, eradicate the pests
• Providing burrows, encouraging penguins to nest
• Rehabilitation of sick or injured penguins, feeding them and making them strong enough to go out to sea again
• Every 4 years they count all the penguins for a penguin survey, which is a lot of work. The team crawls over 91hectare of hills, bush and rock

Their main funds for conservation efforts comes from adventure and wildlife tours. The tours take you around the peninsula or on the water; you get some photo-stops with the most stunning backdrop; you meet the White-Flippered Penguin and learn about their story.

If you want to help out yourself, you can adopt a penguin! Find more information here: Adopt A Penguin

The post Meet the world’s smallest penguin! appeared first on The World is a Circus.

It isn’t easy to get there, you do a challenging hike for 13hours, or you take a helicopter. My friends and I chose the last option. It feels a bit like cheating when you arrive at a hut with no drop of sweat, but the beautiful surrounding made my guilt ooze away quite quick!

We had a weekend of photography, eating and drinking and enjoying the scenery. It is still a dangerous place with heaps of avalanches and crevasses, so be prepared when you go up there.

My photos and story of the weekend is all here: https://theworldisacircus.com/2016/11/best-views-in-mount-cook-np/

VIDEO

The post VIDEO: New Zealand’s best hut appeared first on The World is a Circus.

In New Zealand you can’t really plan a weekend away in advance, or lets say: you shouldn’t. The Kiwi weather is too unpredictable. A quick slice of advice: if you’re visiting New Zealand, don’t come with a pre-planned itinerary. The weather might not cooperate and you’ll see New Zealand in the rain. My friends and I often have two plans ready for the weekend and decide on Thursday which one it is going to be.

Choose the good coast

I live on the South Island (the best island ) and when the weather is bad at the East Coast, it’s usually good at the West Coast (and vice versa). The Alps in the middle of the country block the weather fronts from the other side, meaning there is always one part of the country where the weather is nice.

A few weekends ago it was a stormy weekend in Christchurch. Some people would think: ‘oh that’s charming to have a nice weekend inside at the fire’. I admit I can appreciate weekends like that too, but that particular weekend we were so excited to get out. In the end we only saw one option: leaving the rainy East coast behind and go West!

It was a bit of driving in a short time span, 3,5h to be specific, but it was a good call to go from East to West Coast. You won’t believe what we saw!

The post VIDEO: From East to West coast appeared first on The World is a Circus.

That was also the case when I visited Skippers Canyon in Queenstown. It’s an impressive canyon with a small gravel road. My heart already missed a few beats when driving so close to the edge of the road, and I was just the passenger. Luckily, ’cause I don’t think driving with your eyes closed would work.

The post Skippers Canyon Adventures appeared first on The World is a Circus.

In 2011 almost 80% of the Christchurch’s city center was damaged after an earthquake. Most of it got demolished – which left Christchurch empty and a little bit dead. Five years later there are still many empty spaces (turned into car parks) and abandoned buildings in town, which doesn’t always make the city look very attractive in tourists’ eyes.

But Christchurch has taken this rebuild as an opportunity to make the city even better than it was before. So many cool and quirky places are popping up and there really is quite a lot to do in Christchurch.

I went on a little mission to show you some of the good spots! If you want a longer list, have a look here: No, Christchurch is not dead.

WATCH VIDEO DISCOVER CHRISTCHURCH:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DWwz-M8_og&w=560&h=315]

The post VIDEO: Discover Christchurch appeared first on The World is a Circus.

Lucky me when I got invited to a Nature Frother Instameet. I can already see you raising your eyebrows. Nature frothers? What is that? I had the same reaction at first. A nature frother is someone who gets so excited about encountering the wonders of nature that they could start frothing at the mouth any moment. Yep, sounds like me! Sign me up!

I drove down to Dunedin and its beautiful Otago Peninsula and was ready to catch up with all those nature minded Instagrammers. As usual I was excited, hanging out with a bunch of crazy people who love photography and social media, who would say no to that?

Our two days in Dunedin consisted of exploring the peninsula and more important exploring the native (and often endangered) species around.

1. Orokonui Ecosanctuary

The Orokonui Ecosanctuary is a place where New Zealand’s native birds and other wildlife can live in peace. It’s an ecological wildlife safe haven in the Orokonui Valley, 20km north of Dunedin city.

They eradicated all the pests to bring back rare and endangered native species that would have been there in the past, including kiwi, South Island Robin, kākā, South Island saddleback and many more. A predator fence surrounds 307 hectares!

I didn’t really knew what to expect when arriving at Orokonui. First thought that popped up in my head: awesome visitors centre. The architecture is pretty cool and gives a good view on the sanctuary.

I went for a walk via the many little paths and… I NEVER expected to see so many birds! I was seriously amazed and childishly excited! Especially the Takahe left quite an impression, seeing that big flightless bird (there are many in NZ) cruising between plants at a relaxed pace.

2. Penguin Place

Warning! When you visit this place you’ll leave with a warm fuzzy heart, a full SD-card and you’ll be the biggest penguin fan ever. There are some cuties walking around at Penguin Place. The cuties I’m talking about are the yellow-eyed penguin – also called hoiho, a very rare penguin species you can only find in New Zealand.

The awesome staff will take you on a little walk through the nature reserve where you’ll see the penguins just walking and hopping by. I have seen penguins before, but always from a distance. This time we had a close and clear look from behind trenches! The song I’m So Excited of The Pointer Sisters would be very appropriate – as I couldn’t hide my excitement of seeing those little cuties from up close.

Unfortunately it’s not only cuteness we link to the yellow-eyed penguins. They have a sad story. When Penguin Place got founded in 1985 there were eight breeding pairs on the property. They were able to grow up to 36 breeding pairs, but the last years there has been a huge decline. There are only four (!) breeding pairs left at the moment – and also in the rest of New Zealand there is a 25% to 50% drop in nesting numbers.

The Penguin Place offers the penguins a calm predator-free reserve to help them survive. They also have a penguin hospital for the injured penguins.

This conservation project is entirely funded by guided tours of the reserve, so go and say hi! http://www.penguinplace.co.nz

3. Monarch Wildlife Cruises

It took me a minute to see the difference between a Bullers albatros and a seagull from a distance, but with the great crew on board I learned how to spot them. The albatros is huge – did you know that their wings can get up to two-three meters?

Monarch Wildlife cruises takes you out at sea to spot the mighty Bullers albatros and some other special species. If you’re lucky you also see Hector Dolphins and penguins. I wasn’t, but I was able to enjoy some seals chilling along the coast.

It’s also the perfect way to explore the Otago Peninsula, you get a unique and stunning view that you won’t have on land.

The Monarch crew on board gave a lot of information and were so friendly to answer extra questions (and pose for my camera – thanks again!). And it wasn’t just albatros spotting, it was also an introduction to the albatrosses’ history and life facts. Apparently the world’s only mainland nesting place of albatross is at the Otago Peninsula… And we saw it, aren’t we lucky?

Jump on board, quickly! http://www.wildlife.co.nz

Because words are  never enough and I wanted to show my amazing experiences in Dunedin I made a short documentary.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZV-QEl-Zks&w=560&h=315]

For a person who doesn’t know a lot about birds a wildlife weekend like this is very enriching. I can’t only spot a bird (and know what it is), I also know their history and their often hard fight to survive, and that’s what’s important.

New Zealand is so unique, being an isolated island far away from other countries we have a lot of special native birds. But without our help they won’t stay there. I definitely realise now that they need a bit of help from us… I hope you do too.

The post VIDEO: Wildlife in Dunedin appeared first on The World is a Circus.

This park in the north of the South Island exists out of forest and an amazing golden coast. It’s even that amazing that it has one of New Zealand great walks: The Abel Tasman Coast Track. You can read my love for it in my previous post about the park .

Words are never enough, so I decided to record it all. I made a little video about a great day out in Abel Tasman National Park.

The post VIDEO: Walking Abel Tasman Coast Track appeared first on The World is a Circus.

Sandflies.

They look cute and innocent, like a harmless fruit fly, but don’t be fooled. They’re your worst bloodsucking nightmare.

You would think a bite of one of them isn’t that bad, right? Wait until you get here and get attacked by a gang of sandflies. They love your feet, ankles and hands, weak spots that itch a lot.

Once bitten, the best you can do is to not scratch. Easier said than done, especially for me.  The five seconds relief you get when scratching feels SO good, but it will haunt you later at night. The bite gets bigger, a bit infected and it will feel like your foot was dipped in itching powder. For 4 days.

Even adventurer James Cook despised the sandflies:

“The most mischievous animal here is the small black sandfly, which are exceedingly numerous, wherever they light they cause a swelling and such intolerable itching that it is not possible to refrain from scratching and at last ends in ulcers like the small pox”.

In Maori they’re called: “el namu”, which means little devils. Enough said.

Sandflies are found wherever there is water and bush, which you have a lot in New Zealand. I’ve encountered them many times at the West Coast of the South Island. They drive me so crazy that you’ll find me wearing long pants, sleeves and a scarf on a hot summer day…

A beautiful example of how annoying they can be, a little video of me “enjoying” Motukieke Beach at the West Coast.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f-NLfEWXNQ]

Have you heard of sandflies? Are there other insects you despise?

The post [VIDEO] Sandflies: New Zealand’s darkest secret appeared first on The World is a Circus.

I guarantee you this will be your new Facebook profile photo. Take a snap and you have an amazing capture – it will even look good on bad phones. It’s as easy as that.

Read everything you need to know about Roys Peak in my Roys Peak Guide.

Most people travelling don’t spend enough time in Wanaka. You should take your time to explore the area, and do some hikes – like Roys Peak! You walk about 2,5 to 3hours up and then you are rewarded with the craziest view, believe me!

A couple of friends and I did this walk during the Easter weekend and we decided to make it extra special. We went for a sunrise walk! We got up at 3am, not super excited yet, but once you start climbing and you see the sun coming up you feel amazing. It is pretty special!

Of course I had to take my camera with me to make a Roys Peak video, and to show you how special this place is.

Have a look yourself!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTxvPtgv9fI&w=662&h=419]

Looking to stay a few days in Wanaka? (which you should!) Have a look what’s available!

Booking.com

Or stay with locals at an Airbnb: Wanaka Airbnb.

Some of the links are affiliate links – which supports this site without costing you anything extra.

The post VIDEO: Walking Roys Peak in Wanaka appeared first on The World is a Circus.