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News March 2008   (Nelson/New Zealand, March 29, 2008)

 
Website statistics: In February we were able to welcome on our website 43'824 visitors who did 1'325'837 hits.
                                           (January = 50'201 visitors 1'578'377 hits)
                                The visitors are coming from about 100 to 118 different countries!
                                Record day since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 11/5/2007 = 13'407 visitors and 787'456 hits
 
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Within six weeks, we covered 2'200 miles and explored nearly all of the Southern Island of New Zealand, the 159th
country visited with our LandCruiser. Apart of three rainy days, we experienced only fine weather. The Southern summer
seems to have been extremely dry this year, what is reflected by the brown grass all along the East Coast. The more than
40 million sheep have to be content with "hay".
 
Here is now our impression about New Zealand: The beauty of the South Island repeats itself again and again; but two
major areas stick out particularly: Milford Sound and Mt. Cook – both alone worth a journey. Unfortunately there are –
especially in the Western part of the island – plenty of sandflies around too, which can be a real pest. The country itself
shows to be very clean, and the roads are well maintained without exception. On the negative side, however, is definitely
the price level that seems to be copied from Europe. Up to now, we always believed that Switzerland and Japan would
be the absolute frontrunners, but obviously there are more countries going to catch up! Now as before, we find the New
Zealanders open-hearted and friendly, however a lot is about money too – but where actually not? It's amazing, how many
tourists are flooding the islands, although the high season is meant to have finished at the end of February. Some are
holidaying only for a few weeks, while others with motor homes are roaming around for some months.
Despite of the overhaul of our LandCruiser in Miri/Sarawak on the island of Borneo in mid-2006, three new break-
downs happened within the first month being in New Zealand: Once more the long rear axle shaft; then for the first
time the original starter; and soon afterwards the clutch release cylinder. But it's simply not possible to make new out of
old – a car consists of too many parts that would have to be replaced – if they still could be found on the world market.
The fact is that not only our continuous worldtour of 23½ years leaves its traces, but also the availability of genuine spare
parts gets more and more difficult and a nightmare.
 
New Zealand: Tautuku Bay on the Chaslands Highway (Southern Scenic Route), about 28 miles Southwest of Owaka
 
Unfortunately, due to the expensive and 'insufficient' internet system of New Zealand, some delays occurred in updating
our "Last Trip Pictures from New Zealand", as well as in completing the "Pictures of our journey to the Philippines". An
additional reason was also the ongoing beautiful weather situation that pushed us to drive "more, longer and further than
usually" – the first wintry weather systems might arrive anytime. On April 6th, the clock will be changed anyway to
wintertime (Standard Time). We think to leave in April by ferry to the North Island, which is smaller by 25% than the
South Island, but accommodates three times more people. Said that, the population density of 65 people per square mile
is still very low (on the South Island even only 16), compared to our two previous visited destinations Taiwan
(1'600/sq.mile) and Hong Kong (16'000/sq.mile).
 

New Reports/Pictures

SOUTHEAST ASIA:                                      mouse over picture shows comments
               click a picture to see details

 

Philippines
(Febr. 2008)

Philippines: Ricefields near Sagada/Mountain Province/Northern Luzon

 
Timor-Leste (Mainland)
(May 2007)
 
Com/Timor-Leste: Traditional Fataluku house
Oecussi/Timor-Leste
(May 2007)

Oecussi/Timor-Leste: Landscape East of Oecussi-'Town'

 
Sarawak/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo), Part 2
(Nov. 2006)
 
Kuching/Sarawak/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Proboscis monkey in Bako National Park
Sabah/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo)
(Oct. 2006)

Mount Kinabalu/Sabah/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Early Morning View

Brunei
(Sept. 2006)
 
Brunei (Borneo): ’The 'Ali Saifuddien'-Mosque at sunset in Bandar Seri Begawan
Sarawak/East-Malaysia
(Island of Borneo), Part 1
(June - Aug. 2006)

Miri/Sarawak/East-Malaysia (Borneo): Traditional stilt houses reflecting in the water of the Miri River

Myanmar
(May 2006)
 
Myanmar: Waiting for customers in Kawthoung
Thailand
Temples, Pagodas, Shrines 

Thailand
People, Beaches, Nature

(Nov. 1993 - Jan. 1994)
(Nov. - Dec. 2005)
(Febr. - April 2006)
Thailand: Ho Phra I-Suan Temple in Nakhon Si Thammarat

Laos

(February 2006)

Laos: The ’Patuxai’, the Laotian replica of the French ’Arc de Triomphe’ in Paris

Vietnam

(January 2006)
Vietnam: Two women cultivating a rice field

Cambodia

(December 2005)

Cambodia: The main temple of Angkor Wat with its five towers viewed from the hill of the ’Phnom Bakheng’ - Temple

Malaysia

(Oct. - Nov. 2005)
Malaysia: The four minarets of the ’Sultan Salahuddin’ State Mosque in Shah Alam are visible already from far

Singapore

(September 2005)

Singapore: High-rise buildings pop up everywhere - here behind the Parliament House

Macao

(September 2005)

Macao: The ’St. Paul’ ruin is an inspiring sight also at night

Hong Kong

(September 2005)

 

Hong Kong:From ’Hong Kong Peak’ we get an excellent view of the ’skyscraper jungle’
+ our New Zealand Trip
South Island – Febr. 2008
+ our Hong Kong Trip
Hong Kong – Dec. 2007+Jan. 2008
+ our Taiwan Trip, 3rd part
Taipei-Taitung-Kaohsiung – Nov. 2007
+ our Taiwan Trip, 2nd part
Taitung-Southern Cross-Island Highway-
Siraya National Scenic Area (Zengwun Reservoir)-
Alishan NSA-Sun Moon Lake NSA-Taroko National Park-
Suao-Hualien Highway-Taipei – Oct.+Nov. 2007
+ our Taiwan Trip, 1st part

Kaohsiung-Kenting-Taitung – Oct. 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 6th part

Kalimantan – July 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, within the 5th part

Tana Toraja (Toraja-Land) – June+July 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 5th part

Sulawesi – June+July 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 4th part

Sumba, West Timor – May+June 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 3rd part

Lombok, Sumabawa, Flores – April 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 2nd part

Bali – Jan.-March 2007

+ our Indonesia Trip, 1st part

Sumatra, Java – Dec. 2006

+ our Borneo Trip

Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, Kalimantan – Sept.-Nov. 2006

+ our LandCruiser on a "Rejuvenation Cure"

in Miri/Sarawak - the East Malaysian province on Borneo Engine/Body: June-Aug. 2006/Transmission: Sept. 2007

+ added from a earlier visit to the USA:

Las Vegas    (Millennium change)

+ added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip:

Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996)

+ Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour:

Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997)

+ Follow-ups about Toyota-Experiences:
Encounters resp. "Ups + Downs" with
Toyota Companies since 1982
On July 7th, 2005, we were able to celebrate after a journey through 150 countries the car's
600'000th Kilometer - very prosaic in front of the post office in Cayenne/French Guiana.
Are you interested into the LandCruiser History, prepared by Toyota Motor Sales USA and taken over by
Toyota Motor United Kingdom? (after some loading-time please klick "IN LEGEND" and afterwards "HAIR TO MAGELLAN
- and you will see that we already belong to it too!)

 

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