Week nr 3, Beach life

Time to get ready for the summer, made a move and replaced the road side motel with one by the sea. On sunny days - as last Sunday was - it seems to be a wonderful place, during the rain with quick temperature drops I still get reminded that August is a winter month and being at beach is refreshing experience, even when inside the hut!

Motel camps are at the far end of the small village, main attraction seems to be 1 beach, 1 golf course, 1 church, 1 bowling club, 1 takaway food place, 1 restaurant, 1 small shop, everything else is 20km away.

Morning and tide moving out, will be back by evening

Small stick at the horizon is the Auckland TV tower, the bungee jumping one

Week nr 1 in New Zealand

Beach with blue-black sand, Karioitahi beach  The road was winding up with a rather steep degree, finally from the very top there was sudden magic view down, to the ocean, kind of a "Wow" moment. There was a road that was now making its way down to the bottom of a V-shaped river valley that ended at the coast, all this slightly mist caused by salt from the ocean. 

Between the hill range and waves ran around 200 meters wide stretch blue-black sand beach. That sand is actually the ironsand used in the mill for making steel. A rare persons walking to the fog of salt or a 4-wheel driver running the dog on the beach. That was about it, until suddenly the sun had sunken into ocean and it was getting quickly pitch black.

Day nr 3 in New Zealand

Day 3 in New Zealand
To keep the jet-lag under control after 38 hours flight and changing 9 hours' worth of time zones, I decided to have an early start for Saturday and check out places "just down the road" - old lighthouse 40 km from the motel in Waiuku. Mainly to confirm if the country is still as dreamy as it got recorded in my mind at 2008. And also to take quieter side roads to remind myself how it was to drive on the wrong side of the road.
Still New Zealand is amazing, even during the harsh winter! Now it is the winter - only few flowers in blossoms, butterflies flying, some people running outside in shorts, though some trees actually have lost the leaves.




The stacks in the upper right corner belongs to the New Zealand Steel mill. It seems to be the only heavy industry mill in this corner of the country.

Winter 1 - logo of Swedbank

Winter 2

Winter 3

Rizhao car show mish-mash

Well, the cars in China look different - brands never heard in Europe, styles from past or future, sometimes very hard to understand if more from past or from future. For some strange reason I finished up walking through the Rizhao car show in April. This was not exactly the new concept cars' exhibition, more of a car dealers show to boost sales in Rizhao.

Together the show made a confusingly beautiful combination of new-old-true-fake, some stands even spicing up things with non-wheeled models.



Get a Mazda 6, whatever generation desired

Chinese Lotus and a model. One of them with a big poster "Engineered by Lotus", not sure how much actual input the small workshop in UK had to this car.

The "V" car and Mazda 3, who is who?

April was still chilly month, model turned rather white in cool spring winds

Place of contrasts, in the same stand the grand ~30 old taxi-Santana (11,500 EUR) or machine called New Santana (price starting from 10,800 EUR).

Focus on models

BALC car company stand. First it looked the central piece of their exhibition is the Mercedes. My first guess: partnership with Mercedes factory. Took a closer look of both cars, the 2 looked extremely similar. In interior the "Mercedes" had actually a BALC logo on steering wheel, very odd! Finally it came to me, the only piece of Mercedes was the logo on the bonnet.
The short conclusion: not a problem at all to borrow other car's logo to promote the new baby in their own official stand.

Best value for money, grand old mega-mini van, 3,800EUR. It might look big on this photo, actually super small van that would wobble in any wind and driving 80kmh feels like its preparing to take off like a plane. Not much luxury there, but this is the legendary mover in far inland provinces of China. In trips to Sichuan, Yunnan, Fujian etc. this was usually the top choice of our illegal taxies. 

Samsung, Kia, Hyundai, Korea

So it happens  the first time to visit Seoul S-Korea (first time further from the airport!) had to be just during the few weeks time in April when communist brother in North started to pose threats in the region. We always kept the Plan B ready in a case there is a quick need to get out of the country, in 3 days just had time to see Seoul.
Korea had always been in low priority list - urban area, Shanghai and Beijing have been nearby, though now coming from Rizhao it felt like a truly amazing city to see and actually being closer than Beijing or Shanghai. It is the place where all the cars of world are driven as long as they are either Kia or Hyundai (did not see a single Toyota in 3 days); it is the best place to shop for all kinds of electronic gadgets as long as they are Samsung!

Some of that well maintained! old architecture.

Street art on the wall

Some of that Tokyo-like night life scene

Technology at every step, at every age, for all the possible purposes.

Typical moto-courier 3-4 smart phones on the dashboard. Watching TV, communicating and navigating, all of it at the same time, no problem.

Some very unique cafeterias, Beesket yoghurt and smoothie place. Start by getting a small 3-hole "tray". Flavours can be selected by picking small knobs with pictures of desired fruits from a big gaming board. In registry: besides the money to be paid, info about the Kcal is to be received in return. 6100 Korean money gave a 145 Kcal worth smoothie.




Korean style, instead of showing 2-finger Victory (standard photo posing style for Chinese photo lovers), Koreans go for more sophisticated symbolic heart sign by putting the hands over head. Massive wall of love-locks at the background.

Seafood market fun. Theme is simple: buy the live seafood on the ground level, put in plastic bag. Take purchased goods to 2nd floor, decide the method of cooking, negotiate a price in one of the restaurants, get seated...

Biggest tuna I have seen


Korea is a place where good ideas never stop! Well, this is the country where mass weddings for ~1000 people are arranged. We went for electronics shopping, 8 floors mall. In between TVs floor and Mobiles phones floor, 7th floor turned out to be wedding floor - not to buy wedding gadgets, but to get married. Everything together in one: bridal rooms, registration halls, wedding dining halls, photo shooting areas, etc.. Everything goes spot on like on a conveyor, there is always a previous ceremony in front and and the next couple with their guests behind.
Dream place for wedding crashers!


Moment of true culture :) Trick eye museum