| Back to good old Germany :) |
[Dec. 1st, 2007|11:34 pm] |
this blog has gone on hiatus, since I'm back home now... safely tucked away again behind my own computer ;)
thanks for reading! y'all stay healthy, happy and HAVE A GRAND TIME! :) |
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| USA: San Luis Obispo |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|10:08 pm] |
Wheee, I'm back in the new and modern world!
The weirdest thing is that my plane leaves in about an hour. I mean, it left on October 5th, 23:00 ...and it's gonna be that time again in a bit! Weird, eh? I basically travelled back in time! =)
I'm super happy to be back with Kevin and America really IS heaps cooler than NZ, although of course much less beautiful. Everybody is much less friendly and more stressed out, so I guess that's good practice for Germany, where it can only be worse, eh?
The flight was GREAT as I knew it would be, I had a delicious lamb dinner and quite okay breakfast and I mean, if even the LAMB on the airplane is yummee, that's saying something! =) I watched two movies (No Reservations and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 - which bored me to TEARS) and never got around to reading the book I packed. I love Air NZ.
With this, my journey has pretty much come to its end. I'm going to spend one or two months here in San Luis Obispo with Kevin, enjoy having my boyfriend around and soak in the American Way Of Life for a bit. I'm going to head home at the end of November and I'm really looking forward to celebrating Christmas at home with my family. It's been an awesome trip and I'm very glad that I won't need to summarize it too soon. And if I have to, I'll just point people here. Heh. ;P |
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| Going Home-wards! |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|11:38 am] |
Home-ish, that is.
This evening at 10:45pm my plane to LA leaves. I'll then stay in California for a while but plan to be home before December.
I'm really excited and can't wait to get on the plane, Air New Zealand is always superdupernice to fly with and I'm sooo looking forward to all the movies I'm gonna watch on board!
What's left to do before 3pm (that's when my friend picks me up from the hostel) is
>>Packing my stuff and hopefully not forgetting anything (like my battery-charger in the other room...)
>>Going to Foodtown to get some nibbles for the flight and some food-souvenirs (ever hear of Starburst Sucks?)
>>Getting myself another drink from ZEST juice bar, really tasty and really healthy!
>>Writing the last postcard to Berlin
that should be it. Talk to you soon! |
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| Whitianga / Coromandel |
[Sep. 30th, 2007|12:36 pm] |
I've arrived on the Coromandel Peninsula yesterday and it is indeed VERY lovely here!
I've been doing the trip with Magic and it was fairly boring, but hey, it can't all be STRAY ;) (they didn't do this route). I'm staying at the Cat's Pyjamas backpackers in Whitianga, which is a lovely little seaside town. The hostel is great... very HOMELY and superbly clean, definitely among the top 3 hostels I've been to in NZ.
It turned out that I have to wait till Monday morning to do the activity that I came here to do, so I'm just hanging around and enjoying the seaside flair and FINALLY getting on with uploading and capturing my photos. I know I've been horribly neglectful, sorry.
In other news, the All Blacks played pretty well last night, was a fun game to watch! We're in the quarter finals now, yeay! We also switched to Daylight Saving Time (Summertime) here yesterday, meaning Germany and New Zealand are now 11 hours apart.
Enjoy all the new photos! |
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| Auckland University |
[Sep. 28th, 2007|12:32 pm] |
This morning I went up to the University of Auckland. I've been to the Faculty of Science, the study advisor for Geology/Geophysics and the International Student Office, and I feel that now I do have all the information I need should I decide to do my postgraduate there.
The University is quite nice, I could totally imagine studying there, IF I still want to go back here in 3 years. I haven't seen any of the other 8 universities here in NZ though, so I don't have anything to compare it with. Plus, I might chose to go somewhere closer in a couple of years, you never know.
The weather seems to have finally realized that its recent behaviour was unacceptable and is giving us some sunshine today. Whew, it's really good for my mood! =)
In other news, I got mail today! The twice-around-the-world parcel finally arrived (after having been here already but going back to Germany bc of faulty address) and I'm really happy!!! Thanks Mum!!! (Reminds me, though, that I NEED to go shopping for an additional piece of luggage *scratches head*) |
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| Sunshine :) |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|09:42 am] |
Sure enough, it was raining the next day. Well, more like pouring, but I'm surrounded by ocean so that was to be expected.
Yesterday, though, the weather was PERFECT (wie ausm bilderbuch!) and in the morning I grabbed a kayak and went out on the ocean. Well, I paddled around in the vicinity of the shore, but that's close enough to being out there, eh? I had an awesome time and couldn't believe how easy it was to get where I wanted to go, and pretty quickly too. It was LOADS of fun!
The bad news is that I have no pictures of it at all, since my camera refused to cooperate with the rechargeables that morning (even though I recharged them all night *eyeroll* and just generally acts weird in the last day. The lens-protection-thingie, that usually closes automatically when I switch off the camera, plays dead, and there's a couple of other things that just don't work the way they used to any more. I SWEAR I didn't do anything with the thing to make it hate me, I was always reasonably nice to it! Gonna give it some TLC in the next days and hope it will be in a better mood, then.
Today I go back to Auckland and I'm kinda sad to leave, we really have gorgeous weather here and I think I even got a bit of a tan (but you would hardly see it anyways, seeing as I don't tan well). Anyways, gotta go now :) |
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| Pahia and Cape Reinga! |
[Sep. 22nd, 2007|06:57 pm] |
Whew, today was an AWESOME day! I had such a good time!!
Yesterday I left Auckland for a trip to the Bay of Islands and arrived in Pahia in the late afternoon. I did the trip with the Magic Bus instead of with STRAY, because it was recommended to me and the price was pretty damn good. Magic isn't half as much fun as STRAY though, but I can live with it ;)
The backpackers we're staying at (yay, being in a group again is really nice) is quite awesome, too. It's got top ratings and really deserves it.
Today we went up to Cape Reinga, driving up the 90 mile beach with the big tour bus (which was AMAZING! Driving ON a beach!!) and it was so much fun when the bus driver (who was truly unique) asked us to imagine riding along huge plains and played the theme of Bonanza, making the bus "hobble" as if it was a carriage. He said this was to help us remember our ride on the beach whenever we hear the music in the future :) He certainly succeeded with me!
At the end of the beach we got off the bus and boogie-boarded down a giant sand dune. At first I felt like chickening out, but then I went up and did it and YEEEEEHAAAA that was SO MUCH FUN! I even went up and did it AGAIN, screaming at the top of my lungs but having an AMAZING time!! Both times I fell off the board and toppled over in the sand at the bottom of the dune, but that just made it even better! =)
Now that I'm freshly showered and somehow managed to remove all that sand from all those places (I got it in my ears and EVERYWHERE else *g*) I'm really happy. Oh, yeah, after the dunes we drove up to the Cape, and yes, I got to see the lighthouse and everything. Being at the top of NZ (and as close to home as I will get while being here) I felt strangely elated... But it was incredibly weird, knowing that the rest of the world is out there, just beyond the horizon, but not being able to see any of it...
The climate up here in the Bay of Islands is mediterranean, seeing how we ARE on one geographical height with Italy (i.e. as far from the South Pole as Italy is from the North Pole). It's take-out-your-shorts-and-put-your-sunscreen-on weather. The ocean (300m from my hostel) is lovely, though not warm enough to swim in - it's only spring after all. But I immediately extended my stay for 2 more days (this is so much better than Auckland after all) and tomorrow or the day after I am planning on doing some kayaking, seeing how I might even get that for free (Special deal from the hostel). It's supposed to be raining tomorrow, so might just hang out in the spa pool, which looks really nice.
Alright, I'm hungry now... *waves* |
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| Craig Parker, Take II |
[Sep. 12th, 2007|10:06 pm] |
Of course I couldn't stand NOT having drooling material for my loyal slashy friendsphotographic evidence, so I had to go out of my way to secure these:
( More pictures behind the cut. )
Please excuse the blurryness, which has aforementioned reasons:
- my camera is NOT made for making acceptable pictures without a flash
- my hands are NOT made for holding anything steady while looking at Craig Parker
- theatres are NOT made to take pictures in them, and being sneaky included not being able to see what I'm taking pictures of in the first place as the screen would have been too bright
I know, it's the same reasons why my Ring*Con pictures SUCKED, and I had plenty of time to remedy the first two aspects, but hey. I'm just human. (A slightly smug human right now, but still...) |
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| Craig Parker! |
[Sep. 11th, 2007|03:36 pm] |
Two days ago, on Sunday, I went to see The Pillowman in Auckland's Maidment Theatre. I wanted to go ever since I saw a poster for it with Craig Parker clutching a pillow... How could I resist?! =D Let me just say, the experience was worth every single one of the 60$ I paid for the ticket and all my expectations where by FAR exceeded. Even today it is still on my mind, the plot itself and Craig's portrayal of Katurian having utterly amazed and fascinated me. I really learned the difference between being a fan of a movie star because he looks cute and being a fan of an actor because he gives an enrapturing, breathtaking performance, so genuine that you cannot tell where the border between the actor and the character should be drawn. Knowing Craig only from Lord of the Rings and a couple of hours at the Ring*Con (and therefore being under the impression that he was a very capable comedian, but that's about it), I was stunned at the magic he did on that stage.
As you can tell, I can not put into words how much I ADORED the play itself (but maybe you want to take a look at this site?) - I can, however, find quite a lot words for how GORGEOUS he was afterwards. I swear, he was showered and wearing fresh clothes in less than 5 minutes... and looking incredibly clean for someone who just a moment ago was splattered in fake blood ;D
Anyways, he was GREAT. Looking really relaxed leaning against the front desk in the foyer, chatting with the receptionist (or whatever you call those theatre ladies) by the time I was back from the loo. I inched closer, so as not to be pushy or intrusive, and at some point he looked up and smiled at me. Now with my experience of panic attacks at these moments I was surprised to find myself rather calm and capable of forming complete sentences. I thanked him for giving such an amazing performance and told him that I saw him two years ago at Ring*Con and how sorry everybody is that he can't come this year. He was really nice about it, saying something friendly that I sadly can't remember and when I asked him to sign a poster of the play (which I had unashamedly stolen from the pin-board of an internet cafe) he did so with more words than strictly neccessary: It now says "Great to see you again, love xxx, Craig". He then gave me a hug and I went outside to squeee without freaking anybody out ;)
Yeah, that was that. Right now I have the overwhelming feeling of "Damn, this has all been worth it so much!" and I just can't wait to go to America next! I'm really excited about it!
PS: No, sadly I do not have any pictures since I couldn't take any during the play of course, didn't wanna bother a surely exhausted Craig afterwards and was too stupid to take one of him leaning against the front desk *face palm* |
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| oooh, whoops! |
[Sep. 8th, 2007|02:06 pm] |
Seems like in all the excitement I forgot to update in a while, eh? Sorry!
After Qeenstown I spent a few days in Christchurch. Quite okay as a hub of civilisation in the middle of nowhere (omg, traffic lights!! o.O) but really boring after max 2 days. I tried to make plans about what to do from there but I couldn't seem to come up with anything both me and my wallet would be happy with ;) So after a long phone call with my parent's and an even longer one with Air New Zealand (whom I still love like on the first day!) about what's possible with my bookings and so on, I decided to fly straight to Auckland. Now, I know that I didn't like it there too much in the beginning, but it's really not so bad when you go there without any expectations ;)
It looks like I will fly to California on the first weekend of October and be back home in Germany at the LATEST on the first of December. But none of that is written in stone yet.
Right now I have a job here in Auckland, doing promotion for Unicef. I don't get much money out of it, but luckily I don't have to. I am currently trying really hard to hate my job, but I keep finding the reason for my unhappiness with the job in myself. Yesterday I broke down in tears in the office in front of my boss and ~15 co-workers because I felt that I just couldn't do what they were asking of me (=repeating the speech I had rehearsed to my trainer). I felt absolutely stupid not being able to do such a simple thing, but who knows me and my fundamental hate for giving speeches in front of people will understand it. In addition, my trainer is one of these highly-professional guys who sell dozens of contracts every day. You know, one of those power-suit-wearers. He's nice, don't get me wrong, but I feel intimidated by him and I just CAN NOT practice the things to say to customers in front of him. I feel stupid.
Apart from my issues with him, I also fell back into the old routine of putting waaaay too much pressure onto myself (why can't I sell a hundred contracts on my first day? I'm a looser!). Blah, that sucks. In short, I'm allright with my job, I'm just unhappy with myself in that job. But seeing how easy it was to get that one, I might just as well go looking for another one.
PS: I have a really bad cold but thanks to some flu-meds I feel just this side of horrible. Welcome back to Auckland, that's what it spells to me :-/ |
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| Milford :'( |
[Sep. 1st, 2007|06:03 pm] |
Whaaaaa, no Milford Sound for me :'( *sniffs*
Today I got up suuuper early (6.00) to get on the bus for the Milford Cruise. The ticket had cost me 150 NZ$ but I though, "what the hell, this supposedly is Nz's most beautiful spot, I can't miss out on what it" and bought it. After 90 minutes on the road the driver got a call from the office, saying that the only road into Milford had been closed due to high risk of avalanches. You know, it's winter here, snow everywhere, and it's been raining all night. But why, why is there only one single road to that damn thing?? *exasperated look*
Well, at least I got a full refund. And a reason to come back here some day in a distant future ;)
The LOTR tour yesterday, however, was GORGEOUS! I was so awestruck by the scenery and when we got to Lothlorien, WHICH IS THE REASON WHY I CAME HALF WAY AROUND THE WORLD TO NZ!, I was totally overwhelmed. Between all those OH MY GOD HOW BEAUTIFUL's, the only thing my mind could manage was it was totally worth it. all of it. I could have walked to new zealand it would still have been worth it. You just wait for the pictures and you'll understand.
(The guide, who was an extra in LOTR and worked as a driver for the actors was really good. At one point, me leaning down to touch the spot where "Boromir" died in the 2nd movie and rambling on about Sean Bean, he said with a big grin: "I didn't have one crazy fangirl like you on my tours for 4 years". Heh! =D) |
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| Queeeeeenstown! |
[Aug. 31st, 2007|04:09 pm] |
Wow, I like it here! In one word: It's schnuckelig!
Today I went on a Lord of the Rings tour and I LOVED IT! It's definitely been the best part of my journey yet! Tomorrow I will go see the Milford Sound. Then I will tell you in more detail what it was like :) |
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| Makarora |
[Aug. 29th, 2007|03:46 pm] |
Today we spent the day on the road, headed for Queenstown. On the way there, we came past the Fox Glacier, a particularly boring place, but that might just be me. At least, the thing looked exactly the same to me as the Franz Josef one, but I guess you can't expect much variety from "a piece of ice wedged between two mountains", as our driver called it.
Oh, yeah, something I wanted to mention is that yesterday, at the Franz Josef village, we had a total lunar eclipse! It was pretty fascinating, but of course I didn't even have to think about taking photos with my 4x zoom camera ;) even Caroline's camera, a super-expensive high-tech thingie worth several thousand dollars, couldn't do a sufficient job. blah.
Today on the bus I won the Kiwi Quiz! It was 50 questions about New Zealand and given that I've been a fan of the country for several years, my score of 35 was a bit low, but still high enough, yeay!! =D My price was the STRAY t-shirt off the driver's back (*groans* why??) and everybody on the bus signed it. They actually wrote a lot of cool and very nice stuff on it and I was verrrry happy about this personal keepsake. Bright orange, too! Yayness! =)
We made a couple of photo-stops where we oooooh-ed and aaaaah-ed at different sets of waterfalls. I liked the Fantail Falls the best :)
Tonight, we will stay in Makarora at the Wildernes Resort, a funny little place that's remarkable mostly due to its weirdly shaped triangle lodges. Makarora itself is a little "town" of about 40 inhabitants and there's really nothing you can do here. But we merely stay overnight and it's hardly more than a stop-over on the long road to Queenstown anyways :) |
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| Franz Josef Glacier |
[Aug. 28th, 2007|12:02 pm] |
Yesterday we went from Barrytown to Franz Josef Village, right next to the Glacier. The drive started out quite chaotic, since the luggage trailer wasn't closed properly and we lost two bags. We only noticed that in Greymouth, half an hour outside of Barrytown, where we picked up somebody. So we went all the way back to Barry, but we could only find one of the bags. Driving back to Greymouth, which has the only police station in the area, the guy whose bag was still missing got a phone call on his mobile (Greymouth is also the only town with cell phone coverage in the whole region) and got his bag back. Whew, what luck!
In Franz Josef we checked into the Rainforest Retreat, a neat, great hostel/holiday park with toasty warm 4bed rooms. I really liked it there! Today the main part of group went up to or onto the glacier, but I stayed at the village since it didn't interest me quite enough to spend several hundred bucks on a tour. Was a nice, relaxing, sunny day and I had a good time! |
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| Barrytown and Pancake Rocks |
[Aug. 26th, 2007|11:42 am] |
Hello there!! :)
Yesterday we left the Abel Tasman NP at around 1pm and headed for the West Coast. It was a very long and windy bus trip all the way through the inner country of the South Island, our destination being a little village called Barrytown. The place only has 42 inhabitants, but apparently it was a huge thing during the gold rush quite a while ago.
We stayed at the All Nations Hotel, the only pub in "town" :) It was a pleasant experience to stay at a pub, everybody (and especially the locals, although I didn't meet all of the 42 *g*) was very friendly and had a story or two to tell. I also enjoyed traveling in a group for a change. Apart from some people who decided to stay in Abel Tasman for a little longer, we still are the same group that I met when I got on the bus in Motueka. There are some German girls and one from Norway, with whom I get along extremely well. I also enjoy the company of all the other guys from England, Canada and other parts of the world.
Today we were all stuffed into a teeny tiny bus and driven up the coast to Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks. I have not been that impressed by NZ nature since the Queen Charlotte Sound! It feels like standing in a huge, giant, nature-built church... very intimidating and at the same time incredibly peaceful and calming. Kinda puts us little humans in our place again ;)
My pictures are going to speak more clearly than my words ever could. I hope to get an opportunity to upload them soon! |
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| Abel Tasman National Park |
[Aug. 25th, 2007|11:19 am] |
Yesterday I hopped onto the Stray bus again and after a huge delay (which I have come to expect from everything that prides itself in being 100% kiwi *g*) and a hilarious bus trip we arrived in the Abel Tasman National Park. We stayed at Old Mac Donald's Farm and had a barbecue and sat around a real campfire till late at night. I had the luck of snatching a cabin for my own, which was a real luxury. You know, being used to sleeping alone in my room from my Wwoofing time, I wanted to grant myself some time to get used to hostel life again ;)
Today I got up extra early, since I was told to be at the office at 8 o'clock to secure my place on a kayaking trip. Of course there wasn't a single soul at the office at 8 and I had to wait in the cold for over half an hour, but at least I got to see a *beautiful* sunrise :)
It turned out that I was the only one wanting to go kayaking this morning and the company only did those trips for a minimum of 2 people. bah. So Old Mac suggested that I should try horse-riding. Okay, I thought, let's forget the old preoccupation I had against horses and try something new. That's what I am here for, after all! :)
To make a long story acceptably short: I had a GORGEOUS time!! Riding a horse is really easy, turned out I already had more than enough of all the muscles you need to do it ;D
First we went a bit through the New Zealand Bush, that was really cool, riding through rivers and ducking under trees and stuff. Later we rode to the beach and WOW was that ever an impressive experience! Due to a huge tidal difference in the waterline, the beach was about a kilometre broad and several km's wide. It was absolutely GREAT to ride over all that wet sand on the back of a horse!
Afterwards, I was especially delighted to find that not a single part of my anatomy hurt! yayness!! :D
Pictures should be online by now :) |
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| my sandfly-bite-count... |
[Aug. 23rd, 2007|02:32 pm] |
is 3 right now. that's pretty low, I am told :D
ETA: as of today, August 28th, it is somewhere around 6ish. still proud :D |
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| Moving on |
[Aug. 22nd, 2007|06:29 pm] |
Hey!
After 6 days of Wwoofing in Kimi Ora, I have decided to move on. Everything is really great here, but I am girl enough to admit that the work is simply too hard for me. It's backbreaking, sore-muscle-producing work that seems to get to no end, ever. It's simply frustrating.
I will not go to that place in Nelson, either, since I am keen on moving on with my trip down the west coast. I want to get somewhere new, and fast. |
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| And on to the next Wwoofing host! |
[Aug. 16th, 2007|03:10 pm] |
After getting kind-of-thrown-out by the mother in this household, I will be starting to Wwoof in a Spa resort quite close by tomorrow. Pleahsee, check this out!! www.kimiora.co.nz ...cool, eh?
She emphasized that it has nothing to do whatsoever with my work but that she discovered that having a Wwoofer around kinda wasn't her thing so much when she already had two incredibly stressful children around her all day. Well, whatever.
So I browsed the Wwoofing website and found this Spa resort just an hour from here who are "urgently" looking for a Wwoofer to de-weed their veggie beets. hmmmmm... that's what I've been doing for 7 days now, guess I will be good at it ;)
The weather here truly IS as good, sunny and amazingly warm as everybody told me and I am considering staying at another Wwoofing host in Brightwater (which is close to Nelson city) after the Spa thingie, before moving on.
I'm looking forward to getting on the Stray bus again and I am truly glad I booked the whole thing - though it was painfully expensive at 400$NZ. |
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| I milked a cow today. |
[Aug. 11th, 2007|01:58 pm] |
I'm still impressed by my achievement of just over a litre in 10 or so minutes :D
In the morning we drove to friends of the family I'm staying with who had a cow and I'm so glad she was a friendly lady! Her name is Jasmine and she didn't complain once, although I'm sure I must have bored her to tears with my slowliness. I was so afraid I was hurting her, though, but the owner said that my gentle fingers could never come close to what real cow-babies feel like, so I needn't worry. She was the first cow I ever milked and it was a very down-to-earth, hands-on experience that once again reminded me that milk doesn't grow in boxes. It also was a very muddy experience, since it rained straight through last night, but by now I'm pretty used to being dirty and muddy :) I am, however, no longer used to the smell of COW all over my clothes and hands! *scrubbs at hands in frustration* I used to play on a farm when I was little and BOY did I ever stink after that, so I guess I just need to get used to it again.
Apart from that and due to the not-exactly-nice weather I spent today cracking nuts again. I'm not even halfway through all the hazelnuts *sigh* I actually managed to get in some overtime yesterday, so I only had to work for 2 hours today. Nobody here is actually keeping track of how much I work, but since I'm getting such excellent food and sleeping in the deluxe edition of a warm, cozy, clean and comfy camper van, I feel it is my duty to give this people 4,5 to 5 hours of work a day.
Now we're getting to the part why I actually sat down to write in this journal. In the few days I've been here, my stay with the Leenheers has already had a thoroughly positive effect on me. I already feel like a member of the family. The reason for this might be that the main thing I ever do here is helping in the household. You know, like washing dishes (loads of them!), taking care of laundry, and basically doing a lot of stuff that nobody here ever finds the time to do. When I arrived here, everything was pure chaos. I pride myself in having helped a good deal with that. Since they invest virtually ALL their time in their children, there's a lot of things that just cannot be done and that, in turn, makes me feel USEFUL. That's something that I never realized I've been missing: Being needed, doing something valuable. It gives you a wholly different perspective on life.
Since I'm out of reading material but still like to read before I fall asleep, I asked them for a book and I chose "Nonviolent Communication" by Marshall B. Rosenberg (go here for the German version) and WOW, that's a good book. I really feel that what I learned from it will make it HEAPS easier to solve conflicts in the future! I recommend it to everybody.
One of the peaks of staying here most definitely is the food I get. It's vegetarian, a hundred percent spray-free and the great majority of it is organic. Since they have two little children growing up with the food, they put great emphasis on it containing everything the human body could possibly need to be healthy, happy and strong. A lot of what I get here I have never heard of before, but it's tasty! The most delicious thing I've been introduced to is Quinoa! With a bit of salt and vegetable stock, this is incredibly yummie!
I could witness one of the remarkable aspects of food in this family when they had their wedding anniversary the day after I arrived and there was cake. The little girl hardly touched her piece of cake (which was delicious!) and instead got up and got herself some fruit. I was impressed! The only beverages in this house are water and different kind of teas and I get the impression they don't even HAVE sugar in the house. I could never imagine that you could bring up a child to prefer fruit to sweets! I was flabbergasted, as the English say! Not surprisingly, being here has gotten me off my addiction to chocolate. Almost, anyways.
I guess that's about it for today. Is ja auch genug ;) |
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| Wwoofing near Motueka |
[Aug. 9th, 2007|04:58 pm] |
I'm beat. Like, absolutely exhausted.
Who would have guessed that 5 hours of physical work could leave every single muscle in my body trembling? I guess I really am a couchpotatoe, eh? Well, that will have to change. My work here has hardly started and there's heaps of things to do. I am actually enjoying it, so I'd better get some extra muscles and get started!! =)
The family I'm wwoofing with has two little children (5 and 0,66 years old) who they bring up a little alternatively. This means that those poor guys have literally not a single spare minute a day and now that I'm used to the kiddies I actually enjoy helping them out. I have started digging out grass - in a patch as big as our whole garden in Germany - to create a vegetable garden, cut out dead leaves from plants - that are 10 times bigger than their cousins in our garden (das teil das bei uns direkt neben der terassentuer steht, bloss in RIESIG!)- and started painting the shed. My success is clearly visible, and be it just by the layers of paint on multiple parts of my skin that I can't seem to get off. Paint that I was told is water-solutable. Bah. |
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| Picton |
[Aug. 7th, 2007|11:27 am] |
I'm still in Picton, but I've moved to a different backpackers. It was a people-decision, the guys at Atlantis were getting a little creepy ;) In addition, the advertised "hot" pool was very close to freezing over. Nah. So now I'm staying at the Sequoia Lodge and it's really nice! I haven't felt the need to try out the Spa pool yet but it's good to know it's there ;)
The host, Jillian, has been a real bitch, though. Always grumpy and acting as if I've killed her cat or something, while smiling friendly at others. From my roommate's experience I guess she just hates Germans. Maybe that's it. Today the boss came over, though, and he's a real darling, making all my bookings for me and everything. He's very friendly and that makes a huge difference!
The home-made bread in the morning is very good and the chocolate cake at night is good too but I think I've had enough now ;)
In other news, I booked myself on the Stray Bus yesterday. I bought a pass that calls itself "The Willi Pass" and I'm not toooo sure what to think of that name, but I got a 100$ off so I'm not gonna complain about something as little as a name. They told me it's named after some famous Wilhelm guy or so o.O
Tomorrow, one day later than intended, I will go to Nelson and finally start my first kind-of-job. I will be working as a Wwoofer on a little farm a bit outside of Motueka (which is 45km outside of Nelson, so I'd better say goodbye to civilization before I go there, eh?). I'm looking forward to actually DOING something for a change! ;) |
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| Oh. My. GOD! (the trip to Picton) |
[Aug. 2nd, 2007|09:40 pm] |
I'm lost for words.
Really, I cannot describe it.
Today I left Wellington on the Interislander ferry to Picton and wow was that amazing. First off I have to say that even though New Zealand may not be wonderland and may not possess the magical abilities I thought it had (at least I haven't found them on the north island), it certainly did some little magic for me: it cured my motion sickness. Okay, so it's not completely gone, but I had none of my usual problems on the flight to Auckland, neither did I get the tiniest bit seasick on the ferry. I was just too excited to get queasy!
Rolling out of the harbour of Wellington was pretty impressive in itself, what with all the sunshine we had, but the stunning, breathtaking part was entering the Marlborough Sounds (check out the "Queen Charlotte Sound" on maps.google.com and you'll know how to understand this). Picton harbour lies cuddled and protected at the end of a sound and the ferry had to go along the whooooole Queen Charlotte Sound to get there. There simply are no words to describe the beauty of what I saw, but it might give you an idea of how it felt when I tell you that I cried from the sheer overwhelming joy of "finally having arrived". I'm still totally baffled.
On the way from Wellington to Picton alone I took over 100 photos, one more stunning than the next.
The AMAZING pictures can be found in my web-album !
The hostel I'm staying at is called the Atlantis Backpackers and those who know me will understand why I chose it based on the name. Right next door is a PADI school and a dive gear shop, that's some nice inspiration! The hostel is quite nice, I'd rate it a 7 out of 10 with a little minus for cleanliness.
Have a good time, I certainly am!! =D |
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| Wellington University |
[Jul. 31st, 2007|09:18 pm] |
Today Mike took Sandrine and me up the Cable Car to the Universty, since he's a student there he has a card for the thing and saved us the fee :) It was very interesting to see the University of Wellington, but I wouldn't want to study there. The Technical University in Munich is just sooo much cooler, cleaner and nicer ;) no offense, Mike! |
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| Wellington |
[Jul. 30th, 2007|05:24 pm] |
I'm still in Wellington and still having a very good time. the weather is too much of everything... three days ago we had too much wind, yesterday too much sun and today too much rain (waaaay too much rain!!) but I'm still enjoying it!
Today Glen took me to see Rivendell and the Embassy Theatre, which is really really tiny, considering it hosted the WORLD PREMIERE of two gigantic movies...
Today I also walked past a real theatre, like, one with a stage, and I saw an advertisement for King Lear. Now that's just so weird... I never bothered to look that up, I just knew that the Royal Shakespeare Company would come to Melbourne later this year and that I didn't have the money for a trip to Australia. When I was in Auckland I saw a newspaper add that they were coming to Auckland too on August 18th and I was really unhappy about it since there's just no way I'm gonna stick around in bloody boring Auckland for a month and a half. Now I'm here and I have to see that they come here too, on August 11th, which is pretty soon. But I don't really want to 1) stick around for so long and 2) spend 122 dollars on 3 hours of potentially boring theatre. Even though it has Ian McKellan in the main role... hmmm... *ponders*... naw, I'm not gonna do it. If I really want to add a month of USA to this trip I'd better hold tight to my money, eh? |
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| Weeeeellington! |
[Jul. 28th, 2007|05:30 pm] |
Oh my, I love it here!
I arrived Thursday night and stayed at the Rosemere Backpackers. There's not much to write about that one, except for the absolutely edible-looking-suuuperduper-uber-cute housecat. And it was very colourful ;)
The next morning I met up with Glen, who took me on a wonderful tour of the city! I had an amazing time taking in all the beautiful coast-views and OMG we even were in the Chocolate Fish Cafe, a place that everyone who went to NZ talked about and I *think* it was even mentioned on the Lord Of The Rings DVDs. I could totally see why, as I was sitting on the sunlit porch, enjoying not only a magnificent view over the ocean but also one of the best hot chocolates I've ever had. And it's certainly not a real hot chocolate if it doesn't have marshmallows in it!! *gg*
Today I moved to the YHA Wellington, partially because I didn't want to put up with climbing a fucking mountain everytime to get to my hostel, but mostly because I'd heard such good things about the YHA. And they're true! It's spacious, clean, friendly, located absolutely central (50 m to giant supermarket, 200 m to Museum, waterfront...) and equipped with almost anything a backpacker could wish for. It costs me 21 NZ$ a night but so far it looks like it's worth it!
I also got a little Lord Of The Rings location tour from Glen, we went to the forresty place where the Hobbits are hiding under the roots from the black rider and although it was in the middle of the city and not the least bit as remote as it looks, it was plenty scary there! The weathertop scene where Aragorn is fighting the Ringwraith was filmed there too, in a little clearing, but despite it looking eerily familiar, I didn't really recognize it.
Glen, who had a little role in LOTR and therefore is the perfect guide for it, also gave me a little hint that Dominic Monaghan (gods, do I ever spell the guy right??) and Evangeline Lilly are gonna be in town tonight and that if they're going out they're going to be in that bar in Cuba Street (the Matterhorn), so I'll be going there later. And be it just for the reason that the LOTR actors hung out there regularly. I at least want to take a look at the place! *fangirly grin*
I met a young woman in the YHA and she'll be coming with me. Yayness!
Okay, gotta go!
:-* |
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| Going to Wellington |
[Jul. 26th, 2007|09:55 am] |
The Spa Lodge in Rotorua was really great, I enjoyed the spa pool so much and the team, especially Tom, was wonderful. He truly deserved the hot chocolate I brought him yesterday, what with all the nagging and grumpiness that he got from me. I guess I just still ain't relaxed enough for New Zealand standards ;)
Yesterday I went to Wai-O-Tapu (you HAVE to check out the link "Wai-O-Tapu park official homepage"!!), and it was great. Especially the "Devil's Bath", a textmarker-green sulphuric lake, was highly impressive. I hope I get a change to upload more pictures soon!!
Today I'll be going to Wellington by bus, I'm not looking forward to the 8 hours drive, but what the heck.
See ya! |
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| Rotorua, oh jipee Rotorua! |
[Jul. 23rd, 2007|09:04 pm] |
I LOVE it here!
I adore the backpackers I'm staying at and everything is so nice! The smell isn't as bad as you'd think and here at the Lodge you don't notice it at all - unless you sit in the hot mineral pool. That's right, i have a HOT SPA POOL here. Under the starlit sky. Which I already extensively used! It just doesn't get any better ...hmmm, actually, it does. I paid for a share (18$ a night for a share is pretty damn good!) and what I got was a single. Well, there are three other beds in there, but they're all mine! *harharhar*
The host is very nice, everything is soooo clean (at least it's blitzeblank compared to this rathole in Te Puke) and I have a full agenda for tomorrow (museum, maori place thingie, lake Rotorua...) hmmm, this sounds like more than one day of stuff to do :oD
I'll keep you updated!!
PS: I joined the Wwoof Project today! Yayness! |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 22nd, 2007|10:03 am] |
| [ | My Current Location |
| | Te Puke, New Zealand | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | the music channel on the tv | ] |
Hey!
I had a FANTASTIC evening yesterday, loads of thanks to Tony (whom I met at the Ceroc night)... he showed me the clubs in Tauranga and I had SO MUCH fun! I am SO grateful that he got me out of this place and made my evening so nice!
I had a very *interesting* night, though, since the bed in Hairy Berry's actually crawled a little and I couldn't sleep. When I looked at my watch and saw that it was 5 in the morning (I got back around 2:30) and that I was queasy-hungry (you know I get that sometimes...) I went to the kitchen/lounge to make myself some honey-toast and discovered that even though the rooms have no heating whatsoever "because the heating costs are too high" (this is *ridiculous*!) the lounge was cozily heated at five in the morning... *eyeroll* ...so I got my sleeping bag and slept in the lounge and actually got two or three hours of sleep in ;)
Since this backpackers is starting to seriously stress me, I'm going back to Tauranga for one or two nights and then continue on to Rotorua as planned.
Have a grand time!! |
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content
bouncy
busy
elated
sore
silly
lonely
indescribable
optimistic
anxious