Bis bald, Krokodil!

Hard to believe how quickly the end came.

The end!?

Yes! We had already warned you a few weeks ago: Since we don't want to spend the rainy winter here just to have to do 'stupid backpacker jobs' (our money is almost gone), we thought it made more sense to fly back home after half a year, find 'real' jobs and take advantage of the German summer. Anette already has a (temporary... we'll see how it goes) job in Berlin from April 18th. So we had to return by mid-April at the latest.

What kept us from booking our flight home was selling the car. Now it's low season, everyone wants to get rid of their car and hardly anyone wants to buy. Since our van is already a bit old (over 402,000 km by now - of which we've driven about 10,000), we were worried that we wouldn't be able to sell it in time for a good price.

The last few days were exciting...we tried to find interested buyers in Christchurch and had to make a few repairs to the van. But we made it! :)

Yesterday we handed over our van to good (British) hands, and the flight home is already in 2 days!!!

That's why this will be the last entry in the New Zealand blog. But before we go, you'll get a summary of the last two weeks.

+++++++ Back to the North: Welcoming Visitors +++++++

We were visited :) Hannes' dad and his buddy Tom toured New Zealand for a total of three weeks. They started their tour in Auckland and, just like us, arrived in Picton by ferry. From here, we will travel the South Island with them.

On our way to the north, where we would pick up Oli and Tom, we wanted to see something we hadn't seen before. So we drove from Queenstown to Christchurch (we already knew the route), and north of Christchurch to Kaikoura. You can't go further north on the east coast at the moment:

The roadworks after the earthquake in November 2016 have made the northeastern South Island almost completely accessible again - only the northeasternmost section of the road from Kaikoura is still closed. Apparently, a whole mountain has collapsed onto the highway, and it will take a long time to clear it all.

Kaikoura was a bit cloudy, but still beautiful:

The area is known for its abundance of dolphins, whales, and seals. Some of the furry water-dogs frolic on these flat rocks:

They are not bothered by the intrusive tourists, as long as you keep a certain distance...

As I said, we can't go further north than Kaikoura here. Construction site everywhere.

So in order to intercept our visit to the north, we had to go back south for a while, then over the Alps... and then we were finally there:

++++++++ Back to the North: Welcoming Visitors +++++++

Oli and Tom were traveling with a huge camper van, of course :D

Together, we made this route in the next 10 days:

We started in the north, from Nelson to Queenstown to Christchurch.

We had already seen most of this route in the past few months.

But there were a few things worth mentioning that were new to us:

++++ A campsite right by the pub ++++

We spent one night at the 'Historic Empire Hotel', or rather in front of it. The owner of this rustic pub attracts tourists by letting them stay on his lawn for little money. The evening in the pub with native Kiwis and a pool table was definitely something special :)

+++++ Franz Josef Glacier ++++

We are also in new territory here. We visited the Southern Alps around New Zealand's highest mountain, Mount Cook, a few months ago from the other side. As it turns out, we are going to get a COMPLETELY different perspective on the Southern Alps here! :)

We flew over the Franz Josef Glacier up to eye level with Mount Cook in this plane. Amazing weather, amazing landscape, amazing experience!!