Aoteaora will see again

That means: Goodbye New Zealand! We can hardly believe it, but our three months in New Zealand are over. But we can't yet put into words what we were able to experience and we agree that there isn't one place that was the most beautiful or one experience that stands out. It was simply a great time here - we are very happy and grateful that we were able to experience it!

We went on wonderful hikes, had time to enjoy, found peace in nature, had the forest and beaches to ourselves, lay in hot springs and, above all, we were lucky enough to find and experience this special animal world. Really, how lucky we were to find the rare species!!! For example, we have now seen the Takahe in three places, we have seen 8 of the approximately 500 birds that still live around the world! Incredible, is not it?

The last two weeks we've been north of Auckland and the last four days we've had a small apartment in Auckland. Luckily it had a washing machine, so we were able to wash everything again for Africa.

After we found the kiwi about 2 weeks ago, we visited Tane Mahuta on our further journey. This is an approximately 2500 year old kauri tree that is sacred to the Maori. They believe he is the father of all life. We were very lucky to be there when a school class was given a tour by a Maori. The Maori sang a song during the tour, which was a really beautiful, magical moment. Just not for “tourists”, great!

At Cape Reinga we observed how the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet. We also really enjoyed hiking in the huge sand dunes. The colors are a blessing for every photographer and hobby photographer!

Müsli also felt comfortable on 90 Mile Beach with her 90 Mile T-shirt and we also had our first romantic, kitschy sunset in New Zealand there. For insiders: No, we didn't have a melon with us when we drove our car to the beach.

At the end we had two very special experiences. On the last day before we went to Auckland, we took a catamaran to a small island. This predator-free island has the beautiful name Tiritiri Matangi. We were hoping to find a rare bird there that we haven't seen in New Zealand: the Saddleback. And what should we say to lucky children? We found the Saddleback, the Hihi (Stitchbird or Stitchbird), the Kokako, Popokotea (Whitehead), the duck Pateke (Brown teal) AND the Takahe (you've all seen that one by now)! Really! We couldn't believe it, but we understand if people who are less bird-enthusiastic don't understand us. All of these birds are now rarer than the kiwi, we were simply speechless!

The second beautiful and special experience was our visit to Eden Park. It's the biggest stadium in the country and we had tickets to a rugby game. Cool thing, nice fans, good atmosphere and afterwards we were even allowed to go onto the pitch. A successful evening!

Now all that's left to do this evening is to pack everything into our backpacks and head to the airport tomorrow. We are excited to see what awaits us in the next country, but we are also happy to “arrive” in Zanzibar for three weeks so that we can find some time to process what we have experienced.

Please don't be surprised or worried if we don't get in touch regularly. We don't yet know exactly what our internet reception will be like.