Once far, far away please.

February 23´

To get you started, here's an original conversation between Maren and me.

Maren: "Oh, I would also like to travel alone or far away, but I just don't dare."

Me: "Oh nonsense, why? Just do it, it'll be fine."

Maren: "Hmm... (dramatic, very long pause) would you like to fly to New Zealand with me for 3 months over the winter?"

Me: "Sure! Why not?"

So it was agreed and less than two weeks later we were standing in the leadership office and announcing the good news. This feels like it was just yesterday.

The days before departure were a little more stressful than expected & so I was very happy that I got professional packing help. Maren & I meet at the airport and really can't believe it's finally here. The check-in at the counter was very taciturn, but problem-free. Then everyone was given a thrombosis injection in the toilet. It felt very forbidden, but funnily enough, there was a syringe drop in the airplane bathroom later, so all the secrecy was unnecessary. My hand luggage was pulled out in security; the Maoam gummy bears looked very suspicious. When we arrive at the gate, we first have a snack, play and drink the Ritual Berliner Luft. The first flight (6 hours) went by super quickly. There were some pretty cool green spaces in Doha and so the stay went by quite quickly. We are still nervous about the 16 hours that still lie ahead of us. The lights were almost always turned off on the plane and you completely lost track of time. Actually, we slept almost the whole time, and when we were awake we ate. None of us ever had the feeling that we couldn't or didn't want to be on the plane anymore. It was very confusing to realize that we were traveling into the future and first saw a sunset and then flew through the night into the future sunrise. Does that make sense? I'm still confused. No matter, the flight surprisingly went by very quickly and in no time we were there... in New Zealand... on the other side of the world.