Four months in New Zealand

I have been in New Zealand for four months now. It will be five months on March 19th. After four months, I have finally traveled the entire North Island.

In these four months, I have actually become tan - for my standards. My hair has also become lighter (it started with blonde highlights ... it's slowly becoming the Ombre look) and I have started speaking more like a Kiwi. 'Yes' has become 'Yis', 'Thank you' has become 'Thank Yooouuuu', and 'Bye' has become 'See ya'. One thing that will always remain a mystery is where my pronunciation of 'weird' comes from ... nobody knows, but I have slowly infected Hannah with it. It could be British, it all started after I was with Tara and Taka.

After I drove Hannah to the bus on Saturday morning, I spent a few hours at McDonald's uploading the New Plymouth blog post. I actually wanted to have breakfast there, but for some reason, a water crisis does not mean food. They did sell me a bottle of water at least. After two hours, everything was written and all the pictures were uploaded, but then the website decided not to save anything, and I really didn't feel like writing it all over again. So I went for a quick shopping trip and then drove to Wanganui. It was the only place between New Plymouth and Wellington where there was still something to do - I had to occupy myself somehow for two weeks.

The weather hasn't been the best from the beginning, it has been constantly changing between really hot and wet and cold days. Still, I saw a bit of Wanganui. I went to Virginia Lake, which was really nice once I found it. I actually drove past it on the way there, but of course, I couldn't find it again later. And without the name of the park, even Google Maps couldn't help. But I did take a good walk there before it started raining again.

The city center of Wanganui is also very nice. Although parking is quite expensive. But as I later learned, that was just a small taste of the prices in Wellington.

My plan for the day of departure was to explore the Durie Hill Tower and then drive to Foxton Beach to stay there for four nights, and then spend a week in Wellington. I drove to the Durie Hill Tower. There is an elevator in a tunnel that you can use for $2 per ride. Or you can walk up 193 steps. I wanted to take the elevator. For that, you have to ring a bell, then someone comes, collects the money and lets you ride. I rang the bell, but no one came. So I ended up walking up all the steps (and later down again, and yes, I had muscle soreness). On a very clear day, you can supposedly see Mount Taranaki and the northernmost tip of the South Island from up there. I had clouds, and I could see Wanganui. It was still beautiful.

Afterwards, I drove to the gas station where George filled up the tank for me. As Kiwis usually do, he asked me what my plan was and I told him that I had been in Wanganui for four days and now I'm on my way to Wellington, but I have to find a way to pass the time until the 10th. George laughed, asking me what I had been doing for so long in Wanganui and that there's nothing else to see on the way to Wellington. But there is plenty to do in Wellington. However, why would you believe a local? I still thought that there must be something to do in Foxton Beach, there was a campground there after all. So I drove there anyway ... for almost two hours. George was right. Foxton Beach is like Tiniroto, but with a beach and a campground. After a half-hour break there, I got back in the car and drove to Wellington for another two hours. At first glance, it was really nice, but quite expensive. I paid $2 for half an hour of parking. After all the smaller towns, I found everything in such a big city too stressful to drive around in, so after I collected a few brochures, I drove to Lower Hutt to the campground. It's about 30 minutes away from Wellington.

However, there is a train station here, and for $10, you can go back and forth to the city. Wellington is basically like Auckland but beautiful. Lots of shopping, not much sightseeing. I went to Te Papa, which is one of the most famous museums in New Zealand, and it's free, which is always good. Te Papa is really well done, it has six floors, although I couldn't concentrate anymore after two. You can easily spend several days there. However, a lot of it is things that you already know from multiple exhibitions about New Zealand history.

Otherwise, I didn't do much, except that I went to Cape Palliser. It's also about a two-hour drive from Wellington, but it was definitely worth it! Not only is the surroundings really beautiful and the lighthouse finally a lighthouse as you imagine it, but there is also a small bay there where the seals live. There is no fence or anything, and you can sit on the rocks and watch the seals, some of which are also lying on the rocks. They even had young ones! It's really beautiful there and it's something completely different to see the animals in their natural habitat instead of in the zoo.

That was also the day that I really became aware that I now see New Zealand as my second home. It's not that I don't want to go back to Germany - I definitely want to come back to Germany, although I don't have a fixed plan for when, and I won't emigrate (which seems to be everyone's fear). But I feel like I want to come back here someday and have the feeling of showing my travel companion 'my New Zealand'. I probably should have done a year abroad in England or something ... it's much faster and cheaper haha.