Strict, Stricter, New Zealand

It was not a very welcoming arrival when I landed in Auckland, I must say. First of all, I was betrayed of a whole day when I flew across the international date line, which felt really weird.  I'm missing a whole day! It was 27 December 2018 at around midnight when I boarded the aircraft in Honolulu, and 11 hours later I arrived in Auckland on 29 December at noon. Already on the plane a big fuss was made about New Zealand's customs and immigration procedures and the strategy achieved its objective. After landing I was afraid enough to declare everything including my hiking boots and the precious honey I had bought in Hawaii. The customs officer inspected my boots very closely and confiscated the honey explaining again and again that New Zealand needed to protect its ecosystem. 

I was picked up from the airport by a lovely elderly lesbian couple who had agreed to take me in for some days. We spent New Year's Eve together with some friends of theirs. They all seemed to be true supporters of the women's rights movement in the late 1960s and they still had this particular air of the life in the old, alternate hippie communes. I enjoyed their company a lot because their discussions and topics were so different from what I usually encounter among people of my own generation. 

Auckland itself is not very pretty. In fact, I wanna say that it's even uglier than Cologne! However, it is surrounded by a beautiful volcanic countryside as well as lots of bays and city beaches. Unfortunately, a lot of hiking trails were closed due to attempts to preserve the ecosystem. At the start of other trails the government had installed so-called cleaning stations where you had to disinfect your footwear before entering. 

In general, New Zealand's landscape looks very European at first glance, however, the vegetation is somewhat different. Moreover, Kiwis are very British. Not only do they drive on the left-hand side of the road, they also maintain a rather British accent, they have different tea times and the food is rather average ;-)

Yesterday I arrived at a place in Bulls where I will do some gardening and maintenance around the house for 2 weeks. The family is again very nice and supportive and except for the spiders I actually enjoy the work. There's not much going on in Bulls that's why I will probably not write again until some time in February.