'Flight lesson', nuclear catastrophe, games and fun

Hello everyone,

With the end of the old month October, the East Coaster with Stray also came to an end. In November, things continued spectacularly until the total catastrophe occurred. I will now tell you exactly what happened...

Tuesday, November 1st

According to various statements, including that of the tourism website TripAdvisor, ziplining in Rotorua is the best activity on the entire North Island. Because of this, I naturally could not resist trying it out and confirming the almost perfect reports :) And now that I have done it, I can only say that ziplining is actually a great thing and I can only recommend it. After we received our equipment, we went a few kilometers into the forest and after a short walk, on which our guides told us a lot about the native flora, the first zipline came, which was a bit shorter than the other five that were yet to come. But even here, it was already a fantastic feeling to swing high above the ground through the forest. I didn't really have any fear the whole time because of the safety measures. We continued our flight through the forest, with our guides informing us from time to time about the birds that live in the forest, and about the conservation project. The focus here is primarily on keeping the bird population stable, so traps are set up for animals that can be dangerous to them and are therefore called "pests". This includes rats, possums, and martens. The corresponding traps were explained to us in detail and the whole concept seems to work well. Between the different ziplines, our guides also took some funny photos, on which we could strike various poses. Within the group, we got along really well. Of course, there were two other Germans there as well. We're everywhere ;) Later, in the early evening, I first ate a large pizza for a small price in the Lava Bar and then went to a free geothermal park that starts right next to the hostel. The phenomena there are not as exotic and diverse as in Wai-O-Tapu, but it's still beautiful. After I returned to the hostel, I went to the really nice and warm free hostel pool and then went to bed.

Wednesday, November 2nd

In the morning, the weather was simply horrible. It was pouring rain, so I stayed in the hostel for a long time. I used the time to install a few programs on my laptop, write reports and start looking for a job. It paid off immediately. Only half an hour after sending the inquiry, I received a reply from a winery near Blenheim. I actually wanted to work on a farm, but the people in question unfortunately didn't respond. There's nothing I can do about it. And postponed doesn't mean canceled :) I will try to find a place on a farm on the South Island in January. I was supposed to take the Intercity bus to Auckland at 5:00 pm. I don't know how it happened, but I stood at the bus stop continuously from 4:45 pm to 5:30 pm, but I still missed the bus. Fortunately, I was able to take the one at 3:05 am instead, free of charge. But of course, that also meant that I had to stay in Rotorua until late at night. Fortunately, I was able to lock up my things in a hostel nearby. That's where I found out that the Peter Pan travel agency was hosting a small party, specifically for backpackers, and I spontaneously joined in. The destination was once again the Lava Bar. I already knew it pretty well :D It was similar to a few days before at Habana Joe's in Auckland. There was free pizza and drinks at reduced prices again. Various games were also held. The first one was the Music Stop Game once again. I managed to be among the last participants out of over 30, but once again, it was over just before the end. Bitter! But in the Limbo, I was eliminated in the first round. I did better in Heads or Tails, which was a pure game of chance. A coin was flipped and everyone had to decide beforehand whether they chose heads or tails. Those who made the wrong choice were eliminated. I managed to be among the last four participants by choosing heads every time. Then one of us chose tails and won the prize. My partner and I finished in the middle in the last game. I went back to the hostel around midnight and spent the time there watching series like Two and a Half Men or How I Met Your Mother. I usually don't like these series at all, but it was better than three hours of boredom, especially since no one else was awake anymore :/ Then the bus came and this time I actually caught it.

Thursday, November 3rd

The bus ride was really bad. I didn't sleep at all on my seat and when I arrived in Auckland at around 7:00 am, I was very tired. But then the nuclear catastrophe woke me up immediately. Unfortunately, I had to realize that my trekking backpack had not arrived in Auckland, even though I had seen the bus driver put it in the bus in Rotorua. I was supposed to leave with Stray to Coromandel at 7:30 am, but I had to forget about that and postpone the trip. Instead, I went to the IEP office, where I was advised on what to do next. I was then sent to the police station to report the loss and created a list of everything that was in the backpack, along with their respective values. The total value exceeded 1600€, so it was a rather large sum. After all of that was done, I took a short walk to the harbor and then went back to IEP to take part in the movie night. We ordered burgers (real burgers, not the Burger King kind) and watched a movie together. The movie, without exaggeration, was one of the best and funniest I had ever seen in my life. It was a New Zealand film from 2016 called "Hunt for the Wilderpeople". The film is about a difficult child who comes to a foster family. Just as he opens up to Bella, the foster mother, she unexpectedly dies and the boy, Ricky, has to live alone with her husband Hector, with whom he doesn't really get along. Then one day, Ricky is told that he has to go back to the youth welfare office because Bella has died. Since Ricky definitely doesn't want that, he pretends to commit suicide, but that is quickly recognized, so he flees into the forest. He gets lost but is found by Hector, so the two of them subsequently stay in the forest and hide from the youth welfare office, which is determined to find them. This leads to the craziest chase, which lasts for months. Of course, it's totally exaggerated, but there are some great one-liners and gags in between. I can only recommend watching the movie, it's worth it ;) Unfortunately, my call to the insurance company was not as funny. They had to tell me that I only have health insurance and not travel insurance, so they don't cover the value of the backpack and its contents. Since I had to assume that the backpack had been stolen, I had little hope of getting it back. So, my mood was accordingly :/ After 38 hours without sleep, I could finally go to bed.

Friday, November 4th

The first stop was, once again, at IEP, where I wanted to go through the next steps. They gave me the tip to buy a new backpack on the online platform TradeMe and told me about some stores with cheap clothing. I then immediately ordered the backpack for 47 NZD and also picked it up, which cost me 16 NZD and about three hours, as I had to drive all the way through Auckland more or less. When I wanted to start my shopping tour, a miracle happened. I received an SMS saying that my backpack had been found by InterCity. You can't imagine how happy and relieved I was in that moment. I immediately went to the office to pick it up, but after three phone calls, I found out that it had been found at the stopover in Manukau and still had to be sent to Auckland. Someone had apparently accidentally taken it out of the bus in Manukau. Since the weather was really bad that day, I didn't do anything noteworthy anymore. But I noticed that there is no shortage of Christmas decorations here. You can see ornaments everywhere and Christmas songs are playing, especially 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town'.

Saturday, November 5th

In the morning, I finally received my backpack and nothing was lost. Unfortunately, the cord on my sleeping bag was torn, so I couldn't close the cover anymore. After I had that repaired, everything was fine again. So I was finally able to confirm my job in Blenheim and book my trip there. I went to Peter Pan's and got the whole thing for a really good price, even though it took forever to book everything. Since I find Auckland, like many others, quite boring and have already seen almost everything, I didn't really know what to do in the bad weather. The musical 'Priscilla - Queen of the Desert' was clearly too expensive for me, there don't seem to be any good movies in the cinema right now, and I couldn't find anything else really good. But then I saw a sign in Sky City, a large building with restaurants, cinema, and leisure activities, that said "Sensor Maze". I decided to try it out. As the name suggests, it's a maze that you mainly have to navigate by touch. The whole thing has ten different zones, such as rainforest, dark corridors, galaxy, vortex, mirror maze, fur, or the children's paradise where you have to dig through those noodles that are in the swimming pool. Overall, I thought it was great. It's varied and a lot of fun. I especially liked the visual and audio effects. I can only recommend it :)

The next report will, at least in this detail, be the last one for now before I resume traveling at the end of December. Before that, I will tell you something about Coromandel and Nelson ;)

See you soon,

Your Max