New Zealand will see again

That means: Goodbye New Zealand! We can hardly believe it, but our three months in New Zealand are over. We still can't put into words everything 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 some really beautiful hikes, had time to enjoy ourselves, 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 in our search for 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 in the whole world! Unbelievable, isn't it?

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

After we found the kiwi about 2 weeks ago, we visited the Tane Mahuta on our way. This is a 2500 year old Kauri tree that is sacred to the Maori. They believe it 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. Not for "the tourists", great!

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

Müsli also felt comfortable at 90 Mile Beach in 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 to the beach in our car.

Finally, 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 hoped to find a rare bird there that we had not yet seen in New Zealand: the saddleback. And what can we lucky ones say? We found the saddleback, the hihi (stitchbird), the kokako, popokotea (whitehead), the pateke (brown teal) AND the takahe (you've all seen it by now)! Really! We couldn't believe it, but we understand if people who are less enthusiastic about birds 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 for a rugby game. It was cool, nice fans, a good atmosphere and afterwards we were even allowed to go out onto the pitch. A great evening!

Now all that's left to do is pack everything into our backpacks this evening and drive to the airport tomorrow. We're excited to see what awaits us in the next country, but we're also happy to "arrive" in Zanzibar for 3 weeks so that we can find some time to process what we've experienced.

Please don't be surprised or worry if we don't contact you regularly. We don't yet know exactly what our internet reception will be like.