The sun rises in the east - when it's not raining :P

Dear readers,

after returning from the north, I will now tell you about the area that sees the sun first every day: the east of New Zealand. Have fun reading and browsing through photos ;)

Thursday, October 27

In the morning, the time had finally come: I was allowed to take my laptop back :) It took three weeks to repair it and the price was not exactly low. Unfortunately, the data could not be recovered, but I still had most of it on my USB stick. After that, I took a trip to Waiheke Island, which is mainly known for winemaking. There are also many hiking trails and beaches there. The island is relatively large, so I only saw a small part of it in a few hours. I walked through the vineyards to the three largest wineries, but I didn't drink any wine because the prices were very high. But the gardens were beautifully decorated with colorful flower beds and boxwood spheres. And the views were wonderful, which was certainly also due to the almost perfect weather. You could see the sea in the foreground and Auckland in the background, it was a great backdrop. After visiting the wineries, I walked towards the beach and spent most of my time on coastal hiking trails until it started to get dark. The ferry runs very often and very late, so I could stay there until late at night.

Friday, October 28

This day was mainly a travel day for me, as I spent five hours on the Intercity bus to Rotorua. I wanted to go there because my next Stray tour, the East Coaster, started from Rotorua. After arriving in the evening, I went shopping and cooking, which took quite a long time, so I didn't do anything special.

Saturday, October 29

Once again, a Stray trip was on the agenda for me, this time the East Coaster, which had been highly recommended by other travelers. As it quickly turned out, two-thirds of our group (8 out of 12) were German. I didn't expect it to be so intense. The first destination of the tour was Te Kaha, where a nice hostel awaited us right on the coast. After an introduction round with hot drinks and cookies, our host, who is very passionate about music, presented some of his 'homemade' songs. One in Maori and two self-written cover songs: Welcome to the Homestead in Te Kaha (instead of Welcome to the Hotel California) and Hot Tub (instead of Hot Stuff). I thought the idea was great and creative. After that, we were allowed to explore the area a bit. As one song already suggests, the hostel has a free hot tub with a sea view. From there, a staircase leads to the beach, where I took a walk. The weather was very windy, but still beautiful. Unfortunately, the waves were correspondingly high, so no one in our group except Connor dared to go kayaking. The beach in Te Kaha is generally much rockier than the ones I had seen before. That was visually a nice change. After the walk, I went to the hot tub with several people from our group to warm up. After a short time, some fruit pickers joined us, who also live in the hostel - and almost all of them were German as well. It's unbelievable how many compatriots I meet here. After the sunset, which was simply beautiful, we had a buffet dinner with fish and chips, venison roast with onions, salads, garlic bread, and dessert. It was perfect for my taste once again :) Later, after a long time, I watched TV and there was even a soccer match! It was a live game from the Australian league and well, I've seen many better games. The teams in Germany would hardly reach the second league. I then talked to Sarah from Ireland about sports in her country. This confirmed to me once again what I could already guess from media reports. The Irish are incredibly passionate when their athletes compete. For example, if the football team wins a game at a major tournament, it is celebrated more than our World Cup title in 2014. After the victory against Italy, the whole country apparently partied all night long. In addition, there seems to be another highly interesting sport there: Gaelic football. Sarah showed me a few videos of it. It is played on soccer goals and seems to be a mix of hockey and baseball. It also has some similarities with lacrosse. In any case, it seems to be something typically Irish, and the stadiums seem to be extremely crowded during the games. Anyway, I think I need to take a vacation in Ireland when there is a major football tournament and their team is participating. That must be a unique experience :)

Sunday, October 30

After breakfast, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to this great hostel and our host. Since he sang the Maori song with the fruit pickers, we had to sing a song in return. It became "I Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day". I didn't think our singing was that great :D On the way, we made a stop at a lighthouse located on a mountain. There are 800 steps to the top. Unfortunately, it was rainy and freezing cold. Nevertheless, we went there because the view is supposed to be very beautiful. But it wasn't on that day because of the rain, we could only see about 100 meters. Too bad :/ Our next stop was a church. It looked a bit unusual from the outside (green and white wooden boards), but the interior was nicely decorated. There was even a hand-sewn cushion on each seat. By the way, it was the first church I had seen from the inside in New Zealand. Afterwards, we went to the longest wharf in the country, which is an impressive 660 meters long. You have a great view of the cliffs on the left and right of the wharf. The only thing that is annoying is the wind, which almost blows you away when you stand at the end of the wharf. Finally, we arrived in the afternoon at our hostel in Gisborne, the place that sees the first sunlight in the world because it is located in the absolute east of the country. Our hostel was surrounded by cows, which stood on a pasture a few meters away, and was very nicely decorated with a large kitchen, cozy sofas, and a TV. After a short tour of the hostel grounds, we actually wanted to go to the beach to watch the sunset and eat pizza. But the weather didn't cooperate. The Stingray Feeding, for which I had signed up, had to be canceled as well. So we ate the pizza in the common room and, as is appropriate when you are in New Zealand, watched 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'. Of course, I immediately recognized several places where I had just been, like Mt. Doom or Hobbiton.

Monday, October 31

We were 'greeted' with lots of rain in the morning, which didn't exactly make me thrilled. But after a short while, there was a surprising and really good news. The Stingray Feeding could be postponed. When we made our way to the beach, the sun even came out. That's what you call perfect timing ;) At the beach, we were first dressed in rubber boots, which were directly connected to rubber trousers so that we wouldn't get wet in the water. Then everyone got a stick to keep the stingrays at a distance. Otherwise, they could suction themselves onto the trousers and cause a slightly larger hole ;) After standing about a meter deep in the sea, the feeding began. The stingrays quickly came closer and closer to us. At times, there were even seven of them at the same time. After a few minutes, we were also allowed to feed the stingrays ourselves. You have to reach under their 'head' where the mouth is with a piece of fish in your hand so that the stingray can suck in the fish. Some of them were very large. Stingrays feel very smooth to the touch and, in my opinion, are fascinating creatures. It was a great experience to get so close to them and even feed them. Then we returned to Rotorua by bus, stopping at a snack bar along the way, which claims to sell the best pies in the world. I don't know if my pie was the best in the world, but it was delicious :) We arrived back in Rotorua in the evening. Even though the weather was mostly bad, the East Coaster was definitely worth it. You get to see beautiful coastal landscapes and the accommodations chosen by Stray are top-notch. It was another great trip with Stray!

I spent the following days in Rotorua and Auckland. You will find out everything there is to report from there in the next article.

See you soon,

Your Max