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I've been trying to write this blog post for the third time now because I'm not really sure what I should actually report. Before I drove to the North Island, I spent one more night in Picton, which I completely ignored with Hannah. When we came from the ferry in March, we went straight to the next supermarket - which happened to be in Blenheim. But Picton is really beautiful and I enjoyed spending this last evening on the South Island at the harbor.

The ferry ride wasn't really fun. First of all, it was super cold and I quickly couldn't feel my feet anymore. Then I also had to realize that I get seasick on ferries that don't even move. On the way there I didn't have a problem with that at all. Well, for now I'm done with ships and ferries. (Does that mean seasickness at all? Seasick? Looks wrong ...) My highlight of the ferry was when a whale was swimming and jumping around at the harbor in Wellington when we arrived. Not as big a whale as in Kaikoura, but I saw a lot more whale and paid a lot less for it!

What I wanted from the beginning was to visit the cities I liked again before I start working somewhere until October. But the fact is that many cities are not so cool in winter, and when I drove from Wellington to Napier and then lay sick in bed for two days, I already didn't feel like it anymore. Anyway, I walked around Napier - it's just beautiful there.

From Napier I wanted to drive to Rotorua via Taupo and stay there for a few days. But after an hour in Taupo, I ended up in Rotorua and already noticed while driving around that there isn't really much to do there. After maybe an hour, I decided to just keep driving to Tauranga, at least I knew it was nice there and what I could do there. But Rotorua had a very beautiful lake, the weather was great and the only thing that bothered me quickly was the pungent smell of eggs from the thermal springs. A bit like the smoke from a pot of eggs.

In Tauranga, I spent more time than I originally wanted, because there is only one road from Tauranga leading somewhere and there was an accident and the road was closed for hours and there was no other way. And because I didn't want to stand in traffic forever, I drove back to the campsite and actually only wanted to stay one night. But the staff there told me that I would pay less if I stayed two nights, so I stayed one night longer.

From Tauranga it took about four hours to get to Orewa, half an hour from Auckland. I've been here for a week now and have been looking for jobs - but job hunting in New Zealand is a tricky thing. But I did get a response from 1stCall that I should come by and don't have to wait for four weeks like I was told in Christchurch. I thought it would be a quick thing and I could spend the rest of the day in Auckland CBD, but I sat there for at least two hours. In contrast to Christchurch, everyone in Auckland has their tasks and is unable to take over someone else's tasks. It almost feels like home again. After that, I just drove back (I had about an hour's drive ahead of me). That was on Friday and I hope that I can work somewhere on Monday. My account needs it urgently and I'm also extremely bored without a job.