-Chapter 31- Familiar Faces & Visit from Germany

I don't know if it's because all backpackers take more or less the same routes, or because there aren't as many residents in New Zealand. In any case, we constantly experienced chance encounters with other backpackers. The German couple from Te Puke Holiday Park set off for Coromandel over a week before us, they hadn't planned anything beyond that. Then, two weeks later, we met them again in the middle of Wai-o-Tapu. (However, they had found a way to get in for free). In Wai-o-Tapu, we also saw those two guys who sat next to us in the shuttle bus to Tongariro a week later. When we picked up Flori in Wellington and had to go back to the free parking lot, we met the gangster from Te Puke Holiday Park several times, whom we hadn't seen for almost two months. Two guys who parked next to us in New Plymouth were also next to us again in Blenheim on the South Island, and we met a German backpacker so many times that it became creepy. At the camping site near Mount Taranaki, I walked in on him in the restroom because he had forgotten to lock the door. The next evening, we met him at the Festival of Lights, then a few days later in a parking lot in Wanganui, and before we left Wellington, he went to the restroom in front of us. First and foremost, of course, there is the fact that we not only met the only other backpacker from our school once at Mount Maunganui, but also three months later in Wanganui.

Back in Wellington, I picked up Jule's Christmas package at the post office, which the New Zealand postal workers had addressed to "Anna Marie Mutz". At 9 p.m., we went to the airport, Celina made a welcome sign, and in true backpacker fashion, we used everything that was available for free there.

In all the hours we spent there, only 4 planes landed. (Wellington Airport is very small). But at midnight, three planes arrived at the same time, including two from Sydney. Celina and I had never picked anyone up from the airport before and found it quite exciting. After all, we hadn't seen anyone from home for more than three months, except for our classmate. We waited for a very long time in the small arrival hall. In the end, we became so paranoid that we thought it was Flori with every arrival. When the hall had emptied a bit, he finally came into view. We had said so many times before, "That must be him now," that it took us a few seconds to realize that he was actually there. He carried his backpacker backpack like a bag over his shoulder. (His father said it looked like he was about to split in half), and we were thrilled to see him.

From January 10th onwards, there were three of us in New Zealand.

->To be continued