it all becomes an end

Tag 69

It has been a bit of time since the last entry, but a little break in between is also good. When I think back to the time when I uploaded the last text, I realize that a lot has happened since then. It feels like months have passed again.

For example, we are back in the far north, in Rotorua on the North Island, not far from Auckland. Yes, in a few days we will actually be back in the city where it all began, and that sounds unimaginable to us. It's hard to believe, but New Zealand is slowly but surely coming to an end. In a few days, we want to have sold the car, then spend another one or two sunny weeks north of Auckland around Christmas, and then head to South America after saying goodbye to the eventful year 2018.

But back to what has happened in the last few weeks, there has been quite a lot, as I mentioned before.

We were in Christchurch. The second largest city in New Zealand, which we had hoped for a bit more from. Basically, this city has no center, which should not be blamed on it, as it was a victim of a really severe earthquake a few years ago. So, a few randomly put together, futuristic-looking buildings, a few overpriced cafes, and of course, fast food, which is naturally a must in New Zealand. Instead of enjoying a fancy café in a newly designed pedestrian zone and marveling at the vibrant Christchurch while searching for impressive attractions on maps, we sat in the drizzling rain at Wendy's.

After a rather bleak two days in this city on the east coast, we continued north and arrived at a river around noon where we decided to stay overnight. There wasn't much there, the river was too fast to swim in. There was no nearby village or network either, so everyone did their own thing and you could sit on a bench overlooking the river and nature, relax with a book and listen to music. Linus came back after a few hours and said he had taken an impressive overgrown trail to a secluded beach. He casually mentioned that he had almost been scared to death when he walked along the beach and suddenly a huge seal reared up just a few meters in front of him. "There are about 5 or 6 seals sunbathing there. Are they actually dangerous?" That caught my interest and even though it was already 5:30 p.m., I really wanted to go to this undiscovered bay. Linus described to me exactly how to get there, which turns to take along the way, and what landmarks to look for. After struggling against nature for quite some time, which had slowly but surely reclaimed the "path" in recent years, and an hour of hiking, I stood in front of the gate to the beach that Linus had described as the last landmark.

A little later, I was able to admire the impressive animals as well. And in this bay, where maybe once a week someone gets lost, I felt like one of them. The way back to the car was surprisingly quick. Looking back, I think this experience was at least as amazing as seeing a sperm whale in Kaikoura the next day.

After all this nice recreational stress, it was time to work again, and so we did at the beginning of December for a few days in the vineyards. The work was physically even harder than on the kiwi farm (why isn't there any compensation for muscle soreness?), but the people around us were much nicer and more relaxed. While at the kiwi plantation, both backpackers and local workers immediately retreated to their cars during every break, here we all sat together on the meadow during breaks, sunbathed, ate something, and exchanged ideas. The breaks also often lasted twice as long as planned, thanks to our super nice "bosses" who also sat with us. Bosses in quotation marks, because they were just the people who worked there full-time and made sure that the backpackers also worked, etc. The real bosses also came by occasionally, and then there was always a bad mood. In any case, in addition to the nice Maori "bosses", we also met three Argentinians, Janina, Cecilia, and Matias. The three were very open, laughed a lot, and were always in a good mood, which made the tedious work a bit more enjoyable for us. Shared suffering is half the suffering. The three also shared their lunch with us. When they saw that we only had an apple with us during lunch break, they divided the sandwich faster than we could decline gratefully. They also gave us some recommendations from their homeland, but we talked about all sorts of things, such as football, and Matias even knew about Hamburger SV and proudly showed us the club symbol with his hands. Unfortunately, we won't see them again, as all three are staying in New Zealand beyond our time in Argentina, so we miss them a little.

On December 7th, the ferry to the North Island finally left. Four weeks on the South Island had already passed again, and with the second boarding of the ship, we realized how quickly we would now be moving towards the end. Arriving in Wellington, we immediately went up to Whanganui, where we did our famous big shopping at the wholesale market Pak n Save one last time. It should actually be mentioned here that Whanganui was a flop. We drove through the whole city in the evening in search of a somewhat good parking space for our van, but we went to four different campsites and either there were no toilets, no signs allowing self-contained camping, or it was full, or the parking area was simply too sloped. Well. At some point, we found a somewhat satisfactory place to sleep, but it was never as difficult as here in any other city so far.

During this time, we felt pretty poor, by the way, because for some reason, the transfer of our salary didn't go through, and we had to refuel for 10 dollars twice just to get to the next place somehow. Payment, just mentioned in passing, arrived yesterday.

Once we were finally out of Whanganui, we made our way to Tongariro National Park, which enchanted us with its incomparable desert-like landscape like no other national park before. We hiked a part of the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing, along an active volcano called Mount Ngauruhoe, which should be familiar to most people as Mount Doom from "The Lord of the Rings". So, we walked through Mordor, and it looked like it too. A bit like being on the moon, with enormous dusty expanses on the left, ash and the foot of the imposing volcano on the right, and warning signs along the way, stating that you should leave the area as soon as there are any signs of an eruption. After two and a half hours, you had a perfect view of the barren desert landscape surrounding the 2,245-meter-high volcano.

From Mordor, it only took an hour's drive to "Italy" at the "Lake Taupo of New Zealand", and we were once again reminded of how quickly the landscape changes here. The dusty and tired legs were refreshed at Lake Taupo, where we swam in the turquoise and super clear water. In the background, we could see the mountains and the volcano, four meters below us was the sandy bottom of the lake, and around us, there was smooth, wonderfully cool water and not a soul in sight. It was a holiday at a high level. Yesterday, we also visited a beautiful river where we could swing in on a rope and let the current carry us a few meters. Today, we are a little further north in Rotorua. We are back in the "Bay of Plenty", in the district where we were at the beginning of our journey after leaving Auckland. And somehow, everything feels familiar again. It's strange, it may have been just 8 weeks, but it feels like coming back to familiar territory after years. Tomorrow and the day after, we plan to stay at the same campsites where we were weeks ago, for example in Paraengaroa where we had tea with Jean, the Frenchman, ages ago. After sleeping in a different place every night for 8 weeks, a little nostalgia is allowed.

In a not too distant future, we will be back in Auckland, and a new chapter will begin. Without a car, with Christmas and New Year's Eve, and the last days in New Zealand. I once spoke in a blog post a long time ago about the "End of the Beginning." Now, in a short time, a new beginning will start.