Back in Auckland

After completing our tour of the North and South Island, we are back where it all began, in Auckland. Since the weather was still not great and the desire for a more regular routine had now surpassed the wanderlust, we decided to sell our car in Auckland and fly back to the South Island as soon as possible to work at Stephi and Alister's pig farm again. Upon arrival in Auckland, to our surprise, it was a disaster finding a hostel and we discovered that the entire city was fully booked. We later found out the reason: Justin Bieber was performing a concert here on the weekend! Great... So we ended up at an extremely overpriced campground. But it didn't matter, the important thing was to have a place to sleep. Selling the car turned out to be a nerve-wracking and tense challenge. At this time of year, most backpackers are leaving and almost everyone wants to sell their car. There are basically twice as many cars as buyers. Fortunately, we did find an interested buyer, but she wanted us to have our car checked by a mechanic. We had nothing to lose, so we spent an entire afternoon at an auto repair shop, anxiously waiting for the result. To our delight, the car was in good condition and the interested buyer agreed to purchase it. Now we had to wait for two long days to see if she would actually come and if everything would go well. In the end, we sold the car for an incredible $100 more than what we had paid for it before!!! We could hardly believe our luck. The last bit of tension came when we went to pick up our visa for China and there were issues because we hadn't booked a return flight. The Chinese officials did not respond to emails or phone calls, so Jonas spontaneously decided to visit the embassy again. When we arrived there, we were both nervous and anxious. We must have looked quite dumbfounded when we went to the counter, gave our number, and the friendly lady asked us for $120 and handed us our passports along with the visa. Before she could change her mind, we grabbed our passports and were as ecstatic as two little kids on Christmas. Now everything was done and it was time to head to the pig farm. We have been here for a few days now, enjoying the structured daily routine, the harmonious countryside life, the work, our wonderful little cottage, the food, the animals, the children, and everything we have been looking forward to all this time! We will stay here for the next 7 weeks and work until we continue to the Fiji Islands on May 10th.

Big hugs to all of you!!!