I'm dreaming of a warm Christmas 🎶

The days on the kiwi farm went by pretty quickly - just your normal work routine. In the past few weeks, I've been on a new farm that was still being set up. We planted small kiwi trees, tied up branches, pruned branches, and so on. Since there were different things to do here, it wasn't as monotonous as before. However, since the plants were still small, there was no shade anywhere, and the sun mercilessly burned - nothing was possible without a hat, sunglasses, and sun cream.

In early December, the volcanic eruption on White Island shook the area. Several people died, including whole families, and many were injured. From the mainland, I could see the island and the smoke. White Island is the most famous tourist destination in the region, and many boats go there every day. Only the price of over $200 had kept me from going on a tour there so far. 

On Christmas, I met up with Pascal and Cori. We rented a vacation apartment in Ohope, very close to the beach, for the holidays. It was great to sleep in a real bed again and not have to go out in the rain at night if you need to go to the bathroom! ;-) We ate a lot, drank a lot, and lounged on the beach - so except for the latter, it was almost like being at home. :-)

Our neighbors in the vacation apartment above us, a couple with three children from Sydney, invited us over for a barbecue one evening. The woman, Dawn, grew up in Ohope and was the best friend of Hayden, who worked as a tour guide and died on White Island. The family had traveled from Sydney for the memorial service. However, his body has not been found yet. 

After the disaster, the New Zealand government booked round-trip flights for only $100 for all relatives and friends of the victims who wanted or had to travel to New Zealand (the flights for the five-member family would have cost several thousand dollars under normal circumstances). And all without any bureaucracy, you just had to provide your data and the name of the injured or deceased person for whom you wanted to fly there. They also took care of the transportation and accommodations for the relatives of the victims and covered all costs for them. In some cases, the families were even flown to the accident site by helicopter. I think all of this is really great, so the families didn't have to worry about such matters. Something like this would be unthinkable in Germany...

The next day, Dawn's father drove us to the Tarawera Falls, Hayden's favorite place. He is actually British, but has been living in New Zealand for many years. He is enthusiastic about showing 'his' country to other people. And so he took a total of three hours of driving and also paid for our admission to the national park just to provide us with a good time there - including information about the country and its people as well as old stories! 

I am constantly amazed at how many wonderful people I have already met who give so much without expecting anything in return!