See ya, New Zealand!

Our journey has now come to an end. We look back on many places, moments, events, experiences, and people on this journey. We take with us many things personally from this adventure, and hope to transfer something from New Zealand to our everyday life in good old Germany.

When we think back on the eight weeks with the Kiwis, there are some things that have always stood out to us and have been very present, which we have collected here:

- There are free, clean, and well-maintained public toilets everywhere

- Everywhere you find relaxed, happy, and joyful people

- 'Seize the day' is the self-evident motto of life here

- Here, you thank the bus driver when getting off for the good and pleasant ride

- New Zealand has a vibrant, colorful, and diverse landscape with a wonderful flora and fauna

- Pedestrian lights make a sound like a starting shot, so that you don't miss when you can walk across the intersection. We particularly loved the ability to cross the intersection diagonally to save waiting for a light

- Green thinking/healthy lifestyle is highly valued here, but countless plastic bags are given out when shopping

- Vegetables are too expensive, sweets are too cheap

- Hitchhiking rate 1-2-1-10 (but always picked up within 1 minute)

- A 20-year-old car is not a vintage car here because used cars of any age are very popular for everyday use

- Instant coffee culture in hostels and households, as proper coffee is only enjoyed in cafes

Finally, we would like to list all the people who accompanied us on our journey, sometimes seeing them twice or crossing paths. We apologize to those we can no longer remember by name, but we share a unique experience with each and take it home with us.

Julia

2 Hamburger

Stuart

English couple

Australian

German camper family

The Kieler Group

The two holiday park owners + dog at Tongariro National Park

Chris

Sebastian

Brynie

The Dane

Bruno

Nathalie

Klara

Chelsea, the Canadian

Florian

Christin + Martin

Doubles from Freiburg

2 Christians from Whangarei

The Wanaka resident + Swede + dog

The dancer from Munich

Jack + Lincoln

4 Hamburger

Wouter

Jochen

Maris

Couple from New Plymouth

DOC Ranger

French couple

Biggi

Tobi

Phil + Sally + Kathie

2 crazy Swiss

Mia

The Munich resident

Jenny

Lisa

Valerie

Heather

Steph

Claire

Andrea

The 2 Argentinians

The Englishwoman

Lisa

Esther

Freya

Isabelle

Julia

Julia

Alisa

James

Chantal

The editorial team would also like to thank Kevin for the wonderful journey. For countless card game evenings, motivation boosts during challenging walks, great photos, new experiences that always popped up along the way, conversations, delicious dinners (including pasta carbonara that made us so happy after 8-10 hours and countless kilometers of walking), as well as new learned dishes, great hostels, and so much worth seeing that we take with us from this time.

With this, we now conclude our last blog entry and leave New Zealand after eight beautiful weeks. However, we do not say 'goodbye', but rather 'see ya, New Zealand', because 'you always see twice in a life'.