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My New Zealand adventure :)
Hi, my name is Anna, I´m from Germany and this is my story about my New Zealand adventure :) We started in August 2009 with planning. One of my big hobbies is making photos and I think that there is no better country for great shots. I worked 3 years for a dentist and after that time ( I finished in June 2010) I wanted to do something special, something no one else can steal me after the 10 month I wanted to take. My boyfriend was also ready with school so we decided to travel together. For me it was and is great to have someone to talk with, but there are people all the way so you have always someone to talk and to laugh. We had to get a working holiday visum, the only problem was, that we did not have a creditcard and that is neccessary if you applie for that in the internet. For our luck we both live near frankfurt and there is a great shop called "Australia-shop". We filled out a paper, payed 80 euro (ca 160 nz $) and the man who worked there sent it to the embassy in Berlin. After about 5 weeks we looked in our postbox and - surprise - there were our visas :) We booked the whole trip (flight, accomodation for the first 4 nights, wwoofing membership etc.) at the Sprachcaffe in Frankfurt. Thats an organisation and they helped us with every question we had ( hopefully also in the future, we will stay till June 2011...) On August 30. we started our trip at Frankfurt Airport at 10 pm. I was very exited and adrenalin rushed through my veins. I think my boyfriend ( his name is Sebastian by the way :) was in the same mood. Our parents took us to the gate and I was very happy cause my three best friends were also at my side, that was a good feeling and gave me some peace.Then my personal nightmare began. We started at the Frankfurt Airport and had a 6 hours flight to Dubai. Then we had to wait there for 3 hours (Starbucks saved my life) and after that we had an 18 hours flight to Sidney. I think i watched every movie in this f****** plane cause I didnt find any sleep. After one more hour in sidney we had a 2 1/2 hour flight to auckland and I was incredible happy when i saw the two islands, that was probably one of the best moments in my life :) Like I told we had the first 4 nights booked by the organisation in a hostel called base. We were in a room with 2 bunk beds and no windows so after that 4th night we were happy to leave... But we could do some important things like opening a bank account at the kiwi bank which was really easy and making an ird number. The most important thing for us was to buy a car. We went to Doro and Darren in Takanini. Its a German woman and a Kiwi mechanic and they sell cars to backpackers with buy back option which is a great deal. We are actually here since 6 weeks and we have our Mitsubishi since 5 weeks and we love it. Its an absolutely safe car without any problems.... One week after we landed in Auckland we drove to Ahipara, thats near to Kaitaia, directly on the ninety miles beach. There is a Backpacker called Endless Summer Lodge and its an absolutely lovely place. Anna, one of the owners, is the daughter of a friend of sebastians granddad, so she offered us to work there and get an accomodation. We had to make the beds, cleaning the kitchen, help in the garden and so on...In our free time we tried to surf, I think it looked very funny, but it made a lot of fun :) It was a great time and I am very glad about that. We also went to Cape Reinga, a very mystic place for the Maori and to the kauri forrest where we visited Tane Mahuta, the biggest kauri in new zealand (there are also kiwis in the night...) Actually we are near at Wellington in Levin. We went yesterday to the Wellington Zoo and it was absolutely lovely. There is a kiwi called Tahi. It has only one leg cause it stepped in a falle and lost its leg. But Tahi bounced around and looked realy happy... There is also a house called The Nest were you can watch some Doctors operating ill animals. I never saw something like that and it was very very interesting for me. So, actually we are at Levin at a Farm call blueberry art. We will start tomorrow with wwoofing and i´m very excited but it seems to be a very nice place with some sheeps and alpakas, blueberrys and nuttrees. I love new zealand, its a great place to be and im happy that there are 8 month left for me :) if there are any questions please ask me :) or follow us on loggel.com http://www.loggel.com/lifelogs/Sebastian/Reisebericht--Anna-und-Sebastian-in-Neuseeland/1634
Submitted by: Anna Jakob Date submitted: 3/11/2010 12:51:46 AM