New Zealand
after 2 weeks without internet...
On October 7th, I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. What fascinated me is that this beautiful country is located in the middle of the ocean, in Oceania. I love the ocean in all its forms, colors, temperatures… Just thinking about a country called Oceania excites me. I don’t know if anyone can understand me, but it’s fantastic, it’s like someone wants to pay me a tribute because they know I love the sea, something just for me, and my imagination was surpassed by the beauty of these islands! Every place here is close to the sea. The Kiwis, as the natives from the colonies call themselves, and the Maori, the indigenous people, are often sailors. Here, you don't need a nautical license to go to sea, it’s like riding a bicycle for us.
The ocean in Maori is called Moana, which is also the name of the sailing boat Moana 60 that I am part of, which clearly seems like an additional invitation for me to visit these places. You can understand why I feel almost at home.
I expected beautiful landscapes, but I have to say they are marvelous, so beautiful that you don’t know where to look. Everything around you has a delicate beauty of greens and colorful flowers, patches of white sheep scattered across the fields, llamas, alpacas, and cows. The hills are gentle and endless, perfectly shaped as if by a wise and patient hand. Some views remind me of Switzerland, but the vegetation is completely different, and the spaces are wider.
On October 8th, Manie arrived from Berlin. We were hosted by Cleo, Manie’s daughter, who lives in Auckland with her family.
It was nice to reunite with Manie and meet Cleo and her family, who were very hospitable. They gave us a part of their beautiful house and even lent us a car to get around. In short, I felt like I was with family, at home after three months of wandering.
With Manie and Cleo, we took a domestic flight to visit Manie’s cousin on the South Island, near Christchurch.
Engela lives with her husband in the countryside in a stunning house with a huge garden rich in flowers and olive trees, sheep, ducks, and chickens.
The South Island is cooler, around latitude -43. Upon arriving at the airport, I saw the center for Antarctic missions. Excitement!! Next time, I will go there…
It is October, so it’s spring in the southern hemisphere, a cool spring. It often rains, but the sun is warm. You go from wearing a down jacket to a short-sleeve shirt. Of course, I caught a cold.
We took various trips with Engela and Werner. We visited Akaroa, Lyttelton, and the city of Christchurch, and with Manie, we went to see Waikuku and Hanmer Springs (hot springs). There are really a lot of sheep and alpacas around the hills! The highest mountains were covered with snow, and bathing in the hot waters at Hanmer Springs with a view of the mountains felt like being in paradise!
I bought some possum gloves and a hat :) a souvenir for when I return in winter. At Auckland airport today, I bought an alpaca scarf… I also wanted a sweater, but they are really expensive.
Back in Auckland, we left the next day for Rotorua to visit Carter, Manie’s nephew.
Rotorua is really special, there are geysers, and in some parts of the city, it smells like sulfur. It is a very active volcanic area, there are hot waters where you can bathe, crystal clear waters with springs in the middle of forests with red bark trees, they look like the forests of elves and gnomes. By the way, we went to visit Hobbiton, which is the set of the various Lord of the Rings movies by Tolkien. It was fun to see the Hobbit houses :) there are different sizes depending on which actor was filmed, there are 100% fake trees, and for a few years now, there are also interiors for the curious. We learned some curiosities about the filming. In short, it was nice. Manie wants to build a house like Frodo's :)
I am now on a plane to Rarotonga today for the second time. The first attempt failed, the plane had a technical problem (ugh) and we returned to Auckland after 1 hour of flight. After several hours, we took the same plane (ugh) and in two hours, we will finally arrive in the middle of the Pacific, I can’t wait.
In the meantime, since I'm bored, I can tell you that in New Zealand, everyone is very calm, they drive at 80 km/h even though you could go at 100. Everything is very relaxed. At the airport on the flight board, in the Status line, it says "Relax" :) They always ask you how you are, and it’s not like in England or America, just a way of saying, it seems that they really want to know… I know it's not like that, but anyway, it's different.
The Maori culture is becoming more and more present after the near extinction of the Maori people after the English colonization. The Maori have many black tattoos on various parts of the body and also on the face and neck, the tattoo culture is very rooted. They are usually black geometric designs, curved or squared, very elegant and recognizable.
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