New Zealand - what do you expect?
Honestly I expected a lot of sheep, lots of green (I love green - a meal without something green is not really a meal!), and friendly people. All of these were met in the first few hours upon arrival in Auckland. Even more than that:
The Hirschfelds (Ben’s family - my Kiwi friend and colleague in Salzburg) gave us the warmest welcome. Ben’s mother met us at the airport, took us on a “Tiki-tour” (tour of Auckland) the next day, Nick (Ben’s brother) sat down with us ad showed us New Zealand’s “must sees”, Leah cooked some amazing meals for us, and we had a home, a family and a spa. What a treat.
By the way, the tiki tour included a visit to our FIRST museum on our trip together - the Auckland museum, a tour of the local Lion brewery, and a walk up to the three extinct volcanoes of the city - Mt. Wellington, Mt. Eden, and … forgot the last one - Sorry.
Ben’s mum was fantastic!
After a few days with the Hirschfelds we picked up our van and headed north to the Bay of Islands. We might have hit the jackpot with this van. Great rate per day, reasonable mileage, pot, pan, gas cooker, chairs, table, and a comfortable bed that is longer than both of us!
In the Bay of Islands we went “swimming” with the dolphins. It was an incredible experience although we actually did not really swim right with them. The dolphins were actually swimming with us when we were still on the boat. Once we had put on our gear and jumped into the cold water they disappeared. We were left with a stunning view of the endless blue depth of the ocean, a number of jellyfish and plankton floating around. Too bad. But we were very lucky to have been so close to a huge pool of them with several baby dolphins.
Another highlight of our North Island visit was our stay with Kim on her farm. I had met her husband Steve over a Rum Coke on the boat as we were cruising from island to island in Fiji. When he heard that we are headed to NZ he invited us to stay at his farm, and so we did. We helped out a bit on the farm, tearing some old structures down, watering about 35 trees which took 2 hours, and looked after the beer in the beer fridge. It was again a great time with Kiwi locals.
I can say of myself that I have really enjoyed New Zealand! Especially the people!
And don’t worry, there is more to NZ than sheep, green, and friendly people!
(i.e. a bag of 20 odd Kiwis for 50 Eurocents!)
P.S.: Our apologies about the missing photos. We have to do some maintenance before we can put those up!
