‘It has been a great summer, the best summer of them all!’

For real. Back then in December, when the summer began I came to Wellington and now this summer slowly gives in to the harvest. Somewhere in there was some kind of winter and 16 months have passed by now.

Today, when the last sun set over Wellington, I finally have passed on my car to a local student. I have bid farewell to the last people I know here, as long as they were at home, and now my time here in New Zealand has come to an end.

In my last days I have made full use of Wellington where I could and got closure to my heart’s content. Where it all began, it should have an end.
Thus, the last entry from New Zealand on my blog shall be about my beloved city Wellington. See a collage of the loveliest places here:

You have all been part of my great journey through New Zealand. With you I have shared my 16 months here and you were there. I want to thank you for that!

After the great event in Wellington, about which I will tell further down, we went to Napier one last time. But this city you already know about sufficiently. 😉

Our last route was from Napier to Mahia. You will surely remember the road trip I went on there about half a year ago.
This place I revisited with Elvis one more time and we watched the sun rise:

The last corner of New Zealand I hadn’t seen yet, the East Cape, we went along after that:

We didn’t have much time for the last ride down to Wellington. Therefore, we took only small station at the most important places:

Of unique experiences you can tell quite often on a journey like mine, but some of them are more unique than others.
That applies to the movie marathon we took part in.
That one was about the ‘Lord of the Rings’- and the ‘Hobbit’ movies, which were being filmed in New Zealand in every aspect and all.
So, the place we spent 24 hours in was located at the heart of all the studios and production sites, as well as the residencies of the workers. Even the cinema is owned by the moviemakers. Thus, it was being decorated magnificently by a employee of WETA Workshop.
The probably greatest works of the New Zealand movie industry you couldn’t possibly experience in a more special way!

And now we are back in Wellington. The place where it all began.
Did you keep count of how many months on my blog have been filled with New Zealand tales? It is 16. An entire 16 months are going towards its end now.

The last burden is my car. But on that there is going to be a way, too. No matter the price in the end. The most important is that I enjoy the last days in Wellington.

And that is not that easily done to begin with. But the more I walk the well-known streets of Wellington and ponder about the times, I close in to the conclusion: It is plenty. Wellington is going to go on without me.

I want to go home. To a normal life with my family and my home.
Life as a traveler is an exciting, diverse and never-ending composition of goodbyes, new circumstances and the overall realisation that you are here IN ORDER TO experience something.
The people walking the city in the golden autumn afternoon sun all have a home to go back to. Every day, for a long time. They have people they know and see. Every day, for a long time. They have a place they live in and that they discover laid-back. Every day, for a long time.
And one day, the same I will have too. When I am home.

I like to compare New Zealand with a buffet. I walked up and down it and filled many plates. Now I scrape together the last bits of my last plate and enjoy the last flavour.
The dessert awaits in form of 3 weeks Australia with Elvis and after that the cordial (more like a cocktail, actually) is in sight over in Southeast Asia.

It doesn’t end. It continues!

May It Be. Long Ways To Go Yet. Into The West.