The End of the Third Age

Aug 18, 2015 | The Great Journey, Thoughts, Updates

On my harddrive I organised my New Zealand pictures into folders. The first age was me travelling Wellington, Taupo, Rotorua and Napier. In the second age, I lived and worked in Hastings and the third one with this family.
And in two week’s time the fourth age will dawn.

When au pairs leave their families, it is an unpleasant thing. One voice in your head then says: ‘Well, that went down the drain!’ and the other voice rejoices about this step back towards happiness.

What happened?
When 2 foreign worlds live together in a confined space, the inner human starts to show one day. And when those inner policies won’t harmonise, neither of those to can be happy for long.
In my case, things have turned out not compatible. Yes, I was happy in the beginning and I had a good time and a good life here. But in the latest time I realised that this couldn’t work out for good.
Signs, you have a good time as an au pair: You are terrified by the thought of saying goodbye and don’t wish to have that soon. You are looking forward to the coming spring and summer. You love spending time with your family.
For those things didn’t apply, I decided to take action.

But the logical follow-up is: How will things move on from there?
With my own car, I can choose whichever way… I will begin to look for another family, as just because it didn’t work out with this family, it doesn’t mean I am not meant to be an au pair.
On the other hand, I could just take on any job and boost my travel funds a little. Come to think of it…it has been while wielding the soldering iron. 🙂

 

 

For peace may reign again!

 

 

As I walked through the streets of Wellington with my friends whis weekend, my longing to be free grew in me. Not having to go back, being able to breathe freely…

And this longing will get satisfied soon. It is not easy or nice to everyone involved, but when you are unhappy you should act quickly in favour of the change.
Be that cowardly or brave…

Colourful Interim Report

Aug 6, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Thoughts, Trips, Updates

Blog post number 70!

I can relax a little, as the kids are taken to their activities by the host mum. The scores for my meatpie with noodles stretched from 98/100 to 1000000/1000000 and there was enough for everybody… 🙂

Directly after the Winterreise I faced the most demanding weeks to that day: The school holidays.
On the one hand the new kind of routine (making breakfast for the kids, no returns from school, etc.) and on the other hand the fact that the kids are at home for the whole day made for an exciting 2 weeks.

For the girls have more classes per school day at their school than the boy’s, they get an extra week off. Due to that I dropped off and picked up the boy together with the girls in the last week… I also tried to make good use of the holidays, taking the kids to the museum, the park for a picnic or an indoor playhouse…
A few days they spent at their grandparents’, which made for some welcome breaks for me. 🙂

We crumb the chicken nuggets ourselves…

Now that the school holidays have long passed, I am more than happy about the old routine: Being with the boy in the morning and drop him off at school then. And only at 3pm I tend to the kids again.
To whom thinking about becoming an au pair: There is a groundbreaking difference between the kids staying home or having kids who are in school/ kindergarten already…

Meanwhile I have found an amazing group of friends, and we all regularly come together to enjoy the life beyond being an au pair. 🙂 Next to that, it is always the sweetest thing to meet travel companions of the past…

Last Sunday we celebrated Celine’s birthday with a walk along the Skyline Walkway in Wellington.
It was a rather cloudy day, but luckily the sky held back the gift of rain. 🙂 Instead it was insanely windy! Partially you couldn’t walk straight up and the hood of my jacket rattled like mad. 😀

View of Wellington from Mount Kaukau.

View on a wind farm west of Wellington.

I had to reissue the WOF (Warrant of Fitness) for my car the other day and my darling actually needed some reconditioning… At least for another 6 months I don’t need to worry about that now. 🙂 With cars made before 2000 you get the WOF for 6 months, newer cars get 12 months and brand-new ones 3 whole years from the day you buy them…

In our town new houses get built and even though I didn’t see the building sites at home up close as often, I think there are some differences to spot:

Winterreise Part 8

Jul 30, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips

In the morning we got on our way with CJ. The gas tank filled to a soothing level, we arrived at Cape Reinga after a little while. This is called New Zealand’s northernmost point, but actually is not the farthest point. That one lies a little to the east but is not as accessible, so we left it out…

In the north you find a sub-tropical climate, which really shows in nature. The area above Auckland differs substantially from the other North Island, in  landscape, climate and the sights you’ll find…

The view on the Giant Sand Dunes, which we were to see up close later…

On the northernmost end of New Zealand you see the sea to both, the left and the right at the same time.

18000 kilometres, that you can savour slowly for sure. 😀

The famous lighthouse…

On our ‘way back’, we went over several beaches…

Tourists out in the wild… 🙂

Neatly knobby trees.

And suddenly you find yourself in the desert, when you visit the ‘Giant Sand Dunes’…

Celine and CJ went for the ‘jumping’ technique, to get down the extremely steep dune again.

And this is what winter looks like in the outermost North Island. 😀

There’s always time for art… 🙂

The last of three pictures I formerly didn’t include for the public to see. Let’s put it that way: CJ really lifted our experience that day. 😉

When the sun was almost gone, we said goodbye to CJ and went for the last long car ride. Destination: Auckland. There we wanted to hand over the car and go home by bus the next day.
We took a short rest in Kawakawa (Have I ever pointed out this multitude of different city names in New Zealand?) to marvel at the display of art of the famous artist ‘Hundertwasser’. See for yourself:

Main attraction: The public restroom.

The same one from the back.

 

 

The late evening we arrived in Auckland. That is another world compared to the rest of New Zealand. From a city of millions you want to expect multilane streets and confuzzling traffic, but the hostel made for the biggest difference: It was CHOCKA! So we slept (in almost unbearable cold) inside a fully booked 6-bed room and were happy to be outside in the end. Our car we took to the rental station in the morning as it was closed the night before…
With all our stuff we went to the supermarket and went through Auckland to the bus station in the winterly Sunday morning.
Just outside of Taupo a traffic jam formed on the highway and so we had a longer break in this wonderful settlement. We used it for a picnic of reflection on a bench, looking out on the biggest lake of New Zealand.
The last of it all was a taxi ride home, as all connecting busses had left… Nevertheless I could answer all questions of ‘how the journey went’ like: Devastatingly wonderfully beautiful and a grand ol’ success! 🙂

 

 

View on the mountaintops of the Tongariro from Lake Taupo.

 

 

On the last day we saw: Cape Reinga, beaches on the side of the road, the Giant Sand Dunes, Kawakawa and the Hunderwasser art on display and for the very end Auckland from within…

Bottom line: 3815 kilometres and about 4500 pictures (only by my camera). 🙂

I hope you had at least half of the fun we did, travelling with us via blog posts. 😉

Winterreise Part 7

Jul 28, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips

In Paihia, we arrived in darkness once more and were only able to grasp all the splendour when it was morning… We put up a few destinations and soon stood in front of the first attraction, the Parrot Place in Kerikeri.
Yes, we saw many colourful and marvellous birds you could feed and let sit on your hands, which was a nice experience. Though all too soon Celine opened my eyes to a fact that didn’t get to me from the beginning: The cages were small and the birds didn’t look exactly happy… I made up for the admission shooting some more pictures, but this visit we didn’t book as a success. Thus, the pictures are not only to show their primary motive, but also make you aware and critical of the background in them.

 

 

 

 

Somewhat disillusioned we drove off to the Rainbow Falls. Though we couldn’t see a rainbow, but that could have been due to the position of the sun and clouds. Even so: Waterfall. 🙂

 

 

The next point on the agenda is, thinking back now, almost of magical beauty, as the place where the oldest buildings of New Zealand can be found is being cherished quite wondrously…

The Stone Store, New Zealand oldest stone-made building.

The friendly gardener pointed out this cutie of a hare to us.

 

 

Built by Maori and missionaries in 1822, Kemp House stands as the oldest of buildings in this country.

There are guided tours for both of the buildings, though we gapped those for today.

 

 

 

 

Our goal was to reach the far north and as we had booked no accomodation yet, our final destination was unknown. A roadtrip benefits from that, as anything is possible then…

 

 

‘World Famous’ it says, which we didn’t know until after. As this Fish Shop in Mangonui actually is famous.

With this view, you just enjoy having a bite. 🙂 The shop was quite well visited, contrary to our recent findings on the road…

So I didn’t let the opportunity slide to try a good helping of mussels.

Somewhere in a splendrous bay we were presented with this view. To live right there… 🙂

 

 

 

 

On the peninsula Karikari we went down abandoned streets that led us to that gorgeous lonely beach in the end.

 

 

Fluffy like the softest brush, but tangy on the smell were these peculiar blossoms.

 

 

Part of our plan was to look at the sunset on the 90 Mile Beach in the west. It is not 90 miles long but 90 kilometres and is just an overly long beach in the end, which I hope the picture will show…

 

 

 

 

After a short stop on said beach we went on, as there is a rocky patch somewhere. As it was marked with a star and street name on our map and we followed it, just to look online for it and be taught a better lesson: That patch you can only reach driving down the beach. With a dodgy 2WD this wouldn’t be a good idea, as we don’t have any experience with the tide and possible hurldes of the beach.
In short: Turn around and go to the next access point to the beach. That one was that far back that the sun was almost gone when we got there.

 

 

 

 

Adding to that was the fact that our gas tank was virtually empty. Thus, we had to make our way to the next gas station using the pedal to the smallest extents. 65 kilometres with the gauge in the lowest position. We were relieved beyond measure, when the warning light (which existence we stopped believing in) lit up in the last quarter of the way…

In Kaitaia we just looked for a hostel and asked for accomodation on the spot. Contrary to the ratings on the internet, the place was all fine and here, again, our roommates were counting 0.
While taking our simple supper, CJ approached us. He is the American we quickly practiced card tricks, had a good talk, played table tennis until 1am with and agreed to take with us to Cape Reinga the next day…

A grand day: We saw the Parrot Place, the Rainbow Falls, the oldest buildings in New Zealand, incredible views on the side of the road (constantly), the Mangonui Fish Shop, the Karikari Peninsula, the 90 Mile Beach and the most beautiful gas station in all of New Zealand. 😀

Winterreise Part 6

Jul 26, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips

The night before we drove through Coromandel in darkness, but in the morning we saw the peninsula in all of its glory. Not long did we stay at the hostel and went straight off to those famous beaches…
First stop was Hahei Beach. It is praised New Zealand’s most beautiful beach and does right by that award…

The view of Hahei Beach from far away.

 

 

Though one of the most famous beaches is the on at the Cathedral Cove. Behold yourself the wonders of nature:

 

 

Behind those rocks lies the bay.

 

 

You have to walk some steps, as the beach is accessible by foot only.

 

 

Many don’t fear this walk, as you are to be rewarded most handsomely:

 

 

Taking the load off the rock. 🙂

 

 

Through the Cathedral Cove (some weddings were held there, by the way) you get to another part of the beach.

 

 

…and this in winter! 😀

 

 

 

 

We had quite a long way ahead of us, as the next stay in Paihia had been booked beforehand and thus, we spent more time of the day inside our car than on those stunning beaches. Well, some photo stops we couldn’t say No to. 😉

 

 

I can’t think of how much I will miss this ever-present hillside!

 

 

A little way south of Coromandel you find the birthplace of the national beverage of New Zealanders: Paeroa.
After a long search (online you find but little information about the exact location) we found the main attraction of the city: The great L&P bottle. L stands for Lemon and P for the city name, of course. That one, again, stands for the source of the water for the drink. To whom it may be of question: It tastes like Sprite, only a tad sweeter… 🙂

 

 

After the bottle had been burned onto the memory card of the camera, I rewarded myself with some winterly contre-jour sunset shot.

 

 

As the light said its last goodbye for that day, we still had some way ahead of us, as Paihia lies way north of Auckland…
A short halt at Subway, much music and a colourful palette of topics to talk about helped us get there in the end. This accomodation we had booked using an online voucher and happily made use of the attached bathroom, the own kitchenette and much space at our disposal… 🙂

 

 

 

 

We saw: Hahei Beach, Cathedral Cove, the L&P landmark in Paeroa, several beaches on the side of the road and the Auckland skyline at night.