Picture Trip to Mahia

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

There was no apple left to pick. They are not quite ripe enough yet, we were told. What doesn’t mean any good to your bank account, delights your tired bones. Those 2 days off I will use to travel a little, I told myself and gathered information on what the area offers.

Many would go straight to a travel guide or the internet, but New Zealand teaches otherwise. I asked a native, who by the way is our merciful supervisor and whose Maori roots reach back to the very beginnings of Aotearoa. His culture is all about the environment and the historic backgrounds. He proposed Mahia as destination, next to many others. It is a peninsula on the northern end of the Hawkes Bay coastal line.

He had spent his childhood there and his ancestors set foot on New Zealand grounds in that place, too. So far, so promising… 😊

My flatmates confirmed the place as a popular (amongst Kiwis, not so much tourists) holiday destination and thus I packed my sleeping bag and camera and went.

In New Zealand you can’t go above 100 kph. For Germans, this sounds like punishment, but if you look closely, it is well justified: The Highways (outside of bigger cities) are at best compared to our country roads (Roads named L123 in Germany) and for 90% not to be mastered on (allowed) top speed. The corners always carry recommended speeds, so that you don’t miscalculate. For tourists, this is very helpful. 😉

Enjoying the Grand Liberty, I stopped at every place I deemed to fit my wellbeing and shot my pictures. First stop was Lake Tutira.

Lakeside House

The Mohaka Viadukt (built 1936, now a railway bridge), standing 95 meters tall, is the biggest structure of its category in all of Australasia.

In the forest it smelled like goats and I even saw some from afar. So, next to the State Highway 2 there are some Goats in the woods. Good to know.

In Mahia I checked in at a, thanks to the off-season very cheap, Holiday Park and parked my car in one of the few spaces looking towards the sea. A Holiday Park basically is a Hostel without rooms, as you carry your own housing (car, tent, caravan).

But arriving was only part of my plan…

That’s how I picture a welcome.

I relocated myself, so I could get a clear lookout west. Because even though the sun rises north down here, it still sets west…

By the way, that’s me minus the beard. 😉

Clouds can project shadows upon the underside of other clouds.

After having dismissed the sun properly, I drove back and spent my first night inside the car. It was quite cold, but some things you can’t miss in life… 😀

It wasn’t hard then, to interrupt the sleep and go some way to see the sun rise. The good thing about this peninsula is that you have a clear view of the sea, both to the east and to the west. Let me tell you, it is so worth it! Get out of bed, go to a nice place and watch this overwhelming spectacle of nature. Whether you press the shutter release of the camera, or someone else close to you, is up to you. 😊

Finally, the sun announces itself…

…and the sky burns.

New Zealand is getting the light. Even only the change from dark to bright is majestical.

I went this and that way on the peninsula, before making my way home.

Even though some sights are looking pretty in the picture; when you stand in that place, it is much more beautiful…

Tadaa! Again, something for the first time: My first portion fish and chips. One of the nation’s signature dishes… 😊

My supervisor did also mention the ‘White Pine Bush’, which I only passed on the way there. This time I stopped and immersed myself (a passionate fan of Tarzan) in the realms of the jungle.

Again, just next to the highway, the ‘White Pine Bush’-retreat is a stunning contrast to its environment. It was being made fit for tourists, but you feel not less embraced by nature…

Jungle vines are real! 😀 Pity I didn’t bring my loincloth, otherwise I would have swung away on one of those vines and would disappear into the thicket for some days and would hunt leopards, looked for gorillas and only lived off fruit and termites… 😀

The roots of those Kahitea trees are massive.

I better get the laundry in now, later it is a baking dish with some tomato sauce out of a jar (fell into my shopping basket), chicken breast and pasta. 😊

Tomorrow I am back at work and it is the everyday life again… But soon. Soon the last apple will be picked and a whole new chapter will begin…

Match!

Dec 21, 2014 | The Great Journey, Updates

You find this headline on almost every other Au Pair blog.
It means a crucial step: Host Family and Au Pair have come together.

We met on Saturday. On a playground in Wellington. They all came. Mother, father, the 3 kids. I got along well with the parents right away, quickly bonded with the little ones and soon got warm with them.
We talked much with the parents, played with the kids and it was wonderful.

On this day I would decide over my place to stay and thus over a full year of my life. That had me going nervous beforehand, but after talking with the current Au Pair there was no reason against the family and the gettogether wasn’t bad at all…

They have two girls aged 5 and 10 and a boy who is almost 8 years old. The youngest was a little more reserved, but the older two were rather engaging and wanted to know many things. They are well used to get new Au Pairs, you could tell…

Did I mention the New Zealanders are sporty? As all kids came with their scooters. And in the skate park they showed tremendous skill with those, especially the boy…

The family lives in a suburb of Wellington, about 10 minutes away from the city centre. Wellington is a beautiful place and by far not the worst point to go travel the North Island. Besides, I have contacted a little amateur stage and might indulge in my most loved hobby even here.

That’s what my plan looks like now: First wait for my bag staying at the hostel. Then buy a car in the South Island and complete my 3 months of work in order to extend the (already issued) Working Holiday Visa and to generally paint the South Island. From April I can come to the family and work and live there for a year and see the North Island in its details.

So it happened. I have a family.

But that’s only one in many accomplishments of the past days…
For example, I did my own laundry for the first time of my life. (insert cliche applause here) Even nothing changed color or shrinked (I didn’t try on everything though). 🙂

My roommates changed into real native english speakers now (her canadian, him english) and we get along perfectly. They are responsible for following fitment that lives with us:

Yes, he IS beautiful! 🙂

My first christmas far from home I will so spent in the hostel with international flair, sunshine and a barbeque on christmas eve..
And it was a great honour to serve my lovely roommates with the 3rd self cooked meal. (still counting yet :P)

Waldis Pasta, as we call it at home, are the bomb! (when I look at it, the hunger for it arises once more)

One day I felt the winds of liberty paired with a craving for shrimps. So I went and fried together some utterly delicious (I always measure by the familiar cuisine at home) Garlic-Lime-Shrimp-Pasta. That is fun, tastes well, you are fed AND you are satisfied with yourself and the world around. Win-win-win-win! 😀

Wirmeschel Paflotzki

Dec 11, 2014 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

A term from the old days at home.

It can be translated to sailors’ pasta, but what’s beyond is near magic. The recipe I’m talking about is a basic combination of mince, onion, pasta and some well-aimed dashes out of the spice shaker. It holds an undisputed place on our menu at home. It seems mum once cooked 30 tons of it and just takes out some when needed: It always tastes as delicious as ever! 😉

And this dish has the honor to be my very first, (proud children’s look), very self cooked meal.

In the morning I went to the scenic waterfront in order to skype my parents. That way I got firm hold of the cooking instructions as well.

Then off to the shops, got it all and off to the stove. (Attention, Insider Joke upcoming. Those are necessary to lighten up at least one person’s day.)
I just quickly realised one thing (thick accent): “Oh no they left off the 10W40!”
So back to the supermarket to get the sunflower oil. 🙂

Some more or less magical moments later I combined pasta and meat and onion and..found myself in front of a huge heaping of Wirmeschel Paflotzki.

I took a spoon for testing and suddenly felt so close to the familiar cuisine. That was just it. It was a success!

That’s what yummy looks like. 🙂

But what to do with a family sized portion of pasta? Easy: You invite your roommates Sylvie and Pietro! And it tastes soo good to all of us!
The leftovers I fried in the evening and thus for one day I wasn’t only fed but a little bit at home as well.

Italian Pietro and French Sylvie, my witnesses.

Tasty Moments

Jan 31, 2014 | Before The Great Journey, Thoughts, Updates

Yesterday it was time.
3,5 years, at first it seemed an eternity, are finally over. The official acquittance takes place in our workshop, the place we learned things, we spent long days, we took exams at. You sit there with you whole class and await your certificates.
The examination board standing in front of us, the certificates are being handed out, the results are being named. My turn.
„Frontrunner. No one is better.“ Applause. 94 percent. A.

I still don’t get it fully. Those three and a half years are gone. I sure look back gratefully. I might haven’t been the simplest classmate, I admit. I’d rather do my own thing, than sticking to those unwritten rules. I didn’t ever ask about it, but I understood I sometimes was considered a ‘freak’. All I can say is: I had a good class, good colleagues and a really good time. Thank you guys, I will always like to look back on the days. Not the least because we did it!

Without god I could have never gotten such results. I think behind that completion ist more than just a guy who is good at taking exams.

After all the formalities (those at home, too) we four colleagues went out for dinner. We ordered a bunch of ribs and the munching began. Meat is the right thing for real men! Here my personal motto:

What tastes good, has to get you dirty!

It’s kinda funny. You walk into a decent restaurant just to rip gnaw meat of bones like Asterx & Obelix in the end. Your fingers are covered in grease, you barely want to touch your knife to seperate the single ribs. It has to be that way. And real men WITH their certificate in the pocket eat much! Should be worth it for sure! And it truly tasted phenomenal. Even the teeth wanted to keep as much as possible as long as possible.
All in all a superb finish! We have spent some years of our lives together and that doesn’t past without marks.

Now I have started on my new job already and I am very satisfied. In my apprenticeship I was put there for longer periods of time and so I already know all the people and the work there.
It isn’t a sophisticated job, but I imagined it that way: Go there, work, go home. No thoughts about solving urgent problems at work. At most maybe who is the next to shout a round of coffee…
The relationship to my coworkers is the most important thing at any workplace in my opinion. And it works great there. Like in a dream…

Sometimes I feel like my life is going on railtracks.
Elementary school, secondary school, apprenticeship, work.
You almost have no choice. It just goes. And it goes undeservingly well! I hope I will be able to value that one day.
But I don’t want to stay on those tracks. That’s why I plan the year abroad. I see it fixed on my resumee.