Gear and Gadgets 2 or Good Investment, Bad Investment

Feb 6, 2015 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

I am on the way for 2 months now (how time flies, blabla…) and have been able to put the things I took with me to use.
Over time some things appeared more or less useful and those insights I would share with you. And with everybody who googled ‘Packing List Au Pair New Zealand’ or ‘Backpacker Packing List’ to end up here.

Bose Soundlink Mini:
My most beloved companion. I got it as replacement to my Mivoc Sidekick (which in the last moment I removed from the bag) as a Christmas gift for myself in order to satisfy my hunger for HiFi.
And the small and heavy technical miracle serves an insanely good job. He goes down to 60Hz (depending on the environment it’s ear candy) clean and I do like that.
I love it.

Leatherman Skeletool:
Peeling onions or opening reluctant wrappings is an adventurous undertaking using the knives of hostels. But a sharp blade provides aid, IF you carry it with you. 😊 All the other utilities on it will surely be put to use in time.

Bluetooth Computer Mouse:
Not used it once. The touchpad on my * is fully sufficient.

*Lenovo Thinkpad:
Awesome thing. Full HD and an SSD. Is really quiet, the battery lasts a few movies and it does anything you tell it obediently.

Socks:
Well, it’s summer. But you could save some space and better invest in some comfortable jandals… Until now I have only worn like 18% of my socks. 😉

External hard drive/ digital storage:
You are just more confident when the movie collection of your travel mates is in front of you and you can just copy at will. And alongside some smaller USB keys for backup and two 32GB SD cards there are no worries about storage shortage in sight.

LEDLenser head lamp:
Like this you can climb Mount Victoria safely at night (while looking like a professional).

Mini towel:
It provides a sense of sureness in the everyday life and does a good job at protecting the highly praised speaker while traveling.

Diary:
When you can’t look up on WhatsApp what you have done the last days, this book rises in significance.

8L-ZipLoc-Bags:
Either at preparing devilled eggs or when compressing you clothes for packing, these always deliver a strong performance. Irreplaceable!

Clothing in general:
Being dressed is mandatory in New Zealand as well, but I like my shorts with big pockets best. Because boys aren’t allowed purses… My beanie, scarf and gloves might prove themselves worthy in another season. Most importantly: The count of underpants sets the time between laundry days.

Two credit cards:
Two sources of money. One for worry-less paying, one for worry-less withdrawals. Life is much more fun this way. 😀

Tablet:
Useless. At least for now. Not turned it on once.

Smartphone:
I know, back in the day I was some kind of freak with those. But it is impressive, how long a battery lasts in flight mode. 😊 And I don’t miss it a bit. You don’t carry an alternate world inside your pocket and thus, you can always easily and unlimitedly pay attention to your surroundings.

First Aid Set:
Grandma and mom can be relieved, I didn’t have to use it yet.

In-Ear-Headphones:
On the plane, they provide a much better sound quality than the cheap ones they offer you. Even as earplugs in louder situations you can put them to good use. But I ain’t such a wimp not to be able to sleep next to a crazy wild party next door. 😛

Edding:
Awesome. Either when making your mark on the hostel’s fridge or to label your food, it is a rather useful object. Goes to the category “vital trinkets”.

Multisocket:
Cellphone, Laptop and speaker charging at the same time! You still need one adapter still, but the others are all German plugs.

I won’t lose any words about my bags here.

Grand Liberty

Jan 27, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

I have bought a car!

The Grand Liberty is a Mazda Lantis, automatic gearbox, 16V, in good shape, not expensive. Reminds me of our Proton back in the day. 😉

You are, where you are. But what counts as well, is where you CAN go and how comfortably. I have been in different places yet, but always bound to busses, my feet or lovely people who pick up hitchhikers.

I am in one place now, but I can INDEPENDENTLY move greater distances in less time and with less wear-off of my soles. Now I can shop for far more than I can carry, I can go to the neighbor towns and yeah, perhaps even go to work…

Further, my overall stowage is not limited to my backpack, my pockets or the big trolley, but to the whole capacity of the car. What follows, is that I don’t have to worry about size when purchasing different stuff and that I needn’t pack so tight anymore. 😊

I waited for this moment a long time. Here it is!

Until now I have only driven the vehicle to the hostel here in Hastings and you have to be on the edge of your seat not to become a ghost driver. It feels unbelievable! Just like the first moments of sitting in my Audi alone and driving about.

I have looked for contact and stand a good chance to get a job in blueberry-/ apple picking. The plans to work for 3 months straight helps heaps. Thus, soon more seriousness and routine will paint my daily life.

My current hostel is situated inside somewhat of a forest, as you can notice quickly. There are 34 flies whirring around me and my limbs show strange lumps that itch. Otherwise the hostel is really alright. And the fact that the owner appeared in The Lord of the Rings shouldn’t go unnoticed, either. 😊

Before I came to buy the Grand Liberty, I hiked to a river ‘close’ to Hastings. 6km are not little, but it was well worth it…

Life at the Hostel

Jan 21, 2015 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

Since arriving in New Zealand, I slept nowhere else than in hostels.

That way I learned much about this habitat, that I would like to share with you.

 

Things that are the same in every hostel:

  • There are the so-called ‘longtermers’, people who live more than 1-2 months in a hostel already. They have seen everything yet and adapt perfectly/ in their own ways to the life there. You can spot them by their colorful meals that often hold many courses.
  • Every hostel has backpackers who work for accommodation. Thus, it can happen that your roommate cleans the shower after you or reminds you to dry your dishes. From them you hear countless stories how defaced some rooms are and how somebody misuses the handwashing liquid as shower gel.
  • It appears to be 90% Germans and French you seem to meet.
  • The kitchen will teach you soon to forget the hygiene standards from home. If there’s no scraps on it, it’s clean. Sharp knives don’t exist.
  • Every hostel has a TV room, couches all over the place and a big dinner table near the kitchen.
  • Every hostel is plastered with guideline notes in every corner, which all must have their very own story…
  • Your travel guides are sleeping in the beds around you at night.

 

Things that are different in every hostel:

  • At some hostels, you just lie down and sleep like a baby, whilst in other ones you get an uncomfortable itch remembering the bed bugs that you have flicked off the sheets.
  • Big room with shower curtain, bathtub with shower curtain and the window curtain doesn’t even cover the whole clear glass window, shower cubicle, giant shower with glass doors that don’t close; taking a shower always is a little adventure.
  • Some hostels are more ‘talky’, at one place I didn’t have a single conversation in 1,5 days. (Wasn’t as bad as it sounds. 😀 )
  • At some hostels they provide you with free coffee and tea, at others there’s cappuccino on top, some even give rice and pasta, and at some places there’s none of that.
  • The source of all being: The internet. Here you get temporary unlimited data for 12$ a week, there it is 4$ for 24 hours and 10 GB, there it is 6 GB once but as long as you like, currently I got 800MB for free with an UNbelievably unstable connection… (Most cities have at least one free hotspot in town, though.)

There is not much to tell about my current stay. I returned to Wellington to open my bank account, which worked out very well. Soon I will go to Hastings, because there are many orchard jobs and that’s exactly what I am looking for…

Besides, that area is said the same about as the area around the Kaiserstuhl in Germany: They have the ‘best’ wheather. 😊

But more on that later.

Hot Air

Jan 16, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips

Where was I?

Rotorua

In this wondrous town. I have spent some days there and first and foremost discovered to place. Rotorua is well known for its geothermal activity. You notice it at any corner. Anywhere you go there are these steaming puddles, bubbling water from inside the earth, holes in the ground, sulphur smell. I visited the Lake Rotorua, some parks and ‘Te Puia’, an attraction about Maori Culture and accumulation of geothermal wonders (and lots of sulphurous scent). From this almost unreal patch of earth I of course took many pictures…

What can I say? It simply boils out of the ground…

Lake Rotorua

Everything seems to shout Adventure.

Seagulls are dumb and mean, I had to learn. I hope this one will be furious about her ugly picture online one day! 😀

The somewhat unspectacular pond in central park.

There’s alway restricted areas where it is especially steamy, bubbly or smelly…

Whoever urgently looks for a hobby, here is inspiration. 😉

Every part of nature has its rules…

Where did I end up here??

Some lesson in chemics. Petrified wood?

This I call art!! (and it is not mine)

Te Puia

In Te Puia it is all about Maori Culture. Because the religion forbids depicting human traits, you only see those grimaces.

Did I use the word ‘bubbling’ yet?

Mudpools. They gurgle like mom’s tomato sauce just before it’s done…

Some more for our chemists… 🙂

In Rotorua City the probably most beautiful bicycle stand can be found…

By the way I did the (for a New Zealand Trip almost mandatory) skydive. A unique, unbelievable and utmost intense undertaking.

YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

To farewell Rotorua I decided to hitchhike. My destination was Taupo and it worked well. After some wait a retired farmer picked me up towards Taupo. We talked about agriculture and he explained the change that the land goes through from forestry to dairy use. Now I know that New Zealand indeed has more sheep than men, even though the count of sheep has halved in the past years. Cows gain popularity and the dairy business grows.

Taupo

Super nice John dropped me at the town belt and I walked on in cheerful spirits. If I learned one thing in New Zealand, it is that you can always talk to anyone. Thus I tried my luck with the first person I found, a briskly pacing girl with earbuds-filled eavesdroppers. Those quickly disappeared and it came up that she works at Pak’n’Save (a rather cheapish and bigger supermarket) which is only 3 minutes from my hostel. Now Christin wasn’t only a fine accompaniment, but an excellent navigation system as well in this foreign town. It’s worth mentioning that we met on both times visiting the shop at the checkout. You always meet thrice, right? 😀

I spent just one night in Taupo, even though this beautiful patch of (Middle-) earth is worth more attention. Plus I have seen the area from 15.000ft above already. 😉
But my plan was just like this. I wanted to meet another blogger in Taupo, who is an Au Pair there. That was well special and the sunset looks awesome whilst you have your feet in the water…

My plan held some more hitchhiking adventure for the next day. After I gradually dragged my replacement bag, which still sticks to me waiting for the desired one, over grass and stones towards the Highway 5 to Napier my thumb was being answered and Andrew picked me up. We animatedly talked about all things New Zealand (Aotearoa, as the Maori called it) and looked at the nature around in awe. Only here you find this much variety. And this many beautiful things close to each other, too.

Napier

Andrew dropped me off right in Napier and I checked in at the hostel. I was keen to get to know new people. In Rotorua I had a single room (that lets you value privacy anew) and in Taupo I only spent one night. But in this four-bed-room I am actually the only guest. 😀 Well, I won’t complain about two nights alone.
Napier (often called gorgeous) is gorgeous! The city is dominated by its Art Deco (have I ever mentioned me being a great Bioshock fan?), the water is blue, it is hot summer here as well.
I got together with Klaus and Jennifer again, who drove me to the hostel in the beginning. I wasn’t only served with delicious food, but with the offer of assisting with the job hunt, too.

Thank you dad for the Repair Job. May they prolong in service on my side, or rather on my feet…

In Napier I stood in front of the wide ocean and I stood there for some time.

My plans foresaw the South Island as Work- and Travel Destination, but in the 3 months I want to spend working towards the visa extension there might be little time left for travels. Plus I will step into my role as an Au Pair in Wellington in 3 months…
Maybe I’ll work in Hawke’s Bay and turn south later. Those are the current thoughts. But first I need to return to Wellington in order to open my bank account (this time by bus, so don’t you worry 🙂 )…

Outta da House!

Jan 8, 2015 | Photos, The Great Journey, Updates

New Zealand is beautiful! It is magnificently green, you close your weary eyes, and the next moment it is all dry and brown. The green hills are rough now, setting into the beackground and the lanscape turns flat. It is getting green, the earth is rutted, the hills become finer. That scenery leaves me in pity of the travellers on the bus who just stare at their screens. To my cousins (you know who you are ;)): Imagine our sandpit along a stunning river, 2000x more beautiful and with a better view on wheatfields and our Wiehengebirge. That’s what it looked like in some parts! Though the bus doesn’t stop, it goes on. The most irregular thing I saw was the ice skating place in Taupo. It is summer and they just put an ice skating venue there! 😀

As we get closer to our destination, the city Rotorua which is known for its hot springs, you can actually see white smoke rising from the forest. At the last light of the day, we walk over to the hostel…

It is enough. I have spent a whole month in Wellington. The hostel, that still is my first accomodation here, became some sort of home to me. But it felt not quite like traveling, as nice as it has been there… I have grown very fond of Wellington, know myself around and got to know marvellous people. 🙂 I predominantly awaited my bag and haven’t seen a bit of it yet. Why hold on to your plan then? That’s why I decided to take a little trip in the North Island.

A most lovely Japanese girl which I got to know in Wellington works in a hostel in Rotorua, which I of course booked for the nights. We actually got there on the same bus and I was happy to have somebody who knows herself around here. 🙂

Rotorua smells of sulphur, sometimes more, sometimes less. I hope to get used to it soon… The wheather is different from Wellington. It is hot and feels like summer. Wellington is always windy, it hardly gets properly warm. I have had breakfast, sit in the curtilage of the quirky hostel now and the cat rests next to me. Cats are funny beasts. Sometimes they scratch, sometimes they beg for attention, then they have enough of your care…

It feels like traveling now, save to say. You are not bound to a place anymore, you can move freely. And only because you got to change your way of thinking.