#aroundnz

A month and a half have passed since we left our jobs in Auckland and it seems so far away; it is impressive how many things you can do when you do not work. We left the city and travelled to the beautiful coast of the Coromandel Peninsula and down to Rotorua, the land of Redwood forests, hot springs and boiling rivers. We then drove all the way down to the stylish Wellington and flew to Melbourne. I was truly excited to be there again, several years later, and surprised to find the city as beautiful as I remembered it. I just have to accept that I will never live in my favourite city. We came back to NZ and started working in a couple of farms through Workaway. It is basically a website where you can find some jobs in exchange for food, accommodation and social interaction. The idea is to work some hours per day, live with the host and visit places nearby. Well, every place has been really different. Overall it was a mixture of hard work, relaxing time spent in beautiful lonely places, sweet animals, dirt and shit, awkward moments and interesting conversations with the hosts. For instance, I learned what sheep drenching means. Imagine to hold a sheep still with your legs and open its mouth with one hand and inject a shot of liquid with the other hand while it screams, kicks and shit on you. Then imagine doing this to 1400 sheep. I don't remember if this was on my to-do list when I came to NZ but it is checked now anyway. Last week we finally managed to do our first real hike in the Tongariro National Park. 10 hours walk to the top of the Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom if you know who Frodo Baggins is). We are in our third farm now and we are completely spoiled here. We work no more than 3 hours per day, the tasks are simple and they treat us with amazing food and a private room in the cottage. We have time to visit the surroundings here in Taranaki and we are getting ready to climb the summit of the volcano as soon as we get good weather. Oh, we went shooting rabbits and possums last night because they are apparently a serious problem in NZ. It was like in the movies, we had a Chuck Norris car style with torches and we were going around shooting from the back of the car. I have to admit it was pretty fun and rabbits are pretty safe with me shooting. It's time to move again soon and this is going to be the last farm for now and the end of our trip in the North Island. We are finally going to the South Island next week and we have already planned some big hiking trips for April.

The last period at work before you quit is always very special. Doesn’t matter if it’s after three years in an office or three months in a cafeteria. In those last days nothing can upset you, the job and people around you are nice and time goes faster. My coffee skills have drastically improved in the last couple of weeks. I dont know exactly what happend, I just started doing beautiful flat whites at some point. We have lived in our apartment for two months. Even though the flat was often dirty, and the flatmates didn’t really pull their weight it is probably the most comfortable accomodation we will have in this journey. Auckland has been home for three months. During that time I worked in a cafeteria, Sashenka worked in a restaurant and then in an office; we bought a car and traveled to many places; we spent New Year’s Eve on the beach; we went on a sailing trip and did kayaking, snorkeling, surf and caving; and finally we quit our jobs. It feels like we have been here for ages. It is time to pack all our things, empty the room and throw everything in the car, Kublai, which will be our mate and home for a while. We are going to do as many kilometers as we can afford and even though we have done many things we whished, our to-do list today is longer than yesterday. It is pointless to look too far though so let’s just focus on this week’s road trip before going back to my favourite city in the world, Melbourne!