Singapore

It is stop over time! On our way back to Germany we took a break to explore Singapore and to celebrate Chinese New Year.

After half a day in an airplane and three additional hours in the airplane we arrived in the baking heat. The warm summer days in New Zealand were nothing compared to this. Not being used to the wet heat, we were sweating all day.

We took the MRT (public transport) to our first hostel. The MRT is an easy and cheap way to get around Singapore, I can really recommend it. Sadly, our first hostel was not that good. The bed was way to small for me and the bathrooms were quite dirty. The hostel hosted a lot of people in a very small room and the breakfast was okay at best. Our other hostel on the other hand was much better, with a hotel like atmosphere, clean facilities and friendly staff.

A huge difference was the food. It had more flavour in general and was specially sweeter than the food in New Zealand. We found variations of food we did not knew before, like red bean ice cream. Another difference to New Zealand was the attitude of the people. Kiwis were friendly, laid back and welcoming, while the people in Singapore always treated us as business partners. Singaporeans were always polite towards us, but never as open as the Kiwis.

Singapore is a great destination to be a tourist. It has just stunning architecture, great museums, art galleries and colorful markets. We visited mosques, temples and churches, also many fantastic gardens. It is such a diverse city and has very different corners.

Maeve and I were very lucky with the time we had chosen for our stop over. We were just in time for Chinese New Year, one of the world’s biggest celebrated festivals. To celebrate the beginning of the year of the dog, the hole country was going out. We joined the huge mass of people in Marina Bay, where the famous firework took place in the evening. But the CNY celebration takes longer than just this one evening. Days later we ran into a CNY-parade and the hole Chinatown district was decorated. I am very happy we were able to take part in this madness, this was surely something to remember.

Singapore and New Zealand are quite the opposite in many aspects, but that is the reason, why they fitted perfectly together for this journey, which is nearly over after Singapore. It was a wonderful time and I can recommend everyone to do this or something like this once in a lifetime.

Thanks to everyone who shaped this journey or followed us online. Thank you for listening, I really enjoyed writing this blog.

“The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone.
Let others follow, if they can!
Let them a journey new begin.
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.

Still ’round the corner there may wait
A new road or secret gate;
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”

–Roads Go Ever On by J. R. R. Tolkien

About the Journey, so far

Our time in New Zealand is over, but so many different things will stay with us. We waited so long for this journey to start I cannot really believe our time in New Zealand has come to an end.

Nearly five months ago we stepped out of a plane in Auckland and in a few hours we will step in one again. This journey has been huge. It was in terms of lenght and of distance the longest I have ever travelled so far. We went from Cape Reinga in the far north to Invercargill in the deep south. We saw dolphins, seals, glowworms, Pukekos, Fantails and many more. We travelled through different climate zones and saw so many diverse and stunning landscapes, it is hard to pick a favourite, but if I had to choose, I would pick the hidden Whale Bay at the Tutukaka Coast.

I am now able to see myself in a different light and I have changed my mind about many things. I realised what I need to live. I redefined my goals and plans for the next years and while I had the most awesome last months, I am really looking forward to the next few weeks, months and years.

Travelling New Zealand gave me a new perspective of living and I really can learn a lot from the laid-back Kiwi way. Don’t worry! That is the motto. Everything will work out somehow and if it does not, we do it differently.

We met so many amazing people. They shaped our journey as much as the country did. Some of them were real Kiwis, others were travellers themself. A HUGE Thank You to: Lulu, Emmy, John, Joy, Dean, Constantin, Sally and her family, Franziska, Mareike, Lindy, Gavin, Sarah, Welmoed, Robin, Martina, Julia and her family, Ruojun / Kelly, Shannon, Chloe, Karen, Lars, Sarah, Alina, Anna, Silvia, Celine, Adriana and Nadine.

Of course we will miss this beautiful country, but every end is also a beginning. The road lies ahead of us, we just need to take the next step.

Our time in New Zealand may be over, but the journey is not. 27 days are left, until we are back in Kiel, our hometown. Can you guess our next destination? Hint: in this country it is a crime to import chewing gum.

Wwoofing in Whangarei II.

Second host, second chance. Our stay at the beautiful Sandy Bay was quite different to our first host in Whangarei. 

Our new host had a welcoming smile on her face when she picked us up in Whangarei and took us to the Tutukaka coast (30 minutes by car) to have a first dinner with her family.

On the next day she took us to the Retreat in Sandy Bay, which became our home for the next two weeks. We stayed in a small cabin and shared our kitchen, work and experiences with two other Wwoofers from Germany. It is just incredible how many young Germans we meet along the way! No wonder they call some areas where a lot of campervans a staying over night “little Germany”. Anyway, the Retreat is a place for art, gardening, DIY, nature and exchange, we had a really great time there.

Of course we also had to work, but this time the work was much more varied. Pulling weeds, planting, caring for succulents, we even did some fencing. On other days we cleaned holiday homes with our host. It was hard work, but it was not as boring as with the last host, so we had quite a lot of fun. Dealing with the crazy black sheep was not so much fun, he always tried to ram you, when you entered the paddock. Towards the end of our stay, we developed a sneaking in technique, but it did not always work.

The host was much better organized for wwoofing and gave us some pamphlets at the beginning of our stay with informations about work hours and the Retreat. She showed us a lot of local things, like the hidden Whale Bay and the Louqat fruit you can find on the side of the road in Northland. Every weekend she took us to another market, first the farmer’s market in Kerikeri and the next week a new small market in Ngunguru. We were introduced quite well to the local Kiwi life. 

She also showed us the best beaches in the area, like Sandy Bay and Matapouri Beach. We saw the Whangarei falls and went on some walks. We even had two days off. On one of them we took part in a boat tour to the Poor Knight Islands and went snorkelling there. It was incredible to get so close to the seals and swimming into dark caves. The water was really clear, giving us a good view on all the fish.

But there was something about our host herself that was different. She had a good sense of people and was able to see inside us quite well. She had a very positive attitude and a good and supporting influence on us and which enabled us to consider some big personal decisions. Dear host, thank you for being there for us! Without you, we maybe would not have realized, how we want to change.

The two weeks were over quickly and we had to leave, but we were very excited about the next part of our journey: the far North.

Some Pictures:

Wwoofing in Whangarei I.

The last month we have been wwoofing in Whangarei and it kept me really busy. Sadly, not every host was as good as expected.

Hey world, it is me and I am finally back! I was at a places with probably the worst phone reception ever and no internet at all. Joking … but it is really bad (so bad I can not upload any picture at all). So much has happened in the last month that I will split it in two post. Here is the first one, about Maeve’s and my first Wwoofing experience:

You my ask yourself: Wwoofing? Is that something for dogs? Why are they doing it so long?

WWOOF stands for Willing Workers On Organic Farms and is a platform for farms, households and volunteers around the globe. The volunteers, mostly backpackers, can stay at a host and are given accommodation and food in exchange for a few hours of work a day. At most host you are expected to work between four and six hours. It is great opportunity for travellers to get to know the local life and to make a cultural exchange between the host and the volunteer. Personally, it is also important for me to give something back to the country we are take from while travelling, creating something and leave a small piece to remember behind. Sadly, not all volunteers want to experience and exchange, the are more interested in the cheap accommodation, because hostels are quite expensive. On the other hand, some hosts are only looking for cheap workers. It is sad to see how some people exploit the Wwoofing site.

Our very first Wwoofing-Host was a woman living in Auckland and Whangarei. We stayed two weeks with her, which is often the time a volunteer stays with a host.

The first week we stayed in Auckland with her and helped organizing and cleaning over hundert moroccan carpets. Definetly enough for two lives! Some of them were quite antique and others had moths in them. We also cleaned occasionally and cooked dinner most of the times.

We were staying in a nice, old caravan in Ponsonby (the best part of Auckland) and later had our own part of the farmhouse in Whangarei.

Sadly, even if our host was a nice person, she did not really made us feel welcome in her chaotic home. She never really talked a lot to us and send us often politely away after dinner. Even if the work was very boring  (specially later on the farm) we were still very motivated to get it all done, because it was our first host ever, but for her it was the least that somebody could do with a smile on his face. She often made us wait for a long time and usually got out of bed at lunchtime, which made it quite complicated to use to free time. Another thing is, we did not wanted to wwoof in Auckland and were waiting every day to leave for Whangarei and for seven days our host told us: we will go definitely tomorrow.

The farm land was very beautiful and wild, with a good view on the Whangarei Heads, but not in walking distance of anything. The farmhouse was located at the top of the hill and it was always very windy up there. One thing we had to get used to is the missing central heat in houses in New Zealand. If you are lucky, the got a fire place or a portable heater, sometimes they just do not. We had to share a small heater with the others, which meant it was usually very cold in our room. Additionally the flush on the toilet was not working and we showered with cold water. It has to be worth it, we thought, if we could work with the sheep and maybe those cute lambs. Unfortunately we did not work with the sheep at all, cause they were just on the farmland all day. Instead we had fun tasks like raking leaves all day, putting them in piles. For some reason our host did not wanted us to collect the piles right afterwards, so they were often gone the next day, because of the heavy wind and we had to rake there again. Slowly we began to realize, we are doing shitty jobs for really shitty payment.

At the last few days we met another Wwoofer, a nice guy from Bavaria, who came to the farm to stay when we are gone. We had to show him how to do all the things on the farm and once again we felt like cheap workers that could easily be replaced. By telling him what we have been doing for two weeks, we finally realized how bad our host was. She used us and always made empty promises. In the end we were happy to leave, even if our host begged us to stay longer.

Last but not least, an advice if you want to wwoof yourself: our host was doing wwoofing since a few years now and had no reviews on her profile. This should always make you suspicious and wonder, why never anybody wrote something, because maybe the volunteers did not know how to put their not as good as expected experience into nice words for the internet.

We have learned our lesson and luckily our next host was quite different.

To be continued.

 

Expectations

Goals I want to achive and things I want to experience while being in New Zealand

Some months ago I got my long-awaited Working Holiday Visa and in just a few days my time for departure has come. While I am still busy organizing the last small things, my mind is already around half the globe and I am thinking: What could I gain from this adventure?

Obviously I want to discover New Zealand for myself and I want to meet people living in NZ, learn something about how they are living. Maybe I will meet other travelers from different countries and while doing this I hopefully can improve my own English skills.

Further I would like to take this chance to expand my inside in the agriculture field and to support the thought of studying agricultural sciences. In this case a fruit-picking job is not just a job, but important experience for me.

In addition to all of this I will looking for three things which we should always try find, whether we are at home or at the other end of the world:
Having a great time. Maybe the journey is not perfect all the time, but hopefully the balance between the good things and the bad things happening is there.
Discovering my own limits and going above them. It is time for me to step outside the comfort zone and start challenging myself, because challenge is surely waiting at the other side of the golbe.
Changing my perspective. It says: The world changes when we change our perspective.