Landing in New Zealand was like a homecoming for me.

Being able to easily understand the language and feel safe was just amazing.

I did land at 5 am and immigration was the most intense I ever experienced, but I was in the car towards my Airbnb at 7:30 am.

I just put my stuff down and freshened up and then went to explore Auckland. I did not have a transportation card yet, but thankfully the nice bus driver let me ride the bus anyway as long as I promised him I’d buy one in the city, which I did.

I had pancakes at McDonalds as breakfast, since it was the only thing open and then went on a lovely walk along the waterfront.

Afterwards, I went to the Auckland Art Museum, and they surprisingly had an exhibition about Guo Pei, one of my favourite designers and the exhibits were breathtaking. After about two hours I decided it was time to leave and went across town to the alleged best piercing studio in Auckland. They carefully inspected my eyebrow piercing and we decided it would be best to take it out and re-pierce it in a few weeks when I return to Auckland. Afterwards, I made a quick stop at the grocery store to pick up some snacks and some breakfast for the next morning, before I grabbed some duck for dinner and then went to my Airbnb to do some laundry and then finally went to bed after being awake for 46 hours.

Day 2:

Unfortunately, I could not sleep in as I had to be at the Kiwi Experience Bus meeting point at 8:30 am.

I met my wonderful driver for the next weeks, Hamish, and sat down next to David, who ended up being German as well. After a few hours of driving, we stopped at Hahei Beach, which was gorgeous, before we continued to Hot Water Beach, where we would spend the night.

We got situated in our rooms and then David, Michelle and I walked down to the beach through a bit of a jungle.

I went for a swim which was colder than expected and then we slowly made our way back to our accommodation to have some dinner before the actual activity started: Hot Water Beach is called Hot Water Beach because it has hot springs under the sand. When the tide is low, everyone goes to the beach with shovels and digs holes in the sand, as there are hot springs beneath it. The water from the springs is extremely hot (80-100 degrees Celsius) so we had to mix it with the cold ocean water to get a nice temperated hot tub. When we achieved that we all sat in the hole we had just dug and enjoyed the sunset and talked, getting to know each other more.

After a while we got hot, so we ran into the sea to cool off and rid ourselves of the sand before it was time to go to sleep, as our tour would continue early the next morning.

Day 3:

Early in the morning, we all piled into the bus again and drove for 2 hours before stopping and going for a walk through a valley and into some caves, where we could see a glow worm occasionally.

We then continued our drive to Waitomo. After dropping our bags at our accom, I got picked up to go black water rafting through the Waitomo Glow worm caves. We got all dressed up in thick wetsuits, gumboots and helmets with flashlights on them and then it was time to grab our tube and make our way 80m underground into this cave system. The next hour or so would be filled with us tubing through the caves, jumping off waterfalls and admiring the thousands of glow worms in the cave. Unfortunately, my wet suit was not doing what it was supposed to be doing, so I was subjected to the freezing water and spent most of my time shivering. The guides did their best to help and kept pouring hot squash into the neck opening of my wetsuit but that only helped for a second, so I just had to accept that I would be miserable for the remainder of the tubing. Finally, we made it to the end of the cave system and thankfully I was the first to get lifted out of the water and be brought to the daylight, where I started doing jumping jacks to warm myself up.

That whole experience exhausted me so much that as soon as I got back to my room I fell asleep.

Day 4:

Today I had two activities on the agenda:

First, most of the bus went to Hobbiton, the place where Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed, which is set in beautiful rolling hills, and all the little hobbit-holes actually exist, even if not all of them have an interior. We had a great tour guide who told us all about how the movies were made, how they made Gandalf look so tall and the hobbits so short and how peculiar Peter Jackson is about the accuracy of the set (he for example hired someone whose only job it was to “hang up” the laundry every day to create a path in the grass). Then it was time to go into the hobbit-holes and the eye and love for detail was apparent immediately. Dominique and I had great fun trying out all the furniture made for hobbits, which ended up being perfect for me but way too small for her, so we were like real-life Frodo and Gandalf. When we had looked at every single thing it was time to make our way to the brewery and have a well-deserved drink. They mostly had alcoholic beverages but they did have a non-alcoholic ginger beer, which I enjoyed while walking around the lake. We had worked up an appetite so I ended up getting a meat pie, which surprisingly was the best one I had in all my time in New Zealand.

Then the bus picked us up again and drove us all the way to Rotorua, a town very rich in Maori Culture.

Therefore, the second activity of the day was visiting a Maori Village and taking part in a Maori Experience. It started with a nice dinner, which all of us were super excited about, as we had been living off of untoasted toast for the past few days. During the dinner, we had to vote for a representative, but it was only allowed to be a man and it also ended up being a random guest that none of us knew. After we finished dinner we went outside and watched the Maori men come in a boat singing a war song. After they had driven past us we walked through the village to the big auditorium, where the Maori performed for us and presented their weapons and instruments. During the show, our voted representative had to give the Maori Chief a leaf as a peace offering, which confused us all as we were not aware that we hadn’t been at peace with the Maori.

After it was done we all left a bit confused and disappointed as it felt very performative and not like an experience at all.

To lighten up the mood our bus driver drove us to a bar where we stayed for a while and I had an animated conversation about horses.

After a while me and another girl walked back to the accom and went to sleep.

Day 5:

In the morning I went to the Geothermal Wonderland in Rotorua where I walked around and saw Geysirs erupting and watched mud pools bubble. They also had two Kiwis which were siblings that we were allowed to look at, which ended up being the only Kiwis I saw during my time in NZ, so I am grateful I saw those. On our way out we learned about Maori Crafts, which ended up being more interesting than the experience the night before. Towards the end, we did have to rush a bit as we did not want to risk being left by our bus driver. We did make it in time and were on the road towards Taupo soon after.

After about two hours we made a stop at the Huka Falls, a gorgeous river and waterfall where we lingered for a bit before driving to Taupo.

Taupo has the World’s Coolest McDonalds, which we went to check out, but it really isn’t that cool. At 6 all of us went to the harbour to go on a Sailing Adventure on a Catamaran, which was gorgeous as we sailed into the sunset. It was also someone’s birthday, so we sang and had some cake before getting off the boat. Since most of the friends I had made were doing the Tongariro Crossing early the next morning we went to bed soon.

Day 6:

We had an extra day in Taupo so people could do the Tongariro Crossing, but since I was not doing that I decided to sleep in, and lounge around in a cafe (which did not work out as all the cafes in NZ close at around 12) and do some grocery shopping. After a while, I went back to my accommodation, where I met Lena, who was also from Germany and we made plans to do the bungee swing together.

When Dominique came back from hiking we cooked way too much pasta and chilled until it was time to go to sleep.

Day 7:

This day would be a long day, as we had to drive from Taupo all the way to Wellington, which takes 5-7 hours without stops. We got into Wellington in the evening and then Michelle, Dominique and I went to eat some dinner before Lena joined us to go to the Botanical Garden. We took the cable car up and then walked around until we heard music and decided to follow the music and find its origin. Turns out the botanical garden has free open-air concerts in summer, so we sat on a bench listening to the music before deciding to explore a bit more of the city, it is the capital after all. We walked towards the waterfront, through an interesting graveyard, and then along the waterfront. At some point, we were in the mood to sit down and have a drink. At that point, Michelle left us to get some sleep while Dominique, Lena and I went in search of a bar. We found a very odd place that somehow served everything. Therefore we ended up with an order of two cheesecakes, garlic bread, some cocktails, hot chocolate and a milkshake for me. Said milkshake ended up being enormous, and I was actually struggling to finish it. When we did finish our food and drinks we went back to our accommodation to get some sleep before we had to get the ferry early the next morning.

Day 8:

We took the ferry to the South Island, which supplied us with gorgeous views, even though I did unfortunately fall asleep on the viewing deck and missed the dolphins. When we docked we picked up our luggage and made our way to our new bus, which would take us to Kaiteriteri, a small beach town where we would spend the night. We got situated and then went down to the beach for a swim and just had a chill evening.

Day 9:

We made our way to Westport, which was truly one of the most random stops on our trip, as there was almost nothing to do or see in Westport. On our way to Westport, we made a stop at Kerr Bay, where a few people also jumped into the water, but I was too scared of the massive eels living under the pier to go in and just enjoyed my lunch (untoasted toast and hummus) while sitting on the rocky beach.

When everyone was out of the water and had dried off, we continued our journey to Westport.

Arriving in Westport we were told that our only possible activity here would be surfing, but that was not suitable for beginners, so I could not partake in that. It was Pizza Night when we got there though so we had some pizza and decided to take a walk to the beach to see the sunset. That walk ended up being more than an hour each way, the beach wasn’t really a beach and the sunset was non-existent. Nonetheless, I had fun, as I had made it my mission to get to know Tyler, the most mono-syllabic person I have ever met.

When we finally got back to our accommodation it was time to go to sleep, especially since we had an early morning the next day.

Day 10:

On our way to Mahinapua, we stopped at Cape Foulwind to go for a hike along the coast before getting back on the bus. After a bit more than an hour we stopped again, to take a walk through the Paparoa National Park and to see the pancake rocks.

Mahinapua is a bit of a random stop in the middle of nowhere, but it’s where the costume party takes place. Therefore, we spent our time on the bus voting on themes and ended up with two: Black & White and the first letter of your name. To prepare we stopped in a town that has a small costume shop (That I am convinced the Kiwi Experience passengers keep afloat) and went shopping. I did not want to buy much, especially since I did not have any space in my backpack as well as there are not many words with Q. I decided to buy a crown and long gloves and dress up as a Queen. I also borrowed a Hawaii shirt from someone, so I might’ve been the Queen of Hawaii Shirts. In Mahinapua we had burgers and fries all together before we got ready to party. It was a very fun night, and a lot happened, but I ended up being in bed shortly after midnight (I believe).

Day 11:

We made our way to Franz Josef at around 10 am, and to our delight, we were transporting a small dog on the bus. Since I was sitting in the front row and was not hungover I got the job to look after the dog and keep it calm and entertained.

We arrived in Franz Josef in the afternoon and went into the very big outdoor hot tub before getting ready for unlimited taco night. Unlimited Taco night turned into a bit of a party night, where I also found UV face paint, and then painted on everyone’s face, and got painted on in return. I do not actually know when I went to bed.

Day 12:

Thankfully we had another day in Franz Josef, and while Dominique and her friend Anderson embarked on an 8-hour hike I decided to sleep in. At some point, I did get up, but only to walk across the hallway and lie down on the floor of Vivi’s room, steal some of her chips and inspect her bag.

I am pretty sure I made it outside at around 4 pm and did end up being quite productive, as I finished the creative part of my uni application. I then went to find something to eat, but for some reason, I could only find ice cream, so I ended up with three scoops of ice cream and whipped cream as my first meal of the day. The upside of this was, that they gave it to me in a to-go box, which I proceeded to use for the remainder of the NZ trip. After a while, Dominique and Anderson came back from their hike and cooked something, and were kind enough to share.

Afterwards, we had a scrumptious gossip session in the hallway (possibly not the smartest place, as everyone could hear) which then turned into a hallway party. Surprisingly no one was annoyed by our hallway party and we had loads of fun.

Since we had to leave very early the next morning, we went to bed at a reasonable time.

Day 13:

On our way to Queenstown, we made quite a lot of stops. One at a waterfall, but most at random places where our driver urged us to buy food, as this would be our last food stop. I am certain that we made at least 5 last food stops, so we all had way too much to eat. Dominique and I were sitting front row and were stuck in a continuous laughing attack for multiple hours. After about seven hours of driving, I folded into myself like a shrimp and fell asleep. Unfortunately, we got to Wanaka shortly after, so my nap was cut short. The stop in Wanaka was gorgeous but a little random. After about half an hour we continued our drive and arrived in Queenstown at 6.

We then got ready for the bar crawl, as this was our last night all together.

We started in a nice bar with outdoor seating before moving on to a very small club where we were served pizza. When we had finished our pizza, we went to another random bar before we moved on to the ice bar that we had all been waiting for. It ended up not being as exciting as expected but it was still very fun, especially since we were all so bundled up in our big coats and gloves.

After a while, we moved on to the final destination of the bar crawl, a silent disco.

We all got headphones that had three programs, so we could choose what to listen to. I mostly listened to techno but occasionally switched to the pop channel if it was playing a great sing-along song.

Shortly after 1 am, we felt tired and hungry, so we went to McDonalds, the only place open.

Dominique insisted on building a vegetarian burger, but since they did not have any veggie patties it ended up being a very sad sandwich.

For some reason, some of us did end up going to another club, which was playing Latin techno music. This was not really my vibe so I left at some time between 2 and 3 am.

Day 14:

We had a much-needed sleep in and then Merijn, Dominique, Noah, Anderson and I had some Bagel Burgers for lunch before heading up to the Luge. We met up with Olli and then took the gondola up the mountain, where we collected our helmets and went to get our Karts. After we had secured everything we needed, we raced down the mountain. I was unfortunately the slowest one every single time, but at least I did not crash.

We enjoyed the views for a bit before heading back down, where we went grocery shopping.

Merijn and I teamed up to cook dinner together, and it ended up being really good. We made enough that we had some leftovers for the road the next day.

Considering we had a super early morning ahead of us, we went to sleep early-ish.

Day 15:

We had to catch our bus at 5 am to take us to Milford Sound.

The longer we drove the worse the weather became, and since it was a five-hour drive we were in a storm by the end of it.

We made a quick stop after 3 hours, where I got a hot chocolate and found some alpacas behind the building. Turns out those alpacas still remembered their roots, cause when I spoke to them in Spanish they came over immediately.

After 5 hours we made it to Milford Sound, but due to the storm a few of the boats before us had been cancelled, so we waited to see if we had made the drive in vain. Thankfully we did not and were able to board the boat.

Our driver had told us that we would get rain clothes on the boat, unfortunately, that was untrue. I did have my rain jacket with me, but it turned out to be non-waterproof.

Dominique and I did not want to stay inside of the boat for the entire time, so we decided to go out on the deck. The wind was insanely strong and I almost fell over multiple times. We were also soaked in a matter of seconds, as this was the worst storm in Milford Sound in years. The upside of this was, that we saw over 200 waterfalls, while the people who went the day before saw 5.

Dominique and I were the inspiration and soon quite a lot of people were out on the deck, bracing the storm the best we could.

It was an amazing experience and I am extremely grateful.

I did regret all my life choices on the 5-hour bus ride back, as I was completely soaked and did not have a change of clothes with me. By some miracle, I did not get sick though.

Dominique and I stayed in that night and planned to have an early night, but somehow that did not work out. We played some pool until they closed the common room at 10 pm. Then we moved on to a balcony of a room that was not mine, where we could see the people in the club across the street, and hear the music, so we had our own dance party on the balcony. After a while we got bored of that so we sat in the hallway, this time without loud music though. I tried drawing the passengers of the bus but we all ended up looking like fried eggs, to our great amusement. At some point we got hungry again, so we once again ended up at the McDonald’s at 2 am, this time in our pyjamas. We met some people there who were also on our bus and it ended up being a very fun night.

Since it was Dominique and Is last night together, we both squeezed into Dominique’s bed at 4 am and fell asleep.

Day 16:

I woke up surprisingly well rested, but then remembered that in a few hours, I would be falling into a 300m deep VALLEY and gone was my relaxation.

After breakfast, I moved my stuff to my new accommodation for the next few days, where I also met up with Lena, who made it to Queenstown. We went to the Bungee Jump Office together signed everything and got weighed and then we waited.

Finally, the bus came to pick us up and the anxiety was running high at that point. Thankfully Merijn sat next to me and distracted me with a discussion about a topic I cannot remember.

It was quite a long drive, but we made it and got checked in and all geared up. Then I had to say bye to Merijn as he was doing the jump and Lena and I were doing the swing. Lena and I went over the hanging bridge to the platform that was suspended in the middle of the CANYON and therefore very much shaking due to the strong wind. Because of said wind, we could not jump or swing for the longest time, and thankfully I was allowed to run back to buy an overpriced hoodie. Unfortunately, they did not have anything close to my size, so the hoodie looked like a dress on me.

Finally, we were allowed to start, and the first couple went. When they came back up, she was shaking and would not speak, so Lena and I tried to hide from the employees so they would not make us go.

To no avail, as they found us and did not listen to our pleading. We sat down and got pulled forward until we were just hanging with nothing under us. It felt like an eternity but finally, they dropped us and we fell. We were both too stunned to scream, but the free fall was over as soon as we realized we were falling. Then we swung back and forth until we stopped. Then came the worst part, in my opinion, we got pulled back up backwards, so we could not see where we were going, while the ground was hundreds of meters beneath us.

When we had ground beneath our feet again we ate a celebratory ice cream and then took the bus back.

In the afternoon we sat in the park, enjoying the sun and eating a Fergburger, the most popular burger in Queenstown. The ducks also really wanted our burgers, so we had to have a bit of a fight with them.

Fortunately, we did win and could enjoy our food afterwards.

Day 17:

I went on a road trip to Wanaka with Merijn, and two others. They were going to Wanaka to do a big hike, which I would not do, so I just chilled by the lake, walked to the famous Wanaka tree, got a horrible sunburn, and then walked to a nice cafe to be in the shade and do some work. After a while the hikers returned, so we had some ice cream and sat on the grass for a bit before heading back to Queenstown.

Merjin met up with some friends at Cowboys and took me as his plus one. I finally worked up the courage to ride the mechanic bull they have, but I failed horribly (I blame it on the German bartender operating the bull and my sports leggings). Apart from that embarrassment, it was a lovely night.

Day 18:

It was my last day in Queenstown so I packed, went on a walk along the waterfront and just chilled until Vivi came back. We went out to eat and decided to go out one last time together, and somehow ended up at Cowboys again. This time there was a pool table, so we played a round of pool, before once again riding the bull (This time did not go any better, but I was also wearing sports leggings again).

Day 19&20:

I continued my Kiwi Experience and went to Lake Tekapo, which is in a dark sky reserve, so I was extremely excited to see the stars. I did in fact not see any stars, as it was bad weather. It was 3 degrees and actually snowed at some point during the night, so I spent my time snuggled up on the big sofa in the common room reading. I stayed there for two nights, so I had big hopes for the second night, but it was also disappointing.

Day 21:

We made our way to Christchurch, which I was really curious about, as I was supposed to have spent my exchange year there before covid happened.

Thankfully I had met someone on the Kiwi Experience who lives in Christchurch so he took me on a big walk and showed me around the city. We ended our walk in the gorgeous botanical garden of Christchurch.

I went to drink an apparently award-winning hot chocolate, as it was raining, but it ended up being so disgusting that I had to leave it unfinished. I then decided that it was time to go to the cinema, and walked to the closest one. It ended up being an overpriced chain cinema, but since I was already there I decided to stay. I watched the new Mean Girls movie, which turned out to be a musical.

It wasn’t really my cup of tea, but I still had fun.

Afterwards, I went to the food market across the street and had some amazing Nepalese dumplings before walking back to my accommodation.

Day 22:

I slept in and went for a little walk before meeting up with Lena.

We walked to a very nice part of Christchurch and had some insanely good waffles, before meeting up with some other people in a bar and having some drinks and fries. Unfortunately, I was not dressed appropriately and was freezing, so I walked back to my accommodation shortly after finishing the fries.

On the way there I discovered a gorgeous building, which houses the most prestigious boys’ school in NZ, but because the school is not that popular anymore, they share the buildings with a few other establishments. One of those establishments is a gorgeous cinema in the Art Deco style, that I immediately wanted to go to. They had no more shows that night so I promised I would come back the next day.

Day 23:

I had some breakfast and then went to the Christchurch Art Gallery, which had an interesting mix of contemporary art, Maori art, and very old oil paintings. After a few hours, Lena came to pick me up and we went shopping, before heading to the cinema I had found the day before. The cinema employee recommended Poor Things to us, so we watched that, but we truly did not know what we had signed up for. Afterwards, we went back to the food market and had some amazing Indian food before saying goodbye.

Day 24:

I was on the bus towards Kaikoura early in the morning, and we got there around 10.

Our driver sent us on a hike, that was supposed to be super easy, but either we got lost or he lied because that was not an easy hike. I was supposed to go on a whale-watching tour that day, but we took too long on the hike so the driver drove off without us. Thankfully I was staying in Kaikoura for two nights, so I had time to go whale watching the next day. I explored the city a bit before taking advantage of the two pools our accommodation had, one hot, and one cold.

Afterwards, I cooked some dinner and we played some card games before going to bed.

Day 25:

I woke up ready to go whale watching at 10 am, just to get a message that it was postponed to the afternoon due to the weather. I waited patiently until the afternoon but then got a call that it was cancelled for the entire day. Thankfully I met Verity in my room, who managed to cheer me up.

We went for a walk and some lovely (and overpriced) fish and chips.

Day 26:

Thankfully I was able to go dolphin watching this morning, but the price I had to pay for that was getting up at 5 am, as we had to be at the office at 5. We walked there in the dark, and the people who would snorkel with the dolphins got safety instructions while I bought a postcard.

Finally, it was time to drive to the harbour, as the sun had begun to rise.

We got on our boat and drove for a few minutes before we spotted the first dolphins.

We continued driving until there were hundreds of dolphins around us, and the snorkelers went into the water and started making noises to attract the dolphins, which sounded hilarious.

We made two more stops in spots with lots of dolphins before it was time to head back to the harbour.

We bought some breakfast, which caused us to almost miss our bus.

We had a long way of driving ahead of us, as we had to make it all the way to Wellington, which is on the other island.

We made it to Wellington and I checked into my accommodation and immediately went to sleep.

Day 27:

I slept in and then went straight to the cinema. It was a gorgeous cinema that instead of seats had small vintage couches and I fell in love with it immediately.

I watched Priscilla, which was slightly disappointing, but I am glad I saw it.

Afterwards, I explored Wellington, and bought a few things I needed, before sitting down by the waterfront and eating a late little lunch. I felt a bit under the weather so went back to my accommodation at around 6 and made myself some dinner before going to bed.

Day 28:

I had to take a rest day as my cold was only getting worse.

I made myself some french toast for breakfast and then did this and that for a while before doing laundry and taking a nap.

I tried to make egg fried rice for dinner but it turned out really disgusting. Thankfully I still had my favorite Boysenberry yogurt in the fridge so I ate that instead.

Day 29:

I went to the Te Papa Museum, which is the National Museum of New Zealand and is insanely huge.

I spent almost six hours in the museum, which ranged from bird skeletons to contemporary installations to oil paintings of important people to houses. Every exhibit was connected to New Zealand’s history and it was super interesting.

When I had looked at everything I walked to Pizza Pomodoro and had a mind-blowing pizza.

Then I went back and packed, before heading to the cinema to see All of Us Strangers, which was such a gorgeous movie but so impossibly sad, that everyone in the cinema cried.

Afterwards, I met some people in the kitchen of my accommodation and we had a lovely talk while I ate the rest of my yoghurt.

Day 30:

I boarded my second last Kiwi bus, and we were only 5 passengers. The other 4 all knew each other so I decided to bond with the bus driver instead, who was very nice. The drive was hell though, as it was pouring so much that we could not see anything. The bus driver was unstoppable though and brought us to Taupo unharmed. We were all looking forward to doing the sailing adventure again, but that was cancelled due to the weather. The bus drivers in Taupo teamed up and drove us to some hot pools instead, where we relaxed for two hours and where I got to know the other 4 passengers.

We went to eat burgers after the hot pools and then some delicious ice cream to finish off the night.

Day 31:

I boarded my last Kiwi Bus, which was very sad, that would bring me back to Auckland, where all of this started.

It was a very nice drive though and we ended up picking up people in Rotorua, where I surprisingly reunited with Megan, who I had last seen at the beginning of the trip.

It was Megan’s last day in NZ and for some reason, she had not yet had a pie, so we had a pepper and steak pie together. It was a little too spicy for my liking, but it was still very nice to have this last experience with Megan.

As soon as we got to Auckland Megan had to go to the airport, so I went to my accom which was a capsule hotel. I could not check in yet so I just dropped all my stuff and went straight to the piercing salon.

I got my eyebrow pierced and then enquired about getting my lobes pierced as well, and turns out I could do both at the same time, so that is exactly what we did.

I was feeling a bit shaky afterwards so went to a bakery and had a biscoff latte, which I don’t necessarily have to have again. When I finished that I went to try some perfumes before going back to my accommodation to hibernate in my pod and watch a movie.

I did realize pretty quickly that I was slightly more claustrophobic than I thought and that I would not get much sleep tonight.

Day 32:

I had some bland toast for breakfast before heading to the winter gardens. They had two gorgeous greenhouses with beautiful flowers in them, but to my big surprise, they also had a stunning fernery behind the greenhouses, that boasted the richest tones of green.

There were some benches scattered around and I sat there for quite some time reading.

I was changing to a different accommodation, so I had to go back to move my luggage.

When I did that I met up with Rhys, who I had met on the bus to Taupo. We went to a nice book store and he recommended me some books that I then proceeded to buy.

When we both bought more books than we should’ve we went to the park nearby with the plan to read, but we ended up people and dog watching and not actually doing any reading.

When it was time for dinner we split up, as Rhys had some self-made dinner waiting for him. To my great excitement, I discovered a Dennys and promptly decided to have pancakes for dinner.

I thought Dennys only served pancakes, but turns out they also serve everything from Steak to Chinese and Indian food. I was set on my pancakes though, but when I got them they did not quite live up to my expectations.

Day 33:

I was originally planning to go to the War Memorial Museum but figured out it was quite the hike to even get up there and would also cost me 30$ and considering I had only got 2hours of sleep I decided to do something else.

I decided to go to a coffee shop with good wifi and had a great conversation with a group of construction workers who were taking their lunch break in the same cafe as me.

After a while, they had to go back to work and I decided to make my way to the beach.

It was quite the journey but I did make it and found a great shady spot to lie in.

I read my book and occasionally walked into the water, but chickened out whenever it hit my waist as it was freezing.

I was planning to cook but lost track of time and decided to just have dinner by the beach.

I found a NY-style pizza restaurant and had a slice of pizza and some garlic knots.

Afterwards, I went on the long way back to my accommodation and went to sleep.

Day 34:

I walked all the way from my accommodation to the ferry terminal to take the ferry to Waiheke Island.

It was an absolutely gorgeous ferry ride and after about an hour we arrived.

I waited for a while for the right bus that would take me to the other side of the island.

Once at the bus stop, the nice manager of my accommodation picked me up so I wouldn’t have to walk up the steep hill.

The view from the garden of my hotel was gorgeous and I spent some time reading before going on a long walk on the beach. At the end of the beach, I found a great Fish and Chips shop and picked up my dinner there. I went to the supermarket in search of my beloved boysenberry yoghurt, but they did not have it so I made my way back empty-handed. I met some more people at my accommodation and we played a game that I was horrible at before I went back to my room and met my roommate Simone, and we hit it off immediately, and talked for hours before our other two roommates joined us at midnight and it became a group discussion about everything and nothing.

Day 35:

I got up early despite the late night, called my grandma, and then got myself an e-bike to bike around the island. I waited for a while for Simone and her friend to join me, but after two hours I gave up and started on my own.

I pedalled all the way in one direction, where a supermarket marked the end of the road. Said supermarket had the yoghurt I was looking for so I had a little picnic before riding all the way into the other direction.

When I got to the end of the road on that side, I had a little nap on a bench before heading back towards my hotel. Halfway through I stopped at the local library and then got an apple cinnamon crepe.

I made my way through the hills to my hotel, grabbed my swimwear and book and headed back down to the beach. I did swim and read but it was very windy so I headed back quickly.

I packed and talked to some people and had yoghurt for dinner before heading to bed.

Day 36:

Day 36 was the first day of my Workaway.

So I packed up all my remaining things and said bye to my lovely roommates before spending an hour reading in the hammock and taking in the view.

Then the nice manager drove me down to the bus station and I took the bus to the ferry terminal and then the ferry next to Auckland. I had some time to kill so I went into the first cafe/restaurant I could find. It ended up having a very nice view over the harbour and I enjoyed my food a lot.

After a few hours, it was time to meet Chris, my host, at his work so we could drive out to Helensville together. The traffic was horrible but we had a very nice conversation and got to the house soon enough. I met Natalie, Chris’ wife, and their son, Sebastian and we had a gorgeous dinner from the grill out on the terrace, watching the sunset.

Day 37-56

My task for my stay was mostly taking care of the chickens. I loved it since I really got a feel for it. I prepared their food, released them from their coops every morning, took care of the baby chicks that were hatching and just kept everyone happy and safe. When I was not taking care of the chickens I was usually doing some chores around the house, and when I was done with that I would read or study for my upcoming TOEFL test.

On my days off, Natalie drove me to the beach and I spent my time reading and swimming there.

I also joined Natalie and Sebastian when they met up with friends, and we went to a waterfall or the beach. Natalie also taught me how to make yoghurt and cheese, which was super interesting.

The day of my TOEFL test came, and I was taking the test, doing well, until it froze on my last task and would not let me write anything before sending it off, so I had to spend two days contacting customer service until they finally started to help me. While they were not super helpful, they did promise me a free retake of the test, but this time it had to be in person. Therefore, I had to schedule it for Bangkok to my disdain.

After two and a half weeks of wonderful farm life, it was time for me to move on and go back to Auckland.

I had some breakfast before heading back to the piercing salon to get my piercings checked out. Luckily they were all fine, so I headed to the supermarket to buy some chocolate and sunscreen to import to Southeast Asia. After I finished my shopping I headed to the cinema to watch The Zone of Interest, which was an excellent film, but extremely hard to watch. To calm myself down after the movie I went back to the supermarket to buy one last tub of my beloved boysenberry yoghurt and then got so lost in the mall that I ended up befriending one of the SAs at Saint Laurent, who helped me get out of the maze.

When I finally made it out, I went to a bar that had a 6NZD pizza special and enjoyed some excellent aubergine pizza.

Afterwards, I went back to my hotel, with the plan to go to sleep early, but since I was staying in the capsule hotel again, I ended up doing laundry at 3 am and getting no sleep.

Day 57:

Since I did not get any sleep, my day was quite hazy. I just took a really big walk around Auckland and had at least 3 coffees in a row, before going to dinner at 5:30 pm and getting some phenomenal dumplings. Then I went back to prepare my luggage for flying and made my way to the airport at 8 pm. My flight was at 1:20 am, so I had a lot of time to kill after security and kept dozing off. When we were finally allowed to board I was half asleep already, so I passed out immediately after dinner and only woke up when breakfast was served, which was 10 hours later, effectively trapping the poor French couple next to me in their seats.