As you can see I didn't write about the last weeks of my travels. I don't know if I'll write about them, it would be sooo much to write about!
Just the short version - I've been travelling to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook with Susanna and Tim. (Both from Germany... what else?)
We've made some nice Walks in the area and looked at the breathtaking starry sky at Lake Tekapo - somebody told us that this would be the best place to see the stars - and it definitely was.
After our 3-day roadtrip, Susanna and me went back to Dunedin. Our first plan was going back to Christchurch but that didn't seem like a good idea after the earthquake. So we wen't to Dunedin and stayed there for one week again. We didn't do much that week... I think the only thing I can mention was visiting the Otago Museum where we could "pre-age" our face in the "faces"-exhibition. I hope I won't look like that when I'm 72!!!
After one week doing "nothing much" and eating we decided to leave Dunedin for going to Pleasant Point and doing a little wwoofing.
So we hitch-hiked to the farm we wanted to stay for one week and got to know our new host Ian. He runs a "small" farm with around 200 - 300 cows, deer, sheep, chicken, an old cat named Tango and a big pumpkin- and potatoe orchard.
Our main duties were chasing cows (ha-ha), picking potatoes and weeding. Picking potatoes was definitely the hardest part! Ian was really nice, we had a great comfy bed and all in all we spent a really nice week there. The only really, really, really bad thing to mention was the electric fence. I accidentely touched it when we were chasing cows - I got an electric shock with 8000 volts!!! That really, really, really hurts! Then, after one week wwoofing we went to Timaru. Susanna stayed there for just one night, I stayed for three nights. I wanted to avoid Christchurch as long as I could, so I did do "nothing much" again for three days. Then, on monday I went to Christchurch. I arrived in the evening and what can I say - it's really damaged. My hostel was near the blocked area, so I saw the armour and the police standing there - the atmosphere was scary. The next day (after one small aftershock) I walked around the blocked area because I was told that the buses were leaving from the "Hoyts-Cinema". I walked for a little more than 1 hour and I saw the damaged houses, walls and streets. It's definitely worse than after the firs big earthquake.
When I arrived at the cinema I realized that there were no busses leaving, so I called Jutta who came to pick me up. I spent the day at her place, talking about the last six months. Then, in the evening we had to say goodbye and I took a taxi to the airport. I stayed there for the night - sleeping was not really possible, so I was really tired the next day when my flight was leaving to Auckland.
I spent 4 1/2 hours in Auckland, then I took the flight to Sydney where I had to stay for again 3 1/2 hours. I was really happy when my flight to Singapore left - I could sleep and I thought about the movies I could watch in the plane.
But when I arrived at my seat I had to realiye, that the entertainment-system in my row didn't work. 21hours flight to Frankfurt and no movies - great!
But I was lucky and slept most of the time. The time I didn't sleep was filled with eating and reading a really bad book, but that's still better than nothing ^^
I arrived in Frankfurt at 5:37 am. Half an hour too late (they tried to fix the entertainment-system in Singapore, but instead they triggered a big blackout, so we left one hour too late.).
My mother and sister were waiting for me and they seemed really happy to have me back ^^
We went back to Karlsruhe were I had my first pretzel after six months. (I missed that! ^^)
In the evening we had "full house", nearly my whole family came to see me again. I showed them some pictures and we were talking till late.
I'm back to Germany now since more than one week and I really miss New Zealand, the warm weather (it is still too cold here!) and of course all the people there. (I called Yvonne three times since I am here, just to hear her voice :D)
I've got a job since friday, I'm working in an office now - earn a little money until I start university.
I'm looking forward for all my new (german) friends to come back to Germany again, so I can visit them and they can visit me.
That's it for now, I'll write again if something interesting happens in my life :D
Laura
