Wurstladen

As I already said we left for Nelson on monday afternoon. We got a ride from a really nice guy called Keith (he's about 5osomething^^) and when he dropped us he asked us if we would like to go out for dinner with him to a Thai restaurant (the best one in Nelson!) Miri and Dani felt really bad about taking that offer but he said that he would like to have some company for the evening and he would be glad to show us some real Thai food so in the end they said yes and he picked us up at 7. Dani and Miri shared a dish because they didn't want him to pay so much for the dinner. It was quite interesting.. at least they liked it. Miri let me have a little taste of her food but I really prefer my own.. It turned out that Keith had a Thai wife and had also lived there for quite some time so he knew a lot about the country and it's political situation.. which he told us a lot about. After the dinner we said good bye and Miri and Dani had to look some things up online before we went to bed.

Keith and the girls at the Thai restaurant

The next day we wanted to check out the iSite (the Information Center) to plan our trip through the Abel Tasman. Miri and Dani had argued about that a lot during the last days because both of them wanted to do something different but in the end they agreed on taking two days of walking and one day kayaking back. The walking part was free but they had to book the camp grounds they wanted to stay at and of course the kayaking tour in advance. On their way there they suddenly stood in front of a little cabin which said "Wurstwagen". It turned out to be a butchers shop which selled not only German saussages (hmmm Landjaeger!!!) but also other German products like Sauerkraut, cheese and Haribo! The two guys who owned the shop were German as well (from the very north). It's just crazy how many German people there are around, hm?

YEAH!

So we walked on, booked the Abel Tasman tour and last but not least went to the post office so that Dani could send out the bottle of wine that she had bought on our wine tasting tour in Blenheim for her parents. Uff it took for ever until Dani could finally send it becaue they weren't sure if it's possible to send wine and so we had to call different agencies orr whatever to ask them.. but it worked out in the end and we could hop on the road to get to Motueka, the last stop before our tour through the Abel Tasman. The Backpackers we stayed at was just so cute and (of course) the hosts were German.. what else ;-) But they helped us a lot with organizing all the gere we had to borough for the tour and so we finally had our tent, some sleeping matts, Miri had a good sleeping bag and we had some tickets for the bus which would pick us up at 7.35 the next morning. The last problem was our luggage.. Of course I couldn't carry anything so Miri and Dani had to split all of it between them. It was so much stuff that the hosts gave us some big plastic bags where they could put all their clothes and other stuff into that they didn't need on the tour and leave it at the Backpacker. Then they had to pack their big backpacks with the tent, sleeping bags, food, clothes and everything else they needed. Oh what an act!

What a mess..
Do you see the big black plastic bags?

Life in Blenheim

..or Blenm.. how they pronounce this city here. The Backpacker we stayed at was soo great, really! It was called "The Grapevine" and there was actually one main house and another one (that we stayed at) across the street. So we had kind of our own house with 8 other people together. Miri and Dani also baked twice during that week. Guess what they made... ;-)

Schneckennudeln!!!

In the evenings we sat together and talked or played cards. It was a lot of fun!

Ale, Etsu and Mauro

The two Argentinien boys and the Japanese girl

Saturday night out in Blenheim..

Fun stuff..

not much to do in that quiet town but tons of people from the Backpacker to do it with ;-)

Sunday was kind of lazy, we had to recover from the night before (don't worry.. I made sure that Miri doesn't get waisted..) Miri red in the sun while I was sleeping next to her. She boroughed the German translation of Twilight from Dani and couldn't stop reading it. Our last day in Blenheim was Monday. So Miri and Dani thought now that they have been working on the vineyard for 1,5 weeks they might as well do a little windtasting tour. So said and done.. we took the free bikes from the Backpacker (well free to go into town but not to the vineyards but who cares^^ ..we didn't) and took off together with two other guys

Micha and Dani on the crappy bikes

Miri ready to get drunk ;-)

Miri and Dani with the vineyards in the background

ahhh.. be careful Miri!

more wine! Cheers!

Then after the winetasting tour Miri and Dani went on the road to hitch hike to Nelson, their destination for the night. But before that Miri had to say good bye to her fake vans.. oh well there are worse things.. they were just too messed up from all the work on the vineyard

Vineyard work...

So another week of work has begun.. well actually now it's almost over. One more day and then we are free to travel again! I can't wait.. it has taken for ever. Especially because i didn't have anything to do. Watch the sky, the grapes, the mountains around... I have to admit it's been quite nice but seriously.. after the second day waiting for Miri and Dani for 7 hours can not be fun anymore. Miri sometimes took me with her to show me what she had to do and we took some pictures of me in the grapes.. that was fun. But the work she had to do.. uhhh.. all those rotten grapes. Harvest hasn't started yet so all there was to do was cut out the rotten grapes.
So let me explain one day of Miris life here in Blenheim:
her alarm went off every day at 5.45 am and so her and Dani got up, had breakfast and got ready to be picked up. It was still dark when they stood in front of the backpacker and not bad enouhj that it was so early.. it was also freezing cold! So we stood there all together and waited for Saba (we're not quite sure if he's actually called like that) to pick us up.. and he was ALWAYS late! And we stood there freezing. So the next stop was at the contracters house where everyone met. And then wait... and wait.. for about 1 or 1,5 hours! What the **** did we wait for?? Nobody knew. So in the end we finally drove to the vineyard and they started working. There is a short break at 10 and a lunch break at 12.30 when we all relaxed in the sun. It was always quite warm after the short break and in the afternoon it got even warmer. At about 3 or 4 they were done. And I mean DONE! You could not talk to them. Seriously.. when I told Miri something she sometimes would forget it of not react.. so the only thing they did when we were back at the backpacker was shower, get something to eat, talk to the others for a little bit and then go to bed. What a successful day! Miri complains about her back all the time.. and I can really understand that. She has to bend over so much when she is working because the grapes are hanging very low and she has to get every rotten one!
There is one more thing I want to tell you about. Wednesday! The day before Mathew, the contracter, told Miri and Dani that he would call them if there was work for wednesday.. and he didn't. So the two thought wanted to try to go somewhere else.. just show up at the place and try to get work right away. So they got up like every morning and all the sudden Saba showed up at the door of the backpacker! What? And he even was early that day.. otherwise we probably would have left until he would have come. Wow.. that was kind of luck, I guess.. and then he told them that there was work for the rest of the week. Cool! And just the day before we ended up driving around for an hour.. apparently Mathew didn't know where we could work... that Mathew.. he's messed up with his organisation.. don't ever work for him!

Vineyard and nice mountains in the back

Miri and Dani in the morning, listening to musik while waiting for Mathew

cutting the rotten ones.. NO! Not that one Miri!!!!


Hiding in the grapes ;-)

Crazy girls.. finally done with work

..for the day..

What a wonderful world!

Actually the start of our south island tour was not as great as it could have been.. Miri was still sick and so we stayed inside the ferry most of the time. I would have liked to see more of Wellington when we left the harbour but she was so tired and so we decided to keep it slow. But about an hour before we arrived in Picton (the ferry ride took about 3 hours) Miri and Dani couldn't stay inside anymore and so we looked for a nice spot on deck in the sun. Yeah, the landscape was really nice!

Uiiii

So cool!

Miri and I.. really!

Picton! Get ready!

Wellington, here we come!!!!

So after this exhausting hike we finally made our way down to Wellington (that was on monday). And it looked just beautiful when we drove into the city.. really, I fell in love at first sight! Look at this:

the sea, hills.. ahh.. great!

Yeah, Wellington was the town where we wanted to meet Dani again.(we met her in Auckland at the Lantern Festival) It was great to see her again and the two girls had so much to talk about.. I got really dizzy. It wasn't too warm though. The city is also known as the windiest city in the world! And it WAS windy!

Well the next day we had a full shedule! We bought the ticket for the ferry on thursday and then a one day pass for the bus. We wet to the parliament buildings.. really cool! one of them looks like a beehive and is also called like that. Here's Miri and me at the entrance door.. welcome!

Our next stop was a little museum with figures of the movie Lord of the Rings.. they even showed a movie on how the owners of the museum and their crew helped to make the masks of all the actors look real.. amazing!

Miri.. she never takes anything serious..

..and the rest we did that day is boring ;-)

Unfortunately Miri got a terrible cold the next day.. I'm telling you she should have listened to me and take a scarf with her the day before! But she never listens..

So all we did that day was going to the museum and walk around town for a little bit. It's so nice! The museum was even for free and you could do so many things there. And you know Miri! if there is anything she can play with.. she will ;-)

Dani and Miri in the Maori hut

Miri on the map of New Zealand.

(Auckland is right in front of her.. the map's upside down..)


And a HUGE squid!!! And it was real! The biggest one that has ever been caught! Crazy!

Tongariero Crossing - cold - wet - beautiful

So off we went from Napier on Saturday to do the Tongariero Crossing (south of Taupo). It was kind of sad to leave because it just felt so comfortable to stay in one place for a certain time and of course the people at the Stables Lodge were so nice..
So again we hitch hiked to Turangi, where we wanted to start our tour the next day. And lucky as we are.. the last ride we got was from two german girls who were aupairs and just on a weekend trip to do the Tongariero Crossing as well. So in the end they stayed at the same Backpacker as we did. We had a lot of fun together!
The owner of the Backpacker suggested that it would be good to find someone else who has a car to leave one at the end of the track and drive with the other one to the beginning. That womeone was called Jonathan (german), short Jonny! So the next day we did it! It was a really great hike but unfortunately there were heavy clouds on tom of the mountain and soon it started to rain. The wind was so strong that Miri and the others had a hard time keeping their balance. I was pretty comfortable in Miris backpack but they were pretty wet.. But when we came down from the mountain it was just sooo beautiful! Really! Even the thousand pictures that Miri took can't show how beautiful it was!

At night when we came home the first thing we all did was take a really hot shower and then relax for the rest of the evening. It felt sooo gooooood!!!
But Miri still complained about her soar legs 3 days after the crossing ;-)

Miri, Jenny, Elli and Jonny before the crossing (still excited..)

..and it got really foggy!

miri posig for the camera (as always..)

finally some blue sky!

Our first and last Cricket game..

Hello.. I know it's been a while.. so here's a quick overview:
In Napier we went to our first Cricket game! It started at 2 and what can I say.. the rain started half an hour later!!! So they couldn't play anymore and we sat there in the rain... well we finally went underneath the roof but still.. that sucked! At about 5 the game finally went on (for everyone who is not into cricket: a game lasts about 8 hours!!!) so that was quite nice. We just sat there and watched. It was even a national game, the Blackcups (New Zealand) vs India. And the Indians were first.. so there was not a lot to see for the New Zealand fans and it took for ever! Seriously, Cricket is one of the most boring sports I have ever seen! Nothing happens.. But Rob and Sarah had enough time to explain everything about the game to Miri.. and she had A LOT of questions!
Enjoy:

Underneath the roof
Adrian, Norma, Katha and Rob

It was sooo cold!

Finally the game started!

On Friday Adrian and Miri wanted to see the sunrise (we were on the East-coast..) but there were just too many clouds...

And!!! We found a german bakery with real german bread!!!!! Harald, we love youuuuuuu!

Blueberrypicking and another home for a while

Surely it's not a real home.. especially for Miri because of all the people that are missing but it's a different kind. Anyway we both enjoy hanging out at the Stables Lodge in Napier a lot and also the people here are very nice and we have a lot of fun together. Unfortunately there are a lot of Germans around but oh well.. they're nice as well and Miri and I are German as well so we don't really have the right to complain.
So yeah the reason we are stuck here is that I told Miri that we HAVE to get some money and so she decided to work here for a little bit (she's always the organised one). And this is what she does! Blueberry picking! Su much fun! ..NOT! (that was Miri) well I probably have to admit that I can't really tell if it's fun or not because I'm not working. There's just no jobs for little ducks like me (and I'm glad.. but don't tell Miri! ...promise...)

Bad weather - who cares?

What a weird day! We started early in the morning. Bert and Petra gave us a ride to somewhere near Hamilton and then we had to hitch hike all the way down to Taupo.. our next stop. And it was harder than we thought it would be. Everyone who gave us a ride could only take us about 10km and then we had to wait for the next ride. So in the end we drove in 5 different cars! Crazy!!!

But the weirdes thing was: our last ride was with two guys who worked at the backpacker in Reglan and they drove to Taupo to do the Bungee gump. So in the end we could have just driven with them the whole way.. aaahhh! But we got there in the end and we got a place to sleep so everything was good! .. except for the fact that Miri didn’t like the Backpacker too much (many people and a lot of groups.. and it reminded her a lot of the German YHAs..) so we went for a walk, explored the town a little bit and found out that there was not really a lot to do except for spending money on the various attractions like skydive, rafting, bungee, parasailing and all of that) but the lake was nice! And: when we came back to the hostel we met Yael and Yanai again!! We had met them in Rotorua.. really cool!

The next day it was raining the whole time but we didn’t want to do nothing so we bought a day ticket for the bus and this is what we saw:

The Craters of the Moon!
There was steam commming out everywhere!

We met 4 girls from Finland.. nice raincoats, hm?

The Huka Falls!

The Aratitia Dam near Taupo

Miri.. what the hell is she looking at?!?

At night Miri and 3 girls from Argentina puzzlewd for a bit.. actually it took them about 4 or 5 hours.. I don't even remember because I fell asleep..

It was a hard puzzle!

The next day Miri met this girl Clara from Spain and we went to a Thermal Park. Believe it or not: there was a hot water stream!!! It was so nice! Like a free Spa in the wilderness!

..well it wasn't too wild but who cares ?!?