One car – two girls: New Zealand I

A lot of things happened since our last update! This makes it difficult to know where to start… Ok, let’s first talk about our flight – that we almost missed!

The day we wanted to fly to New Zealand we got up early to fit all our stuff into our backpack, to have some really nice breakfast and then take the shuttle to airport to be there early enough. Somehow we managed it (please don’t ask how we got that distracted) to leave the hostel that late that we arrived at the airport 45 minutes before departure. Unfortunately we forgot that it was an international flight and that we were supposed to be there two hours in advance. Thus, when we arrived there, the gate was already closed. Only because of our incredible charm and our Italian accent we managed to convince the good-looking South American guy to open the gate for us. A few security checks later (which Monika tried to refuse with the great explanation that we are late and we need to get our plane) we got aboard facing an applauding crew. =)

Arriving in Auckland we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the city! After the long party nights in Sydney we used the time in Auckland to calm down and to relax a bit. The third day we rented an old Nissan Pulsar – the perfect car for us and left Auckland, driving down to Lake Taupo. After a few kilometers we got used to our automatic vehicle and to drive on the left side of the road. On the way to Lake Taupo we saw two hitch-hiking backpackers standing next to the street. So of course we stopped and turned around to give them a lift. However, because it all happened really fast instead of switching on the signals, we switched on the windscreen wipers (because they were on the wrong site) and drove on the right sight. Try to imagine the face of the two guys seeing us stopping next to them. It was hilarious! ;))) Nevertheless, they were brave enough to get into our car and we had a good time together at Lake Taupo. Monika and me did a sailing trip on Lake Taupo, something you should consider to do if you are in this area. Luckily, the weather was great and so we could take some really nice pictures of the Lake and the Huka Falls. 

In order to save some money we decided to sleep in the car – a decision we regret still today. First of all it was f***** cold and Monika got a really, really bad cold that night. Second, while driving around in the middle of the night to heat the car we realized that the name of the forest where we parked our car was called THE FOREST OF SCREAMS. We tried not do think of why this forest is called like this. At four o’clock in the morning we left the forest to drive down to Wellington because we had tickets for the Rugby match Canada vs. New Zealand. In Wellington we decided to sleep in a TV room of some random hostel - to save some money again. It worked great until 1 o’clock in the morning, when a guy came in and wanted to know our room number. Of course we had no room so he told us to leave. Because Monika felt really bad and it was raining like crazy outside we begged if we can stay in the TV room. Luckily, the guy felt really sorry for us and allowed us to stay in the TV room.

So far, so good! We will keep in touch!