First Days in New Zealand

14.09.10
We have arrived! After a quite annoying and, first of all, exhausting journey via Hong Kong and passing through numerous security checks we made our first steps on New Zealand ground.
At the airport we were welcomed by John from the Presbyterian church which had given me a spiritual home during my stay in Auckland at the beginning of this year. I had hoped he would come to see us, and it gave me so much joy. After a short while, Stewart, one of the right hands of Hugh, appeared to pick us up. He's a man of very friendly attitude, in his mid fifties. We loaded the luggage into his trailer and he drove us directly to the agent of the Medical Council (MC). During the journey we talked a lot and I noticed with relief that I was still able to communicate in English and was quite familiar with the local accent. The MC agend was a woman of about 55 years who appeared to be rather strict and straight at first sight, but behind that first impression a benevolent personality shimmered through. She was even so kind as to keep my car in her garden for some days. After twenty minutes we had completed the last formalities and I drove out of her yard with my dear Honda. It's paint had obviously suffered much under the weather during this half year. The problem that arose then was how to put the 16 pieces of luggage, of which were 8 big ones, into the small boot of our car. It resulted clearly impossible. One of the big suitcases I had filled with things I won't need in our holiday week at Piha beach, and I gave it to Stewart. The idea was then to buy a roof-case for the Honda. We didn't take into account though, that the range of choice of many things is not like in Germany, and so the case we bought was so small that it was hardly able to take more than one of the big suitcases. It futhermore took more than one hour to fix it on the roof. Stewart was very helpfull and the patience himself. We thanked him sincerely. After that we had our first shopping experience in a nearby supermarket, and when we set off for Piha the dusk had began to fall and it began to rain. It was already night when we arrived at our holiday home. We were dead tired and it had been difficult to find it as there were only the alleyways visible leading to each house and most houses had no numbers. One time we nearly got stuck with the car as the wheels spinned in the mud of a wet lawn.

15.9.
We only woke up at eleven in the morning, so much need of sleep as we had. As we lifted the blinds, the light of the sun poured in.
The house is located on a mountain slope, in the middle of a rainforest, but from a generous balcony we had a magnificent view of the sea, with the iconic Piha beach rock. It is like garden Eden. We had breakfast in the huge living room of our bungalow. It is fitted with everything you could wish, excluding Internet access. Table tennis, huge windows, eight beds, stereo, TV, and it's really beautifully furnished.
After that we spent the whole day at the beach. The children (and ourselves) were enthusiastic! They jumped in the waves and collected shells, and all of us climbed the big rock in the middle of the shore. The black volcanic sand was warm enough to go barefooted. The weather remained stable and warm all the time, which is rather unusual here at this time of the year (early spring). I had prayed for this.

16.9.
A day in Auckland, with a weather already much more unstable, and such typical for this island. We drove on the beautiful Scenic Drive to one of the central parks, the Domain, where my language college is located, and a NZ history museum (“The War Memorial Museum”) I wanted to show the kids. In the school we said hello to Vicky, my English teacher at that time. I thanked her again for having helped me so much. Then we admired examples of Maori handicraft, mainly carvings, canoes and buildings at the museum and strolled through exhibitions aimed to teach us about the NZ nature and the volcanic origins of the land. On tens of huge TV screens one could watch videos, partly interactive.
We then had to buy some things we needed, for instance a pair of trousers for Felix. That was in Newmarket,my favourite shopping area. All shops in a long row along Broadway, along with a huge amount of restaurants. In order not to be overflown by new impressions, we decided to have lunch at Burger King.
When we explored the waterfront site of Auckland, it was already getting dark and the New Zealanders were starting to drop into the bars and restaurants for dining. Anything here reminds us of Cape Town, apart from the fact that you feel – and are – much saver here than there. The mixture of English, Victorian and modern architecture, the wind at all times, the different races, and the language, of course.
The last thing we did is to go shopping again in one of the huge supermarkets, Pack'n Save, very close to where I had lived this (southern hemisphere) summer. The choice of precooked food is bigger, and a peculiarity is that the range of different qualities is very wide: in general high quality food tends to be more expensive than in Germany. You might find cheap food but then you have to expect a quality lower than the basic standard quality in Germany.
At the way back home we nearly hit a wombat or a possum with our car.

17.9.
A very stormy, chilly and rainy day. Only once the sun came through. So we stayed at home until afternoon, sleeping long, having a slow breakfast, watching a film. Then, the sun came through. Generally, we saw that the only regularity of the weather is that it is constantly changing, although there may be a tendency towards a certain temperature or humidity. Anyway, when we saw that most of the sky was turning blue, we hurried to get outside and enjoyed a magnificent walk with splendid views along the coast. Only when we hit the way back the weather changed again, and this time thoroughly: we were surprised by a storm, lightning and thunder, and when we reached home wet, we noticed that there was a power cut. Unfortunately the water didn't go either, because the pump was driven by electric power as well. We spent the evening with romantic candle-light and a chimney fire, and the children made use of the dark for a hiding play.

18.9.
Our hope that we'd have power again this morning was in vane. We had to operate the toilets with water from a nearby creek (stream). I drank my coffee as a Greek frappé. A problem was that the garage door is electrical and our car was trapped inside (we solved that problem with the help of the owner of the house, by telephone). He owners were very sorry but couldn't offer further help. We decided to spend the whole day in Auckland. Anyway I had agreed a date with my Chinese friend (and almost son, as he is 18 years old) David. So we met at Kaplan's (my former school). Together with all our family we had lunch at the museum's restaurant. It was so good to see him again, because I really like him. By the way, a really significant proportion of the Auckland population is Chinese. As we got to know then that the power cut was still unsolved, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in a swimming pool of a nearby gym centre, to be sure to go to bed clean. On this occasion the boys, first of all Lucas, made their first contacts to other NZ residents – a Russian boy in this case. When we came back, fortunately electricity had returned and we had an opulent dinner with lamb, sausages, green beans and potatoes.

19.09.10
Today, I'm sure, the weather changed profoundly 8-10 times. We started the day with a visit to “our” church, St. John's in Auckland. Again I (we) felt very welcomed. Particularly two of the elders, John and Jo, looked after us and gave us hope for the coming challenges. The congregation consists to about 20 – 25 percent of Maori. I'm not able to judge yet how well integrated they are.
The afternoon we spent basicly in Devonport, where we went by ferry. It is a peninsula with particularly beautiful buildings: houses in the Victorian Style, partly private and partly shops or public buildings. Bookshops, restaurants, souvenir shops and so on... From Mt. Victoria, the central hill, we overlooked much of Auckland and it's harbour and the surroundings. We had lunch at the ferry terminal, where we bought fish and chips and other things at a small kiosk run by an Iraqi who has been living here since three years with his family (wife and three daughters). He said that he is enjoying the peace and friendliness of this land after having lived in a war-struck environment for so many years. Every so often we meet other immigrants, and they are not a fringe group (Randgruppe) like in Germany, but just a part of everyday life.

20.09.
Gorgeous! Stunning! Today we made another hike along the coast of Piha, this time longer and farther into the macchia, the vegetation. It was a marvellous adventure, for all of us (which isn't common with two adults and five kids of different ages). We explored a lonely bay you can only reach by foot, abandoning the existing tourist paths and clambering along the cliffs. We watched the sea running wildly against the rocks. We climbed alongside a waterfall into the dense rainforest that reaches to the coast as it is so typical for New Zealand. I was happy that my knee held out and barely complained. We had a picnic with delicious cakes that we had bought at the only little convenience store here in Piha. This was our last day here and thus a proper last days undertaking of our pure holidays in NZ. Tomorrow we will travel to Thames.