Favourite Kiwi Sport

Different attitudes

Within the last months, I am becoming more impressed about the social determination New Zealanders have. There are some initiatives for the poor that I can hardly grasp with the attitude I've grown up with. Nurses and social workers take so much patience visiting poor or self-neglecting people at home and going with them through their issues like diabetes, immunisations, domestic stuff like violence and neglect etc.. The willingness to share is much bigger. Everywhere initiatives to raise funds for poor groups or individuals. A strong attitude against disrespect and neglect. 
I tended to believe that it is important to leave people a much bigger piece of self-resposibility than what they do here. A different kind of society, but surely not inferior.
On the other hand there are less fixed believes on how a person has to be. In that sense more liberty and self-responsibility is given.

Circular Thinking

Why do we always want to go back? Even if we have settled well into our new circumstances? There is like a longing to go "home". Why? Intellectually we are striving forward, farther, towards more, bigger, higher etc.. Emotionally we strive back... perhaps not back, but in circles. We like to believe that life is a circle. From dust back to dust. We talk about the circle of life and get emotional with it. Same with space. In our spontaneous intellectual understanding it is linear. But there is some evidence that it is curved. And we don't like going forth and back, we love to walk in circles. Returning to the origin by performing a circle. I believe that there is a notion of an area we cannot fully grasp with our human intelligence, that perhaps emotionally we are able to go a step further than our minds are able to go, on some terrain which is not fully accessible our intellect.
OK, this stuff just arouse from my feelings around having lived here two years and not knowing where I will spend how much time of my life.

As for me, I believe that our real origin is God and I long to go back to this home. That is easier as I never had a kind of a tribal home as many people have. My immediate relatives are distributed all over Germany and some of them even outside. No one of them lives close to my parents origin anyway and they come from very different backgrounds themselves...

A Taste of Summer in Winter!

View from our Balcony

Elena and Lucas improve the rabbit's home

She loves it

She loves it, too

Good job for outside: shoe care

In our garage: Lucas is an excellent TT player

Lunch today: a taste of Italy

Daniel, Felix and Lucas

Stilleben in our garden

Felix' Birthday Party

Felix' Birthday Party

Daniel can be spiky

Not far from Coromandel Town - where I work once a week 

Not far from Coromandel Town

Coromandel Hills

In der Fremde.... Feeling at Home in a Foreign Land

Are we like cats?

In the last two or three weeks we spent sooo much time with our German friends here. As I got to know with time there are at least 15 other Germans living in Thames and we have also several German friends a bit farther away. I admit that it adds a great deal to me feeling comfortable and at home here.
Yes, we have Kiwi friends already, and there are interests and attitudes we share, but they are harder to find. Some of our non-German contacts are also South Africans or Asians. Sometimes I feel like a dog among cats among the New Zealanders, or is it viceversa? And it is not mainly the language that is responsible for feeling different.
It is the language of the culture, the soul, or whatever. What is important?, what is worth mentioning?, talking about?; the angle we look at things is different. The humour, the desires.

Lucas with one of his best friends

Am I allowed to say that I love to surround myself with people of my culture, enjoying it most to live and work in a culture different from mine? Well, anyway, it is the thruth. It is not so much a matter of liking, it has to do with the need of relaxing. I am sure I am difficult for Kiwis as well. I am a friend of intercultural exchange, I like to explore and than retreat to my own kind where I understand and feel easily understood.

Coromandel Rainforest

Yesterday we welcomed a new Swiss colleague and his family with a wonderful walk through dense and genuine Coromandel Bush. We did the Waiomu Kauri track, proposed by Patrick, a track I had never done before. I must say that this is the most beautiful bush walk I got to know here. An environment like you imagine in prehistoric times.
I thanked God for letting me experience this nice companionship surrounded by this amazing footprint of his creation. 

Crossing Streams

Amazed

Pristine Waters

Wild Variety

Nikau Beauty

Silver Fern and Nikau Palm

Eva

Trying to Cross With Dry Feet

Breathe This Air

Listen to the Sounds of the Forest

Many Trees Are Overgrown by Parasites

We Help Each Other

Slice of Paradise

We Share: "Potluck" Picnic

The Sun Comes Through

Returning and Chatting

After this amazing walk Elena invited us to a magnificent pasta dinner at our place. 12 (+2) people sitting at our big round table. A beautiful round-up of a terrific day!

Weekends in Winter

Inauguration of Our Chimney

It's winter in New Zealand. Well, I'm talking about the Waikato region, where the winter is green and even some flowers blossom. Sometimes there is mild frost in the mornings, and when the sun begins to shine onto the moist grounds, layers of fog form and give a melancholic touch to the landscapes. 

The days can then become quite warm, up to about 15 degrees, so that we can do nice trips and walks through the lush dense bush or on Waikato plains. The latter are dominated by farming. A new trail for hiking and biking has just been opened and we enjoyed a stop at the Matatoki Cheese Barn Café. 

These days are quiet. We have finally found ourselves more familiar with the New Zealand lifestyle and attitudes, and from now we would probably significanlty hit by the "Reverse Culture Shock" if we were to go back now. 

Also, at work I have found into a good routine now, and the change of the CEO at Te Korowai (my workplace) even promises some reforms I have been waiting for (as new brooms always swipe well). 

Sadly there have been a lot of Goodbyes in the last days: our niece and cousin Teresa went back to Spain, most of the exchange students have left now (tough for our kids). Luckily our kids have some good Kiwi friends that are going to provide stability to their lives here. 

On the weekends we try to get out of the house at least once: visiting or spending time with friends, walking, or just soaking in one of the thermal pools around.

 Ah, and we even had a kind of a winter Christmas tributing to European customs.

At Matatoki Cheese Barn Café

Waikato Idylle

Tribute to Winter Christmas

With Friends, On a Bush Walk

Lucas, Hanging Out With One of His Best Kiwi Friends (in our back garden)

Lush Bush