I dont know why, but for some reason I just don't get the summaries done at the moment. I've got to admit that I'm a bit unmotivated. Maybe it would help if I knew that there are actually people reading this? So if anyone out there would want me to continue doing the English Summary - let me know by emailing me. Maybe that would fuel me a bit... Cheers!
Hi all you non-German speaking blog readers! As a special service for you I will try to give a short summary of all my posts from 01 Jan 2011, on. Cheers, Thomas
05, 08 & 09 June: All posts that have "Cook Islands" in the title - you might have guessed that already - are about our trip to the Cook Islands. we spent 9 days / 8 nights on Rarotonga, Aitutaki and Atiu. Each of these islands is totally different from the other two, and I can#t really tell which one I liked most. I would have loved to spent one more day on either one, but unfortunately there was no time left to do so.
On Rarotonga we've done an 'Orientation Tour' (not a must-do...), I've done some scuba diving (which was good) and we've been to 'Te Vara Nui Village', Raro's latest tourist attraction, a combination of a visit to a traditonal village (where you learn about life in the old days), a buffet dinner and a show with fire dancers. Worthwile doing this.
On Aitutaki we rented a Scooter and went across the entire island, which was great fun. I've been scuba diving again - as good as on Raro, maybe even a bit better? - and we've done a 6-hr Lagoon Cruise on 'Titi ai Tonga' vaka, which was my personal highlight of the entire trip. And there's a coffee plantation that does tours, which are quite interesting.
Atiu is different, no lagoon, no swimming beaches (as the breakers & currents are too dangerous), but lots of history (like a burial cave), nature, flora & fauna, and - last but not least - a cave with Kopekas, birds that find their way through the darkness by sending out 'click sounds' just like dolphins. And (another highlight) there's a small lake in this cave, where we went for a candle-lit swim, which was amazing.
The Cookies are a great place to be, whenever you get the chance to go there - do so! Great climate, beautiful lagoons, great food, friendly people, it's all there...
10May: "Heute in Sideswipe" is about something I found in Sideswipe, a column with odd and awkward news and pictures in the NZ Herald, the largest daily paper here in NZ.
" Canadian police were called to an Ontario coffee shop following a report of a domestic dispute. A man had arranged to meet a woman he met online there. However, the date turned out to be his current girlfriend."
Kinda funny, ay? But what now? should this couple split up - as obviously both of them are looking for someone new? Or should they stay together, as apparently they still seem to dig each other - why else would they have another first date with each other?
I gave that some thought now but came to no conclusion. What are your thoughts on this? Please feel free to comment...
08 May: "Fundstück der Woche" is about the drinking game set 'Tic Tac Toe' which I found last week at a Devonport pharmacy (!) and how I don't understand the suggestion on the packaging to play with non-alcoholic beverages. What's the point in this? To tell your friends the next day "OMG, my stomach hurts so bad, I've been playing Tic Tac Toe all night and had to drink 4.5 liters of Applejuice..." Gimme a break!
25 Apr: "Neulich in Waiwera" is a little riddle - who of you can tell me what the sign is saying?
23 Apr 11: "Berba Croatian Harvest Celebration" is about our trip to Soljans Winery, where they celebrated a Croatian Harvest Fest. They offered free cellar tours and grape stomping - which was the main reason why we went there. :-) The tour was rather interesting, a lot of info on the history of wine making in NZ and how Croatians & Dalmatians brought it here. A sampling of 'Novo Vino', which is fermented grape juice, some Croatian pastries and then - the stomping, yeah! That was great fun, I was the first to give it a try and it felt really odd in the beginning but then it was alright. Imagine that back in the days every single wine was made that way (Waiter, this Riesling does have to much toe...) and people still drank it...
We had a fun day and if you want to give it a try - they're doing the same thing tomorrow and on Monday, get going!
"Ostergruß" is a bit of wordplay with the German words for 'Happy Easter'. The German 'Happy Easter' (Frohe Ostern) contains the German word for 'raw' (roh), that's why I thought it was funny to wish a 'raw easter' along with the picture of a raw egg. Is that funny at all? Unfortunately it does not make any sense in English...
03 Apr 11: Hi! I know that I've been a bit sloppy lately when it comes to English summries of our posts, but I've been really busy... But I promise that I will get better again and start posting here again as well...
07 Mar 11: "Wellington, Homegrown & D.O.A." is about last weekend, when we went to WLG to attend the Homegrown Festival with fourty-five Kiwi acts live on stage. There's a link underneath the names of all the bands that we've seen so you can click these and see what those Bands sound like on You Tube.
After checking out 6 bands on the waterfront I left for 'Bar Bodega' where Canadian Punk Rock heroes D.O.A. played - the first 'American hardcore' band I've ever seen live, back in 1984. It was great fun, as almost everybody in the audience was about my age, and the singer/guitarist doesn't need to bleach his hair anymore - it's white anyway :-) It was a bit like fallling in a "Fountain of Youth" and I'm really glad that I went - and I would definitively go again if they came back...
26 / 27 / 28 Feb 11: The posts "Christchurch", "... noch zu Christchurch" and "Und immer noch zum Erdbeben" are about the devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch on 22Feb. You have probably all had enough information on it by now so I just want to highlight the link to Christchurch Quake Map where all quakes since the 04 Sept 2010 one are being visualised, which is kinda interesting to see. Our hearts are with the city and it's people...
20 Feb 11: "Hamilton Gardens" is about our day trip to Hamilton to check out the famous Hamilton Gardens and to pick Blueberries at an orchard 30 kms south of Hamilton.
As the weather was not really great when we were approaching Hamilton we decided to go pick berries first. After 1 1/2 hrs of berry picking & eating we wanted to leave, but where to? The famous 'Toothbrush Fence' of Te Pahu (famous since it has been compared to Aussie's Uluru/Ayers Rock in the amazing TV series 'Flight of the Conchords') was just 25 kms away, so we decided to go there next. After having a close-up look at former prime minister Helen Clark's toothbrush we thought - as it's not too far away - to go to surfer hang-out Raglan for a late Lunch before we headed for Bridal Veil Falls, the most stunning waterfalls I've seen so far in NZ.
After that we made our way via back roads to Huntly and back to Auckland - so why is the headline of this post 'Hamilton Gardens'? Because that's where we originally wanted to go, but then we kept drifting and drifting, and sometimes that's just a great way to move...
17 Feb 11: "Ports of Auckland" is about the free cruise through Aucklands port with some really interesting views of the Skyline from diffeent angles. Ankles? No, I go with 'angles'... It's an educational tour with a rather interesting commentary which is sponsored by Ports of Auckland and is happening every other Tuesday. You have the chance to go close-up with huge cargo vessels as well as cranes and cruise ships, sail underneath the Harbour Bridge and through both yacht marinas, Westhaven and Viaduct Basin. Pretty good tour, not too expensive :-) and quite educational - so why not give it a try when in AKL on a Tuesday?
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I'm sorry, but Michi did not want to translate her posts between the one below and the latest one - just admire the photos then...
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01 Feb 11: "Hop-on, hop-off cruise" is about the Harbour Cruise that we've done on Sunday which took us to Motuihe Island and to Orakei Wharf. On Motuihe we have done a short walk and I have seen Saddlebacks (for non-bird watchers: a pretty rare endemic NZ bird) for the first time! From Orakei we went to Mission Bay to have Lunch there - with some interesting translations by our Indian-Kiwi waiter. But both zhe fish of the day and the Pizza have been really good. After hanging around on Orakei wharf watching the anglers we then went back to the city. It was a nice day out and I can recommend the cruise to anybody who doesn't have much time to spend in AKL and still wants to get to see something.
29 Jan 11: "Ein Jahr..." is about the outcome of the 'sitemeter' statics & analysis programme, which has been in place for one year today. The reuslts were: 1,845 visitors out of 26 different countries, some as odd as Saudi Arabia, Vanuatu or Irak.
Some regular visitiors have been identified, like E, who lives in and works in Frankfurt/Germany - but appears in the stats as if he was in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Reason for this is the fact that the server of his employer is located in the US. It was not easy finding this one out...
Or our regular visits from Fuerth, Erlangen and Nuremberg - which were actually all the same person, as I find out by checking the IP-Address... Meanwhile she has identified herself, it's C, who will probably move to Auckland in July, and then we might even get to know her personally?
It's quite interesting to spend some time with these statistics, even though I only installed the counter to see if anybody is reading our crap or if we could also write in som eold-school diaries made out of paper, using a pen... :-)
19 Jan 11: "Giving up" is about a study intiated by Citygroup that has had some intersting results on the topic 'When will smoking have disappeared from society'. According to this study Sweden will be the first country that will quit (in 2028), before AUS in 2030. NZ ranks 5th (in 2058) behind Iceland, the UK and the USA (rank 6 and in 2046 only!). Germany is number 10 on the list - due in 2280... It is not known if the ten countries published were the only countries to take part in the study or if they just grabbed some countries that the Herald thought would be interesting, though. And how about the 'classic smokers countries' like Turkey, the mid-east countries or Korea? Where would they be on that list? And when will there be a study about the end of having dogs as pets?
13 Jan 11: "News from Immigration..." is about NZ immigration's decision to grant us a new work permit - but only for one year though. We're both happy about having the chance to stay for another year, but on the other hand a bit disappointed because it's one year only...
We had to get so much shit together and do medicals and pay a huge amount of money for our application, therefore it would have been nice if we had been given two years instead.
But apparently our jobs are not skilled enough and Tourism jobs are not on any shortage list at the moment, so maybe we should be glad to be able to stay at all? I'll try to be... :-)
11 Jan 11: "Schmetterlingsfarm die Zweite" tells you everything about our attempts to watch the metamorphosis of Monarch butterflies from caterpillar to pupa to the actual butterfly. We had up to 10 pupas at a time, which looked really great on our palm tree! Unfortunately we always get to see the "state of matter" only, but not the transition itself - which is a bit of a pain...
I have spent quite some time already - but all in vain. But as there are new caterpillars on our Swan Plants already I'm hoping for a better outcome in the next round :-)
07 Jan 11: "Weihnachten in windy Wellington" is about our long X-mas weekend in Wellington which included lots of BBQs, sailing on Ben's boat from the airport (ok, it was actually from the nearest Marina...) into the city, a beautiful day in the Wairarapa doing the Pinnacles Walk with it's amazing rock formations, Cape Palliser Lighthouse (255 stairs up - and down...), seals (with pups) and a beer at Lake Ferry Hotel, the Zealandia Night Tour, another BBQ, Te Papa, and of course seeing our friends that live there.
It was a great weekend, packed with lots of cool stuff, food, and laughter (I think at certain points alcoholic beverages have been involved too...) and the 4 days went by in a flash.
We will be back in March for Homegrown, see ya then!
01 Jan 11: "Prosit Neujahr" is about NYE in Auckland and about how good the fireworks display was - after German business men Kim Schmitz (who's not only a business men, but has also already been convicted for computer & Internet fraud) donated 2,000 additional rockets to make the display bigger - just because he liked fireworks...
The one on Skytower was pretty small and not really interesting compared to the 2 identical and synchronized ones which came from pontoons in Waitemata Harbour.
After half an hour at Cyrill Bassett lookout and a glass of Champagne we drove back home, and that was it, our NYE - short & sweet...
We hope that your NYE was as relaxing as ours and wish you a great year 2011 and that all your wishes & NYE resolutions will come true :-)
