Staff Party

On the 6th of October, there was the staff party of the RA-Company. The motto was Rock Star. As real rock stars have tattoos, Julia and I drew our own ones…Faked tattoos. I wanted to have something unusual. Amongst others, I decided to have the writing ‘Deutsche Markenbutter’ on my forearm. Very original, isn’t it?!

The reactions were really funny, when the founder of the RA-Company, who is Austrian, and the chef, who’s German, read it. They started laughing and called us “CRAZY GERMAN GIRLS!!!”

After we had a few drinks and lots to eat the complete staff danced wildly down the street to the next bar and kept on celebrating all night long. I had a most enjoyable night!

Jaggedy Ann

At the beginning of September, there was a little rock concert at ‘Bodega’, a club just around the corner of our accommodation.

All together there were 6 different bands playing their songs. I was absolutely amazed by Jaggedy Ann and another group whose name I can’t remember. What a shame! Anyway, the band consisted of three boys and a female singer. Her booming singing voice reminded me of The Guano Apes. When you listen to this group for the first time you can’t really say if a man or a woman is singing. Here it was quite the same. Absolutely amazing!

Jaggedy Ann was the last group and it was the best. Four good looking girls rocking the house! They are big fans of AC/DC… you can hear it in their songs. If you want to listen to a few songs of them, have a look at their ‘my space page’. I can highly recommend it!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2159344

JAGGEDY ANN

Volcano erupts

Actually I wanted to write this comment two weeks ago…but well, there was so much to do…But it’s never too late.

Two weeks ago, not far away from me, a natural disaster struck. Mount Ruapehu, situated in the middle of the North Island, suddenly erupted.

Uiuiui after a while it becomes a little uncomfortable here.

In the following article you can get more information about it.

NZealand volcano erupts, one hurt

Tue Sep 25, 5:38 PM ET

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Ski lodges were evacuated, highways briefly shut down and one man was hurt when a volcano in New Zealand erupted unexpectedly, spewing ash and rocks into the air, officials said Wednesday.

The eruption at Mount Ruapehu, located halfway between Wellington and Auckland on New Zealand's North Island, started at 8:20 pm Tuesday (0820 GMT) and lasted for seven minutes, GNS Science duty vulcanologist Craig Miller said.

"It was just straight out of the blue," Miller told Radio New Zealand.

No further activity was reported in the hours following the eruption but it remained unclear whether any further eruptions could occur, he added.

"It's certainly not escalating into anything bigger at this stage," he said.

A 22-year-old climber, who was not named, was hurt when rocks crashed through the roof of a mountainside hut where he was staying, pinning him to the floor. He was evacuated by helicopter early Wednesday, officials said.

The eruption also briefly forced the suspension of train service along the main line in the area and the evacuation of several ski lodges in the popular resort area.

Two trails of volcanic ash and water from Mount Ruapehu's crater lake flowed down the sides of the mountain, but no significant damage was reported.

Photos and text taken from:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070925/sc_afp/nzealandvolcano_070925213824

Crazy New Zealand chicks

In one of my comments I wrote that sometimes New Zealand people dress slightly crazy. A few weeks ago, I met 10 crazy Kiwi girls while I was shopping in a supermarket. I do not know if there was a special reason for their dressing up, but they told me that they did it regularly and went from one supermarket to the other. Just for fun!

It reminds me a little bit of the “Lumpenball” or “Nachthemdenball” in my home village, Kappeln. Gelle?

Wharariki Beach, Farewell Spit, Collingwood, Devil’s Boots, Nelson – back to Wellington

The next day was the most beautiful day of our trip. We moved to the west coast of the South island, to Wharariki Beach. It is an isolated beach. We had to walk 20 minutes from the car park over farmland to the beach. On our way, I saw this unbeatable strange combination of palms and sheep again…and this time I grasped the opportunity and took a photo…to show you how bizarre it looks.

Also have a look at the gnarled trees in the next picture. They also look pretty abnormal, as the wind had influenced the shape of the trees.

But not only the trees looked strange…When we reached the beach we noticed that it was covered by unusual and fantastic dune formations. I felt like destroying work of art by walking over it. The rough sea looked really dangerous and it surely was. You could here the booming sound of the sea with its breaking waves. I was deeply impressed. I loved it.

Unfortunately my camera memory card could not save any more pictures. And after I deleted a few pictures even my batteries ran down…so I could not take anymore pictures. Bad luck! That is the reason why all the following pictures are either taken by Susanne or Gregor.

picture taken by Gregor
picture taken by Gregor
picture taken by Susanne

Besides, on our way to the beach we passed a little creek, where around 6 seals were playing in the water. Watching them was highly entertaining.

When we went back to the car we made a short detour to a light house. From there we got a noramic view of the Farewell Spit. It is a 24 km beach. Can you see it on the picture?

picture taken by Gregor

Our next aim was Collingwood. All day we were looking forward to this town…because of chocolate. Unfortunately the Rosy Glow Chocolate House was closed and will not be reopened till 1^st October. My guide book says chocoholics would go nuts here, where handmade chocolates were lovingly produced. In my case however, I went nuts because it was closed. How could you do that to me?! That was evil!

picture taken by Gregor

Our next destination was Devil’s Boots – two huge stone formations which looked like shoes coming out of the ground.

picture taken by Gregor

picture taken by Gregor

The result!

Before we went back to Nelson we stopped at a long beach to take a few more pictures…Due to the fact that my camera’s batteries had gone dead, I started to collect shells instead…and I can tell you, I could not stop. I have no idea how to carry everything home to Germany.

picture taken by Gregor

Around seven o’clock in the evening we arrived in Nelson. There, I had to say goodbye to Gregor and Susanne… unfortunately. I had a great time with you guys!

I spend the following evening with my workmate Amy and her lovely family. We had a great dinner, watched a very old movie (TOM with Mel Gibson) and played a special game to enlarge my knowledge of vocabulary. Next day was Father’s Day. While Amy’s mother was in church we went for a bush walk up to the Centrum of New Zealand, where we had a wonderful view over Nelson.

Lonely Planet says that Nelson had got more sunshine than any other part of NZ. And I have to agree! Punctual to the beginning of spring it was sunny and hot. I had worn a T-shirt for the first time here in New Zealand.

Centrum of New Zealand

Afterwards we met up with her mother and had dinner in a restaurant.

Shortly before my departure back to Wellington I got along to the eye-popping World of WearableArt and Collectable cars museum. Some dresses or do I have to say costumes…were very funny and extravagant, but I expected more. There were only three rooms to visit.

At the moment there is the WOW Show in Wellington and I have been working there a few times …I could not see so much so far, but I think it is grossly overestimated.

New Hairstylepicture taken by Susanne

picture taken by Susanne

Sea Kayaking and Takaka

The day after we came back from our tramp we did sea kayaking, which was a lot of fun! But before that I was given a highly professional outfit. I loved it! A kind of diving suit! That is something I always wanted to put on sometime. (ist das richtig? …was ich schon immer einmal anziehen wollte….soll es heißen!) Just the very feeling! Cool!

It was very difficult to put it on…but it was even more difficult to take it off again.

But actually, my cap was the greatest hit! It let me look at least ten years younger. Even if I had been miles away, you could have recognized me. I looked extremely striking! A tip: whenever you feel terribly old, just put this cap on… and you will feel immediately younger!

picture taken by Susanne
picture taken by Gregor

I shared a kayak together with Susanne. Never underestimate the surprising strength of women… we were not too bad, no, on the contrary, we were quite good and very fast! Susanne, we made a rEAl drEAm tEAm!

The view we had from the kayaks was quite different from the one we had during our tramp. The water was sparkling, the sun was shining, and the birds were flying over our heads. We could not see the tramp. The bush was so thick… we could only guess where it was… but sometimes we spotted a few bays we had walked on…that was nice.

picture taken by Gregor

After two hours kayaking we stopped at a beach where an aqua taxi picked us up and brought us back to Marahau again. It was the same taxi driver who gave us a lift to Tortaranui three days ago… so we spent a happy hour chatting with him und he gave us hot tips were to go the next day.

Before we left Marahau we stopped at a little museum… there was an exhibition outside – sculptures made out of wood and stone…yes there was heaps of wood… Susanne, Gregor and I ran about and got lost in this little yard…all of us took lots of pictures. It is astonishing how different they are… we love the little details. Thanks Susanne for inspiration!!








After one hour we headed towards Takaka, where we settled down at Annie’s Nirvana Lodge – a very nice place with a lovely backyard. Actually Takaka consists only of two roads, three at the most. It is nothing really special, except of a few tiny shops. I fell in love with these little creatures. They are lovely!

In the evening we went to the supermarket to buy a few snacks for the next day. When we were standing in the queue somebody tapped on my shoulder. And guess who it was!!! Sammy, a girl who had worked together with me for the RA Company before…I really like her… Actually she is from Liverpool and usually lives in Dublin. Now she and her boyfriend are travelling through New Zealand. And this evening they stayed in the same backpackers as we did. What a coincidence! We exchanged addresses at once! I hope to see her again…I had so much fun with her!