News from Auckland - now with crutches!?!

Hello my dear friends and family :)

I have by now been living in Auckland for three weeks. It is over a month since I wrote you last, and so much has happened in my life during that time. Not to make it completely boring and very long I will only tell you bits and pieces from my long journey.
To start off – I am completely in love with this country! There is so amazingly beautiful, people are so friendly and there are so many wonderful and fantastic outdoor things to do – just my thing!!!

The eleven day tramp I told you about earlier on my blog was so much fun! It was a bit of a mixed crowd, but people where heaps of fun and our guide made sure we went to some out of the way places. Especially a girl (Caitlin) and I got on really well. She is with me on the first picture in “Pictures from hiking in the south!“ jumping outside Christchurch after the tramp (hmm, and apparently also on the 5, oops). I am hoping to visit her in Melbourne on the way home.
The pictures uploaded on the 28 of January are showing the following: (From the bottom) two pictures from the day where we kayaked in Milford Sound, their biggest and most spectacular national park here. When we arrived in the morning the water was completely still (very rare!) and there was seals playing everywhere in the water. The mountains are humongous and they are all carved out from the last ice age where all of it was covered in glacier. Therefore the sea is equally deep, fantastic to swim in!!
The next two pictures are from a tramp we had in Doubtful Sounds – very LOTR (Lord of the…) landscape. In the new pictures I have uploaded today as “Pictures from hiking in the south!” the fourth one of them is also from this hike. It was so beautiful – If I could have it in my backyard, I wouldn’t complain.
The last picture uploaded on the 28th is from the day where Caitlin and I rented bikes going on the old miner’s rail trail – app. 50k going through a classic Lucky Luke landscape. Thirty degrees and dust – the only thing missing was these bushes that are just blown across the dessert by the wind… a very wild and remote area.
The last two pictures from down south is just of our hiking group during a sunset one day out in the bush and a classical beech forest here in NZ!
Generally the trip was a success – I had little time, and like this I got to go many places and see a lot of the south before I had to leave for the north again. But I already know by now that I am not done with the south of NZ, I want more already!

Now I am back in Auckland. Started working, and it hasn’t been easy getting into it again. People are so nice at work and the project seems very interesting. Only one glib – the guy who has worked on it before me has not been in lab much before, and I think I have to redo many of his things…
The newest news is that it turns out that my landlord is a complete asshole. Don’t want to waste your time on why, just believe me – he is a dick!!!! Luckily I speak very well with the neighbor house and they had an opening in their house in two weeks – can honestly not wait to get out of here… it has a bad vibe to it! Just to give an extra bad feel to it, I stepped on a sewing needle outside the house the other day… long story short, they spend three days digging around for it on the hospital, me ending up in full anesthesia and now with crutches and app. 10 stitches on my heel. I am now the proud owner of war scars :) Only two more days to go and I should be back on my feet again.

One minus about Auckland is that the musical scene is lacking a bit here since many small, new upcoming bands haven’t got the money to come all the way out here. Hence it is either big international, local Kiwi (on occasion also other bands from Oceania) or the like bands. I am spending much of my time with Inga, a German girl that is living in my new flat – and we try to go to concerts/live gigs/music as often as possible. Nice to have a fellow companion also in the need for music :) Next up is the big festival WOMAD where we got some environmental jobs working for the ticket and the week after we are going to see the Swell Season. Nice!

The pictures uploaded today as “Auckland pictures” show the following: (from the bottom) My current house – all six look the same going down in a form of valley with a big garden connecting it all. The view from my road with Aucklands skyline at nighttime. Me on a boat on the way to Devonport with my bad foot. Me and Eva (a girl from uni in DK that just came by for three days to visit – she was in the neighborhood – that being on Tasmania 400k from here) enjoying the harbour in Auckland. Last but not least, me on pier Z here in Auckland.

I hope that you are all good and that life is treating you well :)

Hugs and kisses,

Maja

Auckland pictures!

Pictures from hiking in the south!