HI GUYS!

How are you? How was your week?

Did anything happen that unsettled you? Did you meet someone special that changed your life? Did you win a jackpot or a journey round the world? No???

No worries – you are no loser, but just a common type of everyman… and doesn’t it feel good to be a human without any preferences?

I hope you will have a good week with lots of little delights that make life even a little bit more special than it already is!

GOOD BYE WULF

P. Strup said: “Time only seems to matter when it’s running out!”

I am very sorry to see you having to leave in a few days. I think that is not only me… and therefore I suggest that we spend as much time together with you this weekend as possible.

Just as the pictures change you can see that Wulf did his best being on his best behaviour… no worries, I’m just kidding and really looking forward to seeing you tomorrow J

SORRY SEDINA

In the last newsletter I accidentally put in wrong information about Sedina. I thus want to correct them now and hope that I didn’t cause too much confusion!

Sedina is in the South Island right now travelling around and will fly to Bali afterwards. I don’t know why I wrote something about Fiji… Anyway, sorry about that! Hope you enjoy your time and keep in touch!

TRIP TO THE EAST CAPE

“There are many fine things which you mean to do some day, under what you think will be more favorable circumstances. But the only time that is yours is the present.” (Grenville Kleiser)

I think all of us that went on that trip have learnt much about the content of Kleiser’s saying since, unfortunately, there were many things going wrong and causing lots of trouble. I am glad that we were fond of each other again in the end!

Here is a short report of what happened:

It has been as difficult as never before to balance everybody’s wishes, but  we finally managed to decide to go J on the trip. The next problem that arose was concerned about the departure time which we could also solve after about 10 emails… I think those who were involved into the email conversation will never forget it, just think about the nice statements we threw at each other and the apologizing emails afterwards…. It has definitely beaten the records so far!

Well our new salutation for the trip “fuck you” was soon introduced and has always produced some amusement.

The trip in general was very good, as usual. We got to see lots of pure nature, very beautiful beaches and not so nice ones, amazing different blue colours of water and sky ranging from deep turquoise to light blue and then dark blue, that I have never seen before.

We intended to go on a White Island Tour starting from Whakatane as well, but it was cancelled due to weather conditions. We thus had to “reorganise” our day which seemed to be a little challenge in the beginning since we just couldn’t come up with any good ideas that everybody was pleased with (neither paintball nor beach…). In the end we took the opportunity to step into Maori culture a little bit and visited some sacred Maori places, had a look at the Awaroa Canoe and, of course, took lots of pictures.

Saturday we slept at Mel’s Place in Hicks Bay just before the East Cape. If any of you, who were not on the trip, ever get the chance to go to the Cape you have to stay there since it is absolutely incredible!!! You are right on the coast and can hear the ocean wherever you are, on the toilet with view towards the sea, in bed or at the table…

One of the best things we did – for several reasons – was to stop at the Kiwi 360 in Te Puke. For the first time we saw a kiwi fruit plantation and as a matter of fact had to steal an original kiwi. One of Maori Gods must have not liked that and forced a visionary power to have Robert losing his cell phone. Very upset about that he called Kiwi 360 the next day and they told him that they found it…

On our way home we stopped at Hell’s Gate close to Rotorua and inhaled lovely smelling sulphur gases. But that was not it, we even jumped into a spa pool so that our skin also smelled like rotten eggs soon. When we were back in Auckland my skin was still stinky one or two days later despite shower and body lotion… isn’t that crazy??? I think at least for that reason I could never live in Rotorua!

Still, it is a great area to visit and we decided to go back there for sure, so make sure that you read the weekend suggestions for Rotorua further down.

NEXT WEEKEND SUGGESTIONS

We can go to the Buskfest and have a look. Depending on the weather (unfortunately the forecast doesn’t sound too good) we could also go to the any of the beaches close to Auckland and relax. I think not all of us have managed to go to the Auckland Museum so far, nor Mt. Eden or a couple of other sights in Auckland, e.g. Art Gallery, Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic, Howick Historical Village in Pakuranga…

Have you already taken some good pictures of the Harbour Bridge???

If the weather is good I would consider to take the ferry to Waiheke Island id anyone wants to join me.

So why don’t we just meet, see what the weather is like and decide right at the spot.

WANNA GO TO ROTORUA / TAUPO ???

We are leaving Friday afternoon after work so that we are in Rotorua in time for a typical Maori Hangi and Concert starting around 6 to 8pm. There are various places where you can enjoy these two typical activities of Maori culture. It costs about $35 to 50 (according to the LP)

On Saturday there are different places that we will visit, Wai-o-Tapu ($15) and its pools, craters, geyers and colourful mineral terraces, other good options are Te Whakarewarewa ($18), Rainbow Mountain lookout walkway and the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools ($5), which is a natural open air “spa pool”.

On Sunday we can either hike the Tongariro Crossing or do a Skydive in Taupo and spend the rest of the day in the Tongariro National Park.

These are just some ideas and roughly put together… I will write an email when I have more detailed information!

WHAT IS A HANGI ???

Hangi, which is also known by the term umu, is the traditional method of how Maoris prepare food in Tao cooking style, which means cooking in the ground with hot stones.

If you are interested in further reading there is really good link dealing with that topic: www.pnbfoods.co.nz/History.html

n the thermal areas around Rotorua region however, Maori use geothermal steam instead of

That’s it for today!