HI GUYS!

“The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.” (by Orison Swett Marden)

I hope you will snap your golden opportunities at the chance, no matter how much they cost, how far away they seem to be or whatever other reason may prevent you from doing so.

Sometimes things happen for a certain reason we are uncertain of. We cannot do anything against it and thus everything just has to be they way it is…

Don’t worry too much about a lost camera, a break-up with your boyfriend or a damaged back tire… you never know what it is good for J

Have a great week and enjoy your time! It’s summer – doesn’t that feel good?!  

LAST DAYS FOR CARO…

                                    It is not only the animals in the Zoo or your staff members                            that are going to miss you … we will miss you much more!

                                    As then we won’t get text messages starting with “huhu”                               anymore,  no enthusiasm about surfers or skaters any                                 longer,  nor do we  get to see new  Billabong  shirts or                                  interesting veggie meals …

                                    Anyway, have fun on your travels and keep in touch!!! Take                            care …

HELLO THERESA

She is going to join our group by Feb 26. Theresa studies business administration in Berlin and is going to take over my job in the WOX office. She comes from Berlin, is 23 years old and likes to dance. Her email is Theresa_Kaster@gmx.de

WHAT’S ON IN AND AROUND AUCKLAND

… lot’s of stuff – as always! But since all of us, who are still in Auckland and not travelling around, are going to be away this weekend I will skip that this time …

IMPRESSIONS FROM MITAI IN ROTORUA

Friday night we joined a Maori tribe and participated in a traditional ceremony. Although we were a few minutes too late due to traffic problems on our way from Auckland to Rotorua, we made it just in time for the important part.

We watched some typical dances, were introduced to the meaning of their drawing and enjoyed 2 hours of Maori singing and celebrating. The chief explained us the basics of Maori people’s beliefs. In the end we were all invited to learn some Maori and practise important words. The ceremony finished with us shouting UAKAAA at each other … how fun!!! Just think of a little Japanese woman trying to shout with a voice that is as loud as a dicky J

Afterwards there was a huge buffet offering everything you can think of: all kind of meat, salads, casseroles, vegetable, desserts – mmmh, all very yummy!

However we expected something quite different the food was excellent and we ate as much as to be almost rolling home! Still, we haven’t had a typical hangi yet… but maybe we don’t even want to try it as lots of locals keep telling us that they doubt that we like it J

WAI-O-TAPU

Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland is just south of Rotorua and a great place to visit! It costs $20 to get in, but that is definitely worth it!!!

We spent about 2 hours to walk through the area and had to stop at every point to take pictures. Unfortunately it was quite windy and thus the steam was always blown all over the place… which is why it was a bit difficult to see the colourful terraces on the pics. It was really awful to walk through the clouds as it smelled bad and was wet-hot. 

The whole area is quite big, besides the champagne pool, the sinter terraces, a couple of sulphur caves and lots of collapse craters it also includes the Lady Knox Geyser and mud pools a little further up towards the road.

From a geographical view it is really interesting, I think that is also why the others always had to wait for me… J sorry guys! I even almost left my books that I bought there behind, but luckily I remembered them… well, I guess I am pretty mixed up sometimes

WHITE WATER RAFTING

Rafting down a 7m waterfall – are we crazy or are we not??? It actually sounded really wicked but turned out to be alright. We had lots of fun from the beginning until the end!!! When we had to put our gear on, Diana and me got the best fleece shirts ever with leopard and paw motives…

Once in the raft we followed the instructions: forward! – backward! – hold on!

We also tried very hard to paddle together with Jan, but that was quite challenging J We had much to laugh when we found out that he fell off the raft when we sledded down the waterfall. Poor boy, Jan…

In the end we had tuns of fun surfing on the waves and got soaked wet. Although it was pretty short we enjoyed the raft very much!!! Uakaaa!!!

SKYDIVING

It was definitely the weekend of adventure activities…!

Monika and I did a skydive for the first time in our life – and it was incredible! Georg already jumped for the second time and said that he could really enjoy the details this time… he saw the plane leaving, did some backflips and other crazy stuff in the air.

I think that one really need to do a skydive oneself to understand how it feels like to be weightless, even though it is less than a minute if you do the 12000 ft as we did. So if you ever get the chance to jump, forget about the money… just do it!!!

TONGARIRO CROSSING

Robert, Jan and Diana decided to do the Crossing and had lots of luck to do it. When Robert finally got it that it is the Tongariro and not the Tangariro he still preferred the Tanga-version … just wondering why J

The weather was not very good and it seemed like they were not able to walk it for a long time. Then it was the wind that was said to be the problem but with a raincoat or a windbreaker one would be fine. Well, how good that none of the three cracks did bring neither of them…

Somehow they all organised some kind of clothing and didn’t freeze to death – only to numbness J Too bad that you had to share the path with 50 other Germans that you were poking fun at – just think about the “Strandmuschel”.

With some burgers from BK in the car I picked them up and was the best for a second… Happy nobody broke a leg or died of hypothermia.

SPEAKER’S CORNER

Diana:

Meine Lippen sind so aufgeplatzt, ich hatte schon lange keinen mehr drauf!

Serina:

Ist eng nun eigentlich gut?

Die Jungs haben so viel Schrott von sich gelassen, dass kann sich gar keiner merken... J

That’s it for today!