Impressions of Whakatane

Whakatane - where the river meets the sea













Whale island as seen from Kohi point - I used to run up here from our house almost every day when I Iived here ten years ago. I never can get enough from the view up there!











View from Kohi Point on Whakatane. The Vulcano on the left is Mount Edcumbe- however it is extinguished.













What would New Zealand be without its sheep? ;-)













An oyster catcher on Ohope beach.

View on the East Cape and Ohope beach.

it feels great to be "back home" in New Zealand

Just a short note to tell you that I have reached the last destination of my trip: New Zealand. It feels soooo great to be "back home"! Some of you may know that I used to live here ten years ago during my exchange year. Definitely one of the best years of my life. I couldn't have wished for a better family, for a better experience. I had met my host parents already in Melbourne and we spent two weeks over in Australia together. Last Saturday we then flew over to Auckland and I'm now spending the last two weeks of my trip here in Whakatane with my family. Yeah, only two more weeks left. Hard to believe. I'm thoroughly enjoying them though: walks up to Kohi Point, strolling through town, relaxing on Ohope Beach (no swimming, as it is winter over here), having Hubbards Muesli for breakfast, fejioa smoothies in the afternoon, (host) Mum and me having our mandatory Scrabble games at night, spending time with old friends and family...etc. Life is just so good! :-)

Now I'm off to bed though. Tomorrow I have another exciting day ahead of me.

More Impressions of Australia

Bondi Beach, Syndey













Impressions while going for a walk on the coast
near Bondi Beach




















Seagulls enjoying the view, near Syndey :-)














Uluru at sunset, Northern Territory














Walking around "the Olgas", Northern Territory














At Kings Canyon, Northern Territory

Update from Sydney

I just realized it has been ages since my last blog update. I'm getting a bit lazy these days. A lot has happened since. Too much to all put it down in detail, so there is only a short summary. The biggest thing was probably the road trip Babs and I did from Darwin to Alice Springs and Uluru. We were lucky to catch a ride with a German guy we met at the hostel.
5 people in a Fort Station wagon - including 5 big backpacks and all the food!
3400 kilometres of outback roads
6 nights camping out in the tent - waking up every night freezing
7 days full experiencing the Australian Outback with its natural wonders: Devils Marbles, Kings Canyon, MacDonall Ranges, Olgas and last but not least the Uluru! The scenery was just stunning! Photos will follow one of the upcoming days

After this every intensive week (physically and mentally), we had two more days in Alice Springs just relaxing (on my part that was definitely needed, as I was rather exhausted) and getting to know the town before we were heading off to Sydney. In Sydney we met up with my New Zealand host brother, who lives now here with his family. The next 4 days were dedicated to sightseeing and shopping mainly. Luckily I haven't seen too many things I like, as I can't afford anything these days. Then last Sunday I flew down to Melbourne for 4 days to meet up with my New Zealand host parents and the rest of their family. It was so good seeing them again after three and a half years. The only draw back during this last week, was me having the flu. It is kind of scary already, how many times I fell sick on this trip. I hope that will have been the last time! Now I'm again back in Sydney before flying to Auckland next Saturday. I guess I will just going to take it easy...

The "travelling around" part of my trip is more or less over. Now it is mainly about spending time with people (my host family and some old friends) and about processing all the experiences of the past 4 months. There are so many of them. Now it is time to unwind, to slow down, to think back, to revive some of the memories of this trip, but at the same time it is also time for me to prepare for the future, to find back to reality, to think about my immediate next steps. I can't believe that in more or less 3 weeks I'm due to come back to Switzeralnd! This is insane! I better make the most of my remaining time...- now every minute counts!