Anika auf Tour - Travels and Plans

6/05/2007 - Travels and Plans

Hobbits

After having spoilt you with my recent entries that were not necessarily full of contents, I feel like giving you a short update and overview of my trip and travel plans. Some of you have asked where they could find a schedule of my plans - which unfortunately does not exist. Ever since I left Germany, I changed or cancelled everything that had been booked in advance, starting with my flight dates on the very first day of my trip. So...it is hard to predict what the future will bring.

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Here is what I know:

21.01.2007

Frankfurt- Singapore
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand again

28.03.2007

Bangkok - Christchurch, New Zealand, where I will have to spent most of the time working

August + September 2007

travelling with Cris who will come down under during his summer vacation. We plan on cruising through Australia, but things might change (New Zealand??? Fiji??? Asia???)

After that time, I might stay in Australia or go back to NZ to work, well, I will have to work somewhere at that point.... I am dreaming of spending more time in Southeast Asia on my way back to Germany (whenever that might be...), having Borneo and Sumatra in mind. I am not quite sure how I will manage to do all this within the given time: my airplane ticket expires on the 20th of January 2008 but I have promised Cris to be back home before Christmas 2007...

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The story so far:

After an unplanned 2,5 month long stay in southeast Asia, I have finally arrived in New Zealand on the 28th of March. Within a few days, I managed to get 'settled' here, that is: opening a bank account, getting a tax number, a sim card and a cute stubby campervan and directly causing a crash with it. All this cost enough money to make me feel slightly stressed about finding a job that provided me with enough cash to survive the next month. I tried hard to find something, but without success. At that point, I was ready to do anything...even pole dancing, but nobody wanted me. How disappointing. All this took place around easter, when one just wants to have some quiet days with the family and not worrying about work and money. And obviously, all Kiwis (people from NZ) WERE having a few quiet days with their families...at least I could not reach anybody during my job search. So I HAD to go hiking...

It was only after the easter holiday that I was lucky enough to find the job at Gibbston Valley Winery (www.gvwines.com) that I have described in earlier blog entries. As I have experienced regularly during my travels: after sunshine follows rain and the other way around: after having had some shitty times, I can be almost certain to meet my guardian angel again. In this case, it was Pete, who prepared a coffee for me on my 1st day of work, when the sky seemed to fall down on the beautiful mountains of New Zealand, with all the water it had to offer. And yes, New Zealand is a country that looks beautiful in even the worst weather conditions. And yes, you can pick grapes in storm and rain, it just depends on the type of cloths you wear. But having met Pete made all this be a lot of fun. He tought me how to select the quality grapes for picking, how to treat open cuts in your fingers and how to make work time feel shorter by making up silly stories - not to forget the fact that he tought me the most necessary Fleetwood Mac lyrics.

After 3 weeks of 'schnippleling' Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, I started exploring the South Island with my friend Katie, whom I met at the border crossing between Cambodia and Thailand. She is sitting next to me at the moment, entertaining the whole "internet-bus" with a phonecall to her mom.... "Really....oh...that is a pitty...oh, really???"

We had an incredibly good time together, as if we had known one another for a long time. Of course the fact that 2 completely foreign persons decide to spend 2 weeks in one car without having planned anything in advance offers quite some challenges but we managed them all, most while laughing together. I was reminded of the times during high school, when I stayed over at a friend's house, chatting the night away.

Luckily, Katie brought her external hard drive with tons of music on it, which provided a healthy break from the cheesy tapes I had to listen to before. Have I already mentioned the fact that my audio situation is very desolate? Well...as soon as you leave the NZ towns, there is no more radio reception and since I still do not own an IPod or any MP3 playing device, I am dependant on radio...or cassette tapes. So I bought some cheap tapes - yes cassette tapes! - at different 'Salvation Army' stores. My selection varies from "Our favourite Christmas Songs", "Best of Broadway", "Pocahontas Sing-along", "Aqua" and "Best of Tom Jones". The latter one I bought in full awareness of having found a "Tom Waits" tape. The disappointment was not very far away.

When the batteries of Katies player were empty today, we ended up chanting Tom Jone's "Deliala" together - what a blast! We also enjoyed the thought of parking in front of the grocery store, open windows , supporting Frank Sinatra singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" in May... I guess, we both like to make the best out of the given situation.

Not only did we share our passion for singing along in the car, but also the passion for good food - especially wine, cheese and chocolate... We absolutely indulged with this passion while treating ourselves with a hot spa after a 3 days hike in Fjordland. I think we were entertaining the whole campsite with our laughter - getting louder with the increasing consuption of Gibbston Valley Wine combined with the hot bath. We loved to exchange bad images of each other's home country that we knew from home. It is interesting what you can learn about the picture of your own nation. It seems like british people think that Germans run around naked all the time...

Unfrotunately, Katie is going to continue her "around-the-world-trip" to south america the day after tomorrow - the day after we hopefully go for a hike on Franz-Josef Glacier. 'Hopefully', because the ever changing New Zealand weather might make it impossible for us to leave Signor Rossi...not to think of a climb on a glacier...

Time to go home now, the home on 4 wheels...to treat ourselves with a nice dish again...

Have a good sunday! Ours is nearly over...

anika

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8/05/2007 - Unbenannter Kommentar

written by dominik

Hola Anika,
one of those wines from new zealand might actually now come from you (personalized).Keep up the spirit and thanks for allowing us to join your trip through this blog.
I always knew you were into Tom Jones...
it is quite a good excuse though. dominik

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30/05/2007 - Eigentlich nix

written by Melanie

Hey! Wollte mich nur melden, mal sagen, dass ich deine Tagebücher sehr gerne lese und damit du das weisst, muss ich eben auch mal was hier reinschreiben... ansonsten schließe ich mich meinem Vorredner an: Du klingst herzerfrischend, trotz Regen und Sonnenschein und Regen und Sonnenschein und Regen und... übrigens: Das ist hier auch nicht viel anders (zu deiner Beruhigung!). Ich bin froh, dass sich alles wieder eingerenkt hat bei dir!
Liebe Grüße
Melli

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31/05/2007 - voller Sehnsucht..

written by Anonymous

Hallo liebes Schwesterchen,

jetzt werde ich auch mal wieder einen "Senf dazugeben". Ich warte sehnsüchtig auf neues Text- und Bildmaterial.

Aus lauter Verdruss, dass es schon sooooo lange keine Neuigkeiten mehr gibt, male ich mir jetzt eben das ein oder andre Szenario bzw. mögliche nächste Einträge aus! Ätsch...;-)

- Anika hat im neuseeländischen Urwald Frodo kennengelernt und dreht eine neue Version von "Herr der Ringe"

- Anika ist bei der neuseeländischen Version von "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" entdeckt worden und tourt mit ihrem ersten No. 1 Hit durch die Weltgeschichte

- Senor Rossi hat sich in eine schicke 2CV (auch "Ente" genannt) verliebt und weigert sich nun strickt den jetztigen Standort zu verlassen

Also Anika, klär mich auf..ich bin sooooooooooooo gespannt.

Ganz ganz liebe Grüße aus dem mitterweile nächtlichen Koblenz.

Dein Schwesterchen

Bearbeitet von deltanik am 1/06/2007 um 11:49

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10/06/2007 - einfachnurso

written by AndreasSausW

hi hotte. lang schon nich mehr in deinem blogg gewesen. hab dir beim letzten bibliobesuch ne nachricht hinterlassen, ist aber wohl nicht übertragen worden. hast du schon schnee? neid! hier ist`s teilweise so warm, dass die motivation sport zu machen oder zu renovieren gen nullgeht. bei uns ist anfang juni ne stelle ausgeschrieben worden. architekt/in gesucht, zunächst befristet m.d. mgl.keit zu reduzieren... wär aber bestimmt nicht dein ding, oder? hab auf`m wilhelmstr.-fest mit``m jungen architekten gequatscht. der meinte, archies würden in australien sehr gesucht. drück dir die daumen. hab auch chris beim bikemax getroffen. wünsch euch viel spass bei eurer aus-umrundung. wenn alles gut läuft (un`d`s nicht sooo heiss bleibt), weihe ich im sommer den zweiten bauabschnitt als whg/büro ein. zum sommerfest bist du natürlich auch eingeladen :))))) wünsch dir weiterhin allens guuuude! ganz liebe grüsse vom aaaaschideggt.

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26/06/2007 - Happy Birthday

written by Marlies

Hey, alles Liebe zum Geburtstag! Wünsch Dir viel Sonnenschein und das Du nicht mehr frieren musst! Aber vielleicht findest Du ja Geschmack daran und kletterst nächstes Jahr im Himalaya herum, ich trau dir alles zu!
Ich hab jetzt auch endlich Ferien und muss erstmal mein Auto durch den Tüv kriegen, dann seh ich weiter. Poliert habe ich ihn schon - hoffentlich hilft das ein wenig... Liebe Grüße auch von Frau Schwerk! ...............................................
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. (Scherz)

Aber von mir ganz liebe Grüße!!!!! und ein GeburtstagsBussi
M.

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