CHAPTER I - Going to New Zealand (09. - 12. July)

Having suffered long enough at university in Germany there were only few days left to prepare for the BIG voyage to NZ. 36 hours from Frankfurt to Auckland via Singapore and Sydney passed quite fast and the flight over the city of Auckland just before landing made us forget our hurting legs and all the other little “tortures” (like trying to buy some books for the flight at the airport after 10pm and therefore being forced to watch silly movies or sitting next to fat, smelling persons for 11 hours...). Sunshine, sunshine and again sunshine was waiting for us - from above New Zealand just looks like the shiny pictures in the travel guides! After collecting the cars some of the guys did rent we broke up towards the city - but not without difficulties: Just like the English the Kiwis decided to drive on the wrong side of the street (left). But after having seen us racing through to city they might consider changing their system for safety reasons...

- Taking photos in Singapore -

- Sydney airport at 5am -

Anyway - finally we made it to “Some Place to Stay” the place were most of us had booked a room. Having made it there we realized that an old saying fitted quite well to what we decovered behind something that looked like an old factory wall - “don´t judge a book by its cover” - the rooms inside the ugly buildings are all right. The “Quote of the Day” came from Marco: “Looks like New Zealand is a mix of South Africa and the Ruhrpott...”

Well - up to now I like it here. This is especially thanks to the people living here. Everybody is unbelievablly kindly and helpfull,  the managers from “SPTS” as well as the people in the UNITEC offices as we could experience the day afterwards. We met Joyce who is responsible for the international students at UNITEC, took part in the Orientation Day and got some other beaurocracy stuff done. UNITEC seems to be a nice place - very green with many trees, birds and other “nature stuff” on the campus. Besides a lot of people from everywhere in Asia we got to know some guys from Sweden - they seem to be quite cool - looks like the first party is not too far away...

- Green, green UNITEC Campus and the “Business Building” -