The amazing stop at Te Paerahi Beach was the last one for a while. From here, our next destination was Carterton where a former collegue of Flo is now living. She’d let us stay in her flat in Kuala Lumpur in 2015 on our way back to Germany and we had also met her in our flat in Frankfurt when she was visiting Europe in April 2018.

Now it was our turn again to visit, this time with two kids. Over lunch, we stopped at Pukaha national wildlife centre. Flo and I have never been there but we are familiar with Zealandia, a Wellington institution.

We managed to see a lot of wildlife with a talk about eels as the last highlight. Time to head towards Carterton and see Sonja. It was lovely to catch up. The kids enjoyed the amenities of having a bath tub, a sand pit, a community pool around the corner and of course, lego and children’s books. Not to speak of Sonja’s company.

The next day, we explored a bit of Carterton together, then headed out after lunch. The final stretch towards Wellington, our second home. Before we got there, we picked sunflowers though and stopped for schoc chocolates in Greytown.

Finally, finally, we got to Wellington. And kinda just past it, as we planned to live with Mat and Liz in Plimmerton. It was so good to catch up. These are very good friends I met in my first two weeks in NZ about 19 years ago. The kids are all grown up now. And they have three dogs now. So happy to be here!