Seasonal Jetlag

Sure, everyone knows that there's a big time difference between Austria and New Zealand, 10 hours actually. It's not that bad, I thought it would be worse. I didn't wake up at 6 in the morning and felt so awake ever before. Now it's 7 am and I already got dressed and packed my backpack. My mum would be proud. It's 9pm at home, wich is the time I would prefere to wake up anyways. I have always been a morning lark -  I just lived in the wrong time zone.
What I didn't think about that much is the seasonal jetlag. Here, it's spring, while it was early fall in Austria. And it was very cold for the short time I already spent here. I'm sitting on my hostel bed, under a blanket, wearing a shirt and two jackets and I wish I had warm gloves. My hands are freezing from typing. It was alright at night, but appearantly, New Zealand has never heard of heating.
 I have to be at the Conservation Volunteers meeting point at 11, which is awesome, because the bus arrives there at 11:04, or 10:01. Great. You should think that at a environmental volunteering programm, the people would actually think about how the volunteers get to their meeting points. At least I'm already awake. I'll head out and get some breakfast soon. 

Speaking of food, I am pretty amazed about how easy it was to get vegan food on the planes. You have to order it when booking the flight, but it doesn't cost more or anything. And you get your food before anyone else on the plane and can feel all important. It wasn't too bad, lots of fruit and veggies, which is great.

Airplane breakfast on my way to Auckland

The flight itself was long, but relaxing and pleasantly uneventful. The entertainment was great, I finally watched Zootopia and loved it. And Aladdin. And Alice in Wonderland. Basically, my flight was the Disney-Marathon I wanted to do in a long time.

The Salvation Plane

Unfortunately, I only had the isle seat on my way from Munich to Singapore. Also, only one other person was in my row on that flight. It was so nice to have the middle seat to put stuff on. I always prefere the isle seat, because I can get up anytime I want. I hate to ask the person next to me to get up. And I want to pee every once-in-a-while. Airplane toilets aren't that bad if you spend 22 almost consecutive hours in the air. The Air New Zealand Toilets were kind of cool actually. They had a very interesting bookshelf-wallpapers. The titles were so obviously made up, it's hilarious. Most people probably don't look at the walls of a toilet that closely, but I just had to laugh at Check-Out Check-In Check-Out and That's spot on. 

Some titles are real, but I really want to know what the best hikes for bikers are. You probably just have to push your bike around on muddy mountain trails.

 I didn't see a lot of New Zealand when I first arrived. It was around 11pm and dark and I was tired.

I was very relieved when my big backpack arrived at the baggage claim. Immediately, my bags and I were greeted by an adorable biosecurity beagle. New Zealand has to watch our for any type of bio contamination. No fly larvae or sunflower seeds can enter the country, or it could endanger the sensitive eco system. I also had to declare outdoor equipment like my hiking boots. They had to be washed in some kind of soap bath.

When I finally arrived at my hotel at midnight, I was so thrilled to finally sleed in a real bed with a real pillow and to take a shower. The first thing I did was, of course make tea and open the windows. That's like the biggest traveling instinct I inherited from my parents. Tea and open windows. Of course it started raining while I was in the shower and the floor got a bit wet.
 I stayed at a very nice airport hotel. There weren't many choices for affordable accomodation, especially since I couldn't simply drive to the hotel. I had to take a taxi, I never do that. In Austria we have great public transportation, and I take my bike everywhere in my town. How can people take taxis by choice? It's just ridiculously expensive. Luckily, I could take the cheap Airport Shuttle back the next day, since I had to fly to Wellington.

Look at that bed! 

On Thursday morning, I got up from a relatively refreshing night of sleep. If I wasn't freezing my butt off it would have been great. I didn't have an adapter for the electricity outlets yet and wanted to get breakfast. I reckoned it would be the easiest to do that at the airport, even it I had to pay a little more. I had a lot of time at the Airport, since I had to leave the hotel at 11 and my flight wasn't until 13:35. Get their, check-in, drop baggage off, go to security, get food, look for adapter - that was my plan. However, the airport is so small that there are no shops at the gates, at least not for the domestic flights.  I didn't really fance vending maching chips as the first thing to eat this day. Great, so no breakfast. And I had to wait almost two hours without wi-fi or charging my phone - A 21st century nightmare.

Almost in Wellington

If you look at the picture above, you'd probably think that the weather in Wellington was great. No, It didn't rain when I got there, but later that night it started. That kind of reminds me of Scotland, and I usually like rain, but not when I'm already freezing. I was starving and as soon as I arrived at the hotel, went out and looked for something to eat. Luckily, I am close to the town center and there are many shops and restaurants around. But I didn't expect the New Zealand dining spirit. It was 4 or 5, and every nicer restaurant was closed. I didn't want to go to that royal fast food place or to the Golden Dove, no need to eat salted grease and support these companies. I walked around for a little bit and found a pita bread place. The Falafel wrap was quite good. Somehow I managed to find a store that sold adapters: Farmers, that's a big chain selling household items. It was still cold and rainy and I was craving something warm so I went to an asian vegetarian place and had soup and tea. What a blessing after freezing in hotels and planes (Seriously, what's the deal with planes and air conditioning?)
and on the street for days.

I feel like i talked about food a lot today, and that's what I will look for now. And it's not raining for once - I should hurry!