New Zealand

New Zealand had an easy time making me fall in love.

First of all, from the get go, you are surrounded by beautiful, lush green nature, very friendly people and more gourmet food than you can stuff yourself with in a lifetime. 

And while after a month in Asia, the prices here make you swallow hard at first, I must say it is really nice to be able to just drink water from the tap and speak English and all that. 
Like I said, falling in love with New Zealand is very easy. 

I'll be here for a while, so buckle up for some Kiwi experiences...

For example, on one of my first days in Auckland, the big Christmas parade was on. 

Certainly a spectacle, with the city centre being shut down completely, thousands of people lining the street (mostly people under the age of 10 with their parents and a life-time supply of snacks and drinks, spread out on picnic blankets along Queen Street).

I found a cafe with wifi overlooking the street, so set up shop by the window and started working, nibbling on a cinnamon roll that had to last for a very long time and at the same time, watching the show...

First up: A delegation from Korea, followed by super heroes, a brass band, the salvation army and a plethora of comic figures, then a Sri Lankan dance academy, Eco Travel Company, policemen dressed up as Santa, Cheerleaders, a band made up of Kiwi fruits, several more brass bands, 4 ginormous flying penguins, princesses, princesses and many more princesses, elves and more elves, several bagpipe combos, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory, walking houses with water squirting guns, and, finally, towards the very end, Santa: a lego man.  All interspersed with several big Farmer's signs  (that's a shop) and balloons, just to make sure everyone knows who's paying for all of this and also "where Santa buys his presents". 

By the end of the parade, I was surrounded by little people who were all annoyed at me for holding on to my place even though I was mostly working and only watching the spectacle with one eye. But hah, I had managed to make my coffee and pastry last 3 hours, so could demonstratively take a sip or bite once in a while, showing I was a paying customer (not that the kids cared about that, they just wanted to stand on my chair to see inflatable unicorns drift by, no matter my contribution to the local economy). 

Auckland is a wonderful city, small but colourful with lots of Polynesian influences and a very large crowd of backpackers (practically all of whom are German... German must be the second most spoken language in New Zealand in fact. Without knowing it, New Zealand probably hosts the largest community of Germans outside their native country. It is truly incredible and probably makes it hard for all those backpackers to actually meet people from other nations, as one normally does as a backpacker.)