Traveling around New Zealand

After school, when I was planning to apply for university, I decided to travel around some country first. To enable my travels to go for one year, I also wanted to work in that country. As a 19-year-old I wanted to collect some life experience that would be valuable later in life.

This idea didn’t come out of nowhere. In fact, there were several teachers at school preaching this kind of activity. They said it is a meaningful way to spend your time. And I was hooked.

So, during the last 3 years of German school, I first looked at Australia. But then for some reason I diverged to New Zealand. I booked with Praktikawelten who were going to help me fill out some tax forms when I arrive, so I could legally earn money while traveling around New Zealand.

So, again: I was 19 years old, meaning I didn’t have a lot of money. I only collected about 500 € as a waiter. I needed to pay 2.000 € to Praktikawelten and have 2.000 € available on my bank account in the moment I arrived in New Zealand. So I asked my father for help.

My father didn’t support my travels at first. I knew that traveling was what I wanted to do, so all I had on my mind was ideas how to persuade my father. I told him that it will be so much fun for his son to travel around a foreign country for one year. But he didn’t believe me.

Then, I figured that I wanted someone else to speak to my father about the benefits of traveling abroad for one year after school. But my father didn’t speak any German, so I needed to find someone who speaked Russian. Suddenly I remembered a Russian speaking teacher at my school who was thinking highly of traveling abroad for a year after school. So I arranged a meeting between the two, and my father came home convinced that it is beneficial for me to go to New Zealand for one year!

Then my father gave me 4.000 € to cover Praktikawelten and my initial food and accomodation in New Zealand until I would find a job there. And funny imaginations about what my job would be I had! I thought, I would become a fruit picker, but I became a tree planter. Close enough!

So I actually got on the flight to New Zealand. Then I landed on the grounds and was the happiest person on Earth for the next 24 hours. I literally walked around the streets of New Zealand with a huge grin. Then I went to exchange some Euros against New Zealand Dollars. I told the lady that this was my first day in New Zealand and smiled brightly at her. She was like: “Congratulations!”

My room where I stayed was really small, but I was really happy that day. Instead of eating out, I bought a can of thuna fish and some spaghetti and cooked a meal from this at the hostel.

At that same hostel I met Mustafa and Julia, who were also from Germany. So I also knew that I was not completely alone in New Zealand. I even visited Mustafa’s private room and he lent me a charging cable.