Fast Forward: The Way Home

[Jessica de Heij]

I'm almost a week back in Holland and no, not much has changed. It's still flat and crowded...;-)but I'm happy to be home to see my friends and family again after 4 days of flying.

It started all in Auckland and it will end in Auckland. The last 10 days I flew to Auckland and stayd in the Northland with Tonio. I did some wwoofing to save some money. I worked with a woman who normally was homeless and had big dreadlocks. So Tonio's texted of course:"Did you already smoke a joint with them?" "No, Tonio I did not" ;-)

After wwoofing we went up north and we enjoyed the awesome sun (even though the forecast said it was going to rain), drank delicious coffee, enjoyed the amazing views and had siesta's on the beach. Yeah, life was pretty amazing and oh yeah, we also hitchhiked.

We did a walk to the Waitangi Falls and we were both sure that the sign said:"1,5 hour return". It turned out, it was 1,5 hour one way and it was getting late and walking back through the woods, doesn't really seemed like a good idea. So I suggested:"Why not hitchhiking?" and so we did and we were back before dark. The rest of the Northland I really enjoyed.

It was amazing, a real paradise. Hostels that were old villa's, beautiful beaches. There was even a hostel with a spa with an amazing view of the valley and seeing the sunset from the spa. Damm, I was definetly gonna miss New Zealand.

Tour around the Northland

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28th of August. The day that I had to get back to Auckland to catch my flight but we had all day to drive back (I flew at 9pm). Tonio had to pick up a surfboard in Auckland, so he could drop me off at the airport. Around 6 we were finally at the airport.

I had to say goodbye....goodbye to travelling, goodbye to an amazing country and goodbye to my lovely friend Tonio. So at 9 pm I flew to Christchurch, where I would spend the night at the airport (I'm happy they at a carpet, the only downside was the very loud tv but nothing that some earplugs couldn't fix). Early in the morning at 6.35 am I flew from Christchurch to Sydney and Brisbane, where I spend the night in a hostel (and found my hostel without using a map. Oh yeah!) but I stayed in a 20 bed dorm so didn't get much sleep.

At 6am in the morning I took the train to the aiport where I flew to Beijing (we had a little stop in Guangzhou) and this was the longest flight: 13 hours. In Guangzhou it was a little bit of chaos, but hey what do you expect in China. Everyone that was flying to Beijing got a green sticker. Yeah, I know, never seen that before, but hey, it worked.

After an hour we flew to Beijing. At Beijing airport there was someone waiting that escorted us to a hostel. It was a super deluxe hotel. Wow, and even in the morning there was a free breakfast. Around 11am the bus left for the airport but after 15 minutes we stopped along the highway because there was something with the engine. There was a slight panic but after 10 minutes another bus arrived. So no worries, I could catch my plane home....