Landkreis Esslingen

The time had come. I was at Auckland Airport, with Mum, Hannah, and Alisha as my farewell party, awaiting my first solo long haul flight. Some tears were shed, but I mostly remember feeling so excited that it didn't occur to me to feel sad.
A year didn't seem long enough anyway.
I boarded my Emirates flight, direct to Dubai. Lucky me had booked a window seat with 2 empties beside me. Very convenient for the 18 hour non-stop journey.
God I love this feeling. Walking into an airplane at night, each seat all ready and waiting with a blanket and pillow, the lights dim, the rows slowly filling with people all excited for their travels, getting settled in.

I found my seat, and got all my things ready to feel as cosy as possible. I'd brought pyjamas, a pair of comfy socks, my journal, a scarf, and toiletries. It was the start of what became an important tradition for me to journal at the very start of a journey, on the flight, or bus, or ferry.
It's genuinely crazy for me writing this now, at 27, thinking back to my 19 year old self sitting on that flight, not having a single clue what the next years would bring. Just by choosing to go on this adventure, the course of my life would be wonderfully and accordingly shaped, to mould myself into who I am today.

I wrote my entry, and as we took off, I watched the lights of little Auckland slowly fade into the distance. The dinner they served was fantastic, some kind of stew if I remember correctly.
After dinner I changed and went about my routine as if I were just going to bed on any normal night. I prepared the cosiest bed you could ever ask for in economy class, complete with the extra pillows and blankets, and curled up to sleep.
After some hours I woke up and peered out the window. There were some lights way down there. I looked at the map to see we were over Australia, and a rush of excitement went through me. I was really there, hovering over the planet, moving through the air to a very far away place.
I slept for another several hours. The next time I stirred and looked down below us, I felt a new sensation. I was looking down at lights that were laid out in a style I had never seen before. It was unlike anything I could think of.
India. We were passing over India. This new sensation was something of a passing over a threshold. From the familiar, to that giddy excitement, to a sudden and sobering knowing, that the world I come from is but the tiniest sliver. And that I will grow to know the world beyond it and it will change me.

All up I slept for a bit over 10 hours. Pretty unheard of when it comes to flying. I still had 8 whole hours left though.
I found what remains one of my favourite films of all time: Unbranded, a documentary about 4 American cowboys who train wild mustangs and ride them from Mexico to Canada, through the wilderness of the mid-west.
I must've watched other things but this was the only one I will never forget.

Eventually the night turned into morning, and in the lead-up to landing in Dubai, they served us a delicious breakfast.
I gawked looking out the window at the houses as we flew closer to Dubai airport. Middle Eastern mansions, desert, palm trees, pools. Truly another world.
The airport itself too, a structural masterpiece.
I didn't have too long to wait here. It was remarkable seeing the Arab men walking around in their robes. Everything felt very clean, bright and crisp here. It was also around 8am, so the coolest it would be for the rest of the day.

Before long I was boarding the next flight, the 7hr to Frankfurt, in no less than an Airbus A380. Such an impressive plane, the economy seats felt like a normal plane's business class.
I took my window seat, a distinctly different feeling in this day time setting than the long haul had been. It was hard to let it sink in, that I was in the Middle East.

There was a free seat beside me, and a very tall young man sat down in the aisle seat. We smiled at each other, and starting chatting. Henry was from Germany, heading home after 6 months in Western Australia. He had such an impeccable accent, initially I thought he was Australian.
There is a great word in German, which I didn't know at the time: 'sympatisch'. This is how I would've described Henry if I'd known the word. Essentially it means that you get a really good feeling about a person. Good, trustworthy, quality vibes.

Throughout the flight we got to know each other, realised we had a lot of similar interests in the music realm, and he invited me to join him and his best friend for a festival in Berlin in a few months' time. Looking back at it now, it really was such an astounding way to form a friendship; it could've easily been one of those things that we said, yes we should totally do that, and have it amount to nothing.

Henry became a huge part of my time in Germany! And I still consider him a friend all these years later.
But as the flight ended, it'd be a while before we reunited, and my journey in Baden-Wurttemberg was about to begin.

Gesine picked me up from the Frankfurt airport. It was so surreal. Absolutely delightful to see her familiar face, smiley, bubbly and warm as always! Gesine was like a mentor/friend figure to me. It was about 2pm when I arrived, and I experienced my first drive on the Autobahn, as we drove in her Volkswagen to the beautiful little village of Neuffen.

Everything was so captivating. The architecture, the trees, just how completely different this world was. Neuffen lays nestled beside a low, forest-covered mountain range called the Schwaebische Alb. The houses had red roofs, white cladding, and all looked cosy and sturdy.
I had the privilege of being invited to stay with Gesine at her Auntie Baerbel's house. They welcomed me so warmly into their lovely home. I can still walk through it in my mind.

My room was a dream, with a huge window onto the balcony, and the A-frame of the ceiling giving the room a very cosy feeling.
We had some food, and talked incessantly. Around 7pm, the jetlag hit me like a cricket bat to the face. Gesine insisted I needed to last even just one hour longer, so she dragged me out onto a walk. It was early summer there, so at that time it was still light out, with that deeply relaxing air at the end of a long warm day. We followed a gorgeous little walkway that went through some residential areas, some orchards, a bit of the forest, and paddocks.
As we walked, we came across a shepherdess. She was a strong and beautiful woman, in her 50's, a true sheep herder. She didn't own land, rather she grazed and drove her sheep around the outskirts of the village. Her name was Annerose, and when she found out I was from New Zealand, she showed such immense excitement. Her daughter, a few years younger than me, was obsessed with NZ, and planning to visit once she finished school.
So on this very first evening, Gesine and I made a friend. During my time in Neuffen, we had Annerose and Aline over for dinner, met up with them several times, and Aline took me to a very local party which was a fun experience.

Jetlag wore off after the first couple of days. Gesine and I just free-flowed with our days, going for walks, hanging out with her Auntie, and introducing me to more of her family, as well as to German cuisine, and all the different shops and supermarkets. The novelty of it all meant that it really didn't matter what we were doing, it was all so interesting.

We planned our first trip to see her brother Thomas, and his wife Judith, whose family I'd gotten to know well at Sonshine Ranch. They'd been living there as I did the outdoor leadership program after school. The kids, Nathanael, Noemi, and Joshie, were like little siblings to me by the end.
They lived a couple of hours away, in an even smaller village called Nitzenhausen, affectionately called Nizza.

This was such a quaint place, with very old buildings, surrounded by farmland. They were in the process of renovating the house they'd bought, a 200 yr old building, with a big barn at the back. Gesine and I were going to help them with any projects we could.
I was so happy to see them again. It felt so familiar and easy to settle back in with the kids, playing in the barn, which had a big concreted area that we played ball games in, and rode around on the skateboard. Gesine and I were camping in the loft of the barn.

We helped them with wallpapering, a special type they called 'tapete'. It was immensely satisfying. I was so impressed by Thomas' skills in building. Besides that, the fact that a 200 yr old property was in such good shape. It would be a very different story in NZ.
On the days off we went for adventures. One day we went to a local river and paddled down in canoes. It was my first unfortunate encounter with stinging nettle. My whole hand was burning for hours.
We'd play soccer on the sports field. Go swimming at the nearby lake. Noemi and I played a lot on the trampoline. She really was like my sister. We explored a nearby town and ate ice cream.

The soccer world cup was on at the time. One evening I went by myself down to the local viewing. I was stared at, very openly. A village like this, everyone knew everyone. I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I enjoyed this experience. It became a theme of my travels, putting myself into really random situations like this. I got to see something very few tourists would!

Gesine and I made another friend one night. We went for a beautiful evening bike ride, beside the golden fields surrounding the town. It was magical. As we arrived back into the town, before dark, we were called out to by a guy on a bike. He came boosting down towards us, with a big cheeky smile on his face. I liked his energy. He spoke very little English, but was so curious to know who we were. His name was Ele, and he reminded me of Chad, from Kaitaia. He invited me to a party if I was interested. I definitely was, but I didn't make it there.

The time in Nizza was so enjoyable, Gesine and I really didn't want to leave! It was hard to say goodbye, but we planned to come back.
Back in Neuffen, I made plans for some solo journeys. First stop was Switzerland, to see a few very special people.Læs mere