Cheviot

Kia ora from Cheviot,

The last few days I've been living by the motto 'shit happens' because reckless-me managed to crash my car on friday...

I wanted to drive up to hanmer springs and well, shit happened. I went to fast into a corner and the gravel on the road made me lose control of the wheel. I skidded and ended up crashing into a bank, landing in the ditch on my side of the road.
I got really, really, reeeeaaally lucky I guess, it was a head on crash, meaning I walked away only with a stiff neck, some strained muscels, and maybe just a slight concussion.
I haven't had a mechanics looking over it yet but it's pretty obvious that reparing it would cost more than buying a new car, so I sadly have to say goodbye to my home for the last 7 1/2 months. That is actually a hard thing to do, it grew on me my little car, my bed, everything I built for it, the drawer and the table and the fairy lights inside... It was more than small but also my cozy little den and I loved it very deeply.

But, like I said, shit happens and live goes on (luckily😅) and I was really freaking lucky in multiple ways: Just a day before I crashed, Aaron, a guy that saw me sleeping out in my car in frosty temperatures, offered me to stay in a sleepout he had just renovated and that he wanted to rent out to backpackers anyway. That guy has the biggest heart, honestly. He took me in, gave me tea (Kiwi for dinner) and made sure I'm not missing anything. He lives there with his two cheeky kids and two cheeky dogs, lovely family. So after my neck got checked out from a doctor he took me in again and started organizing everything around my disorientated self. He and his dad helped me get all my personal stuff out of the car in case it got raided. Then he took me back in and started helping me finding a new car, drove me to Christchurch the next day to check it out with me and right now I'm waiting for the girl that is selling it, to actually get my new van. And even though I wanted to hitch-hike, Aaron made sure I could get a ride with some mates of him that just got back from a fishing trip. Funny lads😂.

The Van honestly has everything, it's self contained hence has a cooker, a sink with fresh and waste water tanks, a toilet that no one uses ever, cooking utensils, even some food and spices from the former owner and the best? It has a solar pannel on the roof and God, even a solar shower! Is that crazy or what.
I'm still a bit anxious about it all, it's reeeally cheap, 3500 NZD so hoooopefully it's not a scam. The girl selling it is also a backpacker and she says that she has to go back to the US ASAP because of a family emergency, hence the price. She doesn't seem like someone to consciously try and scam somebody so I just hope the motor and mechanics are gonna be fine.

Yeah, it's been a crazy couple of days but Aaron and his family and friends helped me through everything and are getting me back on my feet. It's honestly incredible!
Now I just need to find work to make some money until my dad is gonna come visit me in the beginning of June. Of course mom and dad made sure immediately that i have enough money to get by and be able to buy a new car. What a lucky lucky girl I am...

Now back to where I left off in the last Footprint. I actually stayed in picton pretty long, I met up with Max again, we had a great time just catching up and talking shit, were a funny couple of days. Very enlightening😂
After that I got my first workaway job on a vegan animal sanctuary between Picton and Blenheim in the wetlands. A good and valuable experience, tried out vegan for three weeks with some minor fallbacks but it had me amazed how awesome vegan food can taste. As soon as I'm living somewhere again and I'll be able to cook in a kitchen I'm gonna eat waaayyy more vegetables and try to cook vegan. And I'm saying that as a former crazy carnivore, very limited in my eating options so that is saying something!

We worked 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, every morning and evening the feeding and cleaning routine/walking the dogs and then some odd jobs around the farm. Was great to be around so many animals and to spent so much time with the other volunteers that were kiiind of my age. Was good for me, the constant social contact🤭 I then understood that before, my downs, were probably mostly caused by lack of social contact and that was a really important realization.

Now about the animals on the farm, they were all either wild and had been taken in for adoption and a saver live, or were saved from getting killed or mistreated. There were donkeys and a pony with diabetes that couldn't eat grass, bunny's, one of them blind, some birds, lots of wild cats, greyhounds and another dog that was beaten up by his owners, a really scared one that was but still nice and not aggressive. Uff and they had two chihuahuas, they were honestly taking my last nerve😤 barking at EVERYTHING and I mean everything, I was the only one that had them halfway under control but man, they didn't seem to have three braincells... NOT my kind of dog! Bernie on the other hand (another dog) was the pretty much the opposite, that funny dog running around with me all day, major case of adhd, his eyes bulging over with concentration on the stick he wants you to throw over and over and over again. Could have just thrown him in my car and dognapped him, such a cutie!

On the fields they had sheeps and cows and alpakas, two pigs happily drowning in mud aaand my favorite was the goat in a pen with the chickens and turkeys. That was a cheeky little thing, always trying to steal the chicken food and always looking for more scratches.
Yeah yeah, had a good time there. Problem's just that I get bored soo fast of everything, espacially the work I'm doing, that is gonna be a problem later when I have to find a permanent job, I'm sure. But she'll be alright, I'll see what happens.

After that I traveled around the eastern parts of the marlborough sounds a bit, stayed in Whatamango for a day, went on a trip over gravel roads to Port Underwood and Whites Bay, down to Rārangi. With some trips and hiking along the way obviously. Stunning, the marlborough sounds, gotta see it for yourself.
I did wanted to rent a kayak and paddle around the sounds a bit but they are only allowed to rent them out to two people, man that was a bummer.

So I made my way down to kaikoura and got the full mountain-sea experience. Kaikouras a cozy little town directly at the sea with snow-topped mountains framing the background, it's supposed to be a great whale and dolphin watching spot, THE whale watching town as far as I know. And I did see two whales, take a look at the picture it was incredible!
Spent a few days there, sleeping on the side of some road and decided to go down to Christchurch to try and make some street music. Well I got to Cheviot and you know the rest of the story.
Maybe I can find some work here, I'll see. Maybe in the vineyards.

Oh yeah and I got the nitts from the family I worked for in Tolaga Bay, that's been a fuss the last month! Tried getting rid of them with two different lice treatments. Four treatments over the last four weeks and they are still hanging in, in my bird nest up there. What can I say, at least I am an awesome host🤷‍♀️😁 gonna try out a third one tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Was the first time homesick, although you can't exactly call it that. I was just wandering through this little town cheviot here and got to this hill reserve. A forest full of oak trees, beautifulbeautiful oak trees in all there orange-brown-yellowish glory. And that's when I realized how long it has been since I felt my "Heimat". I just have to use the German term here because I did feel 'at home' in Raglan for example. But the term 'home' just can't compare to that feeling of "Heimat" that can be triggered by all of your senses, by a smell, shapes and colors, sounds, and even tastes. And those oaks are so deeply rooted to my childhood that I saw them and started crying and laughing all at once. I wasn't feeling sick at all, I was just taken aback by this beautiful, melancholic feeling that was so familiar and that I didn't know I was missing.

I'm looking forward to seeing my dad again and traveling with him. It's kind of crazy, just a few seconds before I crashed I was thinking about how it's gonna be when my dad and I are gonna travel together in that car and how well that car has gotten me everywhere, how well it had worked. And then I crashed.
Someone was thinking
Hahaaaa CURVEball
Funnyfunny
Oh well

So far...

P.S.:
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