Lovely (!!!) never ending autumn in Estonia

After living 6 month, the longest period i've ever been away from Estonia, in Australia, im back in the North again. Missed it a lot... I've been asked: "What is it to miss here?". Only darkness, no snow.. I agree, compared to Australia's sunshine and wonderful climate, it's quite depressive in November in Estonia. So what is it i've been missing? Everything that has belonged to my life until May 2009: crisp air, pine trees, all kind of smells of Estonia, emotionless faces on the streets (!!!), and of course the best part of this country: my Mum, my dog, my relatives and my friends. It's not that little all together, whatever to compare with.

So what have i done here. Since i have almost 4 weeks here (starting from the 20th of November), it's enough time to catch up with everyone. I've spent most of the time in Tartu, at my Mum's place in Näituse street. This was my home in years 2003-2005 and im happy that we could keep the unit. My Mum lives here now and so do i, while being in Estonia.

Very close to me, in Koidula street, lives my very best friend Merle. She, her daughter Hele-Riina and her husband Taimar are just very special friends for me and my being here, in Tartu, has honestly been so wonderful thanks to Merle. We spend lots of time together, doing whatever.. walking, playing with Hele-Riin on playgrounds, seeing plays and listening concerts, watching very Estonian TV shows like Õnne 13, Üle linna Vintski etc on TV. One day we went to Otepää and walked next to lake Pühajärve. Who has ever been there, knows what im talking about. It's just so silent, and so special to be there.

On the 27th of November, just a week after i had reached Tallinn, we celebrated my Mum's 66th birthday. Just some relatives - my Mum's sisters, their husbands, their children and grandchildren - came over and guess what was the main topic: Australia. How do you spend your days there, what's the climate like, is it really so hot there, have you seen any koalas/kangaroos?

"Yes, it's hot and the climate is nice, and yes i've seen those animals. Whatever it's like, it's so great to be at HOME and be with you all!"

Im really hoping that the winter comes finally. I do really like rain and i do enjoy these dark days (when i feel like i'd sleep 12 hours every night and i'll never stop yawning), but snow is something completely different. Everything gets white and we ourselves become whiter and lighter inside.

Oh, i hope i hope i hope it starts snowing...

Sunshine coast hinterland Montville and lake Baroon

Though there is only holiday, holiday and holiday in my life, it is still nice to get away from this "everyday holiday" sometimes. And that's what we did on 10.-11.11.2009. I had heard from my French girlfriend Annie about a lovely village called Montville. It is located inland, about 100km from Brisbane and quite close to Sunshine coast and Noosa. Maybe... 20-25 km from the coast.

The area is beaaauuuuutiful: only lower and higher hills everywhere, and if you reach some higher point, you can see the ocean far away. Lots of wineries, sweet coffee shops and shops which offer all kinds of local handicraft. Horses! And the atmosphere which is definitely more like French or German than Australian.

Annie had told me about nice cabins in trees and i definitely wanted to find those, and reached such website: http://www.secretsonthelake.com.au/ Have a look!

There are about 10 different cabins to choose from and ours was Possums :) And there are indeed heaps of possums everywhere. We were also warned to hide the food which has left over and not to leave anything on the deck when finished the dinner. Food or not any food left on the deck, but the "tants ja trall" (in English dance and.... trall??) on our roof went on and on over the night.

The place itself is amazing. Absolute rain forest feeling comes to you when walking some or 10 metres above the ground, on hand carved walkways through trees to your cabin. Each cabin is unique and designed by its name: Possums (with lots of figures of possums all over the cabin), or Waterlilies, or Dragon Fly. Ours was one of the luxury tree houses with a great view to lake Baroon and with a spa!

Since the place was so lovely, we stayed there all the evening and ordered a BBQ basket to our room.

The morning, after hearing lots of possums running over the roof all night :) , was great as a morning in nature's sounds can be. And of course, hot muffins and croissants delivered to us at 8am.

Some more photos of Montville coffee shops, the cabins and the walkways you can find here.

Estonians v Australians

Australia is a kinda strange society. Strange in its best meaning. And me, while im understanding the matter, am realizing that my way of thinking will probably always be European. Ok, some little adjustments are normal, but just some little..

I read one day a book about relationships between people from different countries. An interesting point i found from there was:
a) Some migrants move over to a new country and stay exactly who they were at home. We have seen lots of such examples in Estonia and that's definitely not the best way to act. Those people live in their own "state" which is located in another state, and the worst version of such behaviour is even not to try to adjust yourself.
b) Some migrants move over and forget totally their identity - absolutely silly way to behave, i think. How can one lose his/her identity and hope to be the same person. It's different with small kids who are on the half way to become someone, but not with adults.
c) The third option, and the smartest in my opinion, is to mix one's old and new understandings as far as it's possible and to take the best out of those two.

So... this a short explanation why i think Australian way of life is kinda strange. Because im not going to change the inner me which thinks exactly how it does. It's only matter of my behaviour, the question whether it is the smartest thing to tell everyone here what i think or not. After all i would like to be a nice and friendly person :)

Which Australians are then?

They are opened and friendly, but that's sometimes a bit too much for northern people. Im starting to feel i don't want to answer to everyone (!) how i am doing. There really is not much point to do it - the person who just has asked it from you, does not care and does not except any longer answer than "Thanks, fine" anyway.

Their way of thinking and behaving is sooooo different than ours. I've been trying to figure out the reason of that and i would say...
- their life and history - as short as it has been - has mostly been stable and therefore their lives have gone as planned. Nothing as extreme as in Estonia, at least not last 50-60 years. The same Queen was there in UK when they were born and if her time is over, it will be her son's turn. It will be a change, but a normal one.
Estonia and Estonians have been ready for everything in the same time. Never know what tomorrow may bring... One day one flag and next time some other one. Or as one of my friends here said: Just a small bite for a big neighbour and the words "Thank you"! That's exactly how tiny Estonia looks from here, next to Russia.
And we are very flexible thanks to that. Ironic but that's sometimes good too.
This is exactly what i can see these people don't have here at all. Flexibility. For me - and honestly, im not trying to get any extra points for myself now - it is easy to go and buy a newspaper if one did not reach me that morning. Ok, happens sometimes. But that's a problem for Australians - how is it possible, what will we do now?
Or i think it is ok to wash my floors with the water in a bowl and not in a bucket which broke down accidentally. What a thing! But no, the floors have to be washed with the water in a bucket, would Australians say.
One really funny thing happens if one wants to fix something in a household. There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies who offer handyman's service in Brisbane. The funny thing is that a handyman fixes your dishwasher, does not fix your washing machine. No-no, this is completely different job :) Or a construction man who comes and helps you to set up some shelves, does not put together IKEA furniture. He just does not know how to do it.
And that's like it is with everything here - many jobs for many people and Australians who don't know themselves how to fix a dishwasher, they don't have any other option. Or even if they wanted to learn how to fix something, it's not normal to do it. Noone does it.

The surprise was waiting for me when i was finding out about knowledge of lawyers (barristers and solicitors). A person who works in a private company and should know at least something about writing a formal answer, does not know that. Better don't ask about some very main principles of property law from a lawyer who deals with some other matters. I really don't know how is it possible, but it is and the society functions. And their economy is doing very well.

These are the questions and the dilemmas which rise here. Still the same world, but right - so far from Europe and so different. But ok i would say. As far as there is always possible to "escape" to Estonia and smell homey smells, people, nature, history and way of thinking.

See you soon Estonia!!

Living in Australia 3+ months

I've been lazy girl for a long time and haven't written anything here. Sorry for that. I promise to start writing more now, mainly because my good, very addicted-to-internet, friend Dea was visiting me here recently and made me to rediscover blog world's positive sides again.

My life has been pretty exciting and interesting in this new contry so far. Brisbane, the city which is home for almost 2 million people, is pretty familiar by now. It is getting more and more crowdy here as not only other migrants, but also Australians from other States like to move over here. The climite is beautiful, would say perfect comparing to inland's dry areas.

Australians are friendly nation, would even say a bit too communicative sometimes :)

I've heard a saying that 3-4 months in a new place are the most exciting, then it all starts to be ordinary and newcomers start feeling homesick. It's just like they say. I arrived here on 24th May this year and by now, when almost 4 months have gone by, i've felt real-real home missing feelings. Sometimes these are even so strong that i honestly would give whatever to get to a plane and fly back for a while. Hopefully i'll learn how to cope with it better...

What else do i do here after exlporing and sometimes missing home? Once a week we gather together in a local library and talk in English. It's just kind of English talking class and everyone can turn up and take part of it. I've never met so many different Asian people - Koreans, Japaneses, Chineses... We also have some nice French and German girls.

Here are many Estonians in Brisbane too. Have had some nice dinners and a funny party in Brisbane's German Club with them. Ooh, it's good to talk in Estonian for a change.

Big hugs to you all and promise to keep my blog updated often now (when there's something to write :)).

Camping in Queensland

After spending 2 months in Brisbane it was the time to go exploring Australia and to take some pics too. So we decided to pack the car - this itself took a half day - and drive somewhere not far from Brisbane for 3 days. Well, to say "exploring Australia" sounds too much... cause the country is huuuuuuuuuuuuge and we could maybe see 1/10000000 of this. But still, that's better than nothing.

We picked out a place called Mount Warning Nation Park which is located in another state, New South Wales in south and it takes about 1.5 hours to drive there from Brisbane. Reached there, and started to put up our tent, later we lighted a fire and cooked a dinner. The dinner under the stars was perfect and it was warm winter night, somewhere around 12 degrees at night.

On Friday, 24th of July, after having a breakfast we started climbing Mount Warning. It is the second largest shield volcano in the world, 1157m above sea level. It was named by Captain James Cook - as almost every noteworthy spot in Australia :) - in 1770 on his voyage of discovery as a warning to seafarers of the dangerous coastal reefs. They say that if you climbed early for sunrise you would have been the first to see the sun shine on the Australian mainland. Well, we were not that early there and couldn't enjoy the sunrise, but were lucky enough to climb up later and have absolutely stunning view as the weather was so clear that day. Climbing up itself took about 2 hours and was pretty tough, but the very ending part was harder than i had thought. The last 150 metres were almost vertical steep rocks, and really nothing less, where we just had to pull ourselves up on a steel chain. It was all right for us, but made me amaze how could kids, 5 or 6 years old, get up there??

Once up the mountain, it was time to start coming down and this turned up to be hard! My feet were shaking and oh, what a relief it was to see the car park soon! The sleep at that night was sweater than i had ever felt.

On Saturday, 25/07 we packed our stuff and went on driving towards the south. Soon we reached a funny village called Nimbin where many people from Sydney and the other cities used to gather together to live hippie life. The village still looks the same and so do the people.

While driving around i had much fun reading place names and i'll give some good examples here: Gundurimba, Murwillumbah, Mullumbimby, Mooloolaba :) :) :) I hope you understood what i was just saying in aboriginal language.

Winter in the southern hemisphere

Yep, that's the way winter is here (!!!)
I've never understood why people wear boots and coats in the warm countries. Now i do it myself, just because it is proper, and fashionable, to wear autumn- and winter cloths in autumn and winter :) In Estonia i would probably walk with flip-flops when it's 23 degrees outside, but not here. And it seems ok.

Right now it is raining outside. Feels like Estonian autumn.

21 hours in the air and.. back in Brisbane

Unbelievable, but im back on the other side of the world again. Unfortunately flying wasn't that easy this time. I started from Tallinn to London on 22nd May and going from Stansted airport to Heathrow itself took 4-5 hours. At late night i reached Easyhotel London Heathrow, which was surprisingly nice place for a good price and had the last long sleep before long flights. Saturday morning, before a flight to Singapore, i caught up with Maggy and Ian, and had a nice breakfast with them at the airport. Soon it was time to go to the plane, but we were not lucky this time - the aircraft had some technical problems and we had to sit on our seats for 2 hours. Finally everything got fixed and the long flight to Singapore started. Since the plane had taken off in London a few hours later than it should, i guess all the passengers who were heading to any connecting flight in Singapore, were worrying about reaching Singapore at time. So did i. Our plane landed in Singapore at 9:15am, my next flight to Brisbane was just boarding and about to leave at 9:55am. Singapore airlines did excellent job again: there were heaps of the airline's employees waiting for us in the arrival terminal and helping us to find the fastest way to the next gate. Even a girl, who had been sitting next to me on the plane and was hoping to catch her flight to Perth (and the flight was about to go at 9:30am, which means 15 minutes later than the previous plane had landed!), made it.
Flight from Singapore to Brisbane was the best one i have ever experienced. Perfect service again and wow, 4 free seats + 4 blankets + 4 pillows for me! Even though i didn't fall asleep, it was just amazing feeling to lie down and get some rest.
And... to reach Brisbane... don't even need to tell how lovely it was.

Now it is the fourth day for me here, but im still having 12-hours nights and still not feeling fresh.
It is harder to get used to new time than ever before. Just trying to keep myself up, drinking a coffee at the moment. And it's the midday :)

Yesterday i made a short tour to the city. Walked on the streets, enjoyed good coffee, bought some postcards to send them home and found that i know the city pretty well already. The weather is nice as always. 20-25 degrees at day, but as it is the autumn here now, the nights are cooler. People here even don't talk about 4 seasons, because they really do have just 2 seasons: wet and hot summer (from November until March), and dry and cool winter (from April to October).
The funny thing is that me, who never feels cold at home, i really think that it gets cold here at nights and im freezing! They usually don't have the heating systems in the houses here.

Beautiful spring in Estonia

Spring has always been my favourite season of a year and April-May my favorite months to spend in Estonia. Yes, it is spring here in April-May, and not autumn like it is in southern hemisphere, in Australia and New Zealand. It took me all together around 30 hours to travel over here (Brisbane-Singapore-London-Tallinn) and it is good to be at home!

There is much light time in a day, the sun goes high and shines warmly. Trees, bushes and grass get greener every day. There are days, when the temperature reaches 23-25 degrees and it seems like the leaves are growing by every minute. I'm trying to make the most of it and get at as much as possible: sometimes i wake up early and spend first minutes of a day, smelling spring on my balcony; sometimes i make my walk home to be longer - just to enjoy a beautiful spring evening in Toomemägi. The first spring flowers, the first butterflies, hopefully there will also be the first rain soon.. to make the whole being fresher. It is great time here at the moment.

Rugby evening

Everybody in this part of the world love ball games. Whatever channel you choose on TV, there is almost always somewhere going a game of cricket or rugby. Therefore it is certainly one must-do thing here to go and watch at least one game. We bought tickets to a play on Saturday evening, the game was between Sharks (South Africa) and Blues (New Zealand). The weather was wonderful, pleasantly sunny and warm. And the game started, yeah!

I have to say i have never seen a group of adult and sporty men doing anything so silly. Yep, silly in the good way :) The funniest part is when eight men are together like a scrum, known as the pack or forward pack, binding together in three rows and interlocking with the free opposing teams forwards. At this point the ball is fed into the gap between the two forward packs and they both compete for the ball to win possession. (I am not myself so clever about the rules, i copied it from wikipedia).

I also did not know anything about Rugby union before, which involves Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. Therefore the games are played between any of those union members and we happened to see the great victory of Shark on Saturday. Was fun fun fun, will definitely go to watch any other game in the future again :)

Autumn is coming to New Zealand

By now i've been spending here a few days more than a month. I've loved being here so far, though i think there has been a hidden stress inside me for a while as well. I couldn't understand it unless last weekend when it was just raining and raining heavily and my thoughts took me home. Missed home for the first time during my stay here.

The autumn is coming closer. Heavy showers and very breezy nights sometimes, a few leaves fall down from the trees which change leaves. But when it is sunny day - and 5 out of 7 days in a week it is - then the sun is really bright, high in the sky and feels really hot in skin. I would say sunny days here in March are like really beautiful summer days in July in Estonia.

I've got closer to the understanding how newzealanders live, what are their worries and desires. They are proud of their beautiful country and push a lot to keep it natural, just like it is. Some of them don't like Maori people that much, they say that the way how Maoris bring up their children is that much different from how Europeans do it. For example if there comes a baby to a Maori family, all the members of the family are responsible for the kid. It is almost like nobody is responsible, nobody personally. And that's how their kids grow up, not being so carefully looked after.

I think i haven't mentioned here an acquaintanceship with a kiwi man, Ellis. Me and Marge, we were going to Auckland downtown in one morning and waited for a train in our station. One friendly man started to talk with us, we hopped together to the train and we talked and talked until the train reached the downtown. About everything: what are we doing here or hope to do, he told us much interesting about the country. He is 65, retired now and has lovely family here. We exchanged numbers and stayed in touch later. He also invited us with his family to his beach house in Coromandel, but unfortunately we couldn't do it at that weekend in February.
Yesterday, when Marge had headed to Christchurch, Ellis made a call to me and had a plan to show me around here. We spent nice time together, driving around in North Shore and in Auckland, saw also lovely part of Auckland city called Parnell.
Does it sound weird to read it in Estonia, to spend hours driving around with someone almost stranger? I guess it does. But not here.

Pics of a walk in rainy Saterday 28th February and few pics of me and sunny Sunday 1st March are here.

Beautiful Australian beaches, Noosa

Sunday-Monday 22.-23.02. was time to explore the east coast of Australia. It is really pleasant area of Australia, no dry land, no desert soil. Just greenery and the roads which reminded me US. Though Australians hate Americans and say that they don't like all that bla-bla-bla US thing, it seems they have copied it a lot.

Beaches of Australia are just gorgeous, with white sand and see-through warm light-blue water. I also learnt to love big waves, breathing in when it is right time, jumping into them and having so much fun of getting exhausted.

Watching how people live their surfer's life here, is just fun. Everybody is walking, a surf board in one hand and enjoying time catching the waves.

Noosa, where we stayed for 2 days, is a lovely small resort with nice restaurants and ice-cream booths. There is also the National park of Noosa, where you can walk next to the beach side, hoping to see some koalas up on trees. We had not that luck this time though.

Have to say Australia is better than i had expected, similar to New Zealand because the nature is beautiful and people are lovely. But it is huge, it is massive!

Australia

On early morning 21th of February i started my first trip to Australia and flew to Brisbane. It took 3.5 hours to fly from Auckland to Brisbane and i was there at 8:25am. Lovely warm weather, around 25-30 degrees welcomed me there.

Driving around and walking in Brisbane made me think what´s the place like. Definitely a peaceful and friendly city, a river running through it, lots of skyscrapers.

The weather there is nice as well. Australia has 2 seasons: winter and summer. It is the end of the summer at the moment, mostly sunny, with heavy showers and degrees around 30-35. Autumn, from March until May, is a bit cooler and winter - from June until August - they say is just pleasant. At daytime degrees around 20 and in nighttime maybe 5.

Kiwi land and Kiwis

New Zealand is something totally different than the rest of the world indeed. No rush, no nervous competing with other people. When i think back to Estonia and to whole Europe, generally i remember just endless meaningless competing about everything: who has better car, who has more beautiful house, who is or owns whatever... I've done it myself there as well, but now i feel i've got enough.

People care here about each other. When you walk in downtown, you probably don't notice that - people on a street as usually. Maybe some more smiling to you, and certainly more attention if you turn to someone. But walking around here, where we live, in a suburb called Manukau is really pleasant. We are new faces here, but people say Hello to us on the street. And smile. Another beautiful custom is to turn to you and say your name. For example "Good morning, Ave", "What have you been doing today, Ave?", "What do you think about going for a walk, Ave?". Small things, but make feel like you are someone.

I've met a nice Swedish couple who told the same - it is so relaxing to be here. Away from rushing, worrying and competing.

Nice thing is, that life is not as expensive as it is in Estonia.

Some examples:

- our rent place costs 102 New Zealand dollars (NZD) per person, approximately 700 Estonian kroons, per week. It is pretty normal price, can even say a bit too expensive for a suburb and you can find the same price rent place in downtown as well (look at the website where we found our place);

- we have a swimming pool for free here;

- some outdoor movies and concerts are for free, sponsored by Auckland City Council;

- a daily newspaper NZ Herald costs 1.70 NZD (around 12 EEK);

- really really good sushi in downtown per piece (which is at least 2 times bigger than in Estonia and made of tasty fresh things) costs 2.20 NZD (around 15 EEK);

- Villa Maria wines start from 8.99 NZD (around 60 EEK) in supermarkets;

- you can get a simple Japanese car for 1000 NZD (around 6500 - 7000 EEK).

Welcome to New Zealand!

My birthday is usually in winter, but in this year.. in summer :)

It is my birthday today and i am 32 now. I like being it. And here is a short overview how have i been spending the day.

I woke up pretty early in the morning and got a lovely birthday hug from Marge. The house where we live, was empty by 8am - everybody rushed to work and Marge to her English lesson. So it was time to spend it on my own, to get greetings from my mum and friends in Estonia.

I made a short walk around and found lovely horses just some hundred meters from our place. I think i'll go to say Hello to them as often as i can starting from today. Horses, though not those close to our place, wear blankets here. Is it to protect them from sun.. i don't know... i think it is not for keeping them worm, it is really warm here anyway.

Later i made a nice breakfast for myself: omelet with mushrooms and ham, and some green salad. And then it was almost midday and was time to go to Auckland downtown. It takes pretty long time to go there: first to walk to Manurewa trail way station, which takes about 35-40 minutes and the same time to travel by train to downtown. But i have enough time and it's just a pleasure.

In downtown i visited the Immigration office, a lovely church and spent time in my favourite park Albert park, drinking really good chai latte and eating sushi. Beautiful day!

Later we came back from the downtown with Marge, bought some meat and wine for the evening. It was raining while we walked from supermarket back to home. It was warm summer rain, good for skin and we were so happy, walking there with huge bags :)

In the evening i celebrated my birthday with our house mates Julie, William, Marge, Anthony and Lisa. Some friends also came to us and we had lovely dinner with BBQ, salad and wine. Muffins made by Julie and ice cream made by Kiwis.. and a lovely frog (on the pic with me) form a French guy Anthony... and some lovely SMS's and talks over Skype with friends in Estonia. Perfect birthday! :) Pics of the day are here.

And here you can see some pics, what i've made on my walks around our place here and on beachday 08.02.2009.

Maori village in Rotorua 04.02.2009

I still haven't had chance to see real Maori village and saw it finally on 4th February. It was an incredible adventure to enter the village, surrounded by many Maori people. Their behaviour is totally different than we have got use to see. They protect their people and homes, being pretty frightening at first. When they understand that you are a friend and come in peace - and this is what tourists definitely are - they let you in and offer nice entertainment to you.

This visit was also worth to go and see, hoping that it all was real-real what we saw.

Must also say that they are really friendly and nice, the Maoris. And what a funny language and names they have, some examples are here:

Te Puna Ariki - Tohunga (Medicine man)

Te Ao Huri - Rebel musket warrior.

Look at here for more information.

Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland 04.02.2009

Wai-O-Tapu is New Zealand's most colourful and diverse volcanic area, located close to Rotorua in north island. I spent there some hours, admiring those innumerable colours of every tint and hue displayed in pools, lakes, craters, steam vents and mineral terraces.

Walked between pools filled with hot water, mud pools and geysers. Listened and had a lot of fun of those weird voices of bubbling mud and water.

Seems like everything is here, in this pretty small country: caves, mountains, beautiful beaches both with black and white sand, geysers, volcanoes... everything... even snow in the mountains.

Look at here for more information about the place.

Waitomo caves on 03.02.2009

On 3rd February i had an incredible adventure: to go caving in Waitomo caves, approximately 2 hours from Auckland city. Definitely one of the most experiences i've ever had.

The adventure started around 11am, when we were driven to the middle of nowhere. We just went by a bus through farmlands, very private and quiet places, hundreds cows spending their days on the fields, and no one of us could never ever think what was there inside the ground where we were driving on.

The funniest part was to put on wetsuits, rain boots and a hammer, also lots of equipment like ropes and belaying pins and to walk some hundred meters in summer heat over fields to the place where the inside wonderland started.

First look down was amazing. It was a hundred meters deep cave and we were starting to go down there on ropes, belayed tightly. It was awesome.. hard to find words to describe.

Reached down there, had a quick lunch. Probably the most exciting lunch one might ever have.

And then to the water! The water in the bottom of the caves was around 12 degrees, i guess. And you know what - there are eels in this water, which eat sheep and cows (who have been unluckily fallen down to the cave) and they are sometimes 50 kg-s big!! Oh no, when i later got to know about it... i just thanked God that i didn't understand there in the caves what the tour guide was telling us. Terrible! And i can imagine the eels actually were there in the water, just i did not know that and couldn't also see as it was really dark there.

Our way in the bottom of the caves went on, we got through some really narrow points and jumped down to the water from 5m height, having no idea what was going to happen with us after the jump.

It was all so exciting, all those 6-7 hours in the caves and total darkness.

Definitely one of those must do things in New Zealand! Some more information you can find here.

Beachday 1th February

Today it was a great beach day, sun was very bright and the weather was around 25 degrees. We went to a beach, lied down in the sun and enjoyed relaxing. Driving there was very scenery - hilly landscapes of north island of New Zealand, horses, sheep and cows in the fields. It's amazing, just a few minutes drive from our place is countryside already!

The sun is really active here. It wasn't too bad today when i had a sunblock on. But for some days my forehead and neck were really sun burnt and tender.

Pics of today are here.

Settling in and thinking about it all

By now i've been here for almost 48 hours, and these hours have been full of joy, happiness.. and of course feeling very tired too. Still takes time to get into NZ time properly.

On 30th January, i spent my day like that: woke up at 8am. Sun was shining, birds were singing and i started my perfect day with running. Our place is near by Auckland Botanic Gardens, really fantastic and beautiful place to do workouts and just to relax, enjoy good examples of New Zealand nature. The weather was pretty hot - and hot for me means 25 degrees already. I felt so alive again. Some sleepless nights made me not to do any sports in meanwhile and now, when it is possible again, it's just so great to do usual things.

Then i had a breakfast, at the same time Marge was talking over Skype with her good friend Eidi. What a nice and direct way to communicate, it felt like she was here with us. And we made jokes that it's really good opportunity to be in contact, even to organize for example wine evenings together :) Well, the only thing is that we need to decide who will have wine "evening" and who will have wine "morning", because our time differences are just so big. Ha-haa. We are having 8am in the morning here and it is 7pm in Estonia at the same time. The thing that makes feel that we are really very far from home.

At midday we went to Auckland center by train. It takes about 40 minutes to run there, because officially we are not in Auckland but in its near by area called Manukau, Manurewa. We met in Manurewa train station a nice newzealander, really friendly old man and we all opened up to talk about everything. It is very usual behaviour here: people in street, when you turn to them, start to talk with you very easily and if you have time, they don't talk just such small talk but ask about our country, friends, family... And it's easy to open up here.

Later we met a friend whom i know since we were here in November 2008, had some wines (great NZ wines!) in an outdoor bar and headed back home soon.

Today it's different weather, more cloudy. But cannot say it about my mood and the way how i feel :)

New Zealand!!!

Hi everybody,

unbelievable, but im back here :) After spending 25 hours on planes we finally reached Auckland this morning at 4am, on 28th January. I feel great and my mate Marge does the same. It is summer here, around 25 degrees. Birds sing, it smells like summer and it is so relaxing to be here. We rent a room for 2 in a rent house in Auckland south, Manukau and the first impression is that it has been really good choice. Nice people and beautiful house.

Now.. we'll start exploring and have a walk around our place. This is a pic of the house where we are living.

Eesti (Estonia), my sweet home

I've been walking around and trying to get as much emotions into me as possible in last month. Knowing that i'm leaving makes think and act differently than before.

Some say i should try to take it easily, they say "You can always come back if you want to, take it just as an adventure which will end up one day..."

That's right. But i am what i am. I like to feel strong feelings, either joice and happiness or sadness and fears. It makes life that much more beautiful, worthy to live...

By now it feels like the hardest moments are over and i just relax, having great time at home in Tartu. Taking pics of my dear ones and of lovely places around. I have only 5 days left here.