Sara Hammerzmith

First thing we did this morning, after sleeping in and some small issues, was to get our own set of New Zealand wheels. Our New Zealand wheels is a silver colored Hyundai called ELD, or, Fire, in English.

After a late breakfast and some mishaps with the receptionclerk here at the hotel, we finally got on the road, heading down towards Piha, and firstly – Karekare.

And the road down to Karekare… was the fucking road from hell. Roads were narrow as fucking HELL, and not only was the roads super narrow, oh no, on the other side, the passenger side of the car, there was a fucking scarp / cliff, which probably was a a kilometer or two or three deep. Fucking hell. I had my heart up my troath the entire trip down and I even got nauseous thinking about how close death we were. Because, they do not, I repeat, THEY DO NOT have fences to protect your from falling… Every time we got a car from the other side.. Say your prayers…

But, it was all worth it once we got down. First we went to visit the black sand Karekare Beach, climbed a mountain and I ripped another wound on my leg. Seriously, this beach.. So beautiful. We got back to the car, looked at the map and walked the 250 metres up the road to reach the Karekare Falls.. And my lord what a sight. I’ve never before, believe it or not, ever seen a waterfall before in my life so this was sort of massive.

Got myself a really nice cut while climbing. Always me.

After this, we headed down towards Piha Beach, but stopped a little bit before to embark on the Kitekite walk track, which would eventually lead us up to the Kitekite Falls. It was a long but rather nice track, we were probably a bit unprepared, but we had a view to die for when we stopped halfway to drink a bit.

After drinkpause we continued up the hill and finally came to the amazing falls. Seriously, it was BREATHTAKING. We embarked on the Connection Track and made the way up on top of the waterfall. Seriously, I can’t tell you about the calmness and beauty that was to be found in this, but seriously…

We went back on the Connection Track, found ourselves back to KiteKite and finished off the KiteKite track before we decided it was a good idea to head home… Not just yet! First, we were off to Piha beach to check another black sand beach.

We started the day off with watching Melodifestivalen on SVT Play, because it doesn’t matter if you’re at the other side of the world – you do need to see the finale and see who wins. Frans will be representing us at the Eurovisions, congratulations! The girl I rooted for, Mimi Werner, wasn’t in the finale at all, so it really didn’t matter that much, though I must agree I’m a bit weak for Ace Wilder.

After this, we headed towards the central to first have breakfast at the cutest little café ever, and then continuing down to get our buscards, might as well get one, you know? We chased a beach bag without any luck for a while before getting on the bus towards Takapuna Beach.

At first we were a bit terrified that we had gotten off at the wrong stop, but it was solved really quickly when we found a sign towards the beach.

And what a view! The ocean! The beach! It was wonderful. And what was even more wonderful, was to take my first bath in a sea or ocean in 15 years. It was weird, but fuck I laughed most of the time, even when the salt came in my mouth and lungs. We tanned a bit on the beach, bathed again, sunbathed a bit more before we decided it would be good to pack up our stuff and talk a walk along the beach.

It’s a big beach I’ll tell you, and… Well. There was this stone, with a rope, and I assume this is so you can climb the stone, so I figured I’d give it a try. Of course, what I do, is that I slip and rip wounds up on my legs. Both of them. Good on me, right?

We kept walking along the beach and the amazing rocks you could climb, and once we decided to go back, the tide had gone so high that we LITERALLY had to climb the rocks to get back. The stone I tried to climb was almost covered in water. That’s how high it was.

We wrapped the night up at The Burger Bach where we had each a delicious burger before going home, planning tomorrows adventures.

// Sara

So today was the day. We got up at like, what, 4.30, packing our only suitcase into the taxi and said good bye to Curt and Chiara for now and headed towards the airport. Funnily enough, the taxi driver drove the wrong way, and THEN asked our destination. Made me pissed.

Once there, we checked in our bags, got stuff in the duty free and boarded the plane. And seriously, I’m gonna do what Luisa Omelian says – upgrade bitches, upgrade. We went with Emirates and I was happy to watch ”Hunger Games: Mocking Jay part 2” all the way from Brisbane to Auckland, again with a tasty breakfast. I need to upgrade to these kind of airlines.

Once landed we went through two hours of waiting. Seriously, I never realized how ”blessed” I’ve been to have a European Union passport holder until now. Going into the ”long” rows seriously… it took us two hours. TWO HOURS from when we got off the plane until we were actually IN New Zealand and free to go.

We found the bus rather quickly, got on it and discovered they have the cutest seats ever. Didn’t see much, since the bus had big printings on the window where we sat, but oh well. Got off at the right place and then took the WALK FROM HELL up to our hotel. I mean, I thought Hotel Micro in Stockholm was bad, but holy shit. Jucy Snooz beat them.

And Jucy Snooz… so you know how I chose the hotel based on the colors on the hotel right? Seriously, this is soooo our hotel. The humor is just so US. Damn. I need to go to New Zealand more often.

So, we changed clohtes and then hit the town. The first thing we did was to collect as many maps as we possibly could to start plan our days, and then went through a few touristshops planning what to get and then began the endless lookout for food. We decided we didn’t want to have fastfood, but rather real food to treat ourselves. We found an italian restaurant and had a blast.

Afterwards we headed over to a place called Rock Bar, which is just as the name suggests, a night club with rock music. So, with music videos from the heroes, a glass of wine and beer and maps and guidebooks, we found ourselves planning out what we wanted to do.

More locals came into this club which is also a karaoke bar, and once the karaoke was on the party was on. New Zealanders know how to party! Had a blast, thanks all involved. We headed home quite early, and now we lie here in bed listening to Battle Beast and planning out or days. New Zealand will be good.

// Sara

Today was quite interesting. It started out with us rescheduling New Zealand, as we had originally thought about going today, but decided against it. So I started the day out with packing and cleaning up after us, going for my walk…which became more dramatic than it should.

First and foremost, since I didn’t plan to do a big walk, I decided to bring neither my camera nor my phone, because I thought, what would I ever need or get to photograph?

Jokes on me, because when getting up from my safe place, I found myself looking into a pair of black eyes, belonging to the cutest cow I’ve seen in a long time. And she had company by three more. I know where they’re from – they’re from a far nearby. I talked to a local about the escaped cows and then continued on like nothing. When walking a bit further, I came across one of those dragon lizards and a bunch of tiny geckos. I guess jokes on me when I said I wouldn’t see anything exciting.

Later in the night I headed down to World Science Festival which was held on the Southbank, and started the evening out with watching ”Wall-E” on an outdoor cinema by the river. After the movies was done, I strolled down the marketplace and checked out the dress I’ve found myself checking out a lot. Really need to get it.

Spent the rest of the evening resting by the river, walking around Southbank to photograph it for my mother and then got home later than I thought I would. Perfect last evening in Australia for now.

// Sara

So, behind where Curt and Chiara lives there’s a big park. A park that I was told goes on and on and on and on and on for a very long period of time. Naturally, this intrigued me, so I packed my bag, made some food and went. The furthest I had gone before was the 3 kilometers to the workout equipment, but this day I figured I’d go even further.

So I went. There isn’t much to say about me going – the walk differed from being in parks to being among neighbourhoods, and the only really exciting thing must be the warning signs for magpies which freaked me out for a moment, but it was all good. I got all the way down to Virginia Golf Club where the road came to an abrupt end and I found myself walking back home.

After this I went downtown to meet up with Curt and he showed me some swords he’s been looking at, as well as some recordstores similar to Knastret. I really enjoyed being down there, you know, like coming home?

We went groceryshopping so I could cook them a meal, but… Well. The meal turned out fine, however, being unused to Australian goods, I managed to pick up the spiciest of spicy chilisauces, so our mouths BURNED. And it’s not even supposed to be spicy in the first place. We watched “Ghostbusters” while having dinner, Chiara came home later and we all went to bed. Slow, but nice day.

// Sara

Today I headed off early to town in order to catch one of many artgalleries they had. I went to the Modern Art Gallery, located close to Southbank, and I enjoyed it so much, and my favorites were the Aborgine art. Seriously, it’s absolutely stunning. This is the sort of art I’d have at home. I fell in love with the Asian pieces as well. I guess it’s just soothing. That reminds me. Once I move away from home, I need to set up a speaker that constantly plays the soundtrack from “Atlantis: The Lost Tales” every day.

After this, I did some quick shopping at the touristshops. Picked up a few gems, and also some candy before I headed down to one of the many pools at Southbank waiting for Curt. Seriously, I’m not sure if you guys ever been to Southbank, but it’s probably the best place on Earth.

Around 6-7 something-ish, Curt met me up at Southbank to have some one on one time, and we hit up this Burgerplace called “Grill’d”. I had a superspicy burger, which almost made me cry, but it was SOOOOO good. Seriously, REAL burgerplaces is the fucking shit. I need to have two or ten more of those before I leave this country. So fucking tasty.

We spent the evening talking about everything and nothing, spotting Elmohelmets on bikers and just enjoying ourselves and a drink and a burger.

We walked around a bit on Southbank, walking through the rain forest and the Japanese temple before we decided to head home. It was a really nice night and day, I couldn’t have enjoyed it more!

// Sara

Today we went for a walk, Michelle and I. It wasn’t very long, but the weather was amazing, and thus, we go. We packed our backpacks with food and off we went. At first we found ourselves going a bit in circles, but we eventually found a route.

We found ourselves ending up at the 7th Brigade Park, a remembrance park if you like for fallen soldiers.

We found ourselves a nice picnic table where we could sit down and enjoy the meal we brought, and we were accompanied by the cutest caterpillar ever. I poured him so water, and he actually drank. Amazing.

When the sunset started, we decided to head home. Once home, I recieved the best news I could possibly get, so we made ourselves ghostpancakes to celebrate. This was a fun, yet calm day.

// Sara

For the first time in a while I got down to Brisbane center for some shopping, or well you know, trying to shop anyway. I wish I was better at shopping than I am, but you know, what can you do?

I walked around the center for a while, checking out a lot of store and wound up in this one store called Valleygirl, where I instantly found a belt that I had to have, so obviously I got it. They played good music (read: Payphone – Maroon 5) so I found myself walking around a bit and found a couple of really cute tops, sadly, they were a bit too small and seeing their were sale items, they didn’t have the other size. What a shame really, but the belt is a killer.

I also wound up in a store called Paper Scissors, where I found quite a few items that I decided to try on. Ironically, the one top I didn’t think I’d get is the one I wound up getting. It’s funny how it works sometimes, isn’t it?

After everything was said and done, I went gorceryshopping to treat my hosts with a mushroom-ham sauce with tagliatelle, and on my way home from the city I cam across some very interesting statues.

Got home, cooked dinner and we had a pretty good time eating good cuisine and watching “Monsterman”, the Lordi documentary talking about, yeah, Lordi. Haha, what else?

// Sara

So. Today was Dreamworld day. At first I didn’t really get it, but the more time we spent there the more I started to understand that this is basically Disney World, but for Dreamworks. We left pretty early in the morning, around nine I think. Dave, Curt and I took one car, and then Chiara, Ashleigh and Michelle in the other one. We had a good drive down, listened to Powerwolf most of the way and introducing Dave to this wonderous music. Of course, Dave missed the sign, and it’s just fun, because I was about to tell them that we need to get off here, but I figured they know better, and then it turned out we were indeed supposed to be off there. Oh well then.

So, after a little detour, we finally made it to Dreamworld where we caught up with the ladies. Sorted out the tickets, and then we got inside.

The first thing we did was to hit up one of the rides Ashleigh really wanted to go on. I have a heartcondition, as you may know, so I can’t go on a lot of rides, but we followed them regardless. It’s a nice looking themepark, but humans will never cease to amaze me. Some workers came with a young tiger, walking through, probably to move him, and as soon as they’d passed the people, the people ran up from behind to pet the tiger. Like, come one people. Leave the fucking pets alone.

(Picture belongs to Chiara Parry, used with permission)

After the ride, we went to a ride… that I can’t remember the name on for the life of me, but it is the same sort of ride as Kållerado on Liseberg. I liked it a lot, I was just surprised they had safetybelts, despite this ride being a bit… how do I put this… calmer than Kållerado. You who have been at Lisebergs knows the big “ocean” part where you just get float around like nothing and sometimes get stuck in? Like you were really on the seven seas? They don’t have that, yet they have seatbelts. We have that, and no seatbelts. I do find the watercanons a little lame as well, like, I walked out perfectly dry, which is impossible on Kållerado… But, none the less, I still enjoyed it.

After this, we caught some food and the most exciting thing that happened there was us hiding Dave’s pizza. Sadly, he took my food hostage. God damn it.

After this, we headed down to toward the wildlife section of the park, and saw a lot of nice animals. Like old turtles with algea on their backs.

And alpacas who could not give a shit about us being there. Or more, they obviously found themselves being better than us. Especially the white one. “I don’t have time for your bullshit”

Then we came out to the kangaroos. The firs thing that struck me, was that they were loose. Like, they could jump around and roam freely. I was surprised as hell, seeing kangaroos are pretty big and strong. I wonder how many accidents happen with the kangaroos… I don’t even wanna think about it. But they were chill as hell. Kangaroos are like, those kind of people who are in reality really strong and buff, but also really chill.

Then we headed over to see the sleeping little koalas. Like my spirit animal. Sleeping all the time. Cuties.

We headed down to watch birds, a wombat that was also sleeping (I don’t blame him, I’m tired too) and then we went down to see them feed the crocodiles. It was pretty cool.

We went down to an arcade-like hall, where the rest of the people went to the ball-pit shooting balls, and then did some radio-cars, but I found myself sitting outside the tiger pits watching the cubs play until I found a shadow Dave and I could rest in while the others did whatever they were doing. Oh that’s right, Ashleigh and I found a fancy dragon too.

Curt, Chiara, Dave and I went off to eat somewhere (ice-cream!) and later met up with Michelle and Ashleigh again. The day was coming to an end, and we took one last ride on Kållerado-look-alike, and then we headed home. Once home again, the rain started again and I spent most evening on the balcony sucking in all the calmness that is darkness and rain, and after it stopped I went on a walk around the suburb.

// Sara

Today was a really slow day. Curt, Chaira and Ashleigh was off to a party of a friend of theirs, but seeing I was a bit ill I decided to stay in. I went for my usual walk around the blocks, the weather wasn’t exactly on my side, so I didn’t do a whole lot. However, you know how in Sweden, when it rains, after rains comes the snails? Like this HUGE massive invasion of snails, that you can barely walk without stepping on a snail?

They have it here too, only with toads and frogs. I fucking shit you not, there were toads everywhere, all over, tons of them. It was like, the toad invasion. Maybe I should make a movie. The toad invasion. I stopped along the way to watch some field hockey games as well.

Once I got home, I walked down to one of the McDonald’s and got myself a dinner. And really like, treated myself with 6 pcs of Nuggest, a hamburger and two fries. I don’t treat myself a lot, so I figured it was about time I did that. So what I did is that, since Michelle was already asleep I went out on the balcony, set up my computer, fixed the chairs with pillows and blankets and my travelpillow and put on “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1” on the computer. It’s always a bit of a contradiction when you are eating while watching the Hunger Games series, but still. Love this series.

I remember I fell asleep a bit during the movie and woke up to unsettling noises of war. What a way to sleep, huh? It was raining a bit on the evening as well, but unlike Sweden, even though it rains it’s still superwarm, so it’s super duper cozy. After “Mockingjay” was finished I watched “Phineas & Ferb: Mission Marvel”, and Curt and Chiara got home when I was watching the end so Curt and I wound up discussing villains (Whiplash is so hot in this special, I can’t even deal with him) and having a bit of a heart to heart.

Once finished with “Phineas & Ferb” I went to bed to prepare for tomorrows adventures, Dreamworld.

// Sara