Lescrauwaet Reünite

The day before Dad and Katou arrived, mom had booked us a room in a hotel next to the airport. Their flight would arrive early in the morning, so that would give us less stress. We were standing there for almost an our until two (deadly exhausted but extreme enthusiastic) members of the Lescrauwaet crew came out of the door. I was so happy to see them! And again it felt unrealistic to have my parents and my sister standing next to me in the country where I grew up to be a woman by myself. We got back to the hotel and gave them some time to take a shower and complain about the non-stop noodle meals and some of the horrible Asians and their spitting sounds. Then we packed our backs and got in our crappy but cozy van. For me this was pretty weird. After 3 months of sitting in front of the car, I had to move and sit in the back seats. For some reason I instantly felt 4 years younger. We drove up to the Coromandel region to chill out for a couple of days. Dad and Katou went from talking and laughing to sleeping and snoring in a couple of seconds, pretty cute I thought.

The first travel day, we were extremely lucky in a totally unlucky moment. Our car broke down in a gas station. I when I say 'broke down' I meant that we couldn't fix it on our own. We called the owner of the company for a new van, but things were a little complicated. Also, we'd already booked a hotel one hour from where we were. The 'dude' who was working in the gas station, saved us. He lived in the town we needed to head to and he gave us a ride. It didn't only last with just a ride, he invited us for diner too. I'm still really grateful for that experience! They were a lovely family. And when I thought things couldn't get any better, the car guy called us back and said that he had a solution. He had one van left, a Volkswagen from 1969. And that was the beauty we travelled in the rest of the 2 weeks... praise the lord!

We celebrated Christmas at the beach in Hahei. I had champaign, good food and best of all: the people I love the most on this entire planet sitting next to me. I'd never felt so relaxed on christmas day. The rest of the journey we drove a lot, saw some beautiful places and done a lot of really nice stuff. We chilled at the beach in Coromandel, went to thermal wonderland and had a Maori meal with cultural performance in Rotorua, did the tongariro crossing in Taupoagain, stayed at beautiful campsites and cooked nice meals. The plan was to head up to Gisborne to Celebrate New Year. In the mean time Max had came to join us and we were driving around in two cars. A lot of people go crazy on New Years eve. They party hard, get drunk. We just sat in our chair with one bottle of beer. We talked, saw the sun go down and just had a cozy evening. We wished each other happy new year and went to bed. As simple as it is, and I wouldn't have had it any other way! We woke up pretty early and saw the first sunrise in the whole world, which was pretty magical to me.

After that we made our way back up and went to Raglan. The little surf village where I already lost my heart once. Mom and dad rented a little house for us to stay in. I felt like a princess, having my own personal shower and bed. Also Jacob and Madeline stayed with us for 2 days. Me and Max cooked a delicious meal for everybody to say thank you and we ended up playing games and laughing all night. These last couple of days we just chilled out and surfed during the day. We played a game of football on the beach and had a cozy dinner with us all. It felt a little like 'the normal life back at home' but that was exactly what I missed after 3 months.

And then it came, it kicked in. For months I was preparing for my parents to come visit me. But I never thought about them leaving. I wasn't prepared but I had to. I had to say goodbye and that did hurt. It took me some time to get used to the fact that they were gone. At first I felt a little down... but then I remembered again. I'm in New Zealand, I have the chance of being here for a year and doing stuff not a lot of people are able to do. And most of all, I was lucky enough to have had my parents with me in this adventure for a couple of weeks. What more do you want?