Goodbye Te Anau

Counting down the days to freedom… but to quit my job and going back to living in a van does mean missing out on a lot. So these couple of days I tried to enjoy having a kitchen and bathroom as much as I can. As I mentioned before, for some odd reason I’ve gotten really into cooking! And the fact that the house had a bathtub made my world a little bit more beautiful. It’s been 8 months since I got to be in a bathtub! I even bought myself some candles… On a random morning Max told me that some of his friends from home were in the area so we invited them at home. Poppy and Ellis, two wonderful people! Poppy had lived here for the last 5 years and Ellis appeared in the country 6 months ago. We had a great time together, and it was a good excuse for me and max to spent money on going for dinner. I still need to get used to paying for myself to go to a restaurant. We shared a bottle of wine and all enjoyed our pizza’s and pasta’s. Sometimes you meet new people and kind of need to get the conversation started, but I instantly felt a really good connection! And after that, it was THE moment. Max had been talking about watching Game of Thrones for ages. He didn’t understand why I didn’t want to watch it. Not that I didn’t like it, because it seems amazing. But I just know myself good enough to understand I’d get too addicted. And we can’t afford being addicted while backpacking ;) But anyway, he convinced me. So at night we all gathered together, cozy in the sofa’s and started watching GOT. Guess who’s addicted now… I knew it!

Poppy and Ellis stayed another night and we all decided to cook together. Also Damien, our friend from America came to visit us! Like we say in Dutch : ‘Des te meer vrienden, des te meer vreugde”. A normal thing to share food you’d say, but for me it was something special. If you’d ask me what it is I miss about home the most, it’s sitting together for dinner. Just being together and sharing food instead of eating like a zombie in front of the TV. So yeah, basically enjoying everything I could still use. Skyping my parents now I still could, enjoying my warm bed before the cold car nights. I already went to get another duvet and Max bought us a hot water bottle. Max also played his last rugby game, which ended up in a little house party. And I enjoyed earning money by working 10 days in a row. And then the packing began. With pain in my heart I threw away all the things I could live without. I consider it a good practice! I never wanted to be a materialist. For some reason a had a big stash of oats I’d never be able to finish, so for the first time in my life I decided to bake cookies on my own. I’ve never been a baker, but they worked out pretty fine! And I felt like a house mom, again. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not….