Hello everyone back home!

While Thomas usually provides you with information and strategic milestones, I’m taking over the ‘Emotions, Oddities, and Family Chaos’ department again today. Let’s just think of this as my digital photo album with an extra helping of text.

After January was mostly about bureaucracy (opening bank accounts, buying a car – yawn!), February was when things got real: house hunting in the right school zone, getting the kids started at school, and building a social network. Spoiler alert: It’s a total rollercoaster!

School life: K-Pop, Kilts, and Kitchens of Antiquity

ChatGPT can tell you everything there is to know about school systems – I’d rather tell you how it actually feels. Marie was fired up beforehand for two main reasons: the school uniform and the British accent. Thanks to the K-Pop generation, anything that isn’t German is ‘cool’ anyway, but for her, British English tops everything (except Korean, of course 😉). Marie is already practicing hard, reading exclusively in English, and dreaming of her own YouTube channel featuring her baking skills in a British-style café.

Ferdinand? He had zero expectations. I warned them both: ‘Guys, it’s going to be tough. You probably won’t understand the dialect at first, you’ll be the foreigners, and if you have to repeat a year – who cares? You’ll grow with the challenge!’

Thomas insisted that they both needed a Schultüte (school cone) – after all, it’s a new beginning! The kids loved the contents (sugar!), but found the look itself ‘b-e-y-o-n-d embarrassing.’ Absolutely no photos in front of the school! While shopping for the fillings, Ferdinand grabbed some marshmallows. My ‘motherly finger’ shot up: ‘Yuck, that’s artificial! You shouldn’t eat anything invented in the last 125 years.’ Less than three seconds later, Thomas pulled out his phone: ‘Ferdinand, we’re safe! The first marshmallows were invented in ancient times around 2000 BC… High five!’ Well, there’s no arguing with historically documented cotton candy.

The first day of school & shock therapy: Everything kicked off on February 8th. The uniforms look fantastic on them – Marie loves her stylish winter kilt (even though it’s currently summer here 😅). But the first and second days were… a study in contrasts.

• Marie: Came home in floods of tears, utterly disappointed. No one understood her, no friends, everything sucked – she wanted to change schools immediately!
• Ferdinand: Was beaming. ‘Everything’s cool! I told jokes in English, everyone laughed – and a classmate from China was really nice too.’

Day three: The turning point! Marie is grinning again. She’s found her feet, even if the lessons feel almost too relaxed for her. She can hardly indulge her passion for artfully decorated notebook entries here – there’s just not enough note-taking.

Biology highlight: This beats any German curriculum hands down! The science teacher slapped a blood-dripping sheep’s lung onto the table (with a brief warning: ‘If you can’t handle it, step outside’). Then the thing was inflated with an air pump. The kicker: the trachea was sliced into rings, and the kids could wear them as rings on their fingers. Cool, right? In Germany, 20% of the parents would probably have threatened a lawsuit for trauma. Here, it’s just ‘hands-on learning.’ The teacher’s parting words: ‘Since it’s Valentine’s Day this weekend, I’ll bring in a sheep’s heart on Monday to celebrate.’ Pure romance!

Free time: Yoga farts and the NZ property market

To meet people and get some exercise, the kids and I have started going to yoga. We’ve ended up in a group with three retirees, though. But as our last landlord’s mug so aptly put it: ‘Yoga: Basically an hour trying not to fart.’ In that sense: it’s very relaxed.

Otherwise, our new favorite pastime is house hunting! The market here is extremely volatile. On average, Kiwis move every seven years. Not like us Germans, who build a house for eternity – including forward-thinking plans for a wheelchair lift and a removable wall for a future senior studio. (Yes, I plead guilty.)

Everything is a bit lighter here. And above all: wonderfully uncomplicated. Viewing appointment? One click – and it’s in the calendar. It feels almost like online shopping, except instead of sneakers, you’re suddenly ‘trying on’ an entire house.

And honestly: viewing houses in person is a thousand times more exciting than any glossy interior design magazine. Some properties feel like a stage, though. Three living rooms, but no decent spot for a dining table. And then there are those other houses. Often the ones that have been in the same hands for longer than the famous seven years. You can tell immediately: this wasn’t just a place to stay; it was a place to live. A large dining table with signs of wear. Light that falls warmly through the windows in the evening.

Magic and Time Travel

Three weeks ago, we headed into the woods (Peel Forest). A truly magical place! Standing next to these 1000-year-old giant trees, you feel small and insignificant. The path winds through a prehistoric-looking fern forest where the chirping of the cicadas is so loud and rhythmic it almost puts you in a trance. The light breaks through the massive trees and fern fronds, creating a scene where you’d expect a glittering unicorn or a Hobbit to appear at any moment. And at the end of the trail—how could it be any different—there’s a waterfall with a swimming hole.

In between, we visited Taylor’s Mistake Beach in glorious weather—also stunning (see photos!). The name comes from a Captain Taylor who lost his way in the 19th century and steered his ship into the bay—a literal ‘Taylor’s Mistake’ —long before Taylor Swift was even born!😉. At low tide, the sheer number of black mussels on the rocks is impressive—big and small—and we found ourselves wondering if we could just pick them off and eat them.

And last week, we visited Castle Hill, which the Dalai Lama reportedly called one of the most spiritual places in the world. We philosophized about what spirituality actually means—probably that mix of ancient geology and a silence that allows you to switch off your brain for a moment. I was grateful to have such people around me: my husband, a physicist, and our new acquaintance from Swabia, a software engineer—both in professions where everything is usually rooted in facts, yet both open enough to embrace something that perhaps can’t be easily explained.

On the hike up, I even joked: ‘Imagine if we could just hop through the stones into the past, like in Outlander—you know, that series about time travel to the 18th century!’

So, without any gemstones, we stood right among the giants and tuned in deep within ourselves. ‘Do you feel anything?’ – ‘Nope, you?’ – ‘Me neither.’ (Laughs).

But then: On the way back, we stopped at a supermarket in Christchurch. We strolled past the magazine rack, and my eyes caught David Bowie. He was emblazoned on a cover with a headline so current it looked like he was on a world tour. I said to Thomas: ‘Strange, hasn’t he been dead for ages?’ Thomas pulled out his phone; Google said: Yes, died in 2016. Two meters further: another magazine, with Prince beaming at us—also with a bold, current-looking headline. Thomas looked at me, this time without Google: ‘He died in 2016, too. I’m sure of it.’ Between the gossip rags and hunting magazines, we looked at each other and started grinning at the same time: ‘Forget the gemstones—we actually did walk through the stones into the past at Castle Hill this afternoon!’

On the drive home, ‘One Night in Bangkok’ came on the radio. It was the first time I’d truly noticed the song since our New Year’s Eve there—like a 4D flashback. The scents of the street food stalls, the thousand lights, the chaos, and the sun setting over Bangkok’s river—it all came flooding back as I sang along to the chorus, drumming on the steering wheel in time with the beat, driving home into the evening sun with Thomas and the kids.

English test

For the next step of our visa process, we had to officially prove our English proficiency across all disciplines—speaking, listening, reading, and writing. And it had to be done in person, under strict supervision.

Thomas is generally the better English speaker and had already studied hard for the first online test back in Germany six months ago. Naturally, he approached this one with his usual solid and conscientious mindset.

I, on the other hand, only had a good week to prepare. I relied on a much more ‘compact’ study plan and secretly hoped I wouldn’t completely drown. My approach: less fine-tuning of grammar and more of a gut feeling for what the exam actually wanted to hear—basically, the fine art of playing the game.

The result was surprisingly impressive: nearly identical scores, almost at ‘native speaker’ level. Whether that speaks for our language skills or just shows that we’ve thoroughly figured out the testing system remains to be seen! 😉

The Art of Recruitment – Or: It’s a Small World After All!

We had given the kids a very clear mission: ‘You’re not going to school just for fun; you are our special ops unit for parent recruitment!’ 😉

And wouldn’t you know it: Ferdinand delivered! Through the German-speaking community in Christchurch, we met Tobi from Austria. He promptly invited us over for dinner, where we met his family and their friends—a Swabian family with a son. The boys hit it off so well over a plate of mussels (yes, the ones from the beach—edible and delicious!) that it led directly to our joint hike at Castle Hill. Recruitment successful!

Now Thomas has ‘networking fever’ too. He went on a mountain bike tour with our Swabian friend (let’s call him S1) and another acquaintance, Alex (also Swabian, S2). Afterward, Thomas told me with a grin how the two ‘exports from the Ländle’ hit it off:

S1: ‘So, where exactly in Swabia are you from?’ S2: ‘Oh, you wouldn’t know the village. It’s near Rottweil.’ S1 (digging deeper): ‘Come on, tell me, maybe I do know it!’ S2: ‘Village XY.’ S1 (nearly falling off his bike): ‘No way! You’re from the next village over!’

Well, there you go—you migrate to the other side of the planet only to find out that your new biking buddy—who happens to live in the same neighborhood here in New Zealand—could have practically spit over your garden fence back home. The world isn’t just small; it’s basically a Swabian village.

Mission Lego: The Grandparent Task Force to the Rescue

Mid-February was Ferdinand’s birthday—and he had a very specific plan. Using his Christmas money (since we didn’t do physical gifts back then while living out of suitcases) plus his birthday money, he finally wanted to get that massive Lego Liebherr Excavator.

After some global research on eBay and TradeMe, and with the help of his ‘logistics consultant’ Thomas, a battle plan was formed. Their calculations showed that ordering from Germany was actually the best deal, even with the shipping costs. The weight was the real challenge, though: over 5 kg! So, the packages were cleverly split—one 5 kg box, one 2 kg box, and the bulky instruction manuals were tossed out since they’re available online.

Now, all that was left was for ‘Special Ops Grandma and Grandpa’ to swing into action. And they certainly had their work cut out for them: partially dismantling the excavator, removing the manuals, adding two items I still needed from Germany, and slapping on the logistics labels provided by Thomas. It was a proper repacking adventure! The order was shipped, and just 1.5 weeks later, Ferdinand is in seventh Lego heaven—we only see him at dinner time now!

“This Saturday, I celebrated my first birthday in the Southern Hemisphere. The real party with friends will have to wait until the end of March, though, once we’ve moved into our rental house—we’ll just have more space there. Plus, our former Airbnb host, Darren, invited us to his own birthday and housewarming party on the very same day. A lovely side effect: Ferdinand and I now get to celebrate in the bright summer sun instead of the grey, muddy February. Even Marie, our little ‘cave dweller,’ is happy about her new date in late autumn. Only Thomas is still struggling a bit with the shift: instead of garden parties in the summer, he’s now looking at a birthday in the middle of the New Zealand winter at the end of July.

All in all: life at the other end of the world is going well. We miss our family and friends back home dearly, of course, but thanks to WhatsApp, the distance is more bearable. Yesterday, for example, a miniature poodle followed Ferdinand during our walk that looked exactly like the poodle of his best friend and neighbor in Germany. I sent a photo of Ferdinand with the dog to our neighbor: ‘In case you’re looking for Sammy—he’s here with us!’ The best part: the actual owner really did call the dog ‘Sammy!’. There are things between heaven and earth…

Talk soon, we’ll keep you posted!

P.S.: A little tip for anyone thinking about leaving the country: every now and then, a forgotten bill from Germany inevitably flutters in. My ultimate advice for anyone planning a move like this: listen to ‘MFG’ by Die Fantastischen Vier beforehand. Go through every single acronym in the lyrics—then you’ll be well-prepared and might actually remember to cancel your GEZ (TV licensing)! 😉