Smiling once more

After the hard start in Auckland we decided to go for the beautiful shores of the Coramendel.

We found in the HIT book a couple who are farmers and growing a kiwi orchid just few kilometers from the hot water beach – Bill and Lorna Black. After about 2 hours of driving on the wrong side of the road we reached our destination.

We were very surprised to get an amazing two rooms wooden Zimmer just for the two of us. Bill and Lorna are in their late 70’s but were very friendly and energetic. They told us about their family and their life , it was fun and interesting , and their grandson's name is Israel  :)

Bill gave us the tide times and offered us a shuffle so we would dig our Jacuzzi in the hot water beach. We woke up in about 6 in the morning, prepared a breakfast, and reached the hot water beach with our mini shuffle .We saw people digging and started to dig in a place that looked nice.

After a while the water didn't get hot,I decided to dig deeper - no luck , then one of the tourists saw us and told us that we need to dig where the sand is hot, we changed the location and bingo - a gazer inside our pool, we built the pool with high walls so our stayed last in the high tide.

digging

warming our buts

We enjoyed it so much that we went also the day after, combining the day with a great walk to the cathedral cove. 

back to 15 :)

the beautiful beach
at the cathedral cove

Side walk to one of the beaches

just beautiful

monkey business

splashesh

smiling a lot

We asked Bill and Lorna to give a hand in the orchid, just for fun, and Bill asked his daughter in law, Brenda, to teach us how to work in the orchid. It was fun.

The feeling that this family gave us was great , we invited them to have a Shabbat dinner that we cooked , it was a full house Bill,Lorna,Brenda,Andrew,Israel and us.

The family atmosphere 

Brenda and Ira after a great 
day in the Orchid 

We left their house with a big smile, taking a ride across the amazing coramendel peninsula. 

make the round

its beautiful

smiling once more

With a great expectation First time climbing in New Zealand

Cold , Expensive , Empty and Gorgeous

Those would be the first 4 words that I would describe my first impression about New Zealand.

I had a really bad landing maybe because I expected miracles from the moment I put my foot on this far away land. Maybe because of the cold weather, amazingly high prices and a very unpleasant first night confrontation with a Maori that was sure that everyone in Israel is a child killer. 

Maybe because when we tried to buy a car from an Iranian Guy in the vehicle testing station I was told that the odometer was taken 100k backward which kept us for another 2 days stuck in Auckland.

Or maybe it’s was just the contrast from the warm amazing people of Georgia - their food and their mentality and our great visit to Germany. All of those left their impression. 

After a week, for the first time in my traveling life, I was ready to leave this country and give up the dream of exploring it.

Luckily I’m not travelling alone and Ira was able to show me the good things about this country and that Auckland is not the best parameter for measuring the rest of New Zealand.

the nice things :)

Auckland - looks amazing (amazingly expensive)

We joined the HIT (host Israeli travelers) organization which is mostly consists of Joshua Christians that support Israel and host Israeli travelers in their home or just offer help during our stay here. Basically creating a home away from home.

In Auckland we reached the house of Ghram and Judith Porter, they have lovely rooms for the HIT members , they saw the frustration and really tried to help us with finding the Car.

They took us to celebrate Sukot in a church – YES sukkot in a church and in the end they even sang both of the anthems the NZ one and the Israeli.

Judith and Grahm - Yes they are smiling :)

In the Church we met a lot of lovely people who were excited to hear that we are from Israel.

Hatikva

big cohen

Among those people were Jose and Martin, a lovely couple who emigrated 40 years ago from Holland to NZ (and never actually became citizens of this country). They were hugging and amazing. Taking us searching for a car and inviting us to have dinner , the amount of energy and love that those people had to each other and the world could fill a room easily – that was a thing to learn!!!

We found a car in Elislle car fair in Auckland and luckily Ghram told me to check the car in one of the VTNZ. I asked the guy there to check whether the state of the Engine fits more or less the Odometer (not part of the check) it revealed that the odometer was rolled back for 100,000km (it costed us 150$) – and we could avoid that using carjam.co.nz (15$) to check this stuff.

Touching the ocean for the first time 

The view from Victoria hill - a break from car hunting

Devenport Fairy

Luckily a day after we found a car - Toyota caldina 94 from a traveler for 1500$ and started our way in hoping for the best.

Ira and Claudia

Germany

So I'm sure that I would not be able to describe the feelings and experiences I had  in Germany in the 10 days which we spent with Ira's father , Nadya, Mira & Mosya , but any way I will try to do it in one post , although it deserves much more.

When I met Ira I learned that she has only a mother and actually she doesn't has a father and she doesn't even know if he is alive or not.

It was really strange for me because I got used to have both parents , and even my friends whom parents divorced still  kept in touch with both of their parents.

After we got married Ira insisted on keeping her family name and just adding mine. I was totally OK with that but I told her that she needs to know who's family name she is keeping and that she needs to find her father.

A day after I came back from work with a page which had Ira's father details , his address, phone, his details of immigration, and his recent photo. I pressed the digits on my phone and handed it for Ira to press the Dial button. Ira pressed dial and the hung up, Dial and hang up, then I took her hand and she managed to dial, on the other side of a phone a man answered : Cherkes .

Ira : can I speak with Lazar

Man : This is Lazar , who is it ?

Ira : this is Ira

Man : which Ira ?

Ira : your daughter Ira 

silence ....

After few seconds they changed few words and Lazar said that he can’t talk right now and took Ira's phone number promising to call back tomorrow. That day was one of the longest in my life, and finally after my regular training I saw an unanswered call from Germany. I screamed from happiness in my car apparently he called Ira few minutes after and they had a firs nice talk after 23 years of separation.

From here to there the connection was renewed. After about a month and a half it came to a point that both sides were interested in meeting each other. We planned our honey moon in a way that will allow us a 10 days stay in Europe. Didn’t knowing what to expect we planned to have also other possibilities in Europe although Lazar insisted that we stay with them.

We arrived to Dusseldorf airport after a great connection in Istanbul where we met a great guy from Kuwait - AbdulRahman Alyousef  discussing everything and seeing that there are many Muslim people that actually understand the reality which we are facing and want to have peace with us, traveling Israel and enjoying a good friendship.

Lazar met us in the Airport holding 3 flowers for Ira , the meeting was strange. We went into the car and it looked like both sides don’t really know how to act, I learned that Lazar is only the official name but everyone calls him Lyona. That was the first Ice breaker.

first time after 23 years

We came to their home and met Nadya, Mira & Mosya , we brought presents for the kids and wine for the house. We set for a family dinner and tried to act naturally. Actually it was totally great, the kids spoke great Russian and we enjoyed a happy family atmosphere.

Lyona took the next day off and we went traveling through Dusseldorf with him having a good cake and coffee in a nice old bakery and Ira started to get answers for the huge amount of questions she collected during the 23 years.

We took a great collage to congratulate our friends at home with the Jewish new year and  had a great hag dinner at home. Nadya made a great dinner and we enjoyed the food and the stories.

First walk

Hag dinner

having fun

We decided to take an organized tour to the castles of Moselle with a Russian company named Compass. This experience reminded me why I hate organized tours

and that Russian mentality stays with many people in other countries regardless of how long they lived there. Our guide was rude and absolutely boring. The place was amazing but the time schedule was absolutely terrible, and the company doesn’t wait for people a single minute, they just leave them behind.

Please avoid taking the tours with this company .

feeding leopold

cochem

leopold

one of the castles

In the next few days we got to know better our new family, and it even started to fill like one. We took the kids to make fire, went climbing in Bochumer Bruch (great crag), made camping in the back yard and hiked in the botanic garden.

But all the activities just were addition into creating a nice and great relationship with the new family.

making a fire for the first time in their life

all together on a Fairy

meeting Yeara

hope to trow stones one day with my son

Monia Bringing wood

I'm the bigger Pig

We went to Reyrmond for Shopping, took a night out Lyona, Ira and myself in a Bar

where we had a great talk and Ira got a lot of answers, Celebrated the holidays and even went twice to a synagogue (don’t remember when I went to one before that).

I loved the breakfasts the dinners , and the regular noise that comes from a family of 6 , I never had brothers or sisters. Nadya told me one morning that she is very excited that her kids got another two brothers and it actually felt great.

But most of all I loved the fact that Ira gained a new word in her vocabulary DAD J

I also climbed few routes

Manuel Climbing

Mira climbing

pitching a tent in the backyard

family tent

playing cards

new brothers

visiting Ira's grandmother grave

Cheburasha (had a few beers)

playing in Barbie

last day hike

autumn

feeding a deer

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