The beginning of a wonderful friendship

The people, who I share my travels with, will always have a special place in my heart.

I just returned from a great reunion weekend with my lovely friends that I met during my semester abroad in New Zealand. One of the, or event the greatest gift, of traveling are the life lasting friendships that are made at foreign places! These friendships arise within a very fascinating moment: far away from home and out of one’s comfort zone. People, who are complete strangers at the beginning, turn to friends just one second after.

Anyway, I will always remember the day the path of the four of us  crossed. It is a pretty romantic story indeed.

Birgit (who traveled with me right from the beginning and was more than a close friend by that time already), and I attended the “Orientation Auckland Bus Tour”. This was organized by Unitec University for all international students to get to know each other. At some point during our exploration tour Birgit whispered in my ear “this girl seems to be nice. I think I’d like her”, pointing at a likable (and maybe little crazy^^) appearance of a black haired girl. This turned out to be Tina.

Later that day, when the bus tour was over and everyone heading back home to their dorms; Birgit and I were literally let stand in the rain. It was our second of third day at Unitec and we decided it was time to make some friends. “Lets go and find that black haired girl” was our fantastic plan, not yet knowing how we wanted to approach her. As the village (=students accommodations area) was not too big we quickly found out in which apartment she lived in.

Well and so we just knocked on her door and the only thing that came to my mind when she consequently opened it (with a kind of confused look) was: “Hey, we are Birgit and Conny. We lost our friends. Have you seen them anywhere? “Well, until you find them you could just stay here with us”, we heard an angel-like voice in the background.

In we went and it was the beginning of an inseparably friendship. With Tina and Steffi, who are – together with Birgit – responsible for making the semester abroad truly to the time of my life.

Countless Grey’s anatomy movie nights, life-essential McDonald’s drives for late night McFlurries, German family dinners, wild party nights at Carpark or Provedor, fancy dinner evenings in the Auckland Skytower and lots of fun and adventure trips and activities followed. One highlight, besides the cozy Jodi Picoult reading breakfasts and the sky dive, was our holiday on Cook Islands as well as the New Zealand South Island road trip during semester break.

Sharing all these special moments in our lives builds such a strong connection between the four of us, which will last for the rest of our lives.

After seeing each other 4.5 years later it feels like we just have said “Good Bye” yesterday. I am very thankful for this special friendship and counting the days until our next reunion.