A Swiss long time Caravanner in New Zealand

Born in Switzerland and having travelled a lot all over the world due to my job as a hydrologist, I’m used to remarks like: “Oh, Switzerland, I know Switzerland, everybody’s rich!” Especially in poorer countries in Africa or Asia, I heard that quite often. I cannot agree 100 per cent with that statement, but I have to admit that there are worse places to live than Switzerland – perhaps there are better ones as well. Could it be that God’s country might be such a place?

Since 2005 I’ve had the chance to travel quite extensively in New Zealand, but travelling on a visitor visa meant that after three months I always had to leave the country. After I retired in 2016, I decided to say goodbye to fog and snow and spend as much time enjoying summer as possible – summer in New Zealand and summer in Switzerland. What a life! And then in 2020 Covid struck with all the consequences we’ve all experienced ever since. My flight back to Switzerland scheduled for May 2, 2020 was postponed first to July, then August then maybe Christmas and finally the return ticket was extended to the end of 2021. So here I am still, waiting to get back safely as one of around 10,000 foreign tourists still in the country. As such, this is the first chance I’ve had to stay