DreamTrip

Deciding to leave your country on a one-way flight causes many mixed emotions. It is not as easy as it sounds. Although it's a dreamtrip, things don't necessary happen the way you want them to.
Which is amazing in most cases! This is where the fun begins: change of plans, new ideas form, randomly meet new people, you find out about new places you never heard of before, scrap the overrated iconic tourist traps...
You DO expect something to happen to you when you travel on long-term, right?

Well, unfortunately it breaks your heart when something terrible happens in what you thought is one of the safest countries in the world... New Zealand.

After just a month landing in New Zealand, and a year of Australian memories from beforehand, this country immediately started to test us. Having our first night Couch-surfer cancel on us 5 minutes after we landed, we somehow managed to find accommodation in the 15th hostel we called from the airport! Rugby Weekend. We should have assumed how busy it will be in Auckland! Buying a van within a week, we started our travels on our second week, all the way up to the tip of the North Island!

Hearing stories of people getting robbed easily, seeing thief signs everywhere, being advised to be cautious... This really did not make any sense to us, seeing we were in what is advertised as a safe country. We almost had an attempt of a robbery once, but our gut feeling advised us to return back to the car, only to learn later that the parking spot was in fact a high crime rate. But come on, it will never happen to us. I mean, what are the odds? What is the worse that can happen? People have it coming when their car is broken into, obviously if you leave all your belongings showcasing!

It was March 11th, 32 days after we landed, a month exactly after we bought our van! We were
enjoying our trip along the Coromandel, and made our way down to Paeroa.
Leon was feeling tired, and wanted to find a place where to sleep after a day of driving. Kirsten managed

to convince Leon to visit one last stop before heading off to the rest area. Driving to Karangahake Gorge,

we decided to go on one of the treks. Even though we decided to take a route, something told Kirsten to

visit the 1km Railway Tunnel. Seeing that time was against us, we scrapped the idea, and trekked around

the amazing Gorge, spending over an hour and half. Getting dark, Kirsten quickly wanted to stop by the

Tunnel, and to our surprise, we found out we can quickly park the car in the next car-park, and walk 180m

to view the tunnel. That made Kirsten happy!
Doing this, we parked the car, quickly walked 2mins to take a photo, crossed over the bridge again to get

back in the car when suddenly, we saw four guys on bicycles circling the car, and making a run for it.

THAT WAS IT! In 4mins, our van was broken into! That was all it took. We quickly started running after

them along the path, but they were too quick, and had barriers so cars could not drive past. One look at

the van, and the front glass was shattered. Glass everywhere, a mess, and all our secret compartments

open. A quick hand slip to feel behind our seats, AND OUR DAY-PACKS WERE GONE! In 4minutes, we

ended up identity-less, money-less, and lost majority of our possessions. Having just our phones, all that

remained, were our clothes, and thankfully the hard-drives which were at the back of the van. Passports, documents, laptop, wallets, gopros and cameras, ipod, first aid kit, watch, shower pocket...
You name it, it's not there! Having just a $100 emergency note at the back of the car, (at least it was still where we hid it!) we called the Police, who informed they were on their way, called all three banks (Maltese, Australian and New Zealand) to cancel the cards, and waited...

In pitch black...

Sun down...
Alone...
Lost, broken, voiceless, and tears digging marks in our faces.

What's to happen to us now?