Elisabeth painted these pictures of Dieter and friends from old photos. He was working at the freezing works in Mataura on his first visit to New Zealand, this was several years before we met in Germany. He was on a 6 year working holiday that saw him hitchhike all the way from Europe, across the Middle East. He occasionally met up with another hitchhiker or two and they would travel or pitch camp under a bridge for the night. When I met him I thought it might be quite fun to travel overland like that too, so he went out and bought some maps and told me all ab out sleeping outside like that. He would be armed with a knife for protection. That was when I chickened out and flew to Singapore to see my parents who were there for a year or two.
