Birgit's NZ love affair ends in tragedy

Birgit Brauer's body was found on the same day she was last seen hitching a ride near Wanganui.

It is easy to see why Birgit Brauer had long dreamed of visiting New Zealand. The sweeping landscape, from vibrant forests sprawling beneath mountain peaks and dropping to beautiful coastline, captivated the 28-year-old German.

With a pair of hiking boots, her packs on her back, all she needed was a ride on the open road to exploit this landscape.

Her dream ended 11 days ago under the towering redwoods in Lucy's Gully, near New Plymouth. Land wars were fought here. Lucy Stevens, the woman the gully is named after, is buried beneath its rich soil with her husband and son.

On Tuesday last week Birgit's body was found by a jogger among the ponga and redwoods, head injuries and a stab wound to her chest inflicted, police suspect, by the last person to open his car door to the hitch-hiker on her dream journey.

Birgit had saved hard for this trip, flying to New Zealand on February 17, about a week before her 28th birthday. Hailing from the small German town of Eberswalde-Finow, population 40,000, 55km northeast of Berlin, she studied for a diploma in geography at the Dresden Technical University, finishing in 2002 before taking up work with a charity organisation, allocating funds to worthy causes.

Friends describe her as reserved; open, honest and friendly after she warmed to you; someone who knew how to enjoy herself.

"We always had fun together," remembers German friend Maike, who shared a four-person room with Birgit at Deco Backpackers in Queenstown for three months from mid-May.

"She had a good sense of humour, sometimes really cheeky. She always got the last word in."

And she loved food, especially chocolate. "She would always close her eyes and say, 'mmm, so good'."

The two Germans eased into a friendship. Maike remembers standing with Birgit, goosebumps rising on their necks listening to the All Blacks perform the haka. Birgit loved the All Blacks, says Maike.

The pair were the same age, shared a love of British band Coldplay, and both despised their boss while working at a European eatery at the local mall.

Birgit at first found jobs hard to come by and thought about leaving as finances dwindled. When the eatery hired her, she lasted a week before joining the housekeeping department at a local hotel, Outrigger at the Beacon.

Sonya Calder, executive housekeeper at the hotel, employed Birgit. She was quiet, she said, but was always cheerful, although the language barrier sometimes made things difficult.

"She sometimes didn't get the Kiwi slang. I said to her to get the Lux and she didn't know what it was. She finally said 'oh, vacuum'."

The small housekeeping team of 10 was hit hard by her death.

"The biggest thing is that it's someone we know and it happened in New Zealand. The anger came out afterwards, how could someone do this?"

As she found the security of a regular job, the seductive Queenstown lifestyle lured Birgit into the local vibe. She became a regular at popular bar Winnie Bagoes, armed with a bacardi and coke. She nestled in at Deco; the working travellers who based themselves there soon became a family.

The Wakatipu basin offered her a retreat. She explored local walks such as Queenstown Hill and Deer Park Heights and often graced the shoreline of Sunshine Bay.

"She was well known for walking everywhere - she wanted to experience the beauty of it all," Calder said.

When Birgit left about two months ago she said she was off to experience everything New Zealand had to offer.

She loved New Zealanders' down-to-earth attitude and believed she was safe hitch-hiking.

Among Birgit's best New Zealand memories were a scenic flight over Mt Cook, a week tramping through the northwestern South Island and visiting Stewart Island.

"She really loved the South Island," Maike says. "She was a little sad to leave here because there were so many nice places."

But Birgit also missed home. She kept a photo of her niece and nephew by her Queenstown bedside. She was looking forward to December, returning to her flat in Dresden and curling up in front of the TV with a home-cooked meal, no longer having to share space with transient backpackers.

After touring the South Island she made her way to Wellington and then on to Wanganui, where she met Caryl and Fritz Blomkvist. She stayed on their Wanganui farmlet for the last 12 days of her life as part of the Willing Workers on Organic Farms programme.

Fritz Blomkvist said she spent most of her mornings spring-cleaning or grubbing thistles in the orchard. "She was very helpful."

A quiet girl, Birgit did not volunteer much information about her life but spent her afternoons writing in her diary sitting in the sun with the Blomkvists' cats, Abby and Daisey.

Before she left last Tuesday she took a photo of the couple and they warned her of the dangers of hitch-hiking.

"I offered to take her to the bus station but she said she would hitch-hike, which I didn't like the idea of," said Fritz Blomkvist.

"She said 'Oh, I'll be fine'. She'd hitchhiked all over New Zealand. I guess you never think it's going to happen to you."

The Blomkvists drove Birgit to the edge of Wanganui in their Honda Civic and on the main road just outside town she hugged them and said goodbye, promising to call that night.

"We saw a car pull up and she got in and left. As it drove off we took the number plate," Fritz Blomkvist said. "I said to my wife to take the number plate just in case."

Maike says sometimes Birgit took the bus and other times caught lifts with people she had befriended. But her finances for the most part constrained her to ambling by the roadside, weighted down by her two packs, her thumb at the ready.

"We [each] had nothing but good experiences with hitch-hiking," Maike says. "She was a little bit uncomfortable because there's a risk, but it's so small you think it won't happen to you."

Local farmer Stuart Watson picked her up outside Wanganui and dropped her off in Waitotara. Before taking her spot on the roadside she went into the Waitotara Hotel to use the bathroom.

Publican Bill Hahn remembers Birgit. He commented that she'd chosen a good day for hitch-hiking.

"It was sleeting and cold the day before. The last I saw of her she was walking back towards the main road."

Malcolm Perry and his stepson Gareth Evans saw her sitting in the sun on her backpacks as they drove into Waitotara that Tuesday morning. Birgit waved and grinned.

The police knocked on their door the next day to ask them if they had seen a hitch-hiker in the area.

Like many who came into contact with the backpacker before her brutal murder, they feel angry. They are haunted by her smile. "We're shocked about what's happened," says Perry. "Just seeing someone like that in passing then she's killed, I wonder what kind of person she was, I want to know about her.

"I couldn't sleep that night, I smiled at her and waved at her, it's in your mind. You can't really get it out of your mind."

Minutes after Perry and Evans passed her, Gail and Dave Welsh saw Birgit get into a 1980s grey or black two-door Toyota Hilux station wagon, believed to be her final ride.

On Thursday a vehicle fitting the description was pulled by helicopter from the Ohau River near Levin where it had been dumped.

Sightings of the vehicle, seen around New Plymouth, Lucy's Gully and in Levin, have flooded in to the police inquiry team.

Police want to speak to the driver. The last known driver was an employee of Palmerston North man Brent Cleverly, the car's owner, who says it was taken in August by an employee. And as the hunt goes on all those who knew Birgit wait.

The Blomkvists remember waiting for her call that Tuesday night. By 10pm they had heard nothing. Fritz Blomkvist rang her cellphone about 10pm and it rang through to her answer phone. Two hours later the police knocked on their door. They had found a body they thought was Birgit. Papers from their farmstay were still in her pocket.

Her backpacks were gone, with her wallet and cellphone. Police are still searching for them.

"We were horrified. It makes me angry you can't be safe on our roads, it makes me angry there are people like that around. You think New Zealand is safe but it's not."

The Blomkvists have been trying to write a letter to Birgit's family but they don't know what to say. "I guess to just say how sorry we are," Blomkvist said.

He realises that as he rang Birgit that night she was already dead.

When news of her death spread around Deco, the place fell into silent disbelief. "The whole evening no one said a word. The first couple of days were really hard," says Maike.

Martin Tscherner, the Germany Embassy consular officer liaising with Birgit's parents, Knut and Anne Marie, said her parents had a positive attitude towards New Zealand despite what had happened. "She had sent numerous emails about what a good time she was having. They differentiate between one bad person and the rest of New Zealand."

The Brauers, both in their 60s, hope to have Birgit's body at home for a funeral towards the end of next week. They have decided to play Pokarekare Ana, sung by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, at her funeral.

Tscherner said the Brauers wanted to thank everybody in New Zealand who had made their daughter's working holiday so special.

Says Maike: "The thing I'll always remember is her smile. It was this really lovely smile, like it came straight from her heart."

Song tribute by Birgit's Queenstown friends

'In memory of a friend'

I think about the first time I met you, the smile on your face
an effigy of human grace just heading for your dreams
so many stars no one would ever believe just out to meet some friends
find a few you know until the end
well I hope you hear us now you made impressions like you don't know how
I guess nothing's gonna take it back no it's never going to be like that
but with our time until we are through we will remember you. (x2)
I think about the last time I saw you we said goodbye like it was nothing new
with promises to meet again no this won't be the end
our memories of you will be as sweet and true as the life you lived and all the things you did.
The smile on your face no one can ever erase, the smile on your face no one can ever erase.