Category: Oceania

…and wow, 2007 sure is ending on a high note here in Wanaka! First I went dancing with a couple of guys from the backpackers last night (I went home before they did, but I had such a blast!), then I went skydiving – my second time after Airlie Beach in Australia four years ago, and once again it was an incredible rush!

I just love being so high up, in a tiny little plane where you can see the gorgeous panorama in all its glory, and then hurtling downwards for a short while, secure in the knowledge that a professional has your back (literally, as my tandem master Chris was awesome), until the ‘chute opens and you glide gently towards the ground… This experience will have me smiling for the rest of the day at least!

In the afternoon I went to check out Puzzling World, a giant timber maze and illusion museum. I got hopelessly lost in the labyrinth and finally gave up in disgust – my sense of orientation didn’t do me any good as I kept turning in circles… 🙂

After I’m done here in the internet cafe (the backpackers doesn’t have a computer, unusually enough), I think I’ll head down to the lake for a bit, maybe get an icecream, as the weather is very hot. It stays light forever here – I think the sun went down around 9.30pm last night… Tonight, for New Year’s Eve (a huge party in Wanaka, thanks to which there are hundreds if not thousands of young people from all over New Zealand and the world here), I’ll go to the Cinema Paradiso to see ‘The Golden Compass’ (the cinema is famous for its atmosphere and yummy homemade snacks), and afterwards I’m planning to meet up for New Year’s drinks with some guys from the hostel, maybe have a look at the fireworks and music at the lake.

It’s sure looking to be a good end of the year for me – I hope it does for you, too!

I arrived yesterday around noon, after a beautiful bus trip through the Canterbury Plains and the foothills of the Southern Alps. As soon as I’d gotten settled in, I set out to explore, knowing I only had such a short time here in this valley at the foot of the highest mountain in NZ.

I started to climb to a viewpoint, but realized two things: 1) I forgot to put on sunscreen and the sun here is insanely strong even with SPF 40, and 2) I hate climbing stairs. I like walking, I don’t even mind all that much if it’s uphill, but after 20 minutes of stairs up the side of a hill, I threw in the towel disgustedly. I’d already gotten quite a nice view, so I decided to go explore the valley instead. So, after a stop at the hostel to put on sunscreen (despite of which I got burned – we’re right under the ozone hole here) I did the four hour return walk to the Hooker Valley. This was lovely, absolutely beautiful, ending at the foot of the glacier.

When I got back, I was completely shattered, however, having made the return journey at a very brisk pace. So I used the sauna here at the hostel, which made me feel wonderfully relaxed, and then chatted with some of the women in my dorm. Among them an older Swiss lady (probably in her 60s), traveling by herself and working on organic farms. We’re also going to be on the same bus later today, me going to Wanaka, she to Queenstown.

In Wanaka I’ll spend three nights, which I’m looking forward to (and not just because I’ll be able to do some laundry *g*) – plus, I booked a skydive for tomorrow. What can I say – I’m going to end this year on a high! 🙂

Btw, ‘Aoraki’ is the Maori name of Mt. Cook and apparently means ‘cloud piercer’, which is fitting.

I’ve only been here one afternoon, but it’s a lovely town – very British, in many ways, with cute wooden cottages and impressive stone buildings that used to be churches (or look that way), as well as a river called Avon, closely modelled on the Cam (including punting boats for the tourists). I enjoyed ambling around for a bit, then I got some take-away vegetarian sushi and went to the Botanical Garden. These are really gorgeous – huge trees, a rose garden, a waterlily pond (where I had my dinner), a fragrance garden… The last one is something I don’t think I’ve seen before New Zealand – all sorts of fragrant plants, from roses to kitchen herbs, making walking through a real pleasure for the nose.

Now it’s cooled down a bit, so I’m back at the hostel. I’ll try and go to sleep early, as I’ll have to get up at 6am to get the bus to Mt. Cook. I’m very glad that this is the only time during this trip that I have to get up so early!

This morning I went whalewatching – and this time, I even got to see two actual whales from up close (as opposed to last time in Cape Cod)! We saw two sperm whales (“Pottwale” in German), one of them for quite a long time, breathing on the surface before diving, giving us a lovely view of his tail. I asked a German girl with a good camera if she can send me her photos, so there might even be photographic evidence that’s actually recognizable… 🙂

Not so good was that I was horribly seasick, worse than ever before. Seriously, despite being very happy about seeing whales, I was even more happy when it was over and I was back on firm land! I wasn’t the worst off, however – a German guy puked pretty much right through the whole trip. We all felt very bad for him. I must admit, this is probably the last time I’ll do something like that – apparently my motion sickness is getting worse as I get older. Ah well, it was still cool, and I met a nice British woman who works here in NZ.

The afternoon I spent happily lazing about on the beach. Absolutely wonderful – I just lay down on my jacket, looked up into the bright blue sky and at the turquoise ocean while listening to an audiobook (‘Stardust’ by Neil Gaiman, one of my all-time favorite novels). The beaches here are either pebbles or black sand, but that didn’t take away from the relaxation factor at all.

Tomorrow I’m off to Christchurch, but I’ll only spend an afternoon there, as the bus to Mt. Cook will leave insanely early on Saturday. But it should give me enough time to have a wander around the supposedly very pretty town.

Arrived at the youth hostel in the whalewatching town Kaikoura. The trip was lovely, especially the crossing to Picton on the Interislander ferry, with the sun shining beautifully as we left Wellington, crossed the open water between the islands and passed through the beautiful Charlotte and Marlborough Sounds. In Picton the weather changed – it rained and even hailed, a sign of the nearby Southern Alps, invisible in the clouds.

I just enjoyed a lovely break here in the hostel, having a tea and some of the chocolate I got for Christmas while a Maori lady showed a little girl how to use the poi (cotton balls the Maori use to tell stories/accompany songs). Now it’s dry again and I might head out for a stroll along the coast. Tomorrow morning I’ve booked a whalewatching tour, a very exciting prospect. If only the weather holds…

The plan to have a beach barbecue failed spectacularly this morning, as not only did we miss the bus (it was 15 minutes early) but also the weather didn’t look very promising. So we ended up barbecuing on Kathrin’s front porch, which turned out quite nice, as it meant that Silva and Kathrin’s flatmate Kim could join us. We shared food (my noodle salad was a hit!), small gifts and memories of holidays back home…

Then I went back to my place, after agreeing to meet Kathrin and Janne for church tomorrow morning. However, when I tried to open my door, the key wouldn’t turn. I tried several times, then I knocked on a couple of neighbours’ doors, unsuccessfully. However, lucky for me, someone turned out to be home – and Tony works in the office, so he was able to really help me out! We went to reception, where he called someone with a masterkey – and gave me a package from K. in Hamburg that had arrived today but which otherwise I wouldn’t have gotten until after my trip.

I left my stuff in Tony’s room and went for a walk to the waterfront and shopping for the journey (as tomorrow is almost the only day in the year when most stores will be closed), before meeting Liz who got the door to open with my masterkey, after which my key suddenly started working again. So what could have been a big disaster ended up being a minor inconvenience, and I might even have gotten a friend out of it…

It’s been a very good day today – the first time it really felt like summer for me, maybe because I ended up going to the beach at Oriental Parade with Kathrin and Janne (who’s staying with Kathrin after we met in the hostel in Rotorua). First we cooked together, then we walked to the waterfront, where we had icecream and planned what we need to shop for our Christmas orphan beach barbecue on Monday. I’ll be contributing a noodle salad and my last box of Läckerli.

Then we walked along the water to Oriental Parade and its (artificial but still very nice) beach. A lot of young folk outside, as always, and families with small children. I do wonder where the older people go on a sunny Saturday afternoon, however… Anyway, we only bathed our feet, as the sea felt quite cold, although there were people swimming, then we sat down in the sand. I perused Janne’s Lonely Planet guidebook and got myself all excited about my upcoming trip to the South Island. However, the sun was quite strong, despite sunscreen, so after a couple of hours we walked back, stopping only to pick up a yummy banana/berry smoothie from ‘Doctor Juice’.

As a result of it all I’m completely knackered. I did my laundry – it’s quite frustrating to pay $4 each time for washer and dryer and then to end up with half the laundry still damp. I’ve hung the wet stuff up to dry as well as possible – it’s everywhere, on every available surface, even the stove… 🙂 Now I think I’ll make myself comfy on my bed and watch a DVD. A guy from my floor said something about having a question, but he then disappeared without a trace, so I might end my night undisturbed after all…

It’s almost Christmas, how strange is that? I hope all of you reading this are doing fine and enjoying the season – if you feel like it, do comment on one of my posts, so I know I’m not just talking to myself and to my parents. 🙂

I’ve gotten a couple of emails from people worried about me – however, while I know I felt shaking last night and was probably woken by slight tremors this morning, I’m completely okay. Here in Wellington it really was no big deal. The earthquake was most felt in Gisborne, which is several hundred kilometres away. But thank you for thinking of me!

Edit: But isn’t it amazing that I heard about it from someone in Germany first? Globalization in action! 🙂

I had my exam for the HR course yesterday. Not sure how it went – I have a not-so-good feeling, but I often have problems evaluating how well I’ve done, so I try not to worry. Also, there’s nothing I can do about it now, is there? So instead I’m writing the final assignment, 1500 words using the previous one-page assignments as template. I’m at about 1000 words now and think I’ll take a break and eat something before starting on the last bit.

Once that’s done I’ll be free. There’s a couple of things I want to do before Christmas, like make reservations at ‘Southern Cross’, a bar/restaurant that Kathrin recommended to me for my birthday, but mostly I’ll just hang out until the Big Christmas Orphan Beach Barbecue of 2007 on the 25th. I want to meet up with some friends (heh, that sounds as if I have so many of them, but it’s barely a handful) and enjoy the summer (if it stops raining, that is *g*). In other news, hopefully they’ll finish construction soon – tomorrow we won’t have power on this floor during the whole day and no one seems able to tell me when the hole in my ceiling will be gone. But I’ll be gone for 10 days after Christmas, luckily, so I just hope there won’t be many more disruptions until then.