Baba`s Kiwi Newsletter - 3 (english)

Baba´s Kiwi Newsletter – 3

Heeeeeeeeeeellooooooooooooooo!

WOW – 3 month or ¼ of a year are already gone... I can´t believe it! It feels like yesterday when I arrived :) but on the other side it feels like ages ago when I started travelling.

I´m still good and enjoying life as good as I can! Travelling is fun and somtimes I caught myself thinking where I should go next or where I haven´t been yet ;)

This month I travelled the South Island – not the whole – but a big part of it and have to say: If you like the North Island and think it is WONDERFUL – the South Island just blows you away!!! Not neccessarily with bad weather but here in order again:

Day 62 – 64 / ABEL TASMAN

After I had to wait an hour in Nelson till the bus was finally coming the people on the bus where already in a funny mood! I had my first female driver, toghether with her Intern Joe. The bus was full but there was a lot fun going on inside.

Once we arrived in Abel Tasman we had to find our Huts while it was raining cats and dogs. They were tiny and with 3 beds only where you actually could not even turn around with all the luggage. But as we had a BBQ coming up we anyway went back to the Community house. There I had my first green lip mussels and have to say: YUMMY!

At around 10am in the morning we were ready for the National park – on your own or in a group. I somehow had the same speed as a English couple and so we ended up together. Sue likes photography as well so it didn´t matter that we stopped every 20m ;) Garry was entertaining us... imitating Gollum, telling jokes or placing silver ferns on the ground to show us the way (like the Maori did in the moonlight) – even with constant rain we had fun! While raining I have to say that I didn´t find the walk THAT spectacular. It was mostly bush and after 4,5 hours I was done. But I would love to come back in summer when there is nice wheather, the sun is out and you can bring your togs. The weather forecast was bad so it wouldn´t had made any sense to extend the stay – not that you can believe the weather forecast in NZ...:)

Day 64 / PUNAKAKI

The next morging we left with rain again. After 2 nights away from civilisation first stop was at a supermarket in Motueka to buy food. Thank god I needed a toilet – otherwise I would not have discovered that European bakery! And there it was: the last and only Brezel I have seen so far. Just at that moment the russion owner talked to me in german and asked if I would like to buy the Breze and she would have “Blackbread” as well...OF COURSE!!! Urgently! Interesting how lucky a Brezel can make you. I already checked online where you would get some base to do it yourself but seems to be difficult in NZ – sometimes in pharmacies and if I got it right: only with perscription. Which explains why they don´t have it that much.

Next stop: Pancake rocks or Pancakes rock ;) Wooohooo – the rain stopped – and we were able to have a look around. As it was low tide we didn´t see the water coming out of the holes but it was cool anyway.

Once we arrived at our new hostel I figured out that we were in the bush again – in 10 bed dorms. But the huts were great. 3 around in the bush with community rooms where they had a proper fire and fresh bread and muffins in the morning – yummi!

That was as well the evening we had the feeling everyone on the bus is either a nurse, medicine student, doc or someone who takes care about older or ill people... a lot of people here do something like that. And then the surprise: We had 5 people from the fashion business aboard! Nat, our driver, was working for Reebok once, 1 kanadian girl was in her last year of studies and 2 english girls worked as Developer as well as Designer. What´s wrong here? After I have already met a developer from scottland I was really surprised – and all just had quit there jobs and are travelling now! The world is such a SMALL place ;)

Day 65 / PUNAKAKI – BARRYTOWN – GREYMOUTH – FRANZ JOSEF

9am the next day I signed up for a Jade carving course. After I worked already with bone in Raglan I wanted to try stone. 4,5 hours – and I was the only one again :) That was FUN! It almost felt like dental technician again as I was working with machines this time (and those are quite similar to the ones in a lab).

In Greymouth we changed the bus as more and more people joined us. And not everyone has as much time...

Unfortunately it was raining almost the whole time as we drove down the west coast and we couldn´t see anything of the nice scenery. Nat and Joe did everything to keep the bus happy. If it was guessing movie soundtracks or playing the most embarrassing song on your ipod – we were in a good mood! And at the end of the day we arrived Franz Josef.

Day 65 – 67 / FRANZ JOSEF

As it was quite late already we only planned our Activities for the next day. I decided to do the “Ice Explorer”: 4 minutes Heli ride up to the glacier, 3 hours hiking in the ice, 4 minutes down again. After that free entry to the Glacier Hot pools (hot Glacier water with different tempratures 36, 38 or 40°C).

We already had to be there at 8am to prepare ourselfes (payment, signatures, equipment...) and then we were outside and ready for the Heli – and there it was: My luck with Activities :) Our tour guide just got the message that there is a storm coming up on the glacier and we can´t go up now – slowly I start thinking about this...

Possibilities: you could wait till it would be possible (which could take the whole day) or you get back your money plus something else for free. I took it as a sign and decided to try it again with my brother in summer. So I got my money back and a Valley walk (4 hours from the bottom of the glacier) for free with a discount to the Hot Pools. Not too bad ;) 2 month ago there were a lot more possibilities, for free, but now there is a big hole in the glacier and it is moving quite a bit. Therefore it just became to dangerous.

The Valley walk was great and the relaxing in the Pools was even better! At least I didn´t spent the whole day waiting for better weather – but of course the weather was great after I got my money back ;) hehe

Day 67 / WANAKA

On our way to Wanaka we stopped at Lake Matteson which is actually a fantastic mirror lake where you have a great Mountain view – not us. It was POURING when we were there :( What a shame...

Wanaka is very nice. A quiet lake, Mountains in the backround and a quite small town. Actually I planned to go to the famous Cinema Paradiso where they have old cars and sell warm cookies during the movie but the program was just too bad. So I checked out the town instead.

Day 68 / WANAKA – BUNGY – ARROWTOWN - QUEENSTOWN

The next morning our first stopp was still in Wanaka: Puzzling World! First we had to manage our way through a huge maze where I (as an orientation idiot) would completely get lost! Thanks again to Ireland and Finnland for helping me out ;) After that you could see Ambigrams, optical illusions and special effects from “The lord of the rings”. WOW! And if you finished earlier there was a Café with heaps of puzzles and games to train your brain and patience. NOT for me ;)

After that we got closer and closer to the Adrenaline Capitail: BUNGY JUMPING was on the list! We stopped at the bride where it all started and the Kiwi´s invented Bungy jumping. 7 already signed up and with 10 there would be discounts. No, I didn´t do it yet but I have to admit that it gets me slowly – maybe later ;) So I watched them all jumping – even Joe to prove his internship serious ;) It was quite fun but I think it is over to quick.

Next stopp was Arrowtown – a small little place where the first gold diggers arrived in NZ and where there is a Café famous for it´s pies. But I was too fascinated from the wonderful tree colours in the forest and before we could think about a pie we already headed to Queenstown.

There you could immediately notice some life! Finally people in the streets, traffic and a lot of bars and shops. So we finally went out and did some bar crawling – good feeling :)

Day 69 - 74 / QUEENSTOWN

After a long night we had our first sleep in in days before we walked up the Queenstown Hill to see Hannah do the ledge bungy. This jump is 5m deeper then the bridge and it feels even higher as you are jumping from a kind of cliff. Beside that you are connected around your waist – not on your feet – and you can run and jump like you want it ;) We even had a little bit of snow on top but the view was worth the freezing! Queenstown is beautiful – reminds me a little of home mixed with Bregenz. In the evening we finally had our first FERGBURGER which Queenstown is famous for. It depends which one you pick but they can be huge – similar to a Döner but higher.

A few people left the next day so Hannah and me were alone in a 8 bed dorm – YEEEEEES!!! Around lunchtime we went up the hill again to try the Luge rides with the boys (kind of sledging on wheels) – but this time with the gondola. It was fun! If you do a very funny picture they offered us free drinks in our hostel – nothing you have to tell us twice :)

The next evening we went “Pubbing” again (Bar crawling ;)) as it was the last day of our bus, somehow. Actually I wanted to leave as well but ended up on the waiting list. And even after moving my departure to 2 days later I still was on the waiting list – seems like a lot of people in Queenstown ready to leave. But there are definitely worse places out there to wait :) All together I didn´t do that much in Queenstown but you can definitely spend some time with Runography hehe ;)

The next days were quiet. I was alone in the 8 bed dorm, running and checking out Town. I even watched the Champions league final at 7am!!! My personal Adrenaline kick – what a DRAMA!

Irish Kat and me had breakfast at the lake and suddenly Scottish Emma was back as well. We went to a market together and had another Fergburger ;) The evening before we all left (last day for everyone – again :)) the good news arrived: Joe was back and had to bring a car back to Christchurch. Which meant basically I wasn´t on the waiting list anymore and 5 of us were allowed to have a proper road trip in a car till Christchurch – WOOOOOHOOOO!!! Lucky us!

So we headed off with our last Fergburgers in Hand – direction Mt. Cook! With beautiful weather and great music I got a taste how the road trip with my brother would be in summer :)

Day 74 / MT. COOK

The landscape was phenomenal!!! Central Otago is as beautiful as they all tell you: still colourful trees around, blueblueblue lakes, golden gras (as well the hills), dark green forest and grey mountains with snow covered hats on the horizon! Sounds like the Allgäu but check out the pictures because it is different ;) With the luxury to stop wherever we wanted we enjoyed the drive a lot – think it was the MOST beautiful so far.

Mt. Cook itself then looked kind of familiar. As we stopped quite a lot it would have been quite hard to manage the 4 hour walk - so we did the 1 hour one. After that we had a nice chill out evening, lying on bean bags and watching DVD – NICE!

Day 75 / RANGITATA

On the way to Rangitata we stopped at Lake Tekapo – picture is attached because there you see it best. Unfortunately we had to join the bus again as Joe got a call to go back to Queenstown – what a pity!

Just before our supermarket stop for the night there passed by a car with the sign “House following” on its roof, and there it was: 20 meters behind the car came the house on the back of a Truck. We almost got pushed off the road! Before we all realised that a complete house was passing by there was another car behind it with the sign “ House ahead” – I couldn´t stop laughing!!! Crazy Kiwis :)

Rangitata again was somewhere nowhere and we even had 10 bed dorms with 3 bunk beds! I haven´t seen that one before. The Matrasses were soooo bad that we decided to party spontaneously :) So we had dinner and free chocolate cake afterwards before we experienced some Kiwi drinking games. As everyone was running out of wine and beer we luckily had a very young and talented guitar player and singer with us – just felt like 17 again in our Tennis Club house at home :)

Day 76 - 80 / CHRISTCHURCH

9:30am we were dropped at the edge of Christchurch because of the earthquakes. Most Tour companys don´t stop here over night anymore and as well the busses don´t drive to the city center. I still wanted to see Chch and visit Nicky with family. Kat still had 2 nights here as well before she flew back to Australia so I dropped my luggage at the Jailhouse hostel till Nicky would pick me up in the evening.

A lot of traveller told us Chch is a Ghost City – I don´t agree with that. Of course I don´t know the “old” Christchurch but some of the travellers always need action and entertainment. It doesn´t help the City at all if the tourists are not coming back! So we checked out the inner City where in a few places you could still see what had happened. But I think they have done a great job with all the clean up. Beside that they built a new Container City where the most important shops moved. There are as well Café´s wherelse a lot of the bars moved to the suburbs.

Around 6 I got picked up from Nicky and I finally met Max (7), Jack (13) and her husband Iian. Grace was there as well and to my surprise even Abby with her Dad and Pip´s (sister of Nicky) Ian were there. We had a great dinner and it was great to see everyone again! Grace was really kind to offer me her bed and moved to her little brother for the next few days.

Nicky showed me around the house and told me about the damage. Like with most houses the chimney was gone, some windows were broken and the floor is slented towards some corners. Here and there you see breaks in the wall and they even had holes in the ground. She told me that they had plans to re-build some rooms of the house but now they have to wait till March 2013. Then the soil will be checked and decisions will be made – re-build or bring it down. Imagine that!!! I was fascinated by the way they handle it (the Kiwis I met in general): as a new opportunity. The old buildings would have had to come down or be restored at some point anyway. Which other City has the opportunity to give it a completely different and new look? There are a lot of new jobs coming up – to name a few reasons. Of course there is a dark side: a lot of people lost their homes and left Chch after all. I asked Nicky if they thought about that but they have both great Jobs, the kids are able to visit great schools and Canterburry is a very sporty place (beside the whole country!) – so maybe not.

The next day I spent with Kat in the City and the botanical Gardens. It was her last day in NZ and therefore as well a bit sad.

Friday I had a sleep in. In the afternoon I could finally manage to get up for a run and almost missed Nicky´s call. So I called her back and she asked if everything is ok and if the house was still there. Me only “Yes, all good. Why?”... and then she told me about the 5.2 earthquake – which I missed while I was running! She missed it as well as she ran around in the office like crazy...strange. Actually you should not wish for one but I´m definitely courious how it would feel. Jack brought Fish ´n´Chips for dinner and we had a very relaxing evening.

Saturday is sports day. It started in the morning with the Rugby game of 7 year old Max (and I thought F-youth in soccer is fun to watch) and after that we drove straight to Grace´s Hockey game. All part of school! I loved it! Unfortunately there was no basketball match from Jack on so I missed that. As a special for the kids we had lunch in a restaurant and picked up a friend of Grace´s on the way home. Abby´s dad, and a good friend of Nicky´s, was there again and I got a “Kiwi Slang” lesson :)

On Sunday morning we visited the market (which reminded me a lot of the “Grüne Lust” around Nürnberg) and after that did some grocery shopping. Max was playing golf, Jack had basketball training and I watched the girls before I made “Kässpatzen” again for our last evening.

Day 81 / KAIKOURA

The day started already at 5am: with an earthquake 4.4. So I finally felt one, even if I was still in bed. It is almost like a train passing by next to you and everything shakes. Nicky described the 7.1 as on board of a ship during rough sea... so that was a Baby. At half past 6 there was another one which I missed as I fall back asleep.

Around 10am Nicky droped me at the bus station and I hopped on the bus again – and met Kerstin again who was on the bus when I travelled the North Island as well.

I signed up for Whale watching in the afternoon as the weather seemed to be nice. And this activity was such a success: 4 whales, a lot of birds and sealings and over 500 Dolphins :) WOW!!! This is the place where I will try swimming with the Dolphins again because this is definitely something different as in the Bay of Islands. It was not even difficult to get a picture ;)

Besides that there is not much in Kaikoura – a really peaceful small fishing town :)

Day 82 – 84 / BLENHEIM

The drive to Blenheim was almost like coming home ;) We stopped again at the place where I have seen the Babysealings before and around lunchtime Jenny picked me up. I spent the afternoon with booking Ferry, Hostel a.s.o. in Wellington and in the evening we went to the great Cinema in Blenheim with Kerstin :)

The next day was quiet and I just had a sleep in, caught up with Kerstin for a coffee and walked the way back along the river. The vineyards look great – even without leafes on. Actually I don´t want to leave the South Island but it is as well getting really cold now. They even said it might be snowing the next week – brrrrr ;)

Day 84 / BLENHEIM – WELLINGTON

Around 12pm we left Blenheim and arrived Picton already 30 min. later. Kerstin planned to stay here 2 nights so I made my way back to Wellington on the Ferry alone.

Well – and that´s it for now :) Here I am with my next project coming: Job and Room search. Fingers crossed! This Newsletter turned out quite long but who knows, maybe there is not that much to tell next time ;)

I hope you are all doing well and that you are able to enjoy the summer! I got some Pregnancy news almost each week so at least the next generation is “in work” it seems :)

Kia ora - Barbara

P.S.:  Unfortunately I got a lot of error messages back last time – again. I know I added a lot of pictures so I try to do it better this time.