After a long time (It must have been at least 2 months.), I am writing a new story for my homepage. On Lennart’s request in English. But don’t expect too much of my written language, because I almost never write anything. If you don’t fall asleep because of my flat English, then because of the length of this article, probably the longest ever.

I could publish the 11 pages of my travel diary; no worries, I won’t! A LITTLE summary should be enough.

On the 21^st of December, we had our Christmas dinner for Cholmondeley staff. A flash restaurant and good food, I would say fantastic, compared to normal Cholmondeley food. To keep the tradition, we went for partying until 2 o’clock, which doesn’t seem to be late, but we had to get up 3 hours later to catch the flight to Rotorua on the North Island. Consequently, I couldn’t enjoy the flight, because of not enough sleep and too many drinks, I had the night before. I used the day to relax in Taupo; the town with the biggest lake in the Southern Hemisphere, just massive. It is the crater of a blown up volcano. My friend’s birthday party was on the next day and we celebrated it in a woolshed, we had cleaned before. Really different to normal parties, but it was fun.

Sun, December24^th would have been Christmas, but not in New Zealand. We had a bath in my mentor’s hot spa under the clear night sky. Is anyone jealous?

The 25^th was the official Christmas day, but it didn’t feel like it at all, with 25 degrees and sunshine. My parent’s parcel hadn’t arrived in time and that’s why I didn’t get many presents. Boxing Day was the first real beach day and I met with some other exchangees. The water in Tauranga was much warmer than in Christchurch.

Now comes the real Travel month:

5300 km (4000 by car, 1100 by bus, 200 by ferry)

37 days

8 people

The 27^th was the first day of real travelling. We were 8 people, which is a big group in my opinion, but it worked quite well, better than I had expected. Six hours by bus along the East Coast to Napier, an Art Deco style town. On the next day, we spent the same time in the bus to Wellington. Unfortunately, we arrived in the evening and the ferry to the South Island left early on the next day. The good thing about that day was that we got our two rental cars in Picton, which was necessary for all our luggage. The Nissan Sunny and the Ford Telstar Stationwagon weren’t really impressive and the storage space wasn’t big either. But they drove and that’s all you need, especially, if you are the driver most of time and don’t have to squash yourself in the back J

We drove to Kaikoura, the whale watching capital New Zealand’s. Unfortunately, the tours were all fully booked and we only could see seals, which smell disgusting. Not really interesting animals. The trip took us back to Christchurch on the next day. Home Sweet Home! Back in an area, how I knew it, really cold. The weather stayed like that for the whole time, we were there. New Year’s Eve almost felt like in Germany. There was a disappointing firework on Cathedral Square and the nightlife was like a usual weekend’s. You didn’t miss out on anything over here on New Year’s Eve. We used our time in Christchurch for museums and other cultural things, because the weather was just too bad for going to the beach.

The 3^rd was the last day in Christchurch and the next place, we wanted to go to was Lake Tekapo. Unfortunately, it was too far away and we camped wild somewhere in the middle of nowhere. It was the coldest night ever and freezing cold in our crappy tent. I didn’t sleep much, although I was completely in my sleeping bag, just with a little hole to breathe through. It was unbelievable and crazy.

Lake Tekapo was a wonderful blue lake, filled with water from the surrounding glaciers. Nice, but enough after half an hour, so I drove on with some others to Aoraki/ Mt Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand. On the 5^th, we hiked along a glacier towards Mt Cook. The weather was great and we had a good view on Mt Cook, which doesn’t happen very often. We stayed in a shelter, next to the glacier. The living standard was back to the basics: A long drop as toilet, rainwater for drinking and cooking and a two meter wide mattress for four people (At least, it was a mattress.). The instant food wasn’t too bad, though. If you are hungry, you don’t care about the taste. In the afternoon and during the next morning, we hiked/ climbed on the close mountain and its avalanches. It was impressive to hear avalanches coming down the mountains every few minutes. That’s also the only thing, you can hear up there.

We drove to Dunedin, East Coast, on the next day and enjoyed to stay in a Backpacker’s; what a luxury, sleeping inside and having a SHOWER after three nights in the wildness. We saw Royal Albatrosses, which are just massive, compared to seagulls. We also participated in the Cadbury Chocolate Factory Tour and the Speight’s Brewery Tour. Both were great and the opportunity to try the products was even better. ;)

Another nice thing was driving up the world’s steepest road, Baldwin Rd, which was really steep!

On the 10^th of January, we said good bye to civilisation and started the Kepler Track; 5 days, 65km, 1500m height difference and heaps of luggage in the backpack. The first day wasn’t challenging at all, because we arrived at the campground after one hour. The sandflies were attacking us all the time and even our insect repellent with tropical strength couldn’t protect us from all. An even more annoying thing was that my cooking group had forgotten all the yummy parts for our meals, which meant, that we had noodles without sauce, rice without sauce and bread without spreads for the whole track. It’s all your body needs, but I prefer carrying more weight on my back than missing out on flavours.

The next day was the most exhausting part with 900m height difference in less than four hours (us boys). The first girls arrived two and a half hours later, while we had our afternoon tea already. There wasn’t much to do except for playing cards, which was our main activity for the whole time, if we didn’t have anything else to do. On the following day, we walked up to Mt Luxmore and when we came down again, we saw a Kea, trying to get into my backpack. Luckily, we were fast enough and it couldn’t damage much. Those birds are funny, but really destructive. After 5-½ hrs walking, we arrived at the next campsite, but there were too many sandflies and not enough insect repellent left, that we had to stay in the hut. The following two days weren’t much different: About 16 km walking with hurting legs and shoulders each day.

I have to say that the end of the track was quite impressive. We came out of the forest and it was the first time to see civilisation again. It’s like going from one world to another. Our tea in the evening was great and everytime, I came back from the wild, I appreciate the luxury of settled life even more: A shower, fresh food and a roof over my head.

Monday, the 15^th was the day of “paradise”. We went to Milford Sound, the most beautiful fiord New Zealand’s and a must see. Luckily, the weather was good and we could see the snowy mountains and all their waterfalls. After this wonderful journey, the road took us to Queenstown, a very touristy, but nice city in front of the Southern Alps. It felt like those holiday sights in France or Spain, with the little difference that it was the only one, I had seen in New Zealand so far. The 17^th was a nice day for driving, if you like windy roads like I do. Crossing the Southern Alps to the West Coast was a lot of fun, although the cars were filled with people and luggage right to the top. The waves at the West Coast were about two or three meters high and I could convince the others to have a break at the beach. I was the only one who used the opportunity to fight with the waves. The rest of the group was mainly to scared of the size of the waves, although they weren’t too dangerous in my opinion. ;)

We used the next day to do a glacier tour on the Franz-Josef Glacier (named after the Austrian emperor). Although the weather was typical for the West Coast (rain, almost 24/7), the tour was interesting and with our glacier gear no problem. The shape and the colour of the ice were great, once we left the dirty ice behind us.

The next whole day was used for driving mainly, because we had to be in the north of the South Island on the next day. We had a stop at the pancake rocks in Punakaiki and everybody should know, how the rocks looked like. ;)

There was also a seal colony, which I could smell before I actually saw, and it was the first time, that I saw dolphins in New Zealand. Some of the rare Hector Dolphins swam along the coastline.

On Saturday, the 20^th, we started our next track, but this one was much easier than the Kepler Track. The 51km Abel Tasman Coastal Track started with a nice ride in a water taxi. We were taken to the start of the track and had to walk back along the coast. After one hour we reached the first campsite (like the first day on the Kepler Track), but it wasn’t too boring, because the weather was nice and we could go swimming in the sea. The sandflies were as bad as on the Kepler Track, but my body was used to about ten new bites a day and the insect repellent worked well this time. On that campsite, I also saw a possum for longer than just a second and that gave me the possibility to take great pictures for you, who haven’t seen possums yet. On the next day, we had to get up before sunrise, because we had to do a tidal crossing. The sunrise was amazing and it was worth to get up early in the morning, because we couldn’t do anything after sunset anyway. The second crossing was just in time, but the girls, who needed a break in between, were too late for that crossing and had to wait six hours, while we were relaxing at the beach. The next day looked kind of the same and it was a good idea to walk early in the morning before it gets to hot. Walking around midday would have been a pain with the heavy backpack. Going swimming was a better idea for lunchtime. We had found a nice current and just jumped in at the one end, floated a while, walked back on the beach and jumped in again. The current was faster than I was able to swim, which made it a lot of relaxing fun.

The 23^rd was the last day of the track and unfortunately also the longest part. Everyone was happy to finish the track. It is nice to live in the bush and to hike for a while, but it definitely was enough.

On the next two days, we visited some arts & crafts ateliers and saw a big comet passing the earth. It was visible for many minutes.

The 26^th was our second last day on the South Island and we went to the Centre of New Zealand, which is the official centre, if you believe it. And we went to a Gala Opening of a Chamber Music Festival. We were totally underdressed, although we wore the best cloth, we had in our backpacks. It felt a bit weird, because we were at least 30 years younger than all the other visitors. Anyway, the music was good. We took the ferry back to the North Island the next day and stayed in Wellington for the next four nights. Te Papa, which is the national museum, was interesting and I have to say, that museums in New Zealand are more interesting than the ones, I saw in Europe, because they are interactive and they have less text, but still a lot of information. Another really good thing was the guided tour in the parliament, which was interactive as well and not as formal as usual.

On the 31^st, we left for the last highlight in our travel month. Taupo was our next destination and on the next day, its airport. Why should you go to an airport, if you don’t want to fly anywhere? Exactly, skydiving!

I’ll describe it a bit detailed, so you can imagine it a bit better, although it isn’t really possible to describe it.

After a short instruction and after putting on the gear, we climbed into the plane, which was a bit small. This was the first moment, when I felt a bit nervous. The plane took off and gained more and more height. We flew through one layer of clouds and that was already pretty high, but still two km to go. When we were at 12,000 ft, the skydiver in front of me opened the door and my pulse and my breathing were getting faster and stronger. I wasn’t scared, that something could happen, it was just sooo high. David was the first person to jump and after he sat in the door, his skydiver took him out of the plane. They were just falling and falling and they were so quick. I was the next person to jump and when I had to sit in the door; my legs already outside, flying in the wind; a forced smile to the left for the camera; a look 12,000 ft down and then… my skydiver pushed us and we were falling with a nice, slow loop backwards. I saw the plane becoming smaller and afterwards the ground coming closer. The fall was amazing right from the beginning and no fear at all, after I had left the plane. We were just falling, 200km/h, the wind made my cheeks turning into loose skin (I am becoming older ;p). Screaming was impossible because the wind was too loud. We did many fast spins, which my stomach didn’t like at all, but that was because I was a bit sick anyway. The cameraman was flying next to us so close, that I even shook his hand.

Then, 45seconds later at 5,000ft, the parachute opened, I felt the pressure on my ears, which I didn’t feel the whole time before. Even with the parachute, we did some spins and tricks, which was fun, too. A few minutes later, we landed on the ground.

What a wonderful experience and I was smiling the whole day (not only because of the face lifting, I got during the free fall).

That was it, a great end of the Travel month and our Mid-year camp started on the 2^nd.

Since the 5^th, I am in my new placement, a Dairy farm 30 km north of Hamilton. I like it much more, than my last placement in Christchurch. Everybody is friendly and the work is more fun, although it is really exhausting (That doesn’t mean, that Cholmondeley was bad, it just wasn’t as good as the farm.). We cut and collected firewood the whole first week, but that’s finished now, luckily. The milking is a dirty job, but farm work in general is dirty. But dirt doesn’t kill and I can wash it off. So, no problem at all.

I learnt many things already, like driving the four wheeler, the motorbikes and the tractors for work and for the leisure time I learnt wakeboarding and driving the motorboat.

The only things I don’t like at all are the electric fences. It always is a surprising shock that hurts. Touching them with the hand is not too bad, because the skin is quite thick, although I wouldn’t do it for fun. The shock you get from an electric lighter is nothing compared to the fence. But once, I touched the fence with my knee and it literally made me jump. I jumped at least one and a half meters away and my whole body was so shocked, that it took me a few seconds, until I could control my arms and legs completely again. From that moment on, I always try to keep a big distance to the fence.

If you were able to read to here, congratulations! It was a long article, but also a long time. My new address is:

Tobias Guenter

C/o N&J Houghton

1647 Orini Rd, RD2

Taupiri

New Zealand

For google earth users, the official GPS-position of the house (I didn’t check it.):

37deg 34min 014sec South

175deg 20min 225sec east

Enjoy your winter in Germany or as I do, the warm summer in New Zealand!