New Zealand

---

This is my fourth day in New Zealand. Because New Zealand is quite close to Australia I couldn’t let the opportunity slip through my fingers to visit it. After Hobart in Tasmania I first had to fly back to Melbourne and stayed there one night to catch the international flight to New Zealand the next day. It is so great to have the chance to visit so many places and meet so many interesting people. But there is also a lot of time to spend on my own, and that is perfect. It is my own travel and the route I am taking is personal as well. Having so much time allows me to think about what to do and where to go. With travelling as well as in live. But now I am getting a bit philosophical, so just let me tell what I did the last days. From Melbourne I flew to Christchurch. Yes like the name already says, they do have a lot of churches there. The place I stayed was runned by an Italian couple and when I arrived in the evening they had some left over pasta, which tasted amazing. The next day I visited the Christchurch Art Gallery, the Canterbury Museum and the central Cathedral. At the beginning of the evening I saw the start of the Christchurch Art Festival with dances, music and several performances. After getting my jacket at the hostel because it was getting cold (around 7 degrees Celsius) I went to see a movie. While walking around I just passed a movie theatre and thought let’s walk in and see what they have. The movie I saw was French and I really enjoyed it. There were only three people watching it and I got a drink with a Canadian guy afterwards. He arrived at New Zealand after a seven months sailing trip from England to New Zealand. Really amazing to hear the stories about surviving horrific storms at sea and enduring sitting on the boat with all your clothes and sleeping bag soaked for several weeks. When I arrived back at the hostel I saw two roommates were just about to see a movie in the TV room and I joined them for the second movie that evening. After little sleep that night I had to get up early to catch my bus to Methven. There I arrived in the beginning of the afternoon. Good timing because that gave me enough time to prepare for skiing the next day at Mount Hutt. I bought the things I needed like ski socks, sunglasses, sun block, hat and gloves. The next day is hard to describe. So amazing the view of the mountain. It took a while to get there by shuttle bus and it had to stop for a while to put the chains on the wheels because the road was slippery. But the view of the sun shining thought the clear sky on the snowy mountain was so beautiful. It was a guess if I could still ski because the last time was eight years ago in Austria, but I managed quit good. During my first try I accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up on a black slope. Seeing the steep mountain below me and only one lonely other skier realized me I went the wrong way. Looking up on the mountain I new there was only one way to go and that was down. It was quite tough and I fell several times but after surviving that I had the confidence that it would all be all right from that point on. The next day I packed my things again to move to another place, this time Timaru. Because I was the only passenger in the bus I had the opportunity to talk with the driver and learn a lot about New Zealand. He told about how the unemployment rate was below one percent a couple of years ago and how hard it was to get qualified staff. New Zealand has a small population of around four million. At Timaru I had the experience ‘this must be heaven’ twice. First it was when I stood at Caroline bay and had a look at the sea, simultaneously with on the left side snowy mountains and the music of twenty bag pipe players playing in front of a fountain. It was so beautiful that it took my breath away. Just like everything falls in place. The second time that day was at the Art Gallery when I saw beautiful paintings in an old house made of wood with relaxing music on the background. Again a moment that everything just combines and strengthens the beauty of all the components. This I will never forget, especially because it happened twice that day. After one day staying in Timaru I decided to move on again and today I arrived in Dunedin. There are lots of things to discover here. I will tell you about it in my next blog.

---

Photos

Christchurch
The opening of the Art Festival

Timaru
Almost impossible to describe this scene. If you can imagine that when you look to the left there are snowy mountains.