Exam, Goodbye and hello travelling!

It is time to say goodbye to Nelson. After three months we had on Saturday finally our exam. I'm quite happy how everything went although the exam conditions were not that good. The room was freezing cold, I suffered of hayfever and the shortened our breaks.

However, after that we went to a pub to say goodbye to our lovely teacher Philip before we ate at our favourite restaurant.

Spending so much time together also means that it is really hard to say goodbye to everybody you might not see again.

On Sunday I spent a lovely day with my kiwifamily. I grew so close to them, that makes it hard to leave.

Now I am looking forward to travelling the Southern Island with Daria and Séverine before I'm going to spend Christmas with a family in Christchurch. And the best thing is that I come back to Nelson for New Year before I'm heading up to Auckland...

Let it rain, let it rain, till the sun comes out again

What a weekend!

We set off on our journey on Friday after school with our personal guides from the frontdesk Miles (Smiles) and Gabi. Already the drive over Takaka Hill, which separates Nelson from the Golden Bay, was an adventure, such a windy road!

Once on the other side, we arrived in the big city of Takaka. There are two special things about it: first of all, you need about 30 seconds to see the whole village. And secondly, it is really a Hippie place ;)

Our accomodation was in Collingwood, a sightseeing tour lasts more or less 20 seconds. But our hostel was really cool and after settling in we went to the beach for a stroll in the strong wind.

Fighting against the storm we deserved our dinner and more than enough cake ;)

The next morning, Miles wasn't that happy. There were two main reasons for his mood:
1. Every time when we goes on a trip, the weather is bad.
2. This time the weather was even worse!

Rain would have been alright but this storm was incredible. But since we all are real kiwis we took our Shorts and walked through wind and rain to the Wainui falls. Nobody cared about floating rivers or slippery stones, we were wet and we had fun!
After that, as a surprise, Miles shouted us a warm coffee before we did another short walk in a nature reserve.

In the evening we had an amazing dinner and a lot of fun playing silly games. But at 10 pm we had to go to bed as we forced ourselves to watch the sunrise at one of the most famous beaches in the world: Wharariki Beach!

We left at 4.38, Swiss punctuality, and drove to the top of New Zealand called Farewell spit. There it took us about twenty minutes to walk to the beach. Our timing was perfect: thanks to the low tight we had the opportunity to walk almost inti the rocks. But the tight is raising sooo fast and the sea is very rough.

At 5.58 the sun came over the hills and enchanted the beach into a indescribable paradise.
We took our time to stroll along the beach, looking at the seals and listening to the explanation of our clever guides before we drove to the whale rescue center.

There we learnt how to save a whale :) no, it is seriously a big problem that whales get stuck on the beaches. They can't go back until the high tight comes six hours later and during this time it is the job of the local to cover the whale constantly with water. Despite these efforts, many sperm and pilotwhales die...

Afterwards we had breakfast in the hostel. With the car we drove to the Pupu Springs. This is really fascinating! Water just comes out of holes, and always with the temperature of 11.7 degrees. For Maoris, this source or water is sacred and therefore people are still not allowed to touch it. 

Then we visited a spectacular grove and a funny labyrinth. As the weather turned cloudy again, we decided to drive to Kaiteriteri on the other side of the hill. Having survived the windy road, we had lunch at the pretty beach before we continued to Riwaka River. The water comes out of a cave and just in front of the cave Maori women used to give birth to their children. It is hard to believe that this is possible because you get cramps of the cold of the water!

With every weekend more it geta harder to say goodbye to all these nice people. I made so many new friends from all over the world and we had such a good time together. 

Thanks so much for that! 

Let it rain, let it rain, till the sun comes out again...

I'm running out of time!!!

Another week is over and I realised that I've got only to more weeks in my beloved Nelson and in the best homestay ever!

This week was good, we are in the final stage before the exam and therefore we ironically spent time learning the Maori warrior dance 'haka'. (I always said that distraction and fun is the best way to pass an exam ;))

During the week I went twice to the park to play Frisbee and soccer. After sitting  such a long time in school, a little bitnof sport is really nice.

In the evening, Margaret and I have a new ritual: watching a cool tv series called 'Hunger for the Wild', where two Chefs have to find everything they want to cook in the nature of New Zealand. Not only is it a good way to learn some informal phrases but also to see nice spots onf New Zealand and discover new recipes.

On Friday, there was a beachvolleyball competition at the beach. The CAE-BROS turned out second because of our scarry Haka. Although the games were really poor we had a lot of fun and a lot of sun ;)

Saturday, time to sleep long! Definitely not when you are friends with Daria and Severine. We crazy guys wanted to watch the sunrise at the Grampian but when we met at 5 am it was raining so heavily that we decided to return and head home.
At 10 am we met again, this time to study at the Queen's Gardens and what a wonder: the sun was shining!
In the afternoon I backed Swiss Bread for my family and in the evening I walked with Katherine to the Grampian to watch the sunset. It was such a memorable moment as we had a lovely conversation going on whilst the sun said goodbye...

On Sunday I drove by bike to church which was pretty exhausting because of the strong wind. Now, writing the blog, I'm enjoying the sun lying in a fishernet attached between two trees.

Have a good time!

Paradise^x

Another beautiful weekend is over: Our trip to the Nelson Lakes was awesome!

On Friday, after going to the supermarket we drove to St. Arnaud, a big city with almost seven houses ;)
There we settled into our bach, after having searched the key for quite a long time. The little house was really nice, and we already looked forward to cooking and to sitting in front of the open fire in the evening. But before that we went to the lake called 'Rotoiti' and were flabbergasted by the view and the fact that there is just no-one! We had the whole lake for us, something that could never happen in Switzerland...

In the evening we prepared a delicious pasta and we ate Séverine's world famous chocolate cake. Sitting in front of the fire, playing UNO, having fun; what else do we need?

The next day started with good exercise. Our hike called 'Mount Robert Circuit' began with a steep two hours climb, but once at the top every effort was forgotten and our sandwiches and nuts were even more delicious. On top of that, the view was just breathtaking; a blue lake, snowwhite peaks and green hills with sheep in the valley. 

Once back down we decided to take a swim in the lake rather than using the dirty shower in the house. Indeed it was refreshing, but I'm happy that I didn't see the huge eels lingering around until I came out of the water...

What a day, and what a nice dinner that we prepared: tortillas and a lot of chocolate afterwards. But we just couldn't stop exercising and therefore we went on a night adventure: kiwi hunting! 

Well, after ten minutes standing quietly in the forest we couldn't help laughing. It was such a crazy situation! 

But: The next morning I got up quite early and what I saw was a Kiwi! It was running in front of the kitchen window but unfortunately I didn't have time to prove evidence by taking a picture. Well, after breakfast we cleaned the badge a little bit but they said: leave it like you've  found it. So actually we didn't have to clean anything ;)

After that we drove to the other lake called 'Rotoiti'. This one is even more beautiful! We went for another 2-hour walk through the forrest which was really nice. And of course we enjoyed our lunch at the border of the lake. 

A spontaneous decision to visit Rabbit Island made us drive in the direction of Motueka, a stunning drive through the Motueka valley, the beginning of the Kahurangi National Park. 

Once at Rabbit Island I was just overwhelmed. I mean, you're hiking in the high mountains and only some hours later your enjoying the beach! 

We had a lot of fun at the beach just doing nonsense as you can see in the pictures...

In the last few weeks I often asked myself why I can't stay in New Zealand as I absolutely fell in love with this country. My main reason: 

There are friends and a lovely family waiting for me in Switzerland! 

Relaxing and Brainteasing

For a change, I spent my weekend in Nelson, with the aim of studying hard. Well, of course I didn't.

On Friday afternoon we had a nice barbecue at the Tahunanui Beach. (by the way: Tahunanui means big sandpiles in Maori) We enjoyed walking through the soft sand while the waves were getting higher amd higher; a sign to get home before the downpour turns the sand in your backpack into mud.

On Saturday over lunch I went to a meeting with my homestay family and after that, we went hop-shopping. I have never seen such a huge secondhandshop!

Sunday, after going to church, we went to the park to play Frisbee. It might not be the best idea to play Frisbee in an upcoming storm... We ran more to prevent the Frisbee from disappearing forever rather than we actually played.

However, it was fun and in the evening I enjoyed cooking with Katherine. Chatting and preparing a delicious meal, that was awesome. 

What I want to share with you are some fun parts of our lessons. 

First of all a brainteaser (thanks Luke ;))

There are three men on a boat with four cigarettes. Unfortunately they don't have matches or something like this. What are they doing to be able that everyone can smoke a cigarette? 

-- They throw one cigarette out of the boat, so that it becomes a cigarette lighter.

And some wonderful puns: language is great!

1) Atheism in a non-prophet organization. 

2) I wondered why the baseball became bigger and bigger, then it hit me.

3)Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says, 'dam!'

4) A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'keep off the grass'.