Things I miss

IYou know, I am not the type of feeling homesick but there are always some things you can't find a replacement:

- My nephews and my niece: they grow so fast and while I am away I already missed  so many steps in their developement.
- the time of advent: isn't it nice preparing yourself for Christmas by crafting Cards, backing cookies (and eating the dough), listening to Carols, looking at the 'adventskranz', wading through snow and so on? Advent here is not important at all, what a pity!
- My Dad's Lasagne and Rahmschnitzeli
- The singing and being onstage: before I left Switzerland I was so into singing that I did nothing else when I came home after school. Here I just don't have the opportunity. But I may take up singing again in Auckland.
- My friends: I've got sometimes the feeling that I miss a lot what is going on down there...
- My favourite cuddly toy and the hippo sown by my Cevi friend Cube ;)
- Trains!!!
- Skiing
- The smell of Mum's washing powder
- Hagelslag
- Cheese with holes

Thankful - List

Today I experienced a completely new way of Church. 400 people, a live band and such a good message. One of our jobs was to tell our seat neighbours what we are thankful for looking back at 2014.
I suddenly realised that there are so many things to be happy about and to praise God. This list will never be complete, but I'll try to make it as long as possible over the next few months. I am thankful for:

- My family in Switzerland, especially my parents. They do a lot for me and I guess I have realised that in New Zealand more than I did in Switzerland. (when I first ran out of clean socks.) On top of that they made my dream to come here possible.
- My kiwifamily in Nelson: I often think that it was God's plan to meet them. I had not only a lot of fun with this amazing big family but they made me feel part of them and gave me everything I needed to feel at home.
-All the people I met while I stayed in Nelson, while travelling or now in Christchurch. They all mean a lot to me because especially Kiwipeople taught me to be open and have a nice word on the go for everyone you meet.
- For my friends in Switzerland that haven't forgotten me and still have an open year for me altough I don't write them regularly.
- For the YMCA (Cevi) because I made so good friends there and I can't wait leading my next camp.
- For my safe travels. It isn't self-evident to have the chance to explore such a nice country with two amazing friends. Often when I saw something of an incredible beauty, I was just thankful for it and didn't even try to take a picture.
-...

X-mas in Christchurch

Everybody asked me on Whatsapp what my Christmas was like. Well, first of all it was just lovely.

Christmas Eve isn't that important than in Switzerland. But however, after I went to a wildlifepark with Melinda and ger kids Derek and Lilyana and after eating fish n' chips we went to church.
There I experienced my first earthquake. Although all other people didn't even look up, I was pretty scared. 

After the church service where we already sang a lot we went to Latimer square to attend the 'carols by candlelight', organized by the YMCA. I guess, I had one of these moments when you just have goosebumps. It was so moving seeing hundreds of people singing carols, ad especially my favourite one 'Hark the Herald angel sing'.

Christmas day started with delicious waffles and continued with playing games, splashing around in the pool, having a nice barbecue and eatint too much of everything. 

As you can see, I had lovely Christmas days although I didn't have the same Christmas feeling as I used to have at home. It might be the fact that I was wearing my shorts and jandals or it might be that I just missed my Mum's cookies. ( But I got a whole bucket of yummy chocolate chip cookies from Frances;))

Now I'm staying with an elderly couple outside from christchurch. Yesterday we had a lovely day at Akaroa, another spot that is characterized by peace and beauty. 

As we had a lazy day yesterday, Alan (69) amd I set off early for a bike ride. We went all along a track called Railtrail up to Kaipuna where we observed some rare New Zealand birds. It was wonderful although the wind wasn't that nice to us. All in all wr cycled 63 kilometers and I can't imagine at the moment ever getting out of this comfy armchair. 

Welcome to Christchurch!

Saying goodbye meant also splitting up with my two travel buddies. And as well it meant to leave the landscape behind and go into a rather destroyed and shocking city.

When I arrived in Christchurch Frances, the homestaymother of my sister Nelleke ten years ago picked me up and we drove home. There I met also Melinda with her lovely children.

After dinner, Francea took me to a city lookout where I first saw how big Christchurch actually is. From there we popped in zo a Filipino family. When I entered the first reaction was: 'ooooo Nelleke!'

Well, I am just the young version of Nelleke but I enjoyed sharing experiences with these nice people.

On Saturday morning Melinda, her kids an I visited her grandparents, which was lovely. In the afternoon, Frances showed me the most beautiful spots like Sumner, the Gondola, the port in Lyttleton and the following little bays before we drove to Nathan and Tammy to admire their house.

On Sunday we went to Church where I immediately felt welcome as people talk to you and ask questions about where you are from and so on...

Now I'm spending the day in the city, enjoying the gardens and the great Canterbury Museum.

Merry Christmas to everybody!!!

Funny stories

Travelling always means having a lot of fun. And I would like to share it with you although it is sometimes hard to express it in words:

UMF: This is the abbreviation for 'Unique Manuka Factor'

PANCAKES: The idea of preparing pancakes in the hostel might not be aufh a good idea. We finally ate dough with a lot of Nutella.

Little Chinese and his Noodlesoup: Imagine Séverine and me sitting in the YHA Wanaka playing UNO when suddenly a Chinese guy takes a seat next to us and starts eating his noodlesoup out of the pan. Now imagine that his head was actually in the pan and that the only thing we hear is the slurfing of his way to eat. However, now imagine his head coming out of the pan with noodles sticking on his cheeks. And then finally imagine what happens when Séverine and I can't stop laughing...

Breakfast robbery: we were sitting outside and eating breakfast with the stunning view on mount cook. And there was another lady that suddenly asked us if she can have some bread. Of course wr gave her some and I even gave her zhe butter but the lady stood up, walked around the table and grabbed our expensive Queenstown Philadelphia. So far so good but after she almost finished it up I decided to interfere to save our Philadelphia. Well, I was to late, our Philadelphia had disappeared.

Christmas Lollipop man: a lollipop man is the guy called who holds the signs 'stop' and 'go' during roadworks. It is a shit job and therefore they decided to make some fun about it by wearing Santa Claus costumes.

SHREK: This is the name of the Merino Sheep in the advertisement of Merino products.

COOLING BOX: forgetting the cooling box in the hostel and realising three minutes before the bus departs. Thanks to a great service we even got it back!

CHILDREN'S SWING: it took me 28 seconds to get out of the swing. I am definitely too old for playgrounds...

The symbol of New Zealand's air force is a Kiwi bird. It can't even fly...

Pictures Tekapo

Last stop: Lake Tekapo!

Sometimes I really think that time tries to fly even faster just to tease me.
It is already our last stop before we split up!

Lake Tekapo is just stunning, the colour is deep blue and the vast hills surrounding it makes it even more special.

We met some lovely people at the hostel and we spent a nice evening together celebrating Séverine's birthday.

Today we did something that for sure is something special: horsetrekking over the hills of Tekapo. I guess there is nothing more peaceful than sitting on a horse's back and overviewing the Lakes and the mountains.

My horse, Chief, had by the way quite similar to myself: a little bit stubborn, fast, naughty but also really lovely ;))

Pictures Mount Cook

Glacier Kayaking in mount cook!

What an experience!
Today I did Kayaking on Tasman Glacier Lake. It was awesome to paddle towards this huge glacier although it was pretty scary as we heard the ice breaking inside the glacier. This was also the reason why we couldn't go closer to the icebergs. However, this was just stunning and unforgettable.

As only our arms were used in the morning, we went for a 2 hours walk to Kea Point where you have a stunning view onto the peaks of Mount Cook and its neighbour glaciers. Due to the hot weather not only my shoulders but also the ice got sunburnt whereby the ice fell down in avalanches... (my shoulders didn't)

I am deeply impressesd by Mount Cook National Park. When you look at these huge mountains you know that youself are so small...

Pictures Wanaka

Wanaka: what a place

As my blog obviously has a problem to publicise my posts and my whole stories about Wanaka were deleted, here just a short version:

In the morning we walked up Mount Iron, a hill with a stunning view over the Lake district. After that we met Aline, our Swiss Friend at the border of the lake where we set off for another short walk to the waterfalls creek, which we unfortunately couldn't find.

Together we Aline we spent a lovely evening and before we departed from Wanaka to Queenstown we went for a stroll to Eely Point.

My first impression of the southern Alps is just: ooooooo

Pictures Ben Lomond Track

Queenstown 3: On top of the world

1390 highmeters, 3.5 hours, this is our proud result of today's hike.

We left early to walk up the skyline where actually a Gondola goes up as well. There were three reasons why we didn't take it.
The first one is financial: 19 dollars for four minutes of gondola drive.
The second one is practical: the gondola opens at 9.30 as no other tourist starts w alking at 7.30.
The third reason is that even if the Gondola was open we would have been too proud to take it.

Anyway, it was really steep from the beginning until the end but it was soo worthwhile. We saw all over Lake Wakatipu onto the snowwhite peaks that fall into Milford Sounds. But as it was freezing cold up there we had to go back quite soon.
Unfortunately Séverine's knee started to hurt again and so it took us longer to get down than we had to climb up.

Now we are tired, feel our legs and we are still astonished of how fast we climbed this rough mountain!

Pictures Milford Sound

Queenstown 2: side trip to Milford Sound

If I was famous enough, I definitely would put the Milford Sound into the seven world wonders (well, eight)

We explored the Sounds with a guided tour out of Queenstown. As the drive to Milford Sound is really long, we enjoyed the numerous photostops: Eglinton Valley, Mirrorlakes, the Monkey Creek, the impressive and scary Homer tunnel and the Chasm, a impressive waterfall.
All along the way were huge mountains and I caught myself more than once sitting in the coach with my mouth open.

In Milford we hopped on a cruise which led us through the most breathtking scenery: cristalclear water, huge rockformations, sealcolonies and impressive waterfalls. It was just a perfect day that I will remember my whole life.

Queenstown 1: 49 kilometers

Another drive into Paradise: Welcome central otago

After our time in Franz Josed we continues with a long drive to Wanaka. Thanks to good drivers and a few photostops we survived the windy road through Haast pass. Once you cross it, you are just flabbergasted by what you see: high peaks, wild rivers and mirroring lakes...

We arrived in Wanaka, checked in our hostel just next to Lake Wanaka, before we had to go again to the medical center, this time because of Séverine. Fortunately the doctor gave green light, only the fatpad might be damaged. With a lot of chocolate also this ailment will heal ;)

Until now we had a really good time, although the weather shows it wildest character. The hostels are also much kore comfortable and cleaner than in Australia...

That's it for now, have a good Christmas time!