Ka Roimata o Hinebuketere

The tears of the Godness of Mountaineering.

This is the Maori name for one of the most spectacular spots in New Zealand: Franz Josef Glacier.

We arrived here after a threehour drive from Greymouth and settled down in the nice YHA. The town is really small, there are only two streets but you can find almost everything you need. 

On Saturday we walked into the valley (other people take the shuttle) to do another walk from where we could see the glacier from close up. The weather was rather cloudy but as we are hardcorewalkers we went on doing some other hikes to Peter's Pool, to the Douglas Bridge and to the Lake Wombat. Well, never expect to much from a lake that seems so be in the wop-wops. We would have deserved a beautiful lake after kilometers of walking but it was more a muddy frog-home than something else. 

But who cares! We didn't even get wet altough rhe weatherforecast had predicted 'warning: downpour'.

But at about four o'clock we decided to return and to play Monopoly which took us ages. And once we started to cook, our Pancakes completely failed. But with a lot of Nutella it was still yummy. 

On Sunday we went for another two short walks but unfortunately Séverine injured her knee and so it took us ages until we were back in paradise: the hot pools of Franz Josef. We spoilt ourselves with two hours in these beautiful water in the rainforest, but for me it was almost too hot. 

Let's hope that Séverine's knee gets better soon!  

Certified Mad

Adventurous was not only the drive from Westport to Greymouth but also Séverine's and my trip we did on Thursday: Tube Rafting and Caving!

We started with a drive up Nelson Creek. There we had a zipline which led us into the rivervalley; 300 m long, 25 m high and up to 60 km per hour fast!!
Once down in the river we floated down on tubes, a lot of fun! In between we often had opportunities to jump of from cliffs, up to 3.5 m! In the end we walked into a magnificent cave with thousands of glowworms. And the best thing, something almost nobody did: drink hot chocolate in the cave!!!

Well, for caving the heavily rain was alright, but what doing the rest of the day? The hostel was awesome, Noah's ark, but we wanted to see something. So we went for a short walk in the rainforest and came back completely soaked...

On Friday morning we took the bicycles from the hostel and drove along the stunning westcoast. I have never seen such big waves, and even the weather meant it well and the sun came out.

And then it was already time to take the bus to Franz Josef Glacier. It was a really nice journey and we made a long stop in Hokitika, a picturesque village.

Now we hope that the weather will allow us to see the glaciers!

What a wonderful world!

Next stopp: Punakaiki!
After Westport, my little doctor adventure and a beautiful riverwalk we set off to Punakaiki. There we first of all visited the world famous pancake rocks; it is really impressive and we were soooo lucky with the weather (usually it rains at the westcoast)

After that we got a lift from the hostelowner because this awesome hostel is somewhere in the wopwops ;))
Anyway, we had our own little house to share with some other people in the middle of the rainforest. The good thing about it is that we had access to the most beautiful beach, Truman beach. Only five minutes walk from our hostel, we strolled for hours along this wild beach with impressive rockformations, caves and huge waves.

It was a relaxing day but later in the evening we decided to watch the sunset which was just breathtaking. We were sitting on a stone, giant waves coming towards us and there is just no-one!!

What a nice end of the day! And to calm you down, my gristle seems to be broken since ages :D

Next destination: Greymouth!

Westport, Xray and Curry

What a surprise when I got up this morning and I found cookies and a lovely letter of my homestaysisters. The negative thing this morning was that I found a stone in my foot which is pretty uncomfortable. 

Well, we left Nelson with a crying eye (literally) by Intercity bus and arrived at Westport at lunchtime. The first thing I dir was looking for a doctor after having tried to cut the stone out by myself. 

Once at the doctor we couldn't find the stone anymore but I still could feel it. So after hours of waiting, I could do the xrays and as the nurse saw something inadequate she made about five of them!!!

After another hour the doctor told me that he was still waiting for the results which had to come from Christchurch. But he supposed that the stone was outside, however this should work, but that it has broken a gristl in my big toe.

Anyway, I am walking now and we are enjoying the beautiful hostel at Westport. We cooked a lovely dinner, ate outside, chatted with others and played pool. Tomorrow we are heading off to Punakaiki! 

Exciting?

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...