Top of the Southisland part III

But the Nelson Lake Area was worth it!!! It is so great there and being there showed me how much I had missed the mountains and mountain lakes! We were tramping up to Mt. Robert, and swimming in the lake (just Sophia and I, Vera was hiding from the sand flyes^^)

Next stop was Picton, from where we continued our journey to Wellington, back home. We all felt it. I would have never considered it, but it really felt like coming home!

This time, we had wonderful weather and guess what? I got sunburnt again....

goodbye Southisland

Top of the Southisland part II

the way

Ok, what did we do? A few walks, loosing my bag and picking it up at the police station, getting wet, stayind in hostels and always changing our plans. 

By the way: We saved a sheep! It had it´s head through a fence and we helped him out.

We had a few great sunsets, especially the one in Collingwood and visited also Wharariki Beach and stayed there at Wharariki Beach Hollyday Park --> in the eye of the Kiwi (hint: Map of the Southisland --> Farwell Spit = Peak of a Kiwi, draw the Kiwi in your mind). 

We stayed there for one night. this night was just horrible! The park itself is great and the owner very kind, he even made us a job offer. But the rain during the night was so heavy, that our tent couldn´t protect us and everything got wet. We had to stay in the kitchen, had almost no sleep and the tent was virtualy blown away, the next moring.

However, there were 2 hours of no rain and even a little bit of sun. We went to the beach. It was so impressive!!! the big gate in the sea, many seals (Vera&Sophia were very afraid ;P), big dunes and rocks everywhere!

Oh, I´ve forgotten the Whanganui Inlet. We went there, before our stay at the Wharariki Beach and it was nice, but rainy. Here, two pictures to compare our mood at the start and at the middle of this trip:

After the rain, we decided to go back to Nelson and hoped that we can stay again with Shevy. We texted him and arived in Nelson, without an answere... So we went into an internet café and waited.... 8 o´clock, Sophia went out and 5 min. later, came back again. She told us, that we have to hurry, we can´t stay at Shevys... Ahhh, late and we don´t have an accomodation! We drove from hostel to hostel, but, everyone was booked out. One friendly woman gave many other hostels a call, so that we didn´t have to drive to all of them. And? Yes, there was one hostel, which had vacancies, whooohooo!!! It wasn´t really cheap, but they had enough space to dry our tent and we had free internet. We thought it all over and decided, that we want to go to the Nelson lakes area.

Leaving again, driving somewhere else, I started to get exhausted! Every night somwhere else, never a real break, nothing worked like we thought it should and all the time together, with almost no privacy.... I like these two girls really a lot, but you can´t stay so close together for a long time, even not with your best friends! (by the way: guys I miss you!!!)

The top of the Southisland - "sunniest" region New Zealands..... Part I

........ yeah, it´s supposed to be the sunniest region..... the problem was, that we were there for the 10 rain days they have.....

After the Abel Tasman Park we went to Nelson, where we stayed at the flat of Sophias mate. He´s from Germany and works in Nelson. We made a mess out of his room ;P

Special in Nelson: Germant Bratwurst aaaand Leberkäse! (The Bratwurst is great, but the Leberkäse not...)

next special: Nelson is next to the Centre of New Zealand!

Nelson is a really nice town, btu not forever and our plant stay of 5 days in Picton would have been too long, as well, so we rented a car and headed to Golden Bay. the car was too small, but the cheapest one, Name: Toyota ugly ;p

He even managed to drive us along the "great" Southisland roads, also he was so low, that we couldn´t drive in the middle of the path. We always had to be careful not to touch the ground!

09. - 12.12.10 Abel Tasman Kayak Tour

Sophia & I

Sophia, looking at a seal

Ok, I´ve written this a few days ago..... I hope you don´t mind^^

Yes, I´m still alive.

No, we still don´t have a car.

Yes, we are still in Christchurch and again, yes, we had a few tiny earthquakes and, to be honest, they getting damn annoying!!!

At the moment I´m sitting in the 4th hostel here in CHCH and I´m thinking back to the great days, right after the exam:

How did the South island welcome us? Fog, Rain, not warm…..

But, BUT, yes, there is a but! The next days were just amazing!!!  Abel Tasman Park, 3 days kayaking, it was like living in paradise!

We catched the bus to Motueka, a little town, with a nice Sunday market and a big Hippie scene. You could often smell smoked grass. We soon got to know, that this is something typical for NZ^^

Our hostel (the laughing Kiwi) was nice and we enjoyed the free Spa. Ok, the one in Rotorua was better…

May I give you an advice? If you ever should come to NZ, go to the Abel Tasman Park and do a Kayak Tour, as long as possible (3 days are enough, longer is great^^)!  We were picked up from the Sea Kayak Company Shuttle Service. They gave us an introduction and juhuuuuuuuuu, here we come!!!! Mhhh… ok, I was sick during the first couple of hours and felt like getting ill, but it soon got better.

The 4 Kayak girls

Blue sea, yellow- golden beaches, many different bays, waiting for us to be explored, sunshine, sunshine, sunshine & many seals! Seals at the rocks, seals in the sea, in front of our Kayaks, under our Kayaks plus a beautiful sunset combined with the feeling of adventure and freedom, wow! I´m still impressed, when I look at the pictures and think about these days. Thank you so much girls, it was great!!! Haha, oh, I´ve got to tell one story:

You have to know, that the bigger seals are very frightening, especially when they are annoyed. You´d better go out of their reach than…. We wanted to have a break at a little, great looking beach at the back of Tonga Island. `Can someone see some seals? No? Ok, let´s go there!´  As soon as we reached the beach and went out of our kayaks, a big seal appeared behind the rocks and barked at us. We went away as fast we could!

What I´ve almost forgotten: Vera & Marieke still believe, that they´ve seen a penguin in the water, but Sophia and I didn´t….. ;(

Sunset at Mosquito Bay

Next tip for your NZ trip: you don´t need to go to the “great” Kaiteriteri beach. Abel Tasman is enough! Kaiteriteri is just a beach, with cafés and motels in the back and many, many tourists. Like every other beach in the most popular tourist areas, not worth visiting, cause there are so many other things to do!

07.12.10 last evening, family dinner and busy night

As I came home from the exam, Sheina (or Sheila??? ok, the grandma^^) was at home, backing something. I started to pack and played one last time together with the kids.

Michaela came home, at about 6, and started to cook something with chicken and pasta and I thought, hey, we wanted to do a German dinner, together, but I didn´t say something and thought, ok, let them surprise you!

Jeremy & the German bubble

It got 7 p.m. and Michaela explained me, that this meald is just for the kids, in case they didn´t like the other stuff (they didn´t^^). Than she said, that she and her mother went into the supermarket and bought everything German, they could find, but there is some meat, what she don´t know, what to do with. She thought at first, you have to eat it cold, but now she thinks, you need to cook it, maybe I can do it??? Hehe, gues, what se put out of the fridge??? Bratwurst!!! I laughed so much!!! No, you don´t cook it, you friy it, like a BBQ sausage ;P I fried the sausages and Jeremy opened German bubble to drink and cut bread from the German backery. We also had Bavarian salami, hungaria aspic (Sülze???) and some chees, it was great!!! 

they did a cold dinner, because I always told them, that we don´t eat warm for dinner, normaly for lunch and that this toast "bread" (It is called bread, before you toast it, but for me it is always toast^^) is no bread ;P

thank you so much for this time!

We had a nice last evening and at the end I carried Meyner down into her bed. We talked a lot and she was very sad, that I´ll leave.... I always told her, that we´ll meet again, in March (they wanted to be in Wanganui over christmas) and she really wants to come to Germany, we´ll see.....

Afterwards started my very busy, sleepless night. I washed my last things, packed everything & made a calender for them. I already had printed out some pictures and had bought some cooured paper and got creative. With me, 3 hours long, my parents via Skype, thank you so much for your support!!!! Also sometimes my brother and my cousin, and guess what they both said, as they saw me??? "you should be in your bed, go!!!" ;P I slept 2 hours this night, got up at 5 and put the laundry into the dryer. I had no time for breakfast, I forgot my coffe in the kitchen and was too late for the picking up from Marieke and her hostdasd, but in the end everything went fine. 

Michaela gave me a big hug for goodbye, Meyner repeated always, that she´ll miss me so much and Isambard was the cool guy, who doesn´t want to show, that he is sad, as well, we said goobye with handshake^^

The goodbye of Wellington was wind & rain, typically!