Fourth Week Travelling

Monday: It was quite difficult to get up after such a short night, but I had to be ready for my one-day bus trip to Cape Reinga and the Ninety Mile Beach at ten past seven. We were totally 38 people in the bus. The first stop was the ancient Kauri shop or something like that. It’s a café and a workshop where they create souvenirs out of Kauri-wood. Earlier in my blog I wrote about a Kauri tree in nelson and that I couldn’t see it’s importance, but now I know it better: Kauri trees are the biggest, very old trees in New Zealand and they are protected by the government. It is a kind of gum-tree, because it heals wounds with a natural gum. Because of that and because the wood is very resistant it’s very popular. But people can only get the wood from fallen trees which they dig out of the ground, so because of the protection they can’t fell them. One of the highlights of the tour was the drive on the ninety-mile beach. Driving on the sand includes the same rules as driving on a New Zealand road, but it’s far more dangerous and that’s why I decided to do this tour and don’t drive on my own. If you want to drive on your own, you must have the awareness of the tides, because when it’s high tide, there is no more space to drive and your car sinks into the wet sand. But you can get stuck anyway, if you’re unlucky. There are a number of cars buried somewhere in the sand along this beach. And saltwater is well-known to be very bad for your car because it makes it rusty. At the end of this long beach there are big sand dunes and we had the pleasure to stop there and glide down on the sand with a board. Now we were already close to Cape Reinga, the northern most point of the north island. After a couple of minutes the bus stopped at the nearby carpark and the driver allowed forty minutes to walk down to the lighthouse and back. This cape was a bit less impressive than Cape Farewell, which is on the top of the south island, but still a beautiful place. It’s on the same latitude as Sydney. On the way back to Paihia we stopped for lunch and I started a conversation with two Japanese girls. I brushed up on my poor Japanese and learned some new words which the girls seemed to enjoy. The last stop was at a Kauri forest where a couple of giant, impressive, thousands of years old trees rise into the sky. Back in Paihia at quarter past six Kaori, one of the Japanese girls, asked me if I want to go out for a drink in the evening. It was a pleasure to spend more time with her and Chico. I had a quite intensive one-and-a-half-hour Japanese lesson. I also explained a few differences between German and Swiss-German and tried to teach them our umlauts. At ten o’clock Chico went home but Kaori and I went on the way to the next bar. We walked around Paihia for twenty minutes and finally ended up about fifty metres from the first bar. Kaori played snooker for the first time and then sung a karaoke-song. It was half past one when I eventually went to bed.
Tuesday: I knew the weather wouldn’t be too good today and because I could hear heavy rainfall I slept in. The first thing I did today was calling my rental-car company because I had lost my car key on Sunday evening. Because of the full-on Monday I couldn’t care about that earlier. I thought the key may be in the car, locked, because I remember that I locked the door by holding the handle and not with the key, so the rental company told me to ring up AA for help. After half an hour a guy from this road assistance service came and broke into my car which was quite easy and only a matter of less than a minute. But unfortunately I couldn’t find the key in the car. The guy from AA helped me to look for the key in every possible place and asked me for the exact sequence of events of the loss. I remembered going to my car to get some food, closing the car, prepare and eat dinner and watch TV before I got aware that I lost the key. We really looked everywhere along this track, even in the waste but it seemed to be untrraceable. Fortunately my help finally found the key in a big green rubbish-bin next to my car. Now I remembered dropping something into this bin after getting my dinner out of the car. Unfortunately not only waste but also the keys. I felt pretty silly but at least I had my keys back. In the afternoon I took the ferry to the close village of Russell to see one of the oldest towns of New Zealand. I also went for a walk up a hill but the usually certainly stunning view wasn’t too good with all the dark clouds. Back at the Saltwater Lodge I watched the Olympic Games and the news. Now I wanted to get my entire luggage ready, because I had to drop of my rental car tomorrow and I couldn’t do that with the mess I had in the car. I took my quite a while but I finally had a good system and enough space for everything. Now I just hope that it’s not too heavy for the flight.
Wednesday: I was ready to leave Paihia at eight o’clock, but unfortunately the reception opened only at half past eight, so I had to wait. I knew it’s going to be quiet short on time to be in Auckland at half past twelve, the time I had to give back the rental car. I couldn’t really rush to Auckland, because there was too much traffic and too many big, slow trucks. I finally arrived at the Youth Hostel shortly after noon, checked in, put my bags in the luggage room and hurried to the rental car company. Twenty past twelve and I still had to fill the tank up before giving the car back. I though I’d ask the rental company where the next petrol station is, but then I drove past their office, too late to turn. I had to go around the block and surprise: there was a petrol station. I finally arrived at 12:33, only three minutes late and that, of course, wasn’t a problem. I was on my way to the tourist information office when I decided to do a one-and-a-half-hour boat harbour-tour. The weather looked quite good, when I booked it half an hour before the trip. Unfortunately it was raining, when the trip begun, but it only held up for a couple of minutes. The view of Sky City and the harbour area was stunning and the price for the ticket included a ferry to Devonport and back, on any day. For today I had enough from exploring, but I still wanted to go to the I Site to plan the next one and a half days. In the evening it was News and Olympic Games on TV again. But then I bumped into a girl from Germany and one from Spain, no from Bask land. I knew them from the hostel in Paihia and had a long conversation with the two. I was happy to have a bit of a contrast to watching TV.
Thursday: Today I wanted to stroll between Auckland’s two harbours, the coast-to-coast walkway. I wanted to take the bus to the far harbour and then walk back for the indicated four hours. I didn’t quite understand the bus system here, but a guy from the reception had explained me where to go and which bus to take and I managed to reach my destination. Unfortunately it was pouring down on the other side of Auckland, but the rain fortunately stopped after a couple of minutes. Then it was from park to park, heading to downtown Auckland. Including shopping in a supermarket, a halt for lunch and a couple of short sit-downs it took me four hours and forty-five minutes to walk to the other harbour and now I made use of my ticket to Devonport. I had a couple of very good lookouts on my long walkway, but the sight from Mt Victoria in Devonport was the best. Simply gorgeous, on one side Sky City, on the other side a lot of little islands and pure nature. I had a map to do a self-guided tour around Mt Victoria to see all the historical buildings here, but I was simply too tired now and decided to go back to the hostel. And when I walked downhill it started raining, so the decision was good anyway. I finally arrived at the hostel at six o’clock in the evening, nine hours after I had left it in the morning. First I talked to Stefanie, the German girl, about her travelling. She had the same problem that I was facing a couple of weeks ago: She couldn’t decide, whether she wanted to travel by bus or rent a car. I don’t regret that I decided to travel by car. I had more freedom and never had to carry my luggage. Very comfortable but naturally more expensive. Then I watched TV again for the rest of the evening. I was shocked when I heard something about my alpine guide Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, something about an accident or something, I couldn’t catch it.
Friday: I intended to go to a local market in the morning before I left Auckland, but unfortunately the luggage room is only for early arriving people and not for leaving people and I wasn’t the only one who had to put all their luggage in the lounge and were waiting. I made use of this time to write my diary. Because of my obsession with TV I didn’t update it since I left Paihia, and then I went online to check my e-mail and see, if Daniel wrote me. Unfortunately he will not be able to pick me up, because he had a car-accident and can’t drive at the moment. I was shocked when I read, that Gottlieb Braun Elwert, my guide on the snow-shoe hiking trip suffered a heart attack while doing a hiking trip with the New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark. (To read more, click here) I still had to go to the airport, and carefully as I am, I arrived there already at one o'clock, two hours and fifty minutes in advance. Waiting for boarding I spent another ten dollars for internet to update this blog.

Travelling Third Week

Monday: I left Kaikourra pretty early in the morning to be sure to arrive on time in Picton to catch the ferry. On the way I stopped at the seaside and within ten minutes I found heaps of Paua shells. A lot of stores sell them for fifteen to twenty dollars, but I heard and Amanda confirmed that you can find them yourself. Actually pretty easily, as I found out. Impressive where the little detours on the road to Picton. Because of the storm which hit the country a few days ago, the road was flushed away on several places and little one-lane bridges made driving up north possible. I arrived in Picton at quarter to twelve and asked the lady in the ferry-check-in box what time I had to be there. She said one hour before departure and that meant quarter to one. So I used the time to drive towards Queen Charlotte Track and here I saw several landslides which covered the road with mud. I was still able to see some of the beautiful scenery. Waiting for the ferry I was listening to my favourite brass band piece on my mp3-player and like this time was flying. Although I was a bit anxious about taking the ferry with the car, I managed to drive onto it without any problems; actually it wasn’t difficult at all. And what a surprise: stepping out the elevator I bumped into a Swiss girl I had met at Nelson English Centre. Talking to her made the rather dreary cook-straight crossing a bit more interesting. And in Wellington I was happy to give her a lift to the YHA. It took me only about ten minutes to find Tak and Juliet’s place, which was very close to town. They live in two garages in Helen Street where all the stuff for living like kitchen, shower, toilets and so on was installed. Tak had to leave for a rehearsal or something so I was all alone with Juliet who grew up in Nelson. We had an interesting conversation, especially because she plays the violin and I already knew some facts from my sister who played string instruments as well. She could still tell me a lot about this kind of music and also about the way she wants to go concerning her profession. She already has a Maths and Philosophy degree but had started to teach the violin. In her opinion it’s not worth doing a violin degree, because a lot of people can’t find a job after finishing studies. So she decided to go into music as a profession step by step, but still wants to be a full-time musician some day. I think she’s definitely capable to do that, because I heard her practicing: she played very beautifully. She was also interesting in Swiss music and so I showed her some Swiss rock bands on YouTube. I couldn’t help showing her my favourite brass band piece and so I listened to it the second time today. When Tak came back we decided to go out for dinner. I was happy to spend an evening out in Wellington with people living there because I had only one night here anyway. After a Cambodian meal we were all so full, that we couldn’t even eat a piece of cake with our coffee respectively hot chocolate for me. Instead we discussed the things I could do in the morning here in Wellington, so I got an idea of what to do.
Tuesday: I had a good night and was surprised, that in the morning when I woke up the garage was warmer than some of the places I had been before here in New Zealand. At nine o’clock I left the house for the bus station. I first went to Mt Victoria lookout, which gives you a splendid view over the capital. The bus driver took me right up to the lookout so I only had to walk the last few hundred meters. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy, but the sight was good and it wasn’t raining. After that I visited Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum. It was a happy coincidence that I was at the museum at ten o’clock and that there was a guided tour at quarter past ten. This guided tour made the visit very interesting and I saw all the highlights of the museum within an hour. After that I had time to explore some of the most interesting parts a bit more in detail. When I was fed up with information I walked along the seaside to the cable car, which took me up to the botanical gardens. The way down I walked through the park and then finished my short visit in Wellington with looking at the beehive, New Zealand’s parliament house. I had to wait quite a bit for a bus back to Helen Street and finally left Wellington at three o’clock. Unfortunately neither Juliet nor Tak where at home, so I couldn’t say goodbye to my lovely hosts. I still had quite a long way to drive. It took me a bit less than five hours to get to National Park, and the last two hours I had to drive on a windy road in the darkness. Just about seventy kilometres before the end I had seen two cars standing on the side of the road and asked the people there if they needed help. A woman had bad luck with one of her tyres and she asked me for a torch, because they couldn’t see anything to change the wheel. I parked my car just next to them and light the place with the car light. To be at the hostel only at eight o’clock was pretty bad, because it was already dark and I wasn’t familiar with the environment, which was bad especially for this hostel, because it was spread out and not only one building.
Wednesday: I slept in today, because the weather seemed to be too bad to do anything else. From the three others in my room I only talked to one of them. I saw the third person when I left the room at about ten o’clock for the first time, which was a bit strange. On my way to Taupo I went to the beginning of the Tongariro Crossing, apparently one of the most beautiful one day hiking tracks in New Zealand. I first intended to do this trekking, but because it was winter I’d have needed winter equipment like ice axe, crampons and gaiters. Because it was all cloudy with a little bit of rain I didn’t even do parts of it. I drove to the other end of the walkway but there was nothing exciting either. Fortunately the weather turned much better on the way to Taupo and in this town there were only clouds on the horizon. After going to the I-site to get a map and find my hostel I checked in at one o’clock. It was all a bit strange; the girl at the check-in seemed to be unconfident. When I asked her why I had to write down my passport number her reaction was confused and I thought she might think that I was a strange guy. But apart from that the Tiki Lodge seemed to be very nice. I was so tired that I had to have a nap before I explored Taupo. After this refreshment I went to the Huka-Falls, a well known waterfall. I walked the track to the falls and back, which took me about two hours. Just next to the car park, there were some people in a little river taking a bath and I asked myself if it wasn’t a bit cold, but after considering my map I found out that this was a thermal spring. I held my hand into the water and found out that it was about forty degrees warm. I didn’t feel like taking a bath, especially because I’d have had to go to the car park to get my swimsuit, and after two hours walking I was too lazy for that. And I also felt a little bit sick today and realized that it had been a long time since eating vegetables or fruits, so I went to the supermarket to buy some healthy food. Back at my backpackers I cooked a broccoli and ate the whole thing at once. That was more or less my dinner; I just had some bread with it. And I felt better immediately. Now I talked to a Kiwi-girl and an English guy and watched TV for the evening.
Thursday: I left the hostel when all three others in my room were still sleeping. On my way to Rotorua I first went to a volcanic region where steam came out of wholes in the ground and learned about these natural effects. Then I went to a maori-place where there were silicon-platforms and a lot of information about Maori culture. In this park there was a carving workshop and I talked to one of the woodcarvers who explained me different aspects of these carvings and that he was carving a sculpture for the Taupo city council at the moment. Arriving in Rotorua I smelled what everybody had warned me against: rotten eggs. I checked in my five-star backpackers, what means extraordinary good, and then went exploring the city. I went to the I-Site, booked a mud-bath for tomorrow and asked what I could do in the afternoon. When I entered the government gardens I felt very lonely for the first time. Probably because I didn’t talk much to other travellers the last few days, or just had shallow conversations with them and also because I never stayed longer than one night at the same place since my stay in Christchurch. Nothing seemed to be a pleasure any more; even the most exciting things and I even thought it was time I went home now. But fortunately this feeling didn’t last very long or became less intense at least. After a collection of cultural stuff in these gardens I went to the lake and saw the thermal areas around Lake Rotorua. I walked along the lakeside until I got to a Maori Village. Unfortunately I couldn’t go into any of the houses, so I finished my Rotorua visit with going to a park next to my hostel. There was thermal activity as well and it was even made for taking a bath, at least for a footbath. I didn’t do that because I had no towel with me. Back in the lodge I watched TV and waited to be picked up at quarter past six for my Maori-culture experience. Our bus driver was a fun guy and he entertained us the whole way to the Maori-Village about fifteen kilometres from Rotorua, so it wasn’t boring at all but part of the experience. Our bus should represent one tribe visiting the village and therefore our driver Ngata chose a leader. In the Maori-Village we had a traditional welcome from four warriors of the tribe, representing four Maori-Gods. They came close to the leaders of the six visitor-tribes, made a kind of war-dance in front of them and yelled at them, which was quite scaring. Then we entered the village and were led to some of the important houses and Maori-People explained their function. The main cultural event was the following dancing- and singing-show in a big Maori-house. First the Maori-Women showed their dances and after a couple of dances together with the men, they showed us their Haka, the most well-known Maori war dance which many New Zealand sportsmen show before an international competition like a rugby-game or the Olympic Games. Now it was time we had dinner. I expected something quite different from our western food, but in fact it was very similar. Carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, chicken and beef, as well as salad. Only the sauce was quite different and they said they had prepared the food in the complex, traditional Maori way, which they explained after the dessert. Now it was already time to go back, to enjoy Ngata’s entertainment one last time. It was incredible how he could remember all names in our tribe, there were about 30 people in the bus and he knew every name and where the person is from.
Friday: In the morning I drove to Hell’s gate, the thermal active area, where you could have a mud-bath. I first wanted to visit the park and because the lady at the office told me there was a guided tour I waited for half an hour. Unfortunately this guided tour wasn’t very good, because the guide was a student-guide. The older guide had to correct him often and that was a bit confusing. And it started raining as well, which it didn’t half an hour before. After that I enjoyed twenty minutes in the warm mud, the same mud I had seen on my tour in the park. You should only bath in the mud for twenty minutes because of its chemical activity. After that I naturally had to take a shower first and then took a bath in the sulphur-pools. The two pools were about 38 and 41 degrees warm, which became quite hot after a time. I had to cool down and took a foot-mud-bath. When I got cold, I popped into the hot pools again for a couple of minutes. After having a thorough shower, I went on my way to Mt Maunganui. The weather got better from kilometre to kilometre and I even had sunshine when I climbed up a hill to a lookout-point. I tried to be as much faster than the 45 minutes indicated on the information-panel as possible. I run uphill and reached the top after fifteen minutes. Unfortunately a wind started blowing quite heavily and dark showers moved into the area pretty fast. On the last kilometres to Mt Maunganui I even had some raindrops. I checked in at half past two and after a short break it wandered to the beach, heading to the hill which gave the town its name. I had a few raindrops again but then it eased up and was very enjoyable. Unfortunately there were many clouds in the west, so I couldn’t see a proper sunset. Back at the hostel at about quarter past six I watched TV and a movie. After having something to eat I watched TV again and hoped to see the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Unfortunately they were announced to be on TV at midnight, and though I intended to wait I got too tired and went to bed. At least I knew something about famous New Zealand sports-people now, because they showed former Olympic Games and their New Zealand winners on TV.
Saturday: The weather was once again not the best, but on my way to Waitomo Caves it got a little bit better. I arrived at the Kiwi-Paka Youth Hostel at half past eleven and eventually had time to update my blog. At quarter past one I got picked up for the black water rafting in one of the caves. Equipped with neoprene suits we drove to one of the caves. We picked up a big tube and walked down a walking track. The entrance was an unremarkable little hole near the track, just big enough to get into the cave system. The water was still pretty cold, even with the neoprene suits. It was good fun to experience the caves this way, a bit more exciting than just walking I thought. On our one-hour tour through the cave we jumped off a waterfall and swam with our tubes through the narrow gaps in the limestone. Once we turned off our headlamps and could see hundreds of glow-worms above our heads. Because we were only two on this tour, we had enough time to experience some more parts of the caves and climbed up the walkway to go to one of the most beautiful parts of the caves. On the way out, I fell down into the cold water, but our guide could fortunately pick me up and pull me out of the water. My hands were so freezing cold that I had to expose them to hot water for about ten minutes until I could straighten them again. After a warm shower we could warm up the inside of our bodies with a hot tomato-soup. On the way back to the hostel I saw a walking track and couldn’t resist to climb it up to a historical Maori-site, where I also had a great view of the surrounding hills. Back at the Youth Hostel I remembered that I had forgotten my towel and swimsuit at the black water rafting company, so I took the car to get them. After that I had a quiet evening: I first ate something and then played pool with Alessandro, the Brazil guy from my room. I ended up watching the Olympic Games on TV again. I went to bed early, because I had a long drive the next day.
Sunday: I left the Youth Hostel at eight o’clock and just had to wait for the frost on my car to thaw, so that I could see something. Then I drove for a long time and at one point I couldn’t find the road out of a little town and then found out, that I missed a turnoff and was in Raglan, a little surfer village. The only way out was where I had been coming from. This detour really annoyed me, not only because I made more than sixty extra kilometres but also because it cost me about one hour. All my efforts to be in Paihia as early as possible were for nothing. Shortly before Auckland I filled up my tank which was the first real stop. Then I drove through this biggest city of New Zealand and over the big bridge up north. I felt tired and stopped at a car park to walk up the path in the native forest to a lookout. On the way up I could also get rid of the anger I still had in me because of my detour and convert this energy into movement. After that I felt better and kept on driving until Paihia. I arrived at my Hostel at ten to four and my mileage showed 543.3 kilometres, so that was the longest of my journeys. After checking in I borrowed a bike from the hostel and explored Paihia and the surrounding region. I cycled up a little mountain, a lookout point which the guy at the reception had recommended. Coming back down I saw a sign about a forest park just next to this mountain and spontaneously decided to bike along this road. Unfortunately it took longer than I expected and seemed to be like a labyrinth. After the sunset I had to hurry to get back before darkness. There was one intersection where I wasn’t sure which way to go. Fortunately I saw two guys with a pick-up somewhere after that and asked them about the way. Darwin’s law seemed to be true once again because I had decided for the wrong way. One of them asked me if I was able to get back to Paihia before darkness. I was a bit sceptical and so he offered to give me a ride. I was really lucky to have met these two guys, Colin and Steve, because Steve said the track I was going down would continue for about ten kilometres until the next signs of civilization. Eventually I was back at my hostel at half past six, after having bought some food in the supermarket. Now it was time to eat something and I watched the Olympic Games on TV again. Updating my diary and finally post it on my blog took me very long, so I finally went to bed at half past one.

Travelling Second Week

Monday: I got up early to be ready at eight o'clock at the alpine recreation, but unfortunately the reception opened only at eight, so I had to wait until then to check out. I arrived about five minutes late, but that didn't really matter. Waiting for me was Gottlieb Braun-Elwert, the guide, as well as Andre, who worked for Gottlieb and a couple who lives in Perth, Australia. Theodora originally was from Ireland and Jon from Chicago, but they now lived in Australia. We checked all the equipment and got the stuff we didn't have from Gottliebs stock. Fortunately his biggest hiking-shoes were just the right size for me. Then we drove over to Mount Cook Village and Gottlieb checked in, that means he told the information centre we were going into the park. We finally started walking at about quarter to twelve, and the weather was cloudy and dreary. First we climbed up a pretty steep, rocky section and then we put on our snow-shoes to hike to Caroline Hut. The snow was pretty deep and it was hard work for our leader Gottlieb to stamp the track. It was about half past four when we finally finished the 800 meter altitude difference and arrived at the hut. We spent the evening in the cosy warm hut next to a fire in the stove and Gottlieb talked about his former trips and his experiences in the mountains.
Tuesday: We got up at about seven o'clock and after eating breakfast we got ready for today's hike. We climbed up near Ball Pass to a little peak called quadruple two, because it's height was exactly 2222 meters above sea level. In the beginning it was pretty cloudy but now it opened for a while and we had a fantastic panorama and sunshine for our lunch-break. But suddenly there were dark clowds appearing over Mount Cook and Gottlieb was anxious about an upcoming storm he heard about in the weather forecasts. It would only come by Wednesday, but perhaps it was too late to go down on Wednesday and he thought about going down and back to Lake Tekapo already today. But after half an hour a new front was coming up and pushed the dark clouds away, so Gottlieb decided to go down early on Wednesday morning. The evening ran about the same way as the day before: tea and biscuits, dinner, talking. Now we had to go to bed especially early, who knew how early we would have to get up the next morning.
Wednesday: We got up at quarter to five and prepared everything for the descent. We left the hut at half past six, still in the darkness. The others had head-lamps, but I had to manage to see something with my hand-torch, what worked as well. We finally arrived down in the valley on the glacier moraine at nine o'clock. We went back to Mount Cook Village, gave Gottlieb all his equipment back and then went for a tea in a nearby hut of the New Zealand Alpine Club. Now I said goodbye to my new friends from Australia, because they stayed in Mount Cook Village. Back in Lake Tekapo I helped to put away all the gear and then had a cup of tea with Gottlieb, his wife and Andre. Looking at the weather forecast and because I was back so early I decided to cancel the second night in Lake Tekapo and go to Christchurch already on Thursday. Because I had booked and payed the accommodation in Nelson, it wasn't quite easy to do that, but I eventually got it changed. After that I went to the hot pool in Lake Tekapo and it was a great way to relax after these three days to have a hot bath. (One of the outside pools was about 38° C). The place even provided free wireless internet access for customers and I used that to update my blog.
Thursday: When I looked out the window in the morning I saw a lot of snow. Possibly twenty or thirty centimetres. The magic bus didn’t leave because the road was closed, as Ms Braun-Elwert had predicted it yesterday. So I watched a movie until noon, but then decided to see whether it’s possible to drive or not. The other guests in the hostel were surprised, that I was leaving and told me I was crazy. Though a Californian girl from my room asked me, if I could give her a ride as she had to be in Christchurch today. The hardest part of the drive was to get out of the car park because of all the snow. But then it was quite easy to drive, only a little bit wet snow on the road, no ice and I made several break-tests and the car never slipped away. I didn’t even have snow-chains which were essential due to a sign on the road. Although it was no problem to drive it was still quite an adventure, but I didn’t regret my decision a second. The good thing was that I had good company from this Californian girl. We stopped somewhere on the way for lunch and a second time for a hot chocolate. Then there was a little pile-up and I asked myself why, but after a little while we could go on and I found out the reason: a guy in a orange jacket told me, they had just opened the road but I still had to drive very carefully because there were many flooded parts. In Christchurch I dropped the girl of at the YHA and then went to the museum. I took me a while to find a car park and then I realised that I had no coin to feed the tax meter. So I had to find a free parking. The one in the nearby park was for free and it was only five minutes to walk from there to the museum. Unfortunately it was already half past four and the museum closed at five o’clock. I just had enough time to get a good survey of the things to see there and decided to come back the next morning. Although I had a pretty good description from Amanda how to get to her house it took me ages to find it. I already spent more than half an hour until I realised that her place was about seventeen kilometres out of town in a little village called West Melton. There I had to turn right at the BP-Station and then take the second road on the left. Sounds very easy, but because it was dark and this second road that she meant was about two kilometres away from the petrol station it took me a long time again. Eventually I arrived in front of a black gate as Amanda had described it. But when I heard a dog barking pretty aggressively I was unsure if it really was the right place. I pressed the button to call and her voice said she’s going to open the gate for me. Finally there, I talked to Amanda for hours and she cooked a Thai-meal for me. Her parents were in holiday, so she had the whole villa for herself and seemed to be quite happy to have some company.
Friday: Amanda had to work today but she could take me to town where I visited the museum and read a lot about the Antarctic expeditions in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Tired from reading I decided to visit the Christchurch cathedral and on my way back I went to the art gallery. After visiting an exhibition I was asked to participate in a poll and I decided to do it. It was about twenty minutes on a computer, but I got a free hot chocolate for it, so it was worth it, as it was raining pretty cold outside. Then I met Amanda and we went to the airport to pick up to Portuguese guys who stayed at Amanda’s home as well tonight. Back in town, Amanda had to go to work again for about one hour. For this short time I went with her and then we went shopping together. Now we went to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. We had a guided tour there and I saw living Kiwi-Birds for the first time. Our guide gave good background information and made funny comments like: “Now the Kiwi is doing what he’s meant to do: Sticking his nose into the ground.” Back home it was the same as the day before, except that we were four to talk today, but Amanda cooked again.
Saturday: In the morning we first dropped of the Portuguese guys at the train station and then picked up Amanda’s friend Nick and went on our way to Mt Hutt to go skiing. The weather was very good and the snow conditions fabulous. They had 0.9 m, 1 m and again 1 m snowfall the last week, so there was about 2.5m snow on the slopes. A Kiwi told me the snow conditions were the best he ever had in ten years. Amanda and I did a foto-session, where we took pictures from each other skiing. It was good fun to take these action-pictures and Amanda quite liked my camera and to play with it. Then we went down some very steep hills in the deep snow, for experts only due to a sign. The weather turned bad and it was almost four o’clock already but I decided to take the lift one last time before going back to Christchurch. Amanda invited some friends to her house. She cooked a couscous-based salad and somebody brought pizzas. In the mean time we watched the Rugby-Match New Zealand versus Australia. I had never seen a whole match and especially the Haka before. Fortunately the All Blacks won, so the mood was pretty good. I had asked Amanda if I can do my laundry here and she agreed. After putting all my clothes in to the washing machine I tried to watch a comedy-DVD. But I fell asleep and went to bed.
Sunday: Amanda hung up all my clothes last night, but they were still not dry yet, so she put them into the dryer. What a nice girl, what she all did for me, I really had a good time with her. At ten o’clock I left her to go to Kaikourra for whale-watching in the afternoon. I was quite late and had to hurry. After a stop on the coast I finally arrived about one minute early at the whale watch office. But the journey started only half an hour later, so a delay would have been no problem. Whale watching was quite exciting and I got a lot of interesting information around whales and wild life in New Zealand. And we didn’t only see whales but also albatrosses, seals and penguins. After that I went to Kaikourra peninsula for a little walk to the view point and to see the seal-colony. On the way back I gave a Malaysian guy a lift who underestimated the long way out there. At the hostel I watched the most successful Kiwi-Movie called The World’s Fastest Indian, which was indeed very captivating. My room mate was a French guy and it was a real challenge for me to talk French to him. I really liked that and he would always start to speak English and then say oh no, I can talk French to you!

Travelling First Week

Monday: In the morning I first went to town to send a parcel with all my stuff from school and the music home. It was about ten kilogram which cost me a lot. But still less expensive than paying for overweight on the aeroplane home I thought. When I got home again at half past 9 I packed everything and luckily enough there was just enough space for it. Jude then drove me to town on her way to Motueka. I was at the car rental more than one hour early, but the friendly guy gave me the car at eleven o’clock, so I didn’t have to wait. After a shopping tour I started my trip to Greymouth. The weather first was fine, but then the sky got very cloudy and dark. I stopped at several attractions on the way, the main one was a little bridge and a park. Then near Greymouth I read something about the coal mines who were the main business around nineteen-hundred. After 290 km I finally arrived in Greymouth. The hostel I stayed in for the night was quite nice, the only problem was, that it was a bit cold there. Noah’s Arch got friendly staff, free internet, tv and funny painted rooms. My room was called TIGER and with me was Clare from London. She told me, that she wanted to go to Franz Josef on the next day but that there was no bus, so I offered her to give her a lift, because I was heading to Franz Josef anyway.
Tuesday: I slept quiet well although there was a storm in the morning. The weather didn’t get any better and was raining more or less all day. On our trip we visited Shantytown, a little village who looked like a settler village from the 19th century. After a steam-rail trip I had my first gold panning experience. In the end I got some tiny little nuggets out of the sand and stones. The weather wasn’t easing up, so it wasn’t much fun to see the otherwise certainly beautiful scenery. At two o’clock we arrived in Franz Josef Glacier and what a surprise: As we went into a restaurant for a hot chocolate I met two Swiss girls who had been at the Nelson English Centre as well. I now helped Clare to find an accommodation, in the end she decided not to stay in the glow worm cottages which I already had booked before, but we agreed to go for a walk in the evening, expecting to see some glow worms. At my hostel there was free vegetables soup at six o’clock which was very nice. I didn’t need much more for dinner and spent the rest of the evening with watching TV, because the weather was too bad for a walk.
Wednesday: I had to get up early to be ready for the full day glacier walk at 8:15. Fortunately I realised that I had forgotten my sunglasses and had the time to go back to the hostel and pick them up, while others were waiting. Then I got over trousers, hiking shoes and suitable crampons. They also provided raincoats, but I didn’t need one. Then the about 50 hikers got on the bus which brought us near the glacier. From here it took 45 minutes to the glacier, where we had to put on the crampons. Now we got separated into groups of eight or nine people and begun our walk on the ice. That was a really good experience, to be amongst all this ice and I really enjoyed it. The only bad thing was that our guide wanted to find a new route after lunch and we had to wait almost one hour until he finished the new track. It was freezing and I couldn’t understand why he did that while he is leading a group and not in advance. But it was a great experience all the same and I took heaps of pictures. In the evening I had the soup at six o’clock and then went for a walk with John from England. The receptionist had told us we could see some glow-worms on a certain track, and there were loads of them. I had thought they were big worms glowing on their whole body, but they were very small and only one little dot glow. After that we had a free shot at the blue ice bar and then went to my hostel again.
Thursday: I got up quite early today to leave this place as soon as possible. Finally I took off at quarter to eight. First I went to a view point to see Fox Glacier, the second famous one near Franz Josef Glacier. After that I just stopped every once in a while to see the scenery. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and I couldn’t see all the surrounding mountains. After about 390 km I arrived in Queenstown. It wasn’t what I expected and I didn’t have a good start here: I parked my car on the only parking near the Youth Hostel to check in and asked for a place to park the car overnight. But only five minutes later, I got a nice little paper on my windshield. It was a fee for wrong parking and I had to pay 40 dollars. That really bothered me, just because it wouldn’t have been necessary. After going to the supermarket and writing my diary I wanted to go out with some guys from my room, but I was too tired and slept at about seven o’clock already.
Friday: I didn’t sleep very well, it was a bit cold, but I still had to get up at six o’clock. At 6:35 I had to be at the real journeys office for my trip to Milford Sound. I was one of the first and most of the others seemed to be late. The sky was still a bit cloudy, like the day before and it was almost dark. For the next six hours our coach drove to Milford Sound, with a stop every once in a while at the tourist attractions to take pictures. At one o’clock our ship took off for the one and a half hour scenic cruise in the Sound. The weather was just too god to be true: blue sky, no clouds, very good sight. It was just a little bit cold. We were meant to eat lunch on the boat, but I was busy taking pictures and finally ate the food I brought while waiting for the bus. On the way back the bus only stopped at several places to drop off and pick up people. After about 640 km today we finally arrived in Queenstown at quarter to eight.
Saturday: I had to leave Queenstown quite early to be in Dunedin by one o’clock for the wildlife tour. In Queenstown the weather was quite good today, but it got worse on the way to Dunedin. I finally arrived there at quarter to one, just before I got picked up by the guy from the wildlife tour at one o’clock. I thought that it wasn’t the best day, but it didn’t rain at least. On our way to the albatross station our guide told us a lot about nature in New Zealand and I learned that most of the animals were imported and didn’t use to live here before the first humans came here. The imported animals were often more powerful than the original one’s and that was a problem. Quite a few species died out because of these new opponents and some of the imported animals were like a pest now, for example the possums. It was freezing, when we tried to see some albatross and I decided to go inside the albatross centre. Later we went to a different place to see fur seals, sea lions and yellow white penguins. Now it was raining, and that made it even colder. I couldn’t enjoy it anymore, it was just to cold and wet, but it was still interesting. When I got home at about half past six, I went to the supermarket and bought a lot of yummy things to spoil myself after this torture. In the evening I wrote a lot of postcards, because I was all alone in my room and there wasn’t a lounge to be and meet people.
Sunday: In the morning I first visited the First Church of Otago, the famous railway station and then Larnach Castle. Unfortunately it was so foggy, that I wasn’t able to see the castle from about 50 m distance. So this was a bit an unfortunate visit. Then I went to the steepest road in the world, located in the north of Dunedin and drove the car up and down. That was quite impressive. Now I went on my way to Lake Tekapo and just stopped here and then, fortunately the weather was clearing up a bit. In Lake Tekapo the weather was quite good, just a bit cloudy. I went to the Alpine Recreation to see where I have to go the next morning and to say hello to my guide. Back in the hostel I prepared everything for the three day trip and ate dinner. Now I was pretty tired and just wrote my diary, sent some e-mails and went to bed then.

Twelfth Week: The Final Week in Nelson

Monday: This week I’m going to have two days morning-lessons with Eleanor and three days with James because Dillwyn has another class this week. After school I talked a long time with Hanna in a little café in Nelson about our special relationship and I felt that we are very good friends. I really admire her and think she’s a great person, she made me very happy. I arrived at home at half past six, just when Jude was ready with tea. After dinner I felt very tired and decided to go to bed early, even before eight o’clock. Later I woke up and wrote the diary for the last week, which took me hours.
Tuesday: Today I wanted to plan my travelling. But unfortunately the lady who is responsible for itinerary planning wasn’t in the Nelson Tourist Office today and I was told to come back the next day. When I practiced with my instrument, Hanna wrote me a text-message and I decided to call her to answer her question. The call took longer than I thought. Because I told Hanna that I had been practising and she likes music I played some songs on my tenor horn for her while phoning. Then I decided to invite her for dinner for Wednesday to play for her. Jude agreed with that.
Wednesday: After two days with Eleanor my teacher was school-owner James today. He told me details about the flood at school that occurred the last Friday (I didn’t hear anything about it, because I wasn’t there.) Unfortunately he was very busy and I felt that he did two jobs at the same time. I didn’t mind, because it was only for two more days. Eventually I was able to plan my four-week New-Zealand trip in the Nelson Tourist Office. I took me a bit more than one hour to discuss all the options I had for my travelling. After having planned my travelling, I went to the car rental company to book a car, because I now knew when to pick it up and when to drop it off. Because I hire the car for more than ten days, an Inter Islander Ferry ticket is included for free, so I can pick the car up in Nelson and drop it off in Auckland, with no additional costs. (The Inter Islander Ferry would cost about 180 $ for a car!). Today Hanna came to my home-stay for dinner. After dinner I played a pretty long time for her and showed her all my sheet music. She was very interested and I enjoyed being with her for the evening.
Thursday: Katja from the Nelson Tourism Office told me to get my travel itinerary already today, because she finished all the bookings and had another customer tomorrow. That was great: She had booked all the accommodations and tours for me for free, and I didn’t have to do anything. I was only at home for a short time, because Liz had asked me for a last brass lesson. One last time I helped her to improve her skills. She was thankful for that and gave me a present. I was happy, because it was also a good experience for me to give tuition, especially because it was in English. Once again there were only few people in the brass band rehearsal, although it was the last practice before the Blessing of the Fleet on Saturday. After the rehearsal, Christoph and I went to the pub to catch up with other students form the English school. I had a great evening and it was half past two when I finally went to bed.
Friday: For my last day at the language school, James gave me some information about the Maori culture. That was very interesting. In the break time it was time for me to say good bye officially. I got a certificate for twelve weeks of school attendance and had a short speech about my time here. After the break, I watched a movie about Maori culture called Whale Rider. I can recommend this movie for everybody who’s interested in cultural problems showed by this myth about a Maori tribe. Dillwyn helped me to correct my diary at lunchtime, even though he wasn’t my teacher this week. Although we worked on it for about one hour, we didn’t finish it off. Then I had a cooking class with Sarah. She, who has ancestors in the Ukraine, showed us how to prepare a traditional Ukrainian meal called Varenyky. I took a long time to prepare all the little bits, but it smelled very nice. Sarah told us, that Ukrainian people usually prepare this food the day before Christmas, and that they drink Vodka during the long procedure. It was already four o’clock, when we finished the meal. I went to town to buy a little present for today’s Christmas party. After that, school looked very different. There was Christmas décor everywhere and at five o’clock the party begun. The free drinks at the bar, mixed mainly by Sarah, were delicious and the mood great. After some time, Father Christmas came, to give all the nice children a present. That was good fun and already my second Christmas party this year. After the party I went to salsa-teacher Catherine’s house, where she organised another social dance night. I only stayed there a short time, because Hanna and Christoph were in the Royal Hotel and I wanted to catch up with them. Unfortunately Hanna wasn’t in the pub when I got there because she had been too tired, so Christoph and I went home soon. On the way home I passed by Hanna’s home-stay and because I saw light in her room, I called her. She said she was tired, but didn’t want to go to bed yet and invited me for a hot chocolate. I had a long talk with her and it was half past one when I finally came home.
Saturday: Because it was pouring down very heavily, the Blessing of the Fleet was postponed for two weeks. That meant we didn’t have to play with the brass band. Hanna, who wanted to come and listen, was a bit disappointed. That’s why I decided to ask her, if she liked to go out for lunch with me. She agreed, so I went to her house at twelve o’clock. Though or as she said because it was a very wet day, she had knee-long trousers and sandals on, which looked very funny for mid-winter. She wouldn’t get wet like that, was her explanation. I deposed my Tenor horn and my uniform at the band-room and we met Christoph there. Together we were heading to the language school, were we caught up with Dominik, who had lunch with us as well. After a delicious meal in the Indian restaurant Mango, I had to do some shopping. The other three accompanied me and especially Hanna helped me to take decisions. I had to buy some stuff for my three day snow-shoe hiking trip and needed trousers for the upcoming ski-trip with Amanda. After shopping, Christoph and Dominik went home, but Hanna and me went to the band-room again, where we met the conductor Joel. David Todd, the band manager, caught up with us as well, to say goodbye to me and to give me a Nelson City Brass banner as a gift. Then Hanna and I went to Joel’s home. Because he was quite a good painter, I had asked him, if he could show me his pictures and he agreed that Hanna could come as well. We had a quite a good discussion about his pictures and about languages with him, his wife and his daughter. Besides being a professional musician and doing paintings, Joel has a fascination for languages. He speaks about eleven different languages and some of them, like Hungarian, Korean or Chinese, are rated the most difficult ones in the world. Hanna was naturally fascinated by his Korean. After that, it was about quarter past six, Joel drove us into town where Hanna and I decided to go to the cinema. Unfortunately the movie we wanted to watch started at ten past eight only so we looked for a restaurant for dinner first. “Get Smart” is a very funny movie and was exactly the right thing for us, after this dreary day. After the cinema, we went on to the pub, where a live band should play from about 11 o’clock. We were there earlier and played ping pong for about one hour. Then we enjoyed the band, though it was too loud for both of us and we soon decided to go home. Now it was time for me to say good bye to Hanna. This was very emotional and I really hope I can meet her again some day. She said she would come to Switzerland, but only after five or ten years. We both wonder, how the other changes in so many years time.
Sunday: I decided to go to church for the last time here in Nelson to say goodbye and also because I still owed somebody the recipe for my chocolate cake. After the church service, there was lunch at church, which I enjoyed very much. I talked to many people and they all wished me all the best for my travelling. And the lady I handed out the recipe said she will always be reminded of me, when she bakes this cake. Back home I started to sort out all the rubbish from my room, and prepared stuff for my travelling. I had a few things to prepare and was happy to have this day for it. First I wanted to leave on Sunday morning, but now I’m glad I have a bit more time and a last chance to relax before my four busy travelling weeks.

Eleventh Week

Monday to Wednesday: I started to jot down all the ideas of places I want to visit when travelling after my twelve weeks of school. I wanted to go to the travel office, to get some help with ideas and to book the essential things, but I didn’t manage to get there as I spent the whole time after school each day talking to people or looking for further ideas on the internet. But I was finally able to change my flight back to Switzerland to a later date. Well I have to say that Miles changed it, after he heard how helpless I was on the phone. It was the fourth time I called the Emirates to change my flight and I decided it should be the last time, because I was just sick and tired of their usual response that they had to contact Zurich to find out whether I could change my ticket to a higher class and how much it would cost. It was the same torture for the fourth time, but Miles told me that I was simply to nice on the phone and that he probably could get the change made. I told him my preferred date for a flight back and within five minutes I had my flight changed. It’s not changed to the date I intended first, but I’ll have one week more to travel now, and it doesn’t cost me a cent, fair enough. That change means I arrive in Zurich on 20 August.
Thursday: This morning I packed everything I’d need on my trip to Christchurch and naturally things for school. During the day, that means in the break times and at lunchtime, I went shopping for some other things I’d probably need on my trip. Hanna accompanied me on my shopping tour and helped me decide which beanie I should buy. I left school a bit early, shortly after three o’clock, because my bus was due to leave at twenty past three at the information centre. Unfortunately the bus was late and I even thought I was probably at the wrong place or something and that the bus left without me, but it was just late. The journey was pretty rough, not only because of the bumpy road but also because the bus was pretty old. In Blenheim I had to wait about one hour for people coming from Picton heading to Christchurch and I ate my dinner. The second part of the bus trip was a bit smoother, and this time I sat in the front row where I had enough space for my legs to make myself comfortable. I was listening to one of my favourite Bands, the “Toten Hosen”, for the first time in ages and after a short stop for toilets and refreshments the bus finally arrived in Christchurch at half past ten. That was twenty minutes early, but although I had sent Patrick a text he wasn’t there. Patrick is my friend from Christchurch who played Euphonium with the Nelson band at the West Coast competition. He is a professional musician playing for the New Zealand Army Band and he also plays for one of the top A-Grade bands in New Zealand, Woolston Brass from Christchurch. It was freezing and after three unsuccessful attempts at calling him I was starting to think he might never turn up. Eventually he phoned back and asked me where I was. I probably mispronounced Worcester street, and he didn’t come for quite a while so I called him again. Finally he picked me up just before midnight. It was a bit hard for me to understand why he was so late but I didn’t think about that too much, I just accepted it and was happy that he came in the end. At his home I met Graham, the house-owner and conductor of the Woolston Band, and his girlfriend and after having a beer and talking with Patrick I went to bed.
Friday: I got up at about nine o’clock and Patrick took me to the city centre where I listened to the competitions. He himself had a band rehearsal, but I wasn’t alone: I met some people I knew from the West Coast contest or from Nelson and enjoyed listening and discussing the B-grade bands with them. In the afternoon there was the street marching competition and in the evening the A-grade bands had to play their sacred item and test piece. After the seventh band out of ten, or, in other words, seven times the same test-piece, I went to the hotel of a friend from the Marlborough District Band and we agreed to have dinner together. Because it was already nine o’clock, the Thai restaurant we were heading to offered takeaways only. So we ate back at the town hall. Now the competitions were over for today so I headed to the pub to catch up with Patrick. Graham and a lot of other people from different bands where there as well. I met Zac from Wellington who played timpani for Woolston, who was also staying at Graham’s house during the contest. Curiously I hadn’t seen him in the morning.
Saturday: In the morning, Patrick took me to Lyttelton, a part of Christchurch, where he goes to the market every Saturday. After a hot chocolate and a special bacon-sandwich we went back home. On the way there he had driven through a tunnel connecting the city and Lyttelton, but on the way back he went over the hills, to show me the beautiful view and to give his two dogs a bit of a run around. After that we first went to the supermarket and then Patrick had a rehearsal again, and I went to listen to the competitions, which were B-Grade own choice, D-Grade hymn, own choice and stage march and in the evening A-Grade own choice. In contrast to yesterday, I had a bit more variety today and I especially liked the A-Grade own choice competition. That was just one great brass band oeuvre after the other, like a top concert. And the contest feeling was just like what I’m used to from Switzerland, so it wasn’t a strange world for me. This was the last competition event of the “2008 Festival of Brass” and after hearing the results there was a party in the AMI Stadium. Patrick played there with a big-band-like formation of the army band. At one o’clock, this party was over, but not the festival in general. I first wanted to go home and sleep now, because my train would leave at quarter past eight in the morning, but then I decided to go on partying because it was a very special occasion which I would probably never experience again. After a stopover in a bar in the centre of Christchurch, we went to the Casino where I finally ate seafood and chips for dinner at about four o’clock in the morning. I had some good conversations here, one with an Australian lady who had recorded the contest and done the live internet-streaming, and another one with Martin Britt, the soprano cornet from the Desford Colliery Band from the UK. He came to New Zealand just for one week to play at the competition with one of the A-Grade bands. He didn’t get a wage for that, but they paid him accommodation for one week and the flight. That’s a pretty cool way to spend your holiday. At half past five we finally decided to put an end to partying and go home. It was six o’clock when I was finally able to lie down on my long desired bed.
Sunday: That was a pretty short night, because it was only half past seven, when my clock rang. Unfortunately I couldn’t hear it, or I just fell asleep again after turning it off, I can’t remember, but somehow I managed to get up. The problem was only that it was already ten to eight and Patrick, who had offered to drive me to the train station, was still asleep as well. I was to have been at the train station at least twenty minutes before departure, in other words five to eight. But fortunately it wasn’t too late to catch the train; I eventually got on the train about three minutes before departure. I had decided to go back to Nelson by taking the transalpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth and then on with the bus back, because I had heard that it’s a beautiful trip and you can see a lot of the mountains. That was true and I was very lucky with the weather as well. Until Arthur’s Pass there were almost no clouds in the sky and visibility was excellent, so I took a lot of pictures and I wasn’t even feeling too tired at this stage. However, as the train was going through a pretty long tunnel, I fell asleep. I woke up after the tunnel but then slept again, because it was cloudy now and I wasn’t able to see much of the scenery; though in Greymouth the weather was better and I enjoyed my trip up the rough West Coast. The bus even stopped for forty-five minutes at the Pancake Rocks, a tourist attraction, and I naturally took the chance to take a look at them. Later I slept again and only took an occasional glance at the rather monotonous scenery. The bus stopped again in Murchison, where we had about fifty minutes to go to the café. That was too long for me; I was neither hungry nor thirsty and I would have preferred to be fifty minutes earlier in Nelson. But I still had a drink and a snack, just because I couldn’t imagine what else to do. The result of drinking without being thirsty and being in a pretty cold bus was that I nearly burst on the final leg of the journey, so badly did I need to go to the loo! But I had to hold on until seven thirty, after we arrived in Nelson. After that I went straight to the party at Hanna’s home-stay. She cooked Korean food and intended to play card games after dinner. I obviously was late for dinner, but she had kept the food warm and prepared a lovely plate for me. After that, we enjoyed playing UNO and were fascinated by the apple peeling machine of Hanna’s home-stay parents. It takes off the skin, takes out the core and cuts the apple into slices all at once. Back home at quarter past ten, I went to bed without making any detours.

Tenth Week

Monday: After only a few hours of sleep, I got up at quarter to six and my stomach was still a bit sore. At half past six the final of the European Football Championships was on TV. Michel picked me up at twenty past six and we went into the deserted town of Nelson. There was only a roadman making noise in the otherwise calm and quiet sleepy city. Michel had decided to watch this final match live, because after earlier games in the competition sometimes people had told him the result before he watched the replay. This really annoyed him and he didn’t want that to happen after the final. The match was live on Sky-TV and school-owner James offered to come and open the school for us at 6:30. We were five minutes early and it was freezing outside. At half past we saw the Sports Café opening, just 30 metres from school, and there was a surprising number of people around it immediately. Unfortunately James didn’t come. At twenty to seven we decided to send him a txt-message that we would watch the title-fight between Germany and Portugal in the café. It was warm and cosy there and with the other people around us the right atmosphere. After half-time Michel went home to pick up his girlfriend for the second half. Fortunately Spain scored a goal and won the hard, prestigious match. We went on to the English Centre and watched the winner’s cup presentation there until 9 o’clock. Concentration was a bit hard today, especially near the end, because I just felt pretty tired. After school I wrote my diary for the last week and, because I was tired, went to bed early.
Tuesday: Chika and Hitomi surprised me with a birthday card. The two Japanese girls who I had spent lunchtime with several times and who were also in the bone-carving workshop wrote lovely things to me and were nice enough to tell me about the Japanese part of it. In the evening I stuck to my plan to do a lot of homework. I worked on it for many hours and it was past eleven when I finally decided that I was too tired to keep on going.
Wednesday: Today Christoph Hüsler, a brass-band friend from Switzerland, had his first day at the English Centre. Despite initially not wanting to come to the same school as me, he was pleased to see me, had a lot of questions and I was happy to help him to have a good start here in Nelson. The yoga class was pretty easy for me, either the exercises were easier or I was getting better. I hope it was the latter. Jude asked me if I wanted to go to the youth-group tonight and because I felt pretty tired with a bit of a headache I was at first reluctant to go and decided to concentrate on my homework instead. But then she convinced me that going there would certainly be good English practice and would – unlike homework – would have a social element as well. And I didn’t regret it. It was good fun and at the end I saw an inspiring movie about an arm- and leg-less man who didn’t only cope with his immense disability but also made the best of his possibilities. He became a motivation-trainer with the ability to show people that they shouldn’t feel hindered from getting on with life and overcoming difficulties, and that everyone’s capabilities are much greater than one would expect. Naturally it was very authentic, presented by somebody who had to deal with such a severe handicap. Unfortunately I came home late and went straight to bed, so I didn’t do any homework.
Thursday: There were a lot of people at salsa class today. Some of them were new and some had only been to one lesson before. So we only practised the basics for today, apart from one dance I had with Mayumi at the end of the lesson. But I still enjoyed myself and the great atmosphere; I didn’t feel bored at all. It was fun to be there, to shake a leg and to try to make it easy for the newcomers to learn dancing. After salsa class I organised somebody to pick Christoph up for tonight’s brass band rehearsal. I wanted to give Liz a lesson, but unfortunately there was no intermediate-band practice today and the band room was locked. Instead of a practice we had a discussion about rental cars. I’m pretty sure I’m going to travel by car, but I haven’t made up my mind definitely. There were only 13 people at today’s rehearsal, but once again the atmosphere was great and I enjoyed it a lot.
Friday: Once again I had to tell Dillwyn that I hadn’t done any homework. Nevertheless we had a good lesson and a great discussion about travelling and borders. At lunchtime I was Dave’s photo-model for his private project about foreigners. He is going to give a presentation with some of his pictures at his photo-club. In the afternoon I started watching the beginning of a movie, but then planned the weekend. I made a reservation for a scenic flight with Hanna on Sunday. Then I had a beer with Hanna, Christoph and Dominik at the House Of Ales.
Saturday: Dominik, Christoph, Hanna and I had agreed to meet today at 10 o’clock in front of the Suter Art Gallery. I first went to Hanna’s home-stay and waited for her. We walked into town together and as we were passing by the car rental company, I thought I would ask for my sunglasses. There was nobody in the office, but the owner replied on the phone that he had found my sunglasses and that he was going to be back in the office in an hour. This delay caused us to be a little late at the gallery. Christoph wasn’t there. Because the exhibition only opened at half past ten, we went to the café behind the gallery. There I tried a hot lemonade with ginger in it, recommended by the waitress. I had sent Christoph a text-message, but he didn’t show up. The gallery was rather small and we were through it in no time. We went on to the Nelson Museum on Hardy Street and on the way I picked up my sunglasses. We spent more time there, but I was getting tired. At one o’clock we were sitting in the Golden Bell, a Thai-restaurant, waiting for our dishes. It was a great meal and it was cosy, too, so we stayed there quite a long time talking about everything under the sun. Unfortunately the weather was getting worse but we still climbed up to the Centre Of New Zealand. A cold wind blew from the sea, making our time up there rather uncomfortable. On the way down we saw “The Kauri Tree”, which must be a kind of attraction. Its importance was shown by the little fence around it, but we couldn’t find out why this tree was special. Back home I rushed to have a cake baked by the time I was picked up for the International Dinner Party. It would be a similar event to the one at my home-stay some weeks ago, but this time it was at Pastor Allan and his wife Linda’s home. Unfortunately the cake was still in the oven when Ingrid came, but she didn’t mind and used the time to try some of my Swiss cheese. This evening turned out to be great. There were only about 25 people, but still heaps of different types of food. After dinner I played card games with some of the others and had a lot of fun. Now it was pudding-time, as Linda used to say. Even though I had baked my cake in a hurry, it smelled pretty good, and I got compliments! Allan suggested I should become a professional baker, and a Japanese lady asked me for the recipe.
Sunday: After sleeping in and getting up at nine o’clock I felt too tired to do anything and went back to bed. In the end it was just before noon, when I got up and prepared for the afternoon. I was going to go with Hanna over to Motueka for a scenic flight. Therefore Michel lent us his beloved car for a couple of hours. After a short discussion about the flight track, we got into the little aeroplane and up to the snow-covered mountains. Our pilot said there hadn’t been as much snow since 1978, and this white blanket over the landscape looked just incredibly beautiful and fresh. It was a very special view of the upper South Island. After the mountains we flew over the Abel Tasman National Park, where I could see the track I had been walking along a few weeks ago. The colours of the water, the beaches and the forests were so amazing that I couldn’t get enough of it. But after one hour and two minutes and about 270 pictures (!), the flight was over!

Ninth Week

Monday: This week I got a new teacher in the morning classes. I had the luck to have a personal one-to-one teacher this week, because my English level was a bit higher than the average in the upper-intermediate group and I sometimes was bored. To provide as much progress as possible to me, James now offered me to have my own teacher, Dillwyn. This way, classes can be tailored to me, very efficient and I was a little bit exhausted when the clock showed quarter past twelve. That’s the challenge I was looking for! In the evening I tried to do as much homework as possible, to get ahead as far as possible at school the next day.
Tuesday: James said it was a difficult story, but he needed Dillwyn for another class. So I discussed the homework with him instead. Working with him was not bad at all, especially because he explained to me the way British people think about Churchill, and why they are so proud of their role in the Second World War. That was a lot of cultural knowledge conveyed to me in a much more authentic way than I had experienced it in any of my history lessons at school. After school I agreed with Hanna and Mayumi to hire a car on Saturday and go to the Queen Charlotte Track in the Marlborough Sounds. Therefore we went to the car company Rent-a-Dent to book a vehicle.
Wednesday: This evening I went to a swimming pool with people from church. It was so relaxing to be in this warm pool usually used by the hospital for disabled people. Especially after another yoga lesson when you can feel almost every muscle of your body. First I enjoyed fighting for an air filled plastic rugby ball and after that I played with a little girl called Marguerite some games she obviously found interesting: holding your breath as long as you can, jumping into the pool with as much of a splash as possible or even diving with her on my back with her arms around my neck. The funniest thing came at the end: I had to pretend to be unconscious or dead and she would rescue me. Apparently she was fascinated by how long I could hold my breath and that was now useful for playing dead. Although the last game in particular was a bit strange, it showed me again how much I love children. It’s just intriguing how they think and act and how easy it is to make them happy. The Icing on the cake was eating chips after all that. I just felt so comfortable and fresh that everything smelled twice as good as normal.
Thursdays are Thursdays. For me that meant salsa dancing and band practice after school. The only special thing was that I had two dances in the Little Rock after band practice. One with teacher Sarah and the other with Liza, who I got to know some weeks ago in the Little Rock.
Friday: In the afternoon some students were watching a movie provided by Sarah. I was one of them. After that, I had an interesting discussion with Hanna, who had told me I was like a brother to her. That was a big compliment to me, and I really enjoyed talking about all kinds of things with her.
Saturday: On my birthday I got up early and prepared for the journey. At nine o’clock I had to be in town, but Jude told me to open a present from her first. I could share the Chocolates with my friends, she said and that was a good idea. I met Hanna at the Rent-a-Dent before going to pick up Jörn and Mayumi. Jörn from Germany decided on Friday afternoon to come with us and we were happy to share the costs with one more person. First we drove to Havelock and walked up a hill to a lookout point from where we had a great view of the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately there were a lot of dark, high cloud and it even looked a bit like rain. Later we went to a place called Te Mahia. Now almost all the clouds had gone, there were only a few leftovers on the horizon. The clear water of the fiord-like “sounds” reflected the whole landscape and it was just wonderful. From there we set off up a hill with our lunch-backpacks. During the ascent we were accompanied by a fantail, a little bird, who entertained us with his sounds and showed off his artistic abilities all the way up and even stayed with us for lunch. Unfortunately I had forgotten to recharge my Camera, and after a couple of pictures from the top of this hill, the battery was empty. Fortunately there had just been enough energy to capture the stunning panorama. Now we intended to go to French Pass, but as we were driving over a winding hill heading to Okiwi Bay, Hanna got terribly carsick and even wanted to walk the rest of the way. But that would have been too dangerous and I didn’t want to let her do that so we just waited some minutes until she felt a little bit better. At Okiwi Bay I realized that it was too much to continue as far as French Pass. After skimming some stones over the sea we all agreed to go back to Nelson, not only because of carsick Hanna but also because it was already half past four and would be getting dark soon. I had expected more but it was a beautiful day all the same. Back home I ate my dinner and because it was my birthday, Jude had even baked a cake for me. With a full belly I sat down in front of my computer, wondering whether I could contact somebody in Switzerland. My mother was already waiting for me and phoned me when she saw that I was online. That was the first phone call for nine weeks and naturally I enjoyed it. After reading all my e-mails I went tired but happy to bed.
Sunday: I started reading 1984 by George Orwell at about ten o’clock in the morning. It was so engrossing that I read it through in one go. I was only interrupted twice. The first time because of lunch and the second time Jude was waiting with popcorn for me and Ashley, when I was only three pages before the end. Finishing the book at about four o’clock I just had time to have a shower and prepare myself for the evening. At half past four Michel, a friend from school, picked me up to go shopping. We only needed some white wine and bread for the Fondue. Back at my home-stay we started to prepare everything for this traditional Swiss meal. Even the appetizer, consisting as it did of a cheese board, bread and white wine was typically Swiss. The cheeses were three different Swiss types, an Italian one and a New Zealand one. At the smell of the Fondue both Michel and I felt as if we were at home and we were even a little bit homesick. The meal smelled exactly like in Switzerland, though it was an imported Swiss product. Only the bread wasn’t the same, but it was a fantastic meal all the same. To stay with the theme of the evening, Jude prepared a bread-based dessert, though I had to give my stomach some minutes to process the fondue before I could eat any more. This was one of the most enjoyable evenings I’ve ever had in New Zealand. If only it hadn’t left me with a sore stomach from overeating!

Eighth week

Monday: I came home early after school today and had a lot of time to do my homework and went over some new vocabulary.
Tuesday: Today I phoned the Emirates Airlines for the second time. They hadn’t heard back yet from Zurich, whether I’m able to change my ticket to a higher class, which would be required to fly back to Switzerland later than I had intended originally. Once again they promised to call me back as soon as they have a reply from Zurich.
Wednesday: Yoga class this afternoon was a bit easier than the week before. This week I didn’t feel terrible afterwards, actually I felt even a little better than before. Arriving at my home-stay I found a parcel from Switzerland waiting for me. Mum had sent it for my birthday and it seems that it had been faster than she expected, though my birthday was ten days away. I sent her an E-mail to ask if I could open it now to store the cheese in the fridge. I had asked her for cheese and I was sure there was some of it inside because of the letter from customs. After tea Ingrid form the church’s youth group picked me up and I joined the party to discuss a section of the Bible. In the car I had a heartfelt discussion with Ingrid about our different beliefs. Not only good practice for my English, but also an interesting exchange of points of views.
Thursday: I went home straight after school, without even going to salsa class. I cooked myself some pasta and was ready to leave for Blenheim at quarter past four. As things turned out, I needn’t have rushed, because Adrian, a friend from the Brass Band, was late. He had to wait for Nathan, another member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force Band. Right, I forgot to tell you: The reason I was heading to Blenheim was the RNZAF-Band rehearsal. If you are a frequent reader of my blog you probably know that I was invited to the Band by Hannah at the brass band competition weekend. Because Adrian was in the Band as well, it wasn’t hard to get there, since he could give me a lift. It was a long way for what was not even two hours of practice all the same. Back home at nine o’clock I still had to do my homework!
Friday: This afternoon I had to be at the Visitors Centre, a five minute walk from school, at three o’clock. Jude was going to pick me up and we went to Ashley’s school, where the midwinter Christmas dinner took place this evening. Jude was kind of organiser of the event and I was helping her together with Ashley prepare for the event. We arranged about 50 chairs for the number of people anticipated and decked the hall with garlands and a Christmas tree. But because it’s a school there were also a lot of pictures of New Zealand and other information for me to look at. During dinner I had several interesting conversations and thanks to the fact that everybody prepared and brought something, an incredible variety of food. I was so full that I had to wait a bit before dessert. Naturally there was the same big choice and I had to try a bit of everything. When we finally came home, I found another letter waiting for me. It was from my godfather Christoph Baur who enclosed a bar of chocolate and all the best wishes for my birthday.
Saturday: In the morning I went to town to take a DVD back to where I had rented it. After that I went exploring the city a bit more. I went to the Saturday Market which is held in a car park and visited the Anglican Church, the town’s landmark. Close to the church I found the Jens Hansen gold and silversmith, where the original “Lord Of The Rings” ring had been made. Now I almost had to hurry to get home, because I was going to a paintball match in the afternoon. Once again Ingrid picked me up and finally there were about 40 people from Nelson, divided into two teams enjoying the fight with colour bullets in the Happy Valley. Unfortunately the games, which were “capture the flag” and “blow up the opponent’s base”, took longer than expected and in the end it was too late to go with my home-stay family to Ralph’s daughter’s place for dinner. So I just had a barbeque with some of the people from church. Home alone, I enjoyed watching a movie and having my peace and quiet.
Sunday: It was the first really bad day in terms of weather since I had arrived in New Zealand. A storm had been blowing all night and the severe rain went on all morning. But that didn’t matter, because I was learning and watching movies and because of the weather I had no reason to do anything else.

Seventh Week

Monday: This week we’re going to have another teacher for the afternoon classes. But our new teacher Helen was not at school today, so Clare took the lessons today. We spoke about alternative medicine and had to choose one subject to talk about in class.
Tuesday: Today I head a presentation about applied kinesiology, the topic I’d chosen yesterday. I liked that and think I could learn a lot by doing a presentation about it.
Wednesday: After this Yoga-Class I was very exhausted. Perhaps it was a bit too much for me, or I just pushed my self too hard. Anyway, I can work on my flexibility, but as Catherine said: I shouldn’t exaggerate but feel better after class!
Thursday: We were playing new pieces again in today’s rehearsal. Amongst others, Joe chose a piece including a lot of different Swiss folk songs. I felt privileged that he chose this composition also because of me.
Friday: James, the owner of the school, told us today, that Diana, who had been working in the English Centre for eleven years, had been fired! This lead to a lot of discussions and speculations in class and at lunchtime Charly, Charles, Michel and I went to James to ask him about the matter. But the only thing he could say was that the relationship between employer and employee is confidential and that all the services provided by the school before will last. Encouraged by Michel, I discussed with my morning-class teacher, Ali, about my situation in class. Although I am in the highest level of normal English classes, I feel I could be a bit more challenged. Ali promised to look for a solution for my problem, and by the way it wasn’t the first time we had talked about that. In the evening I went to Catherine’s house to the second social Salsa dancing, this time organised by the salsa-teacher herself and again with lots of people. A good occasion to talk and have fun with a lot of Kiwis and some other students!
Saturday: At 10 o’clock, the bone carving workshop started. Stephan, originally from Germany, helped us to create our own, personal bone-carving. This was a really interesting thing to do. First we started to draw our ideas for a bone carving and naturally we had help from Stephan and he also gave us a book with the traditional Maori-Carvings and their meanings. After that, Stephan gave us a bone (from the leg of a cow) and we had to draw our idea onto the bone. Stephan lead us step by step trough the creation of a bone carving. After five hours of work, sawing, milling, grinding, sanding and polishing, I finally realised my personal idea of a bone carving. The idea of these pieces of jewellery is, to wear them ourselves and give them away as a present one day. The person getting the present should never forget us, and because we wore them ourselves, we also give them a part of our personality. The whole workshop and environment, together with this traditional background, let me feel like being in a spiritual place. And my bone is not only a machined piece of cow, but a very personal object.
Sunday: This morning I wanted to go biking and exploring the Nelson area, but then I decided to go to church with my host family. It was a very special worship practice, a little boy with cancer in his spine was healed by the community and a guy in the late forties was baptised. After the worship I was talking to a lady who will go on a trip to Europe, She told me, that she will amongst other countries also visit Switzerland. I told Jude in the morning that I wanted to go to Cable Bay, and after the worship, she offered to drive me there. I wasn’t prepared at all, but I spontaneously decided to walk from Cable Bay to the Glen. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me either, so I can’t give you a visual impression of the beautiful landscapes I saw. But I can promise you: It was worth it! Though I had bad shoes for walking. The way was almost never flat, and climbing hills with shoes which have absolutely no profile was a bit hard, and especially the wet meadows were extremely slippery. And near the end I lost my way. That’s why I had to descend a very steep hill with a lot of prickly bushes. But I finally arrived in the Glen after only one hour and fifty minutes, even though the walk is supposed to be three hours (That's what's written on the panel). Now I had to find a way to go back to Nelson. I tried it with hitch-hiking and before I left the little hamlet, a lady stopped and offered to give me a lift. Although she said she was a bit sleepy and wouldn’t talk much, we talked all the way to Nelson and I found out, that she’s originally from Canada and had been an English teacher at Nelson English Centre for a short time a couple of years ago.

Sixth Week

Tuesday: It was pretty hard to come back to class after this long, adventurous weekend, but I did my best to go forward in my learning process. Our teacher this morning was Dillwyn, because Ali was sick. In the afternoon class there were only Charles and me this week. This was a great opportunity, the lessons were pretty intensive.
Wednesday: Instead of Yoga, I went to a self-defence course. I could participate in a workshop for teachers, because there weren’t enough teachers. We were introduced to some techniques to defend ourselves from an attacker and also talked about the right behaviour that you shouldn’t even be attacked. The discussion at the end about the content of the self defence course for students, which will take place in two weeks, was pretty interesting and a great opportunity for me to speak English. One of the instructors was a guy from Switzerland, what a coincidence, so we talked about Swiss and New Zealand Ski fields. Well I’m looking forward to going skiing!
Thursday: Today I indeed went to the Salsa lesson after school, but I didn’t even try to go dancing in the evening, because I expected it to be the same as the last weeks: Nobody from school would be present. And Catherine, our Salsa teacher, announced a social salsa night at her home for the next Friday, so I’ll probably have some practice then.
Friday: This afternoon I heard three Koreans, Kelly, Moogan and Roopie talking about a trip to Golden Bay. As I asked them if I could join them, they agreed and so I decided not to go to the tree planting activity on Saturday, which for I already subscribed. We went to a car hire company to book a car for the weekend and then we agreed that the others would pick me up at about half past nine Saturday morning.
Saturday: The first thing we did on our trip was going to Richmond to the shopping mall to buy all the food we would need at the weekend. Then we went to Marahau in Abel Tasman National Park. We went to the backpackers and could get a four-bed room in the separated hostel-house. After booking a boat-trip to Anchorage Bay, we cooked lunch in the hostel’s kitchen. Well I probably should say the Koreans cooked lunch, because they thought I couldn’t help them cooking Korean-style. So while they cooked, I was using the Internet. I not only checked my email and read some news, but also talked to Michael in the United States over Skype. After that I had to hurry up, to eat something before our excursion started at half past one. What a strange way to start a boat-trip: We were sitting in the boat and our Captain drove the boat with a tractor to the beach. There he put the boat into the water and was driving us through the beautiful landscape to Anchorage Bay. On the way I took a lot of pictures and I hope I can put them online soon. There was a French couple with us in the boat, but they were going further than Anchorage Bay. After taking a lot of pictures at the beach, we started our trek back to Marahau. They told us it would take about three and a half or four hours to get there. The landscape was simply stunning and the beautiful weather did the rest for a perfect trip. Unfortunately Moogan didn’t bring any shoes. He thought he would be Kiwi enough to walk without shoes, but after some hours his feet were sore. But what could he do? Just go on walking and hope to be back soon. But walking went on and on, and it was already getting dark when we saw Marahau across an enormous beach. We decided to cross the low-tide beach to get home faster, and that was a real adventure, because there were a lot of streams of water flowing into the sea and the sand was often wet and plashy. A few hours before, there must have been water. As we arrived at the other side of the beach, we felt a little lost, no one had an idea were to go now. So we decided to ask somebody in a house near the beach. We found out, that we were only a few hundred meters away from the Water Taxi car park. But what can you do if you have never been in a place and it’s almost dark? Back home we were all kind of exhausted. I had to take a breath first and drunk a beer. Fortunately there was nobody else in the house, so we had the place to ourselves. And in the oven, some pieces of wood were burning and heating up all the living room and the kitchen to an pleasant nice and warm temperature. Just the ideal thing after a long walk which turned out to be pretty cold in the end. After a shower I could savour a Korean-style dinner and I really appreciated it that I was served with everything without doing anything. For me very special was that you don’t have your own plate, you share plates with everybody. Also, you have no knife (in Korea it would mean that you would want to kill somebody, if you had a knife at the table). So all the food is prepared in little pieces and you can put them, as well as rice, onto a leave of salad, before you roll and eat it. I enjoyed it that much, that I once again pigged out. Also, the wine we bought was very good and did a great job for the mood. We were all just happy and played Scrabble together. I was completely surprised, how many words we could create. You can see the result on the picture! With the intention to stand up early on Sunday to have a lot of time to explore Golden Bay, we went to bed pretty early.

6. Week

Sunday: Originally we wanted to get up at seven o’clock. But Kelly and Roopie were too tired. While Mogan and me were looking for a good place to admire the sunrise, they were still sleeping. Mogan expected them to have prepared breakfast when we got back home, but they were still in bed. That’s why we finally left Maharau only at twenty past nine. Today I had my first driving experience in New Zealand. I felt confident enough to drive on the left side pretty soon and enjoyed it to drive over the Takaka Hill, which is a little pass. We went to Farewell Spit first, where we looked at the long trace of land with beaches on both sides. Unfortunately the beach we walked along wasn’t very clean and it naturally would have taken too long to walk the whole 24 km of the beach. Kelly and Mogan returned to the car park pretty soon, whilst Roopie and I scrambled on a hill, where we had an even better view. After this, I wanted to see the lighthouse near Cape Farewell. But we only went to the Cape Farewell, the northern most point on the South Island of New Zealand. I wanted to walk to the lighthouse and saw three guys trying to surf in the water, which must have been very cold. After another ten minutes walk, I decided not to go to the lighthouse because it was still too far away and I didn’t want the others to wait. Now I gave the car keys to Mogan who took over the driving. We were looking for a mountain Kelly heard about, from which you can see all the Abel Tasman and Golden Bay region. But after driving ages on a small rumbling dirt track, we still couldn’t find it and decided to drive back to Nelson. I was very anxious when Mogan drove over the Takaka Hill. He seemed to have only a little experience and went to the opposite lane in tight curves for several times. It was really scaring, but how could I tell him, that another person should drive. Well I just hoped that everything will be fine and fortunately there was never a car coming the opposite way at the wrong moment. And while filling up the tank in Motueka, I talked to Roopie that he should drive the last kilometres. Back in Nelson at about seven o’clock I went to the English Centre to watch the Swiss football team playing against the Czech Republik. I could only watch the last forty minutes and unfortunately the Swiss team lost their first game of the European Championship. I had to walk back home and finally got home at about nine o’clock.

MP3's from the contest

Everybody who's interested in the music we played at the entertainment contest, the recording is now online here! Enjoy... I hope the test piece and hymn will be soon online as well!

Fifth Week

Monday: This week we had a different teacher for the morning classes. Because Ali was busy with the German high-school students, Roshaan was teaching us this week. Roshaan is a Kiwi, who was one of five hundred students at university and when she finished studies there were only something more than eighty jobs for teachers in New Zealand, so she went to Australia and worked as an English teacher for foreign students. That’s how she got into the language courses business.
Tuesday: Today five teachers were ill. Adding the two who were busy with the german students, seven teachers weren’t available. That’s why James, who owns the language school, taught our afternoon class, which was the pre- and upper-intermediate class put together. But we had a lot of fun discussing all possibilities, how we could get rid of the fear of flying. (In fact we discussed a number of horrible stories from an American newspaper article and some horrible experience added by James :-))
Wednesday: There were only few people in the Yoga Class. Mayumi said she would come, but she didn't and Catherine already thought about cancelling the class, but finally we just practiced for a shorter time. It was very exhausting again. But in a way I was more relaxed after it. I could just feel all the muscles which I didn’t even know they existed. But funnily enough Mayumi was still at school when I checked my E-mail after class. I went to the English conversation for foreigners with Mayumi, which is organised by a church-community. There were only few people: Mayumi, an elderly guy from Germany, a guy from Arabia, three elderly people from the church and me. After a little conversation I walked my bike home, because it was dark already.
Thursday: Today I brought my Tenor Horn to class and had to play something for my teacher Roshaan. I brought it today because I was going to have a brass tuiton with Liz from the brass band. Unfortunately there were only very few students in the salsa-class and my former dance-partner Mayumi wasn’t there either. That’s why we finished class after only 45 minutes. This was the first Thursday I had no band practice, but instead of that I gave Liz some brass tuition in the band room after school . We were discussing and playing for a bit more than one hour, and Liz dropped me off at home after that. No band practise meant that I could go to the pub early, and I was there at quarter past eight already. But unfortunately there was nobody else from school yet. Some when during the week, Mayumi and me had decided to go dancing on Thursday, but she wasn’t at the Little Rock either. So I played snooker with a guy from Germany, until my colleagues came. After some other snooker games, I always lost and had a headache, I said goodbye to John, who was going back to Taiwan on Friday morning and went on my way back home. The evening had been a little bit frustrating for me and I felt terrible. I was sad and felt alone.
Friday: Before the first school lesson, I talked to my sister in Cambridge over Skype. It was great, even though we had only a couple of minutes to talk together. Today, Roshaan wasn’t at school and somebody else taught us. He seemed to be very serious, but we learned a lot. I could also enjoy myself, especially when we played a game just before lunchtime. In the afternoon I wanted to update my blog and plan my trip and do some other stuff. But then I saw that one of my best friends, Michael, who is in Los Angeles at the moment, was online in Skype and I started to talk to him for about one hour. (Half an hour of it was in English). That made me feel very happy and I didn’t feel alone anymore.
Saturday: This morning I had to do my laundry on my own. But the day started with baking a cake. When I got up at half past eight, I got my recipe from the cupboard and made a chocolate cake. After putting it in the oven, I finally started to put all my sheets from school in a ring folder. Now I vacuumed the first floor of our house to help Ralph cleaning the house. I could now take my cake out of the oven and apart from little burnings at the edges it was perfect. Next activity: Washing my clothes. But it was much easier than I expected. Ralph showed me how to set all the buttons and then I just had to put all my clothes in, start the machine and wait. After putting my clothes out on the clothesline I cycled to the Nelson English Centre, where four girls and me were being picked up for horse riding at Stonehurst Farm. We were out for a two and a half our ride and after a bit more than one hour we picknicked at a little bach up a valley.

5. Week

When I got back home I just had the time to get a shower and put my cake on a plate, prepared to be served. Shortly after six o’clock the first guests arrived for the international dinner party, which Jude and Ralph allocated her house for. Approximately 50 people from Japan, Korea, Philippines, Germany, Ireland and naturally New Zealand came to our house sharing food and talking. I was the only Swiss person at the party. Unfortunately people from school I invited couldn’t come, but there were other students from the Nelson English Centre who heard about the dinner party from elsewhere. But all these people had left by 9 o’clock so I could watch a movie before going to bed.
Sunday: This morning I slept until Ralph woke me up to tell me, that we would leave home at about eleven o’clock to get the boat at his workplace and take it to Havelock. Here we put the boat into the water and waited for Jude, Ashley and Nathan, who is a friend of Ashley, to drive to Wakatahuri (Maori for upturned canoe) where Jude and Ralph own a little holiday house. After this one and a half hour boat trip, on which we even saw a group of dolphins, Jude showed me to my room in the bach. I prepared my bed with heaps of blankets, because the house was neither insulated nor heated. After a short walk to a beach near the house it was already getting dark, so I spent my time playing a card game with Ashley and Nathan. After dinner, Jude and Ralph played as well. Having no electricity apart from two car-batteries powered by sun-collectors on the roof of the bach made the atmosphere very special. We only used as little electricity as possible and went to bed early. During the night I could hear a lot of different animals. Jude had told me there would be penguins and opossums near the house and I would probably be able to hear them during the night. But I could sleep very well, despite a cold, unheated house and animal noises.
Monday: After breakfast I went fishing with Ashley and Nathan. We were just standing on the wharf and after a little while I caught my first fish, a tiny little spotty. Some minutes later I had more luck and caught an about twenty-five centimetre long spotty, which I put into the water-filled bin, still alive. Now, Nathan, Ashley and me walked up the hill, followed by Jade, the dog. As we reached the top of the hill, Jade had disappeared. We were shouting her name several times and finally found out that she went back to the bach. Back home it was time for lunch. With our full stomachs we were trying to go fishing with a little boat, a dingy, but the wind was blowing to hard, so we couldn’t even reach the buoy where we intended to attach the boat while fishing. So we got back to the house and after short we had to prepare our luggage to go back home. This time the boat-trip was rougher, because of the wind, but we reached Havelock savely. Back home I ate KFC fast-food, something like Burger King or Mc Donalds, for the first time. Now I had time to write my diary and watch TV at the same time. Hmm, but why wasn’t I at school today? Well I just forgot to tell you, that New Zealand is celebrating the Queens Birthday today, which is a national holiday.