Category Archives: New Zealand 2008

Thursday September 4th…you’ve nearly made it…congrats!

On Thursday, Tina and I decided to take a ski lesson cause we both don’t know how to ski. It was a lot of fun. *gg* Actually, we weren’t too bad. I didn’t fall down and Tina only tried to go up the mountain once. *gg*
We met Kate on the mountain who was snowboarding. It was her third time on a snowboard so she was a lot better than us. =P She talked us into going up on tug lift…telling us that it took her 8 times before she didn’t fall off anymore. It wasn’t too bad either…I didn’t fall off. And we also managed the chair lifts without embarrassing falling down. =P
After the two hours lesson by a blonde German girl we stayed another two hours getting down the idiot’s hill (it’s the translation of the German word…we’re not very nice to people who can’t ski) by ourselves. Afterwards, my calves hurt. *lol* I can’t walk for shit in those boots.

We made our way to Turangi to an internet cafe so I could download the pictures for my uni crap that I finally got.
After an hour, we left there, going up the mountain on the other side this time to watch the sunset. We were slightly late but it was nice anyway. Tina had spotted a waterfall on the way up so we wanted to stop there on the way back. Which we did. Unfortunately, it was dark by now and neither of us had a torch. =P Was quite an experience…

Back home we washed all our stuff which took ages…in the meantime we talked and laughed a lot, being incredibly silly. When it was time to get the now dry laundry, I stepped on Tina’s laces from her boots and she nearly fell up the stairs. For some reason (because we already were really silly) we both had a laughing fit right there on the stairs. =P My stomach hurt afterwards…
Another fun part was that we had just put in all our washing and now discovered that we had put in the same stuff. Meaning from the same brand in the same size…another laughing fit while trying to find out which was which…we finally decided according to holes in it. =P
pics…

Wednesday September 3rd

Day off

Tina was working the whole of today. She started at 7.30am and finished at 9pm. That left me on my own for the day, basically. I started with staying in bed till almost noon…wasn’t sleeping anymore but just knowing that you can stay in bed all day if you’d want to is fun sometimes. Especially when you’re a nomad. 😉

Got up and talked to Kate. I like Kate, she’s good fun. It was her day off for real, she didn’t have to work, but she hadn’t planned anything to do and was kinda restless. But she decided to go to National park and I tagged along. That way I could send my postcards AND buy chocolate. =) I’m happy again…
It’s funny…I’m not even here for a week and it feels like ages already. Can’t believe I’ll go on Friday. =S
Kate and I also went for a drink in the station of National park.
Back in the lodge, I watched a movie, read some, listened to music and at about 6pm I went over to hang out with Kate and Tina. We talked crap, watched some tv and did crosswords and stuff. Plus we had too much food and too much chocolate. Actually, I had chocolate mud cake and ice cream for dessert…it cheered me up a lot but…it’s also quite unhealthy.
Though that way I got to know two very wise sentences from Tina; quotes she heard some time else in life:
„Everything in life that you like either has too many calories, is illegal or immoral.“
„It’s okay to stare at good looking guys. They stare at us, too. And different to us, they are not polite and just stare at faces. ;)“
*LOL*

One of the sons of the owners is here now with his family which means that three small kids are running around. The only girl, Hayley, is very clingy once you talked to her. She shocked me by asking if I am a mum. O.O And then Tina shocked me by saying I’m old enough to actually be her mum. O.o

My English is getting worse…a lot. Speaking German with Tina is not helping. But Kate and a guest from the UK both asked me if I’d been to/am from the US cause I sound American. =D

Tuesday September 2nd

Mixed day
Tina had to start work today at 3pm. So we had a bit of a sleep in and left at 10am for the mountain again. Plan was to hire sledges and go down some hills. *gg* And we did! I haven’t done that for about 15 years now. Much much fun!!! Neither of us knew how to steer it so we just learnt by try and error. *gg* I had a lot of error in it. =P I managed to go against the wall about 5 times in a row. =P Everytime it would push me out of the sledge so I was sitting in the snow, laughing my ass off. At least I was sitting on my ass all the time…Tina managed to stop laying on her belly, snow in her face. =P
After that we got a lot better. We still would not go down in straight line but more in a zigzag as if drunk but we didn’t fall out anymore. =D One of the older people who were there with grandchildren said „oh watch out, the big kids are having a go now“ when Tina and I got up the hill again. And that’s how I felt like…just a big kid. =P (We just forget about the fact that Tina and I are both closer to 30 than to 20, okay? At least she will hit it two years before me. =P)
The weather was kinda patchy, cloudy indeed with some sun every now and then. So we forgot to put on sunscreen. Big mistake for me. =S My face is burning…
We got back, being soaked with melted snow. And quite sweaty. =P So I hopped under the shower…or intended to. It didn’t work. Quite unpleasant really. But they fixed it so it’s all good. The next thing…my boots are soaked. They’re the only shoes that I brought. *lol* I hope they’ll be dry again tomorrow as I run around in Tina’s jandels right now…being rather cold but feeling like a real kiwi. =P
Afternoon was nice and relaxed for me. Wrote postcards, caught up on my diary, read more in my book, listened to music. But I missed two things: chocolate and the internet. =S My two admitted addiction. It’s really hard to go without them…=S So I try not to concentrate on not having them at the moment. Which doesn’t seem to work but that doesn’t stop me from trying.P.S.: Tina is teh awesomeness. She organized some chocolate for me, got dial-up internet for use and gave me a panorama poster of the three mountains in national park. =) *hugs for Tina*

pics

Winter swim

I made it!!!! =D
I said I won’t leave NZ without being in the ocean once and that’s what I did today. =)
It’s been a really lovely day so I had passionfruit and chocolate ice cream. I managed to drip chocolate ice cream onto my jeans…anyway, while eating it I realized that it’s really really warm and thus probably one of my last chances to jump into the sea without it being some crazy night swim. I went home, packed my stuff and got to Oriental Bay. I swear every single Wellingtonian was at the waterfront today. So lots of witnesses for my swim. No pictures as proof though as Aaron chickened out. =P
Okay, that’s not entirely fair…he was roleplaying the whole day and it’s not like we made a date outta it. It was quite spontanious.
So yeah…I was sitting on the beach considering if or if not…when he convinced me via txt with “Go for it. It’s gonna be a lot colder at night time.”
It was strange to be the only one who went for a swim. *gg* People look at you as if you’re slightly nuts.
And it was quite cool in just a bathing suit. But then I went in just to say I did it. It was mind-numbing cold. O.o I think I probably managed to stay in for a minute. Which equalled about five strokes out and five strokes in towards the beach again. =P What worried me a bit was that I didn’t feel the cold anymore after this minute. I mean, that’s how swimming in NZ works in summer…you just have to wait for the point when you don’t feel the cold anymore…but in winter it might not be as healthy. So I went out.

But yay, I made it!!!!! =D

Hot pools = teh awesomeness

Last Monday (1.9.)
Tina had to work this morning so I had time to finish my uni crap that was due till today. Success is mine!!! =D Very sweet feeling to be rid of it. =) It still took me till noon…-.-
The sucky part though…people in Frankfurt actually let me down despite promising to help. =S I sent a reminding email now…but the deadline is done and over with. =S I also sent an explaining email to my prof but I don’t think that will help anything…=S German efficiency also means that excuses, no matter how good and sensible, don’t work. All that matters is that I didn’t hand in my share of work in time. =S
An extension is highly unlikely as it’s the 1st of September already and we’ll fly out to Copenhagen on the 15th. The whole damn thing has to be printed and bind as a reader till then. So yeah…I have to prepare myself to be told off for something that I didn’t screw up. Guess I am responsible though…can’t rely on other people. In German we say „Verlass dich auf andere und du bist verlassen“. =S
Day got better after I got over the fact that things will blow up in my face. Tina and I made it to Turangi to an internet cafe and I could actually be in the internet for an hour. =D It’s real hard to be without internet if you’re a cyborg like me.
I also got to buy chocolate in New world. =) Then we made it to the hot pools in Tukaanu. =D
Hot pools are my new love. Especially when you have sore muscles and are longing for a good massage. We got a private pool to ourselves for 20min and hopped into the public pool afterwards. =D So good….I felt all soft and fluffy…and the best part was to stand in hot water while it was getting dark around us, soft rain and we spotted the first stars. =D
I still wanted a massage pretty badly but Tina refused to give me one. =P Fair enough…she’s would have made me scream anyway. I hurt and bruise if you only look at me hard enough and Tina was talking about some „real massage that you can actually feel…and not two fingers poking you here and there“. So we dismissed that again. Since all our muscles were so relaxed, we could only walk quite slowly and I’m afraid I don’t walk like a penguin any longer. =P
Had dinner in an Italian restaurant which was okay…not really good but way better than lodge food. =P To celebrate we had ice cream on a stick from a petrol station. We’re classy…=P Anyway, laughed a lot and had a good time so it’s all good. =)
On a different note…we now entered my birthday month and the month of me flying back to Germany. *insert happy and sad face here…at once* =S

pics

Sorry for the invasion of posts right now…

I’ve added a couple of Tina’s pics to the Mt Ruapehu hike post. =)

Sunday:
Today, Tina had to work. That’s why poor her had to get up at 7.30…somehow I was up around that time, too, but being a slacker I stayed in bed. =P Around 9ish, I made it out of there, had breakfast all by myself and then helped Tina, Kate and Omega cleaning some rooms. I do have sore muscles but apart from having a sunburnt neck, the blister on my right foot is the worst. O.o Actually, it not even a real blister…I just lost some skin on my heel due to it being wet for hours while rubbing against the back of the shoe. So it’s bigger than a normal blister but only on the surface. I put a band aid on and that was okay.
After the vacuum cleaning of rooms, I decided I should read and write stuff for uni. Which I did. I managed to get a lot of it done and will most definitely be able to send my handout tomorrow. The part that’s worring me is the pictures. =S I still don’t have them and now it’s way too late to try and scan them myself. The girl who said she’ll be in the library in Frankfurt on Friday and she will do it hasn’t emailed me. And I think she’s forgotten. =( So I’m basically screwed…Will check tomorrow the whole day but I don’t have much hope. =( She would have sent it by now if she had them.

Tina was done with cleaning by 3.30pm. Since she was cold last night, we moved our headquarters from a cabin to a room up in the lodge. Advantage of a room up there is an electric blanket. =) First time for me…
After moving we got in the car, drove to the visitor’s center to watch a cheesy short film about volcanoes (save your money, folks, if you ever get here) and then went for a walk. Since the best cure for sore muscles is to do the same again, we thought walking would be good for us. So we picked two walks…each with the grand total of 20min return. =P *lol* And by 20min they meant if you try to crawl up there cause it took Tina and me about 5min to get down to the waterfall or up to the lookout point. Anyway, I probably have more pictures of these mountains now than is good for me but I still don’t count as picture whore cause there’s only one person who deserves that name and she probably would have taken more than 60 pictures of a day of doing nothing. =P

piccies

Sorry for my lack of talking, posting, being sociable, whatever lately. I might have procrastinated a tiny bit too long and have to force myself to a tight schedule so I’ll be done with everything in time. And I’m not even good with sticking to it. =S

Okay, what did I do besides working for uni/procrastinating/having my mind on a certain issue? Hm…well, I played D&D on Tuesday. It was great! Mat tried to kill me again. =D One round longer of being unconsciously on the floor and his evil cleric would have touched me with…whatever…killing a dying creature and getting power from it. O.o Whoa! At least one character survived a bit longer. =P
For some reason Horst had even more crap on his mind than normally so I had to tickle him a lot more than usually. He found something dodgy in everything I said. O.o *sigh* *lol* Sometimes another language is hard…you’re dodgy without intension and without even noticing…

Today, I had a lot of plans. Get up early, read a lot, write a lot, get things done. I succeeded only marginaly. First, it took me an hour longer in the internet cafe than I had calculated for it. O.o WHY do I get 22 mails on the day I don’t really have time for that??? O.o
So I went to have lunch and then up to uni…that was the plan. The moment I left the food court on Willis, a very excited Becky called me.
See, I also have to organize stuff. My train leaves on friday morning at some time stupid like 7am. Becky said it’s cool to store my suitcase and some other stuff at her place for the week. Plan was to get it to her place tomorrow morning at 10am.
Well…she called. She is evacuated from her house. O.O There was a landslide, a big one, a tree crashed into her window as well…and the city councel told them they are not allowed back in. Problem…Becky was at home when it happened…and slightly traumatized in my opinion. So I met up with her. (Breach of “only working” plan no. 1) Okay, she calmed down, she laughed, she was okay.
We went up to uni and I went to work at about 3pm.
Tina called. Twice. So I talked to Tina…more organizing. Apparently, Tina and I will climb Mt Ruapehu on Saturday. She was very excited about it…”we’ll have a guide and we’ll get those spiky shoes for climbing on the ice and…” – “Tina, how long will this take?” – ” The whole day, about 6 or 7 hours.”  – “Tina, are you aware of the fact that I didn’t bring my tramping boots?” – ” Oh, could be a problem. I’ll ask if someone can lend you theirs.”
O.o
Alright…looks like I’ll spent a day climbing. I’m so outta shape, I’ll be dead afterwards. *LOL* But Tina told me she has to work on Sunday anyway so I can snooze and slack around. =P I just think it’s great she’s so enthusiastic about doing stuff when I’m up there. =)

Back to work with me. At about 4pm, Aaron started to txt me. We somehow decided yesterday that we’ll hang out today. Very indirectly…I could just infer it from one of his statements. =P Something about me hitting him tomorrow. O.o Whatever…(but breach of “only working” plan no.2 … big one as well)
I fucked around with reading my books till almost 5pm and then stopped. There was not much point with me txting Aaron every 10 mins or so. *lol* Went back to Nomad’s, had some TimTam slams and then met Aaron. He kept laughing at me for almost the whole evening…and the worst one, I didn’t even understand why. O.o That’s a way to make me feel stupid, just randomly crack up laughing and keep me wondering what the hell is wrong. O.o =P Oh well, I decided to speak German for a while because that way I’m at least sure about what I say. =P
But yeah, good evening. =) Watched Sweeney Todd which is very disgusting with all the blood (I crinched a lot) and then Music and lyrics which made me laugh a lot as well. And get my hair into pig tails. =P But I had cats to pat, pizza, hot chocolate, chocolate and marshmallows. So I wasn’t joking when I said I’m gonna roll out of his place…feel really quite….chubby right now. =P

And now back to my laundry with me again. =)
So on Friday, I will stop being a Nomad’s nomad and become a real nomad again for a week.