Skiing, New Friends And Fun – My Winter in New Zealand

Hey folks!

After living and working in Murchison for eight weeks, I still had a bit more than three weeks left to see what this amazing country looks like in winter. I mean, it had been cold in Murchison from time to time but that region is certainly not the coldest one all over New Zealand. What I was going to see was the South, especially Otago. My trip didn't start really well though. First of all, the Stray bus I wanted to take was fully booked – if you have already been to a place, you need to hope there are free seats left – so I had to go by Intercity. My first stop on the way were the Pancake Rocks that I had already been to in December. It was really nice to get to see them again, especially since the weather was pretty good. After that, I had the chance to see a bit of Hokitika before moving to Fox Glacier where I was going to spend the following two nights. Unfortunately, the weather was so rainy that I didn't get to do that much. I went to Lake Matheson but there were no reflections at all. Never mind, you can't influence the weather. From Fox, I took another bus to get to Queenstown. There is no place all over the country that I have been to that often. It's like the central point of the South Island. I was actually surprised that there was no snow anywhere near the town and the temperatures were around 10 degrees. On my first day, I went to a fun center for some go-karting and lazer tag and I enjoyed it. With go-karting, I was around one second slower than the track record after 7 minutes of driving, and lazertag was fun as well although we were only three people.

The next two days, I finally got to see what makes winter special – snow. There are several ski fields in Otago and the first one I went to was called The Remarkables. It's a nice ski field but unfortunately, the weather was far from being good. It was allright in the beginning, but then the fog increased and it was impossible for me to do any black slopes due to the insufficient sight. So I had to stick to the blue ones which was certainly a pity. I also tried to improve my jumping skills (didn't jump longer than 5 meters though) which was, let's say, semi successful. It was still enjoyable though. However, the second day was so much better. This time, I went up to Cardrona which is a huge ski field with tracks of all difficulties. It was a perfectly clear day and the tracks were in a brilliant condition. I jumped on my skies around 10 and I didn't take them off for the next six hours. I was basically riding all the time, and I think I didn't go down the same track more than twice. And the views you get up there are just magnificent. In the evening, I met some other Germans, Nils, Linnea and Benedikt for some games. We wanted to go out after that, but unfortunately Linnea had forgotten her password so she went home with Nils whereas Benedikt and I went to the club alone. A security member asked me to leave after a short time though as I appeared to be too drunk to him – I had had exactly two beers by then and I felt perfectly sober. No idea what was going on in his head. Never mind though, I just went to another club and I was fine with that. One day later, I went to the car rental company Jucy to pick up my car for the next few days. The good thing about renting the car from Jucy was that as part of a deal, I got the ski pass at Treble Cone, another big ski field close to Wanaka, for free.

So after everything was sorted out, I jumped into my car and drove to Wanaka. On the way, I stopped in Arrowtown which is a small town close to Queenstown and had a look around that place. It was very cloudy but still a nice walk with some good views. On the way to Wanaka, I passed Cardrona again, and it was really hard to drive there as the road was covered with snow. I made it without major problems though and after renting my skiing equipment, I went on a trip to Lake Hawea. The weather was still not good but good enough for some nice pictures. From the next day on, I was super lucky with the weather though. And I was super lucky to be able to ski for three days. On my very first day, I went down a black slope, actually quite slowly, when I lost control over one of my skies. I got stuck with my left leg, my ski didn't immediately release from my boot which led to my knee being twisted – and it really hurt. I manged to get down to the restaurant to take a break, and then another really annoying thing happened: I lost my goggles. I had left my helmet behind for like two minutes but my goggles weren't there anymore. Luckily I had paid for an insurance with the rental shop so I didn't have to pay anything. Without goggles, skiing is really hard though so I had to use my sun glasses for the rest of the day. My knee wasn't feeling that bad after a few minutes so I took the risk and went on skiing for the rest of the day. After driving to my hostel though, it really started hurting. I could barely walk. Luckily, they had an ice pack at the hostel, so I just put it onto my knee and lay down on the couch, watching the Lord of the Rings with some other guests of the hostel. I was lying there for some 5 hours, but the pain didn't really decrease, so when I went to bed, I was deeply worried. If my injury had been a rupture, that would have set an end to my trip immediately. I would have had to go home for surgery, and I wouldn't have been able to do any sports for months. However, when I got up, I was actually surprised how good my knee felt. Of course, it still hurt a little bit, but that was allright. I had just pulled my ligaments. So I put on my skiing gear and went to Treble Cone again. The next two days were just amazing. The slopes were perfectly prepared, I got to ski for hours and hours while enjoying one of the best views all over Otago. What a great time! There was a very strange incident after I had returned my equipment though. When I was walking along the street, a woman suddenly approached me – without seeing my car - and said: “Excuse me, did you just come back from Treble Cone?” When I confirmed that, she said: “I kept my distance, that was awful driving! I was even thinking about calling the cops! Were you drunk or what?” I have no idea why she was so sure that I had been driving the car ahead of her – there had been loads of cars going from the ski field to Wanaka at that time. I guess she had just mistaken me, especially because I had not been in a single dangerous situation on the entire way back. On my second evening, I also got to see an old friend from China. Jason had been my very first couch surfer in Germany back in 2015, and now, we had our reunion in New Zealand. We met on a viewpoint and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant afterwards. The next evening which was my last one in Wanaka, I got to meet a bunch of super nice people. Most of them were traveling together after they had randomly met at different places. The group consisted of Alistair (Scotland), Joan (Spain), Emma (England) and Mona (Germany). I can definitely say that they were one of my favourite groups since I started my trip a bit more than a year ago. I also met Diane who is currently the second best French U23 heptathlete and number 14 among the U23 of entire Europe. So maybe – hopefully – she will be world-famous some day! On our last evening, we went out quite late “for one last drink”...well, that was the plan. We didn't stick to it though. Surprise, surprise. To quickly summarize the evening, we started at an Irish pub, had some shots along with Guinness and went to two more pubs afterwards. I was teaching Emma a German sentence which didn't make any sense, and in the end, we nearly fell asleep on the couch of the living room of our hostel. Any questions left?

At least I was sober enough to drive the car back to Queenstown one day later. During the following days, I simply had a great time in the adventure capital of the South Island. My new friends arrived there one day after me, and we were joined by some others almost every day, such as Dave from England or the Australians Annabel, Chase, Pat and Andrew. I stayed with my new friends most of the time and we had heaps of fun together. During daytime, we usually did some activities together, and in the evenings, we went for dinner – of course, we all had a Fergburger one night – and drinks/parties. One of the highlights was certainly the hike up to Ben Lomond. I had already been at the summit and enjoyed the breathtaking view you're rewarded with if you make it to the very top of the mountain, but this time, it was totally different as a huge part of the trail and the surrounding mountains were covered with snow. These conditions were actually quite a challenge for me since I hadn't taken hiking boots to New Zealand and had to do the hike with normal running shoes. My shoes survived it though, and so did my knee which actually didn't even slightly hurt. It was exhausting to walk through the snow for let's say 2.5 out of 6.5 hours in total but the view was more than worth the effort. I went up there with Emma and Mona and the day was just superb. The sun was shining, we had stunning views and my company was more than enjoyable. Things couldn't have been any better.

And it was most definitely the right decision to do the hike again since everything looked so different in winter. Getting down was a bit difficult since the trail was quite slippery but Mona came up with a very efficient solution. She just slid down the way, and Emma and I adapted her technique. That was so so much fun even though I nearly fell down twice. The next day, I went up to the skyline with Diane and Emma to go for some luge rides. I had already done that activity but I think I could do it ten times without getting bored. I just love it. All the three of us are pretty ambitious when it comes to competitions, so we had six great races with some spectacular fights. That was super cool, and everyone won at least once, so everyone was happy in the end. Later in the afternoon, Joan had to say goodbye to the rest of the group since he was going home. Emma, Mona and Alistair left one day later, so I went to play some frisbee golf with Diane in the Queenstown gardens. We played two games and won one each. I won the second one which made her feel quite angry. She absolutely hates losing – a typical character trait of professional athletes, I guess. I mean, I also hate it, but not to such an extent. Anyway, Diane also left the next day so I was more or less on my own.

In the evening, I went to a trivia night and got to see Andrew again. We spontaneously joined Chloe and Danielle, two American girls, and did the quiz with them. They were really fun to play with although there were many questions none of us had the slightest clue of. But despite those lacks of knowledge, we even won! Well, not the price for the best team but the price for the second last team, but none of that matters. We won! And it was a good price. A huge glass of beer for Andrew and me and quite a lot of wine for the girls – not too bad! I had some nice days after that. I went jet boating on Lake Wakatipu and the shotover river, played another game of frisbee golf with my roommates Emily and Tom from Australia, and went up to Queenstown hill. When I had reached the summit, I met Charlotte from England and had a nice chat with her and Paolo from France on the way back. On the same day, Mona, Emma and Alistair came back from their trip to Milford Sound. They were staying in Queenstown for one more night and we managed to stay at the same hostel which was a really good one with a free hot tub, free soup in the evening and a small kitchen either right next to or inside every dorm. That evening, we went to a salsa festival because Mona is an experienced dancer. We didn't spend too much time there though and made our way to a club quite soon. At that club, we all did some rodeo riding on a bull which was enough to make my knee hurt again. That was so strange. My knee had been perfectly allright during all my hikes and now, sitting on a bull for half a minute was enough to cause me pain. But otherwise, I really enjoyed the evening. After having breakfast together the next morning, I had to say goodbye to Mona and Alistair which made me feel quite sad since I really like them. On one of the remaining days in Queenstown, I met with Charlotte again to play some frisbee golf before we spent the afternoon sitting at the beach while listening to the street musicians and enjoying the beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu. In the evening, I went to a pub which was more than full with people since there was a rugby game between New Zealand and Australia in Dunedin. It was an incredibly tight and exciting game but in the end, the All Blacks won – business as usual. I also got to see an area that I hadn't had a look at so far: the region around Glenorchy. That was when I joined a Lord of the Rings tour. I saw some beautiful landscape and even got the chance to put on a grey coat and grab a sword to act like I was fighting some orcs. That was a lot of fun. And then, there was the first day of the New Zealand Winter Games, an international tournament with competitions in Olympic sports such as downhill, freestyle and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and curling. I went to Coronet Peak, the fourth big ski field in the area in the late afternoon to watch the parallel night slalom which was the first competition of the games. Unfortunately, there weren't too many world-class athletes but at least some. Names like Resi Stiegler, Andre Myhrer, Mattias Hargin, Dave Chodounsky or Linus Strasser should sound familiar to everyone who is interested in downhill skiing. There weren't too many spectators – I'd say a few hundreds – and unfortunately, neither Linus Strasser nor any Kiwi skier made it to the finals, but it was a really nice event. In the end, Andre Myhrer and a Czech woman whose name I had never heard before beat all their rivals and won the title. After that, there was the opening ceremony including for instance a traditional song and a haka performed by some school kids from Arrowtown who did a brilliant job, an opening speech by prime minister Bill English and, last but not least, an amazing firework in the end. On my last evening, I once again went out to some clubs – I had done so at least every second day during my time in Queenstown – which was a nice ending to my stay in this relatively small but incredibly vivid town.

After a short night, it was time to say goodbye to Queenstown as I had to hop on a Stray bus which took me and the rest of the group to Mt Cook. It was my fourth stay at this place in total but my first stay in winter. In a group of eight, we went to Hooker Lake and once again, I got to see the highest mountain of New Zealand with the glacier lake in the foreground. Compared to my last stay at Mt Cook, the lake had remarkably changed though. Back in summer, exactly two icebergs had been reaching out of the water, and six months later, there were so many that I didn't even try to count them. The weather was fine, so we got some good photo opportunities and I really enjoyed doing the walk for the third time. Later on, I played some card games with Elisa (GER), Lena (AUT), Pedro (BRA), Julie (DEN), Laura (GBR) and Jill (USA) before we all went to bed. The next day, I got to see Lakes Pukaki and Tekapo for one last time before we headed to Christchurch, the place of my departure from New Zealand. I still had two days left though, and I made use of them to see some new spots in this generally boring city. First of all though, I met with Emma, Dave and three French guys a few hours after my arrival to play some card games. We had a good and fun time together but I was also sad in the end since I had to say goodbye to Emma whose flight back to England was scheduled for the next day. On my last full day, I went to the beach and took a longer walk along the sea before doing my very last activity in New Zealand the next morning. I went to the so called Adrenalin Forest which is a tree trek course in the middle of a forest next to the city. It features numerous ziplines and various obstacles of all difficulties. Making may way through the forest up to around 25 meters above the ground was definitely not always easy but a lot of fun, and I completed five out of six courses. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to do the last one.

After leaving the forest, I went to the hostel, picked up my luggage and made my way to the airport. I checked in my luggage there and was just about to make my way to the plane to Sydney. It seemed like a calm and unspectacular farewell from New Zealand without any worries when I suddenly got one of the biggest shocks of my life – my credit card was gone! If you would like to know how that major problem was eventually solved, just read my next post in which I will be telling you about my second stay in Sydney which was absolutely amazing for various reasons! Until then, take care and have a good time!

Cheers,

Max