Last updated on Dezember 11, 2022
5th of November until 11th of December 2022
Approximate reading time: 12 minutes
Behind the scenes
You open up your Facebook or Instagram app and all you see is happy people. Adventures. Journeys. Smiling faces, nature everywhere and it seems like the whole world is a fantastic place. Is having a unique and perfect time. While you are working hard to pay your bills, to fill your fridge with good quality groceries and to save money for your own adventures. And even if you know that all of these happy people all around this perfect social media also struggle (because it must be like that and it is like that in fact), you just see what you don’t have and what others have. And this is a real pain – because you compare in a false way.
But who is honest and brave enough to post also their problems, their mistakes, their struggle with a certain problem or situation? Who adds a story about daily life problems, about handling life with children, job, partner and family and trying tro not freak out?
Almost nobody.
Because we want to share only the good, the nice, the perfect.
We want to show that we are able to handle things alone. That we are self-confident and strong. Brave. Sporty. Caring for others. Working hard.
And to be honest, I do the same.
I post pictures and videos about the amazing nature of New Zealand. About driving a Kayak at Lake Wanaka, which just looks like a mirror and you can see the clouds and the blue sky in it. About having a halfmarathon run after a long day of work. About a good, a unique and a adventurous time. About flying helicopter, having unique tours with customers and about smiling every single second.
But there is (and all of you should know) another side of the medal (as we in Germay say because we love metaphorically speaking). A side of struggle, of doubt and fear. Of feeling weak and not able to handle living abroad. A side of feeling alone and helpless.
A side of missing a lot of people, thinking about the reason (or one of a lot of reasons) why I came to New Zealand. And also a side about crying. Of course. Because everybody has a weak side. A vulnerable side.
And being strong and brave is not about hiding this side and building walls around it, so nobody is able to see it (or even think about there could be a side like that).
Being strong and brave is about take care about yourself, knowing your weaknesses and strenghts, finding a good balance between external care and internal care. And it is also about showing that you struggle, that you feeling weak from time to time and that you sometimes need help. And to ask for it. (of course don’t whine 24/7 for weeks, otherwise it can be annoying 🙂 ) And don’t assume that all people around you don’t struggle, don’t feel weak or helpless. Everybody feels this way from time to time. But hardly anyone shows it 😉 And most of us just think way too much about what others might think or not think about us. Stop wasting energy with shit like that – if you want to know what others think about you, there is one way to find out. Ask! Otherwise stop assuming what others might think about you and keep going. Keep moving. Keep being interested. Being crazy. Being a dreamer.
So here we are – life is not only perfect, bright and full of adventures. It is full of surprising moments, challenges, experiences and options to learn and improve yourself. And even if you are far, far, faaaaaaar away, you’ll have your struggles. Challenges. Doubts.
And emotions will find you everywhere, there is no way to hide. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Canyoning – more than fun and action
Jump. Slide. Abseil (or rappel, whatever). Get wet. Being remote. In unique nature. And having the time of your life! With confident and experienced guides. Step out of your comfort zone and step it up to the next level!
Sounds good?
Sounds like a nice trip?
Sounds like fun?
It is, definitly. No doubt! For you as a customer or a friend joining a canyoning tour, it might be one of the best adventures of your life. A unique one. Memorable.
And for me as a guide it is the same most of the time. To be a canyoning guide is an amazing job.
But being a canyoning guide is more than a job, it is an adventure every single day. A challenge. It is responsibility for lifes (the customers life and your own life as well). It is demanding from time to time (using different rope techniques for different spots, depending on water level and the experience of the customers). You have to take care about a group of customers with different experiences, abilities and expectations. And you have to be open-minded, chatty, friendly, patient, motivating, demanding (but also not too much), explaining (and you have to explain a lot, repeating and repeating, like a vinyl record). You have to make decisions, sometimes within seconds. You sometimes have to decide whether you are going on a tour or not (e.g. the water level in the canyon is already critical).
But all of this, all the background, all the necessary knowledge, all the things that are in the mind of a guide are not shown to the outside. Not shown to the customers. You don’t show that whenever a customer jumps or slides, that you pray they jump far enough, bend their knees, don’t get over the next section and get out of the water in a safe way. Because we want them to have a good time, to have fun, to enjoy canyoning, to step out of their comfort zone and of course to come back again and have another tour with us. Let me give you an insight into our work.
A „good day“ working as a canyoning guide
Getting up at 6.30 am. With a lot of energy, weather outside is great. Sunny. Blue Sky. You drive to the base. To get the gear ready. Everything is in order, everything is dry. You have a list ready, all the customers names on it, wetsuite sizes, shoe sizes. Gear ready in ten minutes. Car is fueled. Weather forecast is perfect. You pack the lunch stuff in the car and you are ready to go. Picking up the clients at the meeting point at 9 am. They look excited, fit and know what canyoning really is (because they’ve informed themselves already). You get some coffee before departure and go. While driving to the canyon, you have a nice talk with the customers already, about their adventures in New Zealand, about the tour, the day and what will gonna happen. You arrive at the canyon, get the gear out of the car, everything fits perfectly for every client. The hike up to the entrance is easy going and fast. While the abseil training all customers doing a good job. Go for canyoning.
They follow your instructions, acting confident and with a lot of fun. Do the jumps and slides as they have been instructed and they look for each other, working as a real team. No long waiting times, no one is freezing or scared about any section. The day is running, the tour itself does not feel like work, more like a funtrip with friends. The picures you make from time to time are amazing, sun is shining into the canyon. And the tour is over quite fast. Lunchtime, again some small talk and a nice coffee with the customers. Back in town, drop-off of the customers, some tipps as well and smiling faces. Back in base, get the gear cleaned, everything in order. Day is finished by 3-4 pm. Go for a nice beer at Kai Whaka Pai. Sounds like fun though? It is, indeed!
A „bad day“ working as a canyoning guide
You wake up at 6.30 am. You feel wasted and tired, because you’ve been working since 7 days without a day off. You rush to base to get the gear ready. Most of sthe stuff is still wet from the last days, it is raining outside, it will be like that the whole day. Yo get the stuff ready and you recognize you have to do a lot of groceries for lunch since the most is missing. The car you drive today needs a refill before you pick up the customers since your collegue forgot it yesterday. You pick up the clients a little late, they look a little tired and not that excited. After a short talk and risk disclosure information you become aware of that two of your four clients are not able to swim and don’t know anything about canyoning. They’ve just booked without knowing whats gonna happen today. While driving to the canyon, it is quite silent in the car, customers are not really talkative today. Checking the water level at the canyon, still okay but a little higher (and customers are not really up to this water level, but you want to have them a good and exciting day). Getting the gear ready, wetsuits are to big or too small, customers are really slow while getting changed, you need to explain even how to tie the laces…
Hiking up the path to the entrance of the canyon, the customers need at least 5 breaks because they are not fit at all, breathing heavily and you notice that they have a really bad balance. They almost slip away every ten meters.
While the safety talk customers already look a litte scared, they realize what is gonna happen. The first rappel take you at least 15 minutes as they are slow, unsure, without any balance and walking like turtles. In the water they feel quite uncomfortable, they try to hold on everything they can find. One customer decides to just be stubborn on the second abseil section, don’t moving at all anymore, even if it is 10 meters more to rappel. You use your backup rope to belay this one and you have to sream so he is able to understand you. One customer is freezing like hell, you decide to take this one out of the canyon (on an escape section). While heading back into the canyon, you slit your hand on a really sharp bush, gosh what a day…
The rest of the tour the same, customers creeping the canyon, every step takes minutes, you decide to belay all of them from now on. One customer cuts his hands while the last rappel as his hand is in between the sharp rock and the rope. First aid kit out of the bag, a little wound management. Out of the canyon, walking down to the car. An you realize that the camera is not working properly anymore, the card is dead, all of the pictures are gone. You are just faciliated that nothing severe happend during the tour. While getting changed, people just throw their stuff at the ground, even after you asked them to have it in order. Nevermind, you prepare the lunch and get the gear ready. Having lunch at the bench, it starts to rain again heavily, perfect. Driving back to drop off the clients, again no talking in the car. No tipps, no happy faces, just a shitty day. And you are just happy that all of them are back. Back in the base, still raining. Gear out of the car, it is almost 6pm. And you have a tour the next day. And you look at the customer information: „2 non-swimmers“. Happy day. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?
Friends, fun and run
The last week has been quite calm, as it was raining most of the days. One day Piers and me decided to go to Lake Wanaka with our Kayaks and move to Albert Town along the Clutha River. It was quite windy that day and while we went out to the lake, the waves were shaking quite hard on our kayaks. Sometimes I was a little afraid to flip, but nothing happened. It was funny and demanding from time to time as you have to find a good balance between going with the flow and paddle your ass off. Along the Clutha River, we just needed to balance a little bit as the River pushed us downstream.
Finally, I got signed off for Niger Stream on Wednesday by Robin (Niger Stream is our so called „Beginner Trip“, but as I already told you, this would never be a beginner trip in Germany 😉 ). After the tour with Robin on Wednesday we decided to go for a little smooth run along the Clutha River. 21.1km, small run , haha. This so called Upper Clutha River Track is just amazing, up and down, nature around you, and you don’t know where to look first. That day Robin was fit as fu**. And I was not. I had to stop several times, sitting down, having some snacks and more than 2 liters of water. I felt a great lack of energy. But I kept running, stubborn and still with fun and impressive pictures around me. And with a tasty and refreshing Kai Time Ale from Kai Whaka Pai in Wanaka after the run.
From time to time, we meet with our neighbors and friends, watching movies, playing games (such as Bananagrams, a game quite similar to Scrabbe). But everyone builds up his or her own interlocking puzzle (or you play in teams of 2 persons each). Starting with ten letters (or more, depending on the amount of players), you have to build up your puzzle and try to fit in all the letters. When you finished your ten letters, you and the other players have to grab another letter (after you have to say „peel“) from the table and continue. And like always, pick up the letter „Q“ is just a pain. That day, I was a badass. I just hide the „Q“ in my hand and when „Peel“ was said, I just grabbed two new letters and moved the „Q“ back to the middle of the table. Nobody noticed 🙂 . I hope I will not be struck by lightning… 🙂
As christmas is ahead, we plan to have a nice and big BBQ at the Lake Wanaka, just with some music, our kayaks, some beer, maybe some really good Whisky and having a good time. This will be a really weird christmas party, but still a special one.
And since Thuersday, our house has a new flatmate. Hanna from Australia. We picked her up at the airport in Queenstown. Unfortunatelly, she broke her hand a week ago (I just had to remember the story of Tessa and her leg…). She is now living in the room of Anthony and he decided to stay in the house as well. So he moved to the garage (might sound a little weird, but the garage has a door into the house, a carpet and is like a big comfy room). Advantage for all of us – the rent is now a little cheaper 🙂
What else to say?
After I’ve send more than 40 christmas videos, messages and postcards to friends and family, it was amazing which kind and amount of feedback I’ve got. It was not just about messages and voicemails, I also got some videos from you guys and I want to say thank you. Thank you to all of you to send me all these impressions, hugs and love from home to New Zealand. Even if there is almost no christmas feeling here (because hey, it is getting warm, no snow, no mold wine, no christmas music anywhere) you made me feel a little bit more christmasy 🙂
Nevertheless, there has also been some people not responding to me at all (and yes, of course I am sad about this fact). But quite soon there has been an important learning for me as well with that. When you think of someone and send them a personal and loving message (or a personal gift e.g. for christmas), it is not about an answer. It is not even about a thank you.
It is about making them happy, making them aware of that you think about them. That you miss them. That you love them. That you hope they are good, healthy and happy. Just about making their day or even their moment a little better. And to be gracious and grateful. That’s what giving should be about. And christmas of course 🙂
Having the first canyoning tours in New Zealand, I thought I had a lot of guiding experience. And New Zealand proved me wrong. Since then, almost seven weeks have passed. And after several tours with really experienced guides, I feel that I am developing. I introduce my customers really well into their adventure. Talk to them a lot about what they have to do, what will gonna happen and how they have to move in the canyon. I try to explain everything short and clearly. And I feel much more comfortable in this more aquatic canyons. And this is the interesting fact about development and process. You don’t realize the process itself while it is happening. You just realize improvement and development after a certain time. When you compare the past with the present and you realize that a positive change is taking place and has taken place.
I hope you enjoy my stories, my thoughts and emotions. This blog article is a little different compared to the others (and more text than image and video content 🙂 ) One the one handside because this week has been quite calm and I did not take a lot of pictures. On the other handside I wanted to share some other things. Thoughts and emotions. To show you, that going for an adventure is also associated with problems, struggles and sad moments. And that adventure is about finding solutions, being patient, kind and happy.
„See“ you next week.
And to all of you: Merry Christmas time, enjoy this special time of the year with friends and family. With mold wine. With annoying christmas music. And enjoy every single second, even if there is struggle. rush and challenge in your life. Remember – you are not alone 🙂
„Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive“ (Charlotte Bronte)
Your Dingyinternational
Felix
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