New Zealand Weekly Update #16

Last updated on Februar 19, 2023

6th of February until 12th of February 2023

Approximate reading time: 7 minutes

Lets get it started

Sunday again, time for a little update, time for blog. Time to think about the week, about what happend, what was exciting, challenging, amazing. It’s getting colder in the mornings now. It is weird as I am used to german spring this time of the year. Days getting longer, warmer sometimes. And here it is the way round. Atumn is ahead, days are getting shorter. And in a few weeks, it will be even colder. And I am so excited about the winter here in New Zealand. And I still try to find a job for the winter season. And I have applied to a few companies around the area. At Treble Cone. Cardrona Ski Resort. Snow Farm. Now answers yet – but I will keep trying to find something. To stay. To explore. To share. To enjoy. And to live life in New Zealand. It has been now day #6 in a row of working in the canyons and I am looking forward to be off soon and to travel to Tekapo with Amélie, to explore this beautiful area and to see a little bit more on New Zealand 🙂 Will keep you updated about these adventures next week.

It is all about the belly

Have you ever heard about your second brain? Maybe yes, maybe no. But I bet you have already felt it. Experienced it. Lived it. It sometimes is also known as hunch, instinct, deeper knowing. There are many names for gut feelings or the ability to immediately understand something without conscious reasoning. In other words, answers and solutions come to you, but you may not be aware of exactly why or how. Sometimes you experience a certain situation where you have to make a decision and your brain struggles with this one. As there are sometimes too many parameters, to many options, to many ways to decide wrong. And then your guts show up and help you to decide. Most of the time we are not able to understand how. To understand why. But there is a certain feeling for one decision, for one direction, for one way. And then you follow this intuition. As this one is the best one most of the time. As the guts come up with a lot of experiences, even if you dont be aware of them.
I experience this feeling also from time to time, especially in the canyon with customers. Especially before big jumps or difficult rappel section. Sometimes my guts tell me to not let the customers jump, for whatever reason. And most of the time, I trust this feeling. As I already experienced situations where I did not listen to that inner voice and then there have been incidents. People slipped away. Did not jump properly. Hurt themselves in a certain way (not serious but they still fucked it up 😉 ). And I also tell my customers to listen to their guts before jumping difficult sections. To listen to their inner voice if this one is okay with the next decision. And if yes, breath in and fuck off – go for it with everything you have. And I think most of us are sometimes not able to listen to that inner voice as there is way too many stuff around them. Too many noises, too many distractions. Just too much of everything. And if you have an inner feeling, something that asks you to make a decision, to change something, even if you don’t unterstand it or to be able to see the whole picture. Follow this inner voice. Follow your guts. Especially when it asks you to have a spoon of nutella in the middle of the night 🙂

Lavender everywhere

As the canyoning is still part of my daily life, travelling around New Zealand is not possible yet. I just listen to a lot of stories of my customers and about their adventures here. The other day there was a couple from Australia and they just got married here in Queenstown. They flew up with a helicopter to a mountain with their family and got married. On a mountain in New Zealand! With an amzing view. And now they travel around and keep their unique holiday going. Quite nice story and definitly memorable as well.
After a long day of canyoning, Amélie and I decided to visit the Lavender Farm in Wanaka, as it is quite close and you can spend your time walking around.
The entrance fee is affordable (15NZD per person) and the area is really big. You can walk around the lavender fields, pet a lot of different animals (donkey, sheep, goats and also ugly pigs 🙂 ). You can go through the famous purple door at the farm (and we skipped that one as there have been always people around to try to get the best selfie). And you can just enjoy the time at this beatiful place, silent and peaceful. They also have a lot of games outside where you can waste your time with fun. We ende up playing a big jenga game and I always wanted to play this one. And the game was quite a big challenge as Amélie did really well.
If you are keen to go through a lot of different aromas and herbs, you can walk through the herbs garden in the middle of the lavender farm and enjoy different smells.
The lavender farm itself also contains a little shop with a lot of stuff you can buy, e.g. cremes, honey, soaps, tee, oil and so on.
If you are around and you want so spend some hours in a nice place, lavender farm is a place to go and to even get some new information (I have never known before that it takes up to ten bees working their whole life to produce one teaspoon of honey, well so from now on, enjoy your honey as it is the outcome of a lifetime 🙂 )

What else to say?

That was quick! I just applied for the working holiday visa in Canada. Better to say for the digital pool. Then you’ll be thrown into this digital pool and with a bit of luck you’ll be selected. And then you can apply for the visa, give all the documents, information and of course a bit of money (about 200€ / 300 NZD). And so did I. As they picked me out of this pool. Well, not it is just about waiting and about being patiend. And with a little luck I will get the WHV to travel to Canada and be allowed to work in the most flexible way. Our home a native land 🙂
As I work day after day this week has been full of canyoning, guiding and being with customers from all around the world. And after more than 50 tours in New Zealand and about 90 tours in Germany, Austria and Switzerland I just started to call myself an „experienced“ guide. Because I experienced a lot of different people, situations, canyons. And I am able now to use these experiences to guide my customers even better. To explain sections even better. To become a better guide and to try to give them a memorable and safe experience. Quite a good and enjoyable feeling. And we got some really nice reviews and great feedback from our customers.

„Awesome experience, our guide Felix was fantastic at explaining what would happen and each step including safety measures which put us at ease. My daughter (14) and I had a fabulous time with the experience challenging us both in a good and safe way. Highly recommend this experience! Still buzzing 😊“

„Amazing!! It was our first time canyoning and it was such a thrill. We did the beginner tour at Niger Stream which was perfect for us and totally beyond our expectations! Our guide, Felix was fantastic! Definitely recommend“

„Had the Big Nige Tour yesterday with lots of jumps and slides which was amazing. Our guides Thomas and Felix were great. They guided us through the canyon safely with a lot of fun. A very nice day adventure that I can highly recommend to everyone who wants some action around Wānaka.“

„Fantastic activity for me and my 14yr old daughter, our guide Felix was brilliant at letting us know what was coming and all the safety back up supporting us. His brilliant communication left us free to push our own individual limits. Loved it! Highly recommend this experience.“

Well, the season is still going on until April, so lets keep going, guiding and having some fun. And staying safe as well 🙂
Keep you updated next week about New Zealand and some stories and adventures.
Your DingyInternational
Felix