New Zealand Weekly Update #28

Last updated on Mai 7, 2023

01st of May until 07th of May 2023

Approximate reading time: 10 minutes

Lets get it started

Hello friends, time for a new update from beautiful New Zealand, from beautiful Wanaka, from this beautiful island. This time, not too early or not too late – just in time 🙂
Sunny outside, I had some noce breakfast with a friend of mine, Anthony, and we went to Wastebusters afterwards since there is a winter drop off going on the whole weekend. And since I was not able to check it out yesterday (I was joining a halfmarathon event), we decided to go today. And fortunatelly it was not too busy and we found some nice stuff for the winter season.
Well, I am still a little tired from the run and the week since I was working a lot this week and my body needs a little rest. And I am really excited about my tattoo appointment on tuesday and about the design – I will keep you updated end of next week. So lets talk about what was going on the last couple of days 🙂

Mou Waho Island

Last week Sunday and this week monday, I went for an overnight kayak adventure to Mou Waho island. You can find this little and beautiful island on the Lake Wanaka, about 16 km away from the town center of Wanaka. And since the weather forcast was perfect for sunday and monday, I decided to have a little adventure just with myself on the lake to this island. With my kayak. And since I felt that I need nature, silence and time for myself, Mou Waho was a perfect option to refill my mental and emotional battery. So I started sunday at about 9 am with all my stuff, my sleeping back, tent and some food for the next two days. And I went to the lake, put everything into my kayak and made my way to the island. 15km straight along the lake. No wind. Just sunshine, blue sky and silence. And the sound of water splashing while paddeling forward. Sometimes some boats passed by, people waving to me. Incredible feeling being almost alone in the middle of a lake in a kayak.
And it took me a long time to get to the island. The biggest issue while being on a lake for such a long time? If you have to pee 🙂 You have to be strong and hold it, you don’t want to pee into your wetsuit or your kayak 🙂

Sometimes I stopped for a while, turned around and just enjoyed the view, the lake and the silence around me. And of course to relax my sore shoulders a little bit from time to time 🙂
At about 2.30pm, I arrived at Mou Waho Island. And I attached my kayak to a safe spot, set up my tent for the night and got changed for a little walk to a small lake in the middle of the island. The walk is about 20 minutes all the way up on a nice little „sidewalk“. And the view is just stunning, the lake (Arethusa Pool) pretty small. And you can have a great view from the top of the island to Lake Wanaka and surrounding areas.

After having some dinner at about 6pm, I moved into my tent and fell asleep at about 7pm. And I slept until 7am in the morning. Since I was really tired. And I woke up because birds were singing all around me. Interesting feeling to know that you are sleeping alone on an island located on a lake, which is on an island in the middle of an ocean 🙂 (confused? 🙂 )
Breakfast on top of the island with a stunning view and afterwards all the way back to Wanaka. Again with almost no wind, stunning weather and almost no boats around me. Even though it was a tough adventure and I had some sore muscles the next couple of days, it was a stunning and memorable adventure. Alone at the lake, alone on a small island, recharching mental and emotional batteries. And some nice views and unique landscape – definitly a recommendation guys.

Run Boy, Run!

Already 2 months since my last official run – time for a new one, time for some new records :). Since I already joined two offical marathon events (Magdeburg in Germany and Motatapu in New Zealand), I wanted to try something new. Thatswhy I decided to join a halfmarathon event and I tried to focus on a specific time. My idea was to run the 21.1km with a pace below 5mins (time per kilometer). So the idea was to run the halfmarathon below a total time of 1h and 45mins. And I trained almost every week at minimum once to be able to achieve this goal. And since I already was able to keep the time below 1h 45mins every training run, I decided to try even harder. So my goal for the run was a time below 1h 40mins.

Saturday, 6th of May, day of the run. Southern Lakes Half Marathon. All the way of the cardrona road to Wanaka, Pembroke Park. Sunny day. 500 people in total (halfmarathon run and 10k run). And a lot of fu**ing fit and fast people around me. Short safety briefing before the run (since the roads were not closed and cars were still passing by), and start of the run at 9am. And people started really fast, I am in between. Sun ahead, music in my ears. Run boy run. The first kilometers, easy going. But after a couple of kilometers my legs felt sore, weak and it was hard to keep running, to keep the pace below 4.43mins, to tell my mind to not give up. Sometimes people were waving and clapping to us, motivating us. And I kept running, kept breathing, kept moving forward. Kept not giving up. The last 2 kilometers, music kept motivating me, the finish line almost ahead, I made my way up the little hill to Wanaka and out of the sudden you can see the lake and the mountains behind – just a stunning and awesome view, every single time. Last kilometer, to Pembroke park. Crossing the street, little grass area, booom. I slipped away and found myself on the ground of the grass and the sidewalk. Bleeding knee. Fuck off! No time to waste, no time for pain – just 200 meters to the finish line. Move up again and finish this one mate! So I tried to not waste my time with pain and I kept running to the finish line. Bleeding knee, happy smile and pumping heart. And I finished the run after 1h 38 mins and 24 seconds – new record! Laura and Tony were waiting for me at the finish line with a cold beer and some hugs – guys you rock and made my day!
We ended up at Kai Whaka Pai for a breakfast and some drinks (and I justed needed 3 beers to feel drunk 🙂 ).

3 years ago, I started running. I still don’t know why, maybe to get rid of Covid isolation, maybe to found a way to get rid of bad emotions, bad thoughts. To find a ways to deal with stress. To deal with myself. To deal with problems, issues and struggles. To find a way to be proud of myself. To find a way to make progress. To grow. To challenge myself. To improve. To motivate myself and others. To inspire.
I still don’t know the answer. And I don’t want to know the answer. Since it doesn’t really matter. Running sometimes is painful. Running sometimes just sucks. Sometimes your head is going crazy while running. You have so many thoughts, memories and people in your head. Your head tells you to stop, to give up, every single second. And there is a fight going on in your head between yourself and this voice. Between „you should stop now, give up and have a drink“ and „fuck off, keep going, just one more mile, just one more corner, just one more song“. And sometimes, especially in the past, I lost this fight, I gave up. I stopped. Even though I was able to move on. To run one more mile, one more song, one more thought.
But since I kept running every week, I improved. The voice in my head is still there. It still tells me to give up, to stop. But I am able to make this voice shut up from time to time. I am louder and stronger. I improved and I am able to fight this voice now even better.
Running is not fun, running is hard work, hard training, a lot of effort, a lot of time. A lot of struggle. And a lot of again and again and again.
But now, after 3 long years, after lots of runs, lots of struggles, lots of painful moments and „I can not do this moments“ I see progress. I see improvement. I see change. And being able to move your own limits, to be a little faster, to run a little further, just feels amazing and fantastic. It is overwhelming, powerful and motivating. It is worth it every single run, every single moment of suffering. Since it makes yourself more powerful. More mindful. More resistant. And of course, more running equals more food – nice sideeffect 🙂

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There are moments, where I ask myself, why the fuck I am running? Why again? Why the sweat? Why the pain? Why the struggles? Why do I run? Why do we run? Here is the answer:

Why do you run?
People quite often ask: ‘why do you run?’,
‘Surely it can’t be any fun!’,
‘It’s bad for your body, it’s bad for your knee’,
But they don’t know the benefits it gives me.
My mental health would love me to sit at home and pine,
Running though gives me that high of crossing a finish line,
When I’m low it reminds me I’m strong,
It proves my self negative thoughts wrong.
I’ve ran through places I’d never have seen,
It keeps my middle aged body looking lean,
I’ve spoken to amazing people I’d never have met,
I’ve laughed and I’ve cried through tears, blood and sweat.
It pushes me to be the best version of me I can be,
It makes people who love me, proud of me,
It makes me push myself till I’m about to break,
It’s given me so many memories I was happy to make.
Is every run great? No way!
There are some runs when it’s just not your day,
When I’m running a race though I feel so alive,
It helps give my life so much focus and drive.
With my battles with mental health: running is my crutch,
It has pulled me out of darkness so much,
So ‘why do you run?’ You want to know?,
Why wouldn’t I? When it’s helped me so much, as a person: grow.

Gareth Thomson

What else to say?

Saturday evening, Max and Jess invited me to meet them at their new house in Albert Town since they moved. And we had some dinner and some nice talks again. I was wondering if we will end up every single time in deep talks when we meet, looks like 🙂 . And we had again some conversation about relationships, about how it works or how it should work. Being honest with each other from the beginning on. Knowing what you want. Being able to make the other person happy but not neing responsible for their happieness. And alsbo about being able to end a relationship when you realize that you love each other but that you have a different point of view to your future life, to what you want and what you don’t want. And that ending the relationship might give you and the other person the option to move on, to grow. And not to be stuck in a relationship without a future, even though you love each other.

Well, see you guys next week, happy to update you with stories and impressions of New Zealand. And even though it might look like that it is just holiday, beautiful nature and everything is jusit perfect – I also struggle with daily problems, with missing people, with dealing with financial issues and with dealing with difficult people from time to time. But New Zealnd is worth it – ever single moment.

Your DingyInternational
Felix