New Zealand Weekly Update #52

16th of October until 22nd of October 2023

Approximate reading time: 5 minutes

Lets get it started

A little late, a little sunburned, a little happy, a little more balanced. Just back from a mutliday hike. Apologies for this weeks delay, but sometimes nature and being out is more important than anything else. This week has been full of sports, full of activities and at the end, full of nature and self-awareness again. It is spring time in New Zealand. The sun is burning as hell. The temperature is rising each and every day. It is stunning. Beautiful. And there is no doubt about the fact that New Zealand is a gem. Epic. A stunning place. A peaceful place.
And fellas, it has been a year now. A year away from Germany. One year ago, I started this exciting journey, this adventure. This new life. I never expected it to be that new. That exciting. That challenging. That kind of learning. Of becoming a better version. New Zealand gave me everything in a nutshell. And is still giving me everything in a nutshell. And even after 52 weeks I am not able to describe it in total. To feel it in total. But there is something special about this small island at the „end“ of the world. But for me, it is more like the beginning, the center. The everything. Lets have a look back.

Being stubborn

Being resistant, being stubborn, not willing to give up, this is a well known attribute of aries. With your head through that wall, no matter what, no matter how painful, no matter for how long. As long as you smash them goddamn wall. As long as you keep going, as long as you keep trying. Them wall has to be smashed. And it is as painful as it sounds.
Being stubborn saved me a lot of times through my whole life. It saved me from giving up in moments where there giving up has been the easier option. The better option. The only option. Being stubborn saved me from making bad decisions. From making decisions that would have end up in serious shit. Maybe in drugs. In bad friendships. In giving up on life and its unique opportunities, chances and adventures.
Being stubborn has become part of my mentality, daily life and character. It has become one of my patterns. And it used to be useful, positive and necessary. Sometimes…
Because being stubborn sometimes can be critical. Being stuck with an idea, with a lifestyle, with your ego. Doing something just „because of“. Doing things because you have to do them. Because you have got „a second chance“, because there might not be another opportunity, because you might miss something. And with saying that, you sometimes loose your point of view for the bigger picture, for the amount of opportunites around you. And if you would step out of your shoes for a moment and look at it from a different perspective, you would shake you head all night long.

A lot of our own patterns, of our ways to deal with things are fragments of our past. Things we had to do to survive. Things to do to keep going. To not giving in or up. And they worked out.
But now, in a different situation, a different experience and even a different life, they might be the one and only thing, that stops us from seeing the bigger picture. They make us feeling stuck. And too focused. To stubborn and too determined.
Having said that, it might be time to rethink our patterns if we are able to recognize them. To rethink them and ask ourself, if they are still useful in a specific situation or if we are just stuck. And too heady. Too uptight. Too stubborn.

Mueller Hut

Time for some nature and hikes again. The week has been full of sporty activities. Swimming. Biking. Running. Every day after work I would go for some sport. To free my mind. To train. To get exhausted and feel a little better. And even though I would tell everyone to have a break from time to time, I was the one kept going. And of course, it might not be the best idea. Breaks are necessary for progress. And I felt pretty exhausted at the end of the week. And while training biking on friday, I had to stop after half the distance of biking. I was just tired. Time to rest mate!
So I did. And on Sunday morning, after 3 hours of sleep, I woke up at 5am and made my way to the area of Mt. Cook. Time for a hike. Mueller Hut. Almost 3 hours of driving, being almost alone on the streets, beautiful sunrise ahead, great weather forecast, crampsons and bagpack ready. Action.
I signed up at the visitor center (since this is necessary due to avalanche risk in the area) and made my way up to the hut. Stairs, stairs, stairs. Step by step. Steep. Cloudy. Foogy. Just amazing! I took a break from time to time to enjoy „the view“ and rest a little bit. After about 75 minutes, snow showed up. Spikes on and keep going. It was partly steep, partly slippery, partly deep. And some people without any proper gear – yikes!
Step by step to the rigdeline. And fellas, what a view as I went up there! Some blue sky ahead, huge mountains, snow everywhere and Mueller Hut just a few hundred meters away.
Arriving at the hut, some snacks, some rest, some water. And afterwards, some sleep as I had a quite short night before.

In the afternoon, I went up a little higher to a small hill above the hut and got stuck in a big hole in the snow. Soft snow + fatty = stuck. I was stuck in the snow up to my shoulders and hit my leg on a bog rock underneath the snow – outschn. But fortunately, all good. Just some scratches and wet feet. The view? Amazing. No sounds around me. Just some avalanches from time to time at the opposite site of the mountains, what an impressive moment watching them going down the rocks.
Crowded hut, a dinosaur in the snow and some me-time with a book, stunning nature and some good food. Perfect combination for relaxing, rethinking, reflecting and getting some energy 🙂

What else to say?

Intense week. Intense. But worth it. Necessary. Important. And it showed me again that having a break might be the most important time for you. Important to rethink and to consider a change. In decisions. In you point of view. In listening to your heart again as there are no distracitons from the oudsie anymore. But sometimes we love to keep being busy all the time to not be in the need of listening to those voices from the inside because we are afraid of what could be possible, right? 🙂

Your DingyInternational
Felix