New Zealand Weekly Update #57

Last updated on November 27, 2023

20th of November until 26th of November 2023

Approximate reading time: 10 minutes

Lets get it started

What a chilled day fellas. It is monday morning and as usual I am a little late with the weekly update. I just went to Alberttown this morning to grab my triathlon bike, this one is light as! Quick reaction, comes with electric gear change and I have found some matching shoes at Wasties! For 10 dollars! I love Wastebusters, best place in town. And I finally met Jess and Max and her Baby! What a cutie. A loveley little boy, so smoooll and cute. And I could not resist to get him some Onezies at Wastebusters as well, Jess gonna love em. And then? Napping a lot. The last weeks have been busy. Running. Running. Running. And paragliding. And working. And I felt like sleeping today, like doing nothing. Just lunch at home and sleep. And trying to figure out what to do with my car, since it just overheated again yesterday while I was driving back home from Queenstown. But I’ll get that sorted, as usual.

Up in the sky

Talking about Queenstown, better Arrowtown, last week monday, it was time for us to do our first flights at a training hill with around 50 meters of elevation. It was sunny, hot, blue sky, almost no wind, perfect. So we grabbed our wings, walked up the hill and talked about the launch phase, the flying phase and the landing. And then? Launch! Wonderwoman position, arms back, breast out, look ahead to the horizon. Ready? Launch. Get them wings up. Release your fingers from the A-Lines, get into torpedo position, arms right up to the sky (while they are still facing backwards). Big steps. Still looking to the horizon. And there you go. The wing open. And lifts you up the ground. Rotate your arms forward, still hands on them breaks, and relax. And I did. Being a couple of meters above the ground. Flying for the first time of my life on my own. Solo. Flying towards a big tree. Turning right. Look first. Then weightshift. Then break. Relaxing again. Landing phase. Prepare to flare. Ready? And flare. One, two, three and hold them breaks down. Commit to that. Soft landing. And grab them wings and walk up again. 6 flights in total. And not all of them have been that smooth, since sometimes I flared to much, to early. And so I dropped quite hard once and fell on my feet. Another fella twisted his ankle while landing.

Paragliding is not about being powerful, fast, abrupt. It is more about relaxing. You are not flying. The wing is flying. Actually, you could fly and land without holding the wing at all. This fella is doing all the work. And what we can do is to work with that one. To become part of it and feel it. To release the pressure, the tightness and just go with the flow. And since the weather was great on sunday, I decided to join the PG2 course for a couple of flights, this time from Coronet Peak. Not a 50m hill anymore. No. Now we are talking 700m elevation! First flight – tandem flight with my instructor Chris, an honest, experienced and patient fella. Launch. Fly! 700m above ground. And enjoying the views. Talking about the different directions, the landing area, the flight phase, the breaks. Landing – smooth as.
And now? You go, solo! Solo! From 50m to 700m – you say what? Scared? No. Excited? Yes! Ready? Oh yeah!
Gear check. Surrounding check. Emotional check. Check. Launch!
Running towards the steep dropping section. Looking to the horizon. Feeling the wing above me. Release. Torpedo. Running to fly! And what a feeling! Here I am. Up high, flying alone. Being relaxed as. Playing around slowly with the breaks, listening to the instructions of Chris. And realising where I am. Alone in the sky. Just the wing and me. And the silence. The view. The nature. I am stoked fellas. I knew it might be not a good idea to start paragliding at all – since it could become a great part of my life.
Landing phase, welcome back to flightpark. Ready to flare. And flare! And this one was smoooth as! Back on the ground. Happy. Stoked. And ready for more! I had two more flights with different new techniques to learn. And more to come. I am ready for the sky. Because sky is not the limit. Sky is the goal!

Letting go

On my first day with Infinity, there was a quite intense and interesting moment, that teached me a lot after rethinking and reconsidering. I would do a small little flight session at another training hill, we flew maybe for a couple of seconds. All radios on. And my landing was pretty rough, not smooth at all and I was not sure what went wrong. So I was standing there, ready to grab my gear. And Chris started talking to me via the radios. And his voice was quite straight forward. Not angry. Not yelling. But straight forward. You have to calm down! You habe to release the pressure! You have to be much more, much more relaxed! You are overthinking! The wing is just responding to you. If you are moving too fast, too powerful, you will end up in serious situations! You have to let it go!
Booom. Embarrasing moment. All radios on. Everyone could hear it. And I was standing there, alone on the field, feeling like a boy who was told a lesson. And I started to become angry and upset. Not with Chris. But with myself. Since I did not think that I was too powerful. Too overthinking. Too fast. But I did. So I was grabbing my stuff, walking up the hill again and sat down. Trying to understand what Chris told me. And even on my way home I thought about that. About letting go. About releasing the pressure, about being more relaxed.
Since I tried to understand, why this is sooo important in paragliding. And not just in paragliding, but also in life.

Sometimes, we focus on things, that we can not change. We focus on things that we believe are unfair, that have to be changed, that have to be seen. We focus and we become more and more stubborn as we want this change sooo badly. And even when I write about that, I can feel pressure running through my body. Tightness. This crampy feeling of „it has to be, it must be, I can do something about it“. Wanna hear a story? Back in Germany, while I was studying, I received an invoice from the government. Around 1000€. Well the government supports students to study. Half of the financial support is for free. The other half is a non-interest payback. But of course the government is checking the income of you, your parents and your material and financial assets. And they decide for a monthly financial support (if there are no big changes in income). And still, I received this invoice. The reason? My mother did not tell the government about all her income. Wrong (or missing) information. Wrong decision for the amount of financial support from the government. And I received that invoice.
And I tried to fight it. Because it was not my mistake. Not my statement. Not my responsibility. And so I hired a lawyer. And then? It took my almost 3 years! Three years to find a solution. Heaps of documents. E-Mails. Meetings. To finally receive an aggreement of 900€. And you know what? I also had to pay my layer, of course. So in the end, it took me three years to fight for my rights, to fight for the money. I wanted it so badly. I was so stubborn. I wasted so much time thinking about this topic. I was so angry. Crampy. Stubborn. And although I have been granted my rights, there was no real feeling of victory or balance. Since I realised that I have lost so much time and energy. Because I was not able of letting go. Of being wise enough that this is just money and it should not be worth my time, energy, emotions or thoughts. I focused on the fight. I focused on the wrong things. I wanted to show her sooo badly that I can do it. That I am stronger. And that I can fight for my right.
You see what happens? Antsy feelings. Crampy feelings. Inner restlessness. No balance.
So what I want to say, sometimes it is a much better idea of accepting things that seem to be unfair. That seem to be wrong. I am not talking about giving up or giving in. I am talking about a decision for yourself and your inner peace. Think about that, how much time and energy I have spend with this shit. 3 years! For what? After paying the laywer, there have been 300€ left! So we are talking about 100€ per year! Jesus Christ! What a waste of time. What a wrong focus.
It would have been soo much better to just leave it. To let it go. To accept it and pay this invoice. Not because it was right. But it would have saved me a lot stress, time and emotions.
And letting go is much more. It gives us freedom. It releases us from all those negative feelings and emotions. It gives us the option to become more relaxed, more balanced, more silent. Letting go is very powerful, as we take away the focus from the negative. We keep our energy and we can spend it wisely to more important things. And most important, we can spend it on us. On our peace.

What else to say?

The last couple of weeks have been really busy. And most of the times I was talking about the positive things that have happend. But this is not Instagram nor TikTok. Not everything is happy as and lucky as and peaceful as. I also have to deal with shitty situations, financial desasters and emotional ups and downs. And I do, not every day, but from time to time.
My car overheated again, so its time for the garage again. Might end up with an invoice of 1000 dollars or more. I recently received an incoive from the ACC (part of health insurance in New Zealand). Almost 2000 dollars (which is an old story with my old canyoning company – I am not allowed to talk about that at all). I miss a couple of people really badly. Especially those who make me feel welcome, appreciated, who would accept me and love me for what I am and what I do. Sometimes I just go home after work and want to be alone. Or just trying to balance myself with sports.
New Zealand is not just about all good, all happy, all outdoor, all special.
But right here, I still feel great. Full of hope. Full of ideas. Full of joy.
I am literally in love with New Zealand!
Speak soon fellas!

Your DingyInternational
Felix