New Zealand Weekly Update #71

Last updated on März 11, 2024

26th of February until 03rd of March 2024

Approximate reading time: 5 minutes

Lets get it started

Happy days fellas! It’s monday morning in Wanaka. It’s raining. And it’s beautiful! Time to rest, to slow down, to relax and to work on my E-Book, writing the blog and just enjoy the day off. Last weekend was tough, long, not enough sleep. And it was worth it! It was time to go for another event outdoors. This time, back on track for a marathon with a friend of mine. But more about that later. Since I got paid friday and got all the necessary money together for my residency application, I went home after work and straight to my computer. Uploaded all the necessary documents, filled in missing information and doublechecked everything. And I was ready to submit. Heartrate up! Click!
And an error showed up. Please fill in the missing information which are highlighted and try again. Say what?
So again, doublecheck everything (and it is quite a lot of information you have to fill in). 5 minutes later, submitted again. Same error. Nothing highlighted. Random!
So same procedure again, same error again. It took me almost one hour to sort out what’s wrong. One missing information, not highlighted, just with a little note „please select an option“. The missing information? Are you pregnant? Well, obviously not, this is pizza!
And even more random, even if the form was asking me to select an option, I was not able to choose an option. Click, click, click, click, click. But nothing happend. I could not choose an option, hence not submit my application for residency. Yikes!
So I called Immigration to ask for support. Got an E-Mail adress, sent them a message and now I am waiting again. Since right now, there is nothing I can do but waiting. Fingers crosses that they’ll answer soon. And then we are ready for residency and kiwimode!

Motatapu – in the heat of the day

More than one year ago, a friend of mine and I decided to run the Motatapu Offroad marathon together. In the middle of nowhere. With a lot of elevation. From Glendhu Bay to Arrowtown. 42,2km. With stunning views. Amazing landscape. And in between a crowd of other sporty people. And it was a great day. A little cloudy. Not too hot. And with heaps of river crossings. And since I enjoyed that run so much, I decided to run it again. This year with my collegue and good friend Kelsi. And this time, it was different.
It was bloddy hot outside. Almost no clouds and I was not really preparded for running since I did a lot of training for the triathlon. Swimming. Biking. And a little bit of running. And still I was pretty keen to run this gem again.

10.30AM, time to run this beauty. The first section felt pretty easy going. We were not pacing, just running slowly and going uphill. And the sun was burning on our necks. Up and down. Up and down. Into the valley, along beautiful nature. And I felt quite tired and exhausted after a couple of kilometers. The heat hit me very hard and after 16km I hit the wall. We had to go uphill again and usually we would walk uphill. And I was about to give up and just to sit down. I could tell that I was will quite exhausted from the Triathlon two weeks ago. And even worse, my headphones were dead. No music. No motivation. Just me and the nature. And still a long way to go. So we kept running, walking uphill, sometimes slowing down. And we would refill at the several aid stations with heaps of water, electrolytes and some food.

Half way done, along this long and endless valley. Fortnunatelly quite flat, but exposed to the sun and the heat. And most of the elevation was done. And even worse, Kelsi got some serious cramps after 30km. So we would slow down even more and we just focussed on the goal, the finish line and the feeling of success. The last kilometers, heaps of river crossings, cooling down our bodies with the cold water. And highly motivated to arrive and to have a cold and well deserved drink. 5 hours and 49 minutes. And we crossed the finish line. Exhausted. Happy. Sweaty. And full of joy and pride. This run was way more tough compared to last year, but still beautiful, rewarding and a memory I would not miss at all. Motatapu is a gem, a beauty, a challening track, a rewarding run, hard and scenic.

What else to say?

Shower. Food. Drinks. And time to relax and celebrate. And time to spend some more time with my good friend Cinnita from Queenstown. And we ended up being out until 2AM in the morning. Different pubs. Dancing. Laughing. Talking. And we would catch up for some breakfast with our friend Tanya, who supported me two weeks ago for Challenge Wanaka. And driving back to Wanaka Sunday afternoon by bus. Sleeping. Resting. And already thinking about the next event. About new challenges. New adventures. And new memories.
Enjoy your week, create some great memories and spend time with your favorite people.

Your DingyInternational
Felix