New Zealand Weekly Update #13

Last updated on April 16, 2023

16th of January until 22nd of January 2023

Approximate reading time: 10 minutes

Tragedy plus Time equals comedy (Mark Twain)

Siggy, our loveley housemate from Australia. She lives with us in our house for more than 6 weeks now. And her story of arriving in Wanaka is as painful as the story of Tessa, I told you about several weeks ago. She had an accident with her hand the other day and got an infection after arriving in Wanaka. So she woke up in the middle of the night with serious pain and the ambulance picked her up to hospital. Surgery. Massive medication. And a lot of physiotherapy. And since she is here, we have a lot of conversation, mostly at our terrace of the house, sometimes until 2 or 4am in the morning. About plans of living. About the reason why we are in Wanaka. About a plan after New Zealand (maybe Canada 🙂 ). And also about the idea, that there are no bad experiences at all. Every single experience we have, is a good one. An important one. A real one. But sometines we don’t get aware of that in the moment of the experience, in the moment of the situation. Because the moment itself can be really painful. For the mind, the body and the soul. Bad moments are part of our live, a way of live to challenge us. To prove us. To support us to decide for something. Maybe something new. To decide for a change. For a new job. a new town. A new way of living.
I am in New Zealand because of different reasons (and you can read more about that in my Weekly Update #10 . In a nutshell: Depression, no job, no relationship anymore. Really painful, embarrassing and sad moments, days, weeks. A lot of struggle, a lot of self-jugdement. A lot of doubt. And a lot of decisions to made.
I have been in New Zealand for 13 weeks now. 13 weeks of adventure, canyoning, new people, new experiences, new me. And old me.
All those good memories, experiences, adventures. All this crazy shit. Just possible because of all those bad moments and situations. Just because of struggeling a long time. Self-doubt. And because of some decisions I have made to not struggle anymore. To move on. If this way fits the society or not – nevermind. If this way of living fits my resumee or not – nevermind. If people might judge me or not – nevermind.
And in the end, I am so grateful for all those bad, sad and painful moments. They supported me to decide. To change. To move on. To don’t struggle anymore. To stand up, walk on and be a better version of myself.

And thatswhy, whenever you have a sad moment or a bad situation. Be grateful for it. There might be a reason for this experience. And it might show you the way to a better you.
For the end of this section I want to share a quote, I’ve seen in Spain on my first Camino for the first time. It was written on a stone after a small village.

The following words were written on the stone:
„El dolor es inevitable. El sufrimiento es opcional.“
„Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

You will never be able to avoid pain. Pain will always be part of our lives. But you are able to decide how to handle that pain. If you just struggle and suffer. Or if you try to make the best out of it. See the chance. See the option. And move on. And make it a good memory after a certain time.

„Oresome“ Orestream

Day off after 8 days of working back to back. So my former idea was to relax a little bit. To do a little hike. To sleep a little longer than normal :). But my plans changed immediatly since Daniel and Jerome asked me to join them to a nice canyon in the Hasst area, „Ore Stream“. A canyon, which can be quite dangerous with too much water. Since it has been dry for the last days, the water level was good, the weather forcast was good, so we went in. We left the car in a small gravel parking spot, crossed the Makarora river and hiked up to the entrance of the canyon. Very steep ascend in the forrest, prickly plants, dry ground. 45 minutes up, fortunately in the shade. Descend into the canyon, steep, rockfall hazard. Clear and colorful water. The sound of water moving down a canyon. Oresome feeling! And now, rock’n’roll, canyoning!

Down into the stream, party still pushy water sections, especially when the canyon becomes more narrow and the water has less space to run through. And blue, blue water. Green sections around us. Big rocks, left and right, high. And we are in between.

And this canyon in georgous. Some amazing sections and demanding sections as well. As for example the 18 meter slide on the true right side. To be honest with you, I skipped that one as it was way to high for me and I rappeld down. But Daniel and Jerome managed the slide and it looked so much fun and still soo scary. After Daniel did the slide, he came out of the water with a big smile and he just screamed „fuck yeah!“ – such a crazy guy 🙂 .
After the slide, the water pushed you sideways to the wall and as there is a so called underwashing (prove me wrong if this is not the right desciption), you have to be carefull to not be pushed to close to this section. After Jerome threw down my backback, it was catched by this section and has disappeared in the underwashing. Fortunatelly, it popped up again after 30 seconds. But still – with high water flow this section can be scary, dangerous and demanding.
Nevertheless, a canyon to remember, a canyon to do again, maybe with customers, depending on the waterlevel. High recommendation and a place to step out of your comfort zone. Watch out the movie for more content, especially the last jump after canyoning 🙂

Highlining in Wanaka – Balance for the brave

Most of you know slacklining. Especially when you live in a city with a lot of parks, you can see them quite often in summer time. People attach them to trees or round shapes, tighten them up and walk and balance on them. Already quite demanding for your muscles, as you need to use muscles you normally don’t need at all. And when you stand on a slackline four your very first time, your whole leg, which you are standing on, is moving, vibrating and shaking. as if the micromusculature had awakened and starts to work. And after some training, you might be able to walk the slackline while it is moving a little to the left and right, depending on how tight it is actually. And then you can try to turn around, to walk it again without moving your feet to the ground. You might can sit on the slackline, try to stand up, sit down again, to do some balancing acts or even try to jump and push the slackline up and down. Sounds already quuite demanding though. And now imagine the ground to be below you – 10, 50, 100 meters! And the slackline is not a slackline anymore, it is a highline. And not as tight as the slackline in the park.

The other day, we went to a highline area nearby Wanaka, together with Elsa, a french girl who lives currently in Wanaka and who has been highlining for almost 10 years. And she did some crazy stuff. The longest highline without falling – 150-170 meters. The longest highline ever – 370 meters (and she just fall down 4 times, I would shit my pants and would not move anywhere). And she is able to do some nice balancing acts on the highline and even is able to balance head and shoulders down on the highline while this one is moving sideways. And guys, if you fall down, well. You are attached to a backup rope to your harness. Nevertheless, I would not recommend to try to hold on the highline or the backuprope, as you might loose a little bit of your skin while falling. And when you hang in your harness attached to the backup rope, it is not that easy to go up to the highline again. Of course, technique is important, not just power and muscles. And training. And many times of falling, standing up again and trying. And it can be an exhausting sport as well. I was wasted after 20 minutes of highlining and I was not even able to stand up on both feet for one second. And I brought some nice skin souvenirs with me as a memory to that unique evening. 🙂

As we moved home all together, we sat until 4.30 am in the morning, talks, drinks, music. And I decided to sleep outside in a comfy chair with my sleeping back and watch the sky, the milky way and all the stars above me. Wanaka – you are a stunning place!

Mill Creek – Splashy day off in Matukituki valley

What a nice day off. After 5 hours of sleep (and being outside all night with my comfy sleeping bag), I woke up at 9.30 am, sunshine and blue sky. And of course I was a little tired. Made myself a nice breakfast, some coffee and then I decided to start my blog about the week. And time was running that day. For the afternoon, I met Jerome and Elsa at the Matukituki valley area and we went for some recreational canyoning into the canyon „Mill Creek“. To hike up the canyon, you have to cross the Matukituki river first and even if you can stand in the water, it is quite pushy and you have to focus to not loose your balance 🙂
The hike into the canyon itself is quite easy going, but hard to find, as there is no real track and sometimes you have to go back some meters and search for another way. In total, you need about 1 hour from the car to the entrance of the canyon, but it is totally worth it! Blue water, some nice and demanding sections (especially with higher water levels) and some traps in the water as well.

There are two highlights in this canyon (personal opinion). The first one is a 14 meter jump, which can be quite technical, as you have to jump far away and have to push yourself with all your power forward. But if you can make it, the feeling is amazing. You end up deep in the water and the jump itself feels like ages. And afterwards you have to pay attention to swim directly to the left side to not get flushed away 🙂 (of course in higher water levels 🙂 ).
The second highlight is the last section of the canyon, as the rock walls suddenly rise to the sky and narrow down and you can still see the dark blue water running through. Absolutely stunning and in the next moment you end up in a big pool and at the exit of the canyon with blue sky and sunlight. Well, a quite fast and fun canyon, but wow! Nature is amazing though!

What else to say?

As Thomas and Julia left one week ago, we were searching for new flatmates and since Saturday, they are here with us. A couple from Scotland, nice and outdoorsy people. And they even did not complain about us having a terrace party until 4.30 am 🙂 Quite nice.
Unfortunatelly, my car made some weird noises while driving and while trying to change the gear. Diagnosis after some repair of the clutch – the clutch need to be replaced. Current bill 500 NZD. New bill for the new clutch 1400 NZD. Well, the car was a little more expensive but guys! You try to save some money to travel around New Zealand and your car says no. So I have to think about now, what would be the best.
And last but not least, since the Motatapu Marathon is coming up soon, I decided to stop drinking alcohol until I finish this one (and I don’t care about the time). So let’s rock’n’roll and beat this one!
As there will be a canyoning trip tomorrow and no plans at all afterwards, I decided to publish this weekly update a little earlier. There might be a canyoning video of Mill Creek in some days, just check it out in the Mill Creek section. Cheers!

Hope you have a great week and some nice adventures ahead!
See you next week.
Your dingyinternational
Felix