Last updated on Februar 5, 2023
30th of January until 5th of February 2023
Approximate reading time: 12 minutes
Lets get it started
Sunday again, time for a weekly update from New Zealand. From your DingyInternational. It is raining outside, not too hot this day. I am sitting in the house, having a coffee. I am still a little tired as we had a special canyoning day yesterday. Helicopter canyoning with 3 customers (will tell you later about that). And today I am off. And I realised that I am in New Zealand for more than 3 months now. It feels like ages and also like nothing.
Sometimes, sitting in the kayak on the lake or on a mountain in my cozy sleeping bag, emotions show up. Overwhelming. Too many at the same time. As I am still not able at all to feel this beautiful spot in total. As I am still not able to understand what makes me feel this happy, this energetic, this good. Is it about the nature? Is it about the people? Is it about the job? Is it about all those little adventures? Is it about everything?
I don’t know. But my belly is asking for more. More of being happy. More of being full of hope, full of ideas, full of dreams. Well belly. I’ll feed you, I’ll take care of you. No need to starve.
Hike – Sleep – Live
How to start the new week in the right way? Be off? Hike a mountain? Sleep outside? Get up early, enjoy the sunrise and hike? Allrighty, lets go for it! Roys Peak was calling!
After my intermediate trip on sunday, I decided to hike up Roys Peak again. With my sleeping bag, to stay on the peak at night. So Jerome dropped me off at the bottom of the Roys Peak at 7pm and I started to make my way up to the top. And I struggled a lot this time as my legs have been tired and my body was as well. So I stopped literally every 100 meters to take a breath and to yell to the peak as it seemed that I will never reach it this day 🙂
Anyway, I was able to manage it. And I made it in time, to see the sunset, to setup my sleeping bag and my spot to stay at night. Some food, a cold drink (and I am not talking about beer as I still dont’t drink, marathon is calling 🙂 ). And the stars above me, Wanaka ahead in the dark. Music on. Enjoy. Just me, the view and the fresh air. And a question of a friend of mine if I am afraid of the snakes 🙂 . Well, no snakes here, nothing to worry about. If you would be in Australia now, this would be the perfect time to worry. Not so in New Zealand – I love it 🙂
6am the next day, sunrise ahead. And Roys Peak already crowded. 20 people on the top of the mountain, just crazy! So I decided to move, to hike the Skyline track. 18km along the mountains. Up and down. Tired. Fast breathing. Reaching Mount Alpha. And having a nap for 30 minutes on top, Wanaka ahead. And afterwards I made my way down to Cardona Road. Sweating. Exhausted. Tired. Happy. And full of energy 🙂
And this time I hitchhiked back to Wanaka with some guys working at „The Cleaners“, a company which cleans up luxury houses. And I jumped into my car to drive to Amélies studio as she was about to leave it to travel around with her van soon. To be on the road again.
Free the boobs!
Here we go, this blog is not child friendly anymore haha. Maybe I need to add a checkbox from now on asking you if you are old enough to read my content 🙂 (and I think I should have done this earlier, just think about the Ore Stream Video and my „try to hitchhike“ jump 🙂 )
Tuesday, I was off, so was Amélie. And we decided to drive to Queenstown as she needed some stuff for her new Van (and this one is amazing, wooden interieur, ready to go for roadtrips and cozy). On our way to Queenstown, we stopped at the famous Cardrona Bra Fence to leave also a bra at this fence. What is the story behind the fence? (text ahead from „The Story Behind The Cardrona Bra Fence„)
No one is sure who started hanging bras along this famous fence, although rumor has it that it was a group of Wanaka women. One fateful day between Christmas 1998 and New Year’s Day 1999, four bras appeared hanging from a fence along Otago’s Cardrona Valley Road.The fence quickly became a famous attraction among tourists and Otago locals. By February 1999, the fence boasted over 60 hanging bras.
Today, hundreds of colorful bras adorn the fence. The property owners installed a donation box along the fence and have raised over $30,000 for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.
If you are visiting Otago, feel free to leave a bra or two of your own along the fence, which is open to additions at any time. If you do not want to give up the bra you are wearing you can mail a bra to the fence’s caretakers at 2125 Cardrona Valley Road, RD1, Wanaka, 9381. They promise to add it to the fence. And do not forget to leave a donation in the bright pink box when you visit to support breast cancer research and prevention in New Zealand.
Anyway, we left a bra each at the fence and Amélie donated some money as well to support the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. And then we made our way to Queenstown. Into town. Walking through a wonderful little park. Next destination: Ferg Burger! And this one is way tooooo popular and way tooo tasty. You will never ever go to Ferg Burger without waiting in a queue. Sometimes people wait 60 minutes or more to order a burger. This day, it took us „just“ 30 minutes in total to grab our burger and go to the lake. Surrounded by seagulls starving for a bite of the delightful peace of heaven. Sitting on a hollywood swing. And just enjoying the view, the food and the silence. Queenstown is a beautiful place to be, to go for some shopping, for a walk in town. Anyway, Wanakas energy is way more powerful 🙂
About energy, family and ego
Talking about energy, it is time to share some thoughts with you (as I always do to not just keep you updated with things that happen in Wanaka and New Zealand 🙂 )
For a certain reason, sometimes people are able to feel the energy of other people as soon as they see / meet them for the first time. They are able to feel the person, to feel the energy of this person, to decide weather this person is balanced and be at ease with himself / herself or not. Sometimes I feel the same as soon as I meet a new person. Sometimes I decide within seconds if I want to spend more time with this person and or not. Without knowing anything about this person in total. Quite interesting how our body, belly or whoever is able to decide that way. Perhaps you have experienced this too (thinking about a person enters the room and fills up the room with energy or sucks out the energy of everybody). And here we go, there are not only people filling the room and your body with energy. There are also people, who just suck out all of your energy and make you feel weak. As soon as they enter a room or get close to you, you can feel this weird aura. The change of energy in the room. Like a cloud coming up, with darkens the entire room. You can almost feel how they suck your energy. Whether it is intentional or not. Sometimes people make you feel really, really uncomfortable. And sometimes you can’t figure out why.
I was way too close to such a person years ago. I was way to weak to recognise that this person is just sucking all my energy out of me to fill up her own energy level. She tried to make herself strong while making me weak. And I was addicted to this person for a certain reason. I was starving for one hug, for being close to her. For one nice and kind word. And it took me a long journey, a long time and a lot of effort to realise this and to get over it. And now, I feel quite grateful for this time of my live. for struggeling that much. And for the lesson I learned out of it. To stay away from this kind of people, to don’t allow people to suck out my energy to make them feel better. And I also feel kinda sorry for them, as they are not able to build up their own energy level without being rude and selfish. Without this kind of experience, without this kind of person, I would maybe be not here right now. I would never have been on a husky kennel in Iceland, working with those wonderful animals. Spending my time on a frozen lake surrounded by huskies, howling in the middle of the night. And becoming a better, stronger and more mature person.
Sounds strange, but sometimes I am grateful for bad and sad moments as they made me stronger and better in the end 🙂 And made me a person who is able to share energy with others, to support others. To motivate others and maybe also to inspire others.
The solution for being surrounded by energy-sucking people? Stay away from them. As best as possible. Don’t let them get too close to you. Bodywise. Soulwise. Lovewise. Keep your energy for those people, who fill you up with more energy, with more something special. And don’t waste your time with energy guzzlers. Be somebody who shares energy.
To add some good and new energy, lets have a short talk about the connection between family and ego. Family is one of the most important things in life. Family makes you feel home. Makes you feel strong. Makes you feel worth. Normally. But family is also able to make you feel weak, small and family is able to drive you crazy. Family will always be there. Will always affect you in a certain way. For me family was and still is important. Not all members of my family at all, as some of them are just sucking energy, being way too selfish and not interested in anyone else. Anyway, I want to spend my attention and energy to those who fill me up with energy, who are honest, sincere and kind.
So my brother is. The brother I spend the most time of my childhood with. We went through some serious shit together. To a childhood with pain, ignorance motherwise and also with a lot of being on our own. And then we moved on after school. We have distanced ourselves from each other in a certain way. Building up our lifes without each other. And had very very rare contact. And for a certain reason, my ego was way to big to call him. To message him. To keep this relationship. I was of the opinion that if he wanted to have contact with me, he could get in touch. And maybe he was of the opinion as well. Fu**ing ego. What is it about you being so selfish, so wrong, so childish? This way of thinking is the perfect start to loose a person. An important person. A member of your own family. Well, after several years, we managed it to stay in touch again, to share our lives again, to support each other again. To face the past together and to go through it as a team. As brothers. As family.
What do I want to tell you? Never ever listen to your ego. This one is not a good guide. Sometimes our ego is way too big, way too wrong, way too selfish. Don’t lock people out of your life just because of your ego. If I had continued to behave like this, I would still not have had any contact with my brother. And I would have missed out on a lot of beautiful experiences.
So fuck off ego! 🙂 You are not allowed to make my decisions, you might be still in my backpag. I am the one who has to carry you. So I will decide which way we go.
Canyoning – go wild, go big, go friends!
Busy times in Wanaka, busy times in canyoning. As we are only two guides at the moment, there is a lot of canyoning going on at the moment and day offs are rare. The other day, I was supposed to guide a beginner trip with a couple and I met them in front of the I-Site in Wanaka at 9 am. And for a certain reason, I remember the face of the girl and as we had a first talk, she told me that she is working at Kai Whaka Pai – the best place in town for a drink and a burger! Laura and her boyfriend Brendan met in Australia and decided to stay in Wanaka longtermwise. And they decided to spend the birthday of Brendan going canyoning with me. What a nice, easy-going and fantastic day with after canyoning lunch at our terrace in Wanaka. And in the evening, they invited me to spend some time with them and some friends in their house. And as Laura is no friend of foot pictures at all, we dids not hesitate to tease her a little bit of course 🙂
Big day on saturday. Helicopter canyoning with three customers. Out of bed at 5am. Pick them up at 6.50 am. And I was supposed to be the lead guide that day as I have already been in the canyon „Wai Rata“. And Jerome supported me all the way through the canyon as well. And this time it felt much more comfortable to be in the canyon. Up all the way with the helicopter, fun and fast way to go up the mountain and to save a lot of energy for the real adventure!
Wai Rata itself is a quite nice canyon where you can rappel a lot, sections up to 60 meters, partly demanding if you have high water flows, shallow jumps. And you can spend several hours with your customers insinde the canyon. No incidents, no accidents. Just fun and happy customers. Back at base at 6pm. Cleaning up. Back home. For a little nap (and this was from 7pm to 10 pm haha).
Just check out the content from Wai Rata and enjoy the view!
What else to say?
This blog was meant to be „just“ a weekly update about my experiences in New Zealand. To keep you updated. To share with you my experiences and adventures. But it is more than that. The blog became like a collection of my past, my presence and my future. A collection of my emotions and thoughts. Sometimes quite superficial, sometimes deep and serious. And I am happy to share all of this stuff with you.
I hope you have great weekend, great adventures ahead and I will keep you updated.
Cheers
Your DingyInternational
Felix
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