New Zealand Weekly Update #27

24th of April until 30th of April 2023

Approximate reading time: 8 minutes

Lets get it started

Alread monday afternoon in Wanaka, I am late with my weekly update. Well, I was on a 2 day overnight kayak trip at Mou Waho Island, which is about 15km away from Wanaka at the Lake Wanaka. I’ll tell you next week about this adventure – it was awesome, quiet, sunny, lonesome and memorable. And I still have sore muscles, shoulders and a smile in my face 🙂
The week started pretty good since I was on a two day overnight hike from sunday last week until monday this week. I’ll tell you about it in a few moments. The rest of the week was busy, sometimes pretty quite and also full of just me moments, which have been really necessary for me as well.

Liverpool Hut Hike

Like I told you already last week, I planned to be on a two day hike overnight at the Liverpool Hut, which can be found in the Matukituki Valley. It’s the same valley where you can find the French Ridge Hut as well, which we did a couple of weeks ago with some friends. This time, I decided to hike alone. So I made my way up with my car to the Rasperry Car Park at the Matukituki Valley. And started hiking into this beautiful valley again. Hiking alone and passing by a lot of cows (sometimes it has been just 1 or two meters between them and me, and some of you guys know that I am a little afraid of cows, they know that we eat them…just sayin…). And I made my way to Mt. Aspiring Hut, the last hut in the valley before you can hike up the mountains. And there have been some keas around some bikes, playing with the seats, picking on them and being just cheeky. Those birds are really smart and not really shy. As I recorded some videos of them, they moved quite close to me and in the end, it has been just 30cm between them and me. There is a story about a kea, who locked a hiker in a toilet from the outside at Mueller Hut – crazy and cheeky little fellas 🙂
After Mt. Aspiring Hut, I made my way even more into the valley, it started to rain (and of course I was again without a rain jacket – smart german guy…). And I started to make my way up to the hut. It was no hiking anymore. It was more like climbing since the way up to the hut was really steep, even more steep then the French Ridge Hut Hike. Lots of roots, it was slippery, a little muddy and again, steep as fu**. So I stopped almost every 5 minutes to have a little rest. Fortunatelly, most of the way was no in the forrest, so there was less rain, but my jacked was already really wet though 🙂
After about 90 minutes, the forrest opend up and I saw the hut and the valley. After some more slippery minutes, I arrived at the hut about 2pm. And since then it did not stopped raining until the next morning. I met some guys in the hut from Queemstown and we just had some talks, some tee and enjoyed the silence in the middle of nowhere. The girl Kirsty, who is working in a bank in Queenstown just told me, that more than 20% of the houses are empty, even though the are owned by people. More than 20% ! In Wanak it is even more… and there a people around who are looking desperatly for a room or a place to stay. This is ridiculous! And a big shame as well.
Anyway, I warmed myself up a little bit in the hut and after some dinner, I decided to take a rest and had some sleep until the next morning.

And some hours later, the sound of Keas singing woke me up. And the sun was shining. No rain. And a beautiful view to the valley, to Mt. Aspiring Hut. Watching this landscape and watching the Keas flying around felt really peaceful, calming and amazing. Even though I have been in this valley already quite often (since some of our canyons are located in this valley), it is still very impressive and stunning. And there are still some hikes left – so I reckon this was not the last time I have been there 🙂
The way down was still a little demanding since it was really slippery and you have to manage to walk over some really big and steep rocks without loosing your balance. And after I made my way down, some Keas were waiting already at the bridge which you have to cross on your way back, watching me and trying to get to my backpack while I was refilling my water bottle… 🙂 Cheeky little fellas 🙂

Lonely Wanaka

The other day, I just read a sentence of a traveller blog. It was written: „The more you travel, the more lonesome you are from time to time“. And I agree with that. Of course you meet new people. You hear new stories. Exciting stories. Inspiring stories. You hear about unique memories. You tell your stories as well and you might have some special and memorable experiences with these new people. You share a unique and special time.
And sometmes, that’s it. Either you leave. Or those people leave. Or to say it in different words, you move on. Or they move on. And you might never see again. It is just the memories which is left.
And then you meet new people and you go again. Same procedure. Different experiences (or sometimes comparable ones). And again. And again. New people. New people. New people.
And with some of those people you try to stay in touch, with most of them you just have small talk conversations via Whatsapp.
And the more you go on with this kind of lifestyle, the more exhausting it can be from time to time, since you tell your story again and again and again. And even though you meet even more people, you hear more stories, you feel more inspired, sometimes you just get tired. And you feel lonely from time to time. Since you can not compare those „friendships“ with your friendships at home. With people, who know you for years and years. Who know your story or most of your story. Who know your good and bad, your awesome and your sad times. Who really, really know you. And who are still or especially because of all those stories your friends. Who supported you whenever it was necessary. People, who don’t just turn around and leave when it gets a little more difficult or when it comes to a discussion. People who stay, even though there are far, far away. People, who are really interested in you as a person. Interested in the strong and weak. In the good and bad. People, who give without asking for something in return.
How does travelling and living far away from home feels like? Most of the times, really awesome, since you make heaps of new experiences. Since you see heaps of new places, amazing nature. Meet great people. And since you grow. And you fill up your mental backpack with so many good and worth things.

But – it sometimes feels also really, really lonesome. Since most of the people you love and you miss are far, far away. Since there is a difference between a Whatsapp talk and a real talk. Since there is a difference between a „sending lots of hugs“ and a hug in person. Since you can not replace a longterm friendship, which was built up for years and years with a short term friendship, just because of some unique and special adventures abroad.
And this week, I had some lonely days even though I am surrounded by great, inspiring and awesome people. Of course I miss a lot of my friends back home, I miss my family and I can not (and of course I don’t want to) replace them with someone else.
So here we go. Travelling is awesome. It is amazing. It is new. It is exiting. It is sometimes being on a quite lake with your kayak, enjoying the sun and being just with yourself and the nature, the silence and the weird feeling of being at the perfect spot.
But, in the same moment, it is about missing the most important people and not being able share those special moments with them in person. Sitting together, next to each other, giving a toast with cheap beer on the top of the mountain, watching the sunset together. But since I always think about friends and family while being alone having those special memories, it is never about being lonely… 🙂
So guys, prepare yourself for a big hug when we meet again in person – it has been way too long 🙂

What else to say?

Next saturday, I will go for another run, this time a halfmarathon. The Southern Lake Halfmarathon from Cardrona to Pembroke Park in Wanaka . this time it is all about the time. I try to run my first official 21.1km run and I try to run it in less than 1h and 45 mins. We’ll see how it goes (or runs 😉 ).
Speaking about leaving people again, unfortunatelly one of our friedns left Wanaka on Sunday, Sophie, the girl who smuggled this lovely little peace of paper in my bag before I hiked to Earnslaw Burn some weeks ago. So we ended up with some friends having a drink at a pub in town, playing some kicker (and just laughed our asses of) and just had some good talks (this time without swimming naked in the lake 🙂 ).
Well, I hope we meet again anywhere any time 🙂

Speak to you next week guys, make yourself an awesome week around your friends and family. And of course enjoy the time withourself as well, since you have to spend most of the time just with one person – yourself 🙂

Your DingyInternational
Felix