Report from 24 February to 19 March 2024
From: New Zealand
Wellington
Blenheim
Wharariki Beach
- Converter
As Janine wrote in her last post, we still have a few things to do. Our converter is not working properly.
We have a large battery under the kitchen (like a large car battery), which is charged via a solar panel on the roof.
If we want to use devices that require a socket, we have the converter that provides (~) 230V from the (-) 12V to two sockets. So we can also charge the laptop when we're travelling.
The problem is that the converter does not always switch on when you press the button that should switch it on. Sometimes you have to press it several times. Then you just don't know if it's switched on or if you've accidentally switched it off again. And our laptop doesn't have an indicator to show that it's charging. So we always have to boot up the laptop to see if it's charging or not.
Fortunately, while sorting through the papers in the car, we found the receipt from the purchase of the Converters. At that time, the purchase had been almost a year ago, so we quickly went to the nearest chain shop.
It turns out that we can exchange the device without any problems as we have a one-year warranty, but it is not available in the shop.
However, the branch manager was kind enough to call the branches on our way and ask if the device was available. So he organised for us to be able to exchange the converter here in Wellington, even though the deadline of one year has now been exceeded by a few weeks. Now we just have to get the disc repaired, then Günni is fixed again.
- The boat
We want to spend the night before the ferry on the coast. There is a car park here on a cliff where we are allowed to park. We've heard that you can dive well here, but it's one of the windiest places in New Zealand. Although the weather is good, the waves are crashing against the rocky coast.
When we arrive, we soon notice a dot in the bay.
At first I thought it was a rock, but it moved with the waves... So it wasn't a rock. But it was actually too big to be a buoy.
During our sailing trip we also saw large high seas buoys/land marks, which were larger, but that wasn't it either.
The curious thing out there kept attracting my attention.
Wasn't there something moving on that thing? Is that a seal? Is something like a flag just appearing there? Haven't I seen it before or did it just get there?
Suddenly the police drive into the car park with their blue lights flashing, the two officers jump out of the car frantically, look in the direction of the object in question and start running across the rough stone beach.
Somewhere between the second and fourth car, everyone in the car park realised that it wasn't just a seal out there.
It was later confirmed that there were divers in the bay. A group of 5 people who wanted to see the exciting nature underwater until a wave overturned their boat. Even together they had no chance of turning the boat back. One of the divers climbed onto the belly of the god to attach a flag to it so that they could be better recognised.
And together they tried to stop the boat from being swept against the rocks.
It took a while for a large coastguard boat to be shot down. But that one. Was too big for the small bay. It let out another dinghy which tried to rescue the smokers.
Fortunately, they had good equipment. They had good equipment and enough bottles so that they could comb the water well.
When even with the help of the coastguard the boat could not be turned, all the divers were taken on board and the frag was towed away.
It was probably turned back in the harbour with one of the large cranes and brought ashore. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already out at sea again.
Fortunately, nobody was hurt.
In the car park, we meet two German craftsmen who are on their way and are invited to play a round of wood-ball skittles with a piece of breakfast steak. And to say goodbye, I paint a picture of the cartoon character "Werner" with sun cream on his back, as his aim is to get sunburnt that day.
- Storm in my head.
After the ferry journey, we stopped off in Blenheim. We wanted to look for work here. At first we wanted to find something at least for board and lodging, but actually we wanted to work for money.
After all, we came to the country with a work and travel visa. And over the last few months we've realised that we need a routine again.
We felt burnt out and exhausted. And our accounts were also slowly running out. So we started working.
That way we can get some peace, quiet and money. You can also get to know the locals better and have completely new experiences. The problem is that I'm homesick.
An emotional dilemma.
I want to go home, visit my grandma, see my friends and family again,...
To name just a few.
I could take a holiday home and fly home for a short time. But I don't even want to fly around the whole planet if I don't have to. But there is still soooo much to see in New Zealand. Japan is also still on the list of countries I really want to see. In the meantime, we've also thought about flying to Australia, or should one earn better money than in New Zealand. But I can't do all that quickly enough. I also don't have the stamina right now.
So just stay here and look for work. Just come down and see what time brings. But then it will be a long time before I see my loved ones back home.
Maybe I should just spend a few days on the beach and go on holiday. Then take a leisurely look at the things that are most important to me and then just go home.
But what if I realise after a short time that I haven't finished my trip. do I pack my things and set off again?
Maybe the holiday home after all?
I am torn...
I waver between the possibilities and don't know what to do, I can justify everything well and find arguments in favour of each side that I can't point out against the others.
For example: if I fly home now and go on holiday and Dan realises that I want to stay at home. Then I might still have a van here with things in it that need to be sold or gone. Also, I haven't ticked off some of my highlights yet.
I realise that I need time for myself to deal with it.
During this time, I'm starting to get my application documents up to scratch, among other things. Whether I'm in New Zealand or Germany, I'll probably need them soon.
Oh, and the kitchen also needs some repairs.
-From the kitchen to the regatta
I want to repair and improve our kitchen. A support for the superstructure is broken and needs to be repaired. Along the way, I'm also trying to make the other side more stable. I'm looking for offers for free wood on a platform that is similar to classified adverts. Shops often have pallets that they are no longer using, for example, and these are then offered for free collection. I see an advert from someone who is also offering some other boards. When I get to him, I realise that he is a German who came here over 3 years ago and just stayed. Finn not only offers me the boards he still has, but I can also use his tools, access the wifi and carry out the conversion in his driveway. So I spend several days at his place and work on the kitchen. In the end, I not only improved our kitchen and found out that it had already been remodelled at least 4 times, but I also made a new friend. We always chat about the experiences we've had. When he heard that we had been sailing, he invited us to a regatta.
So we meet up with him a few days later and drive to a harbour nearby. A friend of his has a boat here and there are regular regattas in the town. A regatta is a boat race, but we're not quite sure how it works. On the way to the starting point, we are told what we have to do. One of us steers the boat and one coordinates the sails. And our job is to pull the right rope on command like there's no tomorrow. After all, we want to be faster than the others.
During the straight stretches, we all sit on one side of the boat to work as a counterweight for the sail, with the boat at quite an angle.
and even though we lost quite a lot of speed when we had to avoid a ferry, we still ended up in second place.
As far as I understand it, the boats were monitored to see how long they took to cover the specified distance. This was then offset against a mobile phone cape. The Handycape is a time bonus or malus so that a small boat also has an advantage over the larger boats. And at the end, an adjusted time is calculated. Penalty times can also be included here for offences.
A few days later we meet up with Finn to cook and chat together.
He gives us lots of tips on what else we can do in New Zealand.
- Puzzle
When I'm working on my documents on my laptop or just want to enjoy the wifi, I like to sit in the library. There's also a small café and lots of cosy seats with electricity.
One day in the city, Janine met Jan and Lea from our Allmann gang again. And because she knew I was in the library round the corner, she wanted to say hello. I was sitting at a table near the puzzle table.
A puzzle was provided for the community. Anyone who wanted to could help out here.
And while we were talking, we sat down at the puzzle and put a few pieces in the ramen that was there.
It was quite a difficult painting with lots of coloured patches. An employee approached us and said that he had put out the most difficult puzzle and wanted to see how long it would take... Normally the puzzles are finished within a day, but this one has been there for a week and it's barely more than the edge pieces.
That's when our ambition took hold. But we hadn't achieved much by the time the library closed at 6pm.
The next day we meet again, determined to complete the puzzle. In the end, it took 3.5 days to complete the puzzle. We captured some of the process with the GoPro. You should check out the photo album at the end of the post, there is a summary in video form.
- Kayak tour
We were also able to hire a kayak from Finn, including the equipment. There are also companies that rent you such kayaks, we did that at Abel Tasman National Park, but they are not very cheap, and of course they tell you where you can paddle around. Not every lake has a provider. We decide to go to Nelson Lakes to drive. The lake is very popular for hiking, and there is a path that leads around it. We can take a shortcut with the kayak and go right across it. We want to paddle the length of the lake from the landing stage and see a small waterfall at the other end. the weather is just perfect for this. There is virtually no wind and no waves. The sun is shining, but it's a bit chilly, so we can put on long clothes without any problems to avoid getting burnt, but it doesn't get too warm in the boat either, and the neoprene skirt is there to prevent water getting into the kayak.
So let's go!
We put the kayak in the water and jump in and are super happy. until we realise that we don't know exactly where the waterfall is on the lake we want to go to. So we stop again and look at the map... Yes, we paddled in the wrong direction (into a side arm).
But now we set off in a good mood and in the right direction. But we see it as a little sporting interlude, and on the way back we have the wind behind us.
We take a look at one side of the river and plan to cycle along the other side on the way back. After a while, we recognise the junction leading to the Fürth waterfall. We quickly pull the kayak ashore and walk the 10 minutes to the waterfall.
Unfortunately, it's nothing special (we've already seen so many waterfalls in the last few months) but it's nice for in between. A small waterfall in the dense forest.
We make our way back so that we still have time to paddle.
As we are about to set off, we can still see an all swimming through the seaweed below us.
After a few metres, we notice that the wind has shifted. So no tailwind after all, as we thought. We set our course on the second bank.
but the wind continues to blow, and is getting stronger and stronger...
Again and again it is not enough to steer with the rudder and we have to make a few strokes on one side only to turn the kayak away from the shore. Making progress becomes increasingly difficult. More and more often the wind wants to push us into the bank. And that's not all, the wind also brings waves. little by little we try to orientate ourselves less towards the shore and more towards the waves, as they increasingly threaten to knock us over.
The trip no longer has much in common with the way it used to be. Smaller showers keep coming, while the waves we plough through occasionally reach my shoulder.
It is exhausting to keep on course and we decide to take a break. getting to the shore is not difficult and we manage to get out fast enough to avoid capsizing.
We can rest for a moment on the stony beach. We take the opportunity to make up a few metres on land. We carry the kayak a little way over land.
But we find it a lot harder to get in and start against the waves and wind. the first time we try, we are on the verge of capsizing and are simply thrown back onto the beach. but the second time we make it.
Our new plan is to keep shovelling water behind the keel until we are back on the other bank. the trees there give us a lee, so neither wind nor waves. all we have to do is paddle almost directly against the wind.
We attached the GoPro to the boat during the short break, so you can get an impression of what it was like in the photo album .
After a while we arrive at the shore we were aiming for and the wind and the waves die down. we are both very happy that we made it and that we experienced it together. Alone it would have been much more frightening, but we knew that maybe the mobile phone would break when we went for a swim, but together we would make it out of here again.
In the waves, I imagined how the people at the car park would react - after all, there was no one else on the lake for miles around. They should have seen us clearly. But the closer we get to the jetty, the clearer it becomes: from the shore, you can't see what kind of swell is out there.
- Tremper
Janine travels on to the next town, Nelson, a few days before me. As I'm keeping the car, she hitches a lift again.
During my days travelling around Blenheim, I keep seeing people hitchhiking. Back in Thailand, when we were hitchhiking together, we decided to make sure we picked up other hitchhikers. Here in New Zealand we have a car, so we were able to start realising our plans. For example, I met a young Japanese family who have been hitchhiking around the world for 6 years now, and for 2 years there have been three of them. I also gave them a recommendation where they could stay overnight because it was late and where they could go next. And when they heard that I really wanted to visit their country, they immediately said that I should visit them or their parents in Japan. We have always planned to take pictures with the people, but unfortunately we keep forgetting.
Once I gave someone a lift who told me that he was from Australia and wanted to meet up with a mate from the USA in a town 20 kilometres away. When I saw another hitchhiker shortly afterwards, I just thought to myself, "Why not, three people can fit in the front" and pulled over. Turns out it's the mate who was also on his way to the meeting point. So I drove them there together.
It's always nice to get to know people and their stories. And it takes so little effort to take someone with you.
But above all, it's nice to know that you can tear like this.
- Wharariki Beach
After travelling on from Blenheim to Nelson, it wasn't far to a beach that is actually very well known, even if most people don't know that they have seen it hundreds of times.
So I set off to get exactly there.
Again, you should check out the pictures in the photo album at the end.
Two of the standard Windows background images were taken on this beach. In addition to the section used here by Microsoft, there is much more to see. The water has eaten caves and passages through the rocks. You can even walk through some of them. An impressive beach landscape.
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