Kat's travels and adventures

After the first day we had together since I left Germany 5 month before, we spent a few days in Christchurch before we left to Oamaru and Dunedin. Mom and Dad still didn't completely got over their Jetlag yet and Christchurch is a nice place to stay for a while.   The gondola up the hills of Christchurch is a very nice experience and the view from the top   simply amazing. On our way down we saw a wild Kea, the first one Mom and Dad ever saw.  A little bit like the trams in Lisbon- the Christchurch tram tour. We had a lot of fun, hopped on and off a couple times and saw as much from the city as we could. The botanical gardens were another must-see, especially the New Zealand gardens. This tree makes mom and me look even smaller than we already are.. We stayed one night in Oamaru so Dad didn't had do drive all the way to Dunedin at once. In the evening we tried to see some wild Little Blue Penguins, but it was freezing cold and too dark to see anything...

After I tried to get Mom and Dad to visit me in New Zealand for so many times, they finally decided to come over for my birthday. It completely mixed up my plans, but I was still very happy that they'd use up almost all of they holidays and go on this crazy 26 hour flight to be with me for my 19th birthday. They arrived on easter monday, April 22, but as I was working I could only arrive in Christchurch 2 days after. I was surprised how I couldn't realize until then how much I missed them... The next day we already started our trip with a drive up to Kaikoura to swim with wild dolphins. I've been to Kaikoura before, but the last time I only did a Whale Watch tour as I was sick and I'm not a good swimmer. Driving from Christchurch to Kaikoura takes about 3 hours, and we decided for the morning tour that had best weather and sea conditions. We started at 5am and arrived at about 8am. Kaikoura is not only known for all the whales and dolphins, but also for the many ...

After I couldn't find work after 1,5 weeks in Blenheim my time to work somewhere got too short to wait much longer. My hostel was advertised as that they help you to find a job, but I didn't see that they put any effort in. I went to all job agencies, of which none had any work to offer. After one week I moved to another hostel where they told me the grape picking season is about to end and no more workers are needed. The only alternative was working in a factory, but to be honest spending about 60 hours of work inside standing around and packing food in tins is not worth your limited time in New Zealand.  It didn't look like I could find a job, so I applied at various places on the North Island, willing to fly up to the first place that guarantees me a job. After just two days I already found both a hostel and a job. I ended up flying to Napier, located in Hawke's Bay.  My work started the day after my flight and I was working 5 and a half days a week, but I tried...

I decided to hop off in Blenheim, hoping to find a harvest job here. Its busy season right now, and chances are high. I’m staying in a workers hostel again. This one   coorporates with some local wineries and factorys and thus gets some exclusive aswell as spontaneous job offers. With not much happening on the weekend, I finally got some time to relax and get better after my cold. On Sunday I went out for a walk across town, curious to see the Opawa river and buying some groceries. Sadly, the river is very hard to access as it is mostly on people’s properties. On my way back I gladly found the local judo club!! I'll join their training this evening as they only train once a week.   Three horses on a paddock on the way to Opawa river were really curious about what I'm doing...  I am usually not a big fan of black&white pictures in general, and on my own photos 99% of the time but I really like this one!   One of the shettys of the pony club next doo...

Whale hello there :) Kaikoura is the last scenic spot on the Kiwi Experience tour, afterwards the way goes up to Auckland again.  As the incident in Christchurch happened quite late, my time in Kaikoura was very carefree. After the rush of checking in, I went to the whale watching tour. As I was still petty sick that day and I’m not a good swimmer anyway, I didn’t want to do the dolphin encounter/swimming tour. At the end of the whale watching tour I was extremely exhausted from just watching that I probably would have rather drowned than swimmed in the dolphin encounter. Despite from getting very, very motionsick on the boat and this (not normal for me) was about the second time ever I got motionsick on a boat, it was awesome! We not only saw two sperm whales what the tour is all about, but also a group of Hector’s dolphins (literally one of the cutest animal species ever!!) and various species of birds and a few fur seals doing weird stuff. Hector’s Dolphin is the worlds ...

 Haere mai to Christchurch! We arrived in Christchurch on 13th of March  in the early afternoon and unlike me most people only had one night in Christchurch, so I joined a lady from Uruguay walking and exploring Christchurch, seeing the monuments and parks and everything.  Christchurch is very spread out city after the earthquakes. The last big earthquakes were back in 2010 and Feb 2011, and they are still reconstructing the buildings that suffered major damage, eg the cathedral. After those two earthquakes the city council decided to spread out the city so less buildings will be in the centre of the next earthquake and less damage.    They started recording earthquakes in Christchurch in the mid 1800s and since then they had a earthquake of minimum 5 in magnitude every 5-10 years. That was the very special atmosphere I realized during my stay. Christchurch is located right above the tectonic plates and earthquake after earthquake hits, but th...