canyoning

went canyoning yesterday. had a huge breakfast (was kinda required) and then i went to the meeting point downtown. james - awesome guy - was my guide. the drive to the nigel (stream where we did the canyoning) took about 45 min and then we sorted out all our gear and got changed. we then walked for about half an hour to the starting point.it was great! absolutely fantastic. a mixture of swimming, wading, walking, sliding and of course abseiling in the canyon - not to mention the jumps!!! =) the canyon was mostly between two and three metres wide - great fun, sometimes scary too... =) we were a group of 6 including the guide... there were, i think, 3 groups in the whole. our group was the the guide (james), an american and a british couple and me. anyways, the water level was already high when we got there - 12. on average its below 10, but since it had been snowing and was raining like hell the water had risen to 15 within the few hours we were in the canyon - gives you even more of a thrill!!! =)the water was thundering like hell!
just after we had started (after our very first abseil) there was a decision to be made: if we wanted to jump or abseil on the next 'rock'. the first jump was 12 metres high, and i actually really wanted to do it, but then i decided not to because the rock was too pertruding down at the bottom and i didnt know if i would manage to jump far enough... so i abseiled like 3 to a ridge and then jumped down from there... which was still 9 metres - didnt look like it, though, would have guessed 6. anyways, it still was freaky, because the pool you have to land in is only 3 metres in diametre... =) but its so much fun, seriously!!! =)the jumping itself is actually less terrifying than falling through in the air thinking 'what have i done!?'...
the water was bloody freezing! james told me it was about 13 degrees, so even with all your gear on, youre still bloody cold after 4 hours or more!!! and after 2 hours already i desperately had to go to the toilet... but what could i do?! all i can say now it that my blsdder suffered for like 3 hours! anyways, the most exciting moment was when i had to abseil and then slide down a rock as the last person... when i fell into the pool i wanted to climb onto a rock at the side where the others were waiting when i slipped... the water swepped me away of course - it was pretty strong. i was drifting towards a spot where the currents wasnt fun anymore and which we didnt pass in the water and was already on the edge when james leapt after me... just in time!!! him and one of the others had to pull me back... all the time i basically couldnt do anything cos my limbs were so stiff from the cold... that was a nice adventure, though! =) at the end of the day we finished off our 'tour' with a last jump - 7,5 metres high and which i did twice - and a flying fox (seilbaehnli) we were finished at about 4.30 and still had to walk down to the vans and got changed. there was also late lunch waiting for us and a nice cup of tea. =)it was bloody awesome!!! all the way back to wanaka i was talking to this australian from one of the other groups. hes half australian and half mexican and hes the hottest guy ive ever seen - let alone spoken to!!! gorgeous. =)

anyways, the evening was really nice as well because i joined ramon and courtney (managers) and some others upstairs, had nice dinner and watched starwars episode 5... and of course i was pestering everybody with questions cos ive never seen any of the starwars movies before...=) went to bed after a long, exhausting, but gorgeous day!!!

p.s. random thing: ive already been asked heaps of times if i was south african?! whatever.

a christmas like no other

ok, i dont even really know where to start because so many things have happened over christmas. on the 24th was the last time i updated my blog, so not really such a long time ago, aye?!

anyways, the day before raymond (manager) poured like 2 bucket loads of water over my head during the water battle, so i thought it was pay back time... i bought water bombs and when i got back to the hostel after having used the internet downtown i got courtney (other manager) as an accomplice... we prepared the water bombs and went into hiding... unfortunately raymond and lee got wind of it and stole our whole stack without us noticing - nice. the guys ended up being on the roof with lots of munition... i got a pan instead, but then the fight turned really dirty: they got the water hose (wasserschluuch, in case of fire!!!). they kinda had the advantage now... but in the end all four of us were absolutely drenched in water (photo...) it was definitely worth it, though... =) hmmm, after that bit of fun i actually got active and aterted baking a zopf for christmas... it turned out pretty good - unlike the last zopf fiasko... =) after the zopf me and a couple of other people (2 swiss and 2 germans) made a lovely dinner together and really enjoyed it with a glass of wine... while we were cooking we actually also had some champagne and sang christmas carols really loudly! =) so after dinner there was this THING going on at the hostel: apparantly they do it every once in a while where they drink 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes... thats like 3 litres...lots of fun! =) we started drinking and the atmosphere was great... the cool thing about this hostel is that people really get together and then youre basically just one big group... anyways, after half an hour you start feeling it a bit... half way through the competition i backed out: im sure i could have done it all the way through, but i just thought that it wasnt worth the pain in the morning - which was bad enough... =) so yup, the evening was great, fun people... after those 100 minutes we all still wanted to go to the pub, since they all closed at midnight, since it was christmas eve. though we didnt really stay there long. one of the german girls, larissa, wasnt feeling too well (cos she made it to the end of the 100 minutes) so we took her home again - with some trouble. =) after that eventful night i still wasnt tired at all: we talked for ages having some tea and water... but at 3 am everyone basically went to bed. since i knew there would be no chance of calling my fam in the morning (cos there were like 15 to 20 germans/austrians/swiss people who would all be calling at the same time) i decided to call then. 3 am. =) talked to thea and dave for a while, which was lovely since i hadnt talked to her since i left... like 7 weeks?! was really good. =) then i called up the rest of the family staying in davos... was weird trying to emagine them having christmas that night, cos i coulnt really picture it... it was funny... =) then i finally went to bed at 4.30.

christmas day:
got, up, not feeling too good. =) but in the end i managed and ursula and larissa (the two german girls) and i went for a small road trip to queenstown. we had to drop larissa off cos she would be flying to auckland in the late afternoon... the drive was lovely and i actually enjoyed not being the driver for a change... when we got there we decided to go to the gondola station and walked up the track. only after like 5 minutes larissa refused to go on with her hangover, but with much persuation from ursula and my part we got her going again... the view was stunning as always at the top,but unfortunatly we didnt have time to do the luge (kind of bobbahn) because time was a bit pressing, so we just had a drink. when we got down by gondola we were all so freekin starving that we just had to get some food - which was pretty hard to find (even in queenstown) since it was christmas day. we found this nice chinese restaurant and the food was gone in a second! =) after that devine and healthy meal ursula and i dropped larissa off the airport... on the drive home we were so tired! =) when we got back to the hostel the kitchen was sooooo buisy!!! we had a pot luck dinner, which ment that everyone made a dish for tonight... i made the zop and together with the two other swiss people we made some mailaenderli as well... =) there was EVERYTHING you could think of: sushi to spaetzli, to roeschti, to swedish food, to turkey and dessert... DEVINE. imagine this feast as a backpacker!!! =) so, yup, i also dressed nicely - which felt soooo good after such a long time! =) even though hardly anyone else bothered and i was completely overdressed... was nice. =) after that gorgeous dinner we went over to the pressies!!! =) we each got a 5$ gift and then put it under the christmas tree. then we could each choose a present in turn. was awesome, there some really funny gifts as well... i got two packages of gummi worms. =) some time after the present exchange we kind of all ended up in the kitchen to play this game with wipped cream: you put some on the back of your hand and hit the fingers with your other hand so that the cream soares into the air and then you technically have to catch it in your mouth - really really hard, though!!! especially if every one is already pissed... =) so, yup, the wipped cream was so much fun! you should have seen the kitchen, though, such a mess, it was EVERYWHERE . even on the ceiling.. =) anyways, if you think this was crazy, just have a look at the pictures... one of the 5$ pressies was a water slide for children. so some people got that out and installed it in the garden - just for shits and giggles. but then what happened was that everyone got outside and we got the water hose again - it was freekin slippery!!! we just started sliding down there one after another, in our togs, underwear or even clothes... wicked!!! =) because it went down hill and the water was running all the time the grass became really slippery as well so if had a go you ended up sliding like 10 metres (with the slide only being like 3 metres long) - with a nice rose bush at the end. =) at one point someone even got soap and poured it on the slide which made it hilarious!!! =) lots of fun... it was freezing, though... the summer is really crap at the moment... but that couldnt really keep us from doing it, aye?! after that exhausting piece of action the remaining people went and had aother go at all the food we still had left... gorgeous!!! =) but it wasnt too long, when i nearly fell asleep on one of the armchairs, so i decided to go to bed - FREEKIN HAPPY!!! =)
this christmas couldnt have been any better! =)

yesterday:
i dont think ill ever be able to top that (christmas). anyways, yesterday we hardly did anything... two americans, one guy from the uk and i wanted to go to the movies... originally 'happy feet' but that was sold out so they decided to go and see 'eragon'. i of course said i couldnt (dont worry, mi, havent forgotten about you and could never ever go and see it without you... =). after i explained the fact that i would see that with my friend at home we decided to see 'casino royale', which i must say i quite like! just one more thing: i really couldnt get a grip and felt so ashamed of being swiss on one hand and being pissed cos they freekin take the mickey out of swiss people and the cliche on the other hand, when the swiss banker shows up in the movie - TWICE. was really hilarious...

that was it. hope you had a great christmas - just like me. =)

before christmas day

tuesday:
it was a rathr long drive from oamaru to alexandra. when i got to that backpacker i basically just checked in and then headed to cromwell where i met up with the boys i chaperoned last june from my exchange organisation. we played golf which was pretty fun. my drive is actually really good, i suck at putting, though... we fooled around with the golf karts as well, which was awesome!!! =) had fish'n'chis and then i headed back to alexandra where i went to bed rather early - exhausted from the day's driving...

wednesday & thursday:
it had been the most horrible night's sleep i have EVER had in my life!!! i was in adorm with 5 sloppy guys. one of them for example was a 60-year-old drunk guy who snoared the whole night through - while i was awake!!! had my earplugs in, though the sound was like a freekin thunderstorm 2 meters from your ears!!! the smell was aweful as well: with all the alcoholics and smokers in the room... the manager, too, was drunk all the time, couldnt string two words together and smelled like hell!!! so you can magine that i was pretty grateful when the boys (flo, chris and elias) came up with the idea of seeing a movie in queenstown... so we ( -I- so proud to say that!!! =)drove to queenstown which is like an hour drive and went to see a movie... borat was our priority, but it wasnt on until later that afternoon so we saw 'the holiday' instead. jack blsck, cameron diaz, kate winslet and jude law. i really liked it... i mean, the ending is completely obvious, but its a nice - probably girlie - movie. it also really got meinto the christmasy mood - which i had not been in before and havent been since. =) cos when we got out of the movies it was the middle of the afternoon and summer. though the weather has been a bit funny. its supposed to be the worst summer ever recorded - NICE. so, yup, had some food later on and then started to mount the track that leads to the gondola station. all of new zealand is so proud of 'the gondola' so you kinda expect something exciting. its just a freekin normal 'gondeli'!!! and we really didnt want to pay 20 dollars for a ride!!! so we walked - it was a pretty hard one, though - very steep!!! but it was definitely worth it!!! the view was stunning, as you can see on the pictures. the remarkables (mountain range, also in lotr) and the lake and all - gorgeous!!! =) had a drink and went down again - this time in the gondola. technically youre supposed to pay 10 dollars for one way, but no one bothers to actually control if you have tickets (at least not at the top)... so saving 10 bucks like that gives you a nice feeling =). wasnt too keen on getting back to the hostel in alexandra. but, yeah, i built a bridge. =) and i got started pretty early in the morning on thursday...

thursday & friday:
when the boys left i stayed in queenstown so i wouldnt have to get back to alexandra again. had a fun evening with the guys from my dorm. regretted it the next morning, though, cos my hangover was pretty bad. so i didnt really do much that day except sleep in and getting some fresh air and going to bed early... =)

saturday:
left queestown to go back to wanaka - yipee!!! the drive was absolutely beautiful, its suposed to be one of the highest passes in nz. gorgeous!!! it was really nice getting back to a place which you already know and where you feel completely comfortable - if not like home!!! =) the wheather was better too. after dinner the managers (raymond, courtney and lee a french girl and me had a huge 'water battle' - whatever the word might be in english. i was soaked - the others dry. nice. had a lovely evening with cool people who are staying at the hostel. todays the 24th so ill make a zopf for tomorrow, christmas day, and since there are other swiss people staying at the wanaka bakpaka we decided to make some mailaenderli as well - devine! =) hmm, thats it. ill post some news after christmas which i think will be really fun. it seems like a different holiday, though, not CHRISTMAS. but since its im not in the christmasy mood, it doesnt feel like im missing out on anything... MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU, anyways, SINCE YOU ARE CELEBRATING ON THE 24TH. =)