It is official: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE NEW ZEELAND!!!!

As I already told you in my previous blog so many things have already impressed me about this country; especially the friendly people. The tour leaders for our tour, Jacqueline and Ken, are no exception. They take so good care of us. I have been on so many tours around the world and I’m used to be set on kitchen duties, cleaning duties or whatever duties, but these guys don’t let us do anything.  They always say “sit down and relax”. Everything is done in a nice pace, no rush or stress, and we still are able to do a lot.

The group is great, but what can you expect? Only people that really love hiking would chose a winter hiking tour. J All of us are in good shape and know what to expect from a tour like this. I’m actually one of the slower hikers, which is a first. J I’m used to be one of the faster ones in the hiking group.

The group consists of:

·         Matthew and Martin, father (47) and son (13) from Czech Republic

·         Phil (37) from USA

·         Dan (34) from USA

·         Jennie (38) from USA

It is a nice small group where the common interest is being outdoors. :-)

We have had some amazing hikes so far, incl. clear blue sky with very little wind. Of course this also means very cold mornings, evenings and nights (-3 to -8 C), but it also means that everything will look so much more pretty.  As Jacqueline said yesterday “I’m so happy so I don’t know what to do with myself”. And that was how I felt also. It was such a beautiful morning and I had the possibility to hike in a fantastic surrounding. How can I not be happy??

So far we have done 4 hikes:

·         Day 1, short hike to the top of Mt John. It took us about 45 minutes up and 30 minutes down, but what a beautiful view we got. It was a nice little hike to stretch our legs the first day.

·         Day 2, we did a 5 hour hike in Mt Cook National Park. We were so extremely lucky with the weather: sunshine and no wind. Jacqueline had never experienced so good weather there before – not even in the summertime. The only difficulty was that we were walking on snow. In the morning it was hard/icy, but it got mushy during the day and added some to the workout.

·         Day 3 we hiked up to Aspiring hut. It took us only 2,5 hours. We spent the night in this beautiful little hut with no electricity and running water - we had water in a tank outside. But the water tank froze during the night, so the next morning we didn’t have water at all. But we had prepared for that and taken in enough water for breakfast. Personal hygiene was a different story: I used wet napkins to clean myself. It is a fact that your normal personal hygiene standard is lowered quite a lot on hiking trips like this. Suddenly things you wouldn’t allow back home is totally fine.

·         Day 4 we hiked back to our bus. It was one of the most amazing hikes I have ever done. The grass was frosty and it looked like we were walking on diamonds and the mountains on each side of us glowed in the morning sun. Yeah – it made us all happy. J

·         Day 5 is our day off. I might go horseback riding later, but I haven’t made up my mind yet.

So New Zeeland has now shown me the AMAZING nature, a lot of stars, the good weather and all the beautiful hikes that are available around. How can I NOT love it? This is the country for me.