Heey, ab in den Nordeen!

Back from the South Island.
We were travelling down there for 2 weeks after the conference in Christchurch. First we went up to the very north of the South Island, to the Abel Tasman National Park. We did a 2 days hike in one direction and then went back with the Aqua Taxi (=boat). It was amazing! The weather was really nice, and if the sea was a bit warmer, I would have gone for a swim. On the way back we saw some dolphins, too, so the taxi really paid off.

When we came back to the car, we had a flat tire. We found a guy who pumped it up again for us, and we managed to get to the next garage little after 5pm (they close at 5). The mecanic there persuaded us that we should get 4 new tires, and I think it really was a good idea. All of them were old, one already had some metal wires sticking out..

Then we continued our travel and went down the west coast. It was raining, but still it was very fascinating to see the rain forest and the coast line. And it is supposed to rain a lot there anyways. The weather was also bad when we were in the Franz Josef and Fox glacier region, so we decided not to go up there. We continued our travel over Haast pass where it was snowing and lot of people had problems not to get stuck. With our new tires (and Alex driving) we didn't have a problem :-)

We stayed in Queenstown for 2 nights, one in a backpackers, and one at the place of the people where Reinhard had worked last year. The next day, we made our way to Milford Sound. The street was closed because of avalanche danger, but opened the same day, so we only had to wait about one hour. We did a round-trip with the boat (the weather was fine again), and it was not a lot of tourists around which was great, too.
We stayed over night in the region and did a hike the next day, just up the mountain for about 1.5 hours one way. Was great, because we were up in the snow and had a beautiful view round the mountain area. I don't have any hiking shoes, so I went around with plastic bags in my sneakers. It worked fine!

After that, we continued our travel and made our way to the east coast. We stayed in Gore, and then drove down the presidential higway to Clinton and further to Balclutha. Then we went down south to the southernmost point, and back up again to stay in Dunedin. I was really impressed by the city. It seems to be one of the oldes cities in New Zealand, with Scottish history. And they have 2 really great vegetarian cafes! I checked out the muffins in one of them, and we had dinner in the other one (pizza and scones, *mmh*). We walked up the (former) steepest street in the world (not too fascinating), and Alex and Reinhard went to the chocolate factory. The weather went bad again, and so we travelled back up to Christchurch, from where we wanted to go to Arthur's pass - which we didn't do in the end because of the bad weather. We drove to the peninsula though and had some laid-back days in Christchurch. I was able to go to the SAFE office again, and to meet some friends for dinner. On the way up to the ferry, Reinhard and Alex wanted to to the dolphin watching. It was a beautiful sunny day, but apparently the wind was too strong and the sea too rough, so the boats couldn't go out. Pretty disappointing!
We did see seal pups though, who swim from the sea up a river to a waterfall, where they stay during the day. Pretty impressive. Back in Picton (where the ferry to the North Island leaves) we did a short hike up the hill to have a look around the area, and the next morning (with 2h delay), we finally went on the ferry back. We went up to Wanganui where we stayed over night and went to a very good Indian restaurant, and now we are back in Hamilton.

We live in the YWCA, have a room for us three and only pay $80 per week. Pretty cool I think.

New Zealand time is almost over..

Christchurch

This was a busy week. We are in Christchurch since Sunday evening, and the 3-day HCI workshop started Monday morning. A lot of it we have heard again, and we again had to deal with personas, scenarios, paper prototyping and all that stuff. But it was fine, and Mark, the organizer, was really helpful with everything. In the evenings/nights, I was basically writing on my report that was due one and a half weeks ago, and I finally managed to "finish" it today. Anyway. Thursday and Friday was HCI conference. I did like it, but I was distracted by working on my report, so I didn't pay too much attention to all of the talks.. And I was very sleepy.
The food was quite nice, they have an Indian/Chinese place where I could get food, and most of the place have some vegan food. The 101 cafe was great, they have a few vegan things (even cake), and it is labelled! I liked that :-)

Tonight I was going out with some Animal Rights people in town, we were supposed to meet at a Chinese Restaurant at 7. Already late, I saw that one of the warning lights in the car was on. I showed it to Alex and Reinhard, but nobody knew what it was. After almost one hour of trying to find out more, I asked Graeme (the Englisch guy) to bring me there, and so I finally was there and could get some decent food.

After that, Sacha and I were going out in town. Awesome concert in the Dux de Lux, the power went off for a minute 3 times, but they managed to even make a good show then. After that, we went to an Iris pub live band :-))

Arrived in Christchurch

First visit to the South Island!

Alex and I left Hamilton Thurdsay morning (8am was the plan, but we finally left at 10pm..) to Wanganui, where we picked up Reinhard and continued driving down to Wellington. I have slept most of the way down, partly because I haven't slept the night before (unsuccessful attempt to finish my project) and partly because I just get very very tired in cars (ask Sigi and Christian what I did most of the time on our way from Copenhagen back to Austria).

Then we stayed in Wellington for 2 days, met the 3 other guys (Daragh, Graeme, Primosz) and did a bit of sightseeing. Was a good time (did a lot of sleeping, too ;-)). We have been to the World Press Photo exhibition, which was really moving, and were to Te Papa, the national museum.

Our ferry to the South Island went Sunday morning, and the time on the boat was just great! The weather was phantastic, and it was so beautiful sitting outside, enjoying the sun and looking at the great country. The rest of the day was basically driving again, with a stop in Kaikoura to enjoy the landscape. From this spot, you can see the lake and the mountans (with snow on top) going up right from there. Amazing!

The rest of the time I did a lot of sleeping (the car effect), so I don't really know what happened on the way to Christchurch. After check-in, we went for a small tour around the city, and guess what: when we crossed the first road, there was a bus waiting in the lane. And the people in the bus were the people I wanted to meet while I am in Christchurch!! They recognized me (fortunately), and we had a little chat in the middle of the road. Great :-))