Last post from New Zealand

I am in Auckland right now and flying to Fiji tomorrow at 1:00pm. I arrive in Nadi at 4:00pm.
I hitchihiked all the way up from Napier yesterday! It took me around 8 hours and i had to find a new ride 3 times. The first ride was from Napier to Taupo, then Taupo-Tirau, then Tirau-Hamilton and finally Hamilton-Auckland. I met a lot of very nice people and it was much more fun than riding a bus! Plus I didn't spend any money and I was about as fast as a bus.
Well this the last post from New Zealand. I had very nice time and made a lot of friends who I hopefully will meet again sometime!
The next post will be from somewhere in Fiji!
So farewell New Zealand, I love you! See ya later! I'm definetely coming back!

Nationals and Dolphin Swimming Review

Hi there!
I had a lot of fun playing in the Nationals with Nude Dude (Nelson Ultimate Disc Experience and Dunedin Ultimate Disc Experience), although I did not play very good. I dropped a lot of easy and important passes and I wound up myself in this mentally... But I made a spectular dive after I ran over the half court! Hell yeah! Now I have a scratch on my shoulder and my hip. We made the 5th out 6 place, which is good for a team that never played together and was looking forward to the tournament for about one week! The first place was Magons from Auckland, second was Christchurch 1 or Whisky Tango, then the Wellington Sluts (or Lasers), fourth was Bookaki from Christchurch, then the Nude Dude, then Christchurch 2. I'm not sure about the women's results, but I think Wellington made the first place. The party had the theme "The Pants Party", so I wore my boxers over my jeans. One jug of beer was only 4$, that's a REAAAAALLY good deal! I stayed at the house of the parents of one player from Dunedin, who wasn't even with us! The parents were very nice people. They offered us dinner, breakfast and coffee and they gave us a bed, of course. No, not one bed, one bed each!
Today I was in the Banks Peninsula to swim with Dolphins. The Akaroa Harbour is the natural habitat of the world's smallest and rarest Dolphin, the Hector's Dolphin, that can only be found off the East Coast of New Zealand. We were a group of ten people on the boat. When we saw some dolphins, we went into the water and they came pretty close to us, but did not stat very long at all, they only swam through our group very fast. Then we went out of the water to try and find more dolphins and we spotted some, but did not go back into the water. Because of this unsatisfying trip, the company gave us a refund of 50$, which I gladly spent on an Indian meal in Christchurch. Not completely, of course, it was 15,50$ only! I had lamb Vindaloo (hot) and Chicken Mango with rice, a Naan (Indian bread) and a mango lassi (mango and yoghurt drink). After that I had another cheese Naan, because I was still hungry...and I am still a little bit hungry!
Tomorrow morning, after I took a shower at the airport, which is for free, I'm going to Kaikoura!
Alright, have a nice day!

Open and Women's Ultimate Frisbee Nationals 2010 in Christchurch

As some of you have already heard, I'm playing in Nelson/Dunedin's Open team in the New Zealand Nationals! Sweet as, bro! Nelson and Dunedin are forming a team together because one guy from Nelson (Dean) studied in Dunedin and they don't have enough players in each city who want to play the tournament. I played Frisbee in Nelson and they asked me if I wanted to join their team for the Nationals and I said that I did not know where I'd be when the tournament goes off, which is this weekend. Stupid me, why didn't I just say "Of course I'll be there, that's great!!!"?!? Later that evening they convinced me to play with them. Since I'm staying in Dunedin at the moment, I played with their team on Sunday and today, and yeah, I'm in!
The tournament fee is 45$ + a lunch option for 10$, which I paid as well. The tournament is held at Nunweek Park in Christchurch, if anybody is interested in googling it!
Tomorrow we will probably go hiking again with two girls (from Canada and Germany) who are staying in our hostel. This hostel is reeeaaaally laid back, the only people who are "managing" the hostel are the two girls and one guy from England. The owner never shows up. It's very quiet and relaxing.
We are leaving Dunedin on Thursday and go to Christchurch with a stopover in Omaru.
Alright, that's about it for now.
Jannis

Wanaka, Roy's Peak Track

In Wanaka we did Roy's Peak Track. As you can tell by the name, it lead us up to the summit of a mountain, which is about 1500 meters high! It was really exhausting but totally worth it, just take a look at the pictures!

The Abel Tasman just doesn't want to be uploaded, sorry...

This is the Fox Glacier!

Woooohoooo free internet again!
So here are some pictures of Franz Josef glacier and the track we walked there! It was a really good track, which took us about 4.30 hours return, leading to a lookout and back.