Kathrine Breivik

The Festival Street Parade was really good. The community and different companies puts real effort in the parade!

Afterwards we stopped off and watched a talented and very funny street entertainer. This is where I found my new job.

And I did not get hurt after playing with tools, knives and fire.

This is the view I wake up to everyday! I woke up the other morning to see all the clouds lying real low, the view  is so beautiful.

We are still waiting for more snow…it is a bit colder today so crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. I have now got my skis ready and all…

I am now going down to town to enjoy Queenstown Winterfestival! It is just like a summer festival, however all based around winter, with lots of ice, snowmen and snow sports. I find it very odd as it is June, however it is a lot of fun!

Ohhh Queenstown, it must be a city sent from heaven. It is like the city/town is made for me, with the landscape charms similar to my home country Norway, and busy feel of England means that I love it! The only thing it is missing is my family and friends of cause. It is still warm here considering its coming to winter season. However, this warm weather seem more like a curse rather than a blessing for Queenstown, as the lack of snow (or shall I say no snow) is delaying the opening of ski resorts and so on. This means less tourism, which puts pressure on businesses and all the arrivals to town who are out looking for work (like me). I swear I have never written this many C.V’s and cover letters before. There are over 100 people applying for the one job, it is insane. It is like I want to scream: ‘JUST GIVE ME THE JOB!’, but of cause I am not going to do that, that is not professional at all.  On top of all of this New Zealand has been hit by the ash-cloud from an Chilean volcano, which means a lot of flights have been stopped from here and Australia. It really opens my eyes to how different NZ handle these crisis. I have to say that I believe New Zealand handle it much better than how the other countries I have lived in would have, it must be the peoples personality. But this is only in my opinion.

However, this is not to say that I am having a bad time. I enjoy getting to know Queenstown and the lovely people who live here. I have a great apartment, the coolest car and the best boyfriend in the world. When thinking of all those people who where once again hit by a massive earthquake in Christchurch, it really puts things into perspective.

So I just keep on doing a snow-dance and hope the snow will soon make its appearance.

I celebrated my birthday in Queenstown. This is where we are hoping to stay for a while. It is a really nice city, as there are great adventure activities here, as well as nice cafes, great restaurants and lots of bars. So when we got told that we got the apartment that we really wanted, it made my birthday. So we are definitely settling down here for a little while, therefore we are moving out of our much beloved camper-van (thank god, as it is starting to get cold). It was a great day, we had a great lunch, and lots of nice drinks to celebrate. I did miss my family and friends thought!

On our way to Queenstown, we stopped off at Wanaka. Lake Wanaka was beautiful, the water completely still and clear, set in gorgeous surroundings. I also managed to skip a stone for the first time!

We had a nice break at Wanaka, visiting Puzzling World, which has a 3D Maze. It took us quite some time to manage to find our way through it, I even lost John at one time (I found him sitting confused in a corner…only joking).

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we drive along we stumble upon some incredible places. That is the great thing about having our own transport, we are literally living on the road. Life is great!

Ice Ice Baby! Our next challenge was to enter an incredible world of ice. The Franz Josef glacier was known to the Maori as ‘Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere’ , which means ‘Tears of the Avalanche Girl’. The old legend is that of a girl who lost her lover from the local peaks, and the glacier being her flood of tears. This is the glacier that we were about to experience.

After gearing up with a big warm Rain jacket, sturdy boots, crampons (in our lovely red bum-bag) and of cause our hats and gloves, we were ready to go!

Walking down and climbing some very slippery ice…

At times it was a tight squeeze as we found some brilliant ice caves. The ice was ‘glowing’ bright blue the further down we went…

Sometimes I made some unnecessary but extremely fun squeezes…

But we always got out safe and sound…

To give you a feel of how far down we went at times…

But, I did make it to the top!

I obviously did not make it to the top of the glacier, do not be silly. The glacier is enormous! But we managed to get very far up (as far as it was safe for us). It was an great experience, and one of my favourite adventures. After the full day of climbing on the cold glacier, we went to the Glacier Hot Pools, which was nestled outside in the rainforest, it was so warm and relaxing.

We stayed at a lovely place in Marahau, called The Barn. It was also only a few minutes from the coast where we were going to start our adventure the next morning, brilliant.

National Park Abel Tasman was very beautiful! We rented a kayak as set off from Marahau. We kayaked around the Fisherman Island and Adele Island. The weather was surprisingly warm and summer-like even thought winter season has started over here. We saw lots of bird life, but also Seals! I have never been that close to seals in the wild before. They are definitely some very cool animals, just chilling on land, sunbathing, and swimming around making their skin shine in the sun. Most of all I found them adorable!

We had a lovely lunch at Akersten Bay, one of the many scenic beaches at Abel Tasman. It was so beautiful and quiet, definitely one of the best picnics I have ever had.

We got the ferry from Wellington to Picton (from North Island to South Island). Everyone told me that it was a nice little boat trip, but I have to be honest and say I got boat sick! Luckily there was no barfing involved, but the constant feeling of urgh…then again, the scenery was lovely.

We did The Queen Charlotte track, or parts of it, in Picton. The track has gorgeous coastal scenery as we walked along the coast surrounded by wooded area. The walk took about 3 hours so was a nice little walk.