101 Blog Posts

Jan 21, 2016 | The Great Journey, Updates

Only 6 more times I need to sleep and my time here in Dunedin is up! Then I will go up north with my flatmate Andrej and will welcome my parents in Wellington in the end!
Until then, I will have to use up all kinds of food, think about these and those things and complete miscellaneous tasks. It begins to dawn on me that the coming 3,5 weeks won’t be comparable to the last 3 months in any way.
I am looking forward to that time, every last bit of myself is looking forward to it… 😀

And I want to thank you all for the positive response to my little project and post the (for now) second-last part:
[Disclaimer: What you are about to hear is German.]

 

 

100 Blog Posts

Jan 17, 2016 | The Great Journey

First of all I want to apologize for the inferior sound quality of the previous recordings, as my laptop chose to record with its internal microphone.
From now, I only record using my external microphone, which should make for an improved listening experience. 🙂

This, by the way, is the hundredth blog post I have posted here. A good moment to look back and to marvel. But the actual content might just be enough to adorn this post. 😉

Without further ado:
[Disclaimer: What you are about to hear is German. Well…most of it.]

 

 

Astrophotography

Jan 14, 2016 | Photos, The Great Journey, Trips

Here are some pictures and words on my most recent little adventure…

I meticulously informed myself beforehand and that night everything was perfect. The sky was clear and later that evening I set out the Otago Peninsula.
I wanted to photograph the stars. More precisely the milky way. I chose one of the most far out places in the peninsula and had an adventurous trip though the dark. You have the best sight on the stars without any disruptive light sources… Unbelievably, how many bunnies are out there that time of the night. 😀 No worries Celine, I took great care not to run one over. 😉
Even two of the infamous, kiwi bird eating parasites of Possums I caught in my headlights. But I could not just cold-heartedly run those whimsical animals over. Sorry New Zealand!

Unfortunately clouds got between my and the stars, so that I had to resign and go on my way back.
But I didn’t care about stopping and taking some shots of the city lights from the side of the road. One of them had been spoiled beyond repair by a car driving by. 😀

View on the other side of the harbour bay.

Dunedin at night.

To restore my happiness, the clouds took off then and I chose Tunnel Beach to be the next stop. I got there at about 1am, felt like a true night owl and set up my tripod. Sadly our galaxy’s core is only visible in Winter from the southern hemisphere and thus, I got ‘only’ the regular milky way. With some sweets from home alongside my trusty thermos I bridged the long exposures well. 😉
An incredible view, hardly to be captured with a camera (even more with my small one). I edited the pictures a little, so you can see more… 🙂 Photographing the stars really puts my camera to the tests though…

 

 

Stone Wall

Jan 9, 2016 | The Great Journey, Thoughts

Nocturnal ambiance outside our flat.

 

 

When at last my head crashes into the hard bricks, I notice that my body had to be pressed against it for a while now.

In that moment I realised without any doubt: There is no going on from here.

I take a step back and see myself face to face with it: So this is it, the Stone Wall of Reality.

There is always a way.
This way doesn’t necessarily have to be straight, but it always has the direction onwards.
That way I went on my way, leaving Wellington for the South Island, looking for a job to save up money for the further travels. I try on a high level of difficult, as I went around Christchurch and in Queenstown you can hardly make money, really. Here in Dunedin I had sheer luck with the job at the airport and even that didn’t last forever.

Now it has been some weeks of silence around the employers as it is the school holidays in New Zealand. In only two and a half weeks I will depart from here and until the 10th of May I will travel exclusively.
My calculations didn’t include this much literal unemployment and because of that the question of fundraising had to be answered in a different way. In fact, I am on this trip but once and I did the best I could.
Of course it would have been nicer to have made it all by myself. On the other hand, I am in New Zealand for over a year only once in my life.

Back in Germany I will have plenty of time to make good for the funds retroactively. The here and now is the only thing that counts! And that shall be free of any worries!

So I peel my body off the masonry and take a look around. My idea to make it through my travels independently stays behind that wall. So I better make friends with one of the other ways. It’s about time, as I don’t want to spend the last two weeks down here grimly looking for work.

Very shortly I will hold my beloved parents tight and we will have the greatest road trip of all time! The same will happen again with my best friend and after that I will travel 4 countries in one month…
Sometimes it goes different than you planned; but the details are beneath the big picture, which is far more important.

Life is good, just go for it!

 

Appendix:
For some, this post might sound all sad and resigning, but it is actually a triumphant read. It is a great moment to be true to yourself about changing something. Whether it is some change of mind or an active, visible step in the right direction.
In the end you will always be happier… 🙂