Next stage New Zealand!

but firs i would like to mention some facts about my time in Australia. All in all I've been there 5weeks traveled about 4000km mostly by hitchhiking and stayed With 10different couchsurfing hosts and about 5 nights in hostels and made countless experiences.
So I'm absolutely pleased With the result of the first challenge .However my last host was not very nice and to be honest quite strange but that's also part of travelling and in the end just another experience to add. Anyway, my stay in Cairns was crowned by two incidents. Firstly, i met a guy from Birmingham UK which has become my second home since I've been there when i was 16. We had an awesome chat and saved us from getting homesick by talking about our homes. Secondly, i went snorkeling in the great barrier reef on the shores of Green Island. This was Amazing as it was poring down and i was alone in the water,swimming With fish and Stingrays.
Nevertheless time was up and i had to make my way to the airport to catch my flight to christchurch via brisbane. This turned out to be a hassle cause there are no public busses going to d airport so i had to take a taxi for the first time since travelling.

Arrival at Christchurch.
i got there at 12pm so I decided to sleep at the airport for the first night. After an interesting night i got up and explored the city. As a matter of fact, i didn't find a host so the main thing to do was finding accommodation. The feeling i had when i got into town is quite hard to describe. The earthquake in February left a heavily damaged city 180 people died and u can still feel that. The centre is still closed and the people set up a few shops in big containers. However i met a really nice woman who offered me to leave my Big bag at her place and grab it later in the day. Then i was hoping for another wonder specifically finding someone who can host me for a night as the hostels were either kaputt or full. Suddenly when i was standing on the road looking on my map a man asked me if he can help and finally he invited my to his house. This was just Amazing at first but it turned out to be the opposite. Long story short. I decided to leave his house and prefered to sleep another night on the cosy airport Carpet. The next day I was picked up by a german woman who I found on Couchsurfing and who offered Rideshare for a few days. As i was exhausted and also fed uo[ with staying in that depressive city I was absolutely delighted to finally have found my saviour. So we bought everything u need for a camping trip thru NZ in a Van and left CHCH the next day towards the West Coast. Our first Stop was at Castle Hill which is famous for being the movie set of the Wizard in the wardrope(Narnja), as welll as for a massive cave that u can climb thru. Said and done, we spent the night on a remote Skifield road and went Caving the next day which was just awesome and amazing.

Moving on now, we stopped at Arthurs Pass and prepared for our first big hike(Tramp). Naiively we chose the a 2 days crossing of the Avalanche Peak which is the highest Mountain there. After 8h and 2000hm we've finally reached crow hut where we spent a bloody cold night together with some locals and guys from France. We got back totally knacked and craved for decent food amd a warm shower. Anyway, we drove on all the way to Greymouth and had a couple of nice days there;. There was a perfect spot on the beach where we parked the car for three nights, wathed the sunset and cooked our Dinner on the camp stove. As time passed by I had to find myself a new travelbuddy as that woman had a different travel itinerary and much more time to see NZ. So finally we had a look at the Punakaiki blow holes where I tried my new Cam (that I had to buy when my previous one broke down) and finally i hit the road again and started hitching south in order to meet up with another Person i met before in Christchurch who had exactly the same Plan as me. Franz Josef is a town with a huge Glacier that reaches all the way down from the mountain into the bottom of the valley. I had a quick look at that naural phenomenon and then we headed down to Wanaka. When we got there i had to realise that I had to find myself a new Travelmate again cause our ideas of travelling differed too much. As a matter of fact, NZ is not as easy to explore as Australia especially if u don't have a car cause there are too many tourists and not enough people to couchsurf. I did not care a lot about planning ahead or booking accomondation in advance as I lived after the odd moto The Universe will provide=). So when I didn't have a place to stay in Wanaka and all the hostels turned out to be fully booked she suddenly got angry whereas I was waiting for a wonder. I must admit that this can be found awkward or weird however I talked the guy from the campground into giving me a cheap backroom which was untidy but absolutely perfect for me. For travelers like me this is a Jackpot but I prefer calling it an unpredictable wonder;).

So i was on my own again trying to catch a ride to queenstown. It wasn't very long until i was picked up by a town who builds Downhill tracks all over the world and who drove me to Arrowtown which is close by QT. In AT u can feel the old gold mining athmosphere so I hired a Goldpan and went searching for Gold in the river-unsuccsessfully. Then i made my way into the tourist Cantre of NZ namely Queenstown, Canyon Swing,Bungee,Skydiving,Rafting Lord of the ring tours- and that's not even all of the adventures u can do there but again everything based on Money which meant that I'm not at the right place. Nevertheless I enjoyed sitting by the wondeful lake enjoying the beautiful scenary;watching the mountains mirroring in the cold clear water of Lake Wakatipu.

Apparently, all the good things are 3 so I tried finding another travelbuddy. This time it was a Guy from Canada who had bought a van. We left Qt the next day and went to Dunedin,which is called the music and student town in NZ but still it's not one of the things people would tell u to visit. To me this totally wrong and I would want to miss a single day there. The city hast steep streets(the steepest in the world) and reminded me of San Francisco. In addition, there is a Peninsula in front of the city which used to be a volcano. We stayed with a nice Aussie who showed us around. One day I saw Seals, Sea lions Penguins and Albatrosses all in one day which was incredible and overwhelming.

After the special days in Dunedin my canadian Travelbuddy and I headed inland again towards the legendary Mount Cook and the sourounding lakes.

Again an amazing scenary as the lakes are mirroring the massive mountain range in bright blue and turqoise coulours. As we made our way back to Christchurch there was one thing left that i really wanted to see namely Akaroa. The Penninslua east of Chch which is supposed to be a true reamain of the french settlers. My time there was so different from what I've experienced before and just getting to my hosts house was the first big adventure cause it was located a few miles away from town. Anyway, sleeping in a Tipi, hunting flaunders, surf lessons on the beach, collecying Abellonia(Pua) and listening to interesting Maori stories that happened in the former volcano of Akaroa.

As time passsed by I had to leave again and this time I made a big step to Nelson via Kaikoura. In fact, the people who gave me a lift on that way were stuff for movies, First a crazy guy who does roedeo and then another one who just get back from seeing his daughter for the first time after 14 years and welcomed me warmly by passing me the a bottle of JD,which obviously can be found strange. Nevertheless I got to Nelson safe and ,et up with a nice woman who did Cs for the first time. We spend a day walking in the Abel Tasman national Park and then I prepared to close the first chapter of my travels in NZ...

Goodbye south Island ... Heellllooo North Island!