Wanaka

 Marcell and I had thought about going for a skiing trip for quite a long time. And this weekend (25. & 26. July) we made our dream of skiing in July come true and left Dunedin at 8.30 am and went for a drive to Wanaka, a gorgeous little town in the middle of the Southern Alps of New Zealand

What a beautiful day for a road-trip to Wanaka. Here we´ve just left the city of Dunedin and are on our way south.

 Driving and listening to some rock- and country-music can be so much fun!

 The road to Wanaka led us past a beautiful artificial lake. I have to say that the roads in New Zealand in general (and especially the ones leading into the mountains) are amazing to drive. They are so curved and up and down that the driving itself is so much fun!

 We are getting close to Wanaka and therefore we are approaching the first mountains.

We arrived in Wanaka around noon and had some delicious burgers for lunch. After that we decided to go for a little hike and drove to the nearby Mt. Iron. The weather was surprisingly warm for winter and we could easily walk around in T-Shirts instead of thick and warm winter jackets.

 A 180° view from the top of Mt. Iron. On the left side you can see the city of Wanaka, Lake Wanaka and the mountains.

 Marcell is taking a little break on the way back down.

 Sitting on a rock, starring into the distance and enjoying the peace of nature.

 After climbing Mt. Iron we decided to explore the Lake Wanaka and play some mini-golf.

 After a nice but short evening in two or three different bars in town we went to bed quite early because we wanted to leave as early as possible the next day to reach our next destination on time: the Cardrona Ski Resort.
Unfortunately we had to rent nearly all of the equipment because we weren´t able to bring our own equipment to New Zealand, so it was a quite expensive experience. But nevertheless it was totally worth it!

This is the "road" from Wanaka to the Cardrona Ski Resort. You will see some more pictures of it later in this post and you will understand why we will remember this road until the end of our life! We took this picture while skiing to the lowest-level lift. From there you had an amazing view over the valley.

 The slopes were in a surprisingly good condition and we did not have to wait once to enter the lift. I would even go as far and rate it perfect conditions to be honest!

 The weather changed its mind every few minutes and we skied from sunshine and blue skies like here to dark grey sky and snowfall several times.

 On the way back to the bottom of the Cardona-mountains we took some nice pictures of the valley and the "road" leading from Wanaka to the Cardrona Ski Resort.

 The "road" itself was literally a dirt road, with not a single part asphalted. Going up to the top in serpentines, without any solid surface combined with snowfall, slippery mud and no real guardrail at the edge of the road, it was quite an adventure to drive up to and back down from the Ski Resort!!!

 On the way back to Dunedin we made a stop in Cromwell and paid the Highlands Motorsport Park a visit. We watched some race-cars making their laps on the racetrack and (of course) we went for a go-kart drive! It was ridiculously expensive (35$ for only 10 minutes of driving) but that couln´t keep us from showing the kiwis our go-kart skills.

 View onto the Highlands Motorsport Park racetrack.

 Me and my new car, a marvelous Lamborghini.

 Before driving back to Dunedin we had a little snack at a stunning lake near Cromwell.

All in all it was an amazing weekend-trip and we really had a great time doing a road-trip, skiing, mini-golf, hiking, go-kart driving and much more! 

Northern Shore of Dunedin

On Friday 24. July (the day after Marcell´s birthdayparty) we decided quite spontaneously to drive to Dunedin's northern shore and explore the beautiful landscape.

 Here we made our first stop about 15 minutes drive north of Dunedin and climbed a little hill to have a beautiful look over the beach of the mainland (on the right side) and the coastline of the Otago Peninsula, on the left side of the picture.

 Another astonishing view onto the chilly sea between the mainland and the peninsula.



 A 180° view on top of the hill once more covering the mainland and the peninsula.

 This is now the other side of the hill where you can see the beach, our nice car and the road along the shore which is surprisingly straight and even, compared to the other roads we have been driving on so far here in New Zealand.

  

 We finally reached the northern shore at about 5 pm.

Here you can see the end of the Otago Peninsula and its famous lighthouse.

We reached the beach right on time for the sunset at about 5:20 pm. Unfortunately the sun was hidden by a little hill so we actually couldn´t really see the sun diving down at the horizon and vanishing behind the ocean. But nevertheless the sunset created an amazingly colorful sky. So it was definitely the right time to take some amazing pictures.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from today and stay tuned for more pictures over the next few days as we will do a little skiing-trip to Wanaka over the weekend.

The Chinese Garden

Today we visited the Chinese Garden which is located quite in the centre of the city, right next to the famous Octagon.
The garden itself was smaller than we had expected, but nevertheless it was a great afternoon especially due to the amazing weather! So we used our free afternoon to relax in the beautiful garden and to took some nice snapshots.

 Marcell posing in front of a little waterfall.

 Me on top of the rock where the waterfall arises from.

 One of the many Chinese buildings. In these little houses you can either try some traditional Chinese clothes on, play Chinese Chess, or purchase lots of different sorts of tee.

 View onto the beautiful pond in the centre of the garden and the little stone-hill with its waterfall that´s hidden on the back side of the hill in this picture.

 Some more typical Chinese buildings around the pond.

 "Chinese version of Marcell"

 Playing Chinese Chess, in German-speaking countries also known as "Halma", can obviously be a lot of fun!

The day (or should i better say afternoon) in the Chinese Garden was definitely a lot of fun and we were really able to enjoy the beautiful and warm weather (at least for a winter in Dunedin 13° Celsius are definitely awesome). For the next weekend we are planning a trip to Wanaka in the South Alps of New Zealands South Island to go hiking, skiing and go-kart driving. So stay tuned!