Today at 7 o'clock

good morning

Apple

Have you ever seen a strange apple?

My current favourite place

My favourite place in New Zealand is Lake Mahinapua, because it is the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. My first impression was the Shanghai Bay at Lake Mahinapua. I am a member of the “Scouts” and one time we started to kayak from the Shanghai Bay over the Lake Mahinapua along a very quiet creek to Hokitika. We need about 4 hours, but the Lake Mahinapua was the best part of our trip. I saw a impressive clear water and in the background high mountains. I was very glad to have the opportunity to drink the water from Lake Mahinapua. Some friends told me, that people died in the Lake. This beautiful place is ideal for water activities. You can swim in the Lake and you should bring always your kayak, because you have the best view in the middle of Lake Mahinapua. You can get a great view to the mountains. The distance between the coastline and Lake Mahinapua is only about 500 meters. I love this Lake because, I need only a short bike ride of about 30 min to come to Lake Mahinapua. If you have got the chance to travel to this stunning place, than you should take your bike and go for a bike ride, to see one of the most important place in New Zealand. One week ago I took a picture of a nice weka. I thought at first, that this could be a Kiwi, but it wasn’t.

PROBLEM: money

This entry is only useful for german students. I use the VISA DKB card. It works like a prepaid card. My parents can charge my card with money and I can use my card at a cash machine without any expense. But I can not pay with my card.

PROBLEM: calling

I am using my german number for Whatsapp and my New Zealand number for the other normal activities. I bought for 5 Dollar a New Zealand 2degress simcard and I pay monthly 10 Dollars for my texting flatrate. The most important thing is that I can use my german number for Whatsapp and my NZ number for texting (SMS).

Camping at Lake Kaniere

Hello visitors. After a long time, I will write a new entry. Ths entry is about my trip to Lake Kaniere.

It starts at Saturday. I got up at 8 o'clock and had a breakfast. I went for a bike ride to a friend, who is Timo. He is an another german student. We ride with out bicyles to Lake Kaniere at 12 o'clock. The distance between Hokitika and the Hans Bay at Lake Kaniere, where we stayed, is about 25 km. We didn't use road. We used the tracks along the road. We ride over many mountains and made sometimes short breakes. We arrived at Lake Kaniere at nearly 30 min past 12 o'clock. We buildt our tent in the rain, but after that the weather became better and better. We started to buildt a raft for raft race at Sunday morning. I slept in my tent on the ground, because my bedroll didn't work really well. But the ground of the forest was really comfortable. I got up at 6.30 and took some photos. ( the following ) You can find some more pictures at the pictures page. 

My team, the scouts, won the raft race and after that Timo and me went home again. That's it. 

Trip to Christchurch

We drove on Thursday last week to Christchurch. We came back on Sunday night. Jim, my hostfather, had to go to a model train convention.
I was only the last day with him in three gardens with garden railways. I was on Friday and Saturday in Christchurch and on the beach. You will see some pictures at the pictures side soon.

My camera

Many different people asked, which camera I am using. I do not want to answer always this question. The following entrie should give you the main information about my camera.

CANON
I have the "PowerShot A560 AiAF", which is about 6 years old.
PC1229
3.15 V
Video: 30 pictures per second
Photo: 3072 x 2304 (mostly)
4x optical zoom
16 x digital zoom
7.1 Megapixel
2 AA batteries
SD-Card

First day of school

Today was my first day of school.
I got up at 7 o'clock. That was really comfortable for me. I had a breakfast with Dominik, Jenny and Berry. Dominik was already in my host family in 2007. Berry is his girlfriend and Jenny is a friend of both. They are from Germany and they are driving around with their caravan. Very kind guys.
So I went to school at 8.30 and payed the fee for Outdoor Education. The distance between my house and the school is 200 meters.
After that I got my new timetable. I chose the following subjects for the first term: English, Mathematics, Outdoor Education, Cooking, Physical Education, Engineering skills.
Mathematics is really simple for me, because I studied already this stuff in Berlin two years ago. (Trigonometry).
The new students at highschool and the exchange students were welcomed in the Maori way. They sang in the Maori language. It was an amazing new experience for me and the other exchange students.

Update

I was the last days in Queenstown for a rock festival. We drove from Hokitika to Haast, which was nearly the middle of our trip to Queenstown. We made a stop there and slept there. We got up at 9.00 o'clock and left our rooms some minutes before 10 o'clock. I realized that I forgot my memory card of my little camera in Hokitika. That's why I could not took really nice pictures. (only with my mobile phone).
We drove to Queenstown and need for that way about 4 hours.
We arrived Queenstown and it rained. The was moody. At Saturday in the morning we took our bus to the rock festival. There were about 17 000 people. My favourite band was "Foreinger". This band is from New York.
We drove back at Sunday with 2 breakes.
Finally, it was a really nice trip and I collected much impressions and new expieriences.

You can find here a panorama, which I made during the concert:

And this is picture from the stage: