Week IX – X

New Zealand – through the middle of the South Island

It seems like I’m always a bit behind with blogging. On the other hand, you probably wouldn’t believe me, if I’d start to write about future events. Or would you? If you’re good at- or open to other perspectives you may find out which book I’m reading in the current album new zealand V.
Anyway, first after relaxing a few days in the small town Picton, I went to do the Queen Charlotte track. 71 km of best weather and awesome views, but also walking again with a heavy backpack. Afterwards I went to Nelson and further to Greymouth where I took the Transalp train via Arthurs Pass to Christchurch. The train ride was quit nice but a bit overrated and hyped. In Christchurch I decided to rent a car for just a day to head back to Castle Hill, an area with a lot of rocks – boulders famous within the rock climbing community. After a great climbing day and night stay at a campsite nearby, I drove back, returned the car and was off north, to Kaikoura. If I ever got more time I have to go there again – nice people, awesome climbing – sweet as!
In Kaikoura I saw, again, no whales, so I just had a relaxing day reading and basically doing nothing. The next morning brought another bus ride and the ferry from Picton back to the North Island. In Wellington I took part at the Earth hour what everybody should have done.

Pictures: Queen Charlotte Track and Castle Hill.
That’s about all that happened. Shockingly, on the 29th of March, April seemed just a glimpse ahead..

..and I thought about writing of coming back to Europe at the end of this month – but come on, nobody would have believed this April fool hoax anyway.

Thinking without borders

Every time we don’t take a risk, we lose almost automatically. With the refusal of chances we hinder ourselves in our own further development. Security is one of the greatest enemies of evolution. This would fully support various trial and error methods. And it’s a good thing. Most times, there is more to gain than to lose. Of course, it doesn’t really make sense to jump into some dark well just to find out what’s down there. Get a rope and climb down. Remember the lyrics and sing. Look at the environment, find the reasons and talk. Don’t get too drunk and dance. Be the proof of the fact that there is only one thing that really matters. (It’s not alcohol!) It’s about this one feeling. Ah! I got it! I did it! Happiness! Don’t be afraid. If you fail – but even if you don’t, change something and try again or try something else.

Experience life! Experience is your life. Stop to learn and you’ll stop to live. Don’t live by trophies, cause that’s living in the past. Don’t pile up money. That’s living for a tomorrow that will be different in every way you could possible imagine. To live freely you have to let go of your cage. A cage built out of imaginary securities of a society of fools. A society driven by fear to stagnation. Your life is out there – everywhere. So, stop reading and turn the world around.
If you fail, enjoy it to the fullest!

When we see the blood prior to the cut

It’s remarkable how excellent our estimation skills are. We are able to predict precisely how somebody will react to a special action we take. Most of the time we’ll be right. We just might not realise it because we’re stupid. But we’re right. I might also relieve you, you’re not stupid – not for planning ahead, we just do it so often we don’t even realise that we’re doing it at all. We look, contemplate, guess and act in order to see our future the way we planned it seconds ago.
We run on neat little pattern matching algorithms with forward prediction. Based on experience we act to build up a better future – for ourselves. The better you get, the more challenging it can be.

So it might happen that we’re wrong. This can be really hard to realise when you’re totally sure about yourself and your decisions. It’s possible to fool yourself completely with such things. For example you saw a dish on the menu but you read it wrong. You make up your own picture of what to expect. After some time, when you finally get your disappointment you think you’re misunderstood. This works with food, online shopping, weapons of mass destruction – almost everything.

To question everything you do might not be a good solution. You’ll only appear slow and maybe a bit retarded. I’d go for hoping the best but expecting the worst, but let me know when you’re completely able to do that.
Don’t ask obvious questions if you don’t like the answer!

Things you would know if you had listened

Lesson number 5: no need to feel bad when you actually are sick. 3D-effects of street traffic as if you were the drums in this sweet piece of heavy metal art, getting to know every muscle of your body like during a first class Japanese special-massage and sweating like in the hottest sauna ever.
Alright, we might ignore that this kind of new age music makes us want to kill ourselves, that it is an all-I-want-to-do-is-die massage and the shivering throughout the sweating-phase, cause it takes away a lot of the romantic of the moment. In fact, it isn’t romantic at all. Who said being sick is romantic? Maybe some pitiful fool finds his luck by dying with a woman in one arm, a bottle of whisky in the other. Should have listened to the do-not-draw-your-weapon voices..

Whatever, being sick is not the worst thing that can happen. Being dead is. Well, I’ll drink to that. Now, normally someone would say, the worst thing is to be sarcastic and no-one able to notice. I’d like to think for myself: it doesn’t matter at all. Sometimes you just have to be able to be pleased by your own inner smile.
It’s easy to fool others, but hard to trick yourself!