Week III

New Zealand – Auckland

There is not much to tell about Auckland. It’s an average and relatively young city. Almost everywhere the people are quite nice, though. It’s rather hot here around February, but the parks and beaches offer nice cooling down by awesome trees and palms.

On my hand, I solved the camera problem by getting a replacement. A Canon Powershot SX 110 IS. It’s quite nice, cause manual adjustable. Still, it’s just a digital camera. I also got a lot of backpacking stuff together. (stove, cooking equipment, gas, maps, universal natural soap, hat – just to name a few)

So to summarize: great parks and nice beach views.

So much for civilisation. I’m off with the 0815 bus to the backcountry!

Next stop: Taupo in the early afternoon.

Update (Week III)

Update (New Zealand – Auckland)

I’ve reached Auckland. Another straining flight within a journey from about 1500 on the 31st to 1800 on the 1st of February. Again, I didn’t really sleep on the plane and neither the night before the flight. I will stay probably till Saturday or Sunday in the city. Not so much to see things, but more to get stuff for hiking and living while being a bit further away from civilisation.

Just for anyone who might be interested, my cost for 15 days in Japan (except the flight) was about 700,- Euro. This included staying in hostels and self-made food one day, while going out to eat – although never really fancy – the other. That’s far from the fear of an all expensive Japan.
Nevertheless, it’s going to be much cheaper from now on.

So that’s Auckland so far.

I’m going to write something at the end of the week. Afterwards, I’ll be taking some time off civilisation. Then it’s going to be just the road, my backpack and me. I’m crazy looking forward to that.

Senses of balance

There are numerous reasons why challenging yourself is fun. For one, there is the part where you may achieve something you didn’t know you were able to. That usually comes as a pleasant surprise, which itself is good for your own self-esteem. Another thing is the knowledge new experiences come packed with. The better you know your own reactions, the better your self-assessments are going to work for new situations.
In case of my own last weekend I’d like to note some things about scuba diving. First of all, it’s awesome to move freely around in every possible direction. Anyway, there is this feeling when you turn around in foggy waters and enter this state where you are unable to make out any direction or reference point anymore. That’s my first uneasy feeling. The second one is when you dive lower, let’s say to 20 meters, and imagine the height of water by comparison to the height of some building you know in the same size above your shoulders. That’s just a freaking amount of water and thus, a lot of pressure, if you get what I mean. The last thing is the silence you may experience when you slowly breath in and nothing around you moves or makes any noise.
All of these sensations are not bad, they are just interesting to experience and may take a little bit to accept.

Links:
Underwater Communication ~ How-To Communicate Underwater
Diving Signals ~ Scuba Diving Signals, Wiki Diving Signals
Sign Language ~ NZSL