When I reminisce about all the trips, adventures and activities I have done in the last month, I can’t believe it has all happened in 30 days! The 2-week holiday program from my school (Otumoetai College) where I had an awesome time with fantastic people from all over the world and interesting trips. And finally, the 19-day South Island trip, which felt like 2 days, because of my wonderful new friends – my third family : )
 
My highlight of the school program was overnight bush camp, where we stayed in tents in the Kaimai-Mamaku Forest.  We had a refreshing trip to a lovely waterfall. The trips to Hot Water Beach and  “The Hobbiton” movie set were typical of New Zealand and I really and enjoyed them, after finishing the book of “The Hobbit”.
It is really hard for me to find my personal highlights of the South Island trip because there were so many fantastic moments. I´m sure Rachel would say the same because she was with us on the trip as a chaperone for the first 11 days.
 
After a weekend in Wellington, we went on a beautiful and scenic ferry trip to Picton and then on a trip to the Able Tasman National Park, where we had a 2-day kayak adventure with an overnight stay in a beautiful bay. These two days were the hardest, but also the most rewarding and exciting days on the trip. They are my favorite, because I got the chance to see dolphins, the beautiful bays, and rocks along the seafront and I got to know many students much better than before.
 
After a long trip along the coastline and a short look and the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki, we stayed for the night in Greymouth. Greymouth is especially because of the gigantic waves at the beach and also because of the “Hokitikas Treetop Walk” a really nice memory.  On the next day, we drove to the Franz Josef Glacier and ended up in Wanaka, where we took nice pictures in front of the famous tree in the water.
 
Te Anau was our next destination, where we had an amazing time at the Kepler track and the boat trip to the Doubtful Sound. We saw little Penguins and enjoyed the beautiful landscape, which was formed by glaciers millions of years ago.
 
After Te Anau we went to Queenstown, the “Adrenalin Capital of the world”. Rachel left and Vivian Edgar joined us there. On the first day, we had an exciting jetboat trip on the Shotover River. The second day in Queenstown, was the most disappointing day for me on the trip, because all my activities – the skydive and the hang glide- I book, were canceled because of the weather. I made the best of the situation and had one of the famous “Ferg Burgers”. We then walked up the gondola with some of the students and had an amazing view and a nice time together. The walk down was really exciting because it was completely dark, so we had to find our way with flashlights.