Catlins roadtrip

My first New Zealand adventure after arriving back in the country was long overdue, therefor I hired a car and went off to explore the Catlins. This was not my first trip down south as I have been there many years ago but no harm in visiting again, right?!

Day 1 of my trip and I picked up my Budget rental car in Queenstown, made my way down to Invercargill with a few photo stops inbetween (now that I finally got the chance to stop wherever I wanted!). Shopping, sightseeing and collecting information regarding the Catlins took quite some time and when I finally headed off on the Southern Scenic Route it was late afternoon. Time to put a few miles behind me! At early evening I arrived at Curio Bay's Lazy Dolphin Backpacker, had dinner and went to see the penguins at the fortified forrest (the fossilised remains of an ancient forest). Patience is of the essence and many tourists frankly lack the patience for wildlife viewing, hence the beach was almost empty by the time the Yellow-Eyed-Penguins (hoiho) finally came on shore. A bit clumsy and anxious, the penguins who had remained in the nests, walked down to the shore to welcome their parents/partners. The arriving penguins were busy cleaning their feathers and checking whether or not the coast was clear. I stayed until it was completely dark and left them to their own devices, giving them the chance to settle into their homes.

Day 2 and I headed to Slope Point, the South Island's southernmost point. It was just past 10am but temperatures were on the rise and it should be getting even hotter! Waipapa Point was my next destination and it is one of my favourites in the Catlins. In the last few years it has been developed to a major tourist spot with a proper landscaped carpark and toilets. I found three sea lions doing different things; snoozing, chasing flies away by throwing sand on their bodies and taking a refreshing swim. I needed refreshing myself as temperatures were high up and so my short sleeve top made way for the sleeveless top, thongs replaced sneakers and my body saw some sunlotion. My feet also experienced sea water again, which they haven't in a very long time!

Before finding my accommodation for the night I paid a visit to McLean Falls, Lake Wilkie and the beautiful Florence Hill Lookout. Following a recommendation of a friend, I stayed the night in Papatowai's Hilltop Accommodation and I loved it! Tranquil, up on a hill (who would have guessed, seing the name....) and surrounded by countless sheep, I spent a relaxing evening processing my pictures and getting started on my blog (the German one that is).

Day 3 started off with a waterfall again, this time the famous Purakaunui Falls. It was already hot and I was glad for the shade provided by the forest. Next destination was Jacks Bay and the Blowhole. It didn't blow at all but the scenery was awesome and I worked on my tan (without having much to do). While climbing the hill up to the lookout, I was watched by inquisitive sheep who usually don't get much of a change during the day. Back on the beach, my feet took a bath in the water and I watched sea lions what looked like fighting. After a while I figured they were actually mating. After a few pictures I left them alone and headed further to Nugget Point, one of the Catlins main attractions. At nearby Kaka Point I ignored the beach and forest walk, enjoyed fish & chips for lunch and had to say goodbye to the Catlins as I needed to be back in Invercargill for the night. I arrived there in the early evening and went to see the new Harry Potter movie. Great flick!

Day 4 came and I had to say goodbye to my wee Toyota. My workmate Sara (born and bred Invercargiller) gave me a lift back to Milford and we were greeted by sunshine and hot temperatures. The summer had finally arrived in Milford!!!

back in Kiwiland

Oopsy daisy, I guess I owe you an update about my wherabouts and doings. After having worked for Fraserway RV in Vancouver over the summer with fantastic workmates who I will miss dearly, I have left Canada in mid September to fly home. Still in Vancouver I had already started the process of getting all my paperwork ready for New Zealand immigration in order to apply for a work permit straight away once I would be back in Germany. Heaps of money I have spent for my medical, blood test and chest x-ray and luckely I have received all my results just a few days before I left the country. Back in Germany I was able to send the paperwork on its way to the embassy in Berlin and then I played the waiting game. I have very much enjoyed being back home and especially seing my little nephew Henry who I fell in love with in a heartbeat. My brother and his family don't live close to my parents house so I was trully thankful for every chance to see Henry and spend as much time with him as possible. He is a little more than 4 months now and a real charmer!

It took a bit more than 2 weeks for my visa and I was faced with the challenging task of finding an affordable flight on very short notice. With some help from a lovely friend I booked a flight Frankfurt-Osaka-Auckland-Queenstown and left Germany on October 13th. I can't describe how heartbreaking it was saying goodbye to my little Henry, knowing I won't see him again for a very long time and next time we'll meet he probably won't remember me. What a shame!

Two days later I finally arrived in New Zealand and was in for a little shock! Lufthansa had lost or forgotten to transfer my luggage in Osaka and left Air New Zealand to deal with the aftermaths. What was good for me in the end because those guys did an awesome job couriering my luggage down to Milford Sound in a record time. Only 2 days later I had my stuff!
Most of you probably already know that I am back in Milford Sound enjoying Fiordland and work on the boats. I have no idea how long I'll be here for, making plans isn't one of my strenghts (anymore) and so I'll see what the future might bring. For now I am more than happy to be back in New Zealand and that is all that matters!

Paralympics in Whistler and a whole new experience

The thing that really strikes me about anada is the people's willingness to dedicate their time to a good purpose and volunteer for all sorts of things. When I worked for VANOC and interviewed all those people and heard their stories and volunteer history I was deeply impressed. That would not happen back home to such an extend since people are too busy working their paid job to earn a living.

I was determined to do my share as well and since my security job finished with the Olympics I was available for a new adventure. While still working for VANOC, I had signed myself up as a volunteer and scored a position in the Whistler Athlete's Village in resident services. I felt very priviliged as I was entitled to sleep in the village, too; next door to all the Paralympic athletes and delegates.

The pace of live and work was so much different up here than back in Vancouver during the Olympics and I first struggled to adjust to not having much to do, just sitting around being approachable to volunteers and athletes and trying to make everyone's stay at the village at comfortable as possible. But you get used to it very quickly and I enjoyed the winter time with my fellow volunteer budies. We were seen reating artwork in the snow, starting snowball fights with everyone rossing our path, exploring the village and using the athlete's video lounge to watch DVDs ourselves. Almost everyday we made it into Whistler to explore the township, go shopping, go for a coffee, see the Paralympic elebrations, see competitions and the victory eremonies and much more. I loved being up there for about 3 weeks and get to see Whistler from a different point of view most tourists and visitors won't get to see. I also tried my luck skiing with my friend Kate but we are no ski bunnies, that's for sure. It took us ages to actually get off the mountain again safely and when I had finally made it back into Whistler township I wouldn't wanna touch skis again!

To finish off our Paralympic experience, we watched the closing eremony in the Amsterdam pub in Whistler as we couldn't get any tickets for the event. The athlete's parade passed right outside the pub before entering the stadium to commence the show. What a great way of saying goodbye to the world. Once the show was over we were all just sitting there in disbelief. No way our efforts to organize the Olympics and Paralympics had come to an end! A relief but also a scary idea. What comes next?!?!

the Olympics in Vancouver

Ooops, I think I promised what I wasn't able to fulfil. Or has anyone seen my regular updates on the Winter Games? I haven't....

The Games are over and I finally find some time to write about it. Vancouver has been crazy over the last 3 weeks and so was work at BC Place. Many things didn't work out the way I or others wanted them to be and I guess venue management would have liked to see some things working out differently but hey, life's a bitch and you have to deal with issues as they arise. Overall I enjoyed the experience of working at the busiest Olympic venue although sometimes I would have wished to see less people standing infront of our portals. At the very busy days we've put through people for 3 hockey games and a victory ceremony what adds up to about 75,000 people daily. The day of the closing ceremony was a crazy one too with 20,000 for the gold medal hockey game and 60,000 for the ceremony. Not the best place to be if you feel threatend by masses of people.

Unfortunately I haven't had many days off during the Winter Games and therefor haven't seen many competitions, life events or special Olympic events. I managed to get into the German Fan Fest once to have the German beer and bratwurst, especially delivered from Thuringia, the region I am coming from. Queues have been the most common thing in downtown Vancouver and people queued for different things: food and even more likely for drinks, access to trains, access to venues, entertainment, pins, entry into the Olympic Superstore, exit from venues, to have pictures taken with the mascots, to use the washrooms etc. There were people everywhere and my way home from BC Place to the West End was a struggle at most times, having to fight through the masses in Yaletown (life site) and at Granville and Robson street (party zone).

Thanks to my former VANOC employment I had scored a ticket to see the Dress Rehearsal of the opening ceremony and while I sat there it really hit home: The Olympic Games are about to start and I am where everything is happening. A crazy feeling! The real opening ceremony I watched with a few VANOC colleagues on TV. It was awesome and despite all the critique a great show and effort to entertain the world! Another event I was lucky to see live was one of the many victory ceremonies. Lucky for me: Germany's ladies had won bronze and silver at the women's bobsleigh. Unlucky for me, the medal ceremony took place in Whistler and we watched it on a big screen. Bugger! The main reason for attending the show where the Sterophonics who had a hard time firing up the mainly Canadian crowd that had never heard of them.

My friend Kate and I went to Whistler to see the bobsleigh and that was kind of risky for me because I had not been able to get any tickets for the event as supposedly it was sold out. I took a chance anyway because I just needed to be there! And guess what, I easily got a ticket for just 45 bucks. Having thought long about whether or not to buy tickets online for 300 bucks I was stocked! We were watching the 4 man bobsleigh Heat 3 and 4 and found some people to cheer with us and group an international crowd; English, German, Canadian, Scotish and Korean. We did well! Heat 3 we watched from the tribune at the start and made our way down to the finish line later to watch Heat 4. Unfortunately and for some very strange reason everybody else seemed to have the same idea what made it difficult for us finding a good spot. Nevermind! The only thing that mattered was Andre Lange and his team winning the silver medal and making my hometown Suhl proud (where Andre Lange lives)!

I guess it comes handy every now and then having worked for VANOC and having friends who still work there...... or maybe I just got lucky. Either way, I was more than pleased when Kate rang me letting me know she got tickets for the closing ceremony and she wanted me to join her. So after work I quickly made my way home and this time it wasn't a struggle at all. The streets were deserted as everybody was home or somewhere to watch the gold medal hockey game between Canada and the USA. The scene had changed dramatically when I walked back to BC Place to get to the closing ceremony; Canada had won their most important gold medal and Vancouver was on fire! Cheering people everywhere, singing O Canada, waving their flags, high fiving strangers, stopping cars and doing other crazy stuff.

Watching the closing ceremony was another highlight of the Games, to bid farewell the athletes, handing over the torch to the Russians for Sochi 2014 and especially the concert at the end with heaps of Canadian bands.

The last few months have been a great experience; organizing the Olympic Games while working for VANOC and recruiting many of our fantastic volunteers; securing the Games with my security work at BC Place and now the fun continues while I am volunteering in Whistler for the Paralympics. I couldn't have asked for more when I arrived in anada and I would have never even dreamed of being involved in the Games in so many different ways.

9 days to go to the Olympic Winter Games!

So sorry for neglecting my English blog, but the last few weeks have been a rollercoaster for me. Long story very short, work has been totally crazy after we have returned from the new years break and because recruiting is still in process I worked between 50 to 70 hours a week. VANOC is now on Operational Time and that means working 6 days a week from 7am to 7pm (there's supposed to be a shift system to avoid people working more than 10 hours a day, but it didn't really work for me, I still worked 12 hours to get everything done). Anyway, three days ago I had the pleasure of looking at the MOC, VANOC's Operations Centre with representatives from each function in and ouside of VANOC. The MOC responds to everything happening in regards to the Games and whenever there's a crisis or something that needs to be dealt with (competition delays or postponements, snow issues, traffic problems etc) the MOC is reacting accordingly. There's also the TOC, the Technical Operations Centre with I don't know how many computers monitoring EVERYTHING. Also the Helpdesks, Timing and Scoring for the competitions and computer geeks are located there.

Last Saturday I had my job specific training at the Pacific Coliseum, where we had the chance to practice with X-Ray machines, wands and mags and get the teams to work together for the first time as so far every function of the team has had their own trainings. This time, Screeners, X-Ray Operators and Supervisors for the first time worked and practised together what they have learned before in their training sessions. From my point of view it was far from perfect, but there is heaps of time to practise during quiter hours at work and to get up to speed with the whole process.

Today I attended my venue familiarization at BC Place / Canada Hockey Place, which is my assignment for the Games. An impressive venue and I am quite excited about being stationed here. To give you a quick overview about the upcoming events, Canada Hockey Place will host all Men Hockey Matches and all Hockey Medal Matches (Men and Women). BC Place is the venue for the opening and closing ceremony for the Olympics and the opening ceremony for the Paralympics, also all victory ceremonies at the end of the competition days. A busy place not only with all the athletes, spectators and media but also the 9500 people strong workforce team including 950 GSS security people (that's me) and 500 police officers from all around Canada.

Compared to Whistler, Vancouver will be reasonable quite during the Paralympics as most of the competitions will take place in Whistler and only the sledge hockey will be hosted in Vancouver. For me that means that I won't be needed for the Paralympics. First of course I was disappointed, had I counted with more shifts to work to earn more money, but hey, that's life. You should always have a back up plan and that fell into place quickly. In no time had I registered to volunteer for the Paralympics in Whistler, had assigned myself a job in the Athletes Village and organized a bed to stay as well - one of the many bonuses of working for VANOC. I am particularly excited about this opportunity for many different reasons; the chance to finally see Whistler, to stay there for more than just a few days/nights and being able to work alongside many of my fantastic VANOC colleagues; can't wait for this awesome experience!

And more news to come. After having worked so hard over the last few months I think I deserve a break and boost of motivation to start my new job in April (it's all wrapped up and papers signed) so I will go on a road trip with two good friends from work. We are thinking of hiring a car, driving to Calgary, Banff and Jasper National Parks, back to Vancouver in 2 weeks. I am so looking forward to seeing the Canadian Rockies and I guess my camera will be happy too, to be taken out of the closet and being used again!

Alright, that's it for now, enough news and information to take in. I try to give as many updates during the Olympics as possible but I have no idea how busy or tired I will be. But let's start it off with loads of good intentions!

Let the Games begin!!!
Katja :))