Governor’s Bay : 1st night in the van after picking up Ariane at the airport and enjoying a first evening with WiFi and a chat with Catherine on Facebook
Back to Christchuch to sign the van contract for Ariane - I don’t want to be the only one to enjoy driving this really confortable automatic car on the left side of the road ! – we briefly met Remco back from Queenstown for a lunch and walk in the botanic garden before heading north to Kaikoura.
When arriving a second time to Lake Tekapo – hoping to see the beatiful sky one more night – I found out that Ariane was arriving on Sunday and not on Saturday as said… Luckily I had found another couchsurfer in Christchurch – Sinco, also Dutch and leaving in NZ since more than 20 years – who could host me 1 more night than expected.
So on Saturday he offered me to join him and his friends for a small saling race in Lyttelton. I had a thought for my dear ostheopath in Boulogne while crawling from one side to another, sitting on the mast trying to catch the wind for starting the race! Lot of fun for my first time sailing ! We even saw dolphins swimming next to the boat and one of them did a really nice jump just in front of us. I’m not saying I’ll do that every weekends but I really enjoyed it even if I still have some bruises after a week…
Following a good night sleep at the Lakefront Backpackers Lodge – www.laketekapo-accomodation.co.nz – the friendly Cook Connection – www.cookconnect.co.nz – bus driver came to pick me up at the hostel , drove us with some pictures stops to Mount Cook Village and even brought me directly to the Youth hostel – www.yha.co.nz – I booked. Hostel are pretty expensive – as most of the things here !- however really practical, clean and with friendly & helpfull staff.
So as I arrived pretty early with a sunny weather – seems not so easy to see Mount Cook so clearly as Alan, the bus driver told us – I decided to go for the 4 hours Sealy Tarns track with steep stair climb – indeed !!! It was even sometimes hard to know how to continue – beautiful weather, not too warm and great view on the glacier, hearing the avalanche on the other side, impressive – but as long as it’s not an hearthquack I’m fine ! – On my way back I went to the Kea Point to seat at the lookout which provide a great views of the Aoraki Mount Cook, the Mueller Glacier, the hanging glaciers and icefalls of Mount Sefton.
In the evening I decided to « cook » as the places to eat where really expensive – Gregoire you would be amazed by the kitchen – but not by my cooking for sure !!! 
and went to try to see the stars… Not really successful. While going back to my dormitory I bumped into Remco – a Dutch traveller looking for something to eat at 10pm… As the village was pretty dark and I couldn’t really explain the way to the restaurant, I went with him, also hoping to see more stars on the way.
On the next day we went together to the popular and lovely Hooker Valley walk passing two swing bridges, along a cold river where I couldn’t avoid putting my feet, before reaching the final destination of the Terminal Lake at the bottom of the Hooker Glacier where we had a small picnic. Amasing to be in short leaves with ice floating around… We arrived back to Remco’s car just before the rain!
After 4 days resting in Christchurch with Maddy and her family – couchsurfing contact J - I moved south for 1 night to Geraldine where the helpful tourist information lady advise me to go to Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook if I didn’t want to spend most of my time in the bus – less confortable than South America but usualy with a bus driver (here with the www.nakedbus.com, no bus driver aren’t naked !) who tells you some interesting stories about places you see!
So the next day I went to the amazing Lake Tekapo… I’ve never seen a lake so turquoise! – due to sediment in the water coming from the glacier in the headwaters. This « rock flour » is suspended in the water and when combined with sunlight creates the unique water colour - Splendid… Even more stunning is the view on the summit of Mt John where I could enjoy a delicious carrots cake at the Astro Café Mount John is internationally recognised as one of the best place for viewing the southern sky. The Christchurch University of Canterbury and Nagoya (Japan) operates the scientific Observatory where you can choose from either – expensive ! – day or night tours. Lake Tekapo is said to have the clearest, darkest and most spectacular night sky in New Zealand. Indeed!!! I spent my evening – pity that the night was too cold ! – laying down on the Lake Tekapo beach watching it, I’ve never seen so many stars and the Milky Way Galaxy… Incredible! So amasing that I wanted to enjoy it again. Unfortunately when I came back a day later weather was cloudy 
Anyway I had a great view on the lake from the Youth Hostel and went to visit the pituresque Church of the Good Shepherd before heading back to Christchurch where finding that Ariane will arrive a day later than expected…
Hello! Yes, yes, I know, I’m really late with the last infos… I took some times to recover from the last event in Chile. It was terrifying! But yeh, I guess this is part of the game! Anyway, I’ll go back for sure to Argentina & Chile! They are my 2 favorite countries so far. Landscapes are amasing and people really friendly!!!
Even though this bad event, I’m still really happy about my decision! This was scary and beeing all alone there was really hard and frightening but I met again wonderful people on my way.
So far NZ is great, however pretty expensive and a bit too english for me, too superficial people compare to the warmth of South American ones…
Ariane will arrive in a bit more than 2 hours now… I can’t wait to see her again! I’m so glad that we will spend 2 weeks together before I go to Australia. 
I’ll come back soon with New Zealand and the wonderful landscapes of Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook - the highest mountain in NZ! – new experience such as sailing day in Lyttelton as well as new encounters Lot to tell you about!
Christchurch – New Zealand!!! I finally made it with 1 day delay and more than 7 hours waiting at the airport. The earthquake experience was really scary – I think I never had so much fear in my life!!!
Luckily I’m safe and New Zealand seems to be incredible! I can’t wait for Ariane to arrive next week!
Thanks you so much for your support, it mean a lot to me! I’ll make sure to answer to each one of you as soon as I can.
So I missed my flight… But this time this isn’t my fault! I reached Santiago on time but couldn’t go to the airport: closed! No way to go there… I ended up standing in a queue in front of LAN office in order to get information about what to do… When I could finally speak to someone, she said to me that I needed to go to Qantas but they are now close, wait until tomorrow 9am.
I needed to find a place to sleep, didn’t feel like doing anything, kind of waiting for a miracle… Thing is, miracle never arrive when you need it! So I went to internet and sent a message on CouchSurfing – CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit. http://www.couchsurfing.org/ – after one of the Ambassador sent me a message, asking if I was safe and giving me a link to the Chile & Santiago groups if I needed help! What a surprise and realease to receive this message!!! So I sent my request and after not even 2 hours I got 2 replies and one really close from the Qantas office I needed to go the next day… Ceasar – a Peruvian living in Santiago – welcomed me and helped me to get info for my flight! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m suppose to leave tonight – Tuesday March 2 – for New Zealand!
What an adventure… I have to say that beeing alone during this travel was sometimes hard but manageable… Yes, I was missing a lot Ariane & Gregoire after they left Perou but nothing compare to that… Beeing all alone after my first – and I hope my last!!! - earthquake was the hardest thing I experienced so far - hopefully nothing worse would happen! I never felt such a fear in my life! I guess I can even say I was absolutely terrify! Such a weird feeling!!! As I said, I didn’t feel the earthquake, even if we were so close from the epicentre - lucky me! – I was sleeping. Waking up in the bus with such anxiety was strange, seeing cracks on the road, houses and bridge completely destroy was impressive but somehow fine… I was more worried about what the media would say to scare the rest of the world as I couldn’t contact anyone…
However the next day was a nightmare, even if I was safe!
At one point, I found myself not beeing able to do anything else than crying… Crying for what?!?! Don’t ask! I’m still wondering… The only thing I wanted was to see a face I know… I was so glad to meet the bus driver
- Victor! It was a realease!!! When he was called to drive back to Santiago on that evening, he even offered me to come with him! An angel in a middle of this mess!
Where I was, nothing too bad happen, mostly materials problem. However all around Concepcion city is a disaster area! And I can tell you that medias are the same everywhere… Informing yes and alarming too…
