Why I decided to move to the most beautiful country on earth for one year (part 1)

Hi there,
A couple months ago I decided to spend my third year of university abroad. So in April 2017 I boarded my flight to New Zealand to study at the University of Otago on the southern island of New Zealand. But of course I didn´t really come here to study. I moved to the other side of the planet to experience the time of my life. So instead of boring you with articles and pictures of me studying at uni, I will share some of my truly incredible adventures with you. So here´s my first trip.

Last Friday I left my flat and headed out for a weekend-trip to Wanaka, a cute little town in the centre of the South Island. My friends and I left Dunedin at 8 o`clock in the morning and reached Wanaka three and a half hours later right on time to get some lunch. Invigorated by some delicious burgers we left Wanaka behind us and drove to the car-park at the bottom of Roys Peak, an outstanding 1600 meter high mountain located directly next to Lake Wanaka.

The path lead us through almost bucolic landscapes that reminded me a little bit of the alpine pastures back home in Austria. After about half an hour of hiking we decided to split our group up and Marcell and me speeded up a little bit while the two girls kept their pace and brought up the rear. Two hours later we reached this breath-taking viewpoint where we took some absolutely staggering pictures. But see for yourself:

Climbing up the ridge of Roys Peak wasn´t really a challenge for two Austrians like Marcell and me, as we´re used to much steeper and much more perilous ascends, but it was a good feel to be back in the mountains. Although it was a really beautiful and warm day, it got a little chillier and windier en route to the top and I was glad that I had brought my warm winter jacket with me. After about three and a half hours we finally reached the summit! From left to right you can see the winding path leading to the top, the freezing cold Lake Wanaka with its surrounding mountains and the town of Wanaka itself on the very right side of the picture.

Although it had been a quite exhaustive hike, the mind-blowing panorama was absolutely worth it! Some of our flatmates, who had done this hike two or three weeks ago, had told us about huge snowfields at the summit of Roys Peak. But the tepid temperatures of the last few days had molten away most of the snow and this was the tiny rest of snow that was still left. On the way back down to the car-park we stopped at the viewpoint located halfway up the mountain once more, picked up and took some more pictures of the gorgeous panorama.
Two hours later we finally got back to the bottom and drove back to our hostel in Wanaka. We had a very tasty Indian dinner at one of the numerous dainty restaurants at Wanaka´s lakeside-street, encountered two American acquaintances of ours and went to an Irish pub to enjoy a glass of apple cider while playing some pool.
We didn´t stay out for too long because we wanted to get up early the next morning and finally go skiing again!
So we got up at 7 the next morning and drove to a shop called "Rocket Rentals" where we rented our skiing-equipment. One hour of driving later we reached the car-park at Treble Cone (TC). Although the "road" reminded us very much of the dirt-road leading up to Mt. Cardrona where we had been skiing a few weeks prior, the road was in a way better condition this time! Although even steeper than the Mt. Cardrona road, the TC dirt-road wasn´t muddy and slippery at all and our car had excellent grip on the dry gravel. Not that I´d complain about that!
The highest point of the TC ski-resort is even higher than Roys Peak´s summit, so the view down to Lake Wanaka was at least as astonishing as the one we´ve had from Roys Peak the day before! Unfortunately I had forgotten my skiing-goggles in Austria, so I had to wear my sunglasses... Not very professional I have to admit. But at least I had something to protect my eyes from both the airflow while skiing and the extremely intense reflection of the sun-rays from the snow.

Whereas most of the ski-resorts in Austria are located in the middle of the Alps and you´re surrounded by mountains at all times, TC is completely different. TC´s slopes offer you a view unlike anything else. The blue sky and tepid spring temperatures created an almost unreal ambience! Unlike Mt Cardrona, TC is a ski-resort that´s more suitable for advanced skiers and offers some red and black slopes. Maybe not entirely comparable to Austrian black-diamond slopes but still quite steep and challenging due to the icy conditions in the morning. With only two lifts and only a few more slopes, TC is a rather small ski-resort for Austrian standards, but is considered as one of the biggest (sic!) ski-resorts in New Zealand...
We skied for about four or five hours and drove back to Wanaka and spent the rest of this beautiful afternoon at Lake Wanaka where the girls had spent most of their day.