Thursday, January 23, 2014
Come to New Zealand. Learn German. You would be amazed at how many Germans are here. Someone gave me a figure like 70,000 Germans travel to New Zealand annually. There are only 4 million Kiwis that live here. Whether or not that backpacker statistic is true, I would totally believe it. And the crazy thing about it is that even more of them go to Australia.
The other night, I was pretty sure I was the only native English speaker staying here aside from Chris and Liz. I made friends with a guy from Sweden and I kicked his butt in Scrabble. It was pretty unfair, but he held his own really well. My German roommate taught me how to play chess. In the back of my mind, that scene from Harry Potter where they become the real life pieces kept playing in my head. All distractions aside though, it was fun trying to translate the little man pieces, especially since I didn’t even know what they are called in English to begin with. Our match turned into a massive game of two versus four, a sight most unusual for any conventional player. I am going to challenge him one on one tonight, so please wish me luck.
Oh, and I have exciting news! Katharina and I made arrangements today to hike the Heaphy Track starting the first of February! It will be my first of the nine NZ Great Walks. 3 nights, 4 days and 78.5 kilometers through the Kahurangi National Park. I agreed to go part on impulse, so I am mildly terrified but mainly excited. I have no idea what to expect, and hopefully we are well enough prepared. If not, it might be a little while before I get to update my blog again…
PS: I said “I have a matchbox in my right pocket!” It is both a completely false statement as well as a completely useless foreign phrase.
Steph Dobson 