Goodbye Sydney

People universally tend to think that happiness is a stroke of luck, something that will maybe descend upon you like fine weather if you’re fortunate enough. But that’s not how happiness works. Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax maintaining it, you must make mighty effort to keep swimming upward in that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. If you don’t, you will leak away your innate contentment. It’s easy enough to pray when you’re in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to its good attainments.

This would be my final blog. My Sydney days are over. Many thanks to those who made my stay pleasant and warm...

To my Kiwi gal Jovanna, for always having a glass Vila Maria ready for me, introducing me to Sydney night life, and helping my put my feet on the ground when I was struggling to adjust. 

To my co-star Linda Ngo, for spinning with me throughout Sydney, and brightening my day with her warmth and generosity, and making me smile and laugh sincerely with her happiness, goofiness, and with merely being uninhibitedly fashionable. 

To my Swedish friend Nadja, for her company in many of our adventures, in broad day light at the beach, bush, and city, but also in night time, her easiness to smile, always guaranteeing me to have a good time, and above all giving me a stunning surfer hair style. 

To my Wisconsin roomie Cassie, for being an inexhaustible source of inspiration in the kitchen, being my Clovelly beach companion through times of thunder and sunburns, and of course for all the gossips we shared about our favorite topic: the dramatic landlord couple.

To the entire Garvan Institute staff, but of course particularly my supervisor Kylie.  

Finally, to the provider Virgin Mobile, for allowing me to make free, endless, geeky science phone calls to my dear Dutch friend Lianne in Brisbane.

I cherish all the moments we shared and wish you all the best. I hope our paths will cross again in the future. 

Lastly, of course, thanks to all my loyal blog readers who have stuck with me until the end! 

Time to go home :) 

Vincent. 

Doubtful Sound

Monday we went on an overnight cruise through Doubtful Sound. Known for its beauty and wildlife, Doubtful Sound is the second largest fiord in Fiordland National Park. There are just a view areas in the world where no human has ever set foot. More than 200 days of rain a year ensures not a tree branch to be left bare and brown, moss is present everywhere. The entire forest is intensively green. In order to get there, we had to take a transfer boat to cross lake Manapouri, and a bus to take us to the cruise ship. We started with delicious muffins and we were sailing through this beautiful environment at 13:00 P.M. The entire atmosphere had something magical. There was this distinct smell, and the unspoilt wilderness was mysterious and mist-cloaked. I felt like I was sailing through a fairy tale. As if elves could start to pop up any minute now. It even reminded me a little bit about ''Droomvlucht'' in the Dutch amusementpark Efteling, however this was real. Magical. After a while we started with the water activities and I chose to do kayakking. It was surreal to be kayakking in such an environment. Of course I wanted to have the full Sounds experience, so therefore I also dived into the cold water. Interestingly, these mountains catch a lot of clouds and therefore a huge layer of fresh rain water is covering the top of the sea water. Therefore, it attracts a wide range of marine life, even 4 meter sized white sharks. Luckiky, I was not aware of this until after I dived into the water. But because of these circumstances, the water is really dark. The buffet was amazing. This cruise is known to deliver good food. It was true. In the evening we played Pictionary with a bunch of people and that was so much fun. The next day, it was raining intensely. However, in Fiordland this is a good thing, because the steep hills were showing hundreds of waterfalls as a result. I felt like the mountains were crying. At some point, the boat turned off its engine so that everyone could absorb the scenery in silence. It was unbelievable: dark, black water, hundreds of waterfalls, mist mysteriously moving through the mountains. It was an amazing experience.

Mountain Cook

 After we hitchhiked to Tasman Glacier, and did a day walk to Hooker Valley, we were ready for a bigger challenge. We decided to do an overnight long walk to Mueller Hut. The Mountain Cook Village, named after British explorer James Cook, is a cute, but cold village, which does not have a supermarket or an ATM machine. We basically lived of cookies, chocolate, white bread and potatoes because of our bliss ignorance. The village resides at 700 meter altitude and is surrounded by big snowcapped mountains, of which Mt Cook is the biggest with 3800 meters. Our hiking destination the Mueller hut was located on top of a mountain at an altitude of 1800 meters. This meant that we were going to climb a rough 1000 meters up a mountain! Early in the morning, after we made our preparations we went to the visitor center to purchase our hut tickets and to rent a sleeping bag for myself. Onno already bought one in Queenstown. Suddenly, renting one was not possible any more as of that day. Ah well, armed with thermo underwear and merino woollen vests I was not that concerned. How cold could it be? The ascending started with many, many stair cases. Halfway the mountain, the track became more difficult to climb. There was no longer a clear pathway to walk on and we had to climb up on rocks and little stones. Slowly, more and more snow started appearing. Before we knew it, our ankles were deeply covered in snow. The last hour was tough and we kept slipping away as it was also quite icy. 

Once on top, we were rewarded with the most amazing view I´ve seen so far. The hut provided a 360 degree panorama encompassing glaciers, ice cliffs, vertical rock fares, and New Zealand´s highest peaks. It was a great view for hearing and seeing ice falls, avalanches (=lawine), alpine sunrises and equally unforgettable sunsets. The cold at night was unbearable. We were sleeping at night with a lot of degrees under zero. The old and scruffy blankets did not provide much comfort. The next day, descending the track was really difficult which resulted in a lot of falls and slidings. However, at some point I was in a flow and jumped from rock to rock enthusiastically. I felt like a waterdancer from Game of Thrones series. I bragged a bit up in the hut about the fact that I like to think that I am rather athletic and therefore experienced no problems during the hiking. I am glad these people did not witness my intense muscle pain for the following few days. Honestly, I could not walk for two days after this hiking track. I am still limping today. But it was worth it.