New Zealand – I’ll be back!

By the time you are reading this, I have just watched the fifth movie in row during my flight down to New Zealand and it takes still six more hours.*

Once upon a time…

Back in 2015, I travelled to New Zealand to do a language school to pass the Cambridge Proficiency Exam. Apart from studying, I chose New Zealand due to its wild landscape and – of course – its fishery. New Zealand is renowned for magnificent trout fishery and this travel was my main reason to take up fly fishing in 2015. There are a few dated spin fishing posts on ExpediTom, but since visiting NZ it became fly only.

New Zealand

I love New Zealand and its wonderful inhabitants – called as the national animal: Kiwis. They are exceptionally open-minded, very friendly and inherit a true spirit for wilderness. Furthermore, their country offers so many opportunities to see wild places without any harmful animals.

Stunning Landscape

New Zealand left its mark on me and made me crave to find similar unspoilt wilderness destination all over the world. Although many places are beautiful in their own way, nothing so far compared to this scenery.

Great People

Along the way, I met many great people during my stay – Kiwis and travellers alike. I recently wrote about a fishing trip with the Auckland Freshwater Angler’s club which was amazing. There are about 5 million people living in NZ, which is seven times the size of Switzerland (8 million people). About 2 million live in Auckland, which leads to many sparsely populated areas in NZ. However, they still struggle with issues that arise frequently in Switzerland too. First, there is a huge tourism industry, which pushes the infrastructure to its limits (about 4 mio. in 2018). Secondly, extensive dairy farming causes pollution of rivers.

Why am I going to New Zealand again?

Long story short: In order to be able to finish my teacher education, I have to spend four more weeks in an English-speaking country doing something which is not travelling. Instead of working on a camping, in a hostel or something ordinary, I opted to do something with fishing and photography. So, I looked for a volunteering in Canada, South Africa and NZ, which eventually lead me to some contacts down there. I got a volunteering position for Fish&Game for whom I will write posts and take photographs for them.

That is why, I am going to New Zealand – yet again.

* Although I was looking for a volunteering in a closer location, I ended up with a dream position on the other side of the planet. Given the necessity of this trip, there was no other way than taking the plane. In order to compensate the emissions I voluntarily paid CHF 239.- to offset my carbon footprint with other projects.