On the way to laughter

by Josephine Haertel (Germany)

I didn't expect to find New Zealand

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Months of travelling made me plan for every eventuality in the ever-changing nature and sometimes unpredictable weather of New Zealand. This day should become an event we would enjoy and remember for a long time. In my head I was going through the list of things I packed in addition to the van that was already organised for fifteen people. I wasn’t too sure if my friends could imagine what ‘cold weather’ really means. Working and spending the wintertime in Marlborough, this northern part of the South Island, I was aware that here ‘winter’ came with morning frost and mild sunny days. I saw Elena shaking a little this morning but as most of our group came from Vanuatu – a tropical island archipelago, in the south Pacific Ocean – I wouldn’t let their having fun in creating little clouds in front of their faces trick me into believing that they knew what was coming for us. „Elena, I brought some extra clothes. As soon as we are leaving the valley in the western direction it will get pretty cold.“ She smiled gently and nodded. The vineyards rushed by as we were leaving the valley. All of those plants we cared for the last couple of months. Each and every one of them, still in their winter sleep - readily prepared for the coming spring when they would first show pinkish tiny buds that would grow into luscious green veils - were now standing with their canes fixed onto the wires. A sheer massive amount of them, their rows aligned according to the sun. Their perfect formation standing out against the natural boarder of the surrounding hills and mountains. As we follow along the Wairau river, we recede further and further from the valley and the trees and bushes along the way would loose the signs of human intervention. The wind swept pine trees had no need of straightening up and the Mānuka shrubs would let their size just be determined by other shrubs. The river was doing what it wished, running in zig zag within its bed. We came closer to the foothills. While the van was climbing upwards, we got excited. Cameras were flashing everywhere. A tiny wooden bush was standing amongst a sea of melting snow, glittering in the sun, reflecting back the light. Do those cameras hold us back from engaging with our surroundings? I started to talk about the properties of snow, the vegetation zones on mountains and of course I didn’t let go of my warning of the cold. At least not until we reached the mountaintop - a high plateau without a single tree or bush. A bright white landscape, where just anthracite gray stone formation blinked out of the snow and gave some shape to this vast glittering plains and the in every colour of the rainbow shimmering hills. Our cameras were not able to capture the colours that were reflected by the snow. I wasn’t prepared for the spring like warmth that greeted us up here. Elena just wore a bright smile. She was standing still while the others took a bath in some powdery bits of snow and I was putting away my warm layers one by one. Could she have known that it would be like this? A sanctuary of snow that needed no explanation, the warmth of springtime, the camera-free jump into the snow? „No, I didn’t expect that. But aren’t we lucky to be here on this amazing mountaintop. I’m just so thankful.“ Never mind cameras, planning and precaution, this was our moment of thankfulness, peace and a feeling of being routed in the here and now. With our eyes wide open we hear the wind scraping over a hilltop and became captured for a moment in a snowy hollow. When it freed itself again and was rushing over the plains, I took a deep breath and so did Elena – we looked at each other and broke out in contagious laughter.