The World Through My Eyes

When speaking about spending my exchange semester in New Zealand, the majority of the people expressed with a flat 'Cool!'. Sometimes I had wondered why I had picked this place, the most distant place on Earth from where I was coming, but after having been here for three months, I realised the magic behind the experience. By the way, I was living in Frankfurt in Germany and last June, I had made the decision to come to Wellington in New Zealand for my exchange semester.
Before coming here, I promised myself not to have any expectations. At all. At night, I tried to picture what it would be like living in New Zealand and the idea kept haunting so much to the extent where I had gone on Google Maps and tried to virtually navigate myself around town.
This experience has been unimaginable and still appears unconvincing to me. I don't believe there could be a word that could describe this place. The landscape. The people. The weather. Nature. Somehow, all the elements harmonise, creating an unforgettable picture in your mind. Taking photos then became a feeling of faultiness. Photos – it doesn't matter how good of a camera you own – do not do this place justice! It cannot give you the 360° view, the feeling once you are by the Lake Matheson or in the valley next to Mount Cook. You breathe in the air and ponder: Where have I been all these years? The feeling starts from your head and runs to your toes. It's too beautiful too beautiful to be true. A photo, captured on your camera, is merely a small fraction of nature's beauty.
Before writing this story, I was on a seventeen-day road trip with seven of my friends in the south island of New Zealand. Seeing lake Wanaka, lake Tekapo, Queenstown, all these places had not stopped our mouths hanging and screaming over how nature can be so perfect.
New Zealand may be a small country, but its beauty of nature had not ceased to amaze my eyes and definitely changed my perceptions about beauty.