New Zealand Part II

NEW ZEALAND PART II

New Zealand

More of the Shaky Isles!

Springtime in NZ


I followed the signs in the Auckland airport to the ‘All Departures’ gate to catch my flight to Christchurch. I was asked to fill out a Departures card....’For a domestic flight?’ I asked. Oh no. There is another terminal for domestic departures and it was either a 15 minute wait for the shuttle or a 15 minute walk. I was already running late....so I ran. I arrived just in time to hear the announcement that my flight was delayed. What a surprise!

An hour and a half later, I landed in Christchurch. I could take a shuttle for $20, a taxi for $40 or a public bus for $7. All three of these options seemed ridiculously expensive after SE Asia of course, so I opted for the bus.

I got to the Bus Exchange where I was to call Anthony, my very first couch surfing host (couchsurfing.com) but could I find a payphone anywhere? No. And when I finally did, would it take coins? Nuh uh. So I had to use my credit card again after already spending $10 in Auckland just to call Tash for 5 minutes and was freezing with just my bunny hug, light pants and sandals! Why didn't I wear jeans on the plane or buy REAL shoes before I left? I guess I had forgotten what cold felt like after 6 months of heat in SE Asia.

While I sat waiting for Anthony, I noticed a seagull stroll by me. This seagull looked...PRISTINE. Its feathers were so white and it’s beak so red. After being exposed to so many animals that were mangy, diseased and unkempt in Asia, this seagull looked like it belonged to the royal family.

I stayed up chatting with Anthony and his roommate, Michelle, until I finally collapsed into bed at 1 AM. The entire journey from Denpasar ended up lasting 20 hours...as opposed to the original duration of 9 hours.

The next day, Anthony took me to Sumner Beach! A quaint little town by the ocean. We had a fabulous lunch there – eggs Benedict, apricot coconut crisp and espressos! I don't have any photos of this leg of my journey because my camera equipment was locked up in my baggage....which was lost somewhere between Australia and NZ (of course).

Michelle, Anthony and I went for breakfast the next morning before Michelle drove me to the airport. I hope that someday I will be able to return the hospitality to them.

When they announced that my flight to Rotorua was delayed, I actually laughed out loud after all that had already happened. I had specified a window seat on the flight to Rotorua, and had another chuckle when I realized my 'window seat' had no actual window!

I can't explain what a comfort it is knowing that someone you love is waiting for you at your destination. I had landed by plane, arrived by bus, tuk-tuk, sangthaw, boat etc. in so many places not knowing what to expect, where to go or who to trust completely alone. Although it's exciting and adventurous, it makes you appreciate a friendly face so much more. Knowing Tash was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived had me smiling the whole plane ride!

We had met and became fast friends way back in 1995 in Camrose, Alberta. The last time we had seen each other was in Edmonton about 4 years prior but had always stayed close through letters, email and telephone calls. At that time, her and her husband, Jono, had both graduated from Rhodes in South Africa and were immigrating to New Zealand with plans to later move to Australia. And here they were, livin' it! New Zealand provides a pretty beautiful life for those who take advantage of it, and they are a prime example of that.

The car ride from Rotorua was filled with stories, laughter and making up for all our lost time. We got to Whakatane (pronounced 'fuckatawny'...my mom had fun with that one ) and met Jono for a coffee at 'The Bean', where they roast their coffee beans in-house - I was in love with Whakatane already!

Their home was exactly as I had envisioned..cozy, comfortable and full of character. I spent the next 3 weeks there looking for work, editing photos, visiting and EATING! It wasn't until my clothes from Canada arrived and I tried to put on my favourite jeans that I realized just how MUCH I had been eating. I blame Tash. Her cooking was out of this world, gourmet, scrumptious and irrefutably deee-lish!

One weekend when Jono was away, Tash and I watched all of the Harry Potter movies back to back while eating curry, cookies, popcorn and drinking chai all wrapped up in arm warmers, housecoats and slippers. Divine!

I then spent a couple of weeks in Tauranga, which is also situated in the Bay of Plenty. The homeowner, Lisa, owned a pet sitting co. as well as a dog kennel so it was an absolute dreamy housesit for me! I took care of about 6 dogs for 2 weeks as well as Pickle, the cat. I was walking for about 3 hours every day so each of them could get a good jaunt in. It was so nice to have them around and they kept me reallllly busy!

At the end of it, Tash and Jono came to Tauranga to pick me up and we went to Mt. Maunganui. Tash and I walked up the mountain and quite typically, Jono ran! The summit offers a view of the vast ocean scape, paragliders, grazing sheep and surrounding city.

Kate and Graham Currie, Tash and Jono's friends from Hamilton came to visit that weekend in Whakatane. When they arrived, I was on my 'bird walk' – an amazing hike right beside their place – lots of stairs and elevated views. A great workout for someone who spends most of their time in front of a laptop.

We had a serious spread that night with much laughter and many stories of Jono and Graham's homeland, South Africa, as well as little tidbits about the Maori culture from Kate, the only Kiwi of the bunch.

Kate, Tash and I had a lovely morning drinking tea over girl chat and then got dressed and went to the carnival across the street. Tash and I giggled and screamed like little girls on the Rock and Roll! We then went to Ohope Beach for coffee and lunch and a walk at Otiwarari Bay. The beach was beautiful – so many seashells and so smooth. I was madly in love with life in New Zealand.


The next morning, we had another bbq but this time with French toast! We ate in their cute little backyard complete with garden, lots of flowers and trees. Jono would surprise Tash with things like making a flower bed or converting the garden path from straight to curvy.


I returned to Tauranga for another housesit taking care of 2 dogs and 3 cats. Pam worked with Lisa (my last housesit) and her parents were going 'across the ditch' to Australia. During this time I was going up to Auckland trying to find a company to sponsor me so I could stay in NZ without having to return home to obtain a work visa. This proved much harder than I had hoped.

By this time, Cait had arrived in NZ! I had met her in Thailand with Ada at the beginning of my trip and we had gone on to travel to Cambodia together. She had just spent 4 months in Thailand teaching English and we found a place in St. Helier's Bay, Auckland with 5 awesome roomies. I stayed with her when I was there and we got to catch up on all our travel adventures since we last saw one another.

My last house sit was in Muriwai Beach with 2 dogs, Neo and Pixie and Mog, the cat. I had no idea what a dramatically stunning place this was going to be. When I went down to the beach for the first time with the dogs, I was overtaken by the 50km of black sand beach, tumultuous waves and stormy nuanced sky.

The dogs and I went to the beach everyday to frolic in the surf and run up and down the beach...ok that was more them than me, but I had fun watching!


Cait came up to visit and we had a lovely day of eating ice cream, hanging with the dogs, checking out the Gannet colony and later making dinner and watching a quirky movie.

I came back down to Whakatane just in time for Halloween! Apparently Kiwis aren't big on dressing up for Halloween, so Tash was determined to show her friends what a great time they were missing out on. We decorated the entire house and Tash baked up a storm of Halloween goodies.

There was a vampire, a ghost, a smurf, a mummy, pirates, a Barbie, the Joker, hippies, a fly, an oyster catcher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oystercatcher) and the cat in the hat!

There was limbo, there was dancing, there was eating and drinking - a great party made by the spectacular people who attended and hosted the event.

And then it came....the 3 months in NZ that I had to secure a work visa and a job were up. If I had any hope of working in NZ, I was to return to Canada to apply for and obtain the visa. I returned home November, 2009, 9 months after I had set out to SE Asia, hoping only to stay for 5 weeks....at least that was the plan.

New Zealand Part 1

Arriving in Christchurch felt much like home and I wasn't too sure how to feel about that. When I was taking the bus into town from the airport, the first thing I noticed were the houses. They look like any old house that you would see in Canada. It’s now new. It’s not different. And I guess I got used to diversity to a point of needing it to to satisfy my wanderlust?

Maybe it was just the realization of leaving Bali and my dreamy life there. I think it was a good balance for me. I felt like there were a lot of dissimilarities that made it feel like I was traveling in a foreign land yet it had all the amenities (such as toilet paper) for me to feel comfortable...but not TOO comfortable.

The seashell wrapped in a little net that I purchased in Pai, Thailand at the beginning of my trip fell off my ankle literally minutes after arriving in NZ. A couple hours later, the seashell ring I had made myself also released itself off my finger...metaphors signaling a new phase.

I got myself comfy cozy in my seat for the flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sydney, Australia. I thought I was going to have the whole row to myself when ‘REALLY drunk Australian guy’ plopped himself down beside me. He was well aware how drunk he was, and kept apologizing in between telling me about how much he loved his wife but sounded like he had a bit too much fun with the ladies in Bali. Ugh! After I had politely told him that I really just wanted to go to sleep, he proceeded to babble on. His friend across the aisle finally gave him a firm talking to and he passed out cold for the duration of the flight. Yes!

Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a hullabaloo of a journey ahead of me.

Our plane landed in Sydney, Australia about 6 hours later in the wee hours of the morning. We then sat on the tarmac for 30 minutes before we were offloaded. I then had to sprint to get to my next flight leaving within 10 minutes. When I arrived, I got serious attitude from the Quantas agent because he had paged me 'several' times. Um...dude – I was on a plane! I ignored his prissiness. He then asked me to show him my onward ticket from NZ. What? Onward ticket? Why would I have one of those? I am a fly by the seat of my pants backpacker? How am I supposed to know where I am going after NZ? That could be days or even years away?

I was unable to produce said ticket. So he told me to wait until someone was available to escort me back through security while he radioed the baggage people to ‘offload’ my luggage (of which I am sure had not even arrived from the other plane yet). I stood there feeling like a complete ASS for not knowing that I needed this documentation to enter the country. Being a member of the commonwealth, I wasn’t so particular about researching this type of stuff as I was within Asian countries. Aren’t we all friends here?

The Quantas lady escorted me out of security. She told me I would have to purchase an onward ticket out of NZ as well as book another flight into Christchurch. This was really....upsetting. We were almost to the baggage department when she asked me if I had an Australian visa, to which I replied, 'no'. She told me to have a seat while she went to talk privately on her radio. Things were either looking hopeful or desperate at that point. I glanced at her to see if I could read her body language...am I going to jail or hopping the next plane to Christchurch?

She came back over and walked me in the opposite direction to the transit desk to my friend Drew. This guy needs to have a reality TV show all his own.

Apparently, Jetstar could incur a $5000 fine for letting me board the plane in Indonesia without checking to see if I had an onward ticket. Now I was in Australia illegally without a visa or a flight out of there. This was now an immigration issue and their problem, not mine. Drew made some calls and put it to them straight – he told me he doesn’t 'take any BS from these people', as he sat with his arms folded behind his head and chest puffed out – they can either pay for my $300 flight or the $5000 fine. Their choice. Within minutes I was booking a 'refundable' flight back to Vancouver so I could continue on my way (I refunded it later when I got to NZ but with the currency conversion, I lost $500 CDN..I could have spent a week in Fiji for that!).

During this process, Drew bought me a coffee and entertained me until my flight to Auckland. It took 2.5 hours to get there arriving 2 hours before the next flight was to leave for Christchurch. In that time I tried to rent a car and locate my baggage to see if I could just stay in Auckland and drive to Whakatane myself instead of flying all the way down to Christchurch on the South Island and then all the way back up to Rotorua on the North Island, where Tash was to pick me up. In the end, I was told my baggage was en route to Christchurch from Sydney already and there were NO rental cars available for neither that night OR the next day. And so the journey to Christchurch continued..