Approximately ten days ago I began the longest journey of my life. I got on a plane (with the boyfriend in tow) and started the 30 odd hour flight to the land of the sheep… No, not Wales, but New Zealand. I love to travel, so I wasn’t in a bit worried about the flight length – and in terms of boredom, I needn’t have been! If anything I had too much to do on the plane - I barely started my book, and didn’t finish one page of mindful colouring – the outrage! Yet as we touched down in New Zealand I suddenly wondered whether we had flown anywhere at all. For a country so far away, it doesn’t half look similar to home.
Having landed in Christchurch we only made a short pit stop, staying just long enough to find and buy a car. An experience in itself. This once buzzing city has clearly been massively hit by the quake that happened almost five years ago now. The streets were almost eerily quiet, with gaping spaces where buildings once stood and have yet to be re-built, leaving the city in an equivocal state. Not departing until 8pm, we began the six hour drive down to Queenstown. Yes, in hindsight we probably should have driven down the following morning… Touch and go at times, but we made it down alive! So although we missed what I can only guess to have been breathtaking scenery of the undulant south island, we did get to see the night skies of New Zealand and deliberate over whether we would see the same star formations over here as home… Still need to get clarification on that one!
Arriving sometime into the middle of the night, we found our room key taped to the hostel reception desk – one of the first signs of just how trusting Kiwi’s are. We were greeted by a fellow guest who kindly, in his inebriated state, showed us to our room. Suddenly the ability to stay awake eluded us, not that I’d been much good at it on the drive down, and we slept.
Waking up the following morning, I almost felt like I was back at American summer camp with the communal bathrooms and cabin like feel to the hostel. In a strange way it was somewhat reassuring. When I finally made my way out of the hostel and towards town, I took my first look around this new place I will come to call home. With sheer mountains rising up high above the crystal blue lake that seems to stretch out in every direction, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. A cold but fresh morning (probably one of my favourite kinds) with the sun just peeking out through the clouds, I thought to myself was – this is where I live… Awesome.
Having landed in Christchurch we only made a short pit stop, staying just long enough to find and buy a car. An experience in itself. This once buzzing city has clearly been massively hit by the quake that happened almost five years ago now. The streets were almost eerily quiet, with gaping spaces where buildings once stood and have yet to be re-built, leaving the city in an equivocal state. Not departing until 8pm, we began the six hour drive down to Queenstown. Yes, in hindsight we probably should have driven down the following morning… Touch and go at times, but we made it down alive! So although we missed what I can only guess to have been breathtaking scenery of the undulant south island, we did get to see the night skies of New Zealand and deliberate over whether we would see the same star formations over here as home… Still need to get clarification on that one!
Arriving sometime into the middle of the night, we found our room key taped to the hostel reception desk – one of the first signs of just how trusting Kiwi’s are. We were greeted by a fellow guest who kindly, in his inebriated state, showed us to our room. Suddenly the ability to stay awake eluded us, not that I’d been much good at it on the drive down, and we slept.
Waking up the following morning, I almost felt like I was back at American summer camp with the communal bathrooms and cabin like feel to the hostel. In a strange way it was somewhat reassuring. When I finally made my way out of the hostel and towards town, I took my first look around this new place I will come to call home. With sheer mountains rising up high above the crystal blue lake that seems to stretch out in every direction, I couldn’t help but smile to myself. A cold but fresh morning (probably one of my favourite kinds) with the sun just peeking out through the clouds, I thought to myself was – this is where I live… Awesome.