Its long long overdue but finally after nearly 3 months on the green green shores of Nuovo Zeelandia, I have made myself a temporary home, packed up my back pack and found time to write the blog! Ahh New Zealand....land of the Kiwi, the most delicious honey in the world, tasty lamb, rugby and err Rachel Hunter? Flight of the Conchords perhaps?I realised early on that I had planned everything badly and would be arriving in NZ almost exactly for the onset of winter, so knew it was going to be cold when I got here in May. Thats fine, I know about cold, I can deal with rain and wind too, infact after 5 months of having no job and the best tan of my life I almost felt I deserved some bracing conditions. But cold, rain and wind with nothing but glorified wendy houses heated by powerful hairdryers to live in? errrr call me a winging pom but thats just plain stooopid! I'm almost adjusted now but seriously there is a gap in the market for central heating and double glazing specialits round these parts.
Ok winging over. New zealand is spectacular. The people are welcoming and friendly, the culture is diverse and bilingual and there is loads to do, mainly outdoors.
I arrived in Aukland in mid-may and stayed with cousin Katie and Ben for a few days. Visited Sinead in Hobbiton, Enjoyed Ben's great 21st bday party and started developing my Kiwi vocab; 'Sweet as bro'.
However, sorry to all Auklanders but I didn't feel it was a special place, at least for me. NZ is not reallly about the cities and Aukland, a sprawling region of suburbs with a terrible traffic problem rather than an actual city, is testament to this. Having heard so much about New Zealand's stunning landscape, I presumed one just needed to get out of the city. Before doing so However, I started the investigation into the English teaching situation here. There is a considerable market of private language schools in NZ, catering to Koreans, Japanese and Chinese students who come to learn the language in the cheapest English speaking country around. And at the north of the North Island Aukland is the first big city they come to.
I was offered a couple of jobs but still with a little bit of budget left in my back pocket I decided I would travel the country on a quickish tour, checking out the teaching jobs in the two other main cities - Wellington and Christchurch - before deciding where to settle. Heading south I stopped off in Mount Manganui with friends and found out why the surrounding area is called the Bay of Plenty. Why? because it is so very plentiful!!! I have never seen so much fresh fruit, so many brightly coloured delectibles, in my life. By then it was the end of May, so nearing the end of the feijoa season, but there was still mountains of these amazing little fruits around. Kiwi fruit galore, fresh guacamole made from fresh avacados every night, percimons, pears, apples, tangerines. Glorious.
Down to Taupo(pronounced toe-paw) which is situated on New Zealand's largest lake. Here I had my first taste of the majestic splendour that New Zealand's landscape had to offer. So inspired was I, I decided to Bungeeeeeee. O yes. Not a very big one mind ( a mere 47 metres) but that doesn't detract from the fact that I jumped into thin air. Truly amazing experience, I honesltly never thought I would do it, but am extremely glad I did and with such an amazing bakdrop!
I sped on to Wellington from here, New Zealands capital. Which, to give you an idea of how sparelsy populated NZ is, is about the size of Brighton. I immeadiately felt that Wellington was the place for me. A few friends live here and one of them, Faith - who I worked with in Berlin, lives here with James her boyfriend and they allowed me to stay in thier shared house (since become my home) for a few days while I checked out the city.So it was nice to have people to catch up with but also Wellington is a much more attractive place than Aukland. Its right at the bottom of the north island and is located on the harbour and surrounded by green hills to the north. So on a good day Wellington is stunning, with some beautiful bays and harbour views. However, its geopgraphy means that Wellington is also known for its gale force winds blowing both northerly and southerly and it has quite dramatic weather as a result! O yeah and it is on a mahoosive fault line which means Earthquakes are possible at any time. Just the other night we had 5.2 quake. Tsunamis are also a risk aparently!!! Wooop!
That aside, the city also has a nice feel about it beacuse it is hilly and you can see out over the city which together with the wooden and colourful houses give it a lot of character. It felt like a combination of San Fransisco (not that I have been, but what I imagine it to be like), Berlin and Melbourne.However, the job market for English teachers is less vibrant in Welly than in Aukland, so after just one interview which left me with no firm job offer I made tracks for the South Island to check out Christchurch.
The ferry journey to the South Island at 7 am was unforgettable and is something that everybody should do if they come here even though the arrival of cheap airlines doesnt nescersarily make it the quickest or most economical way to travel. The sun rising over The Cook Strait (the waters that separate the two parts of the country) was so spectacular that I spent the entire 3 hour trip on the viewing deck in spite of the temperature.
The minimal size of New Zealand's population is something that people from the UK living over here never stop talking about. That is because the country is a similar size to the UK and yet inhabited by just over 4 million people. That compares to the 61 million or so who live in Great Britain! Where do they all fit? To boot, the vast majority of New zealand's population live on the North Island making the South Island breathtakingly sparse and unspoiled. The landscape down south is unquestionably more dramatic than that of the North's, with bigger mountains, more snow, cliffs, fjords, lakes, forests, just a lot more eye-candy really!Eager to finalize my decisoon about where to settle I headed straight down the the South Island's main city, Christchurch, for a few more interviews at language schools. I am not sure why but Christchurch is also much more of a hub for English learning than Wellington and I had 4 or 5 positive interviews here and also ended up doing a weeks relief (supply) work while staying with cousin Esme and her son's family who have recently moved to NZ from Hong Kong. Although Christchurch is very well situated for discovering the South Island's beauty, I again didnt feel like I could settle here long term. It is flat and somewhat characterless and moreover felt very very English and strangely like Cambridge just without any of my friend and not as good pubs. It even has punts!!!!
Luckily while I was waiting in Christchurch for Timo to arrive from OZ, an offer of work came through in Wellington so I was relieved to know I had work where I wanted to be and was able to kick back and enjoy my last couple of weeks of travelling. Who better to do that with than Tim!
We departed Camchurch, Christbridge whatever and headed for the central lakes. Jaw droppingly stunning - we enjoyed thermal spas and lake views galore in Tekapo before hitting Wanaka and getting caught up in the pre-season preprations at the ski fields. I briefly regretted not having looked for work down there for the season but remebering I can't ski or snowboard thought best that I stuck to what I can do and which also pays better. We enjoyed the buzz for a few days in Queenstown and then I went up to the glaciers at Franz Josef and Fox while Tim snowboarded.I did one last bit of box ticking and went to see an All Blacks game in Christchurch before heading back to Welly and get settled in for the start of work. Awesome to be amoung friends and to have an income again albeit in kiwi dollars that is not exactly gonna keep me in diamonds and pearls! But am also now doing some bar work to put some extra away for the summer!
So am now living in Wellington with housemates Faith, Jmaes, Jonothan and Alex and generally just enjoying all that life in the NZ capital has to offer. My work is actually about 15 km out of Wellington so I am up at 6.30 to catch a train but I have been cycling back on my brand new mountain bike which is ace fun when the wind is in my favour, less so when not! (btw - helmets are a compulsory legality here which has been a bit hard to get used to having avoided them my entire life.)
The work is fun, trying to explain the past perfect and 2nd conditional to Korean 20 somethings has its moments but is really rewarding as they are such a sweet bunch!! Seriously adorable and certainly beats teaching middle-aged German civil servants.
My contract has been extended and have been able to blag an extention on my return ticket until April thus avoiding the depressing situation of leaving here as the weather gets good and returning to a European winter. I want to travel some more in this beautiful country in the summer, there is so much more to see (Abel Tasman, Bay of Islands, Queenstown in the sun!) but for now I am glad to be working and have a roof over my head for the winter!So, hope everyone as enjoyed the summer in the northern hemisphere....I am missing it but mainly missing people, I am looking forward to next year already!
Lots of Kiwi love
x x x x x
