Fresh off the boat and inappropriate footwear

It may be the general saying here, but the fact that I’ve not been here long and everyone says ‘you’re fresh off the boat then’ is really beginning to piss me off! I am now a New Zealand resident on an actual visa, not just a tourist!

I got talking to a guy today (Thurs) who I met whilst having a coffee in a coffee shop, and he asked me how long I’d been here, almost 3 weeks was my reply, to which I heard the horrific sound of ‘oh so you’re fresh off the boat’. In fact I’m not fresh of the boat, I’ve been here 3 weeks and I didn’t actually come here on a boat, I came on a plane. Not that I said any of that to him, as he turned out to be a nice guy and gave me some good travel tips on where to go and what to do.

Auckland is so different from Hong Kong, but yet I feel equally as comfortable here as I did there, and it seems so strange to think that in 5 weeks of being away from home I’ve been through 3 continents and ended up as far away as you can get. Auckland has far less people than any city, and is spread over a vast distance which is mottled with the odd volcano here and there which makes for interesting walking times. It’s a very pretty city, I get a warm feeling inside when I drive over the harbour bridge when it’s getting dark and you see Sky Tower light up. I also get this feeling when I open my blind in the morning and see the city, then take the dog for a walk and enjoy a sea front walk.

I have had a good time here so far, all it has pretty much included is relaxing, visits to the pub and trying to work out how to make the best of my time here. Whilst stripping the tourist information centre of their many free maps and brochures, I came across a very interesting brochure….The Kiwi Experience. This was when my plans all changed. For a very reasonable amount of money, I can do a combo trip for bus travel all around the North island, South island and Fiji – one of my sought after destinations. This is now my new plan until Christmas, plus a visit to Australia. According to Jason, the Kiwi Experience buses are basically 18-30 style party buses, which sounds exactly what I need right now, hence my over excited 5 year old resembling enthusiasm.

I was all set on the job front, however now I feel slightly differently. If I’m going to come back to England and give the next 4 years of my life to a PhD, I intend to make the most of my freedom here while I have it. I want to experience the country for what it is, not just do the average 9-5 job and come home and become one of the many thousands of commuters that forget to appreciate their surroundings.

Needless to say I was down to the tourist office the very next day to book myself on one of these magical sounding trips. First stop Bay of Islands, my favourite memory from our last holiday to New Zealand.

After an incredibly early 4.30am start to Friday morning, it was time to head to the ferry to town to pick up the magical Kiwi bus to Paihia. I met my first companions on the bus – Ben and Melanie. We got on really well and had a fun journey up to Paihia, stopping off at a place where bees make Manuka honey – Ben & I could have been amused for hours at this! However after a short break it was time to get back on the bus and continue with our journey. We arrived in Paihia just after midday and checked into our base hostel which was nicer than I’d imagined it to be after being told some hostel horror stories from Ben!

After a quick stop at the hostel, we headed for our afternoon boat trip around the Bay of Islands. We made it to the hole in the rock, however shortly after this, we all fell asleep in the warm cosy cabin of the boat, therefore missing the journey back – although as I have done this trip twice before I didn’t feel too deprived and had a really good sleep which made up for it. On our first night back at Base, we had a BBQ dinner which was washed down with my nightly glass of white wine which was lovely.

Saturday saw us up early and off to Cape Reinga & 90 mile beach for the day. We had an insane bus driver called Spike, whose favourite phrases were ‘sweet as’, ‘lets bugger off then dudes’ and putting the word ‘bloody’ before/after as many words as he could. We had our first stop at a Kauri tree forest and then onto a café for brunch. After another long bus ride, we eventually arrived at Cape Reinga and made our way to the lighthouse on the furthest Northern point of the island for pictures. We then stopped at a beach for lunch and then headed to the 150m sand dunes on ninety mile beach for our sand boarding stop.

To say I was nervous about sand boarding would be an understatement. Petrified kind of covers it better. Whilst walking up the dunes I was getting nervous about the height we were climbing and inevitably going to have to board down again. The fact there was a deep stream at the bottom of the dune and not having a towel/spare clothes on me didn’t help my nerves either! However once at the top I hopped onto my board and was quickly pushed on my way by Spike. I screamed loud enough so that probably the whole of the Southern hemisphere could hear me but after the initial speed, it was actually quite fun. Needless to say I quickly made my way up behind Ben up the dunes for my second go. After tiring ourselves out trudging up the dunes for a few seconds of thrill boarding down, we made our way on the bus and drove down ninety mile beach which was fun.

On arrival back at the hostel, we were all pretty tired so chilled out in the lounge. The rugby was on (NZ vs Aus) and we settled in for the night to watch. I made friends with a German guy called Nick who turned out to be studying in England and for some reason I was trying to convince him to read Harry Potter (I think this was because we were watching HP before the rugby and I was drinking wine)!

Sunday was a far more chilled day, Ben headed out for a days sailing and Melanie and I went on the ferry to Russell, however with it being Sunday, most places were closed, but we did have a really nice walk up a hill to look at Russell from above – the views were gorgeous. As Melanie was heading back to Auckland in the afternoon we got the ferry back and I met Nick who convinced me that swimming in the sea when it was only 15 degrees was a good idea. After this mission and walking down the street in a towel, we got into the spa which was absolutely gorgeous (wine induced and raining)!

We had heard about a walk to Haruru waterfalls and so on Monday, Becky, Ben and I decided to try and find this walk. We were under the impression it would be about an hour and a half walk so I chose to wear my flat boots – mistake! It was actually a 7 mile round trip which took us just over 4 hours. With intermittent rain patches the walkway was soggy and muddy which didn’t do my footwear choice any good – they were covered in mud. The views from the waterfalls were awesome and the walk was enjoyable nonetheless. We were about halfway home and the heavens opened, like properly opened (although not quite Hong Kong typhoon style), and we got soaked. Becky and I braved it to the supermarket while Ben went back to Base, and by the time we arrived we were like drowned rats – it was that bad people were actually laughing at us. The one day I put mascara on, it bloody rains so I had mascara running down my face and I was that wet the water was just dripping from every pore. A checkout lady took pity on us and gave us a roll of kitchen towel like stuff which we could dry ourselves off with as best we could. At the checkout I got talking to a guy who said I wanted to be careful I didn’t catch flu, my reply (between the sneezes), were ‘I think it’s a bit late for that!’ This nice guy also took pity on us and gave Becky & I a lift home which was very nice of him – he even put a blanket in the back for us to sit on! On arrival back at Base the only thing to do was de-clothe myself and have the world’s hottest shower which was sooooooo nice!

Tues was a far more chilled day as we were all preparing to leave. Chris & I went for breakfast (after scrambled eggs breakfast in the hostel this is) to a café which made the most gorgeous pancakes in the entire world! We had blueberry, butterscotch sauce with greek yoghurt pancakes and they were beautiful. We then decided to walk off this meal and hiked up to the highest point in Paihia. Again our footwear choices were not ideal – I was wearing my flat boots again and Chris was wearing flip flops – not the best of choices! The track was muddy and slippery and quite steep at times but it was a fun walk and worth it for the views. We made it back to Base with an hour to spare before our bus pick up and spent this time chilling and getting our stuff together. It was then time for our bus journey home, so Ben, Becky, Chris, Justine & me all got on the magical Kiwi bus and headed back to Auckland. On the journey back we had a driver called Fly and watched a film called RocknRolla, which in proper Kate tradition, I spent most of the journey asleep.

During the weekend I also visited the Mousetrap hostel, which is where my temp job is going to be. The place looked lovely on the pictures and was just as nice in real life, the people were lovely and I could definitely see myself staying here for a month. First job when back in Auckland – book myself on the first bus out of here!

But for now, am back in Auckland (until Friday)……over and out

All roads lead to the pub

As I get my navigation skills back from having lost them almost altogether in Hong Kong, I realise that all roads in Auckland generally lead to Galbraiths - my new second home. Spending most of my time job/car/house hunting, evenings in the pub are a general break from everything which is becoming really nice.

Since I've been here I haven't really missed Leicester that much - I thought I would miss it a lot more. I miss the people but not the place - although skype and conference calling is definately proving the best way of keeping in touch!

The days seem to be flying by which is a bit scary because I don't have as long left here as I thought I would. I seem to have spent the majority of this week on the search for a car which has opened up a whole new world to me. Auckland definately should go down in history as having the largest amount of backstreet car dealers! Found a few bargains on the car front which may prove to be good buys so have a lot of decisions to make! I saw a really nice Mitsubishi RVR 4x4 today which is going quite cheaply so I may go for that - or there is a Toytoa Corolla of a Nissan Sentra or an Audi A4 estate which are all possiblities. I think the easiest thing would be to get mum to courier over my TT though!!!

Having spent most of today (Sunday) car searching, I decided it was about time I started to do some proper planning. I have therefore spent the majority of the afternoon with a map and campsite list in front of me deciding where I want to go, how much its going to cost me and what my best route will be! I'm giving myself 9 weeks to travel the North Island - Jason has loads of camping equipment I can use so I don't need to worry about that so come October, I will be off!!! I'm finding the whole prospect quite exciting and have been shown my way around a car by Jason this afternoon, in case the worst should happen and I break down by myself in the middle of nowhere with no phone signal. I've learnt how to jack up a car, change a tyre, check my tyre pressure, how to align brakes and flush out my oil filters!

I have a job starting in 2 weeks in the Bay of Islands which is hopefully going to be good, but I'll blog about that another time. So I'm all sorted for September at least which gives me Oct & Nov to do my own thing before the family come over in December.

Yesterday (Sat) was also good - we headed up to the Bach in Mangawhai Heads for Jasons AGM at the fishing club. It involved lamb on the spit (my first lamb in NZ), and lots of men talking fishing. I was pretty much the only girl there, which made me feel a little outnumbered by men, however it was ok as I stuck with Jason and Karl. Before we went to the fishing club, Karl and I headed out on a drive around the heads and went to several beaches which was really nice.

I am also getting down the list of Jasons things for me to do, well one in particular, I am getting a taste for white wine, which last night involved me drinking 3/4 of a bottle to myself. Jason and I sat up and watched a film after Karl went to bed through which I demolished 3 glasses of wine and some left over Chinese takeaway from the night before - good times!

Anyway I'll leave it there for now, I've just rambled about really random stuff as its come into my head.....now to the pub!

Life as Jason's step sister

I have only been here 4 days now but I’m learning that by being Jason Otter’s step sister can get you quite a way – at least to locating family members if/when lost. Example – I went to meet Jason at his local after work which is in Auckland city centre, first sign it’s his local, he has a car park pass for the place. I got to the pub and bravely walked in by myself – after all it was full of NZ men and very much a man’s pub, me being 5’2” and a girl doesn’t help me fit in. So I walked to the bar, bought myself a drink and asked if Jason was around. The guy replied ‘yeah he’s outside’. I’ve been told I could end up working here so I asked about a job and was told to bring in my CV, which I would definitely do the next day. I was then asked who I was, to which I replied ‘Jason’s step sister’ (strange feeling that takes some getting used to describing myself as a step sister to a guy in a pub in NZ who knows Jason), I then ventured outside to find Jason.

I met his friends and had my first drink of my stay, which I’ve been told by Jason will go up daily. I have a feeling he’s on a mission to increase my alcohol tolerance as Rianne was in first year, although I hope it doesn’t have the same disastrous consequences. I can’t see Jason being the type to hold my hair back over the toilet while I’m that drunk my eyes are rolling round in the back of my head.

Everyone I've met so far has asked me how long I'm planning on staying, I dutifully reply ''6 months'' and have been laughed at several times - 99% of people I've talked to are placing bets on how long it will be before I decide to push my flights back and stay til my visa expires!!

It is commonly known that I dislike seafood - Jason however intends to ''educate my pallette'' while I'm here, for me this resembles more like torture by food stuffs!! In true Otter style, he threw me in at the deep end and we went to a Japanese sushi bar. I had no idea what to order so he ordered for me. We had seaweed soup to start with, followed by a seafood platter which included:
raw tuna,
raw beef,
raw salmon,
beef terakyi,
prawns,
raw snapper,
sushi,
and the killer for me...oyster

I said I'd try everything but the oyster, so naturally I was made to try that first. Can't say I'll be going too near it again! I did well and tried everything, although I couldn't quite stomach all the raw beef or salmon but managed pretty much everything else which is damn good for me!

Jason intends to educate me in several things while I'm a resident here, which include but aren't limited to:

- catch a fish and eat it raw
- learn about NZ wine and become a refined wine drinker
- learn to cook a meal as I will be taking charge of cooking for the family when the rents come over
- learn to brave the seabiscuit
- jump off sky tower

So all in all I think my time here is going to be highly rewarding if a little out of the ordinary for me, but that is what I'm here for, so am embracing everything (apart from maybe the sushi and oysters) with open arms!

Brisbane Airport - unplanned pink times, pringles have never tasted so good and my faith in people has been restored

(written in bits and pieces during the day hence the jumping around from tense to tense)

There comes a time when being in Hong Kong for 2 weeks, that you just need ‘’normal’’ food. For me this time came not long after arriving, however it wasn’t until my touch down in Brisbane that I finally got some longed for food which resembled home.

As most people know, I have a love for the colour pink; however do not generally go out in head to toe pink, with the exception of pub raving golf night. Well if you could have seen me on this flight you would have thought I was out for pub raving golf! I recently invested in a pair of pink and brown flowery jogging bottoms – they sound hideous but are actually really nice and Selina has the same pair in blue. As they have an elasticated waistband and are really comfortable, I decided to wear them to fly in. I picked out the first vest top I could which also happened to be bright pink, and then the only hoodie I have with me, which is pink as well. So I ended up looking like a complete pink freak, which I eventually was ok with as I realised that none of these people knew me or would ever see me again. I did get a few looks whilst walking through HK airport in my pink get up, but as it was late at night and I was tired I stopped caring!

After an uneventful flight as I spent most of it trying, and at times successfully sleeping, I disembarked, with high hopes for my day in Brisbane, how wrong was I going to be! Being a transit passenger, I followed the transit passenger signs off the plane as I knew I wasn’t going to be claiming my bag here, this was my first mistake, but really I’d hardly had any sleep and had no idea where I was going and had been told just to follow the transit signs if you were on a connecting flight. I passed through Australian security and ended up in a departure lounge type room – slightly worrying as I just wanted an exit. So I asked at the information desk how I could get out as my flight wasn’t for another 12 hours. I was duly told that having come through this far through security that I couldn’t go back, shit. I am now stuck in Brisbane airport for 12 hours until my flight to Auckland.

So I headed for the nearest shop and invested in a drink, some Pringles and 2 new books to keep me occupied for the day. I have never eaten a packet of Pringles so quickly in my entire life, I swear they taste better in Australia, or maybe it’s because I haven’t had crisps in 2 weeks? Whatever the reason they were damn good I will probably end up going back several more times during the course of my long stay here! There are no plug points in this departure lounge and no free wifi – what on earth am I going to do for 12 hours without the internet stuck in one room looking at planes!! However I can’t really complain, it feels so good to be out of Hong Kong and to be able to wear clothes and not feel like I’m dying of overheating. I even have a jumper and jeans on – more clothes than I’ve worn in a while!!!

There does seem to be computers around which I’m assuming have a charged access to the internet, if I get completely bored out my mind I may have to invest in an hour or so on one of these, just to kill time.

I survived the flight without any major traumas, vomiting or seat moving. There was a tense moment when my TV set had to be reset as it wasn’t working properly, however after a reset it was fine and off I was watching the new version of Narnia which while I watched made a mental note of everything which was wrong in comparison with the old version. I’m not going to lie, I quite enjoyed it and even considered writing down my list for future reference. I decided against this though as I thought the people I was sat next to might think I was weird. Over dinner I got talking to the companion sat next to me, turned out to be a 19yr old French guy called David. He spoke basic English so I took the opportunity to try out my French which I haven’t spoken since A level. It went quite well and I remembered more than I thought I did. We both slept for a bit which was quite uncomfortable as even I didn’t have enough leg room – are Qantas cutting back on space due to the financial climate I asked myself because this plane definitely seems smaller than the last and I never have a problem with leg room!!! I felt for David who was about 6ft tall, at least I don’t have long legs.

Waiting around in the airport didn’t actually turn out to be so bad, I didn’t realise I was so tired until I’d be sitting down for about half an hour. So I found a nice comfy seat, which they actually have here as opposed to the uncomfortable seats you get in Heathrow, settled down for a nap and was well and truly out for the count for at least 2 hours. The only reason I woke up was because a nice British couple woke me up to ask what flight I was on as the flight to London via Singapore was boarding and where I had decided to sit was right outside this gate. If I was still in Hong Kong this would never have happened and even though I got woken up out of it, I feel a bit more like I’m around people who take notice rather than people who bump into you even if you are the only other person in the street. It made my day go quicker though as when I was woken up I only had 4 hours until boarding time which in the grand scheme of how long I was here wasn’t long to wait at all.

So with my nap interrupted, I read a bit more but then felt really tired again so napped here and there – good job I didn’t leave the airport as I may have fallen asleep in Brisbane city centre and I doubt anyone would have woken me up there!