I started thinking of selling her in Wellington, with the thought that I could get an easy relocation rental to Auckland and not have to be stressed while there about trying to sell her fast and also get a fair price.
Hestia! Darling, darling Hestia. She's meant so much freedom for Kara and I, and she has been a very loyal, faithful, and true companion for the year. We definitely put her through her paces on the South Island and though she needed some maintenance, she rose to the task.
I started thinking of selling her in Wellington, with the thought that I could get an easy relocation rental to Auckland and not have to be stressed while there about trying to sell her fast and also get a fair price.
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The drive into Auckland was lovely! Hestia and I had an excellent time together on the coastal roads, enjoying each other's company (and a good audiobook) for our last drive together. It was almost my last New Zealand drive-- I'm saying goodbye for now to windy and narrow roads and driving on the left. Strange, and a little sad!
It really is weird being in Auckland without Kara. I'm not staying at the first hostel we came to a year ago, but I am on the same road, and I spent some time walking up and down Ponsonby while taking care of errands. Memories! If only I had known what wonderful experiences were in store... I would have been even more excited. :p I got a bit melancholy to be leaving, I'm not going to lie. I've taken care of my taxes and made some good headway on other need-to-dos. I've got 5 days in Auckland to finish everything up, but that should leave plenty of time for some fun too! :) I'm not going to lie, my drive up to Whitianga on the Coromandel was kind of a bummer. I was still in mourning for what I'd left behind. I think that it's rare to find a really comfortable and supportive environment where you know and like everyone, and they know and (hopefully) like you-- and where when you come home each day there's always people you know to be around, it you want. Or actually, maybe it's not rare. Maybe it's what everyone does in university, but I skipped it because I skipped dorms. :p
Anyway, I was very very sad, and my first night in Whitianga was spent watching movies and relaxing to try to psych myself up to be back on the road. The second day I decided to remind myself that while this new-found joy for being with other people is excellent, I do all right by myself too. I decided to take advantage of my new freedom by just seeing where the day took me from moment to moment, and making no plans. I stayed in bed until nearly 11 (yay!) and then I got on the road and zigzagged back and forth around the area of Shakespeare Cliff, Cathedral Cove, and Hot Water Beach. The day turned out to be EXCELLENT. During my year in New Zealand, I saw pretty much the whole South Island. I was really hoping for a chance to do the same with the North Island- maybe not quite as comprehensively- but time just didn't allow for it. The decision had to be made about what activities (and how many) to do now and what to save for a further trip, and in the end I decided not to do too much. Money is pretty key at the moment, and also I'm feeling kind of stressed with the final push of planning for my Asia trip.
In the end, I settled on one old activity and one new one. The "old" one is also the thing I've most wanted to do all year: the evening dinner tour at Hobbiton. Even better, Federica and Daisy decided to join me! And from there, I'd heard to soak up some of my last New Zealand natural beauty (for a while) on the Coromandel Peninsula. My time in New Zealand is rapidly coming to a close. I think when I look back on this year I will see it having two very distinct halves: my time on the South Island (and some of the North Island), with nearly nonstop travel and new people and experiences every day, and my time in Wellington with my Dwellington family.
When I realized that I was down to my last month, I decided to seize the day as much as possible so that I could have every Wellington experience possible for me. At the same time, once I had the realization that after my time here I'm going to have another two months of insanely fast-paced travel, I got pretty lazy. It's been a very eventful and very relaxing month, and now all I'm feeling in sadness at an ending and extreme gratefulness to have had my time here at all.
(Originally from September 4th-6th)
My time in New Zealand is rapidly coming to a close, and there's a lot that I won't have time to do. I won't be able to see Mount Taranaki, the Coromandel Peninsula, or Cape Reigna-- in fact, I'll largely be ignoring the northern half of the North Island. It makes me very sad, but at the same time I think it's wise to leave a bit undone, so that I have even more excuse to come back one day. (Maybe when I go to Australia!) However! There was one thing that could CERTAINLY not be left undone. And THAT is wwoofing... with alpacas! Such an experience was high on my goal list even before I got to New Zealand, but I didn't ever find the right moment for it. When I started corresponding with the Woodhouse Family back in Napier, I thought the time had finally come. I had really hoped to spend a week or two with them before settling to work in Wellington, but in the end I (happily) found a job faster then expected. Instead, Kara and Jordan went there and I was left to dream of the day I might hug an alpaca.
Every culture has a conception of itself. Chicagoans, for example, consider themselves big city midwesterners: hardworking, down to earth, friendly, unpretentious, and way better than New York. Those new to the city learn about it's characterization pretty fast, and to a large degree, all native and new Chicagoans try to live up to this ideal. The same can be said for every other city and country on earth.
New Zealand is a tiny, rural island at the end of the world, and this feeds very directly into New Zealander's conceptions of themselves as local-orientated, community centered, creative do-it-yourselfers. New Zealand is far away from the infrastructure of the world, which means that there's opportunity to create in a way that just isn't as practical for people from other counties. If something goes wrong, you can't call a handy-man to fix it; New Zealanders know how to do things themselves. On Saturday, my roomie Federica and I went to Havana Coffee Roasters for a tour and tasting and learned all about the history of coffee in Wellington. It won't surprise anyone to discover that both Havana and the greater Wellington coffee scene plug right into the local, community-orientated, and creative New Zealand story.
(Done June 20th, July 4th, and drunk August 4th and beyond!)
My AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING friends Sarah, Adel, and Shannon bought me a gift certificate to make my own beer at The Occasional Brewer in Wellington. They have all of the equipment and recipes, and they'll help you through the process but you do most if yourself. I decided (after a LOT of thought) to make a blonde ale. It's going to make 40 liters, so we're going to party at the hostel when it's done! On June 20th, off I went! I started the day by meeting Eugene, my helper for the day. He'd prepared the correct amount of grain for me and started heating the water, so I was ready to jump right in. The recipe is different for each beer, so the couple next to me that was brewing a Pale Ale did a lot of different things. |
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October 2015
AuthorsLizzy, Kara, and Jordan are spending a year traveling and working in New Zealand. Share our adventures and keep in touch! Categories
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