Aroha Aotearoa – 18 Months Later

‘It feels right. But it’s emotional. Saying goodbye to anything you’ve done that long is hard.’ – Angela Ruggiero.

The End of an Era

My time in New Zealand is nearly over. All too soon, I will be in Mongolia and these wonderful eighteen months in this beautiful country will become part of my past. I have been ridiculously happy in this country and truthfully, I’m more than a little apprehensive about leaving. Not because of my upcoming trip or even necessarily the thought of returning to the UK, but mainly because when you have been so happy somewhere, you do kind of wonder (or I do anyway) if that happiness can be recreated elsewhere. Deep down I know it can be, but that doesn’t stop me wanting to say ‘ka kite ano Aotearoa’ and celebrate the time I’ve spent here properly.

People who read my blog regularly could probably guess that this post was coming. What you wouldn’t know is how much I have agonised over how to best write this post. Should I write a lot of memories and stories or do a more photo orientated post? But I have songs that remind me of my time here that I want to share with my readers too… And no amount of words can sum up how beautiful New Zealand is, just as no amount of photos can capture some of the fantastic memories I have from my time here. So in the end, I’ve settled on a kind of montage idea.

This is quite a long post. It’s a jumbled tribute to everything, everywhere and everyone I have loved in New Zealand. Please bear with me – and I hope you like what you see, hear and read.

A Note on How This Post Works

Click on the links for the full stories in earlier blog posts.
Check out my Instagram for loads more photos from my time in New Zealand.
Check out the YouTube links for the songs I mention throughout this post to get an idea of my NZ playlist!

How It All Began

My time in New Zealand started out in the Bay of Islands. I spent three days creating this mosaic at J and R’s house during my week with them doing Help X. It was a wonderful introduction to this new country I was going to make my home.

I was incredibly lucky to spend my first week here with J and R. They were accommodating, friendly, kind and ridiculously generous. I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to this country. By the time I left, they felt like family and I still think of them often.

When my time at the Bay of Islands was up, I travelled to Queenstown to meet up with J and hang out with her for a week over her birthday. My first introduction to Queenstown was a night out on Halloween.

The next morning, I popped down to the airport and hopped onto a helicopter for my first ever scenic flight. It was an awesome experience and I got to see some stunning views of Lake Wakatipu and the country around Queenstown.

Other Scenic Flights

Since that first helicopter flight, I’ve done a couple of other scenic flights. One was in Franz Josef up to the glacier. The other in Wanaka where I even got to fly the plane as we soared over Mt Aspiring National Park.

Bucket List Travel

After Queenstown, I started my epic Stray journey around the South Island. While on this journey, I met some wonderful people and did some real bucket-list stuff. This included activities like kayaking in Abel Tasman, heli-hiking on Franz Josef Glacier and seeing Milford Sound with my own eyes.

Kayaking Abel Tasman

Kayaking in Abel Tasman was one of my favourite days in New Zealand. It was beautifully warm, a cloudless blue sky, a turquoise crystal clear ocean and beaches like this… I felt like I’d died and ended up in tropical paradise! Hard to believe that this is NZ and two days later, I was climbing on a glacier…

Heli-hiking on Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier in all its icy glory. I had perhaps one of the worst hangovers I have ever had when I did this. I accidentally got very drunk the night before and hadn’t kept breakfast down before we flew up to the glacier. Halfway around the guided walk, I nearly fainted. Our guide, with some laughter at my expense, radioed for someone to come and take me back down to the helicopter pad.

To be honest, I always feel like I lucked out. I ended up basically having my own personal guide! He showed me how to walk properly in crampons and took it slowly enough for me to really enjoy myself. We stopped frequently and waited patiently whilst I took photos and slowly recovered. As we walked, we talked about how much the glacier was retreating. He also taught me stuff about the glacier I probably wouldn’t have learnt in the group. I had an all round great (although different to expected) time!

Visiting Milford Sound

Milford Sound. I’ve said it before elsewhere in this blog but no amount of superlatives can do this incredible place justice. You really need to go and see it for yourself. Until you do, here is a photo of Mitre Peak to whet your appetite!

Straying around the South Island

I spent the majority of November 2014 Stray tour on Splash’s bus and had a blast with the people I met along the way. Splash was the sort of person you don’t forget in a hurry. He had a massive personality, heaps of fun and he always had something crazy up his sleeve! It was one of the busiest months I’ve ever had, one of the most fun and the most expensive!!

Splash introduced me to my first ‘New Zealand song’ – a track by Lindsey Stirling called ‘Crystallize’. He played it on the bus as we drove from Franz Josef through to Wanaka via the Haast Pass. It was a beautiful sunny day. The views outside the window were incredible – all mountains, icy blue rivers and to our right, the wild Tasman Sea. This was the day I officially fell in love with New Zealand. After slowly falling during the previous few weeks, this day tipped me over the edge and I put it on record in my journal. New Zealand had it all and I was head over heels.

One of my favourite memories from Stray was visiting Mt Cook National Park. I was super lucky and got to see Aoraki / Mt Cook on my very first visit to the region. For once, the mountain was not shrouded by low cloud and we got to see her in all her stunning glory. We hiked the Hooker Valley walk and stayed by the glacial lake at the base of the mountain for about an hour, skimming stones and chatting. I’ve been back twice since and not been lucky enough to see the peak of the mountain since – I’m so glad I got this opportunity!

Time for Wellington

Once my Stray adventures were over, I headed to Wellington to find a job and settle down for a while. I struggled to begin with and spent a couple of weeks full of worry, wondering if coming to New Zealand had been the right decision. However, I eventually moved into The Dwellington and I found a job too – but not before Christmas.  

My first Christmas away from home was strange. I enjoyed it immensely but couldn’t help but miss my family and friends, the traditions I’d grown up with and Mum’s roast dinner!!

Christmas 2014 with this group of people! Presents under the tree, Champagne for breakfast and a massive pot luck dinner and BBQ. Add happy drunken times and you end up with a great Christmas away from home!

After a happy Christmas and New Year, I started my new job and decided to move out of the Dwellington to live in a flat in Brooklyn with some friends.

Return to the Dwellington

Unfortunately, I ended up getting very homesick and I really missed the buzz of hostel life. Eventually, I moved back into the hostel at the end of March. It was one of the best decisions I made whilst living in New Zealand and it was wonderful to be back. When I look back at it now I can’t believe I lived there and survived for so long!! The Dwellington was my home from home in New Zealand and I couldn’t have asked for anywhere better to live. This hostel gave me so many of my amazing friendships and became an integral part of my life in Wellington.

I’ve had too many good times living in the hostel to count on two hands. Sure, there have been some difficult times too, but mostly I’m taking away so many positives from my time there. Some of my favourite days, hours, minutes, moments have been with the people I’ve met whilst living there. I think it’s safe to say that the friends I have made my time in New Zealand what it was – fun, hilarious, adventurous and overall, simply fantastic. I can’t thank those people enough for everything they’ve done for me and I know I’ve said it before, but I’ve honestly made friends for life. Thank you to each and every one of you for adding something to my New Zealand experience. Here’s just a few of the fantastic people I’ve met and a few of the crazy moments we’ve had together, thanks to living in the hostel!

More ‘New Zealand songs’

It is whilst I was with all these fantastic people doing all this awesome stuff that some of my other ‘New Zealand songs’ have come about. By this I mean songs, for better or worse (Justin Bieber!!!), that have become part of a playlist I’ll always associate with New Zealand and the good times I spent here. Songs such as ‘Cheerleader’ by OMI that reminds me of the epic boat party we went on in April last year. We followed the boat by dancing the night away in a flat that belonged to someone who looked like Beppe di Marco from EastEnders. I was so drunk that I ate four McDonald’s beef burgers and so tired that M had to guide me the whole walk home as I kept my eyes shut the entire time!

And this song – ‘Life’s A Beach’ by Django Django – which will forever remind me of Sunday Funday when we all got ridiculously drunk and we found a yellow balloon which had a face on and we decided to call her Doris…

And finally, regretfully, one more song that has made it onto my ‘New Zealand playlist’… I intensely dislike him, but Justin Bieber’s song ‘Sorry’, seems to have been on every playlist we have had going since I got back to NZ in January after Christmas at home. I fought it hard. Then someone put it on to play while a group of us were on the beach in Otaki enjoying a night away over Easter and in that moment, I just accepted it. Sometimes, however hard you fight against something, the inevitable happens and it becomes part of your life… Cheers friends for forcing him into my life!

Life beyond the Dwellington

Of course, there have been other friends beyond the Dwellington too. In May last year, I hit the road again with Stray and met another great group of people. Within a week, we’d become a close knit unit and I loved every second of my time travelling the North Island with my new friends before we went our separate ways.

This time around, my bus driver was Lolly. She was completely different to Splash but no less memorable and just as much fun! That week brought with it parties in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful experience at Lake Aniwhenua and finally, a long-awaited visit to Hobbiton! For this LOTR fan, Hobbiton was one of the most amazing places to visit. The set was so realistic, right down to the tiny details like Hobbit-sized clothing hanging on the washing lines and vegetables growing in the gardens.

More New Zealand Travels

I spent the first three weeks in May on the South Island, then headed north to join my Stray tour. With autumn in full swing, I was treated to a full-on display from all the trees as they began to lose their leaves for winter. I loved Arrowtown and Glenorchy at this time of year. It was good to see J in Queenstown again, as well as hiking the Abel Tasman Great Walk with G.

Whilst on the South Island in May, I spent a fantastic day on the TranzAlpine train, traversing the country from east to west and back again. It was a beautiful sunny day at the start of winter. There was a sprinkle of snow on the tops of the mountains and the braided rivers glittered in the bright sunshine.

Unfortunately, I forgot my proper camera and had to rely on my phone to take all my pictures, which really didn’t do the scenery much justice! It had been something I’d wanted to do for ages and it definitely lived up to my expectations. It fuelled my desire to do my upcoming trip on the Trans-Siberian railway. As you all know, I am a bit of a train geek!

Life in Wellington

Once my time travelling around New Zealand in May 2015 was over, it was back to Wellington and back to work. Wellington played the biggest part in my life here in NZ. However, I always had a bit of a love / hate relationship with the country’s capital. Wellington on a good day was all blue skies, blue water and blue mountains in the distance. The opportunities in the city on a good day seemed endless. It was just on the bad weather days when I struggled with Wellington.

Wellington’s Food and Drink Scene

Thankfully, Wellington has the most awesome local food and drink scene. There was everything from the beers brewed around the region to the delicious brunches I enjoyed on an almost weekly basis. Living in New Zealand has definitely turned me into a coffee and wine snob and flat whites have become a regular occurrence in my life.

The food and drink in Wellington redeemed the city to me when I was having a bad day with the place. If the wind was blowing a gale and the rain was pounding down, it would always help to head to a café, sit down, grab some food and a coffee and have my faith restored as I watched the world go past through the steamed up window.

Getting Out and About

Although I lived in Wellington full time, I made sure I got out of the city as much as possible to explore other areas in New Zealand. This often took the form of day trips out into the Wairarapa region where we did wine tasting and explored the various small seaside towns. On one dramatic day, we visited the pinnacles near Cape Palliser and ALL the drama seemed to come our way. Mini landslides, a car accident, dolphin spotting and extreme river crossing… That day out had it all!

One of my favourite day trips occurred that time when P and I phoned in sick one bright, sunny Monday morning and headed off up the Kapiti Coast for a visit to the seaside. We had brunch and walked along the shoreline. P went for a chilly swim and then we hopped back on the train in search of a bar or two where we could buy some drinks. After a ridiculously expensive bar, we found one that had a cheap happy hour and spent the rest of the evening there. We drank and chatted and felt good about the fact we’d successfully pulled off a sick day and had a great time!!

Longer Trips out of Wellington

There were longer trips too, weekends away like the time I skydived in Taupo and hiked Tongariro. Or the time P and I spent a lovely weekend in Rotorua, exploring the red wood forest, luging and eating lots of food! We headed to White Island during this trip and spent a memorable day exploring this marine volcano, which is located 49km offshore from Whakatane. We went camping at Cape Palliser last April and after enduring a windy, almost sleepless night we encountered hundreds of seals before heading home.

A Weekend at River Valley…

And then, of course, there was River Valley… Not only did I have my serendipitous moment whilst here, but this trip leads me to another musical moment and a short story with a small background to it.

In the run up to River Valley, myself and several friends had been in the hostel kitchen getting excited about the trip. Someone came up with an ‘I’m excited for River Valley’ dance which effectively involved nothing more than bouncing a little on the spot back and forth with slightly dangly arms. Cue all six of us doing it together in the kitchen while we were making dinner…

It was the morning after the night before at River Valley. Most of us were nursing hangovers of varying degrees – from mild to Carla (it is a hangover scale, trust me!). We were slowly beginning to pack up the tents and thinking about getting on the road. P was sitting in the entrance of our tent playing music and all of a sudden, Toto ‘Africa’ came on.

Without so much as a word, the few of us who had done the ‘I’m excited for River Valley’ dance back in the hostel started it up and amazingly, pretty much the entire group joined in. Seeing approximately 18-20 people all standing and swaying on the spot was a sight. When P looked up from his phone he told us exactly how surreal the whole thing was. If I’m honest, this tiny moment is actually one of my favourite memories of my entire time in NZ and I’ll always remember it, especially when someone puts on Toto!! This song will forever be part of my New Zealand playlist!

The Last Few Months

After a brief interlude during which I went to the Philippines for three weeks and then home for Christmas, I returned to a glorious New Zealand summer. I had three months left living in the country before the Long Journey Home was to begin.

There were new challenges, such as learning to become a dragon boater with Fletcher and our bid for the gold medals in March. Mostly, however, I was determined to have as much fun as possible. Luckily for me, with summer in full flow, everyone else was pretty much on the same wavelength and we had some great days out. This included our day at the Wellington Races when everyone got dressed up, and that time when we went for an icy evening swim in Island Bay and were then treated to one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen.

With my final road trip around the South Island completed and all my goodbyes said to my friends in Wellington, I am in Auckland awaiting my departure for Mongolia. This post barely scratches the surface of all the amazing experiences I’ve had, all the wonderful people I have met and the friends that I’ve made. It doesn’t do my love for this country anywhere near enough justice. This is but a brief summary of some of my favourite moments and memories from my time in New Zealand. I know that when the plane takes off tomorrow I will feel more than a little emotional about my departure.

The Memories will last forever

Writing this post has made me smile so many times. It’s been so lovely to go back through all my memories and to look at all my photos again. I’ve played the songs I’ve posted links to. I have grinned to myself as I’ve remembered things I thought I’d forgotten whilst I was writing the little stories and memories down for you to read. Hopefully you get a sense from this post just how much I have loved practically every second here, and just how happy and satisfied I have been living here.

New Zealand, we aren’t done. I will be back, you can be sure of that. But for now, it’s time for the next chapter in my life to begin. It’s with a mixture of apprehension, excitement and sadness that I leave NZ behind and fly off into the unknown. I know that the coming months are going to be testing, interesting, exciting, scary, wonderful and exhilarating. I know I’m going to learn so much and have so many more great experiences to share. And I know all this because it’s exactly what has happened here, in Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud.

New Zealand, you’ve been amazing.

Read every single post from my New Zealand archives if you want! Find them all here.