Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
14th Decemeber 2006 to 8th January 2007
I have no idea what I did. It's now more than three weeks after they put me away and I still haven't got a clue. I suppose it's something that only the Kiwi authorities know.
Maybe they found out about the illegal but innocently obtained "Residents" visa. Maybe it was the tongue in cheek warnings in the blog about the impending Sheep revoloution touching a nerve. Maybe it was my "I'm not that fussed about The Lord of The Rings" attitude that upset them. Or maybe they simlpy came to the conclusion that, after three months, I had outstayed my welcome. Whatever the reason, I spent a week locked up in Christchurch because of it!
My surroundings during this spell were spartan to say the least. The high concrete walls were covered in a yonks old yellow paint of a hue that had degraded so much that, upon first inspection, you would have believed it to be brown. The areas that had not yet flaked off were grafitti'd with the semi-insane ramblings of prisoners past; Tally marks and crosses on a breise block calender counting the days of their
lengthy incarcerations.
There was a yard outside of rough scrub and scrap metal where I rarely ventured due to the insessant rain, which pounded with a constant rattle on the corrugated iron roof of the adjacent building. A building where I seemed to spend all my waking hours just pacing up and down due to a lack of adequate seating being provided. Occasionally, I would break the monotony by parking my butt on the floor Steve McQueen style and bouncing a ball off the wall whilst whistling the tune to "The Great Escape."
I was watching the time and my life but, no longer the World go by........ Slowly. How long would I and the other inmates from around this Earth be held in this hell-hole? Our captors hadn't even asked us any questions, no sharp implements had been forced under fingernails, no lights had been shone in eyes but, all the same, this was toture. A group of travellers from all over the globe being held against their will with no idea why or explanation forthcoming for the sentence they were now serving. Day after day passed interminably, each one seeming so much longer than the last.
Then, after seven such days, I managed to sell Nubie and was allowed to leave the Backpacker's Car Market in Christchurch. Honestly, trying to sell a vehicle in New Zealand must be a crime because it really did feel like I was in a cell sometimes. A few of my fellow detainees did lose the plot on occasion and contracted stir-craziness but I, being made of sterner stuff, managed to emerge with my sanity (such as it is) intact. And, seeing as though it was Christmas Eve on the day he eventually went, it was a very merry Christmas for me in the end (and it was made even happier by by the family I stayed with over the holidays- my Cousins in New Zealand, My ex-sister-in-law and her lot in Australia and more Cousins in Vancouver, where I heard the New Year piped in at home).
My stay in Aus was brief compared to the sentence I served at the Backpacker's Car Market due to having to bring my flight across the Pacific forward but, I did manage to fit quit a bit in. Between Boxing Day and the day before New Year's Eve I travelled from
Melbourne to Ararat, down to Warrnambool and then up to Sydney. It doesn't look like much when you see it on a map but, considering the vastness of the largest island on Earth, I think I did pretty well to cover this little corner of it in such a short space of time.
I saw most of the essential wildlife during this mini-walkabout; Koalas, Kangeroos, Wallabys and Emus. And, thankfully, I missed out on seeing some of the more un-essential species (to my mind at least); Red Back, White Tail, Funnelweb and Huntsman spiders. As for the sights; I had a short drive on the Great Ocean Road and marvelled at the great ocean vistas alongside it, I was taken on a motorbike ride out in to the bush (briefly) and driven through a National Park where I could sucumb to the outback's outstanding beauty.
Then, in Sydney (in one demanding but satisfying day) I conducted a self-guideded tour of the usual tourist hot spots. I wanted to do the hike up The Harbour Bridge but the budget would not allow it so, I was going to settle for a cruise around the harbour but, the weather turned
turtle on me, putting a dampener (literally) on that too. Despite these dissapointments I found Sydney to be a vibrant and exciting city and was relieved to have finally seen it rather than just pass through it's airport!
And that was the end of my Antipodian adventures. I am now back in Vancouver doing all the things I usually do here- visiting (that's traveller speak for sponging off of) relatives, getting drunk (well, it was New Year's so I did have an excuse this time), generally just lounging around and writing blog entries, of which, this is likely to be the penultimate one.
I meet Sarah in San Francisco in a couple of days for a well deserved holiday (all this World wandering lark is rather tiring y'know ;-) before returning home around the end of the month. I am now most definately on the home straight that I talked about while I was in New Zealand. Just one more mini-American adventure to undertake along the way and I'll tell you all about that next time.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.196s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 62; dbt: 0.054s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb