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Published: January 4th 2008
Hello everyone! I arrived in Dunedin yesterday! I can’t believe I’m actually here… The plane ride went okay, although it was very long. After having said goodbye to my mother and her boyfriend in Brussels, I got on the plane to London. After some hassle in London (very strict customs check, taking a bus to another terminal), the real journey began, the one to New Zealand. Although it was not mentioned on my itinerary, we did have a stop-over after all (27 hours without stopping did not seem very likely to me already), in… Los Angeles! I had in mind we would fly over Asia, so I had to adjust to the idea of going over America a bit. We flew over Greenland (very beautiful ice masses we could see from the window) and then down to LA. Unfortunately, we did not get to see a lot of LA (just many many lights we saw from the plane), because we were not allowed to leave the transit room. However, although we would go on the same plane again after two hours locked in this room, we did have to go through customs, again! The cue was so long that it took
at least 5 minutes to just walk past it to be able to join at the end of the line… you can imagine how happy we were after 11 hours of flying to spend 1,5 hours of the 2 hours we had to get off the plane standing in line. But I survived, and the U.S. now has my fingerprints and picture, so I cannot commit any crimes in the States anymore… Then we continued on to Auckland, still about 13 hours of flying. On the whole flight, I managed to sleep about 4 hours, but I was actually quite happy with that. And the entertainment system of Air New Zealand was great! They had very many movies, TV episodes, games, CD’s, etc., which you could all choose yourself with your private screen in front of you and headphones provided by them. That was really nice, I watched a lot of good/new movies like Usual Suspects, Stardust and some less good ones like Knocked up and Ratatouille, but that was when I was getting tired haha. I could also have done another Lord of the Rings marathon, but I decided to go for the movies I hadn’t seen yet. And
I talked a bit with my neighbor, who was very nice, he was 18 and a professional golf player, going to New Zealand to participate in some tournaments. Despite all this, I was very happy to get off the plane after 27 hours when we arrived in Auckland, on the North Island. We went through customs again and there I requested a work permit (I already had a work visa from the NZ embassy, but I needed to get a work permit from them), and the guy behind the counter told me that it cost 500 NZ dollars (about 250 euros)! It took 5 minutes of me being shocked, stuttering the embassy hadn’t told me that when I got the visa, before the guy said that it was a joke… a customs officer who makes a joke, have you ever heard of that? I thought it was quite funny, once I knew I did not have to pay… When I had gotten through customs, which again took very long because of the cues, I had to collect my suitcase to check it in for the flight to Dunedin again. I had about half an hour before the plane to Dunedin
left and I needed to get from the international terminal to the domestic terminal in Auckland, so I went to the shuttle bus stop. However, there was no bus there and the sign said that a bus would arrive within 20 minutes (but no set time). So that stressed me out a bit and I decided to take the walkway to the domestic airport, which was estimated to take about 12 minutes. I walked with my heavy backpack, my suitcase of 25 kilos and my tiredness from the flight as fast as I could, to get to the plane in time. Luckily I made it, but as soon as I got on the plane it left, so I was just in time. Two more hours on the plane and we arrived in Dunedin, where it was nice and sunny… It was around 10 in the morning (in Holland and in my head it was 10 in the evening) and I took the shuttle bus to the city, which took about 30 minutes. I am still getting used to the fact that people drive on the left here, every time another car came around the corner it scared me because it seemed like we were driving in the wrong lane! It’s funny by the way, it’s not just the cars that drive left, it’s also when you walk on the street and you try to prevent bumping in to someone coming from the other way, people go left. So I had a couple of near collisions because I automatically go right, never really thought about that before! Anyway, on the shuttle bus I got to see some of the surroundings already while on the bus, and it looked amazing! A lot of green mainly, many trees, grass, hills and… sheep! It reminded me of The Shire in Lord of the Rings, which makes sense since the movie was shot here. I kind of lost my tiredness on the ride to the city, because it was so beautiful and I got so excited about being here!
The shuttle dropped me off at the hostel where I will be staying till I find a room (Hogwartz, see picture of the gate) and I met the owner Maya, who was very nice. She showed me into the room I shared with three people from Taiwan, two girls and one guy. I tried to start a conversation with them but their English was not very good so we did not really understand each other… When I had settled in I took the shower I had been longing for during the plane ride and decided to go into town. Of course I did not take the extra battery of my camera so I have not taken many pictures yet, but more will come soon. I walked around town the rest of the day, had some lunch, went to the visitor’s centre, and bought a sim card - you can find my NZ number on my facebook or hyves. I won’t have my Dutch phone number anymore as of the 20th of January. Then I went to the university, which has many different buildings. The whole area had a really nice atmosphere, with lots of green and beautiful old buildings, but there was almost no-one there (all students are on holiday). I wanted to go to the accommodation center to find a room, but unfortunately they were closed until Monday. Then I went to the library and collected some advertisements of people offering rooms. I haven’t called them yet, but I’m going to do that this afternoon. I did already walk to a couple of addresses that were mentioned, all very much uphill of course (Dunedin is built on hills), so I got some exercise 😊 I did not really see something nice yet though, most of those rooms were not very well-kept and they were all very isolated, whereas I’d prefer to have a room in a student house or something so I can get to know some people. Well, hopefully I’ll find something either by calling the ad people today or by going to the accommodation centre on Monday.
After room hunting slash sightseeing I went to the supermarket to get some food and walked back to the hostel. It was around 6 when I arrived there, and I was very tired again by that time. I had not been tired In the afternoon, but I was a little queasy all the time, now and then the ground began to swirl under me, probably due to jetlag. Anyway, when I got to the hostel I had a quick bite and went to bed very early, around 7 in the evening. I slept till 6:30 the next morning, when I woke up because the three Taiwanese people were up by then, sitting in a sort of praying position talking in Taiwanese. They left this morning, so I am alone in the 4-person room right now, curious about who is coming today. I woke up very well-rested and… burnt! I did not notice at all yesterday, but my face, arms and hands are very red and painful right now! And I have nice white spots where my sunglasses were :S Well, that’s what my trip has been like so far, I just had breakfast and I’m going to put this on a USB stick and go on the internet computer in the hostel to put it online. I just found out that my laptop charger does not fit in the “world plug” I took with me, so I hope I will be able to find one here in which it does fit. Otherwise I won’t be able to use my laptop for long… Anyway, I’m off to the city, I’ll write another blog soon!
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Will
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Stressful, but awesome
Hey babe! That sounds like quite the trip, but why is it that whenever someone goes to New Zealand they need to talk about the Lord of the Rings. I know it was filmed there, but I think soon the rest of the world will demand that the country change its name... maybe something like Middle Earth... :P Good luck with finding a place to stay and a REAL 'world plug'. All the best and good luck with your research and thesis!! And, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!