Wellington

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Turns out I didn't need any of the paperwork I printed out to get into New Zealand. In the Melbourne airport, I had to wait in line to get my ticket rather than have an easy time at the machine because my last name is MacDougall and sometimes people (the US government and CU Boulder) decide that my last name has a space in it and won't let me do things (check in for flights, register for classes) unless I spell my last name with a space. It's infuriating. When I booked my flight to New Zealand I had to enter my information exactly as it is on my passport. Usually I spell my name correctly and it works. This time I was not so lucky, so I had to wait in line and get it remedied. Annoying. On the other side I didn't speak to a human as immigration was entirely electronic again. I had to have my bag searched because I had hiking boots in it, but they were nice about it, and my boots were clean. Also, the runway in Wellington is one of the shortest (the shortest?) in the world, and it was the most terrifying landing I've ever experienced. The Kiwi woman sitting next to me said it was a pretty good one because no wind. Jeez. And then I was in New Zealand! I landed around 6:30 in the morning, watched the sun rise, and took two buses (full of incredibly helpful people) to get to my friend Alice's house.

When I knew I was going to Wellington, I put a post on Facebook asking if someone could host me. Alice said she could, and we started talking and making plans. I recognized her and knew I met her, but at the time I was in Cambodia and I had met a billion people and didn't remember where I knew her from. We had one mutual friend on Facebook, and I remember that friend from Don Det, so I assumed I knew Alice from Don Det (Laos) but it didn't seem right. It got to the point where it was wayyyyy too late to ask her, "hey, what country did we meet in again?" because she was hosting me and all that. When I got to her house, I seriously needed a nap. While I was getting ready for bed, Alice mentioned something about a book, and then BAM. It clicked. I know Alice and forgot where i met her because our entire friendship had been talking about books for an hour in Hanoi, Vietnam back in December. That's it. One hour, and she invites me to stay with her for 3 days. Travel people are so cool. I slept in the living room for a few hours and woke up around 9:30 because Alice was leaving for law school. We walked 10 minutes to downtown, and i sat at a restaurant with my book and ordered a flat white and french toast with maple syrup and bacon. It was amazing, and the maple syrup was real. I had a couple hours to kill before Alice was done with her class, so I decided to walk down to the harbor. On the way, I found a little design shop and talked to the woman who worked there. She gave me a list of "hidden gems of Wellington." I left and walked towards the water.

The moment I saw the sun rise in New Zealand, my heart was full. I have always been a "go with your gut" kind of person, and my gut has taken me to CU Boulder, Budapest, and every other amazing place I've been. In the past year or so, I've felt incredibly drawn to New Zealand. Externally, I can say it's because of the scenery. I've never been able to decide between ocean and mountains. New Zealand has both in close proximity. It's full of nature and laid-back people (from what I've heard). But more than that, I've just felt this incredibly overwhelming pull, and it's not something I'm meant to ignore. And my gut was confirmed because rather than feel a tug at my heart, I was in the place that had been tugging me, and all I felt was light and happiness and amazing energy. I walked down to the harbor in Wellington, and as if it were meant just for me, there was a statue of a man leaning out over the water with his head back and his heart open to the sky. The harbor was surrounded by hills, and I can't even describe the feeling I got. I had to sit and write because the moment was too much. Everything has led me to this place.

I continued to walk along the harbor and stumbled on a market made out of small containers. I perused the jewelry a bit but didn't buy. Then I walked down Cuba street, which I had heard about from Alice. I popped into a store and bought myself two pairs of jeans and some sunglasses. Ah, real people clothes. So good. I met Alice back at the restaurant and we headed back to her house where we hung out for a little while decompressing. We went back out to go to the beach at about 3:00. We walked a few blocks towards a school that was just getting out for the day. I saw a man picking up his preschool-aged daughter on his bicycle and I remarked on how cute it was. Alice turned to me and said, "do you know Flight of the Conchords?" I said, "Yeah. They're from New Zealand, right?" (assuming she was making casual conversation). Alice replied, "that's one of them." Dad picking his daughter up on the bike was Jemaine Clement, one of the guys from Flight of the Conchords. There are 3 well-known celebrities that are from and live in New Zealand: the Flight of the Conchords guys and Peter Jackson. Within 8 hours of landing in New Zealand, I had seen 1/3 of the celebrities. Jemaine was going the same way as us, so I got to fangirl for a bit but didn't bother him. But SO COOL, RIGHT?

The beach is right next to the harbor--just downtown. We laid out in the sand and watched rowers out in the water. Alice remarked that she knows some Olympic rowers, which is apparently super casual here because there are only 4 million Kiwis, so it makes sense that you'd probably know some professional athletes. We laid out on the beach for a while and then headed back to the house. I grabbed some food at the grocery store to snack on. When we got back, I had a message from my friend Sko whom I had met on Koh Samui. I quickly turned around and met him downtown where we had a couple beers on the harbor and caught up. The sun started to set and I wandered around to find some dinner. I stopped in a little cafe for hot chocolate and continued to read my book. I found a bistro for dinner and had a chicken and avocado salad with some weird soda with a fruit I had never heard of. Feijoa. I walked back to Alice's and spent the evening chatting and drinking wine with her and her roommates.

The next morning was rainy and cold. Boo. I made myself some breakfast and then headed downtown. I had big plans to buy a big girl phone because my Malaysian phone is stupid (no surprises there) and my iPhone 4 is locked and is old, and I live in New Zealand now so I suppose I should start buying things. I just have a really hard time spending money on anything that's not a plane ticket or an experience (say, scuba diving). I headed downtown and shopped around for a bit and couldn't find anyone selling iPhone 5's because they don't make them anymore. I ended up buying an iPhone 6 at the retail price, which was about $700 USD. But that included a case and SIM card, so FINE. Since it was still rainy and miserable, I went to a museum where there was an exhibition on the ANZAC (Australia/New Zealand Army Corps) mission into Turkey in WWI. Knowing nothing about it (they were in WWI?) I wanted to check it out. Parts of the exhibit were designed by Peter Jackson, and as soon as you walk in, the first room is filled with the most lifelike wax figure I've ever seen. Except it's also giant. It is of a general (I think) pointing his gun somewhere above our heads. It was crazy life-like, down to the hairs on his knuckles. The whole exhibit was a timeline of the attack where ANZAC went into Turkey from the south and basically got annihilated over the course of a few months. New Zealand lost 10,000 men, which compared to the population of New Zealand, is a ton of men. The exhibit was sad, enlightening, and fascinating. I went back to the same restaurant as the previous day and had myself a Po' Boy sandwich and an L&P, which is a New Zealand soda (slogan: World Famous in New Zealand!) I went back to Alice's where I spent most of the rest of the rainy day watching Netflix and setting up my new phone. I met Alice that evening at a taco place, which had all-you-can-eat tacos for $20 (we're back to NZ dollars forever now). The tacos were delicious, the drinks were delicious, and we were happy to go to bed early that night.

I had learned that there was a film location for Lord of the Rings in Wellington. So, on my final day, I woke up and set off to find it. I hiked up Mt. Victoria, which is only a few blocks from Alice's house. There are some paths in the woods on the way up that the hobbits walked through on their way to Bree in the first movie. It's also where they hid from the first Nazgul on the way. I'm never going to stop being nerdy about this. I've seen those movies A LOT, and it was amazing to walk through a place in a foreign country and have it feel familiar. I made it to the top where there are 360 degree views of Wellington including the airport (tiny itty bitty runway), mountains, harbor, ocean, and strait. It was amazing. On the way down, I took a different path and found the place where the hobbits hid! I didn't get a good picture because there were too many tourists and I couldn't be bothered to wait. I kept on down the hill and wandered into town where I popped into different little shops and bookstores. When I was finished shopping around, I went back to the house and had myself some lunch. Then I decided to go for a run for the first time in a really really long time. I ran along the harbor and beach for about 3 miles altogether. It was hard, but it was beautiful, and I couldn't help myself. I went to bed early that night after hanging out with Alice and her roommates some more. I had to get up early to get the 9:00 ferry down to the South Island where I would be moving into a house with my own room and a dresser. It was my last day of living out of a backpack.

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