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Published: August 6th 2007
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Tolaga Bay
Just around the corner from Cook's Cove So it was back to New Zealand in April 2006, I had all the paperwork for my UK work visa completed and ready to go. I intended to be back for the minimum time necessary to get the visa as I had interviewed for and been offered a position with a ferry company called Norfolkline and needed only the magic stamp in my passport. In fact if I already had it I would have found myself in Korea as the delivery crew on a brand new cross channel ferry but as it was I didn’t end up working for them for another six months.
So anyhoo, I found myself in NZ waiting for the UK embassy to do it’s thing with basically nothing to do. Well, nothing except travel about the country and party a lot that is.
Easter came around just after I arrived so it was off on a bit of a road trip to Gisborne which was a pretty cracking little holiday. Although it has to be said that the Pizza Hut in Gisborne was about the most dire place I have ever eaten and best avoided.
This was followed by another road trip the very next
weekend, up north this time for a few days spent in the Bay of Islands. Despite having a bug of some sort which was making my head feel even more like a brick than it usually does I had a brilliant time cruising old haunts in Russel and Paihia. During both trips I was blown away by the scenery in NZ, after seeing a fair bit of other countries it really hit home how amazing our country is and how little of it I have actually seen. There are parts of France and the UK that I know better than NZ which is really embarrassing.
After all the road trips were over I was left again with not a lot to do so decided to go for a bit of a sail and signed up as a volunteer crew member on the sail training ship Spirit of New Zealand. I did two ten day trips, the first through the Marlborough sounds finishing in Wellington, the second from Gisborne up the east coast to Auckland.
I was absolutely knackered by the end each trip but what a brilliant way to spend a week and a half, cruising around the coast
on a sailing ship! I had my own watch of 10 teenagers to look after and mentor which was actually a bloody hard job, makes me wonder how teachers manage classes of 30! (Big thumbs up to teachers here)
It might have been tiring and hard work but it had its rewards as well. One afternoon we sent all the trainees up the rigging with the objective being to touch the very top of the mast. At the very end there was still one lad who wouldn’t climb more than about five or six metres above the deck. I climbed down to where he had welded himself to the shrouds and with a bit of encouragement and a lot of reassurance he slowly made his way up to the top and eventually slapped the mast-head with a loud sigh of relief. It might have taken half an hour but it was worth it for the best warm fuzzies you can imagine.
There was also plenty of time for a bit of partying, can’t remember too much about why we were having them or indeed a lot of what we actually got up to but I do remember them being
a lot of fun. I remember at one point having a banana sticking out of my trousers and someone taking a bite out of it?? Not sure what that was about.
Eventually the UK embassy got it’s act together and sent my passport back complete with a visa so it was back to the airport and off to London. I flew with Hannah and we spent a couple of days in Dubai which was a pretty intense place. If you like the sensation of water being jetted up your bum then make sure you check out the up-hill hydroslides at Wild Wadi’s water park next time you are there.
Soon though it was time to move on and we had to fly on to complete our trek to London on what turned out to be the worst flight I have ever been on. Jet lag caught up with us and we were feeling crap for the whole eight hour flight, if you want my advice, forget the whole stopover thing, just fly direct, it might seem a bit painful at the time but worth it in the long run.
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