I have been so excited to see New Zealand since I came to Australia. I knew that whichever place I chose to intern in, I would visit the other (especially since it was between New Zealand and Australia). I have been excited all weekend…all last week realistically, which was aided by the fact that I knew that I no longer had to worry about work, I was just going to be a traveler! So I got here into Christchurch and literally it was the weirdest experience to be in a city that I hardly know anything about, without any sense of direction of where I was going to end up. All I knew was that I wanted to end up in the city in a McDonalds (don’t judge me, they have free internet and I had not eaten anything since my pb and j at 2am and my cup of coffee at 8 am and it was 4pm). I got to the city, bought a South Island map and went into McDonald's and began marking out the cities that I would plan on stopping in then pulled out my computer to look up and city and found…no free internet.
Oh America (and at least Australian Mackas) how you have spoiled me so with your very prevalent and free wifi. Though it was that first night that I was weirdly hit with this fact that I was a traveler. I mean I knew I was traveling and international, but I had never felt it really until I was unpacking in my hostel (in an all girls rooms…wasn’t that brave yet) and I was by myself just nervous and excited about the fact that I was just here to see New Zealand even if it meant doing it by myself. Later I met my roommates, all were from around the world, Italy, China, Ireland and all of us had traveled across the world on holiday or just a change of scenery. For me I think that it was a little bit of both, because it gave me a chance to get out of the city and jus see a different part of the world, different than the US and different than Sydney which was really getting smaller and smaller by the minute. What I mean by this is that it was getting to habitual. I was doing the similar things, with the same people and it was just good to get out and get back to being excited about other parts of the world and doing what I came here to do…see the world.
So here I am at the end of the trip in the Christchurch airport waiting for my flight that will leave in roughly an hour. What did I notice of New Zealand? I need to come back and plan to stay MUCH longer. 6 days was not enough to see everything I wanted to see, so my trip was cut short to only a few activities in only a few cities. These stops were a far from each other, and made further by my inexperience driving through very winding roads on the opposite side or the road on the opposite side of the car. This unfortunately cut down time that I was able to spend in cities because I was constantly moving from place to place (4 towns in 6 days)
A few days later…
Went to Cairns and felt strong heat for the first time since I left the US. It was warm in New Zealand, but comfortable warm like 80 or so and Sydney had been rainy since before I had left for New Zealand and then I was hit hard by the 90 something degree weather of Cairns. My first reaction: “Yay! Finally Australia is that warm place I had been imaging! Second reaction: “What is this Mexico? Why are there no air conditioners anywhere except for those big fans? Don’t you people know those only work for dry heat?”
Yup hardly anywhere had an air conditioner and most of my hostel was outside or only had a fan so I was constantly sweaty. My room did have an air conditioner, but it did not work fully until the second night when one of the girls found a way to put it just on the right setting, with the fan on full blast and all the windows shut. The first night was just really hot and I then understood while they only gave you one bottom sheet and one cover sheet. The air thing aside, my day at the barrier reef was quite possibly the coolest thing I have done in Australia. Before now some things were cool, or were cool because they reminded me of home, but the reef was distinctively Australian and amazing. I had agreed to scuba dive, but I was very nervous about it. Apparently it was very obvious because as I walking to put on the rest of my gear one of the instructors, the young whipper snapper of the group, was like “ya nervous?” and started playfully shaking me. My response to him was “yeah, I’m really nervous” with an anxious laugh and then as I walked up to a girl who was in my group she was like “are you nervous?” and I was like “yeah” and she was like “yeah, me too” but she looked totally chill and even had her own snorkel gear so I literally thought I was the only one! I got all my gear on, which is kind of like carrying a fourth grader on your back because not only do you have a giant air tank on you, but I also had 3 weights added on and it made it very hard for me to swim from the back to the side of the boat without being the only uncool one floating on my back the whole way there. I finally make it to the area where there are ropes are located that we will use to take us down to the depths and then he leads down about 2-3 feet where he then quizzed us on all the precautions he told us about earlier like not holding your breath, what to do if you lose your mouth piece and so on. The second I got down there I of course tried to breath through my nose and couldn’t because of the mask and then had a mini freak out then realized that I was connected to an air tank and then just began to breath out of my mouth. As this is all happening the girl beside me (the one who was all “I’m nervous” but was totally chill) is literally freaking out and is swimming up to the top and standing on the piece of bar that I am supposed to be fully holding onto and I am barely clutching onto the side trying to contain myself. Eventually I had to ask myself “do I want to go up out of fear, or do I want to experience the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal?” I then took a deep breath of purified oxygen and began to look around me at the school of fish that was passing by me, the bubbles that were coming from my mouth piece each time I exhaled, and the coral down below me…I could do this. I had the guidance of a trained professional and the chance to experience this amazing creation up close. So when the guide came back down and asked if I was ok, I responded with a yes (well an ok sign) and continued on with my tests.
Throughout these trips, even though I was doing them alone, I loved every moment of them (well until I was exhausted and driving around Christchurch for an hour looking for a place to sleep) and meeting travelers just like me from all over the world. These trips also made me realize that sometimes I let fear or doubt guide my steps and I forget that I was made for so much more, so why let them the guide? Sometimes all you need to do is take a deep breath and know that you are in good hands.
I got back from Cairns and ended up meeting with a Korean girl I had met in my hostel in Cairns, and even though I am not a native Australian I took her touring around Sydney. It was amazing to be able to share the things that I loved about this city with someone who was seeing them for the first time. She was a complete stranger 48 hours prior and yet by the end of the day I now knew that I had a guide and a friend for when I go to Seol. The people you meet on the “road” all impact you in some way or another in ways that I cannot explain. The conversations you have with them aren’t just about your major, or how old you are or any of those other chit chat go to’s…they are of interest in what you have seen and where you are going and what keeps you there. Everyone is interesting, everyone has ambition…I hope to always remain a traveler with an interest in people and a hope in humanity.
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