Back To Auckland I Go

Yes it’s true, I am indeed back in Auckland,  the nanny thing didn’t quite work out. The original allure of the job – the stability, free accommodation and food as well as good pay – was pretty much what I came to New Zealand to get away from. I realized this a few days in to the job ... and it hit me very hard and all at once. I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed, and then I remembered that I was at the other end of the world and let me tell you this realization did nothing to help with the overwhelming feeling. But after exchanging a few emails and having a Skype chat with two people that gave great advice I came to the quick conclusion that I needed to change my plans as quick as possible. 24 hours later I am back in Auckland and after reading a letter that one of my best friends wrote me I am in a much better mind set and ready to start from square one.

The next few days are going to be spent doing some planning and I am fairly confident that my plans to do something that involves travelling around and seeing as many new things as possible will work out better then the nanny job did.

I am hoping that going with my gut and leaving what was otherwise a perfectly good job with nice people will turn out to be what I needed. Unfortunately there is no way to know for sure if this was the right decision... but I will be finding this out soon.

Hopefully I will have some slightly more exciting things to talk about in the next post ... but for now this is it.

Rachel

Goodbye Auckland, Hello Waiheke Island

Yesterday was my last day in Auckland (for now at least) so of course I had to try and make the most of it.

After my wonderful and completely needed 7hrs of deep, uninterrupted sleep I woke up nice and early at 6am ready to go. Because it was still early I decided to take the opportunity of the quiet city to go for a run. My first run in New Zealand took me up Mt. Eden, which is a huge crater caused by a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago.

FUN FACT: Every big bump that you see along the New Zealand landscape was once a volcano.

After doing some housekeeping things at the travel office across the street I went back out into the city to explore with the girl I had met the other day. Our first stop was the skytower where we made an impulsive decision to do the skywalk (NZ version of the CN Tower edge walk). You basically walk around the edge of the Skytower and you can lean over the side and stuff like that.
It was just her and I and one other guy (who was originally from North York but went on a working holiday to australia and never went back). Our guide was super cool and friendly and gave us so much information about auckland and the surrounding islands that we could see from the tower. (Our guide was also telling us that he had come to NZ on a working visa and never went back) ...I'm noticing a bit of a theme here.

For those of you who don't know I found out a couple of days ago that I had gotten a nanny job that I had applied for. So this morning after making a stop at the farmers market I hopped on the ferry and headed over to Waiheke Island to meet the family. Let me just say that the ferry ride was not the calm, take pictures, enjoy the scenery, ride that I was expecting. Rather it was a rough, roller coaster like ride and involved getting sprayed in the face multiple times.

So for the rest of this afternoon I've just been getting settled into my room as well as getting to know the family (who seem awesome by the way).
The higlights of the day have been eating fresh and local kiwi fruit as well as being able to step outside the door and pick a lemon off the tree to use in my tea... both things that i could definitely get used to.

I could seriously keep typing for hours but i'll stop before I bore everyone and lose the few readers that I do have!

Thanks for reading :)

RACHEL (aka the Canadian falling madly in love with New Zealand)

Day 1 - A Good First Impression

Day Number 1 in New Zealand...

This morning I got off the plane at 6:30 (thursday the 19th) and caught the airbus from the airport to the Hostel. I was immediately amazed at the amount of greenery that surrounds the city. Needless to say New Zealand made an incredible first impression.

After making it to the hostel I was really starting to notice the effects the last 24 hrs had had on me. For those of you who know me, you know that I am directionally challenged so trying to figure out where I was going all by myself proved to be a bit difficult and extremely exhausting.

When I walked up to the desk at the hostel the women pleasantly informed me that check in wasn't until 1pm... which left me with 4.5 hrs to keep myself occupied. I knew right away that it was going to be a very long day.

So off I went to explore the city of Auckland with a girl I had met just 5 minutes earlier. We walked around and through the majority of downtown Auckland. Along the way we discovered some cool places. My favourite being a tea store (all loose leaf, and natural teas with tons of free samples.. my favourite).  While walking around I was made very well aware of one aspect of this city and that is the amount of hills... and when I say hills I mean very steep climbs, all along the main streets. Something you don't generally get in downtown Toronto.

One of my favourite parts about the entire day was just how friendly everyone seems to be.  Everywhere we went people would just strike up a conversation with us. But my favourite moment, and perhaps the peak of the politeness, came when a man got slightly frustrated at a women for walking slow, while on her phone and subsequently blocking the walkway. He proceeded to push past her, then seconds later turned around to apologize for being rude. When has anyone ever done this in downtown Toronto? In my experience, never.

The last few days have felt like one huge day... and for this reason, even though I am excited to be in such a beautiful, new place, the only thing I can truly look forward to is the moment when my head will hit the pillow and I am able to sleep for more then 3 hours at a time.

Now let me just leave you with one last thing,  a quote heard just moments ago, straight out of the mouth of a worker here at the hostel...

"Help yourself to some goon punch, tastes gross but it'll get you drunk fast" 

(Mom isn't this the kind of things want to be hearing? ;) )

Rachel

The Never Ending List and A Big THANKYOU

The last few days have been a little hectic. I have literally been running around like a crazy women trying to get everything done. But no matter how much running around I did and how much I felt like I was accomplishing the list just never ended!

But there is no such thing as a never ending list when you have a plane to catch, so whether I have everything or not there is nothing that can be done about it now. Prepared or not I am leaving for New Zealand in approximately 1 hour!

On a different note... as I sit here in the airport waiting to board the plane I can't stop thinking about how lucky I am to have such amazing people in my life. Each and every one of them have played a role in helping me get to where I am right now, about to embark on a crazy adventure!

I read a quote yesterday that couldn't have been more perfect ... and it is this:

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard"

So while I had to say a lot of hard goodbyes (or rather "see you later's") I know that I am an incredibly lucky girl and am so grateful to everyone in my life!

Packing for a Year Abroad: It Takes More Time then you Think!

With only 4 days left until I leave for New Zealand thankfully my to do list is finally starting to get smaller!

Over the past week I’ve been running around like a crazy person trying to get everything done, not just running errands but also seeing friends and family to say a final goodbye before I leave.  During these goodbyes what has come to my attention is that no matter who I'm talking to, whether its a relative, a close friend or the receptionist at the dentists office the same questions always seem to come up...

“What are you going to do when you get there”   and... 

“Where are you staying”

Well if I’m being completely honest I have no idea what i‘m going to do when I get there, or where I’m staying, where I’ll be working, or even what kind of work I’ll be doing. So how do I deal with these questions? I generally just laugh them off and say that I have no idea what I’m doing but that it will all work out (hopefully). Mind you I do get a few raised eyebrows when I respond like this (mainly from my relatives) but hey, at least I’m telling them the truth.

Anyways these question are bearable. However the question that always gets me... the one that inevitably weasels its way into every conversation is the dreaded question about packing. Each and every time this question is asked a feel my anxiety levels going up...seriously. 

"Have you started packing yet?" ...is what they all ask me.

Hmmm .... well let’s see, up until yesterday the answer to this question would have been a flat out no. I don’t know why but packing just seems to be that one thing on the list that keeps getting pushed further and further to the bottom. My thought process has pretty much been “packing can’t be that hard, I’ll just throw some stuff together the day before if I have to.” Well it has become excruciatingly clear to me after spending 3 hours yesterday attempting to pack and getting virtually nowhere that it isn’t going to be that simple. In fact the process of packing will probably involve multiple packing and repacking’s.

So with this startling discovery that packing is not quite as easy as I had anticipated, I am now off to spend the next few days frantically packing, unpacking then repacking until I finally find a way to fit everything that I need for a year into my one backpack.

Wish me luck!

Rachel