Saying Goodbye To New Zealand

Last Meal In New Zealand

It was my last few days in New Zealand. I returned back to Auckland from our travels of the North Island with mixed feelings. I mean, I think I was ready to leave. I had had the most amazing time in this country and I will always love the place, but it probably was the right time to move on - wait, was it?!?

Before I left, there were many more people to see and say a fond farewell to. When I first arrived in the country I was greeted by some distant relatives (Lilian and Cliff) who I had never met previously. They live in Auckland and had looked after me for my first few days, but since then, I hadn't been back to see them. The parents and I arranged to meet them for a meal. It was great to see them again, chat about what I had been doing in NZ for the last year and thank them for their hospitality. It was nice for my parents to meet them for the first time too.

I had been in NZ for exactly a year and my work visa was now running out. Thats perhaps the main reason I would have to leave. All the jobs in volcanology in NZ are government owned organisations and they have to play it by the book. They can't just keep me on and pay me cash in hand under the table, and as a result my time was up. My very good friend, Darren, who flew out to NZ to travel around with me, but who ended up staying a year and working, was also having to leave the country for similar reasons. Darren had been living down in Queenstown with his girlfriend Jaqui and they both headed up to Auckland to prepare for their departure, which was a few days after my own. My parents were flying out the very next day, so Darren and Jaqui, Harriet and I, the parents and Darren's cousin (who was originally from England, but who had moved to live in Australia 10 years ago and who had taken a quick flight over to NZ to see Darren before he left) all went out for a meal. It was the most delicious food, in this small restaurant down some hidden back alley in Parnell. We all chatted about our last year in NZ and how we were all gutted to be leaving. I don't think the reality had quite hit me at that point. We went out for a few drinks after, where we saw some old friends in a pub and who we knew we would probably never see again.

The parents flew on and the very next day, Harriet and myself would also be leaving. Due to a bit of coincidence and some intense arranging, Harriet and I were leaving on the same plane home. So here's the quick version of the story. Harriet had a flight back to the UK, for some time at the very end of August because she started her last year of University, and I needed to get back to the UK for my sisters wedding on the 29th August. So a while ago we went into STA to see if we could get on the same flight. However, due to the ticket that Harriet had and the incredible popularity of flights out of NZ at that time of the year - the only seats available to Harriet was to fly from New Zealand to Hong Kong on the 10th August and then 15 days later, to fly out of Hong Kong back to London on the 25th. I wanted to stop in Hong Kong for a few days but this was a bit extreme. We decided to go for it anyway and later re-decided that rather than go to Hong Kong for two weeks, we would do just over a week traveling China too. And so the planning began. It's pretty easy to get a visa for most countries, especially if you're just a tourist.....not for China though! To get a chinese visa, you either need to know someone in the country who can 'invite' you in (that was a no go for us), or you have to show immigration in advance, your whole travel itinerary with confirmation of all hotel bookings and transport in and out of the country. And so the planning continued. For the past two months we had been booking all sorts of accommodation and transport around China, just so we could get our visa. We planned to travel from place to place in China (and in & out of the country) via the train, and boy was that a drama trying to book. Anyway, after much faffing about, we got all the documents, applied for our visa and with suprising ease got them approved.

We were on our way - or so we thought. Just as I'm heading off on my trip with my parents around the North Island, Harriet gets an email saying that she has been dropped off the system and that she is not on any flight from Hong kong to London. STA had apparently messed up big time and were struggling to sort a solution as the flight she was supposed to be on was now fully booked. Well Iv'e seen volcanoes erupt at pretty close proximity and they are scary enough - but watching Harriet - let's just say she is the Yellowstone of the erupting world. After a lot of messing about, some angry emails and a fair bit of shouting, we both got moved to earlier flights on the same day out of Hong Kong. It all worked out in the end (just), but before we left we had one final meal to attend.

Harriet's Aunt and Uncle (Patricia and Steve) had been really good to Harriet and I over the last year. The let us stay on their farm, took us out to places and we often did a trip here and there with them. Their best friend, Leith was similarly generous to us, and so we thought we would cook them all a final meal to say thank you. Harriet and I went over to Pat and Steve's farm house, where we cooked a great roast dinner. It was the full works and incredibly the kitchen didn't burn to the ground during or after the excercise. We also bought them a few gifts and a lot of alcohol to show our appreciation. It was a nice way to say farewell and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

The next day was D-Day (Departure Day). We sorted out our flat with the land-lady, packed our bags, said our final goodbyes and with incredible haste - left New Zealand. There was so many things to sort out and so many people to say goodbye to that I didn't really take in the fact that I was leaving. It was great living in the flat but we were out of it so quickly that morning that I didn't even check it over to make sure that I had taken everything out of it. Nonetheless - it was another fun chapter of my traveling over and I will always remember it as a beautiful country with some fantastic memories. I have no doubt that I will return to New Zealand one day - and probably sooner than I think.

We Said our final goodbyes to Pat and Steve and got on the plane. Our flight was long but it felt even longer. We were entertained by movies throughout but as soon as I got into my seat I quickly wanted to get out of it. I think it was the whole situation that was flying past me so quickly that was making me anxious. It didn't help that a weird man kept staring at Harriet for pretty much the entire 12 hours too, so it was a relief when we finally landed in Hong Kong.

As I had left New Zealand without really taking in the situation, I equally hadn't really thought about heading into Hong Kong and China. The realisation that I was back in Asia suddenly hit me. The anxiousness passed. I absolutely love Asia and now I had arrived back, right into the thick of it again...........