27th June 9pm
Well as far as the plan for today went I managed to email the shipping company but I wont hear from them until Monday night NZT so I am just going to get in touch with DHL international tomorrow and hopefully they will have some news for me. If not then I will just have to wait. One thing at a time. I will get my riding gear tomo and I start work on the 29th (Tues) June @ 8am! Not sure how I am getting up there but Ill figure that all out with the guys tomorrow. As much as I would like to get everything sorted asap its not going to happen that quickly so i just need to get one thing done at a time.
In terms of how I am feeling I am much more at ease and i guess I will just be stoked to have everything with me. Starting to feel tired of being stressed so ill just do what i can. I have a decent amount of stuff arriving tomorrow so that should be cool.
I didnt end up doing the whole gym thing I was a bit tired today so I kinda just moped around and met the rest of the crew I am doing the course with. I met up with Robin and he introduced me to Grant and Emma, they are part of the ski crew on the snow sports careers internships. I met a woman called Helen who he did his season with in Jasper she seems real nice and is going to help me with the whole baggage situation. She is not doing the internship just here to ride and enjoy herself which is fair enough. I met Anthony another Jasper seasonaire who is doing the boarding course too. They seem like a good bunch and I just hung out with them in the early afternoon before getting home and making some lunch. Went back to theirs for dinner, its 9pm right now and I am in bed because I want to be up @ 2am for the footie England Vs Germany!! Come on England!!
28th June
Well the England game certainly not worth staying up for, what a terrible performance. I watched it with some of my housemates, all of which were absolutely hammered so made for an amusing audience. But England played so bad it was such a shame. After the game I went to bed and couldn’t sleep a wink, the jetlag is still killing me a little. I definitely need to get it right tonight because I have my first day at work tomorrow! I think its an induction day I don’t need gear or anything. I still need to find out the deal with whats going on and how to get to the mountain but will figure that out when I speak to a few people tonight.
I decided to get up around 7.30am made my lunch and breakfast and packed my bag for a day of trying to sort out stuff. This has not been easy at all! Watched the rest of the Argentina Vs Mexico game, saw the Mexico goal it was pretty immense. Went to the library at around 8.30am to use the internet – managed to contact DHL and get a tracking number, my bag is being held at Customs Auckland NZ awaiting clearance, I could have waited around in Auckland and cleared them myself had I known, however I didnt receive a tracking number from Allfreight (the intermediary I booked the shipping with). Was soo annoyed, I called DHL and they sent through the forms I needed to fill in, and they were exactly the same as the forms I filled in when my luggage got picked up!! I couldn’t believe it. The door 2 door service is a bit of a con.
I sent through the forms via fax to DHL, Customs, MAF and am now hoping for the best. I met up with Chris Hazeldine at the library it was good to see a familiar face. I knew Chris from Uni snow society. He is a real nice guy, he is trying to hook me up with accommodation in his place. I find out tomorrow. He dropped me home, I still have a number of things to sort out however I am waiting for my snowboard bag to turn up. Apparently it’s arriving today @ 2.20pm.
29th June 2010
I got my bag yesterday and sorted a heapload of stuff out toward getting my clothes they should be here soon. Yesterday was pretty hectic just sorting stuff out. Highlights were, sorting out my payroll number with the post office, arranging bank appointment for opening accounts, joining the gym blah blah blah.
After receiving my bag yesterday I just went into town to get all my stuff done and got back around 5ish. Made some dinner and then went to a pub quiz with my housemate Dan, Chris, Rob Gordon and a few others. We ended up winning the pub quiz though I didnt have a massive part to play in that. I think my proudest moment was naming Gianluigi Buffon in the picture round.
After the pub quiz I went home and some of the guys in the house were just going mad, the house is mental there is 22 of us living there and most of the time people are drunk in the house. Mark (Roo) was there he is a 23 yr old Irish kid just travelling the world, Jules was there she is 24 and born in Watford, Fay from Newcastle was there, Chelsea the 20 yr old NZ chick was there all drinking Morgan Spice rum with Coke getting smashed listening to tunes having their own little house party. They wanted me to join but with work following the next day I decided to go to bed it was 10pm and jet lag was kicking in.
The past 2 nights I have been getting up at 2am and not getting back to sleep just thinking myself into oblivion in bed. But this morning I got up at 5:45am which was good a solid 8 hours no waking up – so i am starting to get into this timezone!! I was stoked with that.
Got up to get ready for work and left the house. I said I would meet Robin at his place at 6:45am to take the bus with him, however there is a stop right next to our house. Dan said he would go with me in the morning however I didnt see him so I left with Jess and went to the bus stop. I got there and took the bus to Turoa, on the way up I got to chat to Jess which was nice, she is 26 from California and originally went away for 4 months and its now a year and a half of travelling she has done. She has a passion for scuba diving and is heading to Asia after the winter. She works as a liftie.
I got to Turoa and went to the snow school area only to find out my first day was meant to be in Whackapapa. The combination of my contract telling me my first day was at Turoa, the lack of phone and me not going with either Dan or Robyn led to me going to the wrong place. I wasn’t told but I guess people assumed because I was going with them they would take me to the right place. My fault but I hope I can redeem myself at some point. I am pretty pissed off with myself right now. Another day to try and kill – hopefully going to get a bank account opened today and get my gym membership sorted.
Why cant this be easy?
Monday, 28 June 2010
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Trials and Tribulations - why cant this be easy!
27th June 1am
We hopped on the bus at 7.25am and started our long bus journey. The only stops I remember the name of is Hamilton, only because it was a fairly built up commercial town. Rob went straight to sleep I wanted to take in some of the scenery however it was mainly city’s and residential areas for the initial part of the trip as we were getting out of the mainland and Auckland. Our breakfast stop was @ 9.25 in Hamilton, we walked around and Rob managed to buy a Vodaphone Sim, which was pretty cool. I ordered mine online at the airport thinking there wouldn’t be anywhere to buy one in Ohakune or on our way however there clearly was – how very silly of me. It would be nice to have one thing sorted. I didn’t have my luggage from the plane, I wasn’t sure if my bag arrived which I shipped so I was slightly on edge for sure. I remember the driving through the outback and observing the amount of greenery that existed that was around and the amount of farms and cows and sheep. This place was lush and green and full of natural beauty. I didn’t see many people at all. I have been feeling massively strange and apprehensive since I got here the fear of the unknown is getting to me for sure. We had a lunch in this very very strange town, I walked around it and thought to myself if Ohakune is going to be like this I am going to struggle. It was really scary, made me think why I go to these ridiculously random remote places when I travel when the safest bet is always the places where everyone goes. Apparantly the South Island is where it is at. Instead I am at the north. Can you tell my tension.
Having passed through that strange town we finally arrived in Ohakune, and it was heaving, I couldn’t believe how busy it was. We met up with another guy on the course, his name was Chris and he showed Rob to his accommodation and me to mine. I am living in the middle of the 2 main parts of Ohakune, toward the west is where are the nightlife bars and restaurants are and toward the east is where the day to day stuff is, supermarkets, snowboard shops, library, banks. My accommodation is pretty much hostel style. It is a tiny tiny room which I will be sharing with a friend of a friend called Tony and it has a bunk bed. I honestly don’t know with the amount of stuff we both have how its going to turn out so I might start fishing around on Monday for accommodation. Ill go to the estate agents, and look at the bulletin boards I need to open a bank account and hopefully some of my gear will arrive on Monday. Basically the clothes I shipped out have not arrived either so I am in the clothes I arrived in and pretty stressed out. I am really apprehensive because nothing is sorted yet and I need to get things done, arriving on a weekend isn’t conducive to doing that, especially on Mardi Gras weekend. Basically its a north island seasonal opening weekend this weekend so loads of people from the North Island are here, around 8000 on top of the usual population of Ohakune of 1500 people, I remember in the “strange” town we stopped in I was asked by a shopkeeper if we were here for the Mardi Gras weekend and I honestly thought he was taking the piss, but sure enough in Kune there was this going on.
I will be free to roam once the madness ends and the people are gone. There was a street party this evening however I was too tired to even think about going out. Some might say its one party I shouldn’t have missed but I just would not have enjoyed it with the way I am feeling.
When we arrived in Kune I walked to 101 Miro St only to find that Simon my landlord was not there, with no phone at all I walked back to town and used my phone card to call him. He kindly picked me up and showed me to my room. The accommodation is shared with a load of other back packers. There are a lot of youngsters here and its making me feel so uneasy just thinking, “I am too old for this back packing stuff, and I have gone beyond this point and appreciate and enjoy a different way of living”. I met a lot of the guys that live here, there is Fay from Newcastle who is travelling with her fella of 5 years Ian. I met Fay and she was helping to put me at ease, Chelsea from NZ who is 20 and has managed to convince me to teach her how to ride, Sarah from Scotland who appears to be here with her boyfriend. I met some other people but forgot their names. There are some guys from Chile here as well. Its cool meeting all these people but it makes me realise how different I am from everyone. They are all young carefree and travelling whereas I am still so geared. I am soo stressed out right now. I rememeber feeling the same the first stages of Canada so I am going to have to tough it out and hopefully things will come together. It was Chelsea’s 20th birthday yesterday! Jeez! It got me thinking about life on the breadline as a snowboard instructor and I am starting to question just by looking at the lifestyle whether its right for me at all. I feel way to old to be living in hostels teaching people to ride etc..etc..so its putting things into perspective already. Saying that I am jet lagged, unsettled, stressed about baggage and I havent even got on the mountain yet. So i suppose I should wait for that for sure, its just tough.
OHakune town, though houses less people it definitely is bigger than the town we had in Rossland and things are generally soo much more expensive. Snowboards are like super expensive and day 2 day drinks and groceries are uber expensive too. Its crazy how hard people have to work in bars and on the hill to live here, almost think to yourself is it really worth it. Thats what I am thinking about right now! Its scary I am thinking about leaving, but I did this exact same thing with Canada so I should be used to it and things should work out. It took about a good couple of weeks before life in Canada got good so I should just tough it out for a bit and see how it goes. I am repeating myself. I think its because it is on my mind a lot. I am really questioning this.
I met Rob Gordon my course conductor and he seems like a nice guy he drove me to the supermarket and I bought a load of food first shop of the season $100 NZD – hopefully that will be the cheapest things like salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil were all purchased.
I got back to the hostel after shopping and packed away my stuff it was about 6ish and I was soooo tired. I couldn’t be bothered to cook any food so just ate a pear for dinner, did a little socialising with the house mates and then just went to bed. I am up now and still sync’d in on UK time wide awake so I thought I would type up and update. Only unfortunate thing is that staying connected via internet is going to be very difficult. Oh well! Lets see how this all pans out. Still got the fear but I am handling it.
27th June 11am
As you can see got loads of time on my hands so just writing more and more on my blog until I get busy. Having met our course conductor Rob he said we would be having a staff induction this Tuesday so I would need to be up for that. Today is just a nothing day as things are shut and I cant sort anything out. Not ideal for someone who likes to get things sorted as much as I do. After finishing my blog last night I got up and a couple of housemates were up, there was Roo from Ireland and Chelsea from NZ, it was her birthday and she came in and joined in the chat, she was a little drunk from her fun night out - definately quite the character. I needed someone to just talked to last night so I spoke to Roo about how scared I was and he just said I cant let this feeling get the better of me. I was jet lagged blag blah blah. I got back to sleep at around 5am and got up at 10am. So I am geting there with the whole jet lag thing. Tonight should be easier as I will stay awake all day today where in the UK its night time. I am feeling a little less zombified today. Plan of attack today is to email the shipping company to see how long it will take for my clothes to get here, I got some good news about my plane baggage, that is arriving tomorrow afternoon! So I should have all my riding gear. But I am getting to the point of desperation about my clothes. I really need to get into something different. I can hold out a few more days but its raggo. I wanna explore the town and walk around, get to know the area and then I’ll look into the gym and join that for a couple of months. Not much else to update on other than I was pretty emo last night and I just need to tough it out for a bit. Once I get on the board I’ll know what this is all about.
We hopped on the bus at 7.25am and started our long bus journey. The only stops I remember the name of is Hamilton, only because it was a fairly built up commercial town. Rob went straight to sleep I wanted to take in some of the scenery however it was mainly city’s and residential areas for the initial part of the trip as we were getting out of the mainland and Auckland. Our breakfast stop was @ 9.25 in Hamilton, we walked around and Rob managed to buy a Vodaphone Sim, which was pretty cool. I ordered mine online at the airport thinking there wouldn’t be anywhere to buy one in Ohakune or on our way however there clearly was – how very silly of me. It would be nice to have one thing sorted. I didn’t have my luggage from the plane, I wasn’t sure if my bag arrived which I shipped so I was slightly on edge for sure. I remember the driving through the outback and observing the amount of greenery that existed that was around and the amount of farms and cows and sheep. This place was lush and green and full of natural beauty. I didn’t see many people at all. I have been feeling massively strange and apprehensive since I got here the fear of the unknown is getting to me for sure. We had a lunch in this very very strange town, I walked around it and thought to myself if Ohakune is going to be like this I am going to struggle. It was really scary, made me think why I go to these ridiculously random remote places when I travel when the safest bet is always the places where everyone goes. Apparantly the South Island is where it is at. Instead I am at the north. Can you tell my tension.
Having passed through that strange town we finally arrived in Ohakune, and it was heaving, I couldn’t believe how busy it was. We met up with another guy on the course, his name was Chris and he showed Rob to his accommodation and me to mine. I am living in the middle of the 2 main parts of Ohakune, toward the west is where are the nightlife bars and restaurants are and toward the east is where the day to day stuff is, supermarkets, snowboard shops, library, banks. My accommodation is pretty much hostel style. It is a tiny tiny room which I will be sharing with a friend of a friend called Tony and it has a bunk bed. I honestly don’t know with the amount of stuff we both have how its going to turn out so I might start fishing around on Monday for accommodation. Ill go to the estate agents, and look at the bulletin boards I need to open a bank account and hopefully some of my gear will arrive on Monday. Basically the clothes I shipped out have not arrived either so I am in the clothes I arrived in and pretty stressed out. I am really apprehensive because nothing is sorted yet and I need to get things done, arriving on a weekend isn’t conducive to doing that, especially on Mardi Gras weekend. Basically its a north island seasonal opening weekend this weekend so loads of people from the North Island are here, around 8000 on top of the usual population of Ohakune of 1500 people, I remember in the “strange” town we stopped in I was asked by a shopkeeper if we were here for the Mardi Gras weekend and I honestly thought he was taking the piss, but sure enough in Kune there was this going on.
I will be free to roam once the madness ends and the people are gone. There was a street party this evening however I was too tired to even think about going out. Some might say its one party I shouldn’t have missed but I just would not have enjoyed it with the way I am feeling.
When we arrived in Kune I walked to 101 Miro St only to find that Simon my landlord was not there, with no phone at all I walked back to town and used my phone card to call him. He kindly picked me up and showed me to my room. The accommodation is shared with a load of other back packers. There are a lot of youngsters here and its making me feel so uneasy just thinking, “I am too old for this back packing stuff, and I have gone beyond this point and appreciate and enjoy a different way of living”. I met a lot of the guys that live here, there is Fay from Newcastle who is travelling with her fella of 5 years Ian. I met Fay and she was helping to put me at ease, Chelsea from NZ who is 20 and has managed to convince me to teach her how to ride, Sarah from Scotland who appears to be here with her boyfriend. I met some other people but forgot their names. There are some guys from Chile here as well. Its cool meeting all these people but it makes me realise how different I am from everyone. They are all young carefree and travelling whereas I am still so geared. I am soo stressed out right now. I rememeber feeling the same the first stages of Canada so I am going to have to tough it out and hopefully things will come together. It was Chelsea’s 20th birthday yesterday! Jeez! It got me thinking about life on the breadline as a snowboard instructor and I am starting to question just by looking at the lifestyle whether its right for me at all. I feel way to old to be living in hostels teaching people to ride etc..etc..so its putting things into perspective already. Saying that I am jet lagged, unsettled, stressed about baggage and I havent even got on the mountain yet. So i suppose I should wait for that for sure, its just tough.
OHakune town, though houses less people it definitely is bigger than the town we had in Rossland and things are generally soo much more expensive. Snowboards are like super expensive and day 2 day drinks and groceries are uber expensive too. Its crazy how hard people have to work in bars and on the hill to live here, almost think to yourself is it really worth it. Thats what I am thinking about right now! Its scary I am thinking about leaving, but I did this exact same thing with Canada so I should be used to it and things should work out. It took about a good couple of weeks before life in Canada got good so I should just tough it out for a bit and see how it goes. I am repeating myself. I think its because it is on my mind a lot. I am really questioning this.
I met Rob Gordon my course conductor and he seems like a nice guy he drove me to the supermarket and I bought a load of food first shop of the season $100 NZD – hopefully that will be the cheapest things like salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil were all purchased.
I got back to the hostel after shopping and packed away my stuff it was about 6ish and I was soooo tired. I couldn’t be bothered to cook any food so just ate a pear for dinner, did a little socialising with the house mates and then just went to bed. I am up now and still sync’d in on UK time wide awake so I thought I would type up and update. Only unfortunate thing is that staying connected via internet is going to be very difficult. Oh well! Lets see how this all pans out. Still got the fear but I am handling it.
27th June 11am
As you can see got loads of time on my hands so just writing more and more on my blog until I get busy. Having met our course conductor Rob he said we would be having a staff induction this Tuesday so I would need to be up for that. Today is just a nothing day as things are shut and I cant sort anything out. Not ideal for someone who likes to get things sorted as much as I do. After finishing my blog last night I got up and a couple of housemates were up, there was Roo from Ireland and Chelsea from NZ, it was her birthday and she came in and joined in the chat, she was a little drunk from her fun night out - definately quite the character. I needed someone to just talked to last night so I spoke to Roo about how scared I was and he just said I cant let this feeling get the better of me. I was jet lagged blag blah blah. I got back to sleep at around 5am and got up at 10am. So I am geting there with the whole jet lag thing. Tonight should be easier as I will stay awake all day today where in the UK its night time. I am feeling a little less zombified today. Plan of attack today is to email the shipping company to see how long it will take for my clothes to get here, I got some good news about my plane baggage, that is arriving tomorrow afternoon! So I should have all my riding gear. But I am getting to the point of desperation about my clothes. I really need to get into something different. I can hold out a few more days but its raggo. I wanna explore the town and walk around, get to know the area and then I’ll look into the gym and join that for a couple of months. Not much else to update on other than I was pretty emo last night and I just need to tough it out for a bit. Once I get on the board I’ll know what this is all about.
Friday, 25 June 2010
Let the madness begin!
24th June 2010
Well well well, the day has arrived for me to set off on a ridiculously long journey to New Zealand. I am writing this having completed the first leg of my journey from London Heathrow to Dubai international.
However the reality of me doing this kicked in on Wednesday morning on the 23rd, just as I woke up causally without the need to go to work. Though I have done this before it doesn’t stop feeling strange. I am taking 4 months off, out of my career, away from London to go and Snowboard. Allbeit to progress further, teach and learn more, however thoughts were racing through my mind then and even now as I am 1/3 of my way through this killer journey.
I came back from Canada extremely unsettled and it took me the entire year to get back in the swing of things in London, (my life) – working, living in London etc... and here I am doing it all again. Feels like I took steps forward in my London life only to go away and come back where I started when I got back from Canada. However the more I think about coming back the less I will enjoy the here and now. I have made the decision, I need to get out there and live with it not worry and enjoy. I think the transition period between the 2 phases in life just gets you thinking and I just need to get out to NZ. Before I know it I am pretty sure I will be writing my last blog.
On the 23rd I prepared well for this Journey, the highlight being picking up my beautiful brand spanking new snowboard! It is a 2010/11 Neversummer Evo R. I hope I like it, I have never ridden it and its the only board I am taking it. It should be all fine I just worry wayyy too much!!
We set off early this morning to Heathrow and nothing really special happened. Mum came with me to airport just in case things went wrong with my baggage. In the queue for check in I saw another guy with a snowboard and asked wear he was going – funny how small this world it, the guy was going to the same area as me and turns out he is doing the same course as him so sure enough I was going to meet him anyway. Right now I have forgotten his name but will update later with it for sure. He is 23, just got back from Jasper Canada having done an 11 week CASI 2 course with the Canadian Rockies. The majority of his riding was done that winter. He seems like a top guy! He trained with the guy who is training us in NZ Rob Gordon so he gave me a little insight into what our trainer is going to be like.
Arriving to the check in desk my main concern was my weight, my bag weigh’d in at only 22kg and i didn’t get charged thank god. Because my board bag is oversize I have to take it to the oversize area, so between checking in and taking the bag to be admitted in oversize baggage I threw in about another 5kg from my rucksack and my board jacket woop woop! – Cheeky I know but needed to be done. I was carrying way to much! All worked out though and I am glad I ditched my jacket because I am sat here in Dubai international airport and its 35 degrees right now – I would have struggled for SURE!!
Boarding the plane wasn’t too laborious and there was no delays and amazingly I had 3 seats to myself!! RESULT!! So nice to have the space though I don’t really need it with my little legs. I basically slept for about 6 hrs of the flight and watched Dear John for the rest. In between sleeping I got up for an appetizing bread roll and a chicken wrap!
I have never flown to the emirates before it was interesting to see before the flight started it was blessed with a prayer to Allah! It was a strange experience, nothing wrong with it all but just interesting. The other main highlight of the flight or should I say scary fact was there was hardly any vis during landing because it was so windy there were sand/dust clouds blowing pretty hard! On the way down I couldn’t see a thing out of my limited view of the window – kinda scary really when you think about it. If i cant see how is the pilot taking us down?? I suppose he has some new age tech that gets you down because he absolutely nailed it! And we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Little did I know my journey to Auckland would be a 2 stopper, even though I think it was advertised as a 1 stopper! London to Dubai (where I am now!) Dubai to Brunei, then Brunei to Auckland. This longness is going to be fun. Just boarded my 2nd leg from Dubai to Brunei and unfortunately I am sharing my 3 seats with two other kids who joined the journey from Dubai. They are both sat next to me right now and can see my disappointment!! Hahaha oh well! I spoke to Robin (just found out his name) and he had a chicken big mac in Dubai international, slightly gutted I missed out on that action but oh well. I need to get in shape over the next 4 month so I suppose the crap eating should stop now! Probably for the best!!
I suppose the only other worry running through my brain is my accom, I spoke to Robin and it looks like he might be in the same place. He has a friend already there and he told him to bring pots and pans and a hot water bottle – not ideal! Slightly worried, not to bothered about being cold at night as can wrap up but I am keen on a kitchen for sure! I like to cook and will be saddened if it doesn’t have cutlery, crockery or pots and pans. Robin has brought cutlery and some crockery. I am really hoping that isn’t the case otherwise I will get to get onto finding another place for sure! Again I shouldn’t worry too much, lets see how it goes, get there and then do what I do best – sort shit out!
Not much else running through my overactive brain right now, might watch the rest of Dear John and another film and catch some zzz’s! Already over 1000 words into my blog and the journey hasn’t even started yet. I don’t blame anyone for not reading the rubbish going through my head!
Peace
25th June 2010
Its 10am Brunei time on the 25th June 2010 having just completed the 2nd leg of this mega plane journey to NZ. I am tired and feel pretty crappy now, all I have been doing is sleeping and eating! Its almost over, the flight to Auckland leaves at 11.55am and is a few hours, we arrive in Auckland at 00:55 on the 26th June. We then have to wait for a bus which leaves for Ohakune at 7am! It will be nice when this 53 hour journey is done and we get there as I am thinking myself crazy at the moment. Brunei seems like an interesting place, I can only gauge from the airport terminal departure lounge but its a shame the stopover wasn’t longer, you could do a ½ day stopover tour just to smash and grab some sight seeing. Some boys who Robin met are going to Australia have a 12 hr stopover here so they are going to do that.
26th June 2010
Jumped on the 9 hr flight to Auckland and Robin managed to score exit seats, however the unfortunate thing was we were sat next to 2 kids who would not stop wailing! It was killer. Robin managed to get a load of sleep but I was suffering. I had intermittent spells, but the hyena like shriek from these kids was absolutely killer. After landing we arrived and going through passport control was fairly easy, though a girl passed out in the queue! Probably going to get searched to high heaven, though it was probably the back to back flights that affected her!
I arrived in baggage reclaim only to establish that my board bag was not in Auckland, neither was Robins. How annoying. We had to give addresses and contact names and they are hopefully going to arrive tomorrow afternoon, they will then send it to us in Ohakune. Its now 3am and we have a bus at 7.25am from Auckland city to Ohakune. Met a Swedish woman called Veronica who has been living in NZ for 8 years. We talked about skiing and what I was doing over here and the fact we had our bags lost! Not ideal. Just grabbing some muncharoons and then figuring out a plan of action for the next few hours.
Hopefully my shipping will have arrived and I will have some clothes at least.
Having loitered about the airport for a few hours we took our bus into the city and walked to the bus station. Enroute was the Skycity tower, took a few crazy piccies and have now settled in a 24hr internet cafe just waiting for our bus to arrive so we can head off to the little town of Ohakune. Managed to order my Vodaphone NZ sim online. Plan of attack when I get to Ohakune, is drop my bags, join the gym have a look at notice boards for accommodation (if mine isn’t that great) and just get settled. Could do with some sleep too for sure!!
It has been an emotional 3 day travelling journey Ill be glad when its over for sure.
Well well well, the day has arrived for me to set off on a ridiculously long journey to New Zealand. I am writing this having completed the first leg of my journey from London Heathrow to Dubai international.
However the reality of me doing this kicked in on Wednesday morning on the 23rd, just as I woke up causally without the need to go to work. Though I have done this before it doesn’t stop feeling strange. I am taking 4 months off, out of my career, away from London to go and Snowboard. Allbeit to progress further, teach and learn more, however thoughts were racing through my mind then and even now as I am 1/3 of my way through this killer journey.
I came back from Canada extremely unsettled and it took me the entire year to get back in the swing of things in London, (my life) – working, living in London etc... and here I am doing it all again. Feels like I took steps forward in my London life only to go away and come back where I started when I got back from Canada. However the more I think about coming back the less I will enjoy the here and now. I have made the decision, I need to get out there and live with it not worry and enjoy. I think the transition period between the 2 phases in life just gets you thinking and I just need to get out to NZ. Before I know it I am pretty sure I will be writing my last blog.
On the 23rd I prepared well for this Journey, the highlight being picking up my beautiful brand spanking new snowboard! It is a 2010/11 Neversummer Evo R. I hope I like it, I have never ridden it and its the only board I am taking it. It should be all fine I just worry wayyy too much!!
We set off early this morning to Heathrow and nothing really special happened. Mum came with me to airport just in case things went wrong with my baggage. In the queue for check in I saw another guy with a snowboard and asked wear he was going – funny how small this world it, the guy was going to the same area as me and turns out he is doing the same course as him so sure enough I was going to meet him anyway. Right now I have forgotten his name but will update later with it for sure. He is 23, just got back from Jasper Canada having done an 11 week CASI 2 course with the Canadian Rockies. The majority of his riding was done that winter. He seems like a top guy! He trained with the guy who is training us in NZ Rob Gordon so he gave me a little insight into what our trainer is going to be like.
Arriving to the check in desk my main concern was my weight, my bag weigh’d in at only 22kg and i didn’t get charged thank god. Because my board bag is oversize I have to take it to the oversize area, so between checking in and taking the bag to be admitted in oversize baggage I threw in about another 5kg from my rucksack and my board jacket woop woop! – Cheeky I know but needed to be done. I was carrying way to much! All worked out though and I am glad I ditched my jacket because I am sat here in Dubai international airport and its 35 degrees right now – I would have struggled for SURE!!
Boarding the plane wasn’t too laborious and there was no delays and amazingly I had 3 seats to myself!! RESULT!! So nice to have the space though I don’t really need it with my little legs. I basically slept for about 6 hrs of the flight and watched Dear John for the rest. In between sleeping I got up for an appetizing bread roll and a chicken wrap!
I have never flown to the emirates before it was interesting to see before the flight started it was blessed with a prayer to Allah! It was a strange experience, nothing wrong with it all but just interesting. The other main highlight of the flight or should I say scary fact was there was hardly any vis during landing because it was so windy there were sand/dust clouds blowing pretty hard! On the way down I couldn’t see a thing out of my limited view of the window – kinda scary really when you think about it. If i cant see how is the pilot taking us down?? I suppose he has some new age tech that gets you down because he absolutely nailed it! And we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Little did I know my journey to Auckland would be a 2 stopper, even though I think it was advertised as a 1 stopper! London to Dubai (where I am now!) Dubai to Brunei, then Brunei to Auckland. This longness is going to be fun. Just boarded my 2nd leg from Dubai to Brunei and unfortunately I am sharing my 3 seats with two other kids who joined the journey from Dubai. They are both sat next to me right now and can see my disappointment!! Hahaha oh well! I spoke to Robin (just found out his name) and he had a chicken big mac in Dubai international, slightly gutted I missed out on that action but oh well. I need to get in shape over the next 4 month so I suppose the crap eating should stop now! Probably for the best!!
I suppose the only other worry running through my brain is my accom, I spoke to Robin and it looks like he might be in the same place. He has a friend already there and he told him to bring pots and pans and a hot water bottle – not ideal! Slightly worried, not to bothered about being cold at night as can wrap up but I am keen on a kitchen for sure! I like to cook and will be saddened if it doesn’t have cutlery, crockery or pots and pans. Robin has brought cutlery and some crockery. I am really hoping that isn’t the case otherwise I will get to get onto finding another place for sure! Again I shouldn’t worry too much, lets see how it goes, get there and then do what I do best – sort shit out!
Not much else running through my overactive brain right now, might watch the rest of Dear John and another film and catch some zzz’s! Already over 1000 words into my blog and the journey hasn’t even started yet. I don’t blame anyone for not reading the rubbish going through my head!
Peace
25th June 2010
Its 10am Brunei time on the 25th June 2010 having just completed the 2nd leg of this mega plane journey to NZ. I am tired and feel pretty crappy now, all I have been doing is sleeping and eating! Its almost over, the flight to Auckland leaves at 11.55am and is a few hours, we arrive in Auckland at 00:55 on the 26th June. We then have to wait for a bus which leaves for Ohakune at 7am! It will be nice when this 53 hour journey is done and we get there as I am thinking myself crazy at the moment. Brunei seems like an interesting place, I can only gauge from the airport terminal departure lounge but its a shame the stopover wasn’t longer, you could do a ½ day stopover tour just to smash and grab some sight seeing. Some boys who Robin met are going to Australia have a 12 hr stopover here so they are going to do that.
26th June 2010
Jumped on the 9 hr flight to Auckland and Robin managed to score exit seats, however the unfortunate thing was we were sat next to 2 kids who would not stop wailing! It was killer. Robin managed to get a load of sleep but I was suffering. I had intermittent spells, but the hyena like shriek from these kids was absolutely killer. After landing we arrived and going through passport control was fairly easy, though a girl passed out in the queue! Probably going to get searched to high heaven, though it was probably the back to back flights that affected her!
I arrived in baggage reclaim only to establish that my board bag was not in Auckland, neither was Robins. How annoying. We had to give addresses and contact names and they are hopefully going to arrive tomorrow afternoon, they will then send it to us in Ohakune. Its now 3am and we have a bus at 7.25am from Auckland city to Ohakune. Met a Swedish woman called Veronica who has been living in NZ for 8 years. We talked about skiing and what I was doing over here and the fact we had our bags lost! Not ideal. Just grabbing some muncharoons and then figuring out a plan of action for the next few hours.
Hopefully my shipping will have arrived and I will have some clothes at least.
Having loitered about the airport for a few hours we took our bus into the city and walked to the bus station. Enroute was the Skycity tower, took a few crazy piccies and have now settled in a 24hr internet cafe just waiting for our bus to arrive so we can head off to the little town of Ohakune. Managed to order my Vodaphone NZ sim online. Plan of attack when I get to Ohakune, is drop my bags, join the gym have a look at notice boards for accommodation (if mine isn’t that great) and just get settled. Could do with some sleep too for sure!!
It has been an emotional 3 day travelling journey Ill be glad when its over for sure.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
