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.