Next Stage

Rebecca - Happy Birthday! And thank you for your comment and advice - I'm sure you'd do the same for me if I was in Australia!!

Tuesday  it was grey all day. Started off cold, then it was warm-ish and now it's freezing outside with a strong wind! We started at 9.30 as Sally went in to Geraldine to pick up Anya. When break time came around about 11, the girls decided that they didn't need a break – and I couldn't exactly say that I needed one (Sally had bought oat cookies I could eat!) so we worked until lunch at 1. I feel a bit useless. Sally asks me to do something, alone, like put wiring around the trees or put sticks in, without direction, I go ahead and do it. But then Emma comes around and tells me it's all wrong and has to be redone, and then Sally agrees with her. I can't do anything right. Today it took me 10 minutes to dig half a hole for a wee plant. Emma was like, do you want to go and help Linda and Remy? I tried with the hole, I really did. It would be easy if it were just soil and you all must be thinking, what a weakling! But there's carpet, then soil, then plastic wrapping, then huge rocks and tiny pebbles in every shovelful where you have to just get down on your hands and knees and just dig – or find a big tool to help – but I'm just not very good. I did go and help Linda and Remy. I was around the dreaded toi toi again, the stuff that cuts and scars me. I am covered in it. I had previously said tui tui, as Linda said, but the tui is actually a bird not a plant! I just had to get all the old toi toi leaves out the way, from the long grass away from the hand held motor that Linda and Remy were taking turns in. This time – I had long sleeves on all day! But unfortunately, since yesterday laundry day, I was wearing my shorts again. So I have cuts on my legs now too! I did think about wearing my pjs but didn't - I love them too much.

The dreaded carpet that's under the soil EVERYWHERE

Monday I managed to Skype from the house. I set apart 2 hours, 9-11, arranged with Sally, so I could talk to friends and family. The others started work at 9.30. My Dad apparently sent me a text to try and rearrange, as he went out for dinner for his birthday. But unfortunately, as I'm on the other side of the world, it costs me money to receive international texts as well as send them. And it seems I have run out of credit. Gah! I got a facebook message after I had sent him a brief birthday message, but it was no good. I did, however, manage a long chat with F and a tiny talk (bare minutes) with M. It was good to hear from both, especially F as I'm missing him quite a bit.

I've updated my credit now (Wednesday) but can't update my pack until 7th February, so I guess I'll get any international texts then. We have a surprise day off - so soon after the last one, I was pretty surprised! But she says we've been working really hard (which I really, really have) so when she and Emma went to Geraldine, and Remy and Linda worked on their car, I came online. I managed to talk for a minute with M again, mostly hello? hello? Are you there? Ha! We can never get it right. Email from now on, I guess! I managed to have a talk with my Dad which was good - finally - and a talk with my sister A and brother-inaw J. It was good to hear from all of them, and her knews of GJ and F&L. I managed to grab a lift into Geraldine yesterday with Sally when she went to drop off Anya and I spent the entire hour in the post office writing my remaining postcards. It's $1.90 to send a postcard, which is about 95p - seeing as a first class stamp within the UK is now about 60p, I'd say that's pretty amazing! So there are 8 postcards on their way to Europe, I'm not saying who yet!!

I've changed my plans again. Actually - I have no plan. My plan was to go to Mount Cook for a few days, as it's only 3 hours from here, but as a backpacker on a budget, I can't afford it. The cheapest backpacker is $35 a night, the bus there and back (only to Geraldine) is $78, and then there's food and expenses on top... I just can't afford it! So on Saturday, when we leave here, I'm thinking about maybe a night in Geraldine or Timaru, then somewhere else, then Christchurch - so I can make my costume for the Hokitika festival, which I leave for the Friday after next. I've been online for two hours, researching places but finding nothing. I thought of going to Dunedin for a few days, so I can look it out for when P and I come down, but it's too expensive to get there and I want to save my bus tickets for longer distances. I think I'll look at my lonely planet some more before deciding anything. I don't know when I'll be back online, but we're going for a walk soon so not any time today or in the next few days I expect. Please everyone, do keep in touch and do message me or leave comments or advice, it's all welcome! I would especially like someone to send me more muscles for the wwoofing because I feel pretty useless at it! Over and out, talk soon.

Kirsty

Days in New Zealand: 20

Journal

Monday 17^th February

I had to be ready to leave at 9am from Deborah and Glenn's, but we didn't end up leaving until around 10. Glenn gave me a hug before I left. He's a gentle soul and I will miss him. Deborah kept us chatting on the way in, and gave me a hug in the carpark in Addington before she headed off to work. It only took me 40 minutes this time to go from there to the hostel. I think because, 1, I knew the way and 2, I had managed to cram everything into two bags again instead of 3. When I arrived at the hostel, there were 6 people the same as last time and I was welcomed back. I paid for my room and left my bag in the wee storage room again. I left the hostel around 12 and set off for the library. I had a slight panic when I couldn't find my card but thankfully found it tucked into my passport. I wrote a few emails and talked to F via facebook chat. It might be the last one for a while. I saw the Cardboard Cathedral again, and this time, took photos but spent only two or three minutes in there. There's not much there apart from the building. I walked into the centre and found lunch – a lamb and falafel Greek wrap – from within re:start. I found my bank and one of the tellers showed me how to use the automatic deposit ATM. Pretty cool – they should have them in the UK. So much easier! After that I walked to the Botanics and went around the museum. It took me 2.5 hours to see it all. They had a Banksy exhibition also and a whole thing on graffiti, which was pretty interesting. I liked the costumes and the Maori exhibition too. I came out the museum around 5 and spent some time in the Botanics before I walked out to Merivale mall to get dinner and a picnic for the bus. Back at the hostel I met an English girl, Mandy, who had been in NZ for 9 months. And spent most of it in Kaikoura. She gave me a lot of recommendations on what to do there and gave me her insight into Queenstown. I left her my number in the hopes we might meet again – as she was really quite nice – but we'll see!

Tuesday 18^th February

I've just realised it's only 6 days to my dad's birthday and hope my sisters have remembered to send him a card. There's not much internet access here and whatever is to be had, is up at the main house. I'll try to skype him on his birthday, probably the best I can do as he lives in Portugal with his partner. We're in a lovely wee cottage down in the garden. The room I'm in is huge and holds 3 single beds and a double, with lots of space to put our luggage and move around. We have our own kitchen, bathroom, sitting room and outdoor area. My bus left Christchurch at 9am and I had two seats to myself the entire way down. It's only 2 and a half hours on a bus. It was warm outside already when we left and I was thankful for the air conditioning – and the picnic I made myself. Not much of a breakfast, but enough! The bus goes all the way to Queenstown – which I think is about a 9 hour trek, and the bus driver was actually really friendly and helpful. He left the radio on, so we listened to some golden oldies like the back catelogue of Robbie Williams on the journey. I don't think, when I eventually do it, that I'll mind the journey too much. They do have stops on the way, half an hour here and there so you can at least pick up lunch and what not. I've told my old school friend W that I'll see him in March. It's a planned trip of myself and P's, although I think we're definitely going through Dunedin. And I was told that they may have a Fringe there in March, just like August in Edinburgh.

I arrived here just before lunch and was given a tour of the garden by Emma, a wwoofer from Canada and Anya, Sally's granddaughter. Sally and Drew are my hosts. Their daughter lives close by in nearby Geraldine and Sally looks after Anya on weekdays. She's 4 and very knowledgeable about the plants and just what is growing in the garden. We played a good game of hide and seek after lunch and she drew me a picture of eggs and a whale. The other wwoofers here are Emma, plus a Belgian couple – Linda and Remy. They're perfectly nice but have all been here since Friday so they've made up a little clique already. I feel a bit left out but try to join in with as much as the conversation as I can. After lunch we went down the river for a swim. Remy found a good spot across the river, a little “swimming hole” as they call it over here. It was cold but refreshing, we found out later on that it had been 33C today. That's just too hot for me. There was no wind until later and as a Scot with pale skin, I'm not very good with anything over 23C!! The water was lovely, but the area was tiny. Only enough space for maybe two of us to lie flat and only waist deep. After the swim, we came back to the cottage to change. I lay out in the sun for a bit on the grass and read an Asterix comic book. When we were about to head to the house for dinner at 6, I was left behind still tying my shoes. I don't want to be the drag along, I’d like to be part of the group.

Wednesday 19^th February

I got up at 8 and had a very quiet, awkward breakfast with the other three. They don't seem to say much at all. We headed up to the house – I was left tying my shoes again – and when I got there, Sally had already found them and had started to dole out tasks for the day. I'm weeding with Emma, and Remy and Linda are doing mowing and bits and pieces like that in another area of the garden. I thought, this is good, I'll finally get to know my roommate. But no. She puts here headphones in as if she's alone, and weeds away. I'm left to my own thoughts. It starts to rain and we head inside for a cup of tea. We're on a wee break at the moment until it stops raining, so I'm writing this. I'll get back to weeding later. I asked Sally about possibly using her wifi in the morning to skype family at home and catch up on news. She doesn't seem to like people being in the house with her that way, she didn't really like my question. She said it would be okay though – but not at weekends. There's no way for me to get online via my phone to arrange any skype dates anyway as the reception here is a hundred times worse than Glenfinnan!

After the rain I started back on the weeds. I had a leftover wrap from yesterday for lunch and weeded until just after three. I love weeding... said no wwoofer ever! I've got little cuts on my hands and bites all over my arms from some sort of biting insect. I have bug spray now but it's not much of a defence against them. During my first four days at the hostel, one of the previous guests left a tent behind. It's only a cheap one, only $18 I'm told – not good for wind or rain, so it may not give me much luck. But I put it up this afternoon to air it out. It's pretty clean and I'm sure it'll do me in a tight spot. Just need a sleeping bag but I don't really want to carry a lot more. I'm thinking already of putting one dress into a charity shop – or op-shops as they call them here. I actually fell asleep this afternoon. I spent last night watching a bit of LOTR – the same tonight actually – and I must've needed it. When the others went up for dinner, they actually waited for me this time. Maybe they're starting to accept me. Tomorrow, if it's dry, we're to build and burn a bonfire in one of the paddocks. There'll probably be more weeding involved too, boo!

Thursday 20^th February

I awoke to a cloudy day and we really did expect rain, but the sun came out around 10 and stayed that way. Thirty degrees, all day! I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this heat, it's really not for me. We were graced today with the presence of Anya again, and this time, her little brother Isaac also, who's 2. He was very shy at first, but he soon warmed up to the four strangers that we are. I spent most of my day replanting grasses and flowers, along with hanging out with Anya – drawing, hide and seek and some singing games. She even helped me with planting for the last hour. I finished around half two today, and waited for another hour until Linda and Remy had finished replanting trees. We found Emma down at the river, who, unbeknownst to me, had gone ahead when I finished. She was just leaving and we three had a blissful twenty minutes in the cool pool that we'd found before. It's just as cold as the river can be at Soldier's Leap at home, but the water is so clear. And nice tasting too! Once we came back to the cottage, the others went for showers and I read for a bit. I seem to fall asleep for an hour or so every afternoon now. The heat, I think, is the cause. It's just tiring to be out in it. For dinner, Linda and Remy made crepes with rice milk. Emma is lactose intolerant, but the other night she managed to eat quinoa and cabbage that had had butter added to it. I hadn't wanted to risk it. I know I've cheated with chocolate occasionally, but to have large portions of butter at dinner was confusing to me. It was the first time I'd had crepes in about six years – probably not since pancake day in 2005, maybe even longer. I managed to get online briefly today with my mobile phone. I only get one bar of signal if I'm lucky, it really comes and goes. I wish I could get wifi on it, so I could at least use Sally's network while we're working near the house. I don't know what tomorrow's plan is, more replanting I expect. Once I get into a rhythm, it's easier – just not in this heat! I managed to get in touch with P who's joining me in NZ in three weeks. I can't wait to have someone with me. Since C cancelled on me, I didn't really realise how lonely I'd get. I just ploughed on with planning. There's nobody around to take pictures of me, I have to ask strangers or get good at selfies! I got a message from Mandy (from the chch hostel) late last night. I'm hoping we'll be able to meet up again before the end of her visa. There's always a possibility!

Friday 21^st February

We spent most of the day weeding and putting all that was gathered onto the bonfire in the empty paddock. It hasn't been lit yet, maybe next week. I managed to get in touch with P after lunch, to verify plans for when she arrives on the 11^th. I just found out that a friend from home, GS, has just arrived in Christchurch. When I managed to get online, I saw that he had commented on a post I had made! I knew he was coming to NZ, I just didn't know when or where he was flying into. I made my decision back in September, but January was the first I'd heard of his intent to come over. I guess we'll meet up at some point for a catch up. We all finished working around 4 and got ready to go out. Sally made us an early dinner and, after cleaning up and a chat about the kakariki, she drove us to the Village Inn in Geraldine. It's about a 10 minute drive, we're not far out at all, it just seems it as we can only see two other houses nearby the farm, and one is Drew's mother. It was a lovely warm night so we sat in the shelter outside for a few hours. I can't believe how expensive drinks are in NZ! I'm used to Edinburgh prices, so I'm okay paying £4 or thereabouts for a bottle of cider. The equivalent in NZ$ would be about $8, it's generally $2 to £1 as the conversion rate is around that at the moment. My cider, instead, cost me $11.50, which is more like £6.75. I know it's imported, but that's way over the top! A pint of Guinness was $9 for the others, with specialist beers around $8-10.50.

The bar itself is a wee sports bar with a restaurant on the side. They had the rugby on when we got there about 8, and then the Karaoke came on afterwards. Only, it was a one-man-and-his-guitar karaoke, who took requests. I cannot seem to get away from Ronan Keating! We met an English girl, and then a Kiwi girl and her Irish man, who tried to hit on Emma when she wasn't around. Emma couldn't understand half the things he said anyway! We spent about 3 hours in the pub before Remy started to fall asleep on his stool. This is the best part of my story. The pub in Geraldine has a courtesy van that takes you home when you want to go home, completely for free, every Friday and Saturday nights! We'd arranged it after lunch when Sally had mentioned it, but basically you just ask at the bar any time during the evening, and they'll deposit you home. I wish they had that for Glenfinnan, for nights out in Fort William, instead of the £35 taxi rides that all of us have suffered! Geraldine doesn't have a taxi service anyway. We headed home on the bus around 11, straight to the front door! I was really impressed, can you tell?

Saturday 22^nd February

I've just realised I've got my dates mixed up. I know Dad's birthday is the 24^th, and all this week, I've been thinking that it's on Sunday... but no! It's on Monday. Oops. I had to be reminded on Friday that it was Friday as I thought it was still Thursday! It's really hard when you don't have a calendar to look at each day! Oh well, I'll skype him the night before then! I've already arranged to skype with everyone so I expect it'll be alright. Today we got up an hour later, because of the pub trip last night, but once we got to Sally's at 10, she and Drew suggested we have a day off! The day was due to be another scorcher, around 31C. We were going to work for a few hours but, at 10, it was already very hot, so Sally suggested we borrow her car and go somewhere. We were thinking first of Lake Tekapo, but Remy and Linda hope to go there next week so there's no point in going twice. So, instead, we went to Timaru, on the coast. Timaru is a small town, originally a whaling town, that has a great little sandy beach. It took us about an hour to get there, with Remy trying to work a manual car with the shift stick on the wrong side as to what he was used to. We parked near the beach, but walked into the town first. They've got a lovely little park beside the sea, with an extra little paddling pool for young children and some super slides. They had part of an amusement park there too but it was all closed up. The town itself is based on one main street, with shops on either side, under covered areas. We walked in a big square around the town, stopping briefly into the i-site (tourist information) and a pre-loved shop. F had told me all about pre-loved and op-shops, NZ's charity shops... But I was horrified at the prices! Second hand stuff in the UK is usually no more than £8 per item ($16), whereas in the place we were most things were $45+! Yikes! Suffice to say we couldn't afford any second hand goods today! The wind started up, so we went back down to the car for our picnic. The town itself is set on a cliff, whereas the park and beach are down a level. We had a picnic of bread, tomatoes and avocados, having not found a single grocery store on our walk for any extra fillings. Once down on the beach, we changed in a unlock-able changing room and headed down the beach. The wind had picked up by then and was getting pretty chilly, but Linda, Remy and I were determined to swim. The water was freezing! Much like Scottish waters, and the wind really didn't help matters at all! We did manage it, though only for a few minutes. I stayed in a bit longer, trying really hard to swim against the wind and current, sweeping me down the beach, but it was no use. Soon after we were out, we headed home. Once back to Struan farm, a BBQ was set up by Sally and Drew's son, Sven. His wife and kids were there too, and Anya actually came down to the cottage to check when we would be up. I bought marshmallows to go on the BBQ, not knowing that is was a gas one, not a wood burn and coal one. Anya was so funny; I asked her if she'd like one and she said no, not because she didn't like them, but because she had “too many cavities”. She's 4!! Great use of language for a four year old and I must admit I was a bit surprised. The BBQ was great: homemade beef sausages, big chicken legs, egg salad, pickled onions, fried onions and roasted courgettes. I am stuffed! We didn't have any marshmallows after all! Dinner was over by 7 and by 7.30 we all headed back to the cottage. The others opted to seeing Shutter Island, but I'm not a big fan of it – although it is clever – so watched Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina instead. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy, but it'll be a bit of a relief after the hot days. Especially as I think I burnt one of my big toes today. Ouch. That's going to be fun in trainers tomorrow!

Sunday 23^rd February

Toe is not burnt, just cut! It seems every time I bare skin I get cut. I have little scars all over from the tui tui flax plant. Really quite painful little cuts, I hope they don't scar!! Just weeded all day today, had a dinner of mince with squash and watched Star Trek at nighttime! Sorry this post is so short, writing this on Monday now and on skype with F. My dad forgot all about our skype date for his birthday. I hope he's not online tomorrow, I did say HIS Sunday!

Until next time

Kirsty

First Wwoofing Experience

Hello all!

Despite what I thought, I do have internet access at the farm so I can update you on what's happening. Since I last wrote, I have packed up my bag yet again and headed off on a wwoofing adventure.

WWOOFING: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms

I work for 4 hours a day on a farm and in return I get a comfy bed and three meals a day provided for me. 

On Monday, I spent some time walking around parts of Christchurch which I hadn't seen yet. Half way through my walk, my camera died so I've decided to repeat a few of these walks later just to take pictures. I didn't have time to do the Botanics or the museum either so I'll do that too. I saw the Cardboard Cathedral though. It's pretty impressive when you realise it's all paper and glass. I'm not sure how they're going to stop it rotting over time, but I'm sure they'll manage something. As I had no camera at this point and nobody to take pictures of me, I spent a grand total of 10 minutes in the place. I'm not religious, so I didn't stay for a service. Besides, it was too nice outside and I just wanted some peace and quiet to read my book.

Soon after I visited the cathedral, I walked back to the hostel to collect my bags, as I had stored them there earlier. I packed up as much food as I could, leaving behind one bottle of tonic, some fruit and veg and my honey. I gathered all my stuff up, which was unfortunately quite heavy and trudged my way through a hot, stifling summer day to the Museum at the botanics, where I got some directions for the rest of my route and a cap as I had burnt my scalp! Boo! NZ apparently has a hole in the ozone layer which means that even when it's cloudy or I'm not completely careful with my application of suncream, I can get burnt very easily. And for those hard to reach places on my back... well, let's just say they're stinging now!

My plan that day (Monday) was to make my way to Lincoln road, where my first wwoofer host, Deborah, works. That day I got there at 5pm, half an hour before I needed to be, so I went to a nearby beer garden and had a cold lemonade. On my way there, I passed by Hagley park. As big as the meadows in Edinburgh, only completely and utterly flat with a netball/basketball court in the middle instead of tennis.

Deborah is Northern Irish. She came to NZ on a sort of work visa 30 years ago and never left. Her Irish accent comes out in a lot of her vowel sounding words like round and now, but apart from that has an almost NZ accent. She is very nice but doesn't talk very clearly so sometimes she's a bit hard to understand.

Glenn is her husband. He's NZ born and I'd say, around 65+. They're both semi-retired but Deborah has recently taken on a temporary Mon-Fri, 9-5 job, so at the moment it's just Glenn and I working on the farm. Glenn doesn't say much, but always tries to say something interesting. I've learnt about different NZ honeys from him, about bees, irrigation systems, mowing and about composting and mulching. Tomorrow afternoon, they're getting some pigs so I suspect our morning tomorrow (Thurs) will be us setting up for them.

Their only regular visitor is their daughter, Heather. From what I can gather, she's the youngest of 6 (4 step-brothers and sisters and one other brother) and the older children are all split up around the world, from America to Shanghai. She works on a dairy farm only a few miles away, working with the cows. She works 9 days on and 3 days off. If I had come last week, I wouldn't have met her at all. She's done a working holiday visa in the UK so we've had a bit to talk about. But, when she's here with her parents, the only talk around the table is of farms and farming, with terms I don't know a lot about and her complaints against the farm she works at now. When her parents aren't around we have normal conversations and tonight, when they did the recycling after dinner (I cooked) we played with my travel jenga that I got from my friends. We played on a wobbly table so it was extra hard, but we managed!

I've decided to stay here and work until Sunday, and then hopefully on Monday morning, I can get a lift into Christchurch with Deborah. There's only one bus a day out this way and from what Heather has told me, it's only come about in the past 2 years and is generally the school bus. There's not a lot of public transport in NZ, because mostly everyone drives. The only buses are in the cities and on the main tourist trails. There's not much for people who live off the beaten track. It's worse than the highlands at home!

I'm going to stay at the same backpackers on Monday - hopefully - and on Tuesday morning, I'll head to Geraldine (south) to wwoof again. The lady there, Sally, sounds nice (via email only so far). Her husband is Scottish and from Edinburgh so there'll be a little bit of home there. They can also take me on for 2 weeks. I'm not sure if there'll be internet access there though, it doesn't say much on their profile on the website. I'm looking forward to it. Sally says, apart from outside duties, that she'd love me to help her in the kitchen. From the reviews on the site, it seems like people in the past have appreciated her cooking quite a bit so I'd love to learn some new recipes from her. While I'm still at Deborah and Glenn's. Deborah said she might teach me how to make her special homemade chutney. I suspect that it'll happen at the weekend.

I've booked my bus to Geraldine and booked my night in the hostel on Monday, so by 1pm on Tuesday I should be at a new farm. A big thank you to my friend M who suggested wwoofing to me a few months ago while in Edinburgh with my sister. I'm going to head to bed now as it's almost midnight and I'm up to work at 8. But tomorrow I'll take my newly charged camera out with me so you can all see where I'm working. In the meantime, I hope you are all well! Night!!

Kirsty x

Days in New Zealand: (almost) 7

The Journey

The Journey

I started off from my friends' flat in Glasgow at 5am (UK time) on Tuesday. I was picked up, graciously, by my friend M at that time who gave me a lift to the airport. Crazy girl, but I was very thankful for it as at that time it had started drizzling and I really didn't fancy a 20 minute walk to the station and then a 25 minute bus ride. Instead it took us a nice 20 minutes to get there.

I arrived at Glasgow airport to find that the desk I was told would be open – Emirates – wouldn't actually be open until 8am. Handy. Especially as my flight left at 8.20am. Panicked, I went over to the Aer Lingus desk. They were the first flight of the day, although it was Emirates who would have my ticket. Thankfully, the ladies there told me that I could just present my passport at the check-in desk when it opened at 6.20am and I'd be able to get my ticket. They said once I got to Dublin, the desk there would be open and I'd be able to get the rest of my paper tickets there. It's the first time in what feels like forever to have a plane ticket in my hand instead of an email print out.

My flight from Glasgow was fairly simple. There was a lot of waiting around until my flight. I hadn't been so early for a flight in ages as I've only taken hand luggage for the past few years. I was very happy to find a Tesco Express and had what will be my last can of Irn-Bru to wake me up. I'm told you can buy it in specialist shops over here for about $4, so they'll be few and far between – and for emergencies only. The plane itself was like a toy plane. It had open propellers, it only had two seats on either side of the aisle and I saw a member of the ground control crew hand the pilot a piece of paper through his window. That's how close they were! I sat next to a sausage skin manufacturer – no joke. Yum. No food on this flight, though I was definitely glad of my Tesco salmon and prawn sandwich when I got to expensive Dublin.

I had about €20 in change from my last trip to Portugal. I bought a pack of cards, a burger king sandwich and a bottle of water. With my last €3 change, I got a pint of lemonade and sat at a window in a bar watching the planes for 2 hours. Obviously a highlight of my trip.

My flight to Dubai was okay. I was happy enough in my aisle seat, but at the same time I was in the very back row and right beside where all the food was prepared – so a bit noisy. I had planned to sleep on this flight but only managed about an hour and a half right after take off before I was woken up for lunch by an air hostess. Or flight attendant, rather. I watched two films and read my book for a bit. The man beside me snored for a bit and well... and 8.5 hour flight isn't as exciting as you think! As a transfer, every time I came off a plane, I had to go back through security again. The coolest x-ray machine was in Sydney!

Dubai airport is huge! It literally took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes to go around Terminal A (of which it actually went all the way up to F or G I think). Most of the airport is duty free. I browsed the book shop for a bit, looked at the gold as I was told to, asked about my flight at a desk (where I was rewarded with a breakfast meal voucher, thank you very much) and finally settled in a big armchair at Costa for a snooze. Two hours later, I wake up cramped. Although still a while before my flight, I decided to go look at the boards early and saw my gate had been announced. I bought a falafel and hummus wrap with my meal ticket. Possibly the best wrap I've ever had and that's saying something. Find the Olive & Fig if you're ever in Dubai! To get to gate C, I had to go down a huge elevator, go on a train and then back up a few escalators. I met a guy from Norway at the gate, and spoke to him for a bit before we were allowed through.

On the next flight, I was rewarded with extra leg room at an emergency exit but no pocket to put my things so I had to hide them all under my blanket at take off. I sat beside an Austrian girl and a German girl, both very friendly. I met another German girl in the waiting area before take off. Here is a picture of them all in Bangkok. It took us about 5 hours to Bangkok, where we waited for 1.5 hours, then another 9 hours to Sydney, where we had another wait and then only 2.75 hours to Christchurch. I slept for a grand total of about 7 hours on these flights, could have been less. I watched some Poirot and a bit of the cartoon version of Robin Hood. I finished my book that I bought in Glasgow (Divergent, recommended by HM). I started my next book, a Kate Mosse historic novel bought for 52 AED in Dubai. All very interesting, I can assure you. I even got one of the German girls, E, to take a picture of me with boomerangs in Sydney airport to prove there was a person behind the camera.

We got to Christchurch at 3.30pm on Thursday. There was an ill man on our flight so we had to wait for medics to come on board to check he wasn't contaminated (and therefore neither were we). While we waited I talked to the flight attendant in front of us. She was from Nigeria and had worked for Emirates for 3 years. She was very kind and was glad of the extra Haribo I left behind on purpose (as they are not allowed to take anything offered by passengers).

I got through customs pretty quickly and I now have one lovely stamp in my passport. I collected my bag and gave up my apple when they searched my bad. I was, however, allowed to keep my chocolate and raisins, much to my happiness, as I doubt I'll be able to find cheap dairy free chocolate here. In Tesco it's only 30p for a 100g bar.

I made it through. My other friendly passengers – one Austrian and one German girl – were nowhere to be seen as I did wait a bit for them, hoping to confirm plans to maybe meet up in Dunedin next month. I might meet them again, you never know. I managed to find a bus leaving for Christchurch centre easily, found my hostel on a main street and was settled in by 5.30pm.

My first night in Christchurch, I walked to a food shop in shorts and t-shirt, the day still a little warm and a lot nicer than Scotland (sorry guys). I made chicken soup back at the hostel and ate hummus on toast. I met a few other hostellers and managed to have a hot shower – which felt amazing!

In the past three days I have managed to get myself a work number, bank account, phone contract and new shoes (jandals!). I have explored some of the city centre, I've been to an open air free cinema to see Great Gatsby and I have joined the local library = free wifi. I have a met a lot of nice people in the hostel – mostly German! - and hope that I'll eventually make some friends here.

Tomorrow I leave the centre for West Melton, a wee village just outside the city centre to a Wwoofing farm. I'll be there a minimum of 5 days, most likely without internet, and it'll be up to my hosts how long they want to keep me there for. I have no plans after that. My friend P arrives in NZ from South Korea on the 11^th of March and until then I don't have many plans. Oh, well, I have one plan... and that is to go to the Hokitika Wildfood's Festival over on the west coast. Eating all sorts of lovely foods (or bugs). Yum.

Signing out now before you get bored of me yapping on so much! I'm off to watch 21 Jump Street with my fellow hostellers. Talk to you soon!

Kirsty

Days in New Zealand: 3.5