She was someone I liked right away and I immediately knew the two of us would be friends. It wasn't long before we were attached at the hip.
When she told me about her plans to live and work in New Zealand she enthusiastically suggested I join her. I briefly considered it (I did think she would make a great travel companion) but I declined, citing the same old excuses:
"I don't have enough money."
"I have too much going on right now."
"I have to finish school."
After 3 gruelling months of back to back doubles at two jobs, I looked at my bank account statement one day and my jaw dropped. No longer could I use the "I have no money" excuse. I had just completed the 120 hours necessary for my TEFL Certificate so the school point was also moot. And really, what did I have going on? The season was winding down, both my jobs would be closing soon, besides the beautiful scenery and amazing people there wasn't much holding me to Tofino.
Yet still I hesitated, just like I've done in the past, just like I always do. Because the truth of the matter is I was scared. I have never travelled before and it was this unprecedented fear that had kept me from it in the past and really, what was I scared of?
I thought back to my first week in Tofino, how I had no idea where I was going to live, what I was going to do for work, I just packed my stuff and left the same day. Was it frightening at first? Sure it was, but then life got so incredibly awesome for me. This situation was no different, sometimes you just have to say, "Yes" to life. Amazing things happen when we push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
As I began my preparations to leave, truthfully I was super nervous as the reality dawned on me: I was about to move to another country, on another continent, on the other side of the planet where I had no job, no where to live, no prospects and no plans. It still felt surreal, as if it was someone else's life I was preparing for.
The day finally came, Jordan and I stood at our check-in at YVR and both took a deep breath:
Here goes nothing. And everything.
Our plane ride went by fast, the two of us binge watched American Horror Story on my laptop and tried to sleep through the night (keyword: tried.)
We touched down in Auckland with less than an hour to catch our connecting flight. Neither of us could find a pen on the plane and then couldn't locate one anywhere in the terminal so I hastily asked an old man to borrow one while in line at customs.
"You know you're supposed to fill that out on the plane right?"
"It's fine if you use it, but don't use up all my ink."
"So remember next time to make sure you bring a pen."
Shut up old man! I get it, I'm disorganized, spare me your lecture, I thought as I tried to move with the line while I hastily scribbled out my declaration card, all the while nervous sweat poured down my face.
We had to pick up our luggage to re-check it for our next flight AND go through customs AND go through Bio-Security Screening.
While we waited in line I kept chanting in my head: We will make our flight, we will make our flight, we will make our flight.
We missed our flight. I blame the Auckland airport entirely for being such an absolute shit show. Here's how it went down:
We began to speed walk to "Domestic Transfers" thinking that it was the logical choice. We struggled at the Self Check-in booths that beeped angrily at us whenever we tried to scan our passports. I asked a nearby employee if I was even in the right place. She directed us to the nearby baggage drop. At the baggage drop we were told that we actually needed to go to the Domestic Flights area, which was, much to our horror, an entirely different airport terminal.
"It's a 10 minute walk or you can try and catch the bus."
"Will we even make our flight?"
"I don't know..."
That's helpful.
We practically ran to the other terminal, all the while cursing out the Auckland airport for this inconvenience.
"Welcome to travelling," Jordan remarked, "Things never go the way you plan."
Once inside, I quickly asked an employee where we should be as our boarding pass had no gate number listed. He gestured over to a check-in area. As we began to go through security Jordan was told she was in the wrong place, while I was told I was fine. The two of us discovered that we needed to drop our bags off... at the complete opposite end of the airport.
There were still 6 people in front of us at baggage drop when they made the final boarding call for our flight number, I could barely make out, "Francesca Paladino and Jordan Olson-Lyons" along with a strew of others.
"We'll never make it, we've missed our flight!" I cried out, fighting back tears. FINALLY someone helpful came along and said, "No matter, we will get you on the next flight free of charge, it leaves in an hour."
SERIOUSLY?! Why couldn't someone have suggested that from the get go? There was no way we would ever have made that flight, even if we hadn't had those minor setbacks.
Two little birds that had gotten into the terminal flew around frantically and I chuckled to myself as they reminded me of us.
At our gate we were able to calm down, relax and begin to dab the beads of perspiration that had formed on our faces.
"How's it going?" Jordan randomly blurted out to the guy sitting across from us.
"Good..." he said, we detected an accent.
"Are you from Queenstown?" Jordan asked.
"No... I'm from Denmark," he responded.
"Oh cool,"
"You're American and you actually know where Denmark is?" he asked in shock.
"Yeah, I've been to Denmark," Jordan explained.
"And we're Canadian, not American," I added.
His entire demeanour entirely changed and he lit up, "Ohhh Canadian! I have family in Vancouver."
The Queenstown Aiport was in stark contrast to Auckland. It was small and easy to navigate and was blasting upbeat dance music upon our arrival. "Welcome to Queenstown!" it practically screamed.
After grabbing our luggage, Denmark started asking me where "Such-and-Such Hostel" was located.
"I don't know, but if you catch the bus into town I'm sure you'll be able to easily find it," I told him.
So he followed us to the bus stop and continued to pepper us with questions, constantly throwing in random remarks,
"You guys dress SO Canadian"
"You definitely overpaid for your hostel, there are way cheaper ones around"
"You'll never be able to find a job out here, you better start looking now"
Wow, thanks Denmark for tagging along and raining on our parade. We parted ways without a farewell, I hoped we wouldn't run into him again.
Now here we are, just soaking it all in.
It's true that Queenstown is reminiscent of Banff and Whistler, but it also reminds me a lot of the Okanagan: all the houses up on the hills looking down on the perfect blue lake. We saw the Remarkable Mountains during our descent and they certainly lived up to their name. So far, New Zealand feels a lot like home.
Day 1: We finally arrive in Queenstown and immediately shower off the stench of airplane and nervous sweat. The two of us go out for Indian food, explore the town, walk the lake. We get settled into our hostel, a beautiful place located atop a bunch of businesses, in the middle of downtown with extraordinary views. We meet our roommates, a Canadian, also named Jordan, promptly renamed by me as Jordan #2 and a Swiss guy named Michelle.
Jordan and I buy the cheapest, strongest, largest bottles of cider we can find and stock up on junk food. We vow to drink all the cider in celebration of our arrival. We pass out shortly after with terrible stomachaches.
Day 2: We get up early and buy actual, real groceries (read: mostly just sandwich supplies.) We pack lunches and begin the 1 hour hike to the Skyline Gondola. The hike was worth the incredible view. We buy beers and take frisbees to the frisbee golf course at the park. We begin to get buzzed and quickly lose light (and our frisbees, which have a $20 deposit!) Jordan almost loses hers in the lake, and then immediately after up in a tree, so we choose to forgo most of the "holes." We stop at Fernburger for one of the infamous burgers and a beer (lived up to the hype!) When we returned to the hostel we were met by a bunch of people in the hallway who invite us out for a beer. We go to a bar called "Cowboys"... it's nothing like the famed bar in Calgary. None of us are sure what to make of it. They play really bad 80's music and sell steins of beer.
Day 3: It is raining so we have a lazy day. We got for coffee. Twice. We read our books for most of the day (I can't put down Gone Girl!) and take it fairly easy.
Tomorrow, we are off to Wanaka. Stay tuned...
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