Finding My Fix: Chronicles of a Travel Junkie

I think I would like to report that this afternoon, for the first time since I arrived on this island, I felt fully comfortable with everything, with my decisions in coming here. I felt almost at home you might say in Wellington. All of the anxieties, and frustrations were gone, carried away on the 30 mph winds. I relaxed.

It may have had something to do with the fact that, for the first time since I arrived on this island, when I left my last class at 4pm, I wasn’t freezing. Or it could have had to do with finally getting a chance to just hang with some guys for the first time since I got here. Or it might have had something to do with the fact that in the last twenty four hours I have met over a dozen people, including a good number of New Zealanders, including one guy who was wearing a dress (as a social psych experiment).

Whatever the reason(s), it felt good. Comfortable and relaxed would probably be the best words to describe how I felt as I found a new way home from campus, down a gravel path, around a field, between some beautiful victorian houses and finally out onto The Terrace. I always get a jump start when I discover something new. Exploring is my passion I suppose. And meeting two adorable pugs was a definite bonus. Three minutes of unconditional love, who could ask for anything more?

I like New Zealand.

Finally I have found a Kiwi or at least someone knowledgable about New Zealand, or really this person has found me, who has corrected some of the things that I have gotten wrong. Apparently also, I have a much wider reading audience than I realised. So if I may quote this person who commented on one of my earlier posts

“Creche (the word you were looking for) is daycare, from the French; but in the years I’ve lived here, dinner is dinner and lunch is lunch. Surely zucchinis are zucchinis in New Zealand, too? I don’t recall them being called anything else. A college is a high school, not a school for little people, though some private colleges have a primary (elementary) part. Come to Wellington, where a lot of places do not shut at 5 p.m. Tapu, meanwhile, is usually used for the word curse, rather than sacred. ”
-Jack Yan

Though, in my defense, it was in fact a Kiwi born and raised who told me that they called dinner tea, and I have had full meals at lunch time that have been called “afternoon tea.” Maybe it’s a regional thing. And I do happen to be in Wellington, and have noticed quite a large number of places, restaurants, shops, etc closing at 5pm, though “everything” is definitely an exaggeration on my part. Maybe the vegetable I saw in the grocery store that looked like a zucchini but had a different name was actually a cousin of the zuchinni, or maybe I really have gone insane as is a definite possibility after I tell you this:

This morning I bought my plane ticket back to DC, but first, wait, this is the best part… I will be stopping in Sydney, Bangkok and Honolulu, for at least five days each. I’m going to Thailand!

I’ll also mention that I have been asked three times for directions. I must look like I know what I’m doing! One of the times was two young guys who pulled up in their car as I was pulling out my camera to take a picture of a very nice house. Now in the states when guys of this nature pull up beside you it means they want to harrass you; this was a very nice change!

Hell's Gate Geothermal Hotsprings and Spa, near Rotarua. And again, sorry they're so big. Sorry some of them may look dark depending on your computer, and some look like repeats. And finally, sorry but I have no pictures of Auckland. And ... [Continue reading this entry]

Pictures!!! Sorry they're so big. Sorry some of them may look dark depending on your computer, and some look like repeats. And finally, sorry but I have no pictures of Auckland. A typical "highway:" [Continue reading this entry]

So Aug 17, the All Blacks will be paying our way to Fiji. They'll carry us to the beach so we don't have to burn our toes on the beautiful sand. They'll lay out our towels for us, and fan ... [Continue reading this entry]

I thought maybe I should mention that I will be going to Fiji for a week toward the end of August with four people I met about a week ago. The cost of the entire trip comes to about NZ$1000, ... [Continue reading this entry]

Today as I went to Cash Converters to buy a cell phone that I could use in NZ, I noticed everyone staring up toward the sky. Turns out there was a man up there threatening to jump. "The police are ... [Continue reading this entry]

HAPPY FOURTH! First day of classes went well. I met one Kiwi in my Maori studies class, she seems like a cool person. My cognitive psychology professor is either American or Canadian and has the most obnoxiously inflected way of talking. ... [Continue reading this entry]

The All Blacks slaughtered the Lions, again. 48:18 I believe, effectively winning the series and giving all of New Zealand an excuse to drink, a lot. And maybe I should mention also that it gave the Brits an excuse to ... [Continue reading this entry]

This entry is basically only to say that after the nature reserve, we drove to Wellington. It's also to inform you that I'll write about our arrival in Wellington at a later date, because right now I need to go ... [Continue reading this entry]