Thirty Days in New Zealand – New Zealand

The 30 days I spent in New Zealand changed my life. Literally.

A few years ago I arrived in the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’ for a month’s dream holiday, only to be greeted by grey clouds and rain. After weeks spent poring over the guidebooks and watching Lord of the Rings on DVD, this wasn’t quite what I expected, but not to be defeated I donned my waterproofs and set out to explore.

New Zealand has always held a fascination for me that goes far beyond the normal pull of a holiday; however nothing I had ever read or heard about New Zealand prepared me for its unbelievable beauty and its charming culture. Everything they say about the country is true – and more! From one day to the next I could scarcely believe my luck as I swam with dolphins in the Bay of Islands, tramped through the surreal, volcanic landscape of Tongariro National Park, gathered oysters from the beach in the Marlborough Sounds, watched a magnificent whale glide through the water in Kaikoura and cruised on the spectacular Milford Sound.

But without doubt, the best experiences are always the unexpected ones. New Zealand has a laid back, easy feel to it, and once I’d been in the country a week I felt so confident that I chose to hitch-hike from Christchurch to Kaikoura. Hitch-hiking is not something I’d ever normally even contemplate doing, but something about New Zealand made it feel safe and right.

I stood on the edge of the highway for all of two minutes before I was picked up by a mini-bus driven by two adults and packed full of teenage Maori kids in the back. “Jump in,” said Mr. Maori; “where’re you heading?” said Mrs. Maori. I told them I was travelling north to Kaikoura to see the whales and by a stroke of luck it turned out they were heading to the same place.

I climbed on board with the kids in the back, and we set off along the highway on what would become another one of those typical New Zealand journeys I was getting so used to, the ones where the scenery was so beautiful and tranquil that I would never tire of looking at it.

After a few minutes on the road I became uncomfortably aware that I was being stared at by twelve curious teenage boys who clearly didn’t know what to make of me. We passed by surf beaches and small rural towns surrounded by vineyards and olive groves until eventually one of the boys plucked up the courage to ask me “Why are you going to Kaikoura bro?” I chose to ignore my confusion at being addressed as “bro” and told them all about my lifelong dream of seeing the sperm whales there.

“So why are you all headed to Kaikoura? Are you going to see the whales too?” I asked. They laughed. “No way bro, we’re competing in an inter-school Gun Club competition, our rifles are in the back just behind your seat.”

I considered asking them to stop the vehicle there and then, jumping out and running for my life, but then I thought better of it. If I had been anywhere else I would have been terrified, but this was New Zealand, so instead I quickly shifted seats away from the back of the vehicle and tried to act as casually as I could as I attempted to steer the conversation away from guns and back onto the whales.

It transpired that these kids had grown up so used to seeing the wildlife that I had only ever seen in books or on TV documentaries that they figured I must be crazy to come half way across the world looking for it. But for the rest of the journey I was transfixed, at times finding it nearly impossible to choose between watching the views from the windows and listening intently to the boys as they told me all about the local wildlife, and the Maori myths and legends around it. They had such a wealth of knowledge and such a gripping and passionate way of telling their stories that to this day I still wonder whether they were actually heading to an amateur dramatics competition and were only teasing me about the guns.

“Hey look!” shouted one of the boys all of a sudden. We all looked round to see him pointing to a group of fur seals basking in the sun on the side of the road. We pulled over and got out of the mini-bus, I suspect mostly for my benefit, to see several of these strange looking creatures lazing around on the warm rocks, barking into the sky every so often. To come across these animals on my journey was unexpected, and quite simply awesome.

Later that day, my new friends dropped me off at my motel and drove off into the distance, back to their unique world of Maori legends and local wildlife and er…guns, and left me to prepare for my dream of seeing the sperm whale.

The next morning I set off on a boat trip along the Kaikoura coastline, and what I encountered far surpassed all of the fantasies I had had over the years. In the early morning solitude I watched from the boat as a majestic sperm whale prepared to dive, its huge tail breaking the surface of the water, an unexpected pod of dusky dolphins cavorting with each other next to him in the sparkling dark blue sea. It was a scene that had an almost primeval, mythical quality. And understanding the Maori beliefs and legends around the whale made this experience so much more special for me.

On returning home, my very next move was to take a job at a specialist travel agency and my days became one long pleasurable experience of organising my customers’ dream holidays to New Zealand. After some years I was able to get a transfer to the other side of the world to work for a travel company in Auckland. I am now fortunate enough to live here permanently and have never looked back!

Like so many people before me, I had travelled home thinking to myself “I’ll definitely go back to New Zealand, there’s so much more I want to see,” but I never realised that from then on New Zealand would be a integral part of me which would shape the rest of my life.

My original reasons for travelling to New Zealand were plenty. What I don’t need is a reason for is leaving it.