Life like a hurricane

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It has been roughly half a year since I opened this blog and wrote in it. Now I am back here again. I apologize, but my life has been like a hurricane, changing countries and continents, having fun and spending time with friends. Now, I have been staying in one place in months now, I finally found time and willingness to update this blog. So here we go!

Where do I begin? I think it’s fair to say that I should continue where I parted the blog last time – from Te Anau – and how I started my work here. But let’s talk more about my stay in Te Anau and what has happened after that.

I spent roughly three months in Te Anau. I really wanted to spend more time in there, but due to my visa restrictions and inability to fill my sponsorship visa in its proper time, I really had only 3 months of work there. I think these three months were the most intensive and crazy in my life. I have never lived my life with such a passion and fun than I did in Te Anau.

So what exactly happened in Te Anau then? Well, to start with, I worked there in a Te Anau Lakeview Holiday Park – which is a very very big tourist complex, which houses maybe a thousand or more people in the peak time. I worked in a housekeeping department amongst 20 something other workers. Almost every day we pulled 7-9 hour shifts, but at the same time, the work was fun, the company was very friendly and I have to say I enjoyed everything I did in there. Most of the other workers were like me – backpackers. They were from everywhere in the world – germany, france, chile, new zealand, britain, austria, Czech republic, sweden, fiji, nepal and so on. Most of us, who lived in the holiday park premises, we got along with each other and we had so much fun time almost every evening to enjoy the sunsets and bears. I don’t think we ever had a boring moment; we always had something to do or somewhere to be. And we befriended many of the people who stayed in the holiday park as well, making more friends as the time went by.

The time I spent in Te Anau was very intense for me. The work had to be quick and it was demanding, I was so spent during evenings, I couldn’t even touch my writings, not even open the blog. It was somewhat of a conscious choice, because I wanted to be surrounded by people and fun, rather than be holed up in my own room. I craved for friendships and communication – so that’s what I did – spent all evenings with my new brothers and sisters. I got what I wanted in the end. For now, I have been away from Te Anau for months, but I still think back of this time with a pain in my heart. I miss this place a lot. The place, the nature and more – the people.

Te Anau area, Fiordland, was one of the most beautiful areas I have seen in New Zealand (having driven around a bit in NZ, it says a bit more than just a saying). Te Anau itself is on the edge of Lake Te Anau. It houses around 2000 people, but in summertime, the amount of people staying there can grow up to 6000. It’s a gateway to Fiordland national park (one of the biggest national parks in NZ) and also Milford Sound. Everything is wild over there, the nature, the mountains, the running rivers and streams. Whole of Fiordland is dotted with amazing views and amazing nature.

Since my job there was quite demanding and I didn’t have that many days off, I couldn’t really wander off to the national park that much. But I did manage to visit Milford Sound (which was one of my BIG 3 i really wanted to visit), Luxmore mountain (which I saw almost every day from my window), Mavora Lakes, Fangorn Forest and so many more places around Lake Te Anau. Everything was just so beautiful in there and I just miss this place.

When did I leave in Te Anau? It was exactly noon at 2nd of January, 2018. I started up my old Subaru and drive off towards Queenstown, crying and slobbering half of the way there. Days before that I had celebrated New Year’s and my leaving with all my friends in the Holiday park, gotten really drunk and spent a day recovering from the 2 intense week of work and 1 intense day of drinking. I said goodbye to everybody, crying and slobbering again and packed all my stuff up. And then I just drove off. Because I had to. To be honest, I really wanted to stay to Te Anau for more. We even tried to get me a sponsorship visa but in the end this failed and I was actually forced to just go – my visa was ending and I really wanted to see more of New Zealand, before I flew out.

Journey Back

After my emotional farewell from Te Anau, my first stop on my road trip was in Cromwell. There I met up with Tauri, Kaur and Martin (estonians) and Brunelle (frenchie). They had just gotten some work in Cromwell’s big cherry orchards as berry pickers and I wanted to touch ground with them before moving forward. Spent the first night in a campsite near Lake Dunstan. It was a beautiful spot, but tad bit crowded (almost all the orchard workers stayed there). I was glad to spend the evening speaking some Estonian and having a good time with old friends. After a night spent in my car, I continued my journey.

The next stop was Twizel. After leaving Queenstown area, the mountains were left behind and I entered into a more peaceful and straight road-y landscape, which I was glad. My wee Frank the Tank was always fussy when I was driving up the mountains. In Twizel I stacked my car with some food and spent my whole afternoon in there. I had planned to stay in one holiday park in there but I ended up meeting another Estonian and her travel mates and we stayed at the shores of Lake Pukaki. The lake was damned cold though. I tried to go to swim but I chickened out. Make sense it was cold since the water to the lake comes from Mount Cook (tallest mountain in NZ) and its glaciers. The next day I said goodbye to my new acquaintances and headed towards Mount Somers. I had booked a place in a tiny holiday park in there and after making a tiny stop at the shores of Lake Tekapo, it took only few hours to get to Mount Somers. Before I made myself comfy in the holiday park, I headed to a little drive around. And by little I meant 100 km in gravel roads (there and back) to visit Mount Sunday (my second BIG 3). It’s a tiny hill amongst the big mountain ranges but it’s famous for being used as the Edoras from Lord of the Rings movies (duh, as I said before I am a fan of those).

I made my way back to Mount Somers in the same evening and settled down for a rainy evening. I made a new friend in there – Taylor from US who wanted to climb Mt Taylor (yeah I know). But for both of us, our plans failed for the next day, because we were caught on a huge storm and were forced to stay put for a day. For the life of me, I am glad I didn’t drive anywhere, it was quite a huge storm and with my limited driving skills, it would have been foolish of me. So I spent two days in Mount Somers. But I had fun in there and I enjoyed taking some time off to just rest. When the rain stopped, I dropped Taylor off to a crossroads and headed towards Christchurch. First stop in there was Orana Wildlife park. I enjoyed seeing all NZ and foreign animals so much and I even got to feed some of them. Luckily the weather was better too so I didn’t stay in CHCH and headed to Kaikoura instead.

There I spent next few days on the shores of Pacific Ocean, in a small holiday park. It was literally on the shore so I could just walk from my car to the ocean in a minute or so. Spent my time in there eating, drinking and listening the sounds of waves. I also visited Kaikoura itself and even went to open sea kayaking. It was awesome and I would have enjoyed it sooo much if I hadn’t gotten seasick halfway through. BUT! I saw penguins and seals, so the kayak tour was worth it in the end, though I was happier to get OFF the kayak than being in there. I loved every minute of my stay in Kaikoura and I have to say after Te Anau, it became my favourite place in New Zealand.

After a night in Picton and a crazy bumpy boat ride, I found myself in Wellington. At first I had planned to play tourist in the city and around it, but since it was raining cats and dogs when I arrived there, I decided not to do that and head to National Park Village. The trek took 5 hours and finally I was greeted with the familiar sight – the place I had spent 7 months in, my tiny Natty P. I spent there 2 nights just repacking my stuff and relaxing and meeting few of the people I still knew in there (hi Teesh). Since it was summer there, all the friends I had made during the winter there had flown away and there was almost nobody there. Everything looked the same but without people in there, it felt weird. And sad. After two days of resting I continued my journey to Tauranga via Taupo and Rotorua. I was surprised to find out that one of my Natty P friends (Sarah) was in Taupo, so I went there and met up with her and spent an hour chatting. Finally, making stops along the way, I arrived to Tauranga – to my friend’s place. I ended up spending my time with her for 4 days. I HAD planned to go and discover Coromandel peninsula and areas near Tauranga, but I had fallen ill and instead of driving around, I stayed put.

The last place I visited (before heading to Hamilton) was Hobbiton (last of my BIG 3). I had wanted to go there ever since I came to New Zealand. But I didn’t have time or means to visit it before. But now I had actually booked a tour in there and I just went for it. Visiting Hobbiton for me was like a religious experience (do snigger). It was so cute and just like in the movies, I just enjoyed every minute of it. I had dreamed about visiting this place for years and it was like dream come true for me.

In 16th of January, after 2 weeks on a road, I finally arrived to Hamilton, the place I started my journey in New Zealand. I had wanted to visit Danielle (my own personal guardian angel) before I left the country. I spent few days with her, before heading to Auckland. I don’t know what I would have done without Danielle in my life. She took me in when I first arrived in the country and helped me to understand New Zealand. She was always there with me, whenever I needed anything. I owe hers o much and I am deeply grateful that she is such a generous soul and spent the time with me. I love her and her family very much and hopefully someday I can visit New Zealand again and see her again.

What happened next?

Find out from my next blog post. I hope the next one will appear faster than this one! Hehe.

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