Leaping from one continent to another… and then to an island

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Did you know that not so long ago, scientists discovered that New Zealand is its own continent, Zealandia, and it doesn’t belong together with Australian continent? I didn’t know it either until a year ago while I was browsing some scientific articles in the internet. And so, with that note, here’s the story (quite boring) of I changed continents (again).

Like I told in the last blog post, my journey from south to north New Zealand took around 16 days and the last stop on my way was Danielle’s home in Hamilton. I could only spend there a day and I had to leave already – this time to Auckland (which was only 2 hour’s drive away). Why I did it? Because I needed to sell my dear Frank the Tank. I called my 1998 Subaru Frank the Tank because it basically was like a tank, it could do everything. I rarely had problems with it and we managed to get along well on the road. I did spend some nice dollars on the upkeep (oil change and other stuff) but all and all, it was okay. My first attempt to sell the car was very successful, because after taking it to the ride, a nice British gentleman agreed to buy Frank with all the camping gear in it. He was planning to do the same with the car like I had done – to travel on both islands. The camping gear that was in the car ended up costing nothing for me – I had Tauri, Teesh and Ross to thank for the stuff I had. They were nice enough to give me stuff when I left Natty P in September. And I really appreciated that.

Anyway, I keep straying from the topic. After my impromptu trip to Auckland, I had no car and I was at my friend’s mercy for couple of days, until I had to leave the country. My last day in New Zealand was super boring though. I spent roughly 12 hours in the airport waiting for my flight to Melbourne. Why? Cause the flight was leaving at 5 am in the morning and I had no means of transport to get to the city but at 5 pm in the previous night. By the time I arrived to the airport, i had been up around 8 hours, and 12 + hours were ahead of me. I spent my waiting on watching first few seasons of Arrow and munching McDonald’s meals. And so the time went by really quickly and I was already on my 3 hour trip to Melbourne.

I had applied and successfully gained the Working Holiday Visa in winter (July — don’t start to mock me, the seasons are in the funk here and I am confused most of the time), I had no problems getting in to the country. Melbourne greeted me with open arms and I left the airport to find my friend Beth who came to the city to get me. We met at the train station and after 2-3 hour drive to her home, I was in Sale (yes that’s the name of a town in Victoria), where I spent the next few weeks of my stay in the Land of Oz What did I do there? Do be honest — I just rested. I was so tired from all the travelling I had done in that month, I honestly slept and ate and was looking for a job – that was all I did. Since Beth and Carl had to work most of the time, I was alone in the house but in the end, we did some trips to the local parks and visited ocean (Lakes Entrance). But nothing big happened. I was just enjoying catching up with Beth and spending good time with her and Carl. After my first week in Sale, I already had a job and in the end of my second week I was already leaving Sale for Melbourne – to catch my flight to Norfolk Island – where my next job waited forme. And that’s where I am at the moment. In Norfolk.

Norfolki Saar

Norfolk Island is an outer territory of Australia and it has its own government, basically autonomous part of Australia. It lies in the Pacific Ocean between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.

The Island is about 35 square kilometres big, it has its own language (a mix between Tahitian and English), but most people here speak English so, in the end, its okay. Here I work as a housekeeper and sometimes as a waitress in Governor’s Lodge Resort. The place doesn’t have a high numbers of workers, so it keeps me busy so far. The weather has been continuously around 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, and it makes my stay here so good. To be honest, my first few weeks in Australia I struggled with the hot weather but now I am so used to it and when the temperature goes below 20 C, I find myself starting to whine. The climate is warm here so everything grows here. Literally. There are banana trees right next to my house and orange trees next to the pool. I find it so amazing and cool. The other cool thing in here is Norfolk Pine (which has its name after this island) that grows everywhere in here.

Don’t get me wrong though. Norfolk is not like typical Pacific Ocean tropical island like Fiji or Vanuatu or Tahiti. No, the climate is much colder in here and the trees and vegetation that grows here is like mix between Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. The island has some beaches but most of the coast is black volcanic rocks. The Pacific Ocean is everywhere and you can see the ocean almost everywhere. Well duh. It’s a small island. It’s a weird kind of island and just as the nature here, the people are weird mix here. But I love it.

I live in the territory of Gov’s (the resort) in a small house. All the units here in Gov’s are small houses like mine and the place has like 55 of them that they rent out to the guests. I live in the furthest end of the compound and I am loving it, it’s almost in the wild nature and I feel very fine living alone and away from civilization.

The three months I have spent here, I have managed to make some new friends and enjoy the island quite a bit. We have been driving around the island and taking some photographs here and there. Since the island is small, there is not TOO much to do here, which I am glad of. I am enjoying my little “vacation” in here. I am sure there is more to discover but I will leave the most interesting stuff for before I leave, since I am in a middle of the busiest month at the moment, much work to do, not much free time. But hopefully soon I can go to Emily bay or Anson bay.

Well, this was the story how I changed my location from one continent to another. My year in New Zealand has concluded and I have only good memories to bring with me from there. The new year has begun in Australia and I am really happy for that. Not that I am too happy spend another year away from home. But I think it’s important – when else I can do something like this. The time is now.

I am leaving Norfolk in June, when I am going to attend Supanova Convention in Sydney and hopefully I will catch up with few of my friends there. After that I am heading to Brisbane to spend Midsummers day with my old schoolmate who lives there. Hopefully I can meet some other friends there as well. But we will see how everything will work out, there is still some time to it, I still need to find a new job.

Now, my friends, you should be all updated what I have been doing so far and what’s gonna happen with me. If you have more questions about my trip here, don’t hesitate to ask.

But for now, until the next post!

Cya!

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