The day finally came when I flew to New Zealand. Unfortunately, the day was not the easiest. After a pretty awkward goodbye to Jared, I hopped in a cab and made my way to the airport. I told the driver my airline and he dropped me at Terminal 1. Unfortunately, after a bit of walking around aimlessly, I discovered my DOMESTIC flight on the airline was in fact in a different terminal, but no worries, “you can take the inter-terminal bus”, and I had an extra 30 minutes before my 1hr check-in time (I was initially flying to Bali from Jakarta and had brought the ticket from Bali to New Zealand separately, so only 1 hr was necessary). I waited around for the bus, and when I hopped on, tried to basically sign language to the driver that I was getting off at terminal 3, by the way “terminal” is the same in both languages, so I didn’t THINK that saying “terminal” and then showing the number “3” with my hand could be misinterpreted…apparently it could. After a few stops, he said something to me and pointed outside, at which point I repeated the “terminal” with three fingers, to which he nodded, so I hopped off. Turned out that was not the correct terminal. So I had to wait around again for another stupid bus, which took longer than the first to arrive, but did end up dropping me at the correct place. I got out and hurried inside. At this point, I was 10 minutes overdue for my 1 hour check-in time, but I wasn’t stressing too much…who actually CLOSES a check-in gate an hour before? Apparently, Lion Air does!! Oh, good god. I could not miss my connecting flight. Thank GOD, I had given myself hours to make the connection, but I was still nervous, made worse by the fact that the next flights to Bali were completely booked out. I ran over to the terminal desk for Asia Air, and they did have availability for me on their next flight, still giving me several hours before my check-in to New Zealand. I begrudgingly bought a new ticket and boarded that flight with no issues and arrived in Bali. I spent the next few hours walking around the airport and waiting for my flight. Finally, at midnight, I was able to board and took the long flight over. The flight itself was uneventful, which is exactly what you want out of a flight!
New Zealand!! I arrived a bit late, close to midnight, but was able to take the city bus into the main part of Auckland. Seeing as how I was a bit nervous about this new chapter, it was nice to see English, Pie Face, and not be surprised by the ever-present squat toilet from Indonesia! I arrived at my hostel, Base, and walked through the throngs of young travelers drunkenly congregating outside…Good God, get me into a bed! At the front desk I was surprised, when I discovered that I had made a slight error when booking the hostel. Since I arrived after midnight, my flight details said I was arriving the 6th, so I booked from the 6th on. Thank God they had another room for me, and thank God I only stayed there one night. The room was on the first floor right above the club that all the hostel kids went to; need I remind you, for some travelers, drinking every day is acceptable. Despite my exhaustion, I wasn’t able to sleep until 3:30am, yuck! I didn’t even change out of the clothes I had been wearing, because I knew I’d just have to move the next morning, which I did happily! My next room was thankfully several floors up, and sans windows. I basically, threw my bag down and napped, until Lord knows when. The great thing about not having windows is that napping seems appropriate at all hours of the day. The problem with that, though, comes when you are able to get a full night’s sleep and still feel groggy the next morning. I think a bit of sunlight subconsciously sets off the body’s alarm clock and makes rising and “shining” a bit easier.
Anyway, that day when I finally got around, I made my way to the library. I should remind people, just in case, that this is actually my second time to New Zealand. I came in November 2013 for one month and absolutely loved it, deciding I just had to come back with more time. I already had done most of the touristy things in Auckland, so my mission was more to settle in and find some work. When I opened my email, I saw that one of the recruiters with whom I had email previously, actually remembered the date I was arriving, and sent me a welcome email! In that case, I’ll contact you first! Her name was Prudence, and right away she wanted to know everything about me, about what I wanted from my time in New Zealand, and what I wanted out of a job. She already had put together a few options, and with my approval would send them out ASAP. This was great! Granted, I could only get vouchers for internet usage at the library, so I had to drink about five cups of coffee for enough Skype time, but by the end I was satisfied that Prudence had my best interests in mind, and would get the ball running nicely.
The next few days were a bit of a waiting game. Prudence had advised me of several potential opportunities, and once I bought a cell phone, my hope was to just sit back and let the calls start rolling in. Roll in they did not. I sat and waited and napped and sat and found different locations where I could abuse their internet and waited. Finally, I got a call! It was the exact position that I wanted, the ICU, in Taranaki. Where? Taranaki. Never heard of it? Yea me neither. But no worries, they wanted to set up an interview as quickly as possible, and I was as eager as could be. I booked a bus ticket, the drive only taking about five hours from Auckland. There was actually an apartment across the street from the hospital that housed a lot of the staff members, so I was already imagining in my head how I would live and how crazy convenient my commute could be! I had bought a nice dress, high heels, and a sassy suit jacket for the interview, and was pumped. I can’t actually remember most of the questions from the interview, except “what brands of ventilator have you working with?” Say what? Jesus I dunno! The brands with the tube that go down someone’s trachea and assists them with breathing? The interview, as a whole, basically followed that pattern. When I left, I felt completely dejected. Actually, that’s not true. When I left I felt fine. I met with a midwife from the UK, with whom Prudence had gotten me in touch, as a reference for the style of living there. We went to lunch and walked along the water. She was a very nice woman, with two small children, and explained how there was so much to do in Taranaki like biking, swimming (for a few months), hiking, hiking…hiking, three bars…a knitting club. Ummmmmmmm…hmmmmm. It wasn’t until the bus ride back to Auckland that I realized I had completely ruined the interview. I lost focus for one minute, and had this moment of panic, where I asked myself “what the hell am I doing here?”, “do I want to travel solo next year?”, “is it time to just go home after a year and a half of traveling?”. Yea, that happened. During the interview, after that sudden moment of doubt, I became a complete basket case who sounded like she could barely hold a conversation, let alone a scalpel. Did I want to live in Taranaki. Yes, I went to New Zealand to see more of its natural beauty, but this place was sooo remote. Absolutely nothing around, and no one that is single, without children just wanting to let loose occasionally. Did I really want to join a knitting club to make friends? Ug, it all seemed a bit overwhelming at the time. I got back to Auckland and called Prudence and my parents and broke the bad news of how I completely chocked the interview. Ok, no worries. We’ll continue looking. Luckily, Prudence quickly found me another interview for Christchurch, a much more appealing location, at a 24 hour clinic, and much less appealing employer. But, I was a begger not a chooser, so was ecstatic to receive another opportunity. Later that week, I got myself all gussied up for a, thankfully, Skype interview, where I breezed through it much easier. I was a rock star interviewee, seeming professional, light-hearted, yet focused, and funny. Skype interviews are great, because you can twitch your hands around and tap your feet nervously, which is a red flag normally, but is completely concealed behind that little computer screen. The interview came to an end, and the two women on the other side of the screen immediately offered me a position, saying I could start the following week!!! HALLELUJAH!!! I again called Prudence and my parents with the good news, and probably threw it all over Facebook. I had a job!! I could start straight away!! I did have to sit tight a few days for a formal contract, and on the day I received the official offering, wouldn’t ya know it, the ICU from Taranaki called and offered me a job! Jeez, they must have been REALLY desperate to want to hire me after suck a cock up interview. But decision time loomed. I called everyone I could think of for a bit of assistance, and in the end, decided on…Christchurch! I packed my bags, and set out for my new home.
Prudence was absolutely amazing during the transition. I arrived on a weekend, and she set me up with a hostel for the first two nights, and then reached out to some of the staff members from my soon-to-be employer for something more comfortable. Bonnie, a nurse from the US who had recently moved to Christchurch two weeks before me, offered up a room in her place. She picked me up in her car, and together we grabbed a bed she had bought for the extra room in her house. She moved there with her husband, Clayton, and I stayed with them for about a week, while I started my job and frantically looked for a more permanent living arrangement. Bonnie and Clayton were so nice and helpful. Bonnie even let me use her bicycle to get to work and around.
A week later, I was pretty settled in. I moved into a room in an empty-nester’s home. Helen was from Christchurch, and her children were grown and husband long gone (and apparently good riddens). She had three extra rooms, one rented by a nice woman from Canada, Rachelle, who was a student taking a deaf education program there. I bought a bike, unpacked my things, and made my room as personal as I could with my few belongings, stocked up the fridge and started the daily grind of working. I liked the job, despite it being slightly less stimulating than an ICU. The other staff members were such nice people, constantly offering me rides, suggestions, information, and inviting me out with them. This was not the kill-or-be-killed New York City mentality. The patients ranged from babies with the sniffles to the elderly with lacerations from falls. Christchurch is very much a city in reconstruction, five years after two massive earthquakes brought the city to its knees, so there are a lot of construction injuries; it is also very much a city in love with its rugby so every Saturday morning and afternoon it was chockablock full of muscle and bone injuries (a few on some very attractive rugby players!). Despite falling short of some of the more critical injuries I usually like, working in New Zealand did allow for some educational opportunities. Due to the high incidence of bone injuries, we performed our own X-Rays, and I got to learn to assess injuries for fractures (which was never really part of my job before), interpret X-Ray findings (some of which are shockingly more difficult than I expected), and apply casts. Nurses in New Zealand are also allowed to perform suturing (stitches), so I got to take a class and become certified at that as well. Life was going swimmingly…and then I got an urgent message from my best friend from New York, Nicole.
Several weeks before, Nicole had mentioned that she wanted to travel South East Asia with me. We discussed a few details, mostly financial, and she said she would save $5,000 in a month and a half…yea right. You still live in New York City, right? I sort of shrugged off the conversation, and projected that, with her lifestyle and income, she would probably save that amount in about five months, during which I would make enough money in New Zealand to travel as well. Well, a month after our initial conversation, about three weeks into me working in Christchurch, I got the, “when are we going to buy tickets? I need to do it soon” phone call. Say what?!?! “How much money have you saved?” “$5,000. That’s how much you said, right?” O crap. Apparently, Nicole had made good on her promise, which I NEVER expected, and wanted to travel ASAP. We had a long conversation, where I went back and forth a lot. I contemplated ways of stalling, finding a new job when I got back, asking for a leave of absence without pay; and those were all the best case scenarios. The worst case scenarios involved, “no, you can’t come back to this job, and don’t come back tomorrow”, that no one would hire me when I came back with only six months left on my visa, that I wouldn’t have enough money for the trip, that I would be able to find another job to make enough money to travel after New Zealand; in essence, that if I went on this trip with Nicole, that would be the end of my travels and I would have to go home. I was pretty panic stricken. I did not want to finish traveling, but more than anything, I did not want to be FORCED to go home due to lack of money. I’ll go home! But I want to go home because I’m done traveling or because I miss people too much. Ending my travels, because I ran out of money, feels like defeat. I don’t wanna go out like that! Anyway, I struggled with the possibilities a lot. Nicole’s biggest problem was that she COULD stall, but she couldn’t guarantee me that she would be ABLE to travel when I was ready, preferably February 2017, when I have worked a full year and gotten a lot of New Zealand traveling completed.
I left the decision up to fate. That is, I approached my job, explained the situation, bent a few rules, begged, pleaded, bargained, begged, pleaded…begged…begged, and God smiled upon me. They said it would have to come from the powers that be, so I sent out an official request, and the next day was informed that I had been approved. I was ecstatic! I wanted to cry. I was literally, the luckiest person on the planet that day. I had completely my orientation, would give them an extra three weeks, and would be able to return to my job. Literally, the luckiest person alive!
I write this now back on the road, and eager to write about my new adventures in Asia. I’m not done with New Zealand or the world, and I’m so grateful that I at least have choices. Stay tuned!
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