Made It!!!

Hello all, I've been getting some e-mails requesting an update, so here you are. The trip to Wellington went quite smoothly, I met some great people on my flights who helped the time pass without too much trouble. I'll start from the beginning (I hope I won't bore you with the details!).


So my mom and dad kindly drove me to the Ottawa airport on the 16th, and we found out that the bag weight restriction was not 25kg as we had thought, but 23kg (my bag weighed 25kg). I was torn and was going to take out the bottle of maple syrup I wanted to bring from home, but the nice Air Canada lady let me have the extra 2kg free of charge. I made it through security fairly smoothly, though the security guy had to rummage through my bag for "something pointy" which ended up being a book in the bottom of my bag. All things considered, stage one went quite well.


The flight to Vancouver was great- I got to watch a few decent movies free of charge (one of the perks of flying with Air Canada, though they made you pay for food on that flight- so I brought and ate my own food for that one). I sat beside a business journalist whose name, I believe (sorry if I'm wrong!), was Elisabeth. Great conversations at the beginning and end of the flight.


In Vancouver I also had the privilege of meeting some lovely people who helped me find a place to eat that might offer me something wheat free. Though I can't remember his name, the elderly, spunky Scottish gentleman was particularly helpful. I stopped at the bar and had a ridiculously over-priced Bud Light Lime (thanks Nan!) with a none-too-helpful bartender. I met someone there who graduated from Dal a few years ago, so we chatted for a bit about Halifax and such- and such as my memory is, I can't remember his name either.


The flight from Vancouver to Sydney was... longggg. I had somehow got stuck in the middle row of seats on the plane, so I had to peer awkwardly over people's shoulders to look out the window. I was sitting beside a man from Calgary named Rick (the only reason I remember his name, if I'm being honest, is because I had to ask him twice within a 5 minute time span, because I hadn't listened the first time he told me... I know I'm awful). He worked for an oil and gas drilling company and was looking to expand the business on Australia. I, with difficulty, contained myself about asking him environmental impact questions, and kept the conversation in the neutral zone. Sitting between us was an elderly Indian gentlemen named Mike. We got talking near the end of the flight and I wish we would have had more time- he was one of those people who has a lot of interesting stories to tell. So, between Rick, Mike, free movie central and exhaustion I made it through the 15 and a half hour flight as good as could have been expected. Though I would have killed for decent food- normal airplane food is bad enough, the gluten free version is even worse.


Moving on... So, I got to Sydney around 10:30AM, with 8 hours to kill before my next flight. Fortunately for me, I had explained my situation to the good Air Canada folk in Vancouver and they paid for an Australian visitor's visa for me. I went through customs and talked to someone at the info desk who told me to take the airport train to 'Circular Quay' to visit the harbour and opera house. Following his advice, I got on the train without incident and went into the city. It was pure dumb luck that I got on the right train the first time- as I would later find out.


I spent a few hours walking around the Sydney harbour, in the beautiful sunlight (it had to be 25°C out). I saw the famed opera house and spent most of my time in the botanical gardens around the harbour. I'll post some pictures a little later. When it came time to head back to the airport, I went to the train station and got on a train. Yep, all was well. And then as I was riding the train I started noticing that the train stops were not taking me back to the airport. So I asked the girl behind me, and sure enough I'd gotten on the wrong train. She told me which stop to get off on, and I got to see the... less scenic parts of Sydney. At the next stop I got directions from an amazingly helpful worker and managed to get back on the right track (pun not intended).


So that was a nice little adventure to wake me up out of my jet lag stupour. I made it through security and such without incident and the plane ended up being a little late anyways. The Air New Zealand flight was super empty (I had a row of three seats all to myself), and the flight attendants were unbelievably friendly. The food, surprisingly, was reasonably edible and I discovered these fantastic Sudoku-like number puzzles in the newspaper called "Kenken"- which I would highly recommend if you enjoy Sudoku puzzles and number problems. I would fly with Air New Zealand again in a heart beat.


When I made it to Wellington, I was barely conscious or coherent. It was around midnight, Wellington time, and despite my rather unstable condition, I managed to catch a shuttle to my hotel without fault. By the time I had checked in and gotten up into my room, it was around 1:30AM. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.


So that ^^^ takes us to Saturday, February 19th. On that day (which was yesterday) I got up around 11 and kind of stumbled around my room, took a shower and tried to regain my humanity a bit. I got directions to Cuba Street, which was bustling with shops and cafes, and had eggs on toast and a Chai latte at a nice little cafe called "Plum". My waiter was actually from Texas, and his name was Chris. I've come to find that if I can't remember a guy's name in New Zealand, it's probably Chris. After lunch, I went down to the harbour front and was 'volunteered' to partake in a busker's street act, where he got two guys from the crowd to chain him up in a big sac and I padlocked it together and he managed to escape. He had vibrant pink hair and made me somewhat of a celebrity when the act finished, because people in the crowd all knew my name. Ah well.


I wandered about the city centre, read my book and just took my time (I was still very tired from the trip). I decided to make a hike over to the university to check things out. It was there, when I was sort of aimlessly walking on some road whose name I can't actually remember when I ran into Jayne. Jayne was on exchange to Dal last year and I'd met her through Dal Dance. I joined her and her friend Dane for dinner at one of the meal halls (they are both Residence Assistants) and met a few other RA's there. I ended up spending several hours with that group of people, and had a great time. Apparently I say 'out' funny, and I have a feeling my Canadian accent was somewhat amusing to my new Kiwi friends. Around 9pm though, I was ready to fall asleep, so I headed out and went back to my hotel to catch some z's.


This morning I packed up, checked out and took a cab over to my new home- Te Puni Village, Edge. And now, here I sit. Time for some food, and unpacking.


If you've made it this far through my novel- bravo! The movie I was quoting (incorrectly, I noticed a typo after I posted it) was Finding Nemo. So if you managed to figure that out, with the typo- congrats are in order!


I'll post some pictures here soon, I'm still trying to get my bearings straight.


XO