The Great Escape

Being 16 Again.

Our form of transportation is a 1995 Subaru Grand Wagon. In New Zealand pretty much anyone with a license that is written in English can drive. After we got over the initial fear of driving on the “wrong” side of the road, we quickly got the hang of it. However, it is still quite weird. Also, keep in mind everything that comes along with driving on the wrong side of the road. Such things include the steering wheel on the right side of the car and the windshield wipers and turning signal being reversed. For instance, in the United States when you press down on the turning signal you indicate a left hand turn. This same motion is no longer the case. Instead rather, in New Zealand this same motion brings anxiety with your windshield wipers randomly going off every time we try to turn. We are also quickly learning the metric system again. Our speed is in kilometers, one mile equals 1.62 Kilometers, and our gas is in liters, two liters equals a bottle of coke in America. The road signs are slightly different; instead of yield you have “give way.” You have a series of traffic lights, but the oddest one we have found is a bus light and only the bus can drive. It literally feels like we are advanced 16 year olds learning how to drive again.

We are heading down Interstate 1. The main highways here do not get any busier than Athens. As we get further outside the city it becomes a two-lane highway, like we are driving on highway 16 from Georgia/Florida. The radio stations are few and far between. The landscape is quite amazing. We are passing tons of cows, horses and of course sheep! Our destination at this point is Lake Taupo, which is a pretty central stopping point. Lake Taupo is known for its beautiful lake and hot springs. After about three and a half hours, we reach Taupo. We have a list of hostels that we would like to stay in, thanks to our Let’s Go New Zealand, Lonely Plant and our new handy Atlas. The town is looking pretty quiet at this point but we don’t think anything of it due the fact that it’s only 8pm. We go to our first hostel on the list… no vacancy. Okay, let’s go to the next one! The front desk is closed and there is no vacancy’s. Dude, it’s only 8 o’clock. We proceed to try five more places, no luck! We went to the grocery store, and they were gracious enough to let us use their phone. And we just start calling everywhere, no vacancy. Finally, after three bowls of coco puffs and having several heart to hearts with the grocery store ladies (one who offered her pull out couch to us), we decide to sleep in car. Therefore, we park the car in the safest place we could think of... the police station!

Tuesday morning we get an early start because not much sleeping is being done. We stop at a gas station to freshen up and we are on our way. We are shooting for a 1 o’clock ferry in Wellington to take us to the south island and we are about five hours away. Lindsay starts off driving and then Katie takes the wheel. Once again the landscape is breath taking and the roads are not very crowded. We arrive at the ferry just at 12:45 but all the ferries are booked for the remainder of the day. We have two ferries we can take: 2:35am or 8:35am. We decide to do the 2:35am ferry because it is cheaper and we are going to explore Wellington for the duration of our stay. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and there is much to see! We drive around exploring for a good while because parking is like Internet in New Zealand, expensive and not easy accessible. We stop at the botanical gardens to take a little stroll and rest. Unknowingly, we park our bodies right by a statue that turns out to be a popular site. When the people who visited the statue that day look back on their visit to the Wellington Botanical gardens, their pictures will include 3 girls sprawled across the lawn with pink sheets and pillows on heads, a.k.a a “hot mess.” But for the most part it is very peaceful and the weather is sunny and cool. Then we walk around the rose garden and head to the city center to get some food. We find a movie theatre, get tickets for the movie Valentines Day and hop on the Internet for a sec to make reservations for our hostel in Nelson. We are planning ahead because we do not want to reenact our sleeping situation in Taupo. We find an affordable hostel and make reservations online. Then we head to dinner at a place called Coyotes. The bartender ask us to present our passports, which initially we find quite awkward but in New Zealand foreigners have to show passports to get served a drink….. After dinner we head to the movie. The movie tickets are assigned seats, so we don’t have to worry about getting there early. For those of you who have watched a chick flick with Lindsay, enough said. The movie is decent but we have come to a consensus that it is not as good as it should have been with such an allstar cast. It’s about 11:30pm and we can enter the ferry terminal at 12pm. We go to yet another gas station to freshen up and we arrive to the ferry terminal. Emily burns us a CD to listen to! YAY! And we pass out for the next two hours before we have to board the boat. The ferry ride from Wellington to Picton is about three hours. We learn that you are not allowed to stay in the car during the boat ride. We find a spot on the boat and attempt to slumber.

A slow three hours passes and we are finally reach the south island!! YAY! Our final destination at this point is Nelson, which is about two hours away from Picton. We are kind of struggling at this point but Emily steps up and gets us to Nelson. It is a gray, cloudy Tuesday, which is not helping our sleepiness. We arrive at 7:45am at the hostel, and they don’t have our reservation! We want to cry. We decide to sleep two hours in the car and then start driving around Nelson to find a place to crash. Custom House was recommended to us from the previous hostel so we head there first. This nice old lady made accommodations for us and we couldn’t be happier at this point. FREE INTERNET, free tea and coffee, free washer/dryer, and of course, a bed. We move into a very spacious four-bedroom dorm. And don’t waste any time to shower and catch up with our sleep. Now what next?

We got a car!

We are in Auckland now. For those of you who do not know much about the city of Auckland, it is the most populated city in New Zealand and it is pretty much the New Zealand version of New York City. Anyways, we check into our hostel called ACB and we literally can’t wait to get into bed!

The next day is Friday, and we are excited to spend our first whole day in New Zealand. We have orientation at the International Exchange Programs (IEP) office at 10am. We wake up to our complimentary breakfast and head over for orientation. Keep in mind… we don’t know where we are living, working and how we are going to get around.

Orientation is very helpful and everyone in the IEP office is enthusiastic and accommodating. We have a list of things to do and a list of suggestions to think about. Unfortunately, the IEP office is closed on the weekend, and thus we are unable to reap the benefits of the resources we need such as free Internet. We learn it is very hard to come across free Internet in this country BUT we do find a Wendy’s for Lindsay…. so it’s ”sweet as!” After our long day, we decide to ease our minds and walk down to the harbor. It is a beautiful night with plenty of options for dining! We find a cute little place right on the water and decide to try it out. A nice older couple from Alabama sat right next to us and it is refreshing to talk to them. They have been traveling on both the north and the south island, so it is interesting to hear about their experiences, especially that driving on the wrong side of the road wasn’t that bad. We finish up dinner and call it a night.

On Saturday, we wake up and have our free breakfast and decide to go to the public library to use the free Internet. We get some leads on cars, places to live and work availability. So we are feeling somewhat productive at this point. Emily and Katie decide to take a short bus ride around Auckland. They see the University of Auckland and a few beautiful parks around the city. After their short escapade, they return to the hostel to find Lindsay finally mastering the extreme difficulties of making a local call on the common payphone. She has called a few people about car possibilities and one couple has agreed to meet us at 6 o’clock. The couple is very nice and is excited about our interest in the car. Their names are Vera and Dave, and Vera is German and Dave is Irish. They had met five years prior in Australia traveling and had planned to live in New Zealand for several years, but unfortunately had to cut their trip short due to some family stuff. Anyways, back to the car. It is a 1995 navy blue Subaru Legacy and in really good condition. They had only had it for one month and bought it from a family in Christchurch. We take it for a spin on the wrong side of the road. At first it is very awkward but we quickly get the drift. Lindsay is the brave soul to test-drive the car. We love the car but want to give it some thought before we make a final decision. The couple informs us that they are taking the car to the car fair in the morning and therefore, we need to make a decision by tonight. The pressure is on!!! We head back to the hostel, stop at our first grocery store and cook our first meal in the community cooking area at the hostel. By the end of the night, we decide to buy the car and pray we had made the right decision.

Sunday is a cloudy day and we are itching to get out of Auckland at this point. So we suck it up and decide to pay for 24 hour Internet and plan our next phase of this adventure. Lindsay runs into yet another person from Alabama. Her name is Seema, and she is traveling by herself having taken a year off from the University of Southern California to travel New Zealand. Seema joins us for dinner tonight. We cook spaghetti and watch the Olympics with our new friend. Again we hop in bed pretty early because we have a big day ahead of us…we are getting a CAR!

Our big day… MONDAY! We wake up a little later than expected. We pack our things and have to be out of the hostel by 10am. We meet Vera and Dave at 10:15 to do the car swap and registration. We all load up the car with our oversized luggage and head towards the “post shop” to legally change over the ownership of the car!! Very exciting yet legal stuff!!! After we get all the paper work figured out, we say goodbye to Vera and Dave and go back to the post shop to open a Kiwi Bank Account. The post office ends up being our best friend because we not only open our new bank accounts and are new car owners, but they allow us to use their phone. If you have not figured out yet, domestic communication is a very difficult issue for us since we have not purchased a phone. This is an issue we will most likely be dealing with in the very near future. Anyways, from this phone use, we are able to buy car insurance through the IEP office, find a mechanic and send postcards out! Next, we decide to chill in a café, before heading to the mechanic. The mechanic is from the states and is extremely helpful in getting our car ready for our big trip. We then travel across the street to AA, which is the New Zealand version of AAA, to get maps and register the car! We are almost ready to hit the road but we stop and get a “chilly bin” for our food and make sandwiches for the road. Talk about feeling productive!!!!! Now where are we going again?????

Flying Standby!

Where do we begin?? We are ready to rumble but does that mean they are ready for us? Lesson number one: we are informed that you need a visa to enter into Australia weather or not you are leaving the airport... yikes! So we decide to deal with the visa situation when we get to LA (are they for real)! Our main focus at this point is saying goodbye to our parents and getting on the plane.

Lindsay gets on!! Pilot Douglas McDuff (Lindsay's dad) meets us at our gate, as we anxiously await the potential departure to our adventures!! We get on... YAY!!! The flight to LA was not bad at all! Lesson number two: flight trivia is highly entertaining, especially if you are having sound difficulties. We arrive in LA famished. Emily and Katie are last to leave the plane and see Lindsay and this tiny man, that looked like Danny Devito, and they are freaking out because they supposedly saw Jennifer Aniston! Naturally, Emily and Katie bolt towards the direction in which Lindsay was pointing... long story short it was one big joke and Danny Devito and Lindsay are sitting there laughing. So now it's time to figure out this visa situation. We exit the terminal and meet with the Delta agent. We had some slight entertainment with a Chinese woman, who was unable to speak English. Her inability to speak English made us appreciate the fact we were going to an English speaking country. Anywho we got the visa and we are good to go! Time to eat. Where do we eat? Ruby's diner. What do we eat? Chicken fingers, French fries, and chocolate milkshake. Typical.



Round Two. Are we going to get on our flight to Sydney? The flight is looking good. Is this really going to happen? Lindsay gets first class!! And shortly after Emily and Katie get cleared and are assigned seat A and C, with a seat between them. Score. Yes this is really going to happen. Once again we are in the back on the plane... no big deal because we have a seat between us! Wellllll..... we are all smiles at this point. We are going to Sydney and we have a seat between us!! What What!!! As we reach row 56, we stop and look around. Where is seat B? Seat B is nowhere to be found. Turns out that the last row only has a seat A and seat C.... why in the world would you have just an A and C... I mean at least put A and B! This is extremely humorous to us. Lesson number three: be flexible and have a sense of humor!!!



We arrive in Sydney fifteen hours later. It is 8 am in Sydney and the airport is a mad zoo. But we still have one more flight to go! We have a slight panic attack because we have to make our next flight with a completely different airline. Some sweet old man hooks us up and lets us breeze through customs! Thank goodness. Lindsay is flying standby. Emily and Katie are flying Aerolineas Argentina. We split up in hopes of meeting each other on the other side. We are unsure if Lindsay is going to get on her flight. But more importantly where and when we will meet her in the Auckland Airport because our phones don't work. Turns out that most international flights, including Aerolineas Argentina, have strict bag weight limits. Lesson number four: learn to pack light! We ended up paying an arm and a leg to bring our bags to New Zealand but it's all good. We are going to New Zealand!! Lindsay gets on her flight. Emily and Katie get called over the intercom and were given new boarding tickets, thinking nothing of it. It is time to board, free for all, everyone boards at the same time. Emily and Katie happen to be standing in front and are the first ones to board with their oversized carry ons and flowered pillows. We casually walk on the plane and soon realize that we have been upgraded to first class. Best news ever. We are freaking out! Emily asked the lady if it looked like we belonged in first class. Her response, "not with those pillows." We only have three more hours to go but strangely wish we could be pampered a little bit longer.



Quick sum... We left Feb 9th in Atlanta, Georgia, checked luggage, five hour plane ride, four hour layover, 15 hour plane ride, four hour layover, three hour plane ride and arrive Feb 11th in Auckland, New Zealand. Approximately 36 hours later we finally made it! We breeze through customs, after they clean our boots. Now what do we do?

Departure

We are leaving tomorrow... will arrive in Auckland on Feb 11th!

Atlanta

Katie has arrived in Atlanta. We went to Mellow Mushroom to watch the super bowl. Saints won. We will know tomorrow by noon if we get on a flight to LA and then hopefully to Sydney.