The last few nights in New Zealand where both emotional and joyous, for contrary to what I'd predicted, I was with - more or less - the same group of people for the majority of the Kiwi Experience journey, and we'd all become rather close. I went ahead of the group to Christchurch, but not before a couple of very drunken nights out in Queenstown. Particular highlights included drinking cheap wine at the harbour by the lake, where hilarious German Mo would play a mean air guitar, and Colin and Matt would mime ecstatically to the best music from Top Gun. The latter would lead us to the decision of performing a topless reenactment of the volleyball scene using a pretend ball in front of people dining outside a restaurant. Whether it was a good one or not is up to them. Us four, plus Fred, Jason and Vicky, joined the rest of the crew later for dancing and good times.
Christchurch, in the region of Canterbury, is, so they say, the most English city outside of England. Which exactly isn't what you want when you've travelled as far away from England as is possible. I found it a little dull, with few sights to see. I decided to go to the cinema one evening to pass the time, and opted to watch a film called Moon (clearly I'm obsessed). I was in the city on my own for a couple of days, until the rest of the crew from the Kiwi bus caught up with me and things got fun again. Some pre-drinking of wine in one of the dorms warmed us up before heading to the adjoining bar of the hostel, for one last night together as one big group. Matisse got so upset about it all he began scrawling desperate messages on people's arms such as 'I will never forget Matisse' and 'I can't live without Matisse in my life'. Poor guy.
In the morning I checked out and travelled to the airport with Charlotte and Kim, two girls from the Kiwi bus, who were coincidentally on the same flight. Sadly I lost them after touching down in Sydney, but they were the most excellent company and helped put my mind at ease before we boarded the plane. After collecting my luggage I stepped outside to find a shuttle to my hostel and was a tad surprised to find it was raining rather heavily. Not that I minded. As soon as I arrived at my destination, way past my bedtime at 7.30pm, I decided to hit the hay.
If I'm perfectly honest, I awoke the next morning not entirely looking forward to my time in Sydney. The thought of having to travel alone again and make new friends seemed tiring, and I had much planning to do if I wanted to see Australia's east coast. The previous night's storm having passed, I went outside, bought some sun screen, and followed a map towards the harbour. If I could go and see the Opera House, I thought, it was sure to put me in a more positive mood. As I strolled through the streets of Sydney I was impressed by the vibrancy of the city, by the people who scurried about their lives and of the mixture of modern and Victorian architecture. Much more a proper city like New York or London, so far from the relatively poor efforts of New Zealand's urban areas. The walk to the harbour from my place in Kent St took a little over 15 minutes, and I felt true, genuine excitement as the Harbour Bridge and the peaks of the Opera House's sails came in to view. Two years ago, maybe less, I never would have imagined ever making it to this part of the world, the distance too vast and too scary to contemplate. Geographically, New Zealand is further than Australia from the UK, but the Opera House served as a strong symbol of other-side-of-the-worldness. Later that evening I met up with Angela, a friend from Sydney that I met on the American tour, and we went to the Opera House again where they have a very nice bar with the beautiful backdrop of those two great landmarks.
The next day I met with some more familiar faces when I arranged to meet Ben and Rachael who have just moved to Sydney from Tunbridge Wells, and are two of my sister's closest friends. We had an excellent day starting with a tasty lunch on a rooftop pub overlooking the Opera House, then on to Darling Harbour where we soaked up the sun over a few beers. Christmas decorations are up already, and I found it a bit surreal to see them in such beautiful, hot weather. We went for dinner together, the bouncers of a bar reluctanctly letting us in despite our inappropriate attire, then we parted ways.
I stayed in Sydney for just over a week, not once feeling tired or bored of the place. I went for a couple of nights out in Kings Cross and at The Gaff with my room mates at the hostel, and met with more of the guys from the American tour as our own plans had brought us to Sydney at the same time. I met up with Ben again for a day at the Sydney Aquarium and Wildlife World, which involved a lot of 'cor look at that!' responded to with 'I know!'. All the while I was working out the most satisfying and cheapest way of seeing the east coast within my five weeks in Australia. I fixed up an itineray with a backpackers agency, and booked myself to leave the following Saturday with OzExperience, the Australian equivalent of the Kiwi Experience. After one last night with Ben and Rach, I packed my bags and headed for the bus stop in the morning.
Coincidentally and to my delight, I found that Fred, from the Kiwi bus and a comrade from the Queenstown harbour moments, was also leaving on the same trip as me! Things couldn't have been better - I was on the road again, with a friendly face and with loads of new people to become friends with too. Our first stop was Spot X, a surfer's spot so called because apparently it's a bit of a secret. We were all to have a surfing lesson in the morning, which I wasn't really interested in, but for now we were fed dinner and given the opportunity to do some night time kayaking downriver, which I took. When us kayakers returned, we joined everyone else in drinking beer and goon (cheap wine) in the warm night until we were too exhausted.
We all awoke with terrible headaches, but attended the 9am briefing for the surf lesson all the same. We were kitted up in 'spring' wetsuits (short arms and legs), provided with nice big learner's boards, and then we headed on down to the beach. Here we were given an overview of the overall technique, and then it was time to hit the water. I dawdled about a bit, then finally decided it was time to get on the board and give it a go. An instructor right next to me shouting some instructions told me the exact right time to get up on the board and stand and to my surprise I did stand, I did balance, and I did surf on a wave for a short while. I did it first time. 'This is easy!', I thought, 'I'm a bloody natural!'. And for the next two hours I proved that this wasn't the case at all as I failed repeatedly to repeat my first attempt. Still, I had a great deal of fun, and found it strangely addictive. Another one of those activities that I was reluctant to take part in at first, but after doing it completely changed my mind. Oh, and it's a good cure for a hangover.
In the afternoon we headed for Byron Bay and for a night on the town. I was to leave again for Rainbow Beach the next day, unlike everyone else who had a few nights to spare. I was sad about this - we'd become a pretty cool group of people in just a couple of days. Still, by the time I was back on the bus I shook off the negative feelings and instead felt glad about travelling alone. I've really met some excellent people, and it seems there's always more round the corner.
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