The moment has come, the plane has touched down and I am here. New Zealand.
The moment has arrived that I have been imagining for a very long time. After so many hours of flight and sleepless nights. I have arrived at my first destination in New Zealand - Christchurch.
On Christmas Eve, I arrive at the hostel to the sounds of drunk Europeans playing beer pong. The hostel, The Old Countryhouse, is a super cool place. Full of grass and space, along with a jacuzzi and sauna, did nothing but help my back pain from all the sitting on planes.
After a shower and a good night’s sleep, I am human again and can get down to business, buying a van.
Hours of browsing Facebook led to several sellers, some of whom I met. The first car I saw belonged to a cute Israeli couple and it was my baptism of fire in driving on the left side (it really takes courage to let an inexperienced guy take your car for a test drive).
A few more cars and I find my pearl, my precious. It’s a 2006 Nissan Serena with 165,000 km (very little compared to the broken cars of travelers). The first owner of the car built a bed and a very high-quality kitchen in the back and that’s one of the things that bought me.
Okay, I decided this was the car, what now?
So we took the car for a check-up with Tony, a Chinese-Kiwi mechanic who adopted the two accents, it took a lot of effort to understand him. Tony confirmed that the car is a bonbonniere with wheels.
Come on, let’s buy it. Wait… How the hell do I transfer money to a foreign account? So there you have it, this is a big pain in the ass.
The cash option was the second to come, but it didn’t make my life easy either. The bank didn’t want to let me withdraw a large amount, so ATMs were a last resort. The ATMs also joined in the celebration and didn’t release many papers each time.
Cheers, I’ve reached the moment where I’m holding a respectable amount of cash and everything is ready. Wass the seller and I met and did the transfer of ownership which turns out to be very simple to the point of being suspicious (basically I can register any car in my name without much problem), after the transfer of ownership we drove to his house and started counting bills as if we were running a cartel in Mexico.
Wass and I said goodbye with the keys in my hand and I set off. The way back to the hostel was scary, mainly because I wasn’t used to driving on the left and it would be a bummer to have an accident on the first day (in retrospect I realized that I didn’t have insurance on this trip either, so it could have been a shame).
The car is parked and now the pressure threshold can drop, a few last arrangements and we can set off. I booked the hostel from Israel because I was afraid there wouldn’t be a place in Christchurch for the new year, so I had a few days to spend in the city anyway. During those days I didn’t do anything except shopping and making arrangements for the car, and they weren’t particularly exciting.
On Friday I went to Shabbat dinner at the Chabad house with Dor and Miriam and it was wonderful. It was nice to speak a little Hebrew after hearing mostly German at the hostel, the guys were very nice and Dor and Miriam hosted us amazingly.
How could we not, we went to celebrate the New Year as the first pioneers and it was a lot of fun at an Independence Day style event that ended about 10 minutes into 2023. (Somewhat disappointing… but after that we went to a cool party in the city).
Sunday, January 1st arrived and I set off, taking with me another Israeli traveler I met at the Chabad house. Finally leaving the city, the buildings were replaced by green fields with sheep and the busy roads with narrow roads with very few cars.
The excitement of embarking on a new stage of the journey was at its peak and I was excited about every hill and river we passed along the way. It was nice to share the enthusiasm with someone else and not just myself.
The first destination was Lake Tekapo. We reached it after a beautiful road, my jaw dropped from the mesmerizing blue color of the water.
I was very happy that the administration was finally over and I could just enjoy. As much as I had been waiting for this moment, every second I wasted on errands in the city made it feel more powerful.
We spent the next few days in the Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki area on cute day trips and dips in the cool waters. They were definitely fun days, but at the same time they sharpened my need to be independent and not dependent on other people. I realized that it was most accurate for me at that point to split up and continue on my own, and so we did.
Although we got along pretty well, after the split I was filled with a sense of relief. Now I am on my own and can respond to the impulsive craziness when it comes.
The next destination was Mount Cook - the highest mountain in New Zealand.
I arrived at the parking lot from where the trails in the reserve leave and went on my first trip in the country, which was definitely easy but beautiful. At the end of the route, I reached a lake with glaciers, which is an impressive sight on the one hand and sad on the other because you can clearly see global warming.
Being alone gave me space for my thoughts that were running in all directions, I love it very much even though it is also hard. One moment you are lonely and the next you get a feeling of happiness, one moment you are missing people and then you are peaceful and relaxed. I can describe these moments as an emotional roller coaster, very happy for the good moments, and for the ones that are less I’m trying not to drown into them, I try to analyze them and learn from them. There is no doubt that it is not an easy task to control such thoughts, but overall I am very satisfied with the way I look at things and I feel that I am learning a lot about myself.
In addition, one of the things I wanted to work on during the trip was to understand what I really want, not to be tempted by what is convenient and what “arrived at my doorstep”. I define myself as a very flexible type of person and I think that is a positive trait, but sometimes I give it too much free rein and it gets to the point where I do something I didn’t really want. I was happy that I knew how to say that I want to travel alone and I really applied it, I will try to be true to myself in the rest of the journey.
The routine of life in the van began to take shape, I began to understand where to put everything, how to pack the equipment and most importantly what to eat. How much fun I have in the simplicity of getting up in the morning, making the bed, preparing a good breakfast (usually some oatmeal and apple or some peanut butter and jam sandwich) and starting the day. I sleep great in the van and life in it feels pretty comfortable to me.
The next day I was supposed to go on an easy trek, during which I would hike to a hut on one of the peaks, sleep there, and return the same way the next day. The forecast said it was going to rain on the second day, so I decided to combine the days into one.
I slept that very rainy night (I was so happy to be in the dry, wind-protected van) in the same parking lot and in the morning I set off towards my next destination - Wanaka.
The trip to Wanaka was a lot of fun. I marked points on the road that interested me and made the journey calmly with lots of stops in beautiful places, while my playlist was playing loudly and I accompanied it with off-tune singing that no one heard.
When I get to Lake Wanaka, I of course put on Keren Peles’ “Lake Wanaka” and I filled with happiness (I’ve been imagining this moment for a few months and here it is). I went for a ride with the bike, which with every ride proves that it was worth the $50 I spent on it. After debating where to spend the night, I decided to go a little out of town to a free camp. On the way, I was suddenly not convinced that this was the right choice, but as I’ve discovered many times - everything goes wrong for the better!
The camp sat on the bank of a perfect blue river that was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. In the evening I met my neighbors, Alex and Sarah from Switzerland who are celebrating their honeymoon with an amazing camper and the cool Australian Caroline who is crossing New Zealand on a bicycle. We had a very, very fun evening with good food, rum from Vanuatu and chocolate from Switzerland (a bit non-vegan but oh my god they know how to make chocolate). In the morning Caroline and I said goodbye to Alex and Sarah and rode our bikes to the river where we did Tarzan to the water and a photography lesson (Caroline is a photography teacher and this is my second photography lesson on the trip, the first was with Angelo in New Delhi remember?). I was happy to have made new friends, who were of course added to my overseas friends excel, a place where I write down all the details of the friends I would like to see again someday.
The next trip was to the blue pools near Makarora. To be honest, for the first time I was a little disappointed, as I was expecting clear blue pools, but I only got a brown river with foam (in Israel it was still an attraction, but in New Zealand I was already used to the high standard).
I can’t believe I managed to cover the first two weeks and reach the moment where I sit and write these lines at the campsite in Makarora, which was also an opportunity for a good shower, electricity and wifi.
And a little summary of the first two weeks in New Zealand: Sometimes it’s not easy, sometimes unpleasant feelings come, but you have to remember that it’s a moment and it passes. I saw this in the first post and I’ll quote:
“I want to remember moments when it was hard for me, when I wasn’t comfortable and all I wanted was to close my eyes and open them when I was lying on the couch at home, with the people I love, with a cup of tea in one hand and a cake in the other. I want to remember those moments also because they make me appreciate what I have. ”
I wish for myself to be as attentive and true to myself as possible and to learn a lot along the way.