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The beginning of the end, well everything is that of course.
So one year has nearly passed and here i am writing my final blog entry for what has to be the most incredible trip of my life. I really cannot believe how quickly a year can pass.
I'll firstly bring you up to date. As i said in my last blog, my plans have changed so many times it is ridiculous well this time was no exception. I did leave Dunedin on the date i meant to, i said one of the hardest goodbyes i've ever had to to Lily and i got on a bus to Christchurch. I got a late flight from Christchurch up to Auckland getting in at 22:45, and spent a night in Auckland, with a bus booked up to Paihia the following morning. Well being the clever berk that i am i left my phone on silent so my alarm went off in silence, and i missed it, i opened my eyes at 7:45. I threw on my clothes and backpack, and hurled down the stairs booking a taxi to where my bus went from. I had to run the last 100 metres because of traffic, so i made a dash for the street where the bus went from carrying 30kg of weight and of course i missed it.
I was furious with myself, and more so because i was now stuck in Auckland. I walked up to the Intercity Bus office and booked another bus ($50 :() and waited in Starbucks for basically awhole day, catching up my journal etc etc.
Eventually i got the bus up to Paihia and booked into the hostel where i was going to be working. I got there and no staff were around because i got there late, i was back in a dorm and back in a hostel and to be completely honest i hated it. I ended up sitting in the lounge, and a friendly swiss guy came over with a bottle of Jamesons, and we drank heartily and spoke about travels and life and things that an Englishman and a Swiss would talk about.
With all the hassle of missed buses and travel, i hadn't really had a chance to think about Lily but as soon as i got to the hostel and started cleaning bathrooms for accomodation and was basically on my own, i missed her a lot. After a few days things weren't any better, and i started to consider the possibility of going back, and temping in Dunedin and having my last month with Lily instead. You know how it is with these things, once you give your mind that possibility it wont let up thinking about it, and i basically decided that is what i would do. After all i realised i would soon run out of money in Paihia, and with it being a small place the likelyhood of getting work for a month was remote. I was also a little dissapointed with Paihia, i expected an exotic paradise and really it wasn't close to that, it rained a couple of days and the beach was a real dissapointment. No green blue sea water, it was murky brown, and this on top of me missing Lily i decided i would go back to Dunedin! I know it sounds like i didn't give it a chance, but i am a firm believer in following your heart, and it said my last month would be better spent with her.
So we spoke and decided i may as well come back, despite the fact we would inevitably have to go through another horrendous goodbye, i came back to Dunedin. So i have been here for the last month working for Select, the local agency. I picked up a few weeks work with a utilities company through them, called Delta. Basically i have been working with the drainage part of the company, which i must say has been a rather humbling experience. Digging out sewage pipes that are still in use i must say was an eye opening experience! Really that has been my last month, just working and being with Lily, which has been fantastic but difficult, knowing you are approaching a break up you cannot escape is a really weird feeling and not an easy one to deal with.
So i guess that brings you up to where i am now. There isn't much to say now, i am glad i have left parts of the country i can travel to when i come back. As for me and Lily, i wont go on too much as this is a travel blog and not the Romance Memoires of Ben Rowsell, but we will just hope we get another chance to be together, we need to end things now to give it the best chance in future, Lily has plans to come over to Europe, we will just have to see where we are when that happens. Bit of advice, don't start a relationship when your travelling, because this part is excrutiating.
I want to thank you all for continuing to read these, and for all your messages on my board. I fly home on Saturday and will be back in England on the afternoon of Sunday 28th. I look forward to catching up with everyone, and telling you all about the trip, even though you know about most of it from these blogs!
I also want to say thank you to New Zealand and Kiwi's in general for putting up with me and looking after me for a year, i love this country completely and cannot wait to return again.
See you all soon.
Ben xx
- comments
Ben wow Ben good blog, i think i am the only person who reads these now. Keep it up. See you when your back. Yourself x