All the other GAPpers have been telling me to get a blog. Therefore, I decided to jump on the ole band-waggon and create this. I can not promise it will be the most exciting, witty or funny piece of literature you will read. Nor can I garentee the lack of mistakes in spelling and grammer. There I feel the need to apologise for this in advance. :):)

I've been in New Zealand now for about... 3 weeks. I had the whole "It will fly by", "Don't waste a second" and the "You'll be home before you know it" chat with family, friends and fellow GAPpers. I followed these conversations with the answer of "NAHHH!!" and "MEH!!" (If you know me well you will already be aware that these are my common responses to many questions and situations.) But it is only now that I am starting to realise that they were telling the truth. 3 weeks has flown by. It only seems like yesterday that I was taking my exam rather than exploring a complete different country in the big wide world on my own. I guess nows the time when I really start to realise that maybe nows the time to grow up? Face the "big bad world". Therefore, this is what I'm going to do. I do not want to bore you with the tiny, not very interesting details of my journey so far. I shall cut to the chase and proceed to start my story. I will try and keep this entry short and snappy as it shall be impossible to tell you EVERYTHING that has happened in the past 3 weeks.

26th August 2009 it all started. After failing my driving test, saying goodbye to my friends, mass rush packing and bidding fair well to my parents I boarded our flight at 9pm leaving London Heathrow. I think it was then, and the realisation I had actually said to my Mother "See you later" just before I left, it finally dawned on me that I shall not be returning for a whole year. Homesickness started to kick in even before the plan departed from London. Is that sad? However, I manned up, and told myself I am about to embrace the biggest challenge I have to complete to date. Thats when the excitment kicked in. I was one of the lucky ones. Emma, whom I attended school with, is also doing the same project as me, just in Timaru (about 4 hours up from Dunedin) was my flight buddy (not much conversation was had as we seemed to sleep in different patterns to each other), but knowing that some I know well was in the same country as me made me feel slightly better. It must be said, the first thing that hit me when flying 28 hours was the amount of variety on the plane entertainment channels. Things have definately changed since my 2001 trip to America where there were about 3 films and some crappy little music channel. There was even a detailed flight map, giving us all the vital statistics such as flight time, time till landing, where we were currently and the ever changing time difference. After 2 films and the need to explore through EVERY music channel avaliable, I fell asleep to the sound of Zac Efron during the film "17 Again". I've always had an issue with sleeping in light and moving objects, so i was pleasantly surprised to have a "kip".

Hong Kong came and went in a blink, and we were on our last, but painfully long stretch to Auckland.

Landing in Auckland and after an intense security session, we were rushed to meet our New Zealand project manager Sharyn. Walking through arrivals I was greeted with a camera in my face (thanks for that Kate) and a warm welcoming from "the gang". Needless to say, we were all knackered and desperate for a shower, so we were all ushered into a mini van (there were 4 of them) and dashed to our hostel. There, we had a 5 minute shower and was once again rushed out to a local school, called Wesley College where we were formally and traditionally welcomed by a group of Maori's. After alot of nose touching and singing we were set to explore New Zealand.

Auckland Tower was next on the agenda, but jet lag was severely kicking in. The views from the tower were AMAZING and i was gutted at the realisation that I had left my camera at the hostel so my phone had to do. It was awesome to see the whole stretch of the city. I must say it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever encountered. A night of drinking and party shannagans were planned, however, was later abandoned due to immense jet lag with me crashing out at 7pm. The night itself was interesting, after the endless typical city sounds, a 50 man brawl outside our hostel and the witnessing of a police chase and arrest I was surprised to feel realitively alive and fresh the next day. Unsurpringly it was that morning I was informed that out hostel was in the centre of "Aucklands red light district". Is this true? I don't no, but it makes sense due to the shannagans heard and witnessed during a state of sleep (i remember one night Becki wanting to getted involved with the riots in the streets, so thought it be a good idea to start yelling out the window. It was a group decision to hide behind the curtains and duvets at that moment.) After a quick facebook check (yes im that sad) and a quick email we were to start the most important but final day of the orientation.

Day 2 approached and we were all summoned to a rather snazzy looking hotel where we were to recieve the usual do's, don'ts, handy tips and survival guide to New Zealand. This lasted all day from 10am (i think) to about 4pm. A lively night was in order so the group jumped on a ferry (COLD) and went on over to Devonport where a Mexican night was on order. After filling myself up too much food and drink (non alcoholic i would like to add) the jet lagged hit again which resulted in me actually FALLING alseep at the table (there is proof of this in photo form on my facebook). After my cheesecake and a rendition of happy birthday in German, English AND Spainish, a group of us decided to head on back to the hostel which involved an even COLDER ferrier ride. I crashed out about 8pm.

Dunedin was on the cards. Placement was calling. Columba College wanted me. It was time to bid farewell to the group and go our seperate ways (for know). It was a mission to pack all out bags into the van, but when this was completed off we went to the airport. With a serious lack of security checks and a little bit of confusion at the check in desk, I decided to take charge (this is know surprise.) A group check in was suggested so all those travelling to Dunedin gathered together, checked in, bid are farewells to the South Islanders and headed to gate 33 to sit, chill out and wait for our 1pm flight. 30 minutes before boarding it dawned on the "Dunedin travellers" that we had lost 2 of our group. 1 German and 1 Canadian. A panic set about is prompting 2 German GAPpers to ask for a security call on the inter-com. 10 minutes passed and our "lost" companions returned only to inform us that they had different tickets to us. Same flight details, different gate number. Confusion amoung the group was created so we decided to investigate. Needless to say it wasn't at gate 28 which was thought, but in fact, it was the opposite side of the airport at gate 33. A close call.

After saying "Bon Voyage" to the Gore GAPpers, the embarassment of trying to learn German and the mocking of each others accents, it was our time to board. We were set to fly down south to Wellington, our first stop.

The flight was awful. AWFUL!! Wellington is imfamously know as the "windy city" for obvious reasons. Turberlance hit us hard! We dipped and dived and titled and spun (well we didnt really spin, that was inplanted for dramatic effect) until we finally landed! All GAPpers got off the flight looking white. It was then we all agreed that we had just experienced the worse flight possible. This was said shortly before the pilot had declared that that was the "best day flying they have encountered in a while". BEST DAY?!?! I dread to think what a bad days like. Once more it was time to board the dreaded plane for the next part of our journey to Dunedin. After an.... OK flight, it was time for the South Islanders to split up. It was now just me and Maddy (my German gap placement friend).

Columba College was insight. We were in Dunedin. It was now time to be introduced to my placement. To start the next chapter (not meaning to sound cheesy).

I shall end this post here, as it is becoming fairly long. Leave you in some sort of created suspense. My Dunedin adventures will soon be posted. But for now its time for me to say
goodbye.

Haere ra!

Sian
xxx