To New Zealand! The journey and week 1

As the goodbyes started to feel more and more final it made the whole idea of leaving for a year a little more real. First various friends, then family members, Granny, Holly even popped her head around the door and then it was 4am, Monday 17th July, and time to go to the airport. Dad said his farewell before mum dropped me to the airport and came to check in my bags. As I was bringing my goalkeeping gear I was a little (quite a lot) over weight so I was slightly concerned. Thankfully due to the obscene size of the bag it couldn’t be weighed accurately on the scale so I managed to get away with it. We went up to security where mum and I parted ways, mum holding back the tears with me laughing. Of course, mum then proceeded to hide behind a bin and watch me as I wound through the queue and eventually disappeared into the unknown. The beginning of something very special.

My first flight was a mere hop across the Irish sea to London where I had a couple of hours to grab a quick full Irish breakfast before the real travelling got going. I filled my 3L milk carton and boarded my 13 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I stayed up writing to begin with and then had a meal before I tried to get a few hours sleep in an attempt to switch to New Zealand time early. After three broken hours I awoke and enjoyed watching Logan and La La Land. Considering it was 13 hours the time seemed to fly and before I knew it I was in Kuala Lumpur. Next stop New Zealand. A mere 10 hours this time stood between me and my destination. I watched a few more films including Speed but I can’t actually remember the others as the desire to sleep eventually won out and I had to sleep for a couple of hours. Soon I had reached the far corner of the planet and went to retrieve my bags. My goal keeping bag was there immediately but I then had a very anxious 15 minute wait to see if the bag with all my clothes would make it. Thankfully it did and I was able to get through customs without too much hassle.

The University brought me to my accommodation. I arrived at around 2am on Wednesday after 35 hours of travel and fell asleep. I am staying in a small apartment complex with just 91 students called Parnell Student Village. In my apartment there is one guy, Jack, from Seattle and three local girls; Jess, Jess and Emily. Though when I arrived only Jack was here. My room itself is on the top floor with the big draw of having a balcony! Otherwise it is basic enough. There is a real community feel here, even if it’s mostly only the international students who have arrived so far.

My orientation began at 10am on Wednesday with a Haka before we were introduced to various faculty members and told about all the hoops we had to jump through to get all of our admin stuff sorted. A quick bite of lunch and then I took part in the ‘Amazing Race’ organised by the Study Abroad Student’s Society (SASS). We were split into teams and then had to do various tasks and take group pictures at different locations around Auckland including a human knot and a human pyramid. It was a great way to get to know some of the other international students and I then had dinner with some of the members of my group back at the accommodation. Thursday was mostly spent jumping through the aforementioned hoops and finding that I was trying to do most of them in the wrong order. I also went to a group meet up, again organised by SASS, before not going ice skating as it was rained off!

Friday was the Engineering and Science faculty orientations. I was standing in a group when a man appeared asking if any of us would represent the student body at the ceremony by saying thank you and welcoming everyone as part of the traditional powhiri. As he worked around the group of eight or so and was turned down by everyone I felt bad for him so I agreed to do it as he had assured me that I would be told what to say and it would be easy. This was a ruse. He brought me down and left me in the hands of the MC. Who proceeded to tell me that he in fact wanted me to talk for 2-3 minutes and the ceremony was due to start in five minutes. Too late to back down I tried to prepare as best I could. We were greeted by song before the MC spoke in a mixture of Maori language and English. This then gave me the idea to pull out bit of Gaeilge. Armed with a good way to repeat myself and the fact that no one would understand me anyway I began in my flawless Irish. It seemed to be well received and I then sat back to enjoy the rest of the ceremony. It is Maori tradition to touch noses at the end of these ceremonies and then shake hands so I duly touched noses with all the engineering faculty members as I attempted to embrace this new culture.

This was followed by a campus tour (in the rain) before I finished jumping through the various admin hoops. I then had the pleasure of joining our old neighbours and good family friends; Mark, Clare, Jack and Tara, for dinner. They live just a 25 minute walk away and I was very keen to see them. A meal was served with no less than 4 chickens, making me feel like absolute royalty. There is no shortage a hospitality here! Hopefully I will have many more adventures with this wonderful family this year.

If you’d like to see the photos taken so far you can find them here.