Week 49- Haere Rā Aotearoa

In this exam season, the study continued with much enjoyment coming from having to run up and down 16 flights of stairs in our building just to be doing some exercise! The main point of note from Monday was that we ran out of toilet roll so we had to permanently borrow some from the bathrooms on campus for home use. I rose at 05:00 on Tuesday morning to get ready for my control systems exam. Nothing like some last-minute cramming to settle the nerves! The exam went very well so I celebrated it by going to my very last physio session in New Zealand to have some more needling done and to make a plan for going forward. I ate lunch with Harry and the break seemed to continue into the mid-afternoon! Ulysse returned from his trip to the South Island so we had our final Monday munchies (group dinner with everyone). This rather fittingly took place on a Tuesday!

Wednesday continued with more study as I prepared for my final exam on Thursday and my impending departure from the land of the long white cloud. By Thursday I was pretty highly strung. I woke at about 04:30 to prepare for my exam and actually felt overwhelmed by the amount I needed to know for the course and I also had the fact that Marlene was leaving during my exam. Harry, Bridget and Alice came for breakfast to say goodbye and I found myself neither participating in breakfast nor studying- just in limbo. Suddenly it was time. I went with the group downstairs, shared an embrace and cycled off to my exam. It was perhaps the most under-prepared I have ever felt for an exam and it didn’t go well. I had an unbearable feeling in my stomach afterwards but I did sufficiently well to pass. I cycled home, ate lunch, showered and began to clean my room. Clearing the photos off the walls was surprisingly tough. I began packing too but it mainly consisted of doing a wash and putting all of my clothes on my bed. I then borrowed Harry’s bike to cycle to Cooper’s to hangout and play cards. On the way there I decided to stop and have a haircut for the first time since February, and the first I’d paid for in years! We ended up talking for ages and he got me carrot cake which was super special. Ian joined in playing hearts but seemed to get the Queen of spades every time! In the first game, Cooper managed to shoot the moon and then Ian did at the end to make Cooper lose! I cycled home late and at 1am was unwilling to move the clothes from my bed so slept in Marlene’s vacated bed instead.

Having come home late from Cooper’s I wasn’t super thrilled to be woken by Ulysse listening to the radio at 7am. Shortly before 08:00 he came into Marlene’s room, where I was sleeping, to get something off the line. The look on his face when I said good morning and he realized he hadn’t been alone was priceless! I madly spent the morning packing, somehow got everything into my suitcase and dragged it up to the post office to be weighed. The guy at the post office didn’t know if I could post it so I went home, with my 27kg suitcase, to see. The post was my cheapest option, so I wrapped it in cling film and headed back to the post office. Once I had forked out $500 my stuff was ready to go… Only they noticed my laptop was in it, thankfully I had already removed the battery (as it no longer worked) otherwise it would have been quite the ordeal. I ate lunch with Harry before spending some time planning Iceland in the physics PhD room. We walked home together and I did more planning on Ulysse’s French laptop which made it slow work. Harry came over for dinner and we made a massive risotto (to polish off the rest of our food) before the boys had to go to bed to be ready for their exams.

Saturday 23rd June was literally the longest day of my life as I was going to cross the international date line and live the day twice. I woke early, my last morning in Auckland, to ring Sam so we could plan our Iceland trip. We sorted out the beginning of the trip and booked some activities that I will write about later. Then, seeing as my couch surfing host for Maui had to bail on me (due to disaster response) I was rapidly trying to sort out plans for that island. I managed to organise traveling with some other couch surfers so we will see how that works out! I then cycled to ANI for the last time, to return a book for Harry, watch some frisbee and chat with Emma. Once games were over I cycled, while Emma ran, back to Cooper’s- The last trip on my bike (Cooper kindly agreed to sell it for me). We hung out there, chatted about the future and ate until I had to go deal with my landlord. We took a quick photo before Emma and Cooper dropped me home, the first very sad goodbye of the day. Neither elevator was working when I got home so I had to run up 16 flights of stairs. I packed my bag for traveling, gathered my things for the charity shop and jogged up to donate it. Onto Harry’s, I had to get a screw driver to put the safety back on my window. After that was done and I had showered and changed I went down the stairs for the last time as I left 21 Whitaker place.

Dragging my GK bag, Ulysses and I walked to Harry’s. Bridget and Alice joined too for a cup of tea. I grabbed a quick bite before missing the 23 person meal as Rory came to take me to the airport. It was perhaps the hardest to say goodbye to Harry but thankfully he lives the closest. Rory was quickly able to show me his new home before we were at the airport. He kindly gave me a Kiwi flag and came into the airport. I skipped most of the queue as I was already checked in online and then suddenly I had said goodbye to everyone and departure was imminent. I spoke with mum and Marlene on the phone before being randomly selected by the TSA for drugs and explosives checks. We took off for Hawaii just before midnight. I had broken sleep most of the way until they fed us at about 09:00 local time on Saturday 23rd June. I was ready to live the day all over again!