After barely escaping India, landing in Christchurch and making it through customs with my year long New Zealand work visa was quite the relief. For some reason I always feel like I’m going to be that guy that gets pulled aside and interrogated for hours like you see in the movies, however it’s never happened to me despite my regular attendance at airports (knock on wood).
Exiting the airport doors, it was a bit dreary with the weather looking quite different than the summers I was used to back home, but I didn’t mind at all due to the drizzling rain bringing yet even more freshness to the air. Stepping outside of the airport was magnificent. No burning trash, no cows in the road, no ambush of taxi drivers and vendors pulling at my arms trying to get me into their vehicles or into their shops. I kind of just stood there smiling at my new destination, breathing in its fresh air, admiring how civilized it was and most of all how green this new world was. It was incredibly green. Everywhere you looked every plant was thriving, trees were fuller than I had ever seen, and acres and acres of grass were thick and dark green in color. Everything was so alive. I know it is weird to say, but coming from India, it makes you appreciate life.
Snapping out of my euphoria, I awkwardly began hailing a cab. I had been so used to taxi drivers escorting me to their vehicles, I had sort of forgotten how to call one for myself. Luckily a shuttle driver took pity on me and said he would help me out with a lift to a nearby hostel that was on his route. On the way to the hostel I began to realize the devastation this city had incurred through the earthquake that devastated so many in 2010. The destruction was clearly still present in many ways. Hundreds of businesses shut down, homes abandoned, streets in shambles. It was like driving through a war zone.
Upon arriving at my hostel, I began talking with the owner who had documented all of the newspaper articles that had to do with the earthquake. She had three binders full! Preparing myself an enormous bowl of cereal, which I had been craving for months, I slurped and crunched through article after article about the earthquake and the damage it had incurred on so many people here. Everyone was affected in some way or another whether it had been through a lost home, lost business or through a lost loved one. Everyone had a story to tell about it. A year had passed and I could still see the fear and pain in their eyes when talking about it. Many think that the first earthquake was the one that did all of the damage, but there have been thousands of quakes throughout the year since the first that have been even more depredating, terrifying, exhausting to this already crippled city.
The next morning, I went to the bus station and headed out for my new home in the ski town of Methven. As I boarded the double-decker bus, I got a great seat on the second level right in front so I could see all of the beautiful scenery ahead of me. Driving not more than ten minutes, we were outside of town, through the “traffic” as the bus driver called it, and on our way to beautiful Methven. I’m sure you have heard the rumor of New Zealand having tons of sheep. Well, they’re definitely true. Field after field, sheep after sheep, the greenness and the white fluffy sheep never ceased. There are sooo many of them it is ridiculous. There are approximately 12 sheep for every Kiwi person here in New Zealand. Oh, that is another thing. People of New Zealand aren’t called New Zealanders, they are called Kiwi’s. Luckily I had retained some knowledge of this from Jr. High, or whenever I had learned it, because foreigners catch a bit of heat for making the mistake.
Arriving in a quaint little town called Ashburton, only 30 minutes away from Methven, the Lodge owner I had been in contact with (George) who was letting me have room and board in exchange for a few hours of work per day, picked me up and we headed towards the mountains. I tried my best to answer his questions about myself, but it was hard to keep my face off the window as the scenery only became only more and more beautiful. Even despite the cloudy weather, I was still captivated by my new surroundings. George said normally I would be able to see enormous mountain ranges and beautiful valleys and rivers on a clear day. I don’t know if I could take it all. Maybe it was a good thing it was cloudy so I didn’t have a sensory overload.
On the way back George told many stories about the earthquakes, like many Kiwi’s I have encountered, and said that he wouldn’t be surprised if I felt one soon enough. I told him how I had grown up in Southern California and lived near the San Andreas Fault Line, which shook me up plenty of times as a kid, however I had never come close to feeling the anguish so many people here have felt throughout the quakes. The earthquakes I can remember were always small and hardly ever made the news.
Reading a sign welcoming me to Methven, we continued on the same road we were on, went right through the middle of town and had left Methven all within about a minute of driving about 65kph, (40mph). Making a U-turn, George said jokingly, “And that’s Methven” as we returned to town and he began showing me the different parts it. No doubt it is small. Really small. There are three pubs, two small grocery stores, one post office, two banks, one movie theater slash church on Sundays and about twenty ski shops and another twenty hotels, motels, hostels, and lodges. You can run around the entire town in twenty minutes, and that’s if you are a weak, recovering traveler from India. Finally making our way to the Snow Denn Lodge, where I would be living for the next month or so, George showed me around and introduced me to the people I would be working with. They all seemed like nice people, but little did I know how awesome they all were about to be and how great of friends I had right before me.
After my small tour, meeting and greeting new people, George said it was getting late and that he was going to retire for the night. I didn’t realize how late it was because it was still light out despite it being after 10pm! I had forgotten about how far south New Zealand was and how the days are very, very long during the summers here due to the earth’s rotation on its tilted axis. After getting settled, I went for a walk around town, and watched the 10:30pm sunset barely poke through the clouds. As I returned to the lodge I stood in front of it and looked out at this tiny town and thought to myself how this was going to be my first small town experience. I have of course visited them, but I have never been a part of them. I’ve done small islands before, and those were fine, but this is a totally different situation. And we’re talking small town, like the check out lady at the grocery store knows your name and address, and old ladies spank your butt because they changed your diaper at one point when you were a baby. Walking back inside, I thought to myself “I can do small town, can’t I?”
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