12 weeks in the Garden City

The time has come for me to say my farewells to the Garden City, Christchurch, where I've spent the last 12 weeks. It is with both exultation and sorrow that I leave the city behind. I'm sorry that my work with Greenpeace has reached its end (at least for now), although I'm happy to not have to fund raise any more. Talking about the same things over and over again can become mechanical and a bit boring even though you are more committed to the cause than ever. Then there is all the rejection that sort of just keeps on piling up in your head; all the mindless morons (excuse me) that don't give a damn or don't even give you the opportunity of explaining why you are knocking on their door.

The Avon river flowing through Christchurch.

Fund raising in Christchurch has also been a lot more difficult than in Tauranga. A testament to this are the seven people who started working with me and the team leader Vivienne since I arrived, but didn't make target and thus lost their jobs. This last week, it was only the two of us working together. I guess the fact that I've been able to hang in there for the past three months shows I'm fairly decent at the job, as well as the offer of long term employment and visa sponsorship I got. :-)

So, right now it doesn't feel like I'm ever going to work as a fundraiser again, but there are other positions within an environmental organisation like Greenpeace. Never say never though; travelling through Australia needs to be funded somehow too...

For some time now I've had the intention to show you some pictures of the house I've been living in. Because of the unfortunate event of my camera making hard contact with a piece of unyielding rock, and the delay in getting a new box of highly sophisticated optics, you've had to wait until now. It may seem a bit ironic of me to not post the pictures before the eve of my departure, but I assure you this has been entirely unintentional.

It has been very satisfying to be on my own here in the second largest city in NZ. I've spent a lot of time reading lots of books borrowed from the excellent city library. I've also swam a few times a week, cooked good vegetarian food, slept long in the mornings and done no touristy things whatsoever. The downside of working every weekday evening is that it pretty much totally screws up any chance at a social life. Especially in a place where you know no one. However, it hasn't bothered me much. I've enjoyed all the me-time as it's something you don't get a lot of when travelling together with someone else. I haven't even got to know my flatmates that well (at least not compared to in Tauranga), but that's not my fault alone. The four of us all have different routines and worked different times, so our hours-at-home haven't overlapped that often.

The house JBB lived in in Christchurch, seen from the garden at the back.

Although leaving my little corner of this house fills me with a bit of nostalgia, I'm very much looking forward to what lies beyond the current horizon. When I leave early tomorrow morning I'm looking at a week of travelling on my own before meeting up with Giigan in Taupo on the North Island. There we'll go bungy jumping, skydiving and skiing (jippii!), before leaving NZ on July 20. Three weeks on Tonga is what our flight tickets say before setting foot on Australian soil. Almost a year will have passed since we left Finland by the time we breathe the warm air of Sydney for the first time on August 11.

One thing I'm certainly not going to miss about Christchurch is the cold (nights ~0 °C, daytime 7-10 °C). Sadly the house I've been living in is a typical kiwi house, meaning there is no insulation to keep the heat inside. More than once I've had my breath rise like a ghost in front of me when I've got out of bed in the morning. And can you believe that the curtains will move when there's a gale outside?! It's a pleasure to say good riddance to the chilly Christchurch conditions; warmer latitudes, here I come!

P.S. Packing was a bitch. Is my stuff multiplying on its own or what?

You can check the pics by clicking this link if you missed the embedded link in the text.