First Month Back in New Zealand

I’ve been back in New Zealand for a month now – a month filled with joy, reconnection, loneliness, anxiety, fun, and sickness.

The day after I got here, I went backpacking with Travis (the same Travis from the Hollyford) for 5 days on the St. James Walkway. This track is 66 kilometres long and is fairly easy and family friendly, and in the summer there would be lots of people doing it. Because it was still winter and was fairly cold and wet (and even snowy on one of the days), we did not see anyone else the entire time. New Zealand mountains and bush are beautiful, and I was so happy to back outside in this beautiful place. Most of the valleys we were in on this hike, though, were filled with invasive possums (which we saw lots of around the huts at night), and presumably stoats and rats as well. The forests were quiet, and we did not see all that much native bird life. For someone who does not know what to look for, the forests would seem fine – being familiar with New Zealand forests, however, I was filled with a sense of sadness while hiking through the forests, as well as the open river valleys that were filled with non-native Canada geese. Towards the end of the hike though, there were trapping efforts happening, and the results were already visible, with a couple more native bird sightings on the last 2 days.

The next day back in Christchurch was the first day of spring (because here spring starts on the 1^st of the month) and it felt like it – beautiful sunny weather and not a cloud in sight. I went to the beach with Travis and 3 of his friends, and although I’m not a huge fan of the beach and didn’t get in the water I nevertheless enjoyed the beautiful weather and the company.

The next day, Travis and I climbed Mt. Fyffe by Kaikōura, because it was one of the places with the best weather that day (another storm was coming in). We had dinner and watched the sunset from the top of the mountain, and then stayed the night in the hut partway down, again seeing nobody. The next day it was really windy as we climbed out way down the steep Spaniard Spur, but we were pretty sheltered once we got down to the Kowhai River, which we hiked out along. We went and got pizza for lunch in town, and by the time we got there the weather had turned blustery and rainy – made it out just in time.

My first week in New Zealand was a beautiful tramping blur, but then it was time to buckle down and get my life sorted. I got properly settled into my room, which is a sleepout detached from the main house in a conveniently located suburb in Christchurch. The room itself is nice, but the flatmates aren’t as social as I had hoped they’d be, and going inside to use the bathroom and cook is also a little tiresome. I will likely move somewhere else eventually, but I really wanted to have somewhere to live when I got to Christchurch, and this house means I am stable. Also, rent is about half of what I was paying in Santa Barbara, and I get my own room, a true luxury after sharing a room for such a long time.

The next order of business was to get a bank account and buy a car – getting a bank account was relatively easy, but transferring money from my US bank account to my New Zealand one was quite challenging, and also nerve-wracking – the money left my US bank account on Saturday, and didn’t arrive in my New Zealand one till Tuesday. I had spent the last couple days looking at cars and deciding which one to buy; I really wanted a hybrid car because fuel is expensive here, even though that meant I would need to pay more up front. I also wanted to be able to sleep in the car, which eliminated about half of all hybrid cars. I test drove several Priuses, but ultimately decided on a Honda Fit Shuttle Hybrid, which was actually the first car I had looked at. It was at a dealership, had only 66,000 kilometres on it, came with a year of breakdown insurance, and was a fresh import to New Zealand from Japan. Overall, I decided that even though it was at the upper end of my budget, it was a safe car to buy and should be easy to resell when it comes time for me to leave. I was ELATED when I bought the car, not just for having completed a major item on my to do list, but because of the freedom it gave me to get around and out of Christchurch, which is a notoriously car-centric city.

Now that I had a house, a car, and a bank account, I began to sort out my job situation. I am still working from home on the same work in the lab while I finish writing the paper, and can be paid until end of September. I worked out with my advisor that I could bank some hours for the time I was not working and be paid in advance, and the effectively work off those hours after September ended as well. This has substantially eased my transition here and decreased the pressure to find a job immediately. However, things were already underway – I got in touch with Paul, who I had stayed with last year around this time, and asked if he had any jobs available. He said to come out and help with planting trees at Rāpaki for a day – there is an area there they are working to restore and they could use a little bit more help with planting through the end of October, as well as possibly some office work. I really enjoyed the day planting, and now have an interview scheduled; it sounds as though I might be able to work with them for a month or two. Unfortunately for me, this is one of the worst times to be looking for conservation work in New Zealand. The last government was very pro-conservation and started a program to train people in conservation to build capacity in the country. This program went on for three years and provided thousands of jobs in conservation. The new government, which has been in since last year, is fairly anti-conservation (mostly anti-funding any government programs that do good), and so has not renewed funding. The result is that there are thousands of trained and capable people who are now unemployed and looking for jobs.

I’m looking forward to starting the job there and being accountable to someone besides myself – although working from home sounds nice, I am not very good at keeping the discipline to be productive over long periods. Also, somewhere along the way I have turned into a bit of an extrovert, defined as someone who gets energy from spending time with people. Being alone all day leaves me feeling drained and frustrated, and although I have a few friends here, it’s not the same as the network I had when I left Santa Barbara. Somewhere in the first week back it really hit me: I have moved overseas (again), and left all my support networks behind. I’m incredibly lucky to know people here already, and that has definitely made my landing much softer, but nevertheless there is a long way to go before I build a full community here again. Also, a weekend visit to Cambria to see my parents is not possible anymore, and although we still talk every week that is definitely a downside to living here.

I also started going to capoeira classes here again, which I had really missed last year. I didn’t tell anyone from the group I was coming back, and the look on Stephen’s face when he saw me was 100% worth keeping the secret. I think they’re very glad to have me back – it’s a strong group but a small one, and with classes often around 4 people, every person makes a difference. Only a couple weeks after I started classes, Mestre Roxinho from Brazil came to visit and gave a series of workshops on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. These workshops were great, and I am once again so glad I speak Portuguese, because Mestre Roxinho prefers to speak in Portuguese and many of the people at capoeira also speak Portuguese, and I am not excluded from conversations. The workshops these three days went late, and by Wednesday I was exhausted.

On Thursday, I woke up with a sore throat. Fine, it had been a long week already, and maybe my body just needed some rest. Friday I woke up with a headache, and I decided to take a covid test, just to be sure… at first, nothing showed up, and I went back to bed for an hour. When I got up to get some water, I saw that there was a faint positive line on the test.

I am fairly scared of covid – there is a lot of research saying that it is much closer to HIV/AIDS as a disease than the common cold. I’m also terrified of getting long covid – I have heard stories and have friends who have it, and it would derail my life as I know it. As I write this I am on day 5 of my infection. The second day was the worst, with a headache and a fever. I’ve also had a stiff and sore neck and back, a runny nose, coughing, and some trouble breathing, which luckily my inhalers were able to alleviate. Mostly, now, I am exhausted, I do almost nothing these days and am still tired.

I wrote this blog post while sick with covid, and this last paragraph is an update from when I’m actually posting it, 6 days later: I have been negative for a couple days, have my energy back for the most part, and have restarted my life. I still have a bit of a cough, but that’s pretty typical for me when I get sick. I’m also starting the job at Rāpaki 4 days a week for a month on Monday and couldn’t be more excited.