Day 1 - Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

The unfortunate thing about travelling as far as somewhere like Turkey from London means despite having an early flight, the duration of the flight combined with the time difference means you’ve wasted a whole day on travel which meant Emma, Paul and I didn’t arrive at Istanbul airport until late afternoon. We wandered around for a bit trying to find a cheap way of getting into the city since we’d unfortunately flown into the Gatwick of Istanbul rather than the more convenient Heathrow version. Not surprisingly we found some other kiwis at the airport who were trying to do the same thing as us so we combined our lira powers to get a taxi together into the city. It was quite a hairy ride with the driver speeding along the motorway inspecting his map whilst speeding along the motorway so as a distraction we chatted to our fellow passengers, only to discover that randomly we had a friend in common – Renee. But I guess it's bound to happen since we were converging in a country on the same weekend as another 3,000 odd kiwis.

Paul directed the taxi driver to our hotel using our Beige Brigade map we had been provided with and when we checked in we were pleased to discover we had been put into a room with three beds rather than me having to pair up with someone else on my tour like I’d got the impression I was going to have to do.

After dumping our bags we headed across town to find the bar where we were to meet up with our tour to get the run down on the proceedings for the morning as well as pick up our free drink and ANZAC hoodie. Unfortunately that didn’t go so well as we were late to which meant all we could find were drunken Aussie and Kiwis already donning their ANZAC hoodies and no “guides” in sight. We asked a few people what the low down was and they informed us that there would be a wakeup call at a respectable 4am, breakfast at 5am, leaving at 6am so we were quite happy to opt out of the drunken evening that was unfolding at the bar in favour of finding ourselves a Turkish dinner before heading to bed. Once we’d satisfied our stomachs with delightful Turkish meals and apple tea we wandered back to our hotel via the Blue Mosque which looked stunning lit up in the darkness.

Refreshed Love of all things Kiwi

I found it quite unsettling going home for seven weeks over the NZ summer as it evoked a lot of memories about things that I hadn’t realised I missed. Obviously you have the odd moment here and there where you have a longing for the Coromandel or real vogels bread or your close friends and family but those moment do tend to get fewer and far between the longer you away. That is, until you return to New Zealand and you realise just how much you have missed the little day to day things that make New Zealand home and gives it that comfortable snugly blanket on a winters night feeling.

There are definitely things I knew I missed like the beach and bbqs and having a proper summer but there were quite a few moments during my holiday that I rediscovered my love for things that I had forgotten I had. They included moments like being at Muriwai and watching people dance about as they try not to scald their feet on the hot sand, listening to George FM and being able to hear the deafening cicadas through the mike, going out for brunch and having an array of delectable cafes to choose from that all have fantastic food and coffee, driving out to South Head, going riding at Woodhill, walking the bays of the North Shore admiring views through the flax, and just being in Ponsonby.

We really are very lucky to come from such an amazing country as NZ and despite it being a completely different pace of life to London and not having the ease of access to Europe it is pretty damn hard to beat. Prior to my visit home I’d been dreaming up scenarios which would enable me to stay in Europe for as long as possible but I’ve definitely had a change of heart since then having accepted the fact that I won’t be over here for forever and now have managed to get quite excited about the thought of returning to New Zealand (semi) permanently. It did help a lot that not only did I have an awesome holiday but all those memories that I had come flooding back reminded me just how much fun I was having prior to me leaving the first time around too.

So I guess the long and the short of it is that I now love New Zealand and what it has to offer more than ever, fortunately, since I’ll be returning to it's sandy shores soon(ish).

Best Year Yet...

Well, well, after all my grand travel blogging plans, haven't I just turned out to be absolutely rubbish at it since my month in Spain. I blame my silence on the fact that I never have any spare time these days which means blog writing tends to get pushed to the bottom of my to do list and then before I know it, a whole six months has passed without a single post.

When I look back at all that I managed to jam into 2008, it's not surprising that time wasn't often available for blogging and also why it was my best year yet. Although it wasn't my best year in a career sense, it was definitely off the scale in the amount of fun had and experiences enjoyed. First off I left my one and only job since leaving high school before I did the big move out of my flat and waved goodbye to all my friends and family to head off overseas.

That's where the experiences began with a week spent in Melbourne and a month travelling solo around Thailand where amongst other things I passed my dive certificate. I then visited London briefly before moving to Haddington in Scotland, where I had two temp jobs and saw various parts of the country, a majority of it during a road trip in the Highlands. Following my three months in Scotland I travelled for a month through Spain and Portugal. Since then I've spent the last six months living in London where I've had about four different temp jobs and lived in three flats.

The six months that I've lived here have been the busiest, with me trying to make the most of the London Life. I feel like I've made a good attempt at making the most by doing lots of the must do things like the London Bus Tour, visiting Portobello, Spitalfields and Borough markets, nights out at Shunt, Fabric and Ministry of Sound, eating curry on Brick Lane, going to the Wimbledon tennis, having Devonshire Tea at Harrods, attending live gigs, shopping on Oxford Street, going to a Roller Disco, spending weekends in Belgium and Paris via the Eurostar, completing a 12km cross country running race, going to the theatre, ice skating outdoors, and spending Christmas in Prague. There was of course a whole lot of drinking and partying time in between/during all those awesome experiences too.

Thanks to everyone who made it a killer year, lets hope 2009 is just as good or even better! It's definitely off to a great start with six weeks of NZ summer coming up which will be a welcome escape from the dreary London winter. Bring on the beach, bbq's and sunshine (and of course all my lovely friends and family who I've missed so much!).