60 Memories Made in New Zealand

Some memories will stick with me forever, especially those that involve personal ‘firsts’. I could write a story about each of these 60 moments from Middle Earth.

The Sights

1. Farmers markets – Parnell, Kuirau Park, Riccarton Bush
2. Sitting on giant marbles
3. Flapping around schools of demoiselle and trevally
4. Spelunking for glow worms in flooded caves
5. Finding that the trees are bigger than one’s arm span
6. Vegetating on an island beach
7. Heated rivers
8. The smell of rotting eggs
9. Dolphins as far as the eye can see
10. Craft beer tasting racks
11. Sampling olive oils and local honey
12. Tourists getting too close to penguins
13. Kayaking among more dolphins
14. The fishy smell of chum on a cage dive
15. The rush from falling out of a plane
16. Visits from wild kaka by day
17. Stalking wild kiwi by night
18. Waiting for the clouds to lift
19. Blue skies reflected in blue lakes
20. Bluff oysters Kilpatrick
21. Scaling moving ice

People on the Road

1. Sharing homemade palinka with a Slovak
2. Exchanging barbs with a Mackem lass
3. Retired couples on motorbikes
4. Swinging around playgrounds with British backpackers (not Mackems)
5. Unexpected reunions with lost acquaintances from the other side of the world
6. Running into the familiar faces in different towns
7. Playing Cards Against Humanity with all these people (Hint: the British version works better)

Hostel Life

1. Getting woken up by screaming brats in the next room every morning
2. Eggs Benedict in the hostel kitchen
3. Baking homemade baklava
4. Waking up to burst pipes and sinking hostel floors
5. Homemade cottage pie, lemon posset, lasagne and chocolate mousse
6. Feeling sorry for people while saying, ‘Sorry, we are full.’
7. Chasing out people who sneaked in
8. Making people love ox tongue
9. Nailing the flat whites
10. Barbeques at an island hostel

Experiences

1. $1 pizza slices
2. Rented Suzuki Wagon R’s screaming at 5000rpm on inclines
3. Getting the keys to my first car
4. Driving to the shops for award-winning pies (steak & cheese pie, apricot chicken pie, scallop pie…)
5. $10 steak and chips nights
6. Nails in tyres
7. Jumping into rivers from overhanging trees
8. Slicing through the fog
9. Filling all the bottles with wine
10. Getting out of a breathalyser test with my record intact
11. Hooligans in a slammed BMW
12. That biting wind everywhere you go
13. Scoring a goal in Ultimate in that wind
14. Clearing the field for rescue helicopters after scoring that goal
15. Daily bird songs
16. Awesome kebabs made more awesome by being this far from Turkey
17. Impromptu charity car wash
18. Sandfly bites
19. Whitebait fritters on the road
20. Burgers for breakfast
21. The saddest Irish stew from a can on St Patrick’s Day
22. How time just passes too damn quickly when you’re having fun

Don’t just sit there and dream; go make your own memories! Check out the Working Holiday and Driving in NZ posts for tips.