After checking out on Sunday morning, I made the short 10-minute walk to my new flat. First thing on the agenda: empty all of the clothes out of my two backpacks & HANG THEM IN MY NEW CLOSET! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was to no longer be living out of a bag! Oh, the little joys. =) Shortly after I got to the flat, Emma, my new Kiwi/Fijian flatmate, offered to drive me to the grocery store so I could stock up on everything & not have to make the 20-minute walk there and back. I took her up on her offer & bought some scrumptious new food that I hadn’t eaten in months.
After getting back to the flat & quickly putting away all my food, I had to rush back out the door to go meet Sontsa at the bus station, as she was scheduled to have returned from her trip. I lead her from the bus station toward the “hostel” in which I was staying. I hadn’t told her that I had moved into the flat, so when I stopped in front of a 13-story apartment building and inserted my electronic key into the sliding glass front door, she had a short moment of confusion followed by extreme excitement. Daiana and Emma had already told me it was okay for Sontsa to stay at the flat for a couple of nights since they knew it would be our last days together before she left to go back to Finland, so that was really awesome.
Sontsa’s plane was scheduled to fly out on Tuesday, May 31st. She & I had previously made big plans for what we would do her last couple of days in New Zealand--get all dressed up, treat ourselves to a really nice dinner, go have a great night out dancing, etc. However, by the time her last days actually rolled around, we were both quite poor. I was still on the hunt for a job & basically only had enough money in the bank for rent, utilities, and basic food for the next 4 weeks or so. Sontsa was down to the last bit of her money as well. So, instead of going extravagant, we kept it simple. We spent most of Sunday afternoon walking around the city center, went into some shops, then spent a lot of time down at the Auckland harbour. We sat down with our feet hanging over the water, talking and admiring the views of the Harbour Bridge to the left and the numerous islands in the distance to the right. We stayed there until sunset, then grabbed some food at Mexicali, a really cheap and tasty Mexican restaurant on the harbourfront.
The next day, I walked around town with Sontsa as she did some souvenir shopping for friends and family back home. She also needed to buy a plastic ziploc bag for putting her liquids in for the airport (her 'liquids,' by the way, only consisted of her lipgloss which she just HAD to have) haha. To save a 20-minute walk to the grocery store, we went to a nearby Asian mart (which are quite common in Auckland). We found the ziploc bags, but the problem was figuring out which box she needed to buy, as everything was written in Japanese or Chinese. After absolutely no help from the guy behind the counter, she bought a box that seemed it could be the right size. We had quite a laughing fit after Sontsa opened the box only to find that the bags inside were practically 1/3 of the size of what the airport required haha. It was to be our last silly moment together in New Zealand. =)
Later in the afternoon, I was scheduled to go to my first Auckland job interview. It was with one of the many temp agencies in the city. The people were so nice, and the interview went really well. They made me do some skills testing for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, which turned out to be quite intense. Still, my interviewer complimented me on how well I did, so that was good news. After getting more information on my work background and what kind of jobs I was interested in, etc., she told me they’d be in touch once a suitable position came up. After the interview, Sontsa & I excitedly made our way to the movie theatre for what was our most-anticipated event of the day: seeing the Hangover II. Yes, it was an event that neither of us was willing to back out of, regardless of our financial situation—popcorn for dinner and lots of laughs (and pain in my side from laughing/coughing). Still, good times =) We finished our evening by going back to Mexicali and taking advantage of their Monday night margarita special. We sat outside with a margarita each, talking about some of our favorite moments from the past 4 months.
In such a short period of time, we had seen an astounding number of incredible sights, met hundreds of people, built wonderful relationships, and experienced more than we could have ever imagined. Still, as we sat there by the harbour and talked about all of these magnificent things, it did not sink in that it was our last night together in New Zealand. I think we just didn’t want to think about it. The next morning, I walked with Sontsa to one of the nearby bus stops, as she had to take the city bus to get to the Auckland airport (about 40 minutes bus ride away). It was difficult not to cry as we stood there waiting for the bus…even more difficult when the bus actually pulled up.
My heart just sank when I had to give her a final goodbye hug & watch her board the bus. I held it together fairly well until the bus actually left, then I made my way back to the flat as quickly as possible with tears streaming down my face. When I got home, I read a letter that Sontsa had left for me & then of course cried even more. I apparently caused a few tears for her in the airport as well, as I too had left her a card, sneaking it into her purse before she left. I know I will see her again in Europe, but it’s really hard not knowing when that will actually be. With my friends back home, I at least have the relief of knowing I will see them again later this year. Since Sontsa left, we have had a laughter-filled skype session & will always have amazing memories to carry with us.
Cheers,
Ash
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