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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)   An American woman was waiting next to me and we talked a little. Other people arrived and a shy and not very happy looking Asian girl stood on the other side of me. The American’s husband arrived and they conversed exclusively. Hoping to find a companion for the journey I turned to the Asian girl and asked the usual question.

Sunny was very happy to talk with me and we sat together and talked until we got to Tekapo, where she left the bus. Sunny is Korean and will go to University soon to study psychology. She is in New Zealand to study English for a few months and was having a weekend trip to Tekapo because she had run out of things to do in Christchurch. She said it was safe and peaceful but she is not into the bar scene and was getting a little bored.

Lake Tekapo

When I told her I have been a Counsellor she drew me out to talk about it and I spoke about things like keeping yourself psychologically safe, basic attitudes to clients, and incorporating techniques into your behaviour so they don’t appear false. I talked about a standard phrase used in U.S. movies when someone is really unhappy because something tragic has happened. To say ‘It’s ok,’ to someone who has just lost the most important person in their life is not just inappropriate, it is demeaning. They would just look at you and think, ‘Who are you trying to kid?’ For a professional to say that is to lose the client’s trust and respect.

Sunny and I shared an appreciation of the landscape and the way the light illuminated some of its features. She gave me a basic outline of South Korean politics and when I asked about Korean hospitals revealed that they have some of the corruption problems of Chinese hospitals but have Western standards of privacy and hygiene. We shared our snacks.

We had a good time connecting across the gulf of age, language and culture and I was quite sad to say goodbye at Tekapo.

‘Seven Years in Tibet’ was my companion for the rest of the trip through the wonderful scenery en route to Queenstown. Acres and acres devoted to vineyards astonished me. The Australian wine industry has serious competition in New Zealand.

My bus arrived at 6.30p.m., twenty minutes behind schedule and fifteen after Elaine was due to arrive at the same place, or so I thought. There was no sign of her so I enquired where Deco Backpackers was and set off up a very steep hill to get there. It was very difficult going for me and I was forced to stop several times to recover my breath on the way. How can I make sure I always get a hostel on flat ground near the bus stop?

Mountains at dusk, Queenstown

When I arrived I found Elaine was not there and they didn’t have a booking for her. I deposited my things and headed off to town to eat and check if her bus had arrived late. She wasn’t there so I wandered around and found an internet bar where I wrote a funny letter to her half in Pinyin and half in English, asking where she had got to.

A couple of minutes after I left the internet bar Elaine came into view. She had checked in to the hostel and come looking for me.

Elaine told me she had met a Taiwanese man and enjoyed sharing travel experiences with him. She was to meet him at eight o’clock at a popular burger bar. While waiting we went to a travel centre where she tried to change her plans for the next day so we could do things together but could not get a bed at Mt. Cook the day after so had to keep her itinerary as it was.

We met the man, Shou (I guess the spelling but it could be Xu or Shu) and I bought a burger and we went down to the lakeside to eat. They encouraged me to speak Chinese and we laughed a lot. I teased Elaine about the location of the hostel she recommended and we had a lot of fun.

Shou and Elaine wanted me to go to Tekapo the next evening but I was travelling in the other direction. I was determined to go to Milford because I had memories of its beauty from my last trip to the country in 1978. Curiously, Elaine didn’t seem to be able to change the information in her head to understand that I was going to stay in Queenstown another day, though I told her three times. In the end I said ‘Ting bu dong!’ literally, ‘can’t hear’, but an idiom for ‘you don’t understand my language’. That led to more laughter. (to be continued)

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 3:46 am and is filed under New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.