This is it

So this is it. My last day in New Zealand. I don’t want to accept it and that’s maybe the reason why I waited till 2AM to pack my bags this morning…. I’m now sitting at the airport watching some planes take off and of course it’s raining to make it a bit more depressing. This random guy sitting behind me asked if he could borrow a pin from my rotary blazer. And I lend him one, seeing I had a million on there. He then said: “rotary exchange student?” Surprised I said: “Yes! How do you know?” He told me he made a few exchange friends at his school here in NZ and he’s going to visit them all in Europe now, he’s even flying to Amsterdam today. Rotary literally is everywhere.

This morning I got woken up at 06.30 by my hostdad Marc to say goodbye. Still half asleep I said goodbye and passed out again. A bit later my alarm went off but instead I skyped my sister. Then I had to hang up because my hostsisters were leaving for school. I said goodbye to them and it was just weird… not knowing when you’ll see them again. After that I went to get some money out of the ATM and then it was almost 9AM. My counsellor came to my house to pick me up but we didn’t leave until an hour later. Woopsie. I had to rearrange everything and have breakfast etc. I ended up with 1 suitcase, 1 big eastpack bag, 1 trolley, 1 violin, a camera and a loose bag. I said goodbye to my hmum and my other sister and brother and left to the door. It was weird, seeing Rotorua for the ‘last time’. I just spent my time looking outside and enjoying the view. On the way we picked up Linni who lives in Cambridge. That was good so the next 2 hours in the car wouldn’t be too boring. On the way we had some lunch and it was the same place I had lunch on my first day in New Zealand. Even the same guy was working, I didn’t order the same thing though. I remember I paid last time and he said: “cheers” and I thought it was so cool haha… Anyway around 13.00 I finally got to the airport and met my other friend Emma. I went to weigh my bags and together they were a bit more than 31kg. I thought I had done well until I weighed my hand luggage which was 15kg instead of 7kg… I let them hold my violin and other loose bags and went to stand in line, a bit nervous. Luckily there were no problems with my bags and everything went well. We then went to the top to see the view and walked around a bit and then it was time to say goodbye. I had a bit of a deja-vu of when I dropped Maria off 6 months ago.. It was a sad goodbye and I had too many bags and ugh. When I walked through the gates the first thing I had to do was weigh my handluggage. When the lady saw that it was 15kg she asked me to get my laptop out but it was still 14kg. She and I knew it was too much but I was crying and acted like I didn’t know what was going on and I guess she felt a bit bad, she should, so she let me through. Furthermore they took my liquid lunch of me but that was all. Then I walked around a bit and decided to sit down, here. I can’t really believe I’m actually going back. This feeling is indescribable. It’s like you’re leaving your home, your happiness and friends, and you just don’t know when you’ll see this or them or feel like this again. A bit scary actually. I just feel like I’m always going to feel like there’s a piece missing in me. My flight is from Auckland to Melbourne where I’ll just have to stay in the plane and then it’s Melbourne – Dubai, Dubai - Amsterdam. It’s going to take me a bit more than 33 hours this time. Which is good cause coming here it took me 44. Although I secretly wish it is going to take a whole week. Just so I can process it. I feel that people keep looking at my blazer and it makes me proud in a way, proud of this.

THIS WEEK:
Monday I woke up at 4AM to watch the football and I was cheering for Mexico but yeah that didn’t go well although I still won. Also I had some oliebollen, freshly fried. Later that day it was just a miserable day (miserable week actually) so me and my hdad decided to go to some hot pools. And to cross one more thing off of my bucketlist we went to the ‘Hells Gate’ hot pools. Apparently one of the best hot pools in Rotorua. And I must say, it really was! I started with a 20 min. mud bath! So it’s a small pool filled with grey water which was basically diluted mud. The bottom of the pool was full of mud. You could just wipe and massage the mud over your whole body. I was wearing my good togs which wasn’t a really good idea but oh well. After 20 min. you have to get out cause you can feel sick after too long. And yes. I got sooo dizzy. Suddenly I couldn’t hear anything anymore and I just felt like collapsing on the floor. I was having a shower to get the mud off but quickly drank a lot of water which made me feel heaps better. After that we stayed for 2 hours in the warm sulfar water and it was so relaxing I loved it. My skin was sooo soft and I felt a few years younger. That night I had my last rotary meeting. I just gave my last souvenirs away and thanked them all. They wrote on my flag and guess what? They gave me a greenstone! It’s a very popular but very expensive stone here in NZ and they make it into necklaces. The tradition is that you always have to buy them for someone else so I was really happy to receive one. I also got one made out of bone. After rotary I moved back to the gimbletts (my first hostfamily) because my current one was flying out to Hong Kong the next morning.
Tuesday I went to school and let people sign my flag as well. And I didn’t do anything else. Wednesday it was my last day at school and it was such a hectic day. I was planning on having a shared lunch with everyone at morning tea but then I found out the whole school had a detention because there was rubbish around the school. So we got lectured all the way through morning tea. Then I just had a class of doing nothing. Because I always finish early on Wednesdays I decided to wait for the others to finish but then I found out there was a rugby game on. I went to the field and it was my school against my old school, we won haha. Such a weird aggressive sport. But anyway. Because everybody kinda left when they felt like it I couldn’t say goodbye to anyone! Only 3 people… so that was a bit annoying  After school I went to buy some more souvenirs and back home we had a dinner with the whole family and It was the most traditional kiwi dinner you could get. Lamb, roasted veggies and as a dessert pavlova. Which later turned out to be small meringues. So yes I had a true kiwi night. I then got a few presents from my hostfamily. So sweet  and then I just procrastinated packing until well 2AM…

So I guess this is it. I have to board in 10 minutes and I just want to have a coffee and spend my last NZ dollars. Hope I can get around with so many bags and hope my blazer doesn’t lose any of its pins. My next blog will be back in Holland. Not looking forward to it but yeah. Anyway. Kia Ora Aotearoa Te Aroha.