emily@besottied.com

In 2011 (which also happens to be The Year of Adventure: the sequel!) I decided that I would go to New Zealand.

It was a bit of a sudden decision. New Zealand is somewhere I have always wanted to visit, and after finding out at Christmas 2010 that I would be losing my job in March 2011, then finding out in February 2011 that my job was safe until March 2012, I decided to make the journey while I was still able to pay for it. This was also the time quite a few friends from school started to get married, and in all honesty I had a bit of a panic: I realised that (had we not broken up, obviously) I would so happily have married my ex and could easily have been stuck paying bills and a mortgage having never really travelled anywhere or lived away from home. A desire to travel - even just a little bit - sparked inside me. Because of work and university, the longest break I could manage was four weeks over Easter. I bought myself a couple of guidebooks and committed to the trip in February 2011, just two days before the devastating Christchurch earthquake.

My mum wasn't so keen on me going alone, especially after Christchurch, but I was adamant and I am so, so glad I went. It was a long journey which took more than 30 hours, but I forgot all of that from the moment I arrived. Everyone I met - even the customs officer at Auckland Airport - was friendly. I should point out I was speaking with a customs officer because, due to NZ's strict biosecurity laws, I had to declare the horse-riding kit I had packed in my suitcase: nothing drugs related! I think that US customs officers could learn a lot from their NZ counterparts!

I spent three weeks travelling around the beautiful North and South Islands, making my way from Auckland at the top of the North Island to Dunedin at the bottom of the South Island, via:

• Rotorua
• Taupo
• National Park
• Wellington
• Picton
• Portage
• Nelson (thanks for the new suitcase!)
• Punakaiki
• Greymouth
• Franz Josef
• Fox Glacier
• Queenstown (where I watched the Royal Wedding drinking champagne cocktails in a pub called The Pig and Whistle) and
• Bluff

I used the Magic Bus Travellers' Network on the North Island and hired a car on the South. I took domestic flights with Air New Zealand and used the Interislander Ferry to cross between the North and South Islands. I stayed in a mix of youth hostels and fancy-pants hotels. I rode horses, walked, kayaked, hiked on a glacier and sunbathed on a beach. I rode on the Queenstown Luge, did a skydive over Lake Taupo on the North Island and finished my trip with a bungy jump from the Kawarau Bridge, near Queenstown on the South Island. I met so many nice people, had fun nights out and even got over my OCD enough to walk around hostel dorms without wearing my flip-flops (or jandals in Kiwi-speak).

It was on my first full day in New Zealand, as I made the fast ferry crossing from Auckland to the beautiful Waiheke Island, that a thought popped in to my head. I thought to myself "I could live here."

That was strange for me. I absolutely love where I'm from and could never imagine living anywhere else: not Spain, or France, or America. But for some reason, New Zealand felt like home. I was so sad when the time came for me to leave. I loved the people, the places, and the culture. In a way, it's like all of the best bits of the UK: a lot like home but with no litter, polite boys (polite boys!) and much more suited towards getting outdoors and being active. It was like Emilyland!

And so now, back home in the UK, I'm still at work and hoping to complete my degree by Christmas 2012. At the moment, my intention is to move out to New Zealand in early 2013, as long as they'll have me! If you'd like to follow my journey, check my blog for posts in the 'Emigrating to New Zealand' category.

Related links

• 42° below to 55° North - a blog post about my trip to New Zealand, with lots of handy links should you fancy making the journey yourself