After the city sights of Auckland, where I did a quick head, shoulders, and head massage and walked around the ferry area a bit, Palmerston North is so much more tranquil. At the end of the day, after hours of studying and attending workshops, having access to walking trails that are surrounded by bush and streams is a plus to studying at Massey University.
I also had a chance to sight the rainforests of New Zealand on the ride to Palmerston North. I boarded the NakedBus at 7am and by exactly 7:15 am, I was off. Very much like the Japanese way of working, people in New Zealand like to keep schedule and I learned that the NakedBus drivers aren’t really very different.
After the bus left Hamilton Center, where I boarded the connecting bus, the surrounding environment was pretty much greenery. I saw countless sheep grazing the hills and numerous Swiss, milking cows sitting on the grass. It reminded me of the Sunderland countryside.
The highlight of the trip, the part where I guessed I developed motion sickness, was the winding bits. We went down and around, down and around mountains, descending onto vast areas of streams and rainforests. I thought I sighted a tucan sitting on a branch, a very colorful bird, but I’m not sure whether there are tucans in New Zealand. Needless to say, the entire scenery was utterly breathtaking.The Naked Bus had a 40-minute stop in North Plymouth (a name shared by the first Puritan colonial settlement in Massachusetts), a seaside community about a 3-hour drive from Palmerston North. The first thing I saw as we drove to the center of North Plymouth was a pharmacy, where I eventually bought “Nausicalm”, a motion sickness medicine that settled my undulating nausea. The second thing I saw when the bus parked was a female-only waiting shelter across the street. It resonated, I guessed, of Maori tradition, where women are given separate congregation areas to do their private business. Native Hawaiian women also have such a tradition.The rest area contained a bathroom and a sitting room, where three elderly women sat as I walked in. I liked the atmosphere - the protected seclusion it promised me as I headed over to the bathroom.
When I finally arrived in Palmerston North, after a long, 10-hour bus ride, a fellow student awaited me. I knew immediately who he was when I saw him sitting on the bench; I had tentatively suggested to Christine that he meet me at the bus port, as I might not know how to get to campus. We greeted each other, after which we grabbed a taxi (which takes Eftpos cards, by the way – very convenient if one doesn’t have any cash), and immediately headed to Atawhai (pronounced Atafai) Village. My room at the end of the hall contains a sink, desk, dresser, and bed. A heater is attached to the wall for those cold days. The Campus Living Villages staff had prepared for my arrival; I found clean sheets on the bed and dishes in a black, reusable shopping bag on the desk when I entered my bedroom. Unlike the other rooms in our flat, my sink is around the corner from the doorway, so I have a bit of privacy if I keep the door ajar.
Although jetlagged and tired and still recovering from my nausea the student accompanied me to Countdown, a supermarket in the same mall as Kmart (think USA), to buy groceries. I also bought all the necessary items for moving in. So, the next morning, I had coffee, crumpets topped with low salt, feta cheese, and scrambled eggs garnished with sautéed mushrooms. Not a bad first evening in Palmerston North.
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