Green Kids

Here I am, down in Dunedin, after an incredibly long trip.

I left Sweden Friday the 16^th of January, and it's now the 19^th. Daaaaamn is all I have to say.

And verdict? It's bloody long!

Here's the run down:

So, I saw it as me moving down here, and not just visiting for a short period of time, so I packed a bit differently that what I would usually do. I packed my life down in approximately 180L (split between 3 bags, one of which is a carry on) and a bike box.

I had 40kg (30kg to check in, and 10kg for carry on) to work with, and I knew that I would be going over the weight limit, without really trying actually. Having weighed the majority of my stuff at my parents house, I was about 5kgs shy of the 30kg. Meaning I would maybe have to pay 5kg in overweight. And having called Cathay Pacific about it, I would have to pay 60 USD/kg of overweight luggage. Sweet.

I hadn't weighed my bike, but I guessed I would be paying for an extra 5-7kg.

Oh, how I was wrong! Was 14kg overweight! The woman behind the counter did the math in her head, and said it was 12kg, but I corrected her and said it was actually 14kg, but I would love it if she typed in 12kg. She typed in 10kg instead.

Hell yeah! That is 600 USD, which is a lot of money, but you have to consider what I was paying for:

1. My bike will be with me all the way, so no having to ship it via a courier for an unknown sum, which can be high, since I don't have a contract with them.
2. My beautiful girlfriend wouldn't have to drag it back into her car, and ship it off whenever she had the time.
3. Buying a new bike of the same caliber, along with other equipment I stowed away for 600 USD is NOT going to be happening anytime soon. Unless of course it's a stolen bike, which I'm not all that interested in doing.

So, you see, I could quantify and justify paying the overweight fee.

However, it didn't work out as I had planned. As I'm writing this, I don't know where my bike is.

I heard that it's in London, and is being sent over here ASAP. What happened do you ask?

Here's my theory:

When paying for the overweight, I did it through and company/agency called Menzies (big company), and to have all the payments approved and signed off, it had to be done by paper.

I kid you not. None of it was done electronically. None. I had a coupon like bundle of carbon copies of my receipt that I had to drop hand out at every connecting airport. They then tapped a few keys and said was everything was golden. No...no it isn't.

Mind you though, I'm okay with it, since I don't need my bike any time soon (i.e. I'm not going to be partaking in a race any time soon). I've simply boiled it down to first world problems. They're going to have it sent to where I am here in Dunedin, so no worries.

Or? I called them about an hour ago, asking what the current status with it is, and they said they would get back to me ten minutes after I called them. Like I said, that was an hour ago.

Come people!

Anyway, enough about that.

I want to talk about some other stuff that I experienced a bit prior and during my trip.

Prior

This is hands down the hardest “trip” I've done. Why? Well, as my friend Jimbo put it, my other trips, there was an approximate return date, this time, there's none. Fine, I'll be heading back in July for a wedding, but then after that, it's unknown. Scary stuff!

Why scary? Because I gave up a pretty sweet life, in an okay country. Sweden is a pretty sweet country in it's own right, but I have the hardest time in the winter, and it really gets at me, way too much. Also, the Swedish mentality. I'm not going to write about it, and if you're visiting Sweden, you won't see it, you need to live there to actually experience it.

Simply put: no. Just no.

How was my life sweet? I had a well paying job (although, boring at times), amazing friends, close to my family, and finally, leaving Sosa, my girlfriend.

I had a few dinners with some friends before I left, and I realized how lucky I am to have such amazing people in my life. People who accept me for who I am, and help me out whenever I need it.

However, the real nail in the proverbial coffin, was when I posted a question on Facebook who wanted to grab an afterwork beer with me. I expected the group to be around 5 people, we ended up being 19! It was incredible! I posted the question a Sunday, and the beers were to be the following the Wednesday.

Okay, so it's not the amazing if you consider the circumstances (me leaving and what not), but it meant a lot for me, and showed me how many people care about me.

Before Departure

As some of you know, I've moved around a fair bit in my life, so saying good-bye is relatively easy. Except for now, as I wrote above regarding my friends.

And now after having met my amazing Sosa, it as really hard. She's epic, simply put. Saying good-bye to her was hard. She got me to shed a tear or two when she placed her hand on my cheek (I love her hand there, it's very comforting for me, I don't know why). Man, it was rough.

I don't really know how to express it, or how much to express, but I'll say that it was one of the harder things I've had to do in my life. On the bright side, she'll be coming down to visit me in April, so I've got that to look forward to!

On the Plane

Last time I got on the plane to New Zealand, I was pumped. All thoughts of doubt disappeared once I was sitting on the plane. It was without a doubt the right thing to do.

This time around, it didn't happen exactly like that, and I believe it's a culmination of everything that I've written about so far.

I have no doubt that what I am doing is right, since I've needed change in quite a while. This will be good for me. Even if everything goes tits up, nothing is too late to change.

Another thing that I saw on the plane from London to Hong Kong was the landscape while flying over China. It was truly awesome. Not “awesome” like how it used today, I mean a true moment of awe. Here is a link for you to see where the plane was in this moment: http://goo.gl/maps/C01DF. As you'll see, it doesn't look like a whole lot, but if you have satellite view on, and zoomed out a bit, you'll see a kind of basin to the west of the pin and that's what inspired my awe. The lighting and colours were just incredible. All I could think about is what it would be like to be standing in the basin, looking around. The emptiness of it all, and the vast expanse surrounding oneself. What I found most intriguing were the dirt roads littering the basin, and wondering what they were used and how often they were used.

Any who...it was a beautiful moment for me.

I think I've written enough for now, so I'll leave you with this: I'm happy, I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm alive and excited about the unknown!