First Weekend

I think the main reason why I still don’t really believe I’m actually in New Zealand it’s because since the minute I landed, I have spend most of my days speaking Portuguese. Five days after arriving I’ve been practically adopted by a Portuguese family (I hope I don’t screw-up the adoption process!) and Brazilian people here seem to grow on trees. So, my first weekend in Christchurch was a mix of beautiful kiwi landscapes, traditional Portuguese and Brazilian food and my first night out in New Zealand. So let’s start from the beginning.

  

Faith had it that in my first week here, Friday would be a national holiday. Therefore, my adoptive family took me on a day trip to Akaroa which I could try to describe but I think Wikipedia does it more accurately than me: “Akaroa is a village on Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand, situated within a harbour of the same name—the name Akaroa is Kāi Tahu Māori for 'Long Harbour'.” In my own words, it’s a beautiful place about 80km from Christchurch with a drive there just as amazing as the destination. In New Zealand you really have the impression that Nature allows humans to live here and not the other way around.

Following the trip, I was invited for a meal at my referred adoptive family's home. An amazing house at the top of a small mountain, with a breathtaking view decorated with Portuguese traditional symbols and laughs all around. Whenever I find myself in the privilege position of living such moments – like this rare opportunity of being inside a kiwi house which, on top of that, is filled of memories from my own country – I always stop for a minute or so, fix my eye on the horizon and engrave that brief period of time in my mind because those are the small moments I will always want to remember (especially when I’m broke and I need to remind myself why I keep living like a nomad). And because a great trip and two great Portuguese meals in a row weren’t enough to make me feel welcomed in Christchurch, Sunday was occupied with a freaking delicious Brazilian homemade meal.

As for the night out, I will leave that for a post dedicated exclusively to kiwi habits of going out and please be hold of a very recently developed analysis on new-zealander’s relation with alcohol.