Travel Tales: “My proudest moment was climbing a glacier”
Amy Heritage chats to us about her gap year, travelling and working in New Zealand, from learning how to make cocktails from a flair champion, to climbing a glacier and getting up close and personal with nature.
Starting out...
Going travelling felt like my last opportunity to do something before I got a job. I had just finished uni and I decided I wanted to go somewhere where I could work as well as travel. That really narrowed my choices down as I don’t speak any other languages. New Zealand was the country that I knew the least about, it was a little bit of a mystery to me, but the more I read about it, the more I felt it fitted with my personality.
Travelling around...
When it came to it, I found out that all I actually wanted to do was travel. When I got to New Zealand I thought I would look for work immediately, but I actually did everything on the spur of the moment instead.
I met my boyfriend out there - it just goes to show you can make real connections when travelling. We met on the same flight over to New Zealand and then decided to buy second hand car together. After a couple of months we grew close and started going out. Now we’re back in the UK we live together and have been going out for two years.
Finding work ...
I did a bar course and learned how to make cocktails. The guy running the course was from Argentina and used to be a flair champion, spinning drinks all over the world. He taught us some amazing skills and I got to meet loads of local New Zealanders. However, I have the most ridiculous balance in the world, so I didn’t actually manage to do any of the fancy flairs. I did learn how to make great cocktails though.
It turned out to be incredibly difficult to find bar work in Wellington - New Zealanders are very serious about their drink and coffee culture and Wellington actually has more cafes per capita than New York city, so even if you’re working in a bar with a coffee machine, you have to have had experience making coffee for at least four years. They seem to frown upon the Brits in terms of their coffee making skills. So I ended up working in retail, which was easier, but the majority of backpackers I met were doing admin work in offices. It seemed like they thought ‘Brits can’t make coffee, but they’re really good at office work!’
Low points...
Australia was very difficult - after I left New Zealand it was scary and exhilarating travelling on my own and it wasn’t made easier by the fact I’d run out of money. I got around Australia cheaply, I didn’t do any of the tourist things, I just did WOOFING in the outback, fruit picking and gardening plots of land. I felt really isolated and lonely and was by myself all day. It made me really miss my boyfriend and people back home. I don’t regret it though as it was a really good way to get to know local people and see past the glamour of the tourism. I think I got to see a side of it that most backpackers never see.
High points...
My proudest moment is when I climbed a glacier because I am not sporty at all. I was like the kid at school who was always got picked last for the sports teams. New Zealand is such an outdoorsy place and it’s all about action. I didn’t have a desire to climb a glacier at all, but I thought it would be ridiculous not to do it. I had to climb vertically to get onto the ice, it’s a really freaky sensation and you think ‘I should be falling over right now’, but you don’t. I’m not the most comfortable with heights and I have a really bad sense of balance. At one point I looked out across wide open space and got totally freaked out. I froze and panicked. I couldn’t move. Luckily I managed to calm myself down and carry on. It was a really physical thing and I had to overcome my fear, I think that’s why it was my proudest moment, I felt a bit like superwoman.
Once in a life time experiences...
A baby seal sat on my kayak - when I was in Abel Tasman National Park at the tip of the South Island my boyfriend and I rented a kayak to go off on our own. It was a beautiful place with lots of cliffs and inlets with rocky beaches and forests. The park is renowned for its huge seal colony and we saw a number of baby seals. One of them was quite confident and came up to our boat; he played with my paddle for a few minutes and then touched my hand with his flipper. I couldn’t believe it when he actually jumped up and sat on our kayak, I was so emotional I couldn’t believe it was really happening.
Thanks for chatting with us Amy.
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