The incident and the kindness of strangers
Trip Start
Nov 08, 2004
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7
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Trip End
Sep 10, 2005
Gisborne, New Zealand
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
It was the early hours of New Years Day and I was staying in a backpackers (hostel) in Gisborne on the east coast of the North Island. I'd gone into town with some other people from the backpacker for the town's New Years Eve countdown at the clock tower. Gisborne is a small town, but it boasts that it is the first city in the world to see the sunrise and therefore the first to ring in the New Year - a good place to head I'd thought but the celebration was disappointing. I was booked on an early morning bus so I decided to try to get a few hours sleep and went to bed around 1:30 am, but in an effort to be ready to get up and run to my bus I carefully packed up all my stuff before going to sleep. Looking back, it is all these little decisions that one makes that all come together to result in a case of just plain bad luck.
Into my bag went my camera, cell phone, MP3 player, book, wallet with cash & credit cards, my passport, birth certificate, bus and plane tickets, watch, sunglasses and a variety of other little things that people generally have in their day bags for long bus rides. I carefully put it between my head and the wall and went to bed, determined to get a few hours sleep. Then I woke up with my bag gone and after frantically searching I started to panic because I'd lost all money and forms of identification that I had with me in this foreign country. And I am travelling alone.
So what happened? Apparently since people were in and out of the hostel all night they'd been careless in locking the doors and someone had managed to get inside and take not only my bag, but also a few other peoples' digital cameras and cash. It's amazing because there were other people awake and they talked to the would-be burglars, well to one at least while his friends rummaged through the bags that were near the doorway - including mine. Small choices like choosing a bed near the doorway can become so significant later on.
The amazing part about the whole incident was how helpful the manager and other guests at the backpackers were. Total strangers insisted that I use their cell to call my parents in Canada, gave me cash and offered kind words. It was very overwhelming and really necessary when you are alone and something like this happens. Several hours later, as we waited for the police to arrive at the scene, someone found a bag in the bushes down the street. Not mine unfortunately, but it did include some of my things. They tossed everything that wasn't of direct value to them so I managed to reclaim my passport (!), tickets, one credit card and book. What a relief to have an identity again!
The whole incident gave me quite a scare. I'm usually so careful - even, I would say, paranoid - about keeping my valuables in a secure spot but that night, in an effort to be efficient, I'd chosen organization over security and paid dearly. New Zealand feels so safe, all the travellers I've talked to admitted that they haven't been as careful as
maybe they should have been. I see wallets and cameras lying out on beds all the time. But on this night, in this hostel, we were caught unguarded.
When you are travelling, you have so little with you that it is terrible beyond words to have things taken. I can't even really describe it. It really shakes you up for several days. The creepy part is that I was right there and they reached over me to take my stuff. I'd heard noises too, but just assumed it was someone coming home drunk from a night of New Years partying and ignored them.
Two days later I finally managed to book onto another bus down the coast. Would you believe that the bus broke down for three hours in the middle of nowhere? At this point I was unbelievably happy that the burglars had decided to ditch my book in the bushes or I would have been bored out of my mind! My planned 3 days in art deco Napier turned into 3 hours to explore. Another early bus took me back to Wellington where I was of course locked out of my flat (keys stolen) and waited 5 hours on our back deck for my flatmate to return from her holidays. Again, that God for my book. She arrived home when I had just 10 pages left.
And of course the things were taken at the start of a 4-day weekend so everything was to be closed until Wednesday. Things are now getting back to normal; I have a few days of work before I need to look for another temp job. I have key for the flat again. I bought a new cell phone and I am camera shopping. The only bright spot is that I can still take advantage of a few post-Christmas sales. This unplanned expense of replacing everything has eaten the little travel savings I'd managed to make. But seeing the devastation in Asia helps put it all in perspective and I'm trying to remember that it is just stuff and can all be replaced. None the less, a depressing way to start 2005.
Bright notes from my travels? I'd started in Rotorua, aka Roto-Vegas the thermal wonderland of New Zealand with hot springs, geysers, tourists and the smell of rotten eggs lingering in the air. There I stayed at a fabulous backpackers called Funky Green Voyager that I very much recommend to anyone visiting. I walked along the lake, lounged in the Polynesian Spa hot pools, and was amazed by the pools of boiling mud. The lake for instance looks like a normal lake until you walk around a bend and into Sulphur Bay where the water is opaque, has a yellowish ting and is warm. Steam rises up from the group, puddles boil and mud gurgles as steam is released from the earth. It is such a strange place. From there I also did my first extreme New Zealand activity - Black Water Rafting in the Waitomo Caves. Basically it is tubing in the dark, over little waterfalls and under glow worms that sparkle on the ceiling of the caves. It was great!
Gisborne and Napier are great little towns (large enough to qualify as cities in New Zealand). They have a Miami Beach type feel to them. City streets lined with palm trees. Funky old buildings. Beaches. Vineyards. Beautiful sunny days like I imagine New Zealand summers should be. There was a great fireworks extravaganza on the night of Jan 1st, much better than the actual New Years Eve celebration. All those things were nice but the overwhelming memory will unfortunately be of the theft.
Christmas I had spent with my flatmate Pip and her extended family. We had turkey and kumara (New Zealand sweet potato) and strawberries with homemade ice cream for desert. It was nice to have someplace to go and a few presents from home to open. Next year I plan to do Christmas to the extreme because it just didn't feel right being away this year.
The crappy weather is the main topic of conversation across New Zealand these days (and of course the tsunami). Back in Wellington now and yesterday alone we had more rain than they typically get in a month! There was flooding. Roads and stores were closed. They have just spotted icebergs off the coast of the South Island - the first such spotting in 130 years! It is just ridiculous.
I'm managing quite well now, all things considered. Hope you all had a better start to the New Year that I did! During the chaos I did get to see the first sunrise of the New Year, from the first city in the world to see it rise. Yes, Memories of Gisborne...
Rosey
