Day 1 in Otago

Morning view from my accommodation

About three hours after I arrived here, a senior called me and asked to meet - Syed got in contact with some of them and he gave them my phone number. They wanted to greet me at my college because I don’t know squat about this city layout and where everything is. Unfortunately for them, my accommodation is quite far away on one of the highest point in Dunedin, plus they don’t have a car. So I told them I’ll be taking a taxi to the rendezvous point, which was at Meridian Mall. One of my college staff contacted a taxi to pick me up. Of course I didn’t have a good sleep when I arrived here, maybe due to jet lag , moreover my heater was broken at that time, so it was damn cold and I had to sleep in my thick jacket and wrapped myself with two thick blankets…even with that it was still cold.

fast-forward to Meridian mall,

The street leading to Meridian Mall almost resemble some street in London, and its one of the shopping district in Dunedin, but less chaotic than the ones in London. There I met Jordan. A Malaysian doing Education here, and he is one of the 57 teacher-to-be sent here by our government last February. We will later meet up with the rest of the seniors and Syed, while I settle some my stuffs.

Jordan helped guide me to open a new account at ANZ bank. Believe it or not, some of their bank have no security guard…and you don’t have to take any number. The bank gave me a Student credit card with a NZD500 limit, which is ok for me. The cool part is that there is no interest, unless you paid within 55 days, after that the interest will be 19%. Most students here don’t carry a lot of cash in their wallet, most using debit card and student credit card. You can even pay your food with debit card. After I settled with the bank, I bought a new SIM card. There are not many phone provider in New Zealand, there are 2Degrees, TM NZ, and Vodafone. Im using Vodafone, and the rate is quite good, plus I got 300mb free data usage for 3 months.

Because I haven’t had any breakfast or lunch since yesterday, Jordan took me to Meridian food court at lower level. Ada mamak punya masakkan kut…and one stall jual makanan Malaysian called Lemongrass. Both of these stalls owned by a Malaysian. I saw the owner and he looked a mamak Penang. There’s another stall selling kebab and rice…but their burger SuX. Yang tiga kedai je ni la yang halal, but they have a lot of variety to pick from. Especially at Lemongrass, they put heck a lot of rice, and lauk pun banyak depa letak and sedap gak, and just cost about 8 dollars, tapi memang puas hati.

After lunch+breakfast, we headed to a place a bit like Tesco called The New World. A lot of things here are quite cheap, especially their homegrown dairy product, meat, fruits…1 dollar per kilo for kiwi fruits. Kiwis here are over supply, oranges, apples, grapes etc all very cheap. Except for imported tropical fruits, and vegetable. Im not sure if cucumber is a tropical or not, but I heard some Danish couple complaining that cucumber here cost about 4dollars a piece…???, and pisang import mai sini tak sedap langsung, liquid dalam pisang tu jadi pelik semacam, maybe due to the cold weather here. Erin, Chocolates here are very cheap, especially Cadbury…the Cadbury 200g bar Dark Chocolate just cost NZD2.49, roughly about Rm5.7, haha. Kilang Cadbury is in the city, and this city gonna have Cadbury chocolate festival this mid july… I think I ganna puke chocolate after this, haha

So far, what amazed me here is that people in Dunedin have their security lies in trust and honesty of others. I have never seen a single police officer or a police cruiser going around this city, or any security guard in sight...police here don't even carry a gun. Even their grocery counter have no cashier. You scan all your items by yourself, and complete your transaction without any supervision. Everything made easy.

Oh yeah, here, water is a part of human right so you don’t have to pay for it…and I’ve heard that internet is also a part of human right…tak tau betul ke tak about the internet part.

Night time here a bit early, at 5pm the sky already beginning to get dark, at 5:30pm memang dah gelap dah, sebab time winter..so daytime pendek. So I headed back to Aquinas college by a taxi. Went up to my room and rest.

Moments later ada officer college came up to my room and invited me to have dinner with them, there I met Scott in person. Scott is the head officer in this college. At the dinning hall, I met the head chef who is very friendly…actually all of them are very friendly, but I don’t quite understand the chef's accent because he is an Irish. Fortunately for me, my accommodation has halal food provided and I can eat as much as I want. The head chef gave me a two slices of cakes, a doughnut and a bowl of chocolate fudge for desert, and I had a plate of rice with some beef and some other stuff. I think that chef was trying to kill me with all this excess food, because my college has about 15 people now, and its still a semester holiday, so the food always in excess. So far, I kinda like this place.

I couldn’t finish the doughnut, so I went up to my room like a heavy bear, and crash on my bed. Oh yeah, they fixed my heater…thank God. Otherwise I gonna burn my bed for heat. So far so good.

That was my first day in Dunedin…

Bye.

This is my department. Damn far, about 5km away from my accommodation...need a bicycle