Gisborne Day 2

Alhamdulillah saya telah selamat sampai ke East Coast of New Zealand. To be spesific, Gisborne. It took 3 flights to reach here. 3 flights with different sizes. haha.. I went with my school colleague Yee Phang. During our first flight i flipped through the AirNZ inflight magazine and I saw this page telling about the different sizes of airplanes they have. Me and Yee Phang just burst into laughter when we saw the smallest flight which can only take up to 19 passengers. The second flight we took was slightly larger than our Dunedin-Christchurch flight. That flight was going to Auckland, the main city. So I guess that was why the flight was larger. However, from Auckland to Gisborne, we had the smallest flight which we laughed on previously. ahoy! single seats, which mean you got both the isle and the window seat. haha.

It was a very tiring journey. We arrived in Gisborne airport at about 3.30 pm. It's a very small airport. Bag claim station pun takde. We just had to wait outside for the little truck/carrier to bring our luggages on. Again, me and Yee Phang had a good laugh on that. Such a small town with a small airport. We got excited upon seeing our accommodation. It's like living in a resort or something.There were 2 houses. 1 house for each group. Me and Yee Phang are in different groups so we got different house. I am living with Larissa and Phoebe, the two kiwi girls. No muslims at all. Truly awkward. I need to take care of my aurah in front of them. I did not bring much food with me. And i missed the grocery shopping with them because I was really blur, confused and maybe jetlag? I just refused to join their groceries shopping because i need a rest and i was not aware that I will be travelling to rural area the next day which grocery shopping might be hard to do. ermm and i forgot to bring my compass. so i had to search for the kiblat using Yee Phang's iPhone. Thanks heaps Yee Phang!

That night, after a good rest, we went to Patrick's house. Patrick is the program director and one of the doctors too. He was the one who picked us at the airport. Patrick house is so big. He has two dogs and the dogs greeted us including me! I was just holding my breath and i think my pants perlu disamak! I'm not quite sure whether the dogs licked my pants or not, it was too dark outside the house. Patrick and his wife Nikki was cooking dinner that night. they made a special vege spaghetti for me while others had beef spaghetti. Patrick has Italian blood in him so his spaghetti was awesome! after we had dinner, they served a lovely brownies with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Patrick offered me a glass of beer. Of course i refused. But then Yee Phang said it was just an apple juice. Oh no! why the colour?!! serve la jus yang lain kaler kan. aiseh..then i pour the juice myself straight from the bottle. Duh, i hate the smell of the beer.

So the next day was the most stressful day to me. We had meeting early in the morning. Briefing macam-macam. too much to take. And then straightaway headed to Te Puia Springs. the journey took almost 2 hours. I slept all the way because i cant stand the windy road. I missed the scenic view unfortunately. As we arrived there, TVNZ crew was waiting for us. Yes, we're going to be filmed. Oh sejak duduk kat NZ ni, dah 4 kali saya difilemkan tp satu je yang sempat tengok kat dalam tv, that was during my first orchard experience. the second one was during my 2nd orchard experience. the third one was during 'Does Islam opressed woman' debate. the fourth one is this one.

oh lupa nak bagitau ye. Saya ke Gisborne untuk program IPE (Inter Professional Education). Program ini under research project yang ditaja kerajaan NZ. Dorang nak eksperimen how well we work as a team of different professions. program ni berlangsung selama 5 minggu. Ada dua team. dalam each team ada sorang final year students of nursing, medicine, dentistry,pharmacy and physiotherapy. Ia adalah projek julung-julung kalinya (pertama kalinya-cubaan untuk menghebarkan BM) di NZ. sebab tu dorang filemkan. oh dah banyak kali dah saya jadi guinea pig ni. or shall i say trailblazers? that sounds better. hehe.

Ok back to the story, di Te Puia Springs we had to do the Powhiri (maori welcoming tradition). perkara yang paling tidak disukai saya dalam upacara ini adalah hongi. hongi ialah perbuatan menekan hidung sesama hidung, ia semacam memberikan nafas untuk satu sama lain sebagai tanda 'ukhuwah' huhu..tetapi saya berasa tidak selesa lebih-lebih lagi dengan lelaki. tahun lepas berjaya mengelaknya. tahun ni mereka melakukan upacara itu secara laju-laju. tak sempat saya nak berkata apa, mereka dah grab saya dan buat hongi itu dan too bad this time mereka cium pipi jugak! which saya tak tahu pun boleh jadi macam tu. rupanya kawasan ni memang lain sikit budaya maorinya. harap xmasuk tv part tuh! wuuu badmood habis hari tu. berjaya katakan tidak kepada seorang manusia sahaja.

kemudian kami kena dengar briefing demi briefing sambil difilemkan. too much information for my exhausted self. 4 hours after that baru kami dilepaskan. We went to the nursing homes (where we are going to stay for the 5 days). Terus saya grab iPhone Yee Phang to look for the qibla direction. sebab Yee Phang akan pergi balik ke Gisborne. sementara saya dan team saya akan tinggal di Te Puia Springs. They asked me to join them to the pub, main lion dance. oh no. dahla mood dah kena destroy dengan upacara hongi dan briefing yang berpanjangan. dengan emosi yang masih tidak sekata lagi. stress tak dapat makanan halal dan xde bekalan makanan pulak tu. bertambah stressful bila diajak buat benda yang tak disukai dan syubhah for me. so saya berdoa agar Allah tidurkan saya sepertimana Allah tidurkan Rasulullah SAW supaya baginda tak pergi taman hiburan. Alhamdulillah Allah gave me period pain and headache and all i wanted to do that time was to sleep. And i slept for 4 hours. bangun2 je mereka dah balik rumah. tapi rumah ni spooky la jugak sebab saya terjaga in the middle and found out i was all alone. and then heard weird things. mungkin sbb masa tu tengah maghrib. abaikan. by the way malam tu hanya makan megi tomyam. alhamdulillah sedap juga. kat cafe hospital tu kena makan kek je (sbb other food tak halal) sampaikan Natasha (nurse akak manager program) kesian tengok saya makan banyak sangat kek to makeup for my lack of other nutrients (apakah huhu) "dhuha, make sure you get enough nutrients while staying here. i dont want to see you with cakes anymore" pesannya sebelum dia pulang ke Gisborne.

ok banyaknya nak tulis. hari ni Day 3 sebenarnya. tak dapat nak share apa yang saya went thru hari ni. tak larat dah. kepenatan mandi dalam thermal pool. ok laters. assalamualaikum.