Every month I organize a board games night in a cafe in my city where many international people come together to play games and hang out with each other. We are usually with about 30 – 40 people and come from all over the world.

Even though I’ve met people from many places during the board games nights, I was very surprised to find a lady from New Zealand on the other side of the table, just a few weeks after I had booked my ticket. Her name is Chelsea and she was visiting the Netherlands for a couple of months. With a lot of excitement I shared my travel plans with her and she was just as surprised as I was, even more to find out that we have the same profession and could probably work together.

It’s very interesting how life goes sometimes and I’m very thankful to already have a friend in New Zealand. Via Chelsea I’ve met more New Zealand people, also called Kiwi’s, who were visiting or living here in the Netherlands. I’ve learned quite a bit about the culture and Chelsea made me a map with all the places I should visit. Some things about people from New Zealand I’ve learned so far: they are super sportive, they’re proud of their country (and also the island they’re from; it was fun to hear a discussion between someone from the North island and someone from the South Island) and they’re not such big fans of Australia. Handy things I’ve learned about New Zealand: you can’t just camp everywhere like I did in America. In some areas you might be able to do it, but in most places you have to go to an official campsite. I’ve also learned that if you follow the main roads, travel times are much shorter than I thought. Auckland to Wellington (crossing the North Island) can be done in a day if you want. Of course I’ll take the more scenic routes, but it’s good to get a bit of perspective of the distances.

I’ll be traveling to the other side of the world, to a place I’ve never been before, but I’m very happy to already know a couple of people there.