During this past year, I have been writing a monthly column for our local news bulletin, Buller Bay News. It is about my travels in Europe in 2024 with my sister, titled: A sexagenarian on her first European OE. Some of my recounts have been written about in previous blog posts, but these accounts have a different eye-view. I have written them as letters to my readers, and I hope that you enjoy them.

Dear Reader

It’s an interesting time of life when your children become independent; all grown up, they leave home, start a career, marry and have their own children (not necessarily in that order). I take my role as a grandmother pretty seriously. So, when our youngest son, with his wife and two sons, moved from Auckland to her home in Catalonia, Spain, I was determined that our relationship would continue. I wanted to be more than a video face, Grandma! I began to think about the possibilities of a trip to Europe.

My sister, who lives in Sydney, had her travel plans ambushed by the COVID-19 epidemic, so we decided to travel together. It took months of throwing around ideas with her and a local travel agent before we finally had a plan. I would fly from Christchurch to Sydney, where she would board the same flight. We would then continue together to Dubai and from there to Barcelona. After a couple of weeks with family in the small village they lived in, we would visit two cities in France and four in Italy before beginning the trip back to our respective homes. In Europe, we would travel by train and mostly stay in 3-star plus hotels.

Before I knew it, I was sitting on a bus, travelling to Christchurch, about to embark on a holiday I had only dared to dream about. My cousin picked me up from the bus, and that afternoon, with her husband, we drove to a bar just out of the city. We climbed up some ‘fire-escape’ type stairs to get to the entrance and entered a dimly lit room. Music was a playlist of songs from the 1970s, and I could sing along with them all!!! There was a bar with bottles of all shapes, colours and sizes filling up every shelf, box, cupboard, and bench, with some even stacked on the floor! On the bar was a sign ‘Duty Manager – Zelda’.  Zelda, a woman likely in her late 50s with dyed blonde hair and unevenly applied very red lipstick, was not very welcoming at first, to us, her only customers. However, we ordered our drinks, but Zelda did not have a clue. She didn’t know how to use the blender and had no idea what mixes to use for the drinks that we ordered. I didn’t know either, but ended up behind the bar helping to mix the drinks, with my cousin using Google to find the recipes! Zelda’s antics were hilarious, and my cousin and I were in absolute fits of laughter as she poured excessive amounts of nips into our drinks with abandon. We ended up ‘best friends,’ with photo shoots and offers of more drinks! It was a great way to leave the familiarity of The Buller behind and enter into the full mode of being on holiday.

Over the next few issues of the BBB, I plan to share some of the experiences I had during the month I was away. Some names and places will be changed, but the events are true to my experiences. This is not a travel book!  It’s a different style of writing for me, but I hope you enjoy sharing my adventures …

Yours Sincerely,

A Sexagenarian on her First European OE