ABOUT ME

Hello! I'm Christina, 24 from the United Kingdom. Right now I am 8 months into a working holiday here in New Zealand. I am an easy-going, friendly person. I can be a little shy to begin with but soon warm up, particularly in good company. I really enjoy meeting new people and, despite being young, I feel that I have done a lot of interesting things so far in my life. I am a considerate and honest person who would like to do some couch surfing in order to meet the 'locals' in NZ.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None yet!
I am new to couch surfing but excited to get some experience. I've been in NZ for 8 months and have travelled my way round in a variety of ways - backpacking, wwoofing, voluntary work. Now I'd like to add couch surfing to the list! Although I love meeting fellow travellers, I really enjoyed experiences such as wwoofing as it gave me a chance to meet people with local knowledge and more of this is what I'm after.

Interests

At the moment, my life is occupied with travelling in and around New Zealand. One of the main reasons I came here was to see and enjoy NZ's nature and scenery. I have a keen interest in wildlife and so have had a great time seeing marine wildlife, bird sanctuary islands, and walking through the stunning landscapes. This is an interest I also had back home - I studied Biology and also did a fair amount of voluntary work in that field.
Another aspect of what I have enjoyed here is meeting new and interesting people. Unfortunately backpacking means that I only meet people for a day or two before we go our separate ways but I have formed friendships that I hope will last. Many people I have met have been international and this has given me an insight into new cultures and given me inspiration for future travels. I have also managed to meet some New Zealanders (through wwoofing and other voluntary work) and would like to meet some more. It has been really nice to see the country through their eyes rather than that of a tourist!
Although I don't have as much opportunity for them at the moment, I also like to watch live music and visit art galleries. Something that I have been able to keep up during travelling is reading. I love to read and am probably reading more books now than when I was at home.

• wildlife
• arts
• culture
• books
• folklore
• walking
• boating
• anime
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• live music
• backpacking
• surfing
• biology

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

From my time here in NZ so far, one of the most amazing experiences was working as a research assistant for a marine research group. This involved going out in a research boat and looking for dolphins. When we found pods of dolphins we spent a while observing them and it was incredible! One day in particular was my favourite - when we found a pod of orca!!

I recently went to Japan and that whole experience was one of the best things I have done. It was a massive culture shock but I loved every minute of it because of that. I spent most of my time in Tokyo and was fascinated by the mixture of tradition (temples, tea ceremonies, kimonos etc) and new (the electrical district, anime and manga, etc). The Japanese people were incredibly friendly and genuine and I can't wait to go back again.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Japan, New Zealand, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

New Zealand, United Kingdom