Nǐ hǎo China

After over year of bouncing around Asia, Europe and North Africa, we were finally ready to make our way back to New Zealand to set off on our biggest adventure yet, getting married! As much as we loved the chaos of the road, we were both buzzing with excitement to get back to New Zealand. We knew the second our feet touched the ground in Christchurch, it would be a non-stop sprint of wedding preparations and catching up with everyone, but we were more than ready for it.

Getting back to NZ is always a mission because it happens to be about as far away as possible from literally everywhere else on Earth. Once we wrapped up our tour in Morocco, we had to figure out the most logical way to fly back. We still had a heap of our belongings stored at a friend’s place in Frankfurt, so we had to coordinate getting from Marrakech to Frankfurt, and then Frankfurt to New Zealand.

The first leg of the journey, we decided to go back to Frankfurt via London so we could stop and see a few friends. It was the perfect excuse to squeeze in some quality time with Greer, Lou, Ryan, and Diego. We all headed out to a pub for dinner together, followed by a night of bowling and a few drinks. It was such a great evening, especially since we weren't entirely sure when we’d find ourselves back on this side of the planet again.

After our final London goodbye, we flew back to Frankfurt, where the weather had taken a noticeably cold turn. It felt like a total full circle moment. We were retracing the steps Jelley took when she first arrived in the city following our time in India to start her contract for the UEFA European Football Championships. We even did a little nostalgic stay at our original apartment building, The "Stayery". It was wild to reflect on the journey we had been through since we first moved into that apartment back in 2024.

We also managed to meet up with a few work colleagues who were still in town for one last round of schnitzel and green sauce. Green sauce is the local delicacy, though if we are being honest, it is not actually that good haha. Still, it was great to reminisce about a massive year of work and all the friendships we made along the way.

Of course, we had to catch up with Anita one last time to grab the bags she had been kindly storing for us. We originally met Anita during our tour through India, and it turned out to be so lucky to have a friend who was a Frankfurt local. We still can't get over the fact that people from here are actually called "Frankfurters." It felt only fitting to share our final meal together at a local Indian restaurant, where we could catch up and reflect on what a huge year it had been.

We headed back to the familiar chaos of the Frankfurt airport (or "Fraport"), which is notorious for being one of the busiest hubs in the world. It also happens to be one of the most illogical and frustrating airports we have ever had to navigate. Won't miss anything about this airport. A kind reminder about the fallacy of "German efficiency".

After plenty of back and forth about the best way to fly home, Jelley did some deep research into the most cost-effective route. While the standard trek is usually via the Middle East, or our preferred of Singapore, she managed to find a special deal through China Southern Airlines. The route was only 2 flights(!) via Guangzhou to Christchurch and was about one-third of the price of the other options! It also included two free checked bags and the added bonus of a free hotel stay for our layover in Guangzhou. We honestly couldn't pass that up and why not make the journey home a bit of an adventure, so we booked it and began the long journey toward China! We would also later find out that our China Southern flight to Christchurch was the inaugral one for the summer season.

After a long flight, we found ourselves in the Guangzhou airport, and it was another abrupt shock to the senses. The airport itself wasn't anything special, but arriving in the middle of the night added to the confusion. We eventually tracked down our free China Southern shuttle bus, which picked us up and took us into the city where our hotel was located. We were honestly too exhausted from the flight to really grasp that we were in the heart of one of China’s massive urban hubs. Guangzhou is actually the third-largest city in China, serving as a sprawling port metropolis with a population of over 18 million people. It has been a major terminal of the maritime Silk Road for centuries and remains one of the country's most vital commercial and industrial centers.

We headed straight to our room and fell into a deep sleep. With only about 18 hours to spend in the city, we managed to get a solid eight hours of rest before waking up eager to explore as much as we could. Being in such a colossal, fast-paced city with so little time felt like a race against the clock, but we were determined to see what Guangzhou had to offer before our final leg home.

The first thing on the agenda was the complimentary breakfast at the hotel. It was a proper local spread rather than your standard cereal or toast, featuring a mix of wonton soup, steamed bao buns, and stir-fried noodles. We slurped them down and laughed to ourselves as it fully set in how odd it was that we were suddenly in China for no apparent reason. For Luke, it was a total throwback to visiting China as a kid with his mom and grandma to see his Grandpa Jack. The atmosphere was just as hectic and fascinating as he remembered.

As we headed out of the hotel lobby, we noticed signs for a massive egg products convention being held right there in the building as well as some Beauty Empowerment conference. There were heaps of Chinese farmers and industry reps all over the place, which was such a strange and funny sight to wake up to. We also quickly realized that the familiar rules of the Western world just didn't apply here. For starters, getting data on our phones was a mission because the internet is so restricted, and our standard Visa and Mastercard were basically useless for daily purchases.

In China, everyone uses "super apps" like WeChat Pay or Alipay, which literally do everything from hailing a taxi to paying for a single piece of fruit at a street stall. It was a weird reality shift to be in a place where your physical wallet is almost obsolete. Even when we managed to connect to the hotel wifi, we hit a digital wall. Standard social media apps like Facebook and Messenger are blocked, leaving us feeling a bit disconnected from the rest of the world while we navigated this new environment.

We dove headfirst into the Guangzhou metro system to try and find our way into the city center. It was a massive challenge just figuring out how to navigate the lines, let alone work out how to actually buy a ticket. We eventually managed to get Alipay set up on our phones and linked to our bank accounts, but the entire process felt completely foreign compared to any other transit system we had used.

When we first jumped on the train, it was relatively quiet, but that didn't last long. With every stop we made toward the heart of the city, the carriages became more and more packed, providing a very literal "squeeze" and a rude awakening to just how densely populated this place is.

Historically known as "Canton", Guangzhou has a deep legacy as a massive trading hub due to its location on the Pearl River, just 120 kilometers north-northwest of Hong Kong. It served as the sole Chinese port accessible to most foreign traders for centuries, which gave it a unique, outward-looking culture compared to other inland cities. Today, it is part of one of the most populous metropolitan areas on Earth, the Pearl River Delta, which seamlessly connects Guangzhou with other massive hubs like Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macau.

We finally made it into the heart of Guangzhou, but unfortunately, the weather had other plans and it started to rain. We did catch a spectacular glimpse of the Canton Tower through the pouring rain. It was all lit up and incredibly colourful, standing as a glowing spire against the gray sky. Rising 600 meters (1969 feet), it was once the tallest tower in the world and serves as a multi-purpose telecommunications and sightseeing hub. Its twisted, "slender waist" design was so neat, and seeing it lit up with its shifting rainbow of LEDs was a reminder of just how futuristic and high-tech this part of China is.

Even though the weather kept us from doing too much outside, we managed to duck into a local library that was absolutely gorgeous. We also found a little hole-in-the-wall eatery for some yummy Chinese soup before the realization hit that our clock was quickly running out. We had to turn right back around and brave the busy metro once more to make our way to the airport.

On the train journey back we noticed a little billboard advertising the "core values of socialism" which was interesting. Not something you see every day. It was a short but interesting little excursion through Guangzhou, and we are both really glad we did it. We would love to go back and see more of China one day because it is such a mammoth part of the world. Much like India, it is so densely populated that between those two countries, they make up over one-third of the entire human population. There is clearly so much more to explore.

After another long haul flight direct from Guangzhou that took about 12 hours, we finally touched down in Christchurch. The biosecurity staff greeted us with a casual 'Ni Hao Mate, how are ya going?'. We were officially back home! It was such a great feeling to reconnect with the Jelley family and dive straight into the Christmas festivities together.

The timing was perfect because we really needed those final weeks to tackle the mountain of wedding preparations waiting for us. We had guests traveling from all corners of the globe to celebrate with us, and we were absolutely thrilled to think that everyone would soon be in one place and the next chapter of our adventures would be back home in NZ.

Until Then,

 - A Kiwi and A Cali