CONNECTING WITH HER ICELANDIC ROOTS – A JOURNEY BETWEEN TWO FAR AWAY HOMES
By the end of May, several new staff members arrived to work as part of the team of Gentle Giants. Among our new guides is Freyja Petursson who travelled all the way from New Zealand to join our team here in Húsavík. However, Freyja is actually half Icelandic and traces her roots to Skjálfandi Bay. Moreover, by being a guide on the whale watching boats, she now works alongside her grandfather Pétur Olgeirsson, who is working as a captain for Gentle Giants since many years. “I had often thought about coming and spending a summer over here working but it was only in about February that I decided to actually pursue it. My main motivations were to connect with family and experience living abroad and another culture. I particularly love spending quality time with Amma and Afi (Icelandic words for grandmother and -father) and getting to know them better.” Hearing that, I am curious whether Freyja can actually imagine having grown up here instead as well as staying for a longer period of time: “I think a childhood in Iceland would be lovely. Like New Zealanders, Icelanders seem to be very family oriented which I like. I just don’t know how I would go with the long dark winters.” “Is this place giving you a feeling of a second home? What else – apart from family – makes you feel connected to the country?” “Yes, definitely! Where ever I go I seem to bump in to someone that is family and also everyone at Gentle Giants has been so welcoming to me which has made me feel very comfortable. I guess with my Dad being Icelandic I have grown up knowing lots of the Icelandic traditions so lots of things here feel normal to me. I guess another thing that connects me to Iceland is the food. Dad has often cooked us Icelandic food so I feel a connection when I eat it here.” She then tells me that she has been to Iceland about 6 times in her life, but usually in winter to spend Christmas with family, “Christmas here is pretty special with the snow and all the Christmas lights. It’s hard to feel too festival in New Zealand at Christmas time in the hot sun!” Freyja came to Húsavík for a few days in December 2013 last: “It was winter time so it is completely different to how it is at the moment!” Freyja continues, that she loves the fact that people are so friendly here, the country clean and pollution free as well as that here she can walk to work or town in a few minutes whilst back home in New Zealand it’s a 20 minute drive to work and often one gets stuck in traffic jams. “Living in New Zealand, you can get yourself into a busy lifestyle that you feel you can’t get out of sometimes. I like the pace of life in Húsavík. [On the downside], getting to sleep at night time here in the light has been difficult and I am still struggling with it! Still, I’m loving the long daylight hours! Oh yeah and I love dried fish!”
Back home in New Zealand, Freyja finished her degree at the University of Hamilton in 2016 and has been working for a government agency (Accident Compensation Corporation) that provides cover/compensation to people when they have accidents in New Zealand since. She will be staying in Húsavík for a total of three months. After, she is planning on travelling Europe for a while before returning to New Zealand.
“A few years back, would you have thought you’d be guiding here one day?” “If someone had said to me a while ago that I would be a whale watching tour guide working alongside my grandfather in Iceland I wouldn’t have believed them! Already it has been such a big learning curve for me and given me more confidence speaking and dealing with people/crowds.” “How was your and Pétur’s first tour together? Was it a lot different to the previous tours you did with other captains?” “It was great! I am proud to work with Afi! I must admit I was a bit worried as he is not that good at English and I can’t speak Icelandic so I was wondering how it would go but we manage to get by!” Apart from working with her grandfather, I am curious to know how she likes the work as a guide and what is making the job special for her: ”I’m loving guiding. Meeting loads of new people and being in the outdoors and so up close to nature! The whales are amazing. I don’t know how I am going to go back to my office desk after this! It’s wonderful to see the tourists enjoying themselves. I love seeing people’s expressions when they see the whales. A lady I had the other day said it had been one of the best afternoons of her life. It’s special to be a part of that!”
