Ventures with the Flatmates & Marie

That first week after Sontsa left, I basically chose not to allow myself to do anything other than job searching. I barely left the flat and tended to stick to my room, which I should probably mention is abnormally small. Yes, I believe it was perhaps originally meant to be a very small office—definitely not a bedroom. I would estimate its actual size to be approximately 7’ x 7,’ and no, I’m not kidding haha. I don’t mind its small size though because the price is certainly right, and it is quite nice not having to share a room with 11 other people =). Oh, and my bed sheets and duvet are tinkerbell-themed because my flatmate Daiana used to work at Disney World and loves Tinkerbell haha...cute. Plus, after remaining jobless, I went back to living off of toast, water, milk and cereal (Weet-Bix to be more specific: The official breakfast of the All Blacks rugby team) for quite some time and certainly didn’t do anything fun. My first full weekend in the flat, however, was a different story. My flatmate Emma was having a couple of friends over to the flat on Saturday night before going out on the town, and she invited me to join them in the festivities. She called it a “welcoming to the flat.” Such a nice gesture!

We drove in Emma’s car to the nearby suburb of Remuera to pick up her friends Bryce and Brian from their place. After she parked the car in the driveway, I opened the door to get out, and proceeded to immediately step into a ridiculously deep mud puddle that completely engulfed my foot. Just as I was removing my mud-soaked foot and pants from the puddle, Bryce, who was unaware of my blunder, yelled down from the front balcony, “Oh, watch out for that puddle, honey.” Haha…priceless. We all spent a few minutes at their place before heading out to get some Pizza Hut pizza, quickly stopping at the store, then making our way back to our flat. The evening at the flat consisted of seriously tasty pizza, tons of laughs, great conversations, random hats, SingStar, and a couple of random games. The four of us spent a lot of time chilling out on our balcony, sitting, chatting and taking in the gorgeous views of the city. Bryce and Brian are magnificent—two people that you just immediately love.

After a few hours at the flat, we all went to one of the dance clubs on K Road, about a 10-minute walk away. An epic night of dancing and way too much fun ensued from there. It was such a great evening, with such wonderful people…and I needed it! That weekend was actually an extended weekend in New Zealand, with Monday, June 6th being a holiday in observance of The Queen’s birthday. As far as I can tell, Kiwis have no idea why it's a holiday either. Nonetheless, on Sunday, Emma drove a couple hours south to Hamilton to visit her family for a couple of days. In contrast, my flatmate Daiana unfortunately did not get to enjoy her extended weekend. She had already gone to the emergency room a day or two earlier not feeling so well. After beginning to feel even worse on Sunday though, she decided to go back to the hospital again. Daiana’s friend Luciana came to the flat to pick her up and I went with them to the emergency room. We stayed there for a number of hours, but luckily nothing major was wrong and she was released late that evening. A bit nerve-racking though!

The following week, I had the pleasure of spending time with mine and
Sontsa’s German friend Marie whom we had recently run into in Kaikoura. Marie had to catch a flight from Auckland to Brisbane for a short 5-day trip, then it was back home to Germany. Luckily, she had decided to come to Auckland a few days before her flight. I must say, besides everything else that living in Auckland already has to offer, I love the fact that it is New Zealand’s major airport hub. Living here has given me the opportunity to reunite with many of the people I met along my travels that I may not have otherwise seen again while in New Zealand. Marie texted me shortly after her arrival in Auckland around June 6th, letting me know she was in town. She proposed either going to see a movie at the IMAX or grabbing a coffee. As I couldn’t really justify paying over $20 for a movie in my current situation, I responded by saying coffee would be great. Happy to take a little break from job searching, I met her at the Starbucks by one of Auckland’s major intersections, Queen Street & Victoria Street. It was to become our go-to spot during the 3 or 4 days she was here. After greeting each other with a big hug, we bought some coffee drinks, got a table outside overlooking Queen Street, and sat there catching up for quite a while.

One of our topics of conversation was of course our dolphin swim in Kaikoura, an experience which Marie, Sontsa and I all shared together. Awesome memory! One thing Sontsa & I did not get the opportunity to do while we were in Kaikoura was visit the nearby seal colonies, which the locals had informed us had tons of baby seals too. Unfortunately for us, you needed a car to get there, and since we didn't have access to one, we didn’t go. Marie, on the other hand, was lucky enough to be staying at a different hostel in Kaikoura in which the owners let the guests take the hostel van to go see the seal pups! Yes, it was at that point I realized Sontsa & I obviously stayed at the wrong hostel...for shame! Marie showed me a video she had taken on her camera of all of the seal pups frolicking around a waterfall—sooo cute! One of them even licked her hand! The pups apparently came from a fur seal colony called Ohau Point, about a 20-minute drive north of Kaikoura. The colony has expanded over the past 15 years, growing from about 50 pups being born each year to 1500. In this particular location, it is not unusual to see up to 50 pups frolicking in the pool or basking on its shores, with another 50 playing in the stream. I so wish I had been able to see them in person, but it was still really great to see the video Marie had taken =)

At one point while she & I were talking, a guy who was probably in his mid-to-late 20s approached us and asked if he could observe (from a distance) our conversational interaction. He was studying at one of the universities in Auckland, and a class assignment of his was to observe different subjects conversing in their natural environment. Marie and I were keen for it, so we just signed a piece of paper basically authorizing him to watch us. We carried on with our conversation, catching each other up on everything we had been doing since we saw one another. I asked Marie where she was staying, and she answered, “At friends.” Accordingly, I responded, “Oh, awesome. Are they at work or something?” She looked at me with a confused expression and asked, “Who?” After a few moments of further conversation and baffled questioning, I realized she was staying in a hostel called Frienz haha. It reminded me of a specific incident when I worked at Ridge Air Conditioning in Panama City, Florida: I was talking to my boss about scheduling a new installation job and needed to know the customer’s name in order to put it on the schedule. No matter how many times I asked him the name, my boss just kept saying that the new unit was to be installed at his best friend’s kitchen. Finally, and admittedly with a wee bit of frustration in my voice, I sternly said, “Joe, I don’t know who your best friend is.” He chuckled and responded, “Honey, the restaurant is called My Best Friend’s Kitchen.” Haha! Oh, the joys of miscommunication. =)

After about 20 minutes of the university student observing us, he came back over, thanked us, and told us more about the premise of his study. Its focus was recording the differences between conversations had by women versus conversations between men. According to his findings thus far, women were more involved with one another during conversational interactions, maintaining more eye contact, interrupting one another less often, and maintaining more of an interest when the other person was speaking. Surprising? Of course not =) Still, it was interesting nonetheless. After Starbucks, Marie really wanted to go to the IMAX down the road and watch the new Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. I apologetically told her that I couldn’t, not without a job lined up. Since she wanted to see it so much and didn’t want to go alone, she insisted on me going with her & paying for my ticket. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Such a sweetheart! So, we watched the lovely Johnny Depp in IMAX 3D…quite enjoyable. It was a really nice break from the stressful week I’d had before.

After the movie, we walked back down the road and sat down on a bench in front of the Starbucks. We stayed there for hours talking about how much of an amazing experience it has been to live in New Zealand. Marie arrived in New Zealand a week before I did, the same time as Sontsa. Unfortunately like Sontsa though, she too was reluctantly having to leave the country earlier than she wanted to due to prior commitments back home. We talked late into the night until most of the people in the city had already scattered back to their homes. The streets still had some traffic, but the sidewalks were virtually empty. One particular skateboarder apparently decided that the wide-open sidewalks provided ample opportunity for some night-time fun. As Marie and I were sitting on the bench, we suddenly heard the sound of running behind us, and the next thing we knew, this guy came dashing past, jolted himself down onto his skateboard belly first and went zooming down the sidewalk. Auckland, including Queen Street, is quite hilly, so he barreled downhill for ages until completely out of sight haha. Must have been fun! That was just one of many random moments we had whilst sitting on that bench in front of Starbucks.

Cheers,
Ash

Job Searching & Interview Extravaganza

Literally just an hour or so after Sontsa left on May 31st, I got a phone call from another temp agency asking if I would be available for an interview that day. The woman I met for the interview that afternoon had actually forgotten to book a meeting room for our interview. Instead, she took me out for tea. Our meetings then consisted of us sitting in this really nice, relaxed area at the bottom of the huge corporate building, chatting about my strengths and weaknesses, etc. over delicious hot tea. Also, over the course of conversation, I learned that she was actually taking a road trip to Napier that weekend with friends! So, the rest of our time together consisted of me giving her tips on what to do & see in Napier, plus she also gave me some much-appreciated tips on where to shop in Auckland for cheap corporate clothing. After the interview, as with all temp agencies, I was told that they would keep an eye out for suitable jobs for me and hope that something would come through. The next day, I had THREE more interviews, including with two more temp agencies. Auckland is full of temp agencies, and it's really in one’s best interest to sign up with as many of them as possible. All in all, I had 5 interviews in 3 days and was becoming a pro. When I wasn’t interviewing, I was job searching.

I honestly devoted almost every waking moment to finding a job. Immediately after waking up in the mornings, I would turn on my laptop, grab some breakfast while it powered up, then sit in front of the computer eating my breakfast while looking at new job listings. The rest of the day followed a similar pattern: food, job searching, submitting applications, making phone calls, sending emails, more food, more job searching, sleep, and repeat. I searched through thousands of job listings over those first couple of weeks in Auckland and submitted literally hundreds of applications online. As if it isn’t obvious, my 4 months of traveling around New Zealand doing fun activities, coupled with only 5 weeks of working while in Napier, had finally caught up with me—my savings account was quickly becoming depleted and I was desperate for money. To make matters worse, I was STILL a bit sick, with a persistent night time cough that constantly interrupted my sleep. As it turned out, a cough such as this is one of the most common symptoms of mild asthma, as my wonderful mother rightly pointed out to me over the phone. Good thing Mom specifically left an inhaler out for me to take to New Zealand when I was doing my packing all those months ago! OHH…except for the fact that, out of pure pride and the presumption that it was unnecessary, I purposely chose not to take it…smart move, I know.

So, I went to one of the local pharmacies to ask what my best option was for obtaining an inhaler. It involved going to the clinic (an automatic consultation fee of at least $65) to get a prescription, then paying an additional $25 or so for the inhaler itself. Yeahhh…I didn’t have an extra $100 just sitting around, so I opted to just wait for Mom to mail an inhaler to me from home. It was delivered to my flat the following week, the inhaler specially wrapped in fuzzy socks that Mom surprised me with in order to keep my feet warm during these cold winter days. =) Such a sweetheart! A few days after Sontsa left, I received a very promising phone call on Friday, June 3rd from one of the temp agencies—a potential job! It was to be a full-time, 8-week contract paying $24/hour at one of the major banks in town. Hallelujah!! I interviewed with two really nice women from the bank that afternoon, and it went really well. As I was leaving, they said they would be in touch within the next couple of hours to let me know if I got the job, as it was to begin that coming Monday.I excitedly went to the second-hand stores around town to find cheap corporate clothing! The second-hand stores in New Zealand are known as op shops (opportunity shops) & the clothes in them are affectionately described as being ‘pre-loved,’ instead of merely being referred to as ‘used.’ You have to admit it has a better ring to it =)

The op shops in Auckland are particularly brilliant! Everything is clean, the clothes are great and you can find some sweet deals. In fact, many of the op shops operate on the slogan, “Nothing over $20.” My kind of place! Plus, some of the shops also have tons of authentic vintage clothes from the 80s and 90s that, for some unknown reason, make me ridiculously happy! I of course always restrain myself from purchasing such clothing items, but seeing them still puts me in a fantastic mood =) After trying on heaps of corporate clothing, I put different blazers, pants, and skirts on hold at 4 different op shops, crossing my fingers to hear some good news from the bank. While trying on clothes at one shop, I overheard a familiar voice just outside the dressing rooms. Sure enough, it was Derrie-Ann, the Welsh gal I had roomed with at Surf and Snow. It was so nice to run into her—such a sweetie! She too was on the hunt for work clothes. =) Sadly, however, my excitement for the day was short-lived. To my utter dismay, the phone call which I had so vivaciously hoped for never came. Gutted! Once again: Job leads were at zilch. I cannot even begin to describe my disappointment.

I spent the next couple of days doing more job searching that seemed to get me nowhere, sent out more resumes and more applications. I even walked up and down the main street in central Auckland (Queen Street), plus along the harbour and some backroads, in order to physically hand out my resume to places. To my amazement, however, only 5 spots out of at least 150 shops, restaurants, etc. were even hiring! One guy told me it was currently the slow season because New Zealand was moving into the winter months. Greeeeeat. I even got rejected by a burger joint! That’s right…I was that desperate: I was ready to flip burgers after having obtained a hard-earned Masters Degree in Criminology haha. I tried to leave my resume with this guy at the burger place, and he asked me how long I planned to stay in Auckland. When I told him a few months, he said, “Ah..yeah..no..we can’t take you. There’s just too much training that goes into it.” Ha! Training?? Are you kidding me?? You’re a flipping burger joint for crying out loud! Now, it was a bit fancier than your average burger place, but still. Honestly, the only positive things during that week after Sontsa left were: a sweet as flat, great flatmates, and correspondence with friends and family back home, including Skyping with my good friend Kim, my brother, my sister-in-law, my mom, and my dad! It was my first time really Skyping since living out of the country for 4 months, and it was soooo wonderful! It was definitely a much-needed pick-me-up =) My time in Auckland got better as well...

Cheers,

Ash

Last NZ Days With Sontsa

After checking out on Sunday morning, I made the short 10-minute walk to my new flat. First thing on the agenda: empty all of the clothes out of my two backpacks & HANG THEM IN MY NEW CLOSET! I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I was to no longer be living out of a bag! Oh, the little joys. =) Shortly after I got to the flat, Emma, my new Kiwi/Fijian flatmate, offered to drive me to the grocery store so I could stock up on everything & not have to make the 20-minute walk there and back. I took her up on her offer & bought some scrumptious new food that I hadn’t eaten in months.

After getting back to the flat & quickly putting away all my food, I had to rush back out the door to go meet Sontsa at the bus station, as she was scheduled to have returned from her trip. I lead her from the bus station toward the “hostel” in which I was staying. I hadn’t told her that I had moved into the flat, so when I stopped in front of a 13-story apartment building and inserted my electronic key into the sliding glass front door, she had a short moment of confusion followed by extreme excitement. Daiana and Emma had already told me it was okay for Sontsa to stay at the flat for a couple of nights since they knew it would be our last days together before she left to go back to Finland, so that was really awesome.

Sontsa’s plane was scheduled to fly out on Tuesday, May 31st. She & I had previously made big plans for what we would do her last couple of days in New Zealand--get all dressed up, treat ourselves to a really nice dinner, go have a great night out dancing, etc. However, by the time her last days actually rolled around, we were both quite poor. I was still on the hunt for a job & basically only had enough money in the bank for rent, utilities, and basic food for the next 4 weeks or so. Sontsa was down to the last bit of her money as well. So, instead of going extravagant, we kept it simple. We spent most of Sunday afternoon walking around the city center, went into some shops, then spent a lot of time down at the Auckland harbour. We sat down with our feet hanging over the water, talking and admiring the views of the Harbour Bridge to the left and the numerous islands in the distance to the right. We stayed there until sunset, then grabbed some food at Mexicali, a really cheap and tasty Mexican restaurant on the harbourfront.

The next day, I walked around town with Sontsa as she did some souvenir shopping for friends and family back home. She also needed to buy a plastic ziploc bag for putting her liquids in for the airport (her 'liquids,' by the way, only consisted of her lipgloss which she just HAD to have) haha. To save a 20-minute walk to the grocery store, we went to a nearby Asian mart (which are quite common in Auckland). We found the ziploc bags, but the problem was figuring out which box she needed to buy, as everything was written in Japanese or Chinese. After absolutely no help from the guy behind the counter, she bought a box that seemed it could be the right size. We had quite a laughing fit after Sontsa opened the box only to find that the bags inside were practically 1/3 of the size of what the airport required haha. It was to be our last silly moment together in New Zealand. =)

Later in the afternoon, I was scheduled to go to my first Auckland job interview. It was with one of the many temp agencies in the city. The people were so nice, and the interview went really well. They made me do some skills testing for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, which turned out to be quite intense. Still, my interviewer complimented me on how well I did, so that was good news. After getting more information on my work background and what kind of jobs I was interested in, etc., she told me they’d be in touch once a suitable position came up. After the interview, Sontsa & I excitedly made our way to the movie theatre for what was our most-anticipated event of the day: seeing the Hangover II. Yes, it was an event that neither of us was willing to back out of, regardless of our financial situation—popcorn for dinner and lots of laughs (and pain in my side from laughing/coughing). Still, good times =) We finished our evening by going back to Mexicali and taking advantage of their Monday night margarita special. We sat outside with a margarita each, talking about some of our favorite moments from the past 4 months.

In such a short period of time, we had seen an astounding number of incredible sights, met hundreds of people, built wonderful relationships, and experienced more than we could have ever imagined. Still, as we sat there by the harbour and talked about all of these magnificent things, it did not sink in that it was our last night together in New Zealand. I think we just didn’t want to think about it. The next morning, I walked with Sontsa to one of the nearby bus stops, as she had to take the city bus to get to the Auckland airport (about 40 minutes bus ride away). It was difficult not to cry as we stood there waiting for the bus…even more difficult when the bus actually pulled up.

My heart just sank when I had to give her a final goodbye hug & watch her board the bus. I held it together fairly well until the bus actually left, then I made my way back to the flat as quickly as possible with tears streaming down my face. When I got home, I read a letter that Sontsa had left for me & then of course cried even more. I apparently caused a few tears for her in the airport as well, as I too had left her a card, sneaking it into her purse before she left. I know I will see her again in Europe, but it’s really hard not knowing when that will actually be. With my friends back home, I at least have the relief of knowing I will see them again later this year. Since Sontsa left, we have had a laughter-filled skype session & will always have amazing memories to carry with us.

Cheers, Ash

Hostel Shenanigans

After taking Daiana & Emma up on their offer for the room in the flat, I took over most of my stuff on Saturday so I would have less to carry when I actually moved in on Sunday. I was greeted by Daiana and her friend Luciana, who was also from Argentina. I chatted with them for a while, had some tea, then went back to the hostel to hang out with the group there. As I mentioned before, I spent my first few nights at the Surf and Snow hostel recuperating and going to bed early. On my last night there, however, I decided it was only appropriate to be social & have a fun night hanging out with the hostel group. They always began their evenings together down in the kitchen, which was oddly located in the basement.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the SNS hostel had some pretty funny security precautions. Most of the main areas of the hostel had their own security codes that you had to punch in on a keypad next to each door handle—one for the kitchen, one for the lounge, one for the front door (only late at night), and one for the specific section of the building in which your dorm room was located. Just to make things even more secure, the codes changed every few weeks. On top of all of these different entrance codes (which were provided to you on a keyring), you also had a regular key for entering your actual dorm room. The amusing thing was that the SNS staff didn’t consider the fact that us backpackers weren’t about to punch in a code every time we entered a room. We instead developed the habit of always leaving the doors cracked open, rendering their code system quite irrelevant. =) Anyway, back to my evening with the hostel group…

I went down to the kitchen (basement) with Ross to meet up with everyone. When we got down there, however, we didn’t see anyone from our group. Ross pointed to the windows along one side of the kitchen & said in his strong Irish accent, “Ah yeah, they must be outside.” I followed him out of the kitchen, around the corner into the laundry room, then up these random wooden stairs that lead to a larger-sized window in the wall. As it turned out, the window lead to a small outdoor area on ground level that belonged to the hostel. It consisted of an area that was like a small, drab alleyway with a couple of chairs, opening up around the corner into a larger area with a surprisingly nice circular table and seating area underneath what resembled a gazebo.

Sitting down around the table were Justin, Nicolas, Manuel, Sam, Francois, Oliver, and a couple of other random guys whose names I never learned. We all played a few rounds of card games and jammed out to songs from Ross’s iPod, which he had somehow managed to hook up to the stereo in the kitchen. Manuel, Francois & I delighted in some hot tea while the others consumed their alcoholic beverages & tried to pour beer into our cups. Justin, Nicolas & Sam (who I had just met for the first time that evening) kept adopting fake accents & asking me to guess where they were from. It was actually quite entertaining since they’d had a few drinks and kept forgetting to maintain their bogus accents, not to mention the fact that their fake Scottish and Portuguese accents were already horrendous to begin with haha.

Besides being my last night in a hostel for a while to come, the night also had particular importance because it was Oliver’s birthday at midnight & it was the Champions League Final for football (soccer)—Barcelona versus Manchester. I learned very quickly that this was an extremely important game for Europeans. Since it wouldn’t actually be airing until 5:00 am New Zealand time the following day, Oliver & Ross made an ingenious plan to stay awake through the entire evening all the way through to the next morning in order to watch the game. So, we had some time to kill before 5:00 am came around. To start, we all crawled back through the window to go inside and hang out in the kitchen. There, we met up with Hisashi & Shinya, as well as about 7 others from Japan. Our evening in the kitchen consisted of loud music, dancing (mostly on the part of Ross & Nicolas), birthday shenanigans for Oliver at midnight, fun group photos, and Francois lifting one of the smaller Japanese girls above his head as though she was a small dumbbell.

I laughed soo much throughout the evening, which in turn just made me cough more and more. In fact, I laughed/coughed so hard and to such an extent that I either tore the cartilage between a couple of my ribs or bruised one of them—painful, quite painful. Still, I wasn’t going to let that damper my fun. Later in the night, a group of us decided to walk to one of the nearby Irish pubs, Father Ted’s. Sooo much fun! The pub had a really great live band that played until around 1:00 am, then the place turned into a proper dance club environment after the band went offstage. I danced right alongside my hostel group (which I later paid for in pain), but I must admit that my energy was no match for my Japanese counterparts! They rocked it out! =) I left the pub around 4:00 am, stayed up chatting with Ross and some of the others in the kitchen until just before 5:00 am, then was off to bed. I woke up about 4 hours later to check out of the hostel. As I was on my way out of the dorm room, I passed by a verrry weary Ross & Oliver. They had just finished watching the big Barcelona vs. Manchester game & were finally going to bed---at 9:00 am! Haha. Troopers!

Cheers, Ash

Auckland: Third Time Is a Charm

After a few hours on the bus, Sontsa & I arrived back in Christchurch. Since Christchurch is so big, we had to wait for another local city bus to take us to the actual airport. While waiting, we chilled out in Christchurch’s makeshift ‘bus station,’ which in reality was just a school bus with a couple of TV screens in it--interesting. After about 30 minutes, the airport bus came & we were at the airport shortly thereafter. We had some time to kill before we could check in, so we went upstairs to grab some food. Sontsa & I walked around separately to check out all of the restaurant options in the food court area. We had to laugh though when, after a few minutes, we both found ourselves standing in front of McDonalds haha. Why must it be so cheap?! So, we ate some food, did some people watching, slung our huge backpacks on again, then went back to JetStar airline’s check-in area. We used one of the little check-in kiosks to print out our boarding passes, which turned out to be quite the comical event when one of the boarding passes fell onto the floor. In normal circumstances, this would obviously not have been a problem. However, when you are donning ridiculously-sized backpacks that are practically bigger than you are, it creates a bit of an issue =).

Sontsa bent down to get the pass, and after barely making it to the floor, she then proceeded to get stuck in the squatting position, unable to stand back up with all of the extra weight on her back haha. After a short laughing fit on both our parts, she eventually made it back up to an upright position. I really can't say much though because I too had a similar experience when Sontsa & I left Napier for the first time; I got stuck bending down to get a water bottle I’d dropped on the floor of the hostel…and laughing just made it ten times worse =). Compliments to Sontsa though because it took me a hell of a lot longer to get back up from my squatting position than it did her haha. Ahhh man…good times, good times indeed. Anyway, back to the airport…the weight limit for checked luggage on domestic flights is 20kgs (about 44 lbs). If you have seen pictures of me carrying my backpack, it may not come as a surprise that I was quite concerned it would be overweight. When Sontsa & I booked our flight tickets at the travel agency in Dunedin weeks beforehand, we actually paid a little extra money to be allowed 25kgs (about 55 lbs) for our luggage…just in case. Still, we were quite curious to know how much weight we’ve actually been lugging around on our poor shoulders & hips for the last 4 months. Much to our surprise, Sontsa’s backpack only weighed in at about 18kgs & mine was 20.5kgs. Let me just say, it certainly felt heavier!

The flight to Auckland went well—very short. We arrived to town sometime after 9:30 pm, so the next step was finding the hostel that we’d pre-booked for the night. After a little bit of walking around & a bit of confusion, we found it…Choice Backpackers: what turned out to be the worst hostel I hope to ever experience. We were put into an 8-bed mixed dorm room, which consisted of 6 smelly guys and us. The stench upon entering that room was a nauseating combination of sweat, dirty clothes, and general uncleanliness. In addition, almost all of the toilets in the shared bathrooms down the hall were literally lined with either vomit or crap. Yeahhhh…REALLY lovely experience. We probably would have asked for our money back & just gone elsewhere if we hadn’t been so tired from traveling most of the day, and if we’d known of any other hostels nearby that were clean and cheap. As it was though, walking around aimlessly in the dark with our bags looking for one just didn’t seem that appealing either. It wasn’t until a week or so later that I gained the important knowledge of which hostels in Auckland are centrally located, cheap, and clean. So, we stayed at the disgusting Choice Backpackers for the night, wearing as much clothing as possible before going to sleep on the grimey beds that reeked of smoke.

The next morning, Sontsa had to get up really early to catch a bus to Tauranga to go visit her friend Max for a few days. He was one of the Chilean guys who Sontsa met in Napier when I was away traveling with Greg for those 2 weeks. The original plan was for me to sleep in while she got up, but as soon as her alarm went off at 5:30ish, I was more than ready to get out of there! I walked Sontsa to the bus station and saw her off. The next task was finding a new hostel! I went into one that I had noticed on the way to the bus station called Surf & Snow. It was spacious, clean, inexpensive and right in the middle of the central city—I’ll take it! After retrieving my bags from the other hostel, I got settled into my new 12-bed mixed dorm room at Surf and Snow. It would be my home for the next 4 days =) Immediately upon entering the room, I was greeted by Ross and Neve from Ireland, then met Hussein (can’t remember where he was from). It was my first time at a hostel by myself in almost 4 months. Even though it was strange to be without Sontsa, it was actually really good for me to experience meeting people on my own—good practice for Australia =)

In the course of my stay at Surf and Snow (SNS), I also met Francois and Oliver from France, Manuel from Mexico, Derrie-Ann from Whales, Nicholas from Ireland, Hisashi & Shinya from Japan, Justin from England, Sam (never found out where he was from), and many, many others. Although it doesn’t sound like it by my description of who I met, about 80% of the backpackers in SNS were actually Asian. So, I stood out quite a bit walking around there =) Very good times though. For the 4 days that Sontsa was away, I mostly spent my evenings catching up on my blog-writing (like I’m attempting to do now) & trying to get well by going to bed early. During the day, I spent almost ALL of my time stalking out free Wi-Fi around the city—for productive reasons, not just for Facebook, thank you :-P. I spent so much time in the public library, McDonalds and one of the mall areas that also has free wifi just researching, researching, researching. About 3 weeks prior to coming to Auckland, a woman at a temp agency here in Auckland, who I had been in contact with through a connection of mine, basically made it sound like she’d have a job lined up for me when I got to the city. At the time, I was completely naïve as to how temp agencies actually worked, so I made the stupid mistake of believing her. Therefore, I didn’t do any job searching before coming to Auckland since I thought there was no need to do so. It wasn’t until after my arrival that I realized the woman was a bit full of crap & I needed to find a job on my own..quick!

Hence, the wifi stalking began. I researched, researched, researched, and applied, applied, applied. Plus, I was also on the hunt for a flat (an apartment), as I knew I was going to be settling down in Auckland for a while. I sent off a lot of messages to people who were advertising rooms available in flats and houses around the central city. I quickly heard back from two of the people I’d contacted & scheduled to go see the flats. One of the flats was a 3-bedroom, to be shared with an Argentinian girl and a Kiwi girl. The other was a 6-bedroom, to be shared with a group of five British and Irish. When I talked to one of the British guys on the phone, I asked him how far of a walk the flat was from the main part of the city, called the Central Business District (CBD). He replied, “Oh yeah, just a 10-minute walk. It’s really close.” Since I had some time to kill before I had scheduled to see the flats, I decided to walk by both of them to see where they were. The flat with the girls was at an awesome location, less than 10 minutes walk from Queen Street, the main road in Auckland.

The other flat, on the other hand, was on Upper Queen Street—and trust me, it is called “upper” for a reason. My trek there consisted of 30 minutes of walking primarily uphill…not exactly how the British guy had described it. After that tiring, one-way walk in which I broke a sweat, I decided I would not enjoy making that walk every day, much less multiple times a day. Therefore, I cancelled my meeting with the people at that flat. Later in the day, I went back to the 3-bedroom flat to meet the girls and see the place. I met Daiana from Argentina and Emma, a local girl who is half Kiwi and half Fijian. They were both really nice & easy-going. The flat itself was good too, located on the 8th floor of this really tall building, small, cozy & clean. Plus, the view from the balcony was spectacular! I stayed visiting with the girls for about 20-30 minutes, then walked back to the hostel to ‘cook’ some dinner. Within a few minutes, I received a text from Daiana saying that they really liked me & would love for me to move in if I was still interested. I wanted nothing more than to say yes right away, but was a bit concerned about making such a commitment when I didn’t have a job lined up yet. However, after thinking about it that night and the next day, I decided to just take the plunge & go for it. I had already pre-booked the hostel for one more night, so I had one last night of hostel shenanigans before officially moving in to a flat…but that will be for another blog =)

Cheers, Ash

Swimming with Dolphins: Last Stop on the South Island

Wow! I’ve become such a slacker on keeping up with my blogs! I guess you guys will just have to fester in anticipation for a while to find out what I’m actually doing in current times =) Until then, I’ll continue where I left off last. Sontsa & I arrived in Kaikoura late afternoon on Sunday, May 22nd and immediately walked to the I-site to book a dolphin encounter tour for the next day. Kaikoura is a very small east coast town on New Zealand’s south island that is known for its huge population of resident dolphins, as well as resident whales. The main activities for tourists are therefore swimming with the dolphins and whale watching. We opted for the dolphin swim =) During our short walk to the I-site to get it booked, we had noticed a steep hill to our right (the only hill in the entire town mind you) & we joked that the hostel we had pre-chosen from our hostel guide would probably be up that hill. Guess what? Uh huh…it was. Let me just tell you, walking up that lovely hill with our huge backpacks was not exactly what I would describe as fun. Oh, plus I failed to mention in my last couple of blogs that Sontsa & I never quite got over being sick. After leaving Dunedin, we continued to be a bit sickly during our travels to Moeraki, Oamaru, Mount Cook, Lake Tekapo, Christchurch & Kaikoura. We had spent $40+ on medicines trying to get better, but to no avail. Plus, any kind of exercise or cold weather just aggravated our symptoms, so by the time we made it up the hill with our backpacks (in the cold), we were coughing up a storm. Fabulous.

Needless to say, we took it easy that night. After some lovely backpacker food for dinner, we decided to relax in the DVD room & watch a movie. To our dismay, the DVD room was ridiculously cold. If memory serves correctly, I recall seeing my own breath while sitting in the room. However, determined to have a nice movie night, we just bundled up with some extra layers of clothing & some blankets and watched our movie. The next morning, we got up extra early for our much-anticipated dolphin encounter! As we looked outside, however, we didn’t feel too positive about our boat trip still going out as scheduled; the weather looked quite daunting. Crossing our fingers & hoping for some luck, we walked to the dolphin encounter office. Sure enough, they had temporarily delayed the trip in hopes that the weather would clear up a bit. Sontsa & I took a seat in the attached café and tried to stay optimistic. The problem was that if the dolphin swim was to be cancelled for that day, we wouldn’t be able to do it at all; we had already previously booked plane tickets to fly out of Christchurch the next day to go back to the north island. After about 30 fidgety minutes waiting in the cafe, the dolphin crew announced that the weather had cleared up enough & the trip was ON! =) Woot woot! Everyone lined up to get signed in. Sontsa & I were suddenly greeted by a familiar voice. It was Marie from Germany, a fellow backpacker who Sontsa had met in Auckland when she first arrived in NZ & who we later ran into while living in Napier. It was such an unexpected, pleasant surprise that she was not only in the tiny town of Kaikoura when we were, but was also booked onto our same boat trip!

After we all got signed in, we were lead into a back room where each of us were then fitted with a wetsuit, a hooded vest, booties, gloves, flippers, and a snorkel. Then, after we’d all changed into our sexy wetsuits (the girls of course lagging behind the boys), our group of about 15 was lead into a room with a small movie screen. There, we had to watch a 15-minute video discussing the DOs and DO NOTs of swimming with wild dolphins. First rule: no touching! That’s right…unfortunately, there would be no riding around the water while holding on to Flipper’s fin. =( The dolphins in the ocean around Kaikoura were a different species than the bottlenose dolphins I am used to seeing back home in Florida. These were a species called dusky dolphins, smaller than bottlenose dolphins and dark gray & white instead of light gray. The dusky dolphins are known for being highly social, usually living together in groups called pods. In the Kaikoura region, each pod generally consists of anywhere between 100 to 800 dolphins! Not surprisingly, Kaikoura is therefore recognized as one of the best places in the world to encounter wild dolphins in their natural environment. A second key point the video illustrated was the fact that because the dolphins are wild, they could very well leave our group at any time if they were to get bored. It was therefore up to us to keep them entertained! In order to do this, the video suggested that we mimic the dolphins’ movements, maintain eye contact with them, move in circles with them, dive under the water, and make entertaining sounds to keep their attention. It was apparent that we were in for an interesting morning =)

We took a short bus ride to where the boat was docked, boarded the boat & were on our way! During the winter months (it is very much winter in New Zealand, ya know), the dolphins are known for staying further and further away from shore. So, it took us about an hour-long boat ride before coming upon a huge pod of the dusky dolphins! Before I get to that though, I have to say that the boat ride out there, although cold, was really great. The two Kiwi women who were running the dolphin encounter tour were sooo incredibly enthusiastic, absolutely loved their jobs and just adored Kaikoura. It was quite refreshing to see how happy it made them. Plus, along the way, we saw 3 curious seals AND a humpback whale! Really awesome =) When we finally came upon the duskies, the boat captain turned the engine off, and our group made our way to the stern of the boat. There, we sat down side by side on this metal platform attached to the back of the boat with our legs hanging over in the incredibly cold water, waiting for the Kiwi gals to signal for us to enter the water.

They blew the horn and off we went! First thought upon my initial submersion: “OMG…this water is friggin F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!” Second thought after the initial shock: “OMG…this is friggin A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!” The pod of duskies that we had the pleasure of entertaining consisted of between 200-300 dolphins. Swimming face down in the water with my snorkel, I constantly had dolphins coming toward me from all directions. I took the liberty of making a few noises through my snorkel and doing some dives under the water to keep their attention too. =) Anytime they circled around me, I circled with them and kept eye contact. They’d usually keep going around with me for a few minutes, then just jet off all of a sudden to the deep, out of sight. With hundreds of them in the water though, I always had at least a few of them around me. It was truly a unique experience! We did two separate excursions into the water during the boat trip, allowing our bodies to regain some heat imbetween the two swims. Then, after we were done for the day, the Kiwis provided us with some hot tea, cookies & warm blankets. Our Kaikoura mission had been accomplished!

After getting back to the hostel and taking showers, Sontsa & I put a load of laundry through the wash & into the dryer, then made our way down the hill into town. From there, we explored some shops and found these great, super cheap necklaces with sharktooth-shaped pendants made from local shells. After making our purchases, we just strolled around the town for a bit, checked out some cafes, and bought additional cough medicine from the pharmacy (I’m aware that swimming in the 55-degree water earlier that day did nothing to help our sickness, but hey). We returned to the hostel only to learn that the dryer did not perform its one duty: drying our clothes. We reluctantly paid for yet another cycle of drying, which was again unsuccessful. The next morning, I asked the hostel owner what time the laundrymat opened in town; she inquired as to why I needed to know since they had washers & dryers in house. I explained the situation & the fact that we were flying to the north island that day & couldn’t pack our bags with wet clothes. As it turns out, Sontsa & I are just half-retarded sometimes (but you already knew that)  =).  We had the dryer on the incorrect setting the whole time. The woman fixed it for us, then dried our clothes for free. So nice! Luckily, we also still had a little bit of time before we had to catch our bus back to Christchurch. So, Sontsa & I went back into town to do some last-minute sightseeing .

New Zealand is well-known for having paua shells that are popularly made into jewelry. Therefore, I thought it only appropriate that I buy a new ring made of paua shell. During my purchase, I asked the woman behind the counter if she knew what time the hair salon opened that was just down the road. First, I need to reiterate to you just how small Kaikoura is. The main part of the town consists of one main road that can be easily walked in under 30 minutes. However, in this case, the hair salon was a mere 5-minute walk from the shop in which I purchased the ring. The local woman’s response to me regarding the opening time of the salon was, “Oh..I really don’t know. I never go to that side of town.” Hahahaha! “That side of town”?! Oh wow. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry =) Anyway, I ended up walking to the ‘other side of town’ & penciled myself in for a haircut. Sontsa & I then made our way across this small walking bridge, bringing us to Kaikoura’s beautiful stone beach with mountains on both sides. After some picture-taking, I went back to the hostel to get my backpacks, brought them down to the salon, and got a much-needed haircut for the low cost of $15 NZD. With perfect time, mine & Sontsa’s bus to Christchurch pulled up just as the hairdresser finished styling my hair. So, with a fresh look and feeling good, I jumped onto the bus. Having successfully toured the entire south island in a matter of a few short weeks, we were on our way to Christchurch to catch our flight back to Auckland once again.

Cheers,
Ash

Tranquil Tekapo & A Quake-Stricken Town

Sontsa, the Canadians & I woke up the next morning a bit groggy, but had some breakfast and starting getting ready for the day. Food apparently does John a lot of good because when Sontsa & I got back in the room after taking showers, he was full of enthusiasm, spouting out suggestions of doing a 4-hour hike up a mountain (which was coincidentally called Mount John) & even busting out some jumping jacks haha. Motivated by his enthusiasm, we all left the hostel shortly after and started walking toward the lake. It was perfect weather outside--warm & sunny with clear skies! It had been quite some time since we'd experienced weather that nice. The four of us walked along a path beside Lake Tekapo, and it was so beautiful. Due to the melted glacial waters, Lake Tekapo has a uniquely bright baby blue hue. After taking a few pictures, we continued walking further down toward the other end of the lake where there was a famous church that the guys had heard about.

It was the Church of the Good Shepherd, and I can attest to why it is one of the most photographed churches in New Zealand. It wasn't the building's architecture that was necessarily special; it was its location & its peacefulness. The small stone church sat quietly on top of a bright green hill overlooking the beauty of the lake and the mountains. Apparently, it is one of the most popular locations to get married. It was truly stunning. After spending a few minutes in the church, we went back outside & walked across some big rocks toward the lakeside. The scene in front of us, the bright turquoise lake surrounded by some New Zealand mountains, was mesmerizing. All was silent around us, and the peacefulness just sitting on those rocks looking out over the lake was indescribable. We stayed there for a long time, just sitting in silence. However, many people before us had left behind little rock statues that they had made, and John & Arash didn't want to miss out on doing the same. =) They each made a commendable rock statue while Sontsa & I sat closeby giving moral support.

The boys also started in on some stone skipping. It was quite fun to just sit there, relax, and watch the guys skipping stones for a while. I eventually gave it a shot too, even though it had been years since I had done it. After John gave me a quick lesson review, I stepped into stone-skipping stance & did some pretty decent throwing. Then, I somehow just got progressively worse. Good times though =) The next task for the guys came when Sontsa suggested they try to hit this particular rock that was jutting out from the water. Our Canadians gladly took on the challenge. However, it became a bit comical after it turned out to be much more difficult than they expected; solid effort though. As we walked back toward the hostel from the lake, tiredness hit us--naps were in order! Sontsa, John & I napped in the dorm room for a few hours, while Arash opted to take his towel & lay out in the sun by the lakeshore. He apparently finished his nap before us, came back to the room, saw we were all still sleeping, and decided to take a second nap in the room haha.

After we all woke back up, it was closer to dinner time. Arash started cooking another delectable gourmet meal for everyone, which he would never let us help him with (not that we would have been that much help anyway). While he was busy cooking, John & I played some cards and Sontsa did some reading. Plus, the hostel had two young cats that were quite playful, so we entertained them as well. Later that night, we all enjoyed yet another awesome dinner & then it was time to pack all of our backpacks to leave the next morning. Sontsa & I packed our bags first, then we just sat back in the room and watched the guys pack theirs. This was much more amusing than you might think. They were both catching flights the next day from Christchurch--John to NZ's north island & Arash to Malaysia. So, they had to completely go through their bags inside & out. As a result, they had stuff all over the floor. Plus, Arash kept pulling out the most random items from his bag; Sontsa & I couldn't stop laughing. I think he had enough over-the-counter medicines, including a lifetime supply of pain-relievers, to open up his own pharmacy haha. We spent the rest of the evening sharing our photos with one another from Oamaru, Mount Cook & Lake Tekapo. Also, John showed me tons of pictures he'd taken over the past year from living in Australia. It was exciting to see photos of all the places I'll be visiting in just a couple of months from now =)

The next day, John cooked us some tasty eggs on toast for breakfast. Then, we were back on the road again & heading toward Christchurch. Once we got there, we quickly realized it was much bigger than we had expected. It is actually New Zealand's second largest city. We parked the car and walked around the city centre for about 30 minutes. The damage from the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck Christchurch almost 3 months prior was still clearly evident. Many buildings were in shambles, some roads were blocked off, the cathedral was a wreck, and there were handmade signs along fencelines in which angry locals were pleading for a rebuilding effort to begin. My heart went out to them. After getting back to the car, we all grabbed some quick lunch at Subway before it was time to move on. Then, Sontsa & I said goodbye to our Canadian travel buddies, as they had to go to the airport to turn in the rental car & catch their flights, and we were scheduled to make our way to the last stop on our New Zealand travel agenda: Kaikoura!

Cheers,
Ash