So glamourous, I get to wear a plastic apron and a hair net for 9 hours a day.
I work in a factory. I've had 1 and a half days of work and I'm already sick of it, but hey, I didn't expect anything different.
I had the opportunity to choose between working in the fields or working in the packhouse and although it did pain me a bit, I chose the factory work. Simply because it means that I'll be working more, ergo, earning more money, and that's my whole reason for being in Kerikeri anyway. Both jobs would've sucked, but this one is much more stable.
And honestly, it's a very interesting experience, I mean... I never would have imagined that my first job would be working in a factory! I keep thinking about all the horrible stories of people working in sweatshops and I feel a strange connection to them. Though, of course, not any justified connection as I am treated well. There's even free tea, coffee, hot cocoa, and cookies! When you're a backpacker that's a big deal!
Yesterday was my first full day of work and I ended up doing an hour of overtime, so my day was: wake up at 6, start work at 7, and get off work at 5:30. It was a long laborous day, but I earned about 100 dollars that day, which almost pays for my weeks rent.
I guess I'm pretty settled now. I've got my home, my family/friends, my job. Life is pretty steady and I often still have to remind myself that I'm in New Zealand. I'd much rather be out and about exploring the country, but I'll feel much better actually starting my travels with a legit budget.
I did get really overwhelmed by constantly being around people for 2 weeks and decided to head out on my own to explore the surrounding areas of Kerikeri. I left around 2 and went to the library until 4:30 and was walking around various forresty areas until about 7:30. When I arrived home everyone flipped out. Apparantly they didn't know where I had gone and were worried sick about me. They tried calling me but I wasn't answering and they told me that they were going to wait another 1/2 hour and if I didn't turn up they were sending out a search party to find me.
heh heh... I guess I can't escape that kind of thing anywhere I go. ;) Even if I'm in NZ.
Reminds me of the buffalo wild wings incident.
Anyways, there isn't all that much to report. Just day to day things. Packing kiwis, making dinner, everyone openly wondering how the hell I eat as much as I do and stay as small as I am.
I'm honestly too tired to write much more. I apologize for the less than enthusiastic post, I've just not gotten decent sleep recently what with Doug's b-day party and a 6am wake up call the next morning.
But my love is sent. I'm quite well and I am enjoying my time.
Ciao!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Best Comments
A couple nights ago we all went to a pickers and packers party at a bar in Kerikeri, and most of us just went for the free food, but there was a DJ and a dance floor. Much to even my disbelief I went out and just started dancing! Similarly to how I did back at home with all my friends in my living room. It was heaps of fun. I even taught Tyron, a kiwi with a 'fro, some of our American gangsta dance moves. I had everyone doin' em!
Anyways, that night there was a lot of talk revolving around me (the girls stole me and dressed me up and put makeup all over my face) and everyone was oohing and ahhing over how if I was a bit taller I could easily be a model.
That was nice and all, but my two favorite comments of the night were from Rob:
"No matter what anybody tell you, you are fucking cool! You are so fucking cool!"
(Mind you, Rob has tattoos all up his arms and spent 12 years in the British army)
Rob to Joey:
"This girl, she's got balls that are THIS BIG!" (holds hands far apart)
So, I guess they've figured me out. I'm a petite feisty gorgeous hard-ass.
hahaha. It felt good.
:)
Anyways, that night there was a lot of talk revolving around me (the girls stole me and dressed me up and put makeup all over my face) and everyone was oohing and ahhing over how if I was a bit taller I could easily be a model.
That was nice and all, but my two favorite comments of the night were from Rob:
"No matter what anybody tell you, you are fucking cool! You are so fucking cool!"
(Mind you, Rob has tattoos all up his arms and spent 12 years in the British army)
Rob to Joey:
"This girl, she's got balls that are THIS BIG!" (holds hands far apart)
So, I guess they've figured me out. I'm a petite feisty gorgeous hard-ass.
hahaha. It felt good.
:)
Friday, March 23, 2012
Alive and Well
Sorry I haven't been able to update recentlI've been too busy livin!
At this point I can no longer update you on all of my adventures, for there are far too many. I can say that I've seen two oceans collide, made lots of friends, and seen a dead cow rolling down the river.
No time. CIAo
At this point I can no longer update you on all of my adventures, for there are far too many. I can say that I've seen two oceans collide, made lots of friends, and seen a dead cow rolling down the river.
No time. CIAo
Monday, March 19, 2012
Fate, St. Patty's Day, & The Wise Old Man
Remember how in my last post I was complaining about having a bad day because of my room switch? Well, I entered my room thinking "ok, this is really not that bad of a situation, I'm going to welcome it with open arms."
And guess what? Fate took care of the rest. Turns out they overbooked the room, so I ended up being switched again to room 206 which was basically empty except for this very talkative 76 year old man from Australia. We introduced ourselves and shortly realized they we were going to be on the same bus the next day, so we decided to make a day of it. I got up at 6 am and went down to the kitchen and he made me a bowl of porridge (oatmeal) and tea and chatted a lot about farms he'd worked on and how much he liked milk..
It was a four and a half our ride with him, since he got off at Paihia and my stop, Kerikeri, was 25 minutes north of there. It was quite pleasant, he did a lot more chatting, going on about Australia and the NZ landscape. I learned a lot from him. And all the while I stared out the window at some of them most incredible landscape I've ever seen. I really didn't know that these types of places existed outside of jurrassic park movies. TONS and TONS of rolling hills, some filled with jungle landscape, others totally rural, for the sheep to graze.
At our parting he told me that I was an amazing girl, very nice and that traveling at 18 was such a brave thing to do but I'd be fine, he could tell that I'd do well.
I made it to the hostel and met my new family! A bunch of folks all between the ages of 20-33 (as usual, I'm the baby). We all put in some money for a BBQ that night and during the day the girls painted their nails (me included) green, except for the thumb, which we each put our flag. Everyone was quite impressed with my flag, though it doesn't quite have 50 stars...
Once dinner was ready, the beer was already flowing quite heavily, the music was bumpin, and the people were socializin! It was heaps of fun!! All in our nice little Hone Heke Hostel Lodge, which has a nice covered outdoor pavillion with big long tables, a pool table, a ping pong table, x-mas lights hung up on the ceiling, and a pretty nifty sound system.
It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone, and even though it's just been pouring rain for 3 days straight, it has been nice to just sit around the tables playing cards, inserting myself into these peoples' lives. :p We really are like a big funky family. Oh and I'm getting much better at pool and table tennis!
I'm enjoying my time in Kerikeri so far. They even have a nice lil farmers market on Sundays that i can go to and get the best hotcakes ever. Still just waiting for work... but I've applied and should be hearing back in about a week or so.I hope you all know that it is not glamourous work by any means, most likely working in a packhouse doing really shitty work for really shitty pay. But hey, it's a lot of money really quickly. The sooner I rack up 2000 bucks, the sooner I can head out to more adventures to Hamilton, Blenhiem, Franz Joseph Glacier, Dunedin, Milford Sound... it's such a big world. Taking 4 years out of my time to explore hurts me, but I know university will be a good investment. I just have to grit my teeth and get through it so that I can get back out on the road.
New Zealand, you lovely place, you've shown me how strong I can be. And I no longer fear the unknown, nor do I fear being alone.
P.S. My last day in Auckland I was feeing lonely and went to the park and just laid down, hoping maybe someone would come talk to me, but knowing that even if no one did (most probably), life was still good. Optimism, open to the fates and all that. And what happened? A guy came up and started chatting with me! He's from India and could tell I wasn't from around here and wanted to learn about my country. Very cool.
Ok, times running out.
My love is sent!
And guess what? Fate took care of the rest. Turns out they overbooked the room, so I ended up being switched again to room 206 which was basically empty except for this very talkative 76 year old man from Australia. We introduced ourselves and shortly realized they we were going to be on the same bus the next day, so we decided to make a day of it. I got up at 6 am and went down to the kitchen and he made me a bowl of porridge (oatmeal) and tea and chatted a lot about farms he'd worked on and how much he liked milk..
It was a four and a half our ride with him, since he got off at Paihia and my stop, Kerikeri, was 25 minutes north of there. It was quite pleasant, he did a lot more chatting, going on about Australia and the NZ landscape. I learned a lot from him. And all the while I stared out the window at some of them most incredible landscape I've ever seen. I really didn't know that these types of places existed outside of jurrassic park movies. TONS and TONS of rolling hills, some filled with jungle landscape, others totally rural, for the sheep to graze.
At our parting he told me that I was an amazing girl, very nice and that traveling at 18 was such a brave thing to do but I'd be fine, he could tell that I'd do well.
I made it to the hostel and met my new family! A bunch of folks all between the ages of 20-33 (as usual, I'm the baby). We all put in some money for a BBQ that night and during the day the girls painted their nails (me included) green, except for the thumb, which we each put our flag. Everyone was quite impressed with my flag, though it doesn't quite have 50 stars...
Once dinner was ready, the beer was already flowing quite heavily, the music was bumpin, and the people were socializin! It was heaps of fun!! All in our nice little Hone Heke Hostel Lodge, which has a nice covered outdoor pavillion with big long tables, a pool table, a ping pong table, x-mas lights hung up on the ceiling, and a pretty nifty sound system.
It's been a lot of fun getting to know everyone, and even though it's just been pouring rain for 3 days straight, it has been nice to just sit around the tables playing cards, inserting myself into these peoples' lives. :p We really are like a big funky family. Oh and I'm getting much better at pool and table tennis!
I'm enjoying my time in Kerikeri so far. They even have a nice lil farmers market on Sundays that i can go to and get the best hotcakes ever. Still just waiting for work... but I've applied and should be hearing back in about a week or so.I hope you all know that it is not glamourous work by any means, most likely working in a packhouse doing really shitty work for really shitty pay. But hey, it's a lot of money really quickly. The sooner I rack up 2000 bucks, the sooner I can head out to more adventures to Hamilton, Blenhiem, Franz Joseph Glacier, Dunedin, Milford Sound... it's such a big world. Taking 4 years out of my time to explore hurts me, but I know university will be a good investment. I just have to grit my teeth and get through it so that I can get back out on the road.
New Zealand, you lovely place, you've shown me how strong I can be. And I no longer fear the unknown, nor do I fear being alone.
P.S. My last day in Auckland I was feeing lonely and went to the park and just laid down, hoping maybe someone would come talk to me, but knowing that even if no one did (most probably), life was still good. Optimism, open to the fates and all that. And what happened? A guy came up and started chatting with me! He's from India and could tell I wasn't from around here and wanted to learn about my country. Very cool.
Ok, times running out.
My love is sent!
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Just a few photos
I'm having a down day (as I mentioned before, not a lot of sleep) and I'm sore from the hike yesterday so walking around is painful and I had to switch rooms and my new dormroom is... kind of dasterdly. It's just one night. I can sleep through it... I hope. But because of all that, I'm spending a lot of time in the IEP office today, which is why I am able to give so many updates!
They're currently playing Flight of the Conchord songs. Makes me miss home!
"I'll buy you a kebab!"
kebab on Queen st. where I met a couple other lovely travelling Americans
lava caves
There's the summit!
not all totally volcanic rock.
Rangitoto Island
Goodbye, Auckland! (taken from red light district)
They're currently playing Flight of the Conchord songs. Makes me miss home!
"I'll buy you a kebab!"
kebab on Queen st. where I met a couple other lovely travelling AmericansNZ paper money
Some performers outside the data center on Queen St.
One of the parks in Auckland that I went to during my day tour.
Rangitoto Pics!
lava caves
On the hike up
There's the summit!
not all totally volcanic rock.
I reached the top!
Rangitoto Island
Goodbye, Auckland! (taken from red light district)
Hint: may wanna check my previous posts for some newly added pics!
Just a P.S.
I meant to mention on my last post, since I've recieved a good number of inquiries about it, that Piers is a 20 year old dude from England. He's only been in the country for a week and we hit it off because of our culture shock... though mine has gone away and he's still pretty pessimistic about everything. And no, there's 0 romantic connection between us. In fact he's my first 100% totally platonic male friend, which is really neat! But yeah... nothing juicy to report, sorry. :p
P.S. number 2. I already have a wicked tan! Just spent one day outside and I am a nice brownish shade. I'm super anal about my sun protection though, so don't worry. I'm avoiding being burnt at all costs.
I feel as though there's still something else I wanted to mention, however, I cannot recall what it is (didn't get a lot of sleep last night.) BTW, idk what time it is there but just to keep things in perspective is's 11:53 on Mar. 16 here. I guess that means it is 17:53 Mar 15 in BG.
If anyone asks about me, please just send em the link to this blog. I keep it up for all those loved ones I left back home and if those loved ones don't read it, well then, I'm wasting a lot of time on the internet! So yeah. I'm trying to up my followers.
Please and thank you.
Sweet as! (NZ phrase meaning, it's all good!)
P.S. number 2. I already have a wicked tan! Just spent one day outside and I am a nice brownish shade. I'm super anal about my sun protection though, so don't worry. I'm avoiding being burnt at all costs.
I feel as though there's still something else I wanted to mention, however, I cannot recall what it is (didn't get a lot of sleep last night.) BTW, idk what time it is there but just to keep things in perspective is's 11:53 on Mar. 16 here. I guess that means it is 17:53 Mar 15 in BG.
If anyone asks about me, please just send em the link to this blog. I keep it up for all those loved ones I left back home and if those loved ones don't read it, well then, I'm wasting a lot of time on the internet! So yeah. I'm trying to up my followers.
Please and thank you.
Sweet as! (NZ phrase meaning, it's all good!)
Onto the north!
Now, before I say anything let me address the fact that I'm alive! Let me also mention that prostitution is legal here, and therefor is much different and much safer than it is in America. And lastly, New Zealand is probably one of the (if not the) safest countries on the planet.
So now that that's all squared away, last night I found myself walking home alone in the red light district!
Hah, ok ok, so that's a BIT of an exaggeration-only the begining of my walk home was amongst the ladies on the corners, the majority of my journey was just down K st which, as far as I could tell, was free of prostitiutes.
Sounds eventful, but really, I felt much safer walking around Auckland at night than I ever did walking the streets of NYC. The rest of my night (which all happened before my lone walk back to the hostel) was spent with Ky. After he got off work we went to his apartment where he made some dinner HOMECOOKED pasta with tomato sauce, spinach, and chickpees. It was delicious. We then headed off to Ponsoby's social club where they played some reggae funk music and I bought my first legal drink! Then didn't even card me, heh. We just chatted over a few beers until we were both about ready to pass out from exhaustion and decided to head home. However, on the way, one of his friends spotted him from a dif. resteraunt and we went and met a bunch of people and Ky got us some chamomile teas which was really just the perfect thing. One of his mates asked where I was from and when I answered KY he went into a huge story about how he travelled across America and while he was in NYC was aressted for smoking marijuana, which of course, then got everyone talking about America's legal system and particularly the cops in America and how ridiculous they often are.
NZ cops don't carry weapons. They're much more polite and generally good to be around. I feel a lot safer with them than I do with the cops in Am. who all seem to have an inferiority complex.
The big news though is that tomorrow I'm heading out of Auckland. I'll be going up to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands to stay at the hone heke backpackers lodge and work picking kiwifruit for a couple of months. Hopefully to earn enough $$ to fund some of my travel. I'm extremely aware of how much money I'm spending and feel guilty pretty much anytime I make a purchase.
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about leaving Auckland. I've always heard "get out of Auckland asap!!" But I haven't even been here a week and it's become my home. It has everything I could possibly need, including the IEP office, and leaving is bittersweet.
I hope to come back for Easter if I can, since there's a jazz festival on Waheike Island that day that I would love to attend! Plus Tiare is going to be in Auckland around Easter and it would be nice to meet up with her.
We'll see. But since I'm moving locations I have no idea when the next time I'll be able to post or check anything.
Sianara for now. I'll try to send out a notice when I get to Kerikeri saying I got there safely.
Cheers, mates!
So now that that's all squared away, last night I found myself walking home alone in the red light district!
Hah, ok ok, so that's a BIT of an exaggeration-only the begining of my walk home was amongst the ladies on the corners, the majority of my journey was just down K st which, as far as I could tell, was free of prostitiutes.
Sounds eventful, but really, I felt much safer walking around Auckland at night than I ever did walking the streets of NYC. The rest of my night (which all happened before my lone walk back to the hostel) was spent with Ky. After he got off work we went to his apartment where he made some dinner HOMECOOKED pasta with tomato sauce, spinach, and chickpees. It was delicious. We then headed off to Ponsoby's social club where they played some reggae funk music and I bought my first legal drink! Then didn't even card me, heh. We just chatted over a few beers until we were both about ready to pass out from exhaustion and decided to head home. However, on the way, one of his friends spotted him from a dif. resteraunt and we went and met a bunch of people and Ky got us some chamomile teas which was really just the perfect thing. One of his mates asked where I was from and when I answered KY he went into a huge story about how he travelled across America and while he was in NYC was aressted for smoking marijuana, which of course, then got everyone talking about America's legal system and particularly the cops in America and how ridiculous they often are.
NZ cops don't carry weapons. They're much more polite and generally good to be around. I feel a lot safer with them than I do with the cops in Am. who all seem to have an inferiority complex.
The big news though is that tomorrow I'm heading out of Auckland. I'll be going up to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands to stay at the hone heke backpackers lodge and work picking kiwifruit for a couple of months. Hopefully to earn enough $$ to fund some of my travel. I'm extremely aware of how much money I'm spending and feel guilty pretty much anytime I make a purchase.
Honestly, I have mixed feelings about leaving Auckland. I've always heard "get out of Auckland asap!!" But I haven't even been here a week and it's become my home. It has everything I could possibly need, including the IEP office, and leaving is bittersweet.
I hope to come back for Easter if I can, since there's a jazz festival on Waheike Island that day that I would love to attend! Plus Tiare is going to be in Auckland around Easter and it would be nice to meet up with her.
We'll see. But since I'm moving locations I have no idea when the next time I'll be able to post or check anything.
Sianara for now. I'll try to send out a notice when I get to Kerikeri saying I got there safely.
Cheers, mates!
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