Travelling Update, Better late then never, Plus work update

So we started the actual work of picking kiwi's this week. The first couple weeks of the work was helping with maintenance work on the fruit: removing rejected fruit, trimming male trees, and girdling (removing a strip of bark from around the main branches to cause the tree to think it's dying and plump up their fruit). I did not enjoy the removing of rejected fruit even though it was a physically easy job. The line between a good fruit and bad fruit is very bias based and it got annoying trying to decide which to pull off out of the thousands on the trees. I wasn't sure how I'd enjoy the picking, very physically intensive job, but I enjoy hard labour for short term. Treeplanting, landscaping, even the vineyard work for the first few weeks. So I was excited to try it. Especially if it paid better than minimum wage.

Our first picking experience was on gold kiwi. We did it a few times but never multiple days in a row. They paid us per hour for these kiwis since they are delicate and damage easily. When we finally got to pick the green kiwis, we went full out, six and a half days straight of hard labour, moving 3 tonnes of kiwi each per day minimum. It's a crew of 20ish people (lost a few who didn't enjoy the job and added a couple). It took a bit of time for some of the people to pick up their speed, but the threat of being let go from decent paying job seemed to help. After we finished this first week, our company boss said it was the best crew he had in 10 years. No major issues yet, though a few people are getting sore hands. Picking should last into mid May but we have a good group and I really enjoy where I'm living. Plus as many kiwis as we can pick up off the ground.

But onto the stuff I should have written weeks ago. TRAVELLING!

The first bit I skipped was right before Christmas. I must say seeing snow, holly, and santa painted onto windows is weird in summer weather. For work, starting on the 27th of December. Otematata was going to boom in population for a few weeks with all the kiwi vacationers coming to the lakes for lake stuff. For whatever reason, I was giving about 5 days off and decided to leave the area for a few days right before that. First was to visit Laurien (sp?) in Queenstown. She's from France but I met her once before in Toronto during a games Jorai hosted. Her study visa expired and instead of going home, she came to New Zealand. Jorai put us in touch and we texted a bit about our travels down here. She then got a job at Panagonas in Queenstown and found a really nice place to live with a Swedish couple that have been in the country for a few years. Place was in Arthur's Point, so cheaper and nicer area then Queenstown proper, but bit of a bike ride for work.

I spent a couple nights in Queenstown and we did a bit of site seeing. We went up the gondola to the mountain top, I really wanted to do the luge since I was on the one in Rotorua. The luge was fun though a very long line and not quite as good as the one in Rotorua.

After that, we went to the beach and Karen suggested a small garden at Little Paradise Lodge. It's a small hotel run by a couple (though they are selling it) where the man is an artist that spent years filling up the lodge and garden with his work. The drive itself was really nice and the garden was very unique and cool.

We spent some time just wandering and hanging out before I left. After that, I travelled alone down to Milford Sound. Spent the night in my van and it rained hard over the night. I was initially disappointed but after driving, all the waterfalls and mist everywhere was gorgeous and it was great driving. especially after the sun came out. While there I had to make a choice, the boat ride in the sound or glow worms in Te Anua. Decided on the glow worms. Unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures but it was a two hour tour with a 40 minute tour of the cave and a boat ride under the glow worms. Very cool experience, if a little expensive. After that I took a slow drive back to Otematata to go back to work for the 27th.

The rest of my time in Otematata was very busy. Lots of late nights, drunk people, and customers. Though I didn't have as many issues, Melanie, Holly, and Sam were not the happiest at the place. about mid January, Melanie asked about doing a road trip to the very south of the island which I hadn't gone to yet. It was great timing for giving me a reason to quit since I could see myself getting sucked into staying longer out of convenience. I therefore quit and left a week earlier than Melanie. Went to the Jimmy Carr show and ended up in Queenstown again for a few nights which I hung out with Laurien again. Once Melanie joined us we spent a few days in Queenstown hanging out with Laurien while she wasn't working. Went to the lake with her co-worker and it was also to give Melanie a chance to get to know her and the Swedes since she was looking at a job in Queenstown and might have tried to take over Laurien's room.

Though Melanie made plans for what she wanted to do, everything changed constantly on the trip. Our first stop was going towards Milford Sound when she mentioned having an old friend from Boston in New Zealand. We only spent a day down in Milford Sound since she was coming back in a few weeks. Went on a few of the smaller tracks and enjoyed nature. After we headed to Te Anau where we met up with her friend. Her friend worked in the glow worm caves and brought us in for free. We also met two girls she Woofed with previously who were leaving town that night. Ended up spending 3 nights in Te Anua and went swimming in Manapouri with her friend before heading out.

After Milford Sound, we had initially planned to go to Stewart Island, but with how long we ended up in Te Anau and the cost vs. what we could do there, we decided against it. We left Te Anau and traveled down towards the Catlins. We stopped at a light house on the way and got to see sea lions and then found a cute cafe in Orepuki which had a bunch of scrapbooks with the history of the area and historical pictures. We stopped at Gemstone Beach for lunch and slept just outside Riverton. Alone the way, we stopped at a beach before heading to the free campground. The weather was going to turn bad in a couple days, so we decided to skip Invercargill and head into the Catlins. We stopped in Curio Bay for lunch and to swim. It was a very nice beach, if a bit crowded, but the most amazing part was the dozen or so dolphins that were in the bay swimming among the people. I unfortunately didn't get a good video with me in the water but got a few from the shore. After that we found a nice track with a waterfall before deciding to head to Dunedin to wait out the storm. Along the way, we stopped at a few random things that caught our eye, the biggest one being the Teapot exhibit some person had set up in their yard.

We spent the next day while it down poured in Dunedin, visiting a few shops, the rail station, the museum, and went out for food. The next day, though still a little rainy and cold, we decided to visit Larnach Castle. We just did the garden which had a few Alice in Wonderland hidden gems and some great views of the bay towards the ocean. We decided to start heading back to Queenstown so Melanie could pick up her car and head off to Christchurch. We were recommended to stop off at Tunnel Beach on the way which had a nice 45 minute and very steep walk down and a 20 meter small tunnel which ended at a small cove which was unswimmable due to the currents and rocks. After we returned to Queenstown we parted ways with me spending a couple more days in Queenstown to plan my next moves.

While in Queenstown, I applied to some jobs and looked into what I wanted to do. I hung out with Laurien at night, but she had work. Not to over stay my visit, I headed up to Christchurch to see the east side of the island which I haven't been to yet. I stopped at a few places along the way but it was a relatively short drive. Once I hit Christchurch, I went for my car's WoF and applied at Golder Associates as stated last post. Between the time I stopped by and interviewed with them I went up to Kaikoura. I heard a lot about there and it was one of the places that were really devastated by the earthquake 8 years ago, losing all road access from both the north and south. The main thing I wanted to do was go whale watching. I spent the night in a campground just south of the town and went there the next day. I booked my whale tour for the next day and spent the day hiking and swimming. While at the beach, there was a pod of like 50 dolphins swimming close to shore. I tried to swim out to them but unfortunately the boats may have scared them away or they just moved on. After that I walked along the Point Kean Viewpoint to see the seals. I spent the night in a free campground north of the town and returned for the whale watching tour. Our tour was very lucky, seeing 3 sperm whales, two blue, and a fin. Generally a tour is lucky to see more than 2 whales. I spent another night in the campground before heading back to Christchurch for my interview.

On my way back from Kaikoura, I went to Hammer Springs and stopped at a random free campground I found along the way. There was a 2 hour hike that went up the mountain which I decided to climb. Luckily the sun was hidden by the clouds so it was relatively cool and a fun walk.

After interviewing, I talked with Melanie again and she was heading up to Nelson to interview at a cafe and hostel. Since I was killing time waiting around to hear from my interview, I headed inland to met up for a night and day. We ended up visiting Bealey where we went on a hike to see the waterfall then headed up to Victoria Forest. We split ways again here, I was rejected from Golder and went to the north island two days later.

This concludes my time on the south island. Though I know I probably missed some things, I covered most of what I wanted to see and had a good time there. It was almost 7 months of my year visa and time to move on. I've also now spent a month and a half in Tairua and will need to make a new post soon with my adventures up north. But that's a story for another time. I have many pictures with only a few making it on here that I'm sure people will eventually see.

Hitting the old grind stone again

So I realized last post I talked about adding more of my travels and though its half written, I got a little distracted. Just making a quickish update post and will try to add that one later. Which I also got distracted from again... but there's like beach, volleyball, beach, qwirkle, work, people, oh and beach.

I went to Dunedin after quitting Otematata job to see the Jimmy Carr show. Stayed with the old chef from work. After that I spent a week in Queenstown waiting for coworker who wanted to do a short road trip together. I travelled with Melanie for 8 days, before we returned to Queenstown and split. I spent a few days, applied to some engineering jobs, then headed north east.

I made it to Christchurch after spending a couple days travelling. I needed to update my warranty of fitness on my vehicle before I continued on and made an appointment. On my way to drop off the car, I saw an office for Golder Associates and was like "hey, I know them, I should drop off a resume". I drop off my car, then hiked the 45 minutes towards their office, printed a resume and walked in.

Unfortunately it didn't end how I was hoping.  I talked to the receptionist who grabbed one of the air group leads. We talked a bit and she brought in the head of the department to meet me. They liked what they saw and timing was perfect. They were just in discussions on posting a position for an air person and here I walked in off the street. After that, they went to discuss the possible position with the department and I would hear back soon. I went to Kaikora for a few days and a had an interview the following week.

In the end, they needed someone who had more electronics experience and were hesitant over my visa status. It was a bust.

After that, I needed money and something to do to feel better.  I focused on the north island and farm jobs since I haven't been there yet. I applied to like 8 that day and had 3 offers the next day. I took the first one which was working for Eastpack on a kiwi farm. I'm based out of Tairua in the Coromandel area.

I'm really glad I took this job.  The supervisor is very chill, the company isn't pushy, and I'm enjoying the work. I've also asked a lot if questions and learned a lot about how the companies work.

Other than the work, I really like where I am staying. It's a nice sized hostel which, like how I stayed in Otematata, had a lot of hospitality workers staying for the busy Christmas season. I came at the tail end of the season and we only have a few of that group left and they are leaving soon.  Now there are 7 coworkers staying here with me and a few other long term people. Its been a lot of fun.  I've been here a month already and have at least another month before I decide if I am leaving. 

Okay, I'm posting this now before we head out for the day. I'll try doing my travel update and the fun things we did here soon. I'm also hoping to steal pictures from my friend who has a nice camera and is taking a lot of pictures. Be nice to be in some more that aren't selfies.

So many belated words...

So this was a long time coming.  I actually started writing it multiple times but got distracted or busy.  Luckily I try and message people when I can, so  generally people were kept up to date on my adventures or lack there of.  I may need to break this into sections instead of chronological. And hopefully it is coherent.  I started writing this draft and there is more than I thought, covering a large time span. I'm still missing a lot of smaller details but I think I spelt everything correctly. 

So about the end of September I spent a week in Wanaka and ended up talking to the guy working at the hostel frequently.  He mentioned how busy it can get during the summer and how annoying it can be to travel. (I learned how correct he was this last week.  Supposedly it's been there busiest summer yet,  and the few campsites I tried staying at were packed.) Since I spent most of the money I made in the vineyards on my car, I felt like looking into getting a job again.  

I wanted to try something different and in hospitality.  I looked into hostels but unfortunately most offer you free board for working 10-15  hours a week.  The one place with an actual job was filled hours after they posted. I expanded my search and found a position 1.5 hours away in Otematata. I phoned up the owner, drove there for an interview,  and started a few days later. 

Brent and Kirsty bought the holiday park in Otematata approximately 5 years years ago, and then the bar/ restaurant/ hotel 2 years ago. I was hired for minimum 30 hours a week doing whatever they needed. The job didn't pay near enough for what I ended up doing but I took it for the experience rather than money.   It was good,  if some highs and lows like any job. 

The Location:

Otematata is a very small town located near the centre of the island.  It's a main through way to get to the other coast but also a popular vacationing spot for locals. The road follows a natural valley between two small mountain ranges.  The town has a base population of 190 people,  but during Christmas this jumps up to 6000 with 20000 or more in the area in the various campsites. The valley use to be very dry until they built 3 large hydro electric dams.  This created  the  large lakes which draw in fisherman,  campers,  boaters, and other vacationers.  The lakes also allow for a huge amount of irrigation in the area which over the years allowed for the farms to flourish. There are other small towns along the road, the Alps to Ocean biking trail, and a few hiking trails.

The Work:

 I started bar tendering,  doing property maintenance,  and a little bit of waitering. I picked up the bartending quickly since I've been a cashier and the drinks were mostly beer, premixed, or simple cocktails. The maintenance involved a lot of gardening and yard work, painting of the hotel rooms, and just generally cleaning the property for the busy season coming up. By Christmas,  I shifted more into working as a kitchen hand. This involved a lot of dishes,  grabbing things from storage for the chefs,  and learning to make simple things like appetizers or desserts. Either due to enjoying working with me or my competence,  the head chef stated using me more.  I stated helping with a lot of prep work and making more food in the kitchen.  During my last week,  we lost one of the  chefs and I worked the front line helping making food during the dinner rush. 

While there I learned I didn't enjoy being a waiter.  Though that may have to do with the fact that one of my first times was during the very busy weekend  with no real help. Soon after was during a different busy weekend where we just changed to the new menu. Though most people were nice,  there were a few very entitled people every night. I've heard from multiple people how they hate getting told to smile or be happy or some such nonsense and understand that better now.  It got old fast getting insulted over how the menu is set up,  the food was different then they expected,  or they had to wait to long even though they showed up near close while we are packed and warned them of the wait. Reminded me of being yelled at for gas prices when I worked as a gas attendant. 

The People:

I enjoyed working with Brent and Kirsty,  though not everyone got along with them as well. Over the years,  there have been a few problems with the old staff and so everyone else had worked there for less than a year when I started. For the more permanent staff,  Tania was the longest at like 8 months and worked during the day in the restaurant and did a bunch of accounting.  Dana was a younger woman who started a couple months before me. She moved there with her boyfriend and was the duty manager for the bar most night.  I end up living with her and her partner and dog in the staff house. I worked with her a lot on the bar when I first stated and we got along well.  Hung out a bit outside of work,  taking the dog for walks or swimming. Emma joined us at Christmas and has been there for multiple summers but was joining long term. Another duty manager and ran the wait staff.  The last permanent staff is Salitha (Sully), a Sri Lankan chef.  He joined last just before Christmas to get sponsored for residence after working there a year. 

For temporary staff,  Jojo was a Samoan chef who had travelled a lot for work. He was the head chef and I sent most of my time with him and learned a lot.  Supposedly he could be hard to work under but maybe due to my inexperience I found it decent.   He was hired to replace their old kitchen staff and get the restaurant running smoothly.  I enjoyed talking to him about the business side of the kitchen, where he talked about making all the food at a maximum of 30% cost when the old staff had trouble getting below 60% and went as high as 95%. Brent also changed the menu to a Texas smoked meat style restaurant, which is partial why Jojo came,  the challenge of making the new menu and experimenting with the flavours. He has a lot of cool experiences like working on the set of the Hobbit and talking with Peter Jackson,  working at world racing events,  or just different kitchen mishaps and stories.  Though I didn't like his view on woman and a few other topics,  I enjoyed his company and once I became a more permanent fixture in the kitchen,  we ended most work days with some beer and pool. 

Coco (Alec) was a French chef who joined us for the busy season.  He joined around the time Samuel ( english) and Holly (scottish), a couple, joined us.  Melaine (American) joined a little after.  These four and Sully lived in a really nice house for the busy season. It got a little weird ( in a silly way) there but a lot of fun.  I didn't visit as much as I should have due to work but we did a few trips and hang outs. I even played a few games like Qwirkle and dice/cards with them.  For such a short period,  I got close to Melanie,  Sam,  and Holly and hope to visit them again before I leave the country and maybe after depending on circumstances. 

Jamie and Trish were two I didn't get to know as well.  Both left early due to being unhappy there.  Jamie left after her family member got sick and returned to the states 3 weeks after starting.  Trish was I think a Kiwi but worked at the holiday park so I barely saw her. She stayed for the busy season,  but did not get along with Kirsty and just left one night. I stated hanging out with Jamie before she left,  even got her playing the electronic version of Lords of Waterdeep I downloaded but it was short lived. 

Jason was also there for a short time, helping out as a  secondary chef for a few weeks.  He is a friend of Brent's from their djing days. He was there before my kitchen handing but we got along well.  Stayed with him in Dunedin when I went to Jimmy Carr's show. 

The other summer help was made up of the boss's kids and two high school students I didn't exchange more than a few words with.  I enjoyed working with the oldest kid but he could be a little frustrating as any 15 year old boss's son can be. 

Other than workers,  I met a few locals or other travellers.  Allie was another American working in the town at the sheep station.  Nick was an Australian who joined the station for a month or so.  They would hang out with the other local young adults and I joined them for a few nights.  Unfortunately, I usually was working when they came in so didn't get as close as I'd like. The rest of the regulars were retired people that lived in town. Nice people just not much in common. Allie had a travelling friend who was trying to design a board game for backpackers.  Looked like it could be really fun and informative since it showed a lot of the places to visit.  Unfortunately he brought some home made alcohol which I'm pretty sure burned my nose hairs. 

Notable Events:

The best thing about my living was I had a dog to play with.  Dana had a collie husky mix 7 month old dog.  I tried taking her walking and to the beach frequently since I didn't  think she got enough walks generally. Very energetic and smart dog,  just wasn't well trained. 

One of the annoying parts of the job was I've seen way too many penises working that bar.  At least three times we had a group of like 15 guys strip down. I saw less  in the male change roomswhen I played hockey. 

 Being my general friendly looking self,  I also got a few invites to check out people's work or hang out with their group. I never checked out the shearing station since the timing was bad and the invites came from very drunk individuals,  but I did  spend one afternoon at the lake with a large group of college grads.

During one of my first weekends working,  we had a large hunting competition based out of the bar.  It was a cool weekend talking to the random people.  There was also a large group of Maori shearers who joined us for the nights.  The night was very eventful, even had the Maori boys perform a Haka dance.  Unfortunately,  someone stole a few of the carcasses which soured the mood a bit and one guy made some stupid comments to one of the Maori guys.  Since they stick together and the guy would not shut up,  the night ended badly with a 1 vs. 15 fight.  No one was seriously injured luckily.

Brent also made many comments about being happy to have a crew that could hang out outside of work. By the end of the season,  he mentioned how well it went,  Emma even said it was the best temporary staff she's worked with.   The last crew of permanent would never hang out after work enjoying a beer and each other's company or just go some place as a group.  With this crew, there were more then a few nights where most of us stayed around after close talking and drinking,  being joined by the band or Brent's friends. One night we drove to Omarama  to visit a different bar and check out a band that was coming to our bar a few weeks later. 

Sam, Holly, and Melaine all joined right around December 11th when we had our company party.  Brent rented a bus and took us to Cromwell motorpark. We did the go kart race,  rode a lap on the race track,  and finished with a wine tasting for a local wine we sell at the bar. We ended the day at our bar with food,  alcohol,  pool, and karaoke. Felt bad for the chefs since they made us food,  but it was delicious. 

After that not much happened,  hung out with people,  went star gazing, I did have a week off right before Christmas rush but I'll cover that in next post.  After that it was just work.  Starting on the 27th, we had 150 to 200  dinners daily compared to of 20 to 50 people on a busy night.  Every hotel room,  campground,  and rental was booked solid for weeks straight.  Had a great band new years eve though was to busy to enjoy it. It started quieting down mid January and I started hanging out with the others more.  A few midnight swims or games. 

The End:

Though I don't feel impulsive,  I've made some very big decisions on very short notice.  I was invited to live with a friend in Alberta, and 2 months later I'm there.  My house mate was moving out and a friend was selling her place making me think about owning, and 3 months later I put down a down payment. Even quitting my old job, it should have happened earlier,  but once I applied and got my working holiday visa,  my mind was made up.  Unfortunately, having a house and medical issues delayed the actual leaving. Generally,  the change was necessary because I was unhappy with things going on in my life.  And even done quickly,  it was still thought out. 

With the job,  most was good but some things were starting to get to me.  Inconsistent instruction,  being told to do something then being interrupted to do something that was more "important" but getting yelled at since the first thing wasn't finished in the  minutes I got to start it,  Working everywhere under different people and getting constant contradictory instructions. Along with minimum wage and weird shifting hours,  I was slowly getting more negative. I hadn't noticed it to much but it was more obvious when I was given an out from the job in the form of a road trip. 

 Around mid January,  Melaine was considering quitting and traveling the southern part of the island. She invited me to join her. It took a couple days but I decided to go.  Unfortunately quitting was not what Brent wanted. I tried to give two weeks but supposedly my contact was for 4 weeks notice. Considering I agreed to 3 months with possible longer and it was almost 4, 1/3 of my visa, with no talks about staying longer or what was happening. He tried manipulative,  guilt tripping comments with penalties and had nothing positive to say about my work there, So i felt better about quitting. Sucks to leave on less positive terms but I tried. It was time to get out of there and travel again.