Upon beginning work in exchange for accomodation, I was promptly moved into a staff room at the hostel (called Base Discovery Lodge, or Base, or Disco henceforth). The staff rooms are no different than any of the other 8 person dorm rooms in the hostel, except ours has a TV with 12 channels (although 4 of them are the same channel) and for some reason a bag of costumes that doesn't seem to belong to anyone. These are the people I am living with:
Stevie is from England. He moved out several days after I moved in because after having been living and working in Queenstown for about 3 months he decided to get a flat. Flatting is extremely common, but I'd rather pay $0 a week for accomodation than $120-$220 on a flat, though having at least a little privacy might be worth it. Stevie got me the work for accom. job in the Altitude Bar washing dishes, meaning I work 3 or 4 days a week instead of 6. Ergo Stevie is awesome.
Claiber (sp?) is from Brazil (a substantial portion of the cleaning staff is from Brazil or Argentina). He's been here 10 months I think so I can't believe he's still in the hostel. He works as a chef at Altitude Bar and as a kitchen hand at Vudu Cafe. He speaks broken English but is a laid-back, hardworking guy. Also he got me the job as a kitchen hand at Vudu Cafe which I start tomorrow. Ergo, Claiber is awesome.
Josee is from Canada. She's been here about a year and works at the reception desk. The only female in the room, she gets along with everyone and spends the least amount of time in the room of all of us. Also of about 6-10 Canadians I've met here, she's the only one who speaks anything resembling the stereotypical Canadian accent. In fact none of them have said 'eh', whereas this is an extremely common thing for Kiwis to say.
Ewan moved in a few days after me. A 17 year old from a town called Dunedin not far from Queenstown, he's only here on summer break before going to university in Dunedin. He came here with a job in a vineyard not far, but from what I can tell he's only shown up two or possibly three times in the past week and a half. He also got a temp job working labor, but he's shows up when he feels like it. He spends most of his kitchen cleaning work for accom shift in our room watching tv. He's a good guy and it's nice to be in contact with an actual Kiwi.
Phillip is from Germany. He's easygoing and discovered some bourbon and coke in a can at a nearby store that he drinks constantly now. He told me about a time back in Germany when some guy slashed him across the chest and stabbed him in the upper leg with a knife, but then he had that guy 'taken care of' by one of his coworkers who happened to be a prominent Hell's Angel. Phillip is a badass, and hilarious.
Darren is from England like nearly everyone else in this town. He's a glassy at one of the more popular bars here in town, and spends most of his free time watching movies. He is also a laidback and funny guy.
Mike is from Arkansas but roots for the Nuggets and Broncos cause apparently he lived in Denver for 3 years. He's a bouncer, has a good southern accent, and is a movie buff.
So that's the room. Everyone gets along but I try not to spend too much time there since everyone is on largely different sleep and work schedules (two guys work at bars until about 4am). We've had one team room clean (which basically consisted of me and Darren) and anytime there are two or more people in the room there is probably a movie playing on the TV.
Next time: I'll give an update on the jobs, plus I'll try to start recapping some of the Stray journey that I glossed over a few posts ago. Cheers.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
I need money
This week was mostly uneventful. I did a lot of reading and a lot of sleeping, and not terribly much spending. On Monday I got calls from a little place called the Vudu Cafe offering me a trial as a kitchen hand, and from the Buffalo Club, a bar just around the corner from my hostel, offering me a trial as a glassy (aka barback) on Thursday. Whether or not I would get the job was almost irrelevent, because Thursday night at the Buffalo Club is BuffUgly night, which is their version of Coyote Ugly, which means the highly attractive women who work the bar (of which there are plenty) dance on the bar and tabletops for a few hours. Either way it was going to be a good night.
The Vudu Cafe job translates into dishwasher, which is no big deal since that's what I'd been doing at Altitude Bar in exchange for hostel accomodation. It's pretty painless and the people are helpful and friendly, though supposedly the Kiwi manager Andrew goes on frequent power trips. Anyway the 1.5 hour trial went smoothly (most places here seem to offer a short-shift trial before they actually offer you a position, which means you don't get paid for that shift), and they offered me the job working 9-4 5 days a week.
I should also point out that I didn't really apply for this job. One of my roomates, Claber from Brazil, already worked there as well as in Altitude Bar as a chef, so he offered to help me out. Like nearly every job I've had, I got it through other people rather than my own initiative. Networking, people, networking.
Anyway the trial as a glassy for the Buffalo Club was last night. Shifts typically go from about 10pm til 2am, though I finished early since it was just a trial. Being a glassy just means washing glasses, replacing them at the bar, and going around the place collecting the empties. In a crowded bar this latter portion of the job requires aggression, so, you know, right up my alley.
The washing and replacing part was fine, but I learned I'm pretty shoddy at carrying many glasses at once, and my loudest voice in a bar is barely audible, but for some reason or other they asked if I wanted to come back. I told them I'd have to think about it cause not only did I think I did a pretty poor job, but working 9-4 at the cafe, 10-2 at the bar, and 5:30-9 on weekends for accomodation may not leave much room for sleep. But I've thought about it and I guess I may as well give it a shot. It is likely that I'll have no other job prospects, and what I don't want to happen is to have free time, because with free time comes boredom and with boredom comes spending. Yesterday I calculated that I've spent about $6000 New Zealand dollars since I've gotten here (not counting the plane ticket), so I'm not so inclined to spend any more for the next few months (except for a special birthday present I have planned for myself, plus I'm tossing around the idea of a side trip to Fiji).
So for the next few months, my most likely schedule will be work 9-4 at the cafe Tuesday through Saturday, 10pm-2am at the bar on as yet unknown days, and 5:30-8:30 or 9 at the Altitude Bar for accomodation. The longest break I'll have on most days for sleep and eating will be 7 hours. I can do that. Plus I can't really spend money if I'm working.
Next time: I'll give an update how the jobs are going, plus "Meet the Roomates". Cheers.
The Vudu Cafe job translates into dishwasher, which is no big deal since that's what I'd been doing at Altitude Bar in exchange for hostel accomodation. It's pretty painless and the people are helpful and friendly, though supposedly the Kiwi manager Andrew goes on frequent power trips. Anyway the 1.5 hour trial went smoothly (most places here seem to offer a short-shift trial before they actually offer you a position, which means you don't get paid for that shift), and they offered me the job working 9-4 5 days a week.
I should also point out that I didn't really apply for this job. One of my roomates, Claber from Brazil, already worked there as well as in Altitude Bar as a chef, so he offered to help me out. Like nearly every job I've had, I got it through other people rather than my own initiative. Networking, people, networking.
Anyway the trial as a glassy for the Buffalo Club was last night. Shifts typically go from about 10pm til 2am, though I finished early since it was just a trial. Being a glassy just means washing glasses, replacing them at the bar, and going around the place collecting the empties. In a crowded bar this latter portion of the job requires aggression, so, you know, right up my alley.
The washing and replacing part was fine, but I learned I'm pretty shoddy at carrying many glasses at once, and my loudest voice in a bar is barely audible, but for some reason or other they asked if I wanted to come back. I told them I'd have to think about it cause not only did I think I did a pretty poor job, but working 9-4 at the cafe, 10-2 at the bar, and 5:30-9 on weekends for accomodation may not leave much room for sleep. But I've thought about it and I guess I may as well give it a shot. It is likely that I'll have no other job prospects, and what I don't want to happen is to have free time, because with free time comes boredom and with boredom comes spending. Yesterday I calculated that I've spent about $6000 New Zealand dollars since I've gotten here (not counting the plane ticket), so I'm not so inclined to spend any more for the next few months (except for a special birthday present I have planned for myself, plus I'm tossing around the idea of a side trip to Fiji).
So for the next few months, my most likely schedule will be work 9-4 at the cafe Tuesday through Saturday, 10pm-2am at the bar on as yet unknown days, and 5:30-8:30 or 9 at the Altitude Bar for accomodation. The longest break I'll have on most days for sleep and eating will be 7 hours. I can do that. Plus I can't really spend money if I'm working.
Next time: I'll give an update how the jobs are going, plus "Meet the Roomates". Cheers.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Queenstown: Land of the Brits
After returning to Queenstown post-Stray tour, I checked in at the Base Discovery Lodge hostel. Base is a hostel chain primarily in New Zealand but also a few locations in Australia. One of the most modern hostels around, it always has clean rooms, an internet cafe, 24 hour staff, an associated bar next door, and for some reason terrible showers that only work by pushing a button that gives you water for a few seconds at a time. Also it tends to be slightly more expensive than other hostels but is always popular, plus Stray always stays there so I'm used to it. Anyway it was good timing, because the second day back they had a sign advertising a work for accomodation position, which many hostels offer but rarely seem to have positions available. Accomodation work is typically 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. Last Tuesday was my first day. I was given a brief introduction to bed changing in the morning, then trained on my usual 7-10pm shift that night which involves keeping the kitchen clean. Since there are plenty of people preparing dinner at that time and we're not inclined to get in their way, the first 1-2 hours of the job is boringly easy and involves making our own dinner, sitting in the tv lounge, talking to reception, etc. The last hour or so just involves cleaning up whatever dishes were left by the assholes who can't clean up after themselves and generally keeping things tidy before the night shift guy comes in. It's a pretty easy gig, however that first night I spoke with one of my roomates (I was moved into a staff room with other work-for-renters) who worked in the kitchen in the Altitude Bar (the bar owned by the hostel next door). He only worked 3 or 4 days a week, but was leaving Friday and offered me the spot. So Tuesday I trained in the hostel kitchen, Wednesday was my day off, Thursday my replacement took over, and Saturday I started in the bar kitchen. This entails standing over a sink washing dishes for from 5:30 to 8:30/9:00, but if nobody happens to have eaten at the bar that evening then my job entails sitting at the bar drinking free drinks with the other workers, all of whom seem pretty cool. Score one for Jeff. The first night was dead so I did little work. The second night I arrived at 5:30 and was working over that sink for the next 3.5 hours straight. It's a hit-or-miss job but never difficult and easily worth it to spare paying rent (even though it comes out to about $9/hour whereas minimum wage in NZ is $12.50).
So now I'm not spending much money, just on groceries and other meals since I don't know how to cook anything, but I'm not making money either. At first I was a little picky with my job search. I tried a few places I thought might be interesting to work at like the movie theater, video store, a local pizza diner/bar where I dropped off an application but wasn't called back despite the Now Hiring sign in front. I quickly discovered that most places either were no longer hiring (I think I just barely missed the big summer hiring surge) or were looking for someone more long-term than a few months, and I didn't have the balls to lie about my length of stay.
Over the next few days I rapidly broadened my list of workable places. I walked into souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, a bookstore, retail stores, minigolf park, and a physiotherapy clinic. Most places either weren't hiring or took my CV just in case something opened up. Of the few places that were hiring (a barback at a nearby bar, sales clerk at a souvenir clothing store) nothing has panned out yet, but supposedly I'll hear back in the next week or so, meaning if I decide not to travel anywhere else (e.g. Fiji, haha, rhymes) and stay in Queenstown about as long as I stay in New Zealand, I'll only have about 10 weeks to work. I guess I can't blame businesses for not looking too fondly on that.
My most recent prospect came from another roomate who works as a kitchen hand at the Vudu Cafe. He said he'd put in a good word for me and that I should stop by. This I did yesterday, and the apparently uninterested manager said he'd call me this morning. It's 1:40pm and no call, so I don't know what's up wit dat.
However my attempts to earn money haven't been a total loss. I stumbled upon a backdoor temp agency that specializes in hospitality, labor, and administration. No sooner had I walked in and applied then I was offered a spot in labor on a nearby house being renovated. Labor is a classy way of saying I was hunched over scraping paint and glue off of floors all day Thursday, then sanding, scraping, brushing, mopping, and vacuuming all day Friday. With only minor cuts, dirty clothes, and hydrochloric acid on my fingers, I decided labor would be plan B from now on.
The good news is there's still a chance I'll get a job at the clothing store or one of the bars and that more temp work will become available. Plus I have plenty of free time to read, watch free movies in the hostel, sit on the nearby "beach", and eat fish and chips, and to reflect on all the decisions I wish I'd made over the years and to figure out how I can travel more (Europe summer 2012 anyone?). Plus I finally have time to upload the hundreds of photos I've taken.
So that's the current situation. In other news: I've eaten fish and chips at least a dozen times, lamb probably about 2 dozen times, and I've done karaoke 5 times (3 bars, twice on the bus).
Also there's a ton of British people here in Queenstown. Seriously, aside from general tourists pretty much everyone working here is from England. Come on America, get traveling.
So now I'm not spending much money, just on groceries and other meals since I don't know how to cook anything, but I'm not making money either. At first I was a little picky with my job search. I tried a few places I thought might be interesting to work at like the movie theater, video store, a local pizza diner/bar where I dropped off an application but wasn't called back despite the Now Hiring sign in front. I quickly discovered that most places either were no longer hiring (I think I just barely missed the big summer hiring surge) or were looking for someone more long-term than a few months, and I didn't have the balls to lie about my length of stay.
Over the next few days I rapidly broadened my list of workable places. I walked into souvenir shops, restaurants, bars, a bookstore, retail stores, minigolf park, and a physiotherapy clinic. Most places either weren't hiring or took my CV just in case something opened up. Of the few places that were hiring (a barback at a nearby bar, sales clerk at a souvenir clothing store) nothing has panned out yet, but supposedly I'll hear back in the next week or so, meaning if I decide not to travel anywhere else (e.g. Fiji, haha, rhymes) and stay in Queenstown about as long as I stay in New Zealand, I'll only have about 10 weeks to work. I guess I can't blame businesses for not looking too fondly on that.
My most recent prospect came from another roomate who works as a kitchen hand at the Vudu Cafe. He said he'd put in a good word for me and that I should stop by. This I did yesterday, and the apparently uninterested manager said he'd call me this morning. It's 1:40pm and no call, so I don't know what's up wit dat.
However my attempts to earn money haven't been a total loss. I stumbled upon a backdoor temp agency that specializes in hospitality, labor, and administration. No sooner had I walked in and applied then I was offered a spot in labor on a nearby house being renovated. Labor is a classy way of saying I was hunched over scraping paint and glue off of floors all day Thursday, then sanding, scraping, brushing, mopping, and vacuuming all day Friday. With only minor cuts, dirty clothes, and hydrochloric acid on my fingers, I decided labor would be plan B from now on.
The good news is there's still a chance I'll get a job at the clothing store or one of the bars and that more temp work will become available. Plus I have plenty of free time to read, watch free movies in the hostel, sit on the nearby "beach", and eat fish and chips, and to reflect on all the decisions I wish I'd made over the years and to figure out how I can travel more (Europe summer 2012 anyone?). Plus I finally have time to upload the hundreds of photos I've taken.
So that's the current situation. In other news: I've eaten fish and chips at least a dozen times, lamb probably about 2 dozen times, and I've done karaoke 5 times (3 bars, twice on the bus).
Also there's a ton of British people here in Queenstown. Seriously, aside from general tourists pretty much everyone working here is from England. Come on America, get traveling.
Getting Up to Speed
I need to speed this up because I'm still about a month behind in this blog. I'll try to quickly cover everything to get up to the present, then go back later and elaborate.
Taupo: planned on only staying one night before leaving for the Tongariro Crossing, but saw a sign posted that the crossing was canceled due to too much snow (I happened to pick the same hostel that the Stray bus was staying at, hence the sign). So I booked a few more nights and lounged around the smallish town of Taupo for a few days doing nearly nothing. Apparently Taupo is one of the best places in NZ to skydive, so I'm definitely going to try to get that in on my way back up to Auckland in a few months. My roomates the first 2 nights were two British guys Andy and Chris traveling on their own by car, who I happened to see again in Queenstown and Christchurch and who are awesome.
Tongariro: did the Tongariro Crossing, a 18 and change kilometer hike along some volcanos, including a couple that are collectively known as Mt. Doom (I've heard each referred to Mt. Doom separately, so I'm not completely sure which is which). I took several hundred pictures, and the hike took me 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Wellington: Stray bussed from Tongariro to Wellington where I stayed for about 3 days. Highlights included climbing Mt. Victoria (only abuot 30 minutes round trip), riding in the cable car (one of the biggest attractions and TOTALLY not worth it, Te Papa Museum with some interactive photo/video thingy, and seeing Jackie (friend from WashU). While here I ran into Kenny (Scottish roomate from Auckland), and Tommy (Dutch roomate from Auckland). I saw Tommy again in Franz Josef and Queenstown and completely forgot to get his facebook info.
Abel Tasman: Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton (in the South Island) and hopped back on Stray to stay at Abel Tasman National Park. Hopping on the new Stray bus was a little bizarre and lonely (for reasons I'll explain in a future blog update), and the Abel Tasman accomodation was pretty crappy. I did the Golden Bay tour, which was definitely not worth the money.
Barrytown: Our next stop was Barrytown, population 42. We stayed at a pub with some shacks in back converted to dorm rooms. The highlight of Barrytown is that the pub has several big boxes of assorted clothing to be combined into costumes. Needless to say after some drinking and dressing in drag everyone opened up a little more. The next morning we did bone carving, which is pretty self-explanatory and made me really want to take a wood shop class.
Franz Josef: The only attraction in Franz Josef is the Franz Josef glacier (and the nearby Fox Glacier). It is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world at a rate of something like a meter a year. I opted for the full day glacier hike (about 6 hours glacier time). Other options included a half-day hike, an ice climb, and a heli-hike in which you fly by helicopter to the top of the glacier then just hike down. The climb was surprisingly warm and only moderately tiring, probably because I was an idiot and ended up in the 3rd of 4 groups based on pace and effort of climb.
Makarora: Went to middle-of-nowhere Makarora where I went on the most scenically beautiful run I've ever done. Tonight's attraction was karaoke at the hostel bar. Needless to say this was the best night of the Stray trip, at least up to that point. Even the people who knew they weren't going to sing gave it a shot, probably because everyone else was singing louder to every song anyway.
Queenstown: Queenstown is the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. It is known for having the first bungy jump site in the world, plus 2 other bungy jumps, a canyon swing, some jetboats, riverboarding, luge rides, and probably a few more weird New Zealand "sports". Because Dave Della Chiesa told me I had to, and because I had gotten it in my head from the start of this trip that I would, I signed up for, and completed, the Nevis bungy jump. The Nevis bungy jump is the 2nd highest bungy jump in the world, and some of the guides I had had earlier in the trip admitted to having done it but never wanting to do it again. It was amazing. More on that later.
Tuatepere: First we went to Milford Sound, which is supposed to be a very beautiful ferry ride through a fjord (not a sound), but it was raining and overcast all day, so we saw no seals or penguins and it really felt like a waste of time, but shit happens. We stayed on a farm where we took a tour that involved watching some sheepdogs herd some sheep, and then anyone who wanted to got to try sheep shearing. I sheared a sheep. Only a small portion, and I did a horrible job, but I sheared a freakin' sheep. Wtf am I doing here?
Stewart Island: Some people hopped off at Invercargill (the southernmost city on the South Island) but a few of us ferried down to Stewart Island. The main Stray attraction here is fishing where supposedly everyone catches like 30 fish, but the boat was in for maintenance, so a few of us rode around on mopeds instead. I really want to get a moped for grad school, also I was the only one who didn't crash, which I found highly surprising. Tied for first in the pub quiz and called it a night.
Dunedin: Back to the mainland and headed northwest to Dunedin, commonly known as a college town though it was a Monday night and the college presence was definitely not felt. We did a pub crawl consisting of a whopping two bars, both of which had karaoke, making this the 2nd most fun night of the South Island Stray tour. Also we took a tour of the Speight's Brewery. The tour sucked, but since no one asked any questions we had more time than usual to spend drinking free beer at the end of the tour. Each participant was given a small glass (~3 shots worth) and told to pour as we pleased from 6 taps. Since we had arrived in Dunedin just in time to make the tour no one had eaten dinner, meaning everyone got drunk pretty fast and had a damn good time.
Queenstown 2: Back to Queenstown. This time did took the gondola up to the luge rides. I was the only one who fell off on all 6 of the luge rides. With nothing left to do and a handful of free drinking vouchers and some money found on the ground, about 6 of us headed to the bars around 5pm and proceeded to get drunk. As the only American in the bunch I lasted the shortest amount of time. More on that later, but here's a teaser: teapots.
Christchurch: The last stop on my tour, meaning the last time I would get to see the remaining members of the 'family', a group of Strays who had been on the same bus pretty much since Auckland and who took me under their wing for reasons I'll never understand. We ate Indian food on Thanksgiving and drank for the 4th night in a row, which is really nothing on the bus tours.
Having finished the tour and selected Queenstown as my choice of workplace, I bussed back there and very slowly started looking for jobs. Fortunately a few days in I was able to secure a position working at the hostel in exchange for accomodation. So for the past week I have not been making money nor spending any (for the most part).
So that's roughly where I am right now. Next time I'll give a more thorough description of my post-tour situation in Queenstown, and over the course of the next month I'll try to go more in depth on the tour activities described above. Cheers.
Taupo: planned on only staying one night before leaving for the Tongariro Crossing, but saw a sign posted that the crossing was canceled due to too much snow (I happened to pick the same hostel that the Stray bus was staying at, hence the sign). So I booked a few more nights and lounged around the smallish town of Taupo for a few days doing nearly nothing. Apparently Taupo is one of the best places in NZ to skydive, so I'm definitely going to try to get that in on my way back up to Auckland in a few months. My roomates the first 2 nights were two British guys Andy and Chris traveling on their own by car, who I happened to see again in Queenstown and Christchurch and who are awesome.
Tongariro: did the Tongariro Crossing, a 18 and change kilometer hike along some volcanos, including a couple that are collectively known as Mt. Doom (I've heard each referred to Mt. Doom separately, so I'm not completely sure which is which). I took several hundred pictures, and the hike took me 6 hours and 50 minutes.
Wellington: Stray bussed from Tongariro to Wellington where I stayed for about 3 days. Highlights included climbing Mt. Victoria (only abuot 30 minutes round trip), riding in the cable car (one of the biggest attractions and TOTALLY not worth it, Te Papa Museum with some interactive photo/video thingy, and seeing Jackie (friend from WashU). While here I ran into Kenny (Scottish roomate from Auckland), and Tommy (Dutch roomate from Auckland). I saw Tommy again in Franz Josef and Queenstown and completely forgot to get his facebook info.
Abel Tasman: Took the ferry from Wellington to Picton (in the South Island) and hopped back on Stray to stay at Abel Tasman National Park. Hopping on the new Stray bus was a little bizarre and lonely (for reasons I'll explain in a future blog update), and the Abel Tasman accomodation was pretty crappy. I did the Golden Bay tour, which was definitely not worth the money.
Barrytown: Our next stop was Barrytown, population 42. We stayed at a pub with some shacks in back converted to dorm rooms. The highlight of Barrytown is that the pub has several big boxes of assorted clothing to be combined into costumes. Needless to say after some drinking and dressing in drag everyone opened up a little more. The next morning we did bone carving, which is pretty self-explanatory and made me really want to take a wood shop class.
Franz Josef: The only attraction in Franz Josef is the Franz Josef glacier (and the nearby Fox Glacier). It is one of the fastest moving glaciers in the world at a rate of something like a meter a year. I opted for the full day glacier hike (about 6 hours glacier time). Other options included a half-day hike, an ice climb, and a heli-hike in which you fly by helicopter to the top of the glacier then just hike down. The climb was surprisingly warm and only moderately tiring, probably because I was an idiot and ended up in the 3rd of 4 groups based on pace and effort of climb.
Makarora: Went to middle-of-nowhere Makarora where I went on the most scenically beautiful run I've ever done. Tonight's attraction was karaoke at the hostel bar. Needless to say this was the best night of the Stray trip, at least up to that point. Even the people who knew they weren't going to sing gave it a shot, probably because everyone else was singing louder to every song anyway.
Queenstown: Queenstown is the adrenaline capital of New Zealand. It is known for having the first bungy jump site in the world, plus 2 other bungy jumps, a canyon swing, some jetboats, riverboarding, luge rides, and probably a few more weird New Zealand "sports". Because Dave Della Chiesa told me I had to, and because I had gotten it in my head from the start of this trip that I would, I signed up for, and completed, the Nevis bungy jump. The Nevis bungy jump is the 2nd highest bungy jump in the world, and some of the guides I had had earlier in the trip admitted to having done it but never wanting to do it again. It was amazing. More on that later.
Tuatepere: First we went to Milford Sound, which is supposed to be a very beautiful ferry ride through a fjord (not a sound), but it was raining and overcast all day, so we saw no seals or penguins and it really felt like a waste of time, but shit happens. We stayed on a farm where we took a tour that involved watching some sheepdogs herd some sheep, and then anyone who wanted to got to try sheep shearing. I sheared a sheep. Only a small portion, and I did a horrible job, but I sheared a freakin' sheep. Wtf am I doing here?
Stewart Island: Some people hopped off at Invercargill (the southernmost city on the South Island) but a few of us ferried down to Stewart Island. The main Stray attraction here is fishing where supposedly everyone catches like 30 fish, but the boat was in for maintenance, so a few of us rode around on mopeds instead. I really want to get a moped for grad school, also I was the only one who didn't crash, which I found highly surprising. Tied for first in the pub quiz and called it a night.
Dunedin: Back to the mainland and headed northwest to Dunedin, commonly known as a college town though it was a Monday night and the college presence was definitely not felt. We did a pub crawl consisting of a whopping two bars, both of which had karaoke, making this the 2nd most fun night of the South Island Stray tour. Also we took a tour of the Speight's Brewery. The tour sucked, but since no one asked any questions we had more time than usual to spend drinking free beer at the end of the tour. Each participant was given a small glass (~3 shots worth) and told to pour as we pleased from 6 taps. Since we had arrived in Dunedin just in time to make the tour no one had eaten dinner, meaning everyone got drunk pretty fast and had a damn good time.
Queenstown 2: Back to Queenstown. This time did took the gondola up to the luge rides. I was the only one who fell off on all 6 of the luge rides. With nothing left to do and a handful of free drinking vouchers and some money found on the ground, about 6 of us headed to the bars around 5pm and proceeded to get drunk. As the only American in the bunch I lasted the shortest amount of time. More on that later, but here's a teaser: teapots.
Christchurch: The last stop on my tour, meaning the last time I would get to see the remaining members of the 'family', a group of Strays who had been on the same bus pretty much since Auckland and who took me under their wing for reasons I'll never understand. We ate Indian food on Thanksgiving and drank for the 4th night in a row, which is really nothing on the bus tours.
Having finished the tour and selected Queenstown as my choice of workplace, I bussed back there and very slowly started looking for jobs. Fortunately a few days in I was able to secure a position working at the hostel in exchange for accomodation. So for the past week I have not been making money nor spending any (for the most part).
So that's roughly where I am right now. Next time I'll give a more thorough description of my post-tour situation in Queenstown, and over the course of the next month I'll try to go more in depth on the tour activities described above. Cheers.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
East Cape
On Wednesday, November 5 I hopped on the next Stray "bus" to travel the East Cape of the North Island. The 'bus' was a van with a driver (Jason) and only two other passengers: Denny and Phillip both from Germany. First day headed out to Gisborne. Gisborne is the first mainland region in the world to see the sun rise, and as such holds the first official New Year's Party in the world, manifested as a three day festival where people pitch tents and drink and party for 3 days. It helps that Gisborne consists mostly of vineyards. Anyway we got to the most rustic hostel I'd see up to that point. It was a building-in-progress in the middle of a farm and about 200m walk from the beach. A Brazilian Stray guide Leo took over for the day, driving us out along nearly deserted roads and through farmland until we got to a point in a river where it angles downward slightly for about 30 meters, creating what is called a rock slide. To go rock sliding, one dons a wetsuit, lays on a boogey board (or stands if you're crazy, or Leo) and just slides down the rockface colliding with the pool of water below. Basically it's typical for the strange sports concocted by New Zealanders. Afterwards stopped off the Champagne Pools (a couple nature-made little hot tubs in the middle of a river) and then a sweet waterfall you can walk behind and slide under.
Had fish and chips for the 2nd time in New Zealand.
Then it was time to feed the stingrays. A sting ray is the animal that struck Steve Irwin, killing him instantly. Wearing some thick water-resistant overalls, we waded out about 50 meters into the sea holding bags of chopped up fish. When a couple sting rays about the size of my torso came up, each person would hold a piece of fish under the water, wait for the ray to swim over your hand, and just let go when you feel a nibble. Got some good close-up photos. Also sting rays are very slippery, and one could eat their wing flaps, if one were so inclined.
That night I got about 2 hours of sleep, probably because the tornado-strength winds apparently pounding on our building, but also probably because I was a little excited to wake up to be the first person in the world to see the sun rise on November 6th, 2008. When our guide woke us up, it was already light out, and I was pissed. We hurrie to the beach to see the sun wholly over the horizon, though just barely. I still got a lot of sweet pictures, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed that I missed the sunrise.
Next day pretty much sucked. The highlight of this day is the beautiful scenery along the highway, which means we were driving all day, which means I felt nauseous nearly the entire day sitting in the rundown van while Jason careened around constantly winding roads. To be fair it was pretty gosh darn beautiful most of the time. A few photo stops and hikes here and there, including the longest wharf in New Zealand and another fish and chip lunch. Ended at Marehako Bay (sp?) another so-so hostel with no blankets and we ate something that looked like seaweed for dinner. We sat around a logfire for a few hours just enjoying the peacefulness and company which was nice, but I lost my BBH card, which means I can no longer get $3 off at certain hostels. Inevitable.
Last day of East Cape started with about an hour hike to see a secluded waterfall, then back to Rotorua after a few more hikes and photo stops. Now because the Stray website kinda sucks sometimes, and my online itinerary had stated that I had already traveled to Taupo (the next stop after Rotorua) and already traveled stops can not be altered, I had to find my own transportation to Taupo instead of picking up the next Stray bus to pass through Rotorua. Hopped on a bus to Taupo and had to try 2 hostels to find one that wasn't booked, but the one I got included the cheapest bar in town with a sweet chili and nachos meal each night. The rest of Taupo and my completion of the North Island: to be continued...
Some more words people here say:
Had fish and chips for the 2nd time in New Zealand.
Then it was time to feed the stingrays. A sting ray is the animal that struck Steve Irwin, killing him instantly. Wearing some thick water-resistant overalls, we waded out about 50 meters into the sea holding bags of chopped up fish. When a couple sting rays about the size of my torso came up, each person would hold a piece of fish under the water, wait for the ray to swim over your hand, and just let go when you feel a nibble. Got some good close-up photos. Also sting rays are very slippery, and one could eat their wing flaps, if one were so inclined.
That night I got about 2 hours of sleep, probably because the tornado-strength winds apparently pounding on our building, but also probably because I was a little excited to wake up to be the first person in the world to see the sun rise on November 6th, 2008. When our guide woke us up, it was already light out, and I was pissed. We hurrie to the beach to see the sun wholly over the horizon, though just barely. I still got a lot of sweet pictures, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed that I missed the sunrise.
Next day pretty much sucked. The highlight of this day is the beautiful scenery along the highway, which means we were driving all day, which means I felt nauseous nearly the entire day sitting in the rundown van while Jason careened around constantly winding roads. To be fair it was pretty gosh darn beautiful most of the time. A few photo stops and hikes here and there, including the longest wharf in New Zealand and another fish and chip lunch. Ended at Marehako Bay (sp?) another so-so hostel with no blankets and we ate something that looked like seaweed for dinner. We sat around a logfire for a few hours just enjoying the peacefulness and company which was nice, but I lost my BBH card, which means I can no longer get $3 off at certain hostels. Inevitable.
Last day of East Cape started with about an hour hike to see a secluded waterfall, then back to Rotorua after a few more hikes and photo stops. Now because the Stray website kinda sucks sometimes, and my online itinerary had stated that I had already traveled to Taupo (the next stop after Rotorua) and already traveled stops can not be altered, I had to find my own transportation to Taupo instead of picking up the next Stray bus to pass through Rotorua. Hopped on a bus to Taupo and had to try 2 hostels to find one that wasn't booked, but the one I got included the cheapest bar in town with a sweet chili and nachos meal each night. The rest of Taupo and my completion of the North Island: to be continued...
Some more words people here say:
- primo
- choice
- heaps
- keen
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