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.