Movin' Out

Obviously I let the ball drop a bit with this blog. Here's what you missed.

So last time we met I was starting work in Queenstown. After having little luck finding work I suddenly found myself with 3 jobs. I'll take these one at a time.

After my glassy trial at the Buffalo Club I was asked if I wanted to come back. I said I'd think about. I didn't immediately say yes because I thought I did a horrible job and I didn't enjoy it much. I didn't immediately say no because I have a weak-willed tendency to doubt myself and it's usually in my best interest to give decisions like that some sleep and further thought. I returned the next day to say I would accept the job, having decided I needed the money and that it would probably get better as I gained experience. They told me I was in fact scheduled for that night, which is weird. I returned that night to start work and was told by the manager that they weren't sure whether I was returning and had scheduled someone else for the shift. They promised to call me back to work out paperwork and a schedule. Days and weeks passed and they never called back, and neither did I because frankly I didn't care much for the job. I kept the t-shirt though. Suckers.

My other job was a kitchenhand at the Vudu Cafe. The trial went ok, and virtually everyone there was extremely friendly and helpful. However it became apparent that the trial was a bit misleading, as each day on the job I found myself with more and more duties such as garbageman, smoothie-maker, and food preparer (chopping and slicing fruits and veges and such). The first few days were stressful, but again I told myself "just give it a week, don't be a quitter", but each day got worse. Each shift consisted of standing over the sink for a consecutive 7 hours, at the end of which I was usually still backed up. What's worse is that I could see everyone else in the kitchen taking lunch and cigarette breaks while I had none. Finally, being a naturally nervous and clumsy person, I had difficulty working in a tiny kitchen with way too many people bouncing around it all day. I only broke one glass vase (~$70) but was close on several more occasions. At the end of the week I knew I couldn't handle going in there nearly every day for the next few months and I explaind the situation to my manager, who was extremely understanding (a common theme in New Zealand I've discovered) and allowed me to leave.

My third "job" was the dishwashing job in the bar owned by my hostel, which is the work I did in exchange for accomodation. This is probably the best job I've ever had, and was almost certainly the best work-for-accomodation position in all of New Zealand. On each shift I would receive a free meal, and if nobody happened to be eating at the bar that evening then I had nothing to clean and would spend my shift talking to the bar and kitchen staff and just taking it easy. Despite having to work on Christmas Day for the big Christmas dinner, which turned out to be a 6.5 hour unpaid stretch of nonstop food prep/serving/dishwashing, I was given a free helping of the delicious Xmas meal, plus a free jaegermeister midway thru the dishwashing, plus 3 free drink cards due to the generosity of the bar manager, who couldn't help but notice how hard I was working for nothing while the bar staff were at least getting paid for their work.

About the time I was deciding to quit the cafe job, I opened the semiweekly email from IEP, the organization who sponsored my work visa here and sends periodic updates about "hot jobs" in New Zealand. I normally disregard these emails, but this time a work-for-accom. position at a hostel in Paihia caught my eye. The major deterrant to seeking work elsewhere in the country was the fact that I'd probably have to pay for my accomodation, so if I could avoid that circumstance then I had little qualms about moving. Though that hostel position turned out to be for a female only (something they really should have mentioned in the ad), I had become struck with the idea of living in Paihia after doing some research and decided to email every other hostel in the town to see if they had similar positions available. Luckily I found one, and on Boxing Day I flew to Auckland and bussed up to Paihia, a small beach town in the northern tip of the North Island, also a popular destination on the Stray and Kiwi Experience bus tours but one that hadn't been included in my bus tour pass.

It was sad leaving Queenstown. I really liked my roomates and it was a fun town, plus I had a great work-for-accom. thing going. But I knew I was in a rut and had to find something new. So my last night in town (Xmas night) I headed down to the bar to celebrate. Aside from the three free drink cards I had obtained by working earlier in the day, and the 2 more I won in an interesting coed bar game, I spent about $40 on drinks. Not a bad night.

Stay tuned to hear all about Paihia, as well as my decision to pack up and leave yet again.