Burned Out

Trying to get as many hours at work is great until they give you 50+ and the air con breaks down. It was 29 degrees C (yeah, I am having to figure out this Celsius thing...I am not in Fahrenheit land anymore...but for those of you that are...it was 84.2 F) in the shop today. I feel like I am literally in a sweat shop!

Good news is, is that I have tomorrow off...bad news is, the whole store goes on sale on thursday and I get to work the first 5 days of it! Gotta love being the newby!

But other than feeling over worked all is good here in New Zealand. I am getting into a routine. I get to move away from the creeper that is my landlord in a week or so...and Niki is coming back soon! I have been spending my days off attempting to learn german and have been practicing with all the german travelers that have been coming into Rip Curl. I actually met some really cool men from Ecuador today and got a chance to rap out with them in spanish! They were so impressed with my espanol that one of them bought a $600 wetsuit! That was pretty awesome....

What else? Ahhh...My newest obsession/ future travel plans are revolving around Australia! I having been hearing heaps about how Australia is a better place to make some money and am currently looking into getting a visa and heading to OZ for a while...but that is only an idea...tell you if that actually happens...

well, that's alls I really have to update you on! Except that I might actually be going BOWLING with some work mates this week....pretty excited to kick some bootie and show them some true American bowling skills!

Until Next time...Sweet As, Mates...Sweet As!

awkward moments

define my life. Gotta love when you and your flatmate are talking crap on the guy that owns the house that you live in...saying he's crazy and that he might have some mental issues...

and then....

he walks downstairs.

DOH!

maybe I won't even last another week in the place...my landlord might kill me in my sleep :/

as promised...

some pictures of what's up in N-ZED!

THE HOUSE!

my bed--with tons of shiz on it!

my really yummy pile of snotty tissues (this was before I fashioned a trash can)

The living room

The front door

my closet---nice to finally hang some stuff up and not look like I have slept in my clothes

ahh...after laundry day...looks like my bag exploded!

The kitchen

Looking down at the front door again :)

NOW FOR RIPPY!!

This is what you see from the entrance

Upstairs board/hardware section

Upstairs back stock

Upstairs office (Lucas, you would have a fit! IT IS SO MESSY AND UNORGANIZED!)

Shop sign on Queen Street!

Hope you enjoyed! I am going to try and get some of the employees next :)

Until next time...SWEET AS, MATES!

settling in...

The last two weeks of my life have been quite possibly the most emotionally draining days that I have ever experienced.

Where do I begin?


New Years Eve in Auckland was exciting and fun and definitely an amazing experience to be one of the first in the world to get to see the new year! Tons of us from the hostel (a bit intoxicated) walked our way to "the domain" (a park in auckland) to watch the fireworks go off above the sky tower. I must say that the fireworks display, though grand, was nothing like a firework show at home for the forth of july. It was more like a mini show...like the ones they do after the padres win a game (do they still do that? or did they ever do that? did I make that up?).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Fireworks :)

New Years day was a waste. Unable to move from our horrible hangovers we sat around void of normal human function trying to rehydrate what we had lost the night before.


After wasting a day we decided that we needed to get away from Auckland. We had been sitting in the same hostel for about a week waiting for employers to call me back and give me work details. Oh, did I mention that I got a job?? I will get into that later...


So...in hopes of having some holiday time away (I guess having holiday time while you are on holiday is a bit of an oxymoron!?!) we headed southwest to Raglan. Not sure if I have mentioned Raglan before, but it is a small (and when I say small...I mean SMALL...one main street about the length of a football field...if that!) quaint surf town filled with bohemian people that for some reason don't like wearing shoes (pretty much everyone walks around barefoot!). The plan was to sit on the beach and relax, maybe rent some surfboards and try our hand in surfing some New Zealand waves! Unfortunately mother nature had a different plan....rain and wind....tons of wind!!


Because it was a holiday weekend there were heaps of people in Raglan making it difficult for us to find accommodations. Luckily there was a campsite close by that had some available sites...unlucky that sleeping in a cold, damp, wind shaken tent all night gave me a horrible cold/mild case of what I think might have been bronchitis or pneumonia.


Our third day there we we finally found a backpacker hostel that had a dorm bed for the two of us! This magical place
( I say that because it wasn't our tent) had a lovely sauna and jacuzzi that made the crappy weather conditions not so bad!
So we sat around, jacuzzied, and watched plant earth sipping tea as we watched the trees blow violently in every direction
outside.


The next day it was time to head back to Auckland. We had one minor detour in Hamilton to get Snow White (that's our
car's name) some new front tires...or tyres as they spell it here. Ah, I forgot to mention that as we were leaving Auckland
for Raglan, maybe just 10 minutes from leaving, we got a MAJOR flat tire on the motorway. Our front tire literally exploded!
It was kind of funny, in an ironic way, because everything that could go wrong with our car was...and this was just the
cherry on top! The best part was that we had SO MUCH stuff in our trunk (because we had been living in our car) and had to
pull all of it out on the side of the freeway to get to the spare tire...


Anywho, Snow White got a new set of tires and her fan belt fixed and was running good as new! While we were waiting to
get the tired changed I got a phone call about a resume that I had put in at Rip Curl...the regional manager, Dion, rang me
and said that he wanted me to get into the shop ASAP and start working...


and I did. I started that Thursday. And can I say that working in NZ is WAY different than working in the states...


For the past week I have been trying to get hours and trying to get answers. I am in limbo and going crazy! The economy
here is bad just like at home and finding work is difficult, and when you do find it, getting hours is almost impossible.


I moved into a new flat in the suburb of Ponsonby. The area is really cute and kind of funky/artsy. I found my new favorite
restaurant called "Murder Burger" (murderburger.co.nz). Yes, it is all burgers, but the girl behind the counter makes me a
special veggie sandwich when I come in. And I must say, being away I have been craving a proper veggie sandwich and
have been hard up to find one until now!


The house I live in is a piece of crap and the people that I live with are unusual to say the least! The guy that owns the house
is Kiwi and does not have the time of day for me and gives me evil vibes when I am around him. I am "subletting" the room
from a danish girl that I met, and I think that it bugs him that I am living there and she isn't...who knows? There is a cool
guy from Chile, Jamie, that is nice. He speaks english to me and I reply in espanol. We are helping each other out with our
native languages. I haven't seen him since I moved in...Not sure if he even lives here anymore to tell you the truth!


Niki left for the south island on monday for a few weeks. I would be lying if I said that missing him wasn't the hardest thing
at the moment. You get used to traveling and being with someone 24/7 and it feels like part of me is missing now. I guess this
will really be a time for me to gain some more independence and learn about myself. I have been feeling stuck here the past
few days and was wanting to come home, but had the realization today that this is all happening for a reason! I just have
to take this as a life lesson and gain some kind of insight from it!


So I guess that I am living here in NZ for a while! Working away, trying to make it and try to find myself. Thanks to everyone
that has been helping through this hard time, I really appreciate it and love you guys! Thank God for skype!


Now that I have more time on my hands I can keep up with this blog!
Hopefully there will be more GOOD news to come!
Until next time....SWEET AS, MATES!


P.S.
My new address for the next month is 25/6 Collingwood Rd., Ponsonby, Auckland, 1011 New Zealand. Since I have been
sending you postcards, how about you send me one, aye? Getting mail excites me...and its the small things that count ;)


P.S.S. I will take some pics of Rippy (that's what the employees at Rip Curl call the brand) and the house and
get those up tomorrow :)

wheels man...wheels

We bought a car! We found the biggest POS beater that we could find and we bought it!

1984 Toyota Corona (no, not a Carolla...a corona)

It's pretty much a piece of diesel crap, but it does the job.

You decide for yourself :)

Until next time..see ya mates!

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trailer trash

Another Christmas come and gone! I still can't believe that it is almost 2010. Christmas in New Zealand was quite different than one in Carlsbad.

First off...it was a German Christmas, FOR SURE. I would say that about 90% of the people staying at our hostel are germans! And because there were so many germans we celebrated the holidays as they do it at home...which meant that christmas was celebrated on christmas eve and christmas day was nothing special at all. I will be honest, it was fun to celebrate on christmas eve but I was VERY depressed to not wake up on christmas morning and open presents and celebrate on christmas day. I was missing home pretty bad....

But, just as all christmas in the past, they come and they go and there will always be another one next year (and I will MOST DEFINITELY be home to celebrate next year!)

So I am sitting here in Auckland at the City Garden Lodge doing what I have been doing for the past 4 days...relaxing and dinking around on the internet. I finally found a free wireless network, so the internet hasn't been a stressful project...I can actually take my time and look at whatever I want without prioritizing internet needs!

The best thing about our hostel is the fact that we are living in a trailer...yes, a white trash, hillbilly trailer. They call it the caravan and it was the only "room" that they had left that wasn't all booked up for the holiday season! I highly recommend that you look on youtube for the canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys so that you can get a better idea of how we are living!

our humble abode...yeah, you're jealous!

Anyways, at the moment we are trying to figure out what car we should buy (or if we should just starting living in our really cool caravan for good!), what and where we are going to do and be for new years, and if we should stay around auckland and look for jobs or move on to the south island.

There isn't anything that exciting to report. I am just hanging out in the hostel...feel like I have lived here for years. Everyone knows everyone...its like a little family. I am eating way too much and putting on the kilos. I said that tomorrow I am going to start jogging again (we'll see if I get up!)

The adventure has kind of come to a stand still for the holidays. It is really just relaxation time and time to figure out what's next!

I really missed everyone this christmas, but I hope that the holidays have treated you well. I will try and do something REALLY exciting to make you all jealous! The south island is know for their extreme sports...thinking that I might treat myself to a skydiving session...

Well, until next time....see ya Mates!

Two Weeks (or more) In...

It’s been another week! I still cannot believe that I am here. It is hard for me to recall all the things that I have seen and learned, but I will try and tap into my memory bank…

We have still been camping pretty much every night. We went to Raglan, one of the most famous surf beaches here in NZ. The irony was that there were absolutely no waves to be found. Still, the town was very cute and fun to walk around. It definitely had a surfer vibe. It had about 6 or 7 surf shops within a 10 km radius. Seemed like it could be a cool place for me to find a job…but it might be too small and boring after one week of living there.

Then we made out way to Waitomo to see the glowworms! At first I was skeptical of paying money to see glowworms, but it was TOTALLY worth it. These bioluminescent creatures are spectacular! A tour guide took us cave exploring where we got to see the glowworms in full action. The whole time I was in the cave it reminded me of being on Space Mountain at Disneyland. It was nothing but pitch black and little stars. Definitely one of the coolest things that I have seen in a long time.

Then we were off to New Plymoth. Another “big” city, New Plymoth wasn’t really all that exciting. The cool thing about it was that there was a cool campground that was right on the beach. Our campsite overlooked the ocean!

Then from New Plymoth we made our way to Mt. Egmont. We had EVERY intention of climbing the mountain but mother nature had a different plan for us….it rained ALL night and there was 0% visibility and no chance that we could see anything once (if) we reached the top! The whole point of climing that mountain is for the view from the top. So those hiking plans and ideas of becoming fit again were shot.

Our next stop was Wellington. Wellington is NZ’s 3^rd largest city and the capital of NZ. It was a very cool city that had a lot going on. It was our civilized break from camping. We decided that we needed a break and checked ourselves into a hostel. Honestly we didn’t do anything productive while in Wellington. We slept, ate, drank a bit and met some other travelers. It was a good refresher from living in the wild!

Speaking of the wild…camping isn’t exactly the hardest thing to do here in New Zealand. Most of the campsites that we have been staying in are fully equipped with hot showers/toilets/kitchens/laundry facilities and a bar or restaurant. The only really touch part is that we have to sleep on the ground in a tent. We did start finding campgrounds that are free. Those are just grass lots with “Johnny on the spots”. That is CAMPING…we have been staying at those lately trying to save money, only getting showers ever few days (PU!)

Two mornings ago I woke up with a THICK layer of ice on my tent. Luckily my sleeping bag is thick enough to handle the cold temps. Niki’s on the other hand…ugh…he has a summer bag that is only warm enough for summer temps like 17 degrees. So, poor guy has been sleeping in the car for the past couple of nights.

What else? Ah yes. Two days ago Niki and I hiked the Tongariro Pass (20 km). We were under the impression that it was only 12 km and that it was more of a walk than a hike. HA! Nope. It was a HIKE! Not quite as difficult as Half Dome, but none the less exhausting. I am still feeling it today. I will try and put pictures up soon!

So today I am in Rotura, land of the geysers, boiling mud and sulfur hot springs. Downtown smells like rotten eggs. We are staying at a FABULOUS campsite and I am sitting in the café drinking my English Breakfast tea trying to catch up with every email/facebook/blog that I have neglected. Not quite sure where we are going today or what we are doing. I do know that I will be in Auckland for Christmas and have started looking for jobs.

So, I think that I have brought you about up to date. I will get some corresponding pictures up soon!

Until next time mates….SEE YA

wanna see what I see?

Here are some pictures of week one. They are from Auckland up to the very top of New Zealand and back down again to Auckland.

ENJOY

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Kiwi Fever, Baby!

I made it to New Zealand!!! Yes that’s right…I am here and I absolutely love it! But I am jumping ahead from my last post.

I made it home from Mexico City safe and sound with almost no issues. Customs was a breeze (even though I was sweating because I knew that I had a Cuban cigar in my bag), my flight was great because no one sat next to me and I was able to lay across 3 seats and sleep, and even though I had no cell phone to call my parents to tell then when I arrived they showed up almost exactly when I walked outside of the airport! The only thing that didn’t go as planned was my unfortunate case of food poising that I received after eating what I thought were delicious nachos in the airport.

The food poisoning set me back a bit. I spent my first night home hanging my head over the toilet unable to get that good night sleep in my nice comfy bed that I had dreamed while on my travels. My body was so week that I could barely leave the house to do the one million things that I NEEDED to do before I left again. Long story short, thank God I had 3 days to be home and I didn’t fly straight to New Zealand…I think that would have been my definition of hell: food poisoning on a 12 hour flight…ugh!

Sick or not, however, it was great to be home to see friends and family! The timing was perfect to because of Thanksgiving. It was nice to eat something different than beans, eggs and tortillas! The food was great and seeing my friends gave me the rejuvenating force to start my new adventure!

So here I am now. New Zealand. I will say this one time and I mean it with all of my heart…if you have never been here and you have any kind of appreciation for nature, beautiful landscape and friendly people…GET ON A FLIGHT NOW! I have only seen maybe 1/10 of the north island and I am already in love.

I flew into Auckland (probably one of the biggest cities in NZ). Worried about what I was going to see I didn’t know if customs were going to welcome me with my 12 month work visa or hassle me about what my intentions were for my travels abroad and tell me that I wasn’t worthy of staying a whole year in their beautiful land. But alas…I was welcomed with a smile and stamped with my visa! I was also welcomed by a half asleep but smiling German and that is when the adventure began…

We spent my first day walking around Auckland figuring out plans for what we would do about seeing the north island. There are so many options as to how you can get around. You can pay a tour bus company to drive you around to major sights, hoping on and off the bus at your leisure. The tour companies stop in cities where there are hostels, bar and general tourist attractions so that you don’t really have to think much. You just have to make sure you catch the bus and find a hostel. You can also rent an RV, camper van or car and drive around yourself seeing what you want to see when you want to see it. And in doing that you can choose to camp in a tent, in your van or just sleep under the stars.

We decided that renting a car and buying a tent and sleeping bags was going to be the most fun for us and the most economical. So while we were in Auckland we stocked up on camping gear, rented a really classing 1997 Toyota Carolla and hit the 1 North in search for beaches, rolling hills and adventure.

Its been almost a week and we are having a blast. The weather here has been a bit rainy and wet, but it doesn’t subtract from the countries beauty! If anything, the weather has made it more mystical and more intriguing. I am definitely having Lord of the Rings flashes in my head as we drive…

Oh! And about driving…yeah, we drive on the left side of the road here, with our steering wheel on the right. That was a bit hard to get use to at first, but now it feels natural. (Don’t worry mom and dad—Niki is doing most of the driving, but I did have to try it out once!)

Yesterday we went to 90 mike beach (which is only 64 miles long) and to the most northern point of NZ—Cape Reinga—and see the famous light house that is on so many postcards.

That’s all for now. I guess I can’t say ADIOS anymore…so, until next time—SEE YA LATER MATES!

P.S. The internet is really expensive and hard to come by while you are camping….so these posts are going to be more and more difficult to do, but I will try and get one up at least once a week!!

Lots of Kiwi Love!!

coming home

Headed home today. Then to New Zealand on Friday!

More details to come when I have time!

Kisses and good wishes

ADIOS AMIGOS...and adios Latin America (for now!)

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