Not everything is fun

Not everything is fun. We noticed that around November. We started to look for work in Rotorua as we wanted to meet with a friend in that region for Christmas and therefore wanted to stay longer. That didn’t work out as we thought.

One thing was that I fell ill – actually I think that was linked to the sulphur smell in Rotorua, because I couldn’t find any other explanation and the smell let me feel sick. Therefore, we didn’t do anything for some days, just waiting for me to get better. I couldn’t even get too far from the toilet, not even thinking about going on job interviews. When I was better, we started looking in the region, but didn’t even find possibilities. Of course, we didn’t throw away our hope immediately as we knew that Rotorua was not the best option to find something. So, we got friendly with the thought of going to some other place and then come back around Christmas. Our hopes lay in Napier and Hastings, because of the many orchards there. We tried our luck there, but as big parts of the harvest had been destroyed by the unusual number of heavy rains, they didn’t have enough working places and created waiting lists for the case that someone gave up. Of course, we signed up, but until today never ever heard anything from them again.

After a few days, we thought we couldn’t do nothing without earning money and decided to continue even more south to ask on other orchards, farms or with wwoofing places, but were never lucky. As if all this wasn’t hard enough, the bad weather started and it rained for more than two weeks in a row, which was the reason for bad moods and uncomfortable days at the comping places, where we stayed to save money. We thought about either getting a ferry to the South Island or going for two weeks to some islands and continue searching afterwards, but with the Christmas days coming closer, everything was fully booked. Desperate, we returned to our friends, where we had started our journey and they asked friends and neighbours for help. It never really worked out and we started asking in every restaurant, bar, big supermarkets or farms for work. Everything was good enough by now. Already close to giving up, we entered a seemingly small beach café, where we thought it wasn’t even worth to ask and left our phone number. Only hours later, the chef called me and said they would need help in the kitchen. Finally! After some calls forth and back, I was invited for working one day to see if it works out and soon we both had a contract as dishwashers at the Frontroom Restaurant in Waikanae. It is really nice there and everyone is very friendly and helpful, but I will tell more about that in my next post. We can work there for one month and even get off at the 25thand 26nd of December for Christmas. The 24this normal working day and not, as in Germany, free. We are both definitely not in Christmas mood with the normal 25 degree, sunshine and beaches. It seems strange that the shops are decorated with snow and Christmas trees and playing “wonderful Christmastime”. Even worse is, when I hear “Let it snow”. We already tried buying Spekulatuis and other Christmas sweets, but it didn’t really help.

Next thing was that we didn’t have any plans for Christmas, neither for New Year’s Eve. Going back to Rotorua to meet our friend or to Bay of Plenty to our wwoofing host, was unimaginable as we were far away and had to work until 24that night. I wouldn’t even have had a problem with working on these days, just to have something to do and earn some money, but the restaurant was closed. It is really different, being far away from home, your family and friends and celebrating Christmas in summer. I already miss the “normal” Christmas with snow or bad weather and my family and our traditions. But, for the first we were busy working and trying to find a new accommodation for the next month. We couldn’t stay that long at our friends’ place and wouldn’t want to bother them any more than we already did. You see, not everything abroad on your Work and Travel adventure is good and fun, you also have hard times, where you will be desperate and close to giving up. But, you also saw that we somehow managed and there is always a up after a down and I will tell you about that in the next post.

This is what I did to find distraction: training my old horse from Germany and teaching her to jump. I will write a post about her later.

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