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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Rotorua and Maori culture

Before I start writing my new entry, I’d like to take the chance to say that everything I write in this blog is of course from my own perspective or it’s things I’ve been told, heard or read about. By this I mean to say that, on the one hand, whichever I explain from my own perspective is subjective and some people might have different opinions. On the other hand, things I’ve been told or have heard might not be true or depict reality. So, by writing this blog, I just mean to speak about the way I, myself, experience and perceive NZ and do not intend to offend anyone by any means. 😊

Back to Rotorua and Maori culture, if I’m not wrong, this city is said to be the place in NZ with the highest percentage of Maori population. A good way of getting to know their culture is to visit Maori villages. Ohinemutu, for instance, is a small one in the centre of Rotorua, which you can visit for free.

Ohinemutu Maori Village

Some of the renowned Maori villages are Mitai, Tamaki, Te Puia and Whakarewarewa. They all offer similar tours. I personally just visited the Mitai Village, because I heard it’s the best one and I got tickets for half price by working in Rotorua. :D It was a very interesting experience. I had already been in touch with Maori on Waiheke Island, but being told about/shown their culture and roots at Mitai was amazing!

I visited Mitai with my wwoofer colleagues. We got picked up from the hostel and were taken to the village in a small bus with some other people from the tour. The village was just 10 minutes away. We were all first gathered in a big room, where we had the food buffet later on, and had a welcome speech. The spokesman was very funny and welcomed almost everyone in the room in their different languages. That was impressive! Then we went outdoors in the village itself and were shown how Maori cooked their food traditionally. The method is called “hangi”, which involves the use of heated rocks buried in a pit oven. The hangi meal we had at the end of the tour included: lamb and chicken, potatoes (riwai), sweet potato (kumara), stuffing (bread, mixed herbs, corn, carrots and peas), seafood chowder, chocolate log, pavlova and steamed pudding with custard. It was delicious!! Also, the drinking water we got was taken from the freshwater river that they have in the village. It tasted really nice, even if water doesn’t taste like anything!

Hangi

At the river, we were shown how Maori used to travel in their wakas (canoes). A waka is usually elaborately carved and decorated, consisting of a main hull formed from a single hollowed-out log along with a carved upright head and tailboard. Its main purpose was to river/sea travel with and fish. Maori are said to be expert hunters and fishermen. According to history, Maori are Polynesian descendants. That is, their ancestors, Polynesian peoples, arrived in NZ on canoes from the Pacific Islands and settled in NZ. They lived in tribal groups and hunted and fished. After centuries of isolation in the country, they developed their own culture, language and mythology.

Waka

Here’s a video of the waka-show:

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154683709416176/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

The most spectacular part of the tour was the performing show. The Mitai tribe showed us traditional singing and dancing (“poi”) and the usage of weaponry. The most renowned dance is “haka”: The haka is a type of ancient Maori war dance traditionally used on the battlefield, as well as when groups came together in peace. Haka are a fierce display of a tribe's pride, strength and unity. Actions include violent foot-stamping, tongue protrusions and rhythmic body slapping to accompany a loud chant. The words of a haka often poetically describe ancestors and events in the tribe's history.

A poem about haka

Today, haka are still used during Maori ceremonies and celebrations to honour guests and show the importance of the occasion. This includes family events, like birthdays and weddings. The first haka I saw in my life was on youtube, a performance in a Maori wedding. My first thought was like: “wtf?”. It just looks funny and scary at the same time. Them, pulling out their tongues, shouting, their eyeballs popping out…As if they were literally on drugs! But if you perceive it from a cultural perspective, it has a lot of meaning for them. It could be comparable to Spanish flamenco. If you think about it, it’s a similar conception: singing, clapping hands, dancing, and all coming “from the guts”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX4Q4AaVELw

This is the haka performance that we saw at Mitai:

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154683717966176/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

Haka are also used to challenge opponents on the sports field. New Zealand sports teams' practice of performing a haka before their international matches has made the haka more widely known around the world. It was during the rugby season this winter (European summer) that I started loving haka! I’m not a fan of rugby or rather of watching sports on TV in general, but I must admit, I always tried to make it to watch the first few minutes of each game just to see the All Blacks (the NZ national rugby union team) perform haka! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiKFYTFJ_kw&t=10s

A feature of the dancing movements that caught my attention was the shaking of the hands. It literally looked like them having Parkinson’s disease – Note: I don’t mean this in an offensive way! This movement is called “wiri” and has to do with Maori’s affinity to nature: To some, the wiri represents the heatwaves that shimmer on a hot day, and to others, it represents the sparkling of the waters as the sun dances across the waves.

A very interesting cultural thing is also the traditional Maori greeting, “hongi”. Hongi is used at traditional meetings among Maori people and on major ceremonies and serves a similar purpose to a formal handshake. It is done by shaking hands and pressing one's nose and forehead, at the same time, to another encounter. While shaking hands, the left hand of each person may be placed on the other's near shoulder. The head is bent, the eyes are lowered or closed, and noses are pressed together either once or twice. Through the exchange of this greeting, one is no longer considered “Manuhiri”, a visitor, but rather “Tangata whenua”, one of the people of the land. The term “Tangata whenua” is one that essentially states that you are to be unified with those performing the hongi with you, by which you are to illustrate your loyalty and appreciation for the land itself.

Hongi

This greeting was shown to me when I lived on Waiheke Island by a Maori man who used to hang out with us at the hostel I lived at. The pressing of the foreheads together and staring at each other was pretty intimidating. This guy told me, traditionally they do this greeting to feel if you can be trusted in their land. Like I just explained, it’s a way to show respect and trust.

Tattoos are another specific feature of the Maori culture. The concept of Maori tattooing is called “Ta Moko”. Ta Moko was like a history of a person's achievements and represented their status in their tribe. It also served as a reminder to people about their responsibility in life. The different meanings of tattooing were linked to several aspects, such as family (physical lives), prosperity, travel, strength, your career path, etc. For Maori, tattooing was (and for some, still is) a rite of passage, which meant it was highly revered and ritualised. Therefore, it was a huge honour to have Ta Moko. Only people of rank or status were allowed to have, and could afford to have, tattoos. Ta Moko was worn by both men and women. It was applied to the face and buttocks of men, and to the chin, lips and shoulders of women. Since the Maori people consider the head to be the most sacred part of the body, the most popular kind of Maori tattoo was the facial tattoo, which was composed of curved shapes and spiral like patterns. The left side of the face related to the father's history and the right side to the mother's history. The Maori facial tattoo was not only seen as a sign of rank though, but was also used as a kind of identification card. For men, their face tattoo showed their accomplishments, status, position, ancestry and marital status. It is considered highly insulting to be unable to recognise a person’s power and position by his Moko.

Facial Maori tattoo

The last part of the tour at Mitai was a short walk through the bush in the village. We were shown some glowworms and told about their lives at the villages. A particular thing that I found interesting was the “use” of the silver fern. Silver fern seems to be, at least partly, the emblem of NZ. Apparently, Maori used the silver fern leaves to guide themselves in the bush. Just like Hansel & Gretel leaving bread crumbs to find their way back home, Maori would place silver fern leaves upside down on the way, because their silver colour would reflect at night, so they could orient themselves

Silver fern, both sides

The last curiosity I’d like to highlight is the New Zealand accent, this including both Kiwi and Maori. In comparison to the Aussie accent, the NZ one is clearer. To me, at least, it sounds more British-like. The Aussie accent is a lot more Americanised. Someone told me that the British settlers in NZ came from Kent, therefore it sounds more British. If this is true, I don’t know. How to recognise NZ accent? There’s a distinctive feature that makes it very easy to find out. They swap the sounds: /ɛ/ and /iː/ or /ɪ/. It sounds funny when you get used to it, but till then, you get VERY confused. Why? Because this creates a lot of homophones. For the non-linguists, I’ll give some examples. When NZ people say “bread” /brɛd/, you hear “breed” /briːd/, and so it goes on with: pen/pin, wet/wheat, when/win, etc. AND the funniest one, of course: deck/dick! :D

Here’s a post I’ve seen in some hostels on how to speak NZ-English, which depicts the situation pretty much accurately:

An interesting linguistic feature of the Maori language, in particular, for the Spanish is the vowels. We both share the same exact vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u, by which it’s easier for us Spanish to pronounce Maori. Also, the “r” sound is similar to the Spanish one.

Again, from the linguistic point of view – I just love this! – Kiwi slang is pretty funny. They use a lot of “bro” (Aussie “mate”), “good on you” (which sounds like “goodonion”), “all good” (Aussie “no worries”), and the best one: “sweet as”, which, of course, sounds like “sweet arse”. The first time someone told me “sweet as” I turned and said: “Excuse me?!”

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Exploring Rotorua

One of the most impressive things to do in Rotorua is to see its geothermal activity. Itself in the city, you can find bubbling mud pools and lakes. Geothermal activity takes place due to the fact that there’s a system of streams beneath the ground which are heated by magma left over from earlier eruptions. Kuirau Park, for instance, has many bubbling lakes and ponds.

Kuirau Park

Sulphur Point

And a video exploring Kuirau Park with my friend Ondrej. It was pretty creepy!

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154683703791176/?type=2&theater

The most renowned and biggest geothermal park in the region is Wai-O-Tapu (meaning “sacred waters”) Thermal Wonderland. It’s half way between Rotorua and Taupo and shows volcanic craters, coloured pools and ponds, waterfalls and lakes. There’s also a geyser, Lady Knox, which gets induced to erupt every morning “by dropping a surfactant into the opening of the vent” – this I missed, unfortunately, since I worked every morning at the hostel. The interesting colours of the lakes and ponds are in fact natural! I was very surprised. Apparently, the different colours are due to different mineral elements: green (colloidal sulphur), orange (antimony), purple (manganese oxide), white (silica), yellow (sulphur), red-brown (iron oxide), black (sulphur and carbon). These mineral elements are also responsible for the terrible smell: the rotten-egg smell is associated with hydrogen sulphide.

Wai-O-Tapu - Champagne Pool

Wai-O-Tapu - Lake

Wai-O-Tapu - Craters

Wai-O-Tapu - massive reptile thingie

Wai-O-Tapu - Coloured pond

Wai-O-Tapu - Lake with Claus

Mud Pools close to Wai-O-Tapu

Wai-O-Tapu - Champagne Pool

Wai-O-Tapu - Crater

Wai-O-Tapu - Mud pool

Very close to Wai-o-Tapu you’ll find Rainbow Mountain. There’s a nice walk up to the summit and at certain spots you can also see some geothermal activity, such as steam coming up from the earth or a bubbling lake at the base of the mountain. You must be very careful with the geothermal areas. Normally, you get caution signs everywhere and will see the bubbling waters. It’s important not to take it as a joke, those waters are over 100 degrees hot!

Rainbow Mountain

Rainbow Mountain was one of the last excursions I did, since it basically rained every day, so I had to wait for a “dry” day, which was one of my last days in Rotorua. An interesting thing to see after having rained was the muddy, coloured soil that Rainbow Mountain has. Its texture was like pastel colours. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of it. ☹

I hitchhiked there with my Frenchie, Diane. It was her first time hitchhiking, so it was kind of exciting! To be honest, it took us a while to get a lift. Being two girls, it should’ve been easier! I must say, however, that the sign we made was a FAIL! It was too bright, so cars couldn’t see where we wished to go. We got two crazy Maori girls who shouted from inside their car and said that they’d stop, then they somehow drove away. BUT then they came back around and stopped (we were standing at a petrol station). They seemed a bit crazy. We asked where they were heading to and they said they were going nowhere, just driving around the city… XD Luckily, at that moment, an young Indian couple, who had seen us standing, approached us and offered to pick us up, since they were driving the same direction. We left the crazy ones behind!

Hitchhike sign failure

Rainbow Mountain summit with Diane

The hitchhike back was pretty interesting too. We got a lift very easily and the conditions were “funny” – for me, basically. We came back down from the mountain, crossed the road and stood at the way in of some lake. There was a man walking his dogs around and saw us with the sign, so he offered us a ride back to the city. The only problem he mentioned was that the back seat was very narrow and his 2 big dogs had to sit there too. We really needed a lift and I found it funny – at the beginning – to travel with the dogs. I’m not a dog person, but I don’t mind them, so I offered to sit at the back. However, the 25-minute drive was VERY intense! XD The dogs were too friendly and kept jumping on me and licking me all over!!! Yeah, hitchhiking adventures.

It can get pretty funny with hitchhiking. Drivers will see you standing and some of them won’t pick you up – for whatever reasons – but they’ll smile at you; some others will look at you in a weird way and drive away; some others, however – and this is many of them – will feel bad about not picking you up and somehow responsible for your welfare, by which they’ll turn around and come back get you. No joke!! It’s happened to me lots of times! It’s so cute!! In fact, this happened when my Austrian friend, Claus, and I hitchhiked back from Wai-O-Tapu. We stood at a petrol station and saw a Maori guy leaving the station, driving by. He looked at us, smiled and left. Five minutes later, we see the same guy coming back to us and he goes: “Hey guys, where are you heading to?!”. We said we needed a lift to Rotorua and he offered to take us. So when we asked if it was him that had driven by a few minutes earlier, he admitted it was him. He said that he felt really bad to have left us standing there, so he came back to pick us up. And the best part: he was actually driving back home the opposite direction!! That means, he came back, drove us back to Rotorua (25 minutes one way) and then back to his place. Amazing! His phone rang when we got in the car; a friend of his was calling and he goes: “I’ll be there soon, I just picked up two backpackers and am driving them to Rotorua”. XD I love Maori people and Kiwis!! :D

Another funny story that happened to me when walking up Rainbow Mountain was to run into a girl I knew, Melissa. I was walking up with Frenchie Diane and Melissa was walking back down with another mate. So we looked at each other and both realised we had seen each other before. It was her that turned around and shouted: “Excuse me, have we met before?!”. So I turned around too and it turns out that she did a trial at the pub I was working at on Waiheke Island, but we never saw each other again. We decided to exchange phone numbers, since we were both travelling around at the same time and after a couple of weeks we ended up meeting up again and became friends! :D It’s a small world!

Apart from geothermal activity, Rotorua also has many lakes and a few springs/waterfalls. Rotorua Lake itself is one of the main attractions of the city. You can take boat rides, paddle, etc. It’s a pretty big one, so driving around it can take about 1 hour.

Lake Rotorua

The most visited ones after Rotorua Lake are the Blue and Green Lakes and Tarawera Lake.

Blue Lake

Tarawera Lake

Green Lake

Hamurana Springs, north of Rotorua Lake, offered amazing crystal-clear waters. This time I didn’t have to hitchhike B-) Karoliina and Amber, from the hostel, had a car, so I joined them.

Hamurana Springs

Hamurana Springs with Amber and Karoliina

Another highlight of Rotorua is the Whakarewarewa Forest aka Redwoods (for people who can’t pronounce the name). The forest has massively tall Californian trees and there are many walking and bike tracks to do. From one of the walking tracks you can see part of one of the Maori Villages, Te Puia, which has a natural geyser and other volcanic activities. If you are lucky enough, you might experience the geyser erupting. I was just there at the wrong time ☹

Te Puia

The Redwoods - me, playing around

The Redwoods

Finally, a must-do activity in Rotorua is the Skyline! Skyline involves taking a gondola up to a hill in the city and from there you can do different activities. Our choice – mine and my wwoofing colleague’s, Yume – was the famous luge. We got 5 rides for just 35$ (the deal is normally 3 rides for 50$)!! It was a massive discount deal through bookme.com, a website which I highly recommend having a look at!

Views from the hill

Going up after riding down the luge with Yume

Going up the hill in the gondola

Rotovegas with Yume!

Going up the hill in the gondola with Yume

Luge!

And of course a video of one of the rides with the luge, the scenic ride:

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154683742896176/?type=2&theater

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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HelpXing in Rotorua

Waihi, Tauranga and Matamata. One week off work over. Time to wwoof again! Rotorua seemed like a good place to stay for a couple of weeks. The city offers many activities to do and places to see.

Rotorua is renowned for its geothermal activity and Maori culture. Especially the former gives the city a “special touch”: it smells like rotten eggs all over!! I was told before I got there and it’s indeed true. Just when getting off the bus, it hit me! Some areas are worse than others. I don’t really know if you can really get used to it; I couldn’t. But well, it’s a good chance to be able to fart everywhere and not look suspicious! Ha, ha! Sorry, I had to say it!

The hostel I stayed was pretty nice and relatively central. It was run by a small family and they treated us like part of it. They’d invite us for dinner once a week, which was lovely! My wwoofer colleagues and the receptionists were great too! The hostel wasn’t too big, so we normally finished work early. My task this time consisted in cleaning the toilets. I don’t mind cleaning toilets, but I would’ve liked to rotate the tasks. Oh well. It wasn’t too bad! After work I always used the time to do some walks and activities, but Rotorua is very rainy and it basically rained almost every single day, so it was hard to plan anything. Annoying!

Rotorua was definitely busier than Coromandel and the rest of places I had been to in winter. The city is both a summer and winter destination. This made it easier to meet some people and not get bored. An activity that we loved doing at the hostel was playing cards! Yeah, it’s one of the small things in life that still might be enjoyed. I’ve never been a big card player, but we were shown a Chinese game, which got us hooked! The nameless game. We all learnt how to play but never found out about its name. It started with the wwoofers playing and we got many of the guests involved, every day! It was kind of a strategy game, so when we all knew how to play well, it got very exciting! Playing LOTS of times involved shuffling cards after each game, of course. Every time I had to shuffle, I couldn’t help thinking of the song “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO and kept singing “every day I’m shuffling…”. So one day I came up with a funny – at least funny for all of us playing – idea: to record a short joking video of the song with us shuffling cards. One of the German guys and I named it “shuffle mir einen”. This was the result:

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154696589421176/?type=2&theater

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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One week off wwoofing – Third stop: Matamata & Hobbiton

One of the things New Zealand is famous for is its landscapes appearing in the trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit”. Who hasn’t fallen in love with these on the screen?!

One of the must-see locations is Hobbiton, which depicts the Shire, where the hobbits live. The movie set is located on a family farm in Matamata (I love the name XD). Matamata itself is just a tiny town, where people basically stop to go to Hobbiton.

A cool thing to see is its i-Site, decorated like a house from the films.

Hobbiton can only be accessed by tours, since it’s private land. The 1ish-hour tour is quite expensive and the whole set looks a lot more amazing in the films, but I definitely don’t regret the experience – you’re only here once! You can get on the tour in different places. From Matamata it’s just a 20-minute drive. The bus picks you up from the i-Site (information centre) and takes you straight to the place. During the short journey, they play a few videos which show you bits of places in the film you’ll see live. Once at the set itself, you do a 1-hour walking tour around the Shire. It’s like a hill with a way up, passing through many little houses and ending up at the Green Dragon Tavern, where you get a free drink - yay! I found the tavern to be the nicest place, surrounded by a beautiful lake.

And here’s a video, which shows the place live.

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154660524176176/?type=2&theater

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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One week off wwoofing – Second stop: Tauranga

My second stop on the way to Rotorua was Tauranga. Tauranga – or rather its neighbour town, Te Puke – is known for being the capital of kiwifruit. There, you’ll find kiwifruit factories where many backpackers work. I considered packing kiwifruit, but I couldn’t be bothered after my experience packing broccoli in Australia. It’s a damn hard job!!

There’s not much to explain about my 2-day visit in Tauranga. It was lovely to visit the town, but I basically saw everything in one day. I was lucky that my hostel had bikes for rent for a very low price, so I took the chance to bike around. One of my roomies at the hostel joined me and we had a great time!

Tauranga is known for its Mount Manganui. Going up there is a pretty steep walk, but worth its views.

Mt Manganui

Views from Mt Manganui - Marina

Views from Mt Manganui - Manganui Beach

Views from Mt Manganui

Views from Mt Manganui - Manganui Beach

Mt Manganui

Views from Mt Manganui - Matakana Island

Marine Park

Connected to the beach there’s a small island, which you can access by foot. We expected to see a blowhole, which is what we thought it was famous for, but no luck. Apparently, it used to have a water park, but it was removed from the island years ago. Pity! Still, it was nice to walk around it and see some nice views of Mount Manganui.

Moturiki Island - views of Mt Manganui

Moturiki Island

Close to the hostel there was a big lake, which could be biked or walked around. We biked it as the sun was going down and had stunning views!

Waikareao Estuary Walkway

The main centre of Tauranga offered a nice walk along the Marina.

The Strand

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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One week off wwoofing – First stop: Waihi

When in Hahei, I contacted a hostel in Rotorua, where I wanted to have my next HelpX experience. While I waited for an available position, I had a week’s time in between, which I decided to use for stopping at a few places on my way down and enjoying some time off working. My first stop was Waihi.

My way to Waihi was LONG. I decided to take the coastal road, since I had already gone along the inner one and wanted to stop on the way. The bus, however, would only go partly along the coast and then drive through the inner road, thus taking ages to get to Waihi. Therefore, I opted for taking the bus to Hikuai, where both ways split, and told the bus driver to drop me off there, so I could hitchhike the rest of the way down. I realised once I got to Hikuai, however, that my plan hadn’t been the best idea. The coastal road was barely busy and the few vehicles that drove by were trucks. I was literally in the middle of nowhere and waited for at least half an hour for someone to stop. I thought, in the worst-case scenario, I’d hitchhike back to the next town and see, but I had already booked a night in Waihi, so I would’ve lost it. Luckily, a truck stopped and offered me a lift. I wasn’t really convinced, but it was the only option I really had. I thought, if it’s dodgy, I’ll just jump out. XD On my “hitchhike sign” I had written I was heading to Whangamata, a beach place half the way to Waihi, but the guy was driving all the way down to Tauranga, passing by Waihi, so he offered to take me to my final destination. In the end, I agreed to do so, because I couldn’t risk not being picked up from Whangamata, seeing how empty the road was. Also, doing some sightseeing there while having to carry my backpack around wouldn’t have been any fun. The journey straight to Waihi turned out to be successful and it was an interesting experience to travel in a big truck. A bit tight, since it was just the 2 front seats, by which I had to fit my big bum, my backpack and my small suitcase all in one space, but I managed! :D

Once in Waihi, I still had to find my way to Waihi Beach, where my hostel was, about a 15-minute drive away. Accommodation in Waihi was unaffordable. Coming out of the supermarket and checking my way on google maps, a young woman in her car saw me and offered me a lift. A lovely Aussie who’d been living in NZ for years and was driving back home for the day with her 3 cute children, interesting! This is what I love about Australia and NZ, people just offer their help without expecting anything in exchange. We need this kindness in Europe, seriously!! She dropped me off right at the entrance of the hostel.

The hostel was a mixture of a backpacker’s, motel and camping site. Very well equipped and cosy. The only thing: I was the only guest. It was damn scary!! Well, maybe a family or so in one of the motels on the other side, but that’s it. Oh well, both nights that I spent there I was so tired that I passed out in bed early, so I enjoyed some relaxing, solo time.

My main interest in visiting Waihi was to cycle the Hauraki Rail Trail. It’s a pretty flat and thus easy-to-ride trail, which makes it suitable for everyone. It’s about 173km long and divided into 5 sections, which takes about 3-4 days to complete.

My first idea was to do a couple of the sections, but I heard most of them are just pretty boring, as in biking through farm land. Also, doing the trail for several days would’ve meant to have to get my luggage transferred and therefore spending more money. I have to say I still paid 40$ for a day to rent a bike! Yeah, bike renting is very expensive. I’ve even seen 60$/day. I opted for the section C – Paeroa to Waihi, which is supposed to be the most beautiful one. Besides, this bit was doable in one day, Waihi being the start and return point, so I didn’t need my luggage to be transferred anywhere.

The biking journey ended up being lovely, but my time management and organisation skills failed from the very beginning of the day, like always. First FAIL: I booked the bike online and it took an hour to be brought to the hostel, by which I left pretty late. Second FAIL: Starting the bike journey from Waihi Beach instead of Waihi was the worst decision ever, since the way to Waihi itself was very hilly and long – it took me over an hour and a lot of effort. Also, the bike seat was very uncomfortable, so when I got to Waihi, my bum was already VERY sore. Third FAIL: I thought the way from Waihi to Paeroa was 14 km in total, but it wasn’t. It was around 30km in total just ONE WAY. Plus another 11km from Waihi Beach, my starting point. So I made it all the way to Karangahake Gorge, which is the highlight of the trail, but couldn’t get to Paeroa, which was another 9km from the gorge one way. Waihi to Karangahake Gorge is the most beautiful bit, so I didn’t really miss much after that, but I was sad not to be able to take a picture with the giant L&P bottle at Paeroa – this is basically the highlight of the small town. Yes, I’m a freak! XD

L&P Bottle @ Paeroa

The way back to Waihi from the gorge was hard, since my bum was on fire! I decided to get to Waihi and hitchhike to Waihi Beach from there. It was an option to give back the bike at Waihi at no extra cost, so I called the guy and he picked up the bike there. Luckily for me, again, he offered to give me a lift back to Waihi Beach, so double win!

Here are some pictures of the highlights of the trail:

1-km tunnel @ Karangahake Gorge

Karangahake Gorge

Owharoa Falls

Some brige on the way

Ohinemuri River

Bike trail

Karangahake Waterfall

On my second day, I did some hiking around Waihi Beach, a beautiful spot, before going back to Waihi and taking the bus towards Tauranga, my next destination. Again, I wasn’t able to do the whole hiking track I wanted to, first because I thought I would make it on time to check out at the hostel, second because I got lost finding the entrance of the track. So me...

I hitchhiked my way from Waihi Beach to Waihi. A lovely old woman picked me up, a Kiwi who used to hitchhike a lot formerly, she said. It was pretty hard to get a lift from there, I must say. Once in Waihi, I did some sightseeing around the town and made my way to the bus in the afternoon.

Gilmour Reserve

Martha Mine Pit Rim

Cornish Pumphouse

Chatting to my new friend

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Discovering the east coast of Coromandel Peninsula

Hahei is known for its beach and surroundings. The beach is pretty big, but, to my opinion, not that amazing. The beauty of it is the landscape that surrounds it. I went up to Te Pare Point, which is about a 15-minute walk from the beach and the views were great!

Hahei Beach

Te Pare Point

One of the most visited and beautiful spots in Hahei is Cathedral Cove. The whole walking track takes about 45 minutes from the beach. You can also kayak to the place, which takes about an hour. It’s different rock and cliff formations. You have to be careful when walking around, since there might be landslides.

Cathedral Cove

On the way you can visit Stingray Bay and Gemstone Bay. Especially the latter is a good spot to snorkel. I didn’t do it, though, because it was cold and I would’ve had to hire snorkel gear and wetsuit, which costs a lot. Plus, having seen amazing fish at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia would’ve probably made this experience boring – no offense, but Kiwi fish are not that beautiful, sorry! However, I did walk around and “climbed” the rocks which lead from one bay to the other, exploring and finding small animals, like little crabs, hidden in the rocks.

Stingray Bay

Speaking of wild life, I witnessed the tragic death of a “kereru” – a beautiful, colourful New Zealand native pigeon. I was sitting at the hostel, inside, next to one of the big windows, and suddenly something banged the window really loudly. I screamed, I thought someone had thrown a stone or something, but no, it was the poor pigeon. It tried to fly to the other side, thinking it’d be a way through. The poor bird broke its neck and died instantly. What a shame! We buried it in the morning.

Kereru

A very cute, friendly, tiny bird is the Fantail. They fly around you and get pretty close, but they won’t let be touched, unfortunately. Someone told me recently that the reason why they follow you is because they’re marking their territory. Maybe…? Their tail is really cute and they sound like those dolls that you press and emit a peeping sound.

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154683694746176/?type=2&theater

Going back to the surroundings of Hahei, another highlight of the place is Hotwater Beach. It’s a beach where, if you go 2 hours each side of low tide, you can dig a hole and make a natural hotwater pool. I couldn’t believe it till I experienced it myself. I went there with my French roomie at that time. We took a spade each from the hostel – it’s funny, because the hostel is ready to provide you with spades just for the beach – and got on our way. A local with his daughter picked us up – we hitchhiked – and dropped us off there. We had no idea how the pool thingie worked, so we got to the spot where you were supposed to dig and did so. Total FAIL, though! Apparently, it was still too early, the tide had to be lower. Luckily, the guy with his daughter decided to come back to the beach spontaneously and joined us. He showed us the right spot and the right time. We all 4 started to dig a hole and – to my surprise – the water that came out of the sand was BOILING! Impressive! Apparently the beach has 2 fissures that emit hot water. Everyone passing by saw us and started to make pools around ours. It was so cool! We mixed the cold water with the inner hot water and it felt like being in a spa. The wonders of earth! After relaxing, they dropped us back off at the hostel. Great Kiwi people! :D

Digging and building our own natural spa

Enjoying the spa

The growing “pool community”

Another big beach close by is Cooks Beach. I borrowed a bike from the hostel and biked to the place, which wasn’t the smartest idea, but indeed a great workout - it was pretty hilly, yeah. The beach itself, again, was nothing special to me, just a very long beach. However, the walk up to Shakespeare Cliff was nice and provided beautiful views of the area. There’s some history about this place, but I’m always lazy to read about it, so you can just google it yourselves and find out B-)

Shakespeare Cliff

Cooks Beach

Shakesperare Cliff

An interesting thing I saw was a sign with information about evacuation in case of tsunami. Yeah, you can tell I’ve never lived in a tropical area…

An excursion I did was to Tairua, a small town located half an hour away from Hahei. Again, I was lucky with hitchhiking and made it safe and sound both ways. As a small town, the highlight of the place was to walk up the peak of Mount Paku. Other than that, nothing very special. An interesting thing I did was to walk to the start of the track through the beach at low tide. You could see some dead animals that had got stuck and eaten up by birds. And, speaking of birds, I spotted a kereru, this time, alive.

Mount Paku from the beach at low tide

Mount Paku peak

Stingray fish

Remains of a fish

Kereru, native NZ pigeon

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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HelpXing in Hahei, Coromandel Peninsula

It’s been a while since I last updated my blog, AGAIN! Times just flies - and I admit I’m lazy! In these 2ish months, I’ve been moving around the North Island, discovering new places and wwoofing. Also, these past 3 weeks I’ve been back in Australia visiting the famous Red Centre. Amazing rock formations and tremendous heat! I will write about this trip later on, though. I’ll first retake my New Zealand adventures.

The last news you had from me is that I tried out HelpX in Thames, Coromandel, and did some tourism along the west coast of the peninsula. After that first experience, a hostel in Hahei, north of the east coast of Coromandel, got in touch with me and I wwoofed there for 2 weeks. The location of Hahei is perfect for doing trips to the places of interest on the east coast of the peninsula, so I didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity.

The hostel, Tatahi Lodge, is just beautiful! It’s the nicest and cutest place I’ve ever been to as a backpacker. The wooden touch makes it look very cosy and warm - it gets very chilly in winter! The lodge consists of a backpackers’, several motel rooms, a villa and a cottage. It’s also just 5 minutes away from the beach and the walking tracks, which gives you the chance to explore the surroundings in the afternoon, after working. The only disadvantage is the actual isolation of the place. Hahei is just a small beach spot and has no supermarket, just a general store, which is VERY expensive. The closest supermarket is located in the closest city, Whitianga, a half-an-hour drive away. So, not having a car doesn’t help.

The wwoofing team was great! It was 6 of us, which is actually a lot for the low season. It was basically more wwoofers than customers at the backpackers’, which – lucky for us – made our cleaning tasks easier and allowed us to have more privacy. It felt like a small family in a house and we kept the place immaculate! We were also lucky that the managers taking care of the hostel at that time – the owners were on holiday – were just GREAT! Such a lovely couple! They were very friendly and laid-back, which made the experience a lot more enjoyable. Making up the motel rooms reminded me of my housekeeping times in Cairns, Australia. It was the same system for making beds, etc. This time just waaay more relaxed and not soooo many rooms :D

Back to the team, it was funny that 2 of the wwoofers, a middle-aged couple from New Zealand - Janet & Bernard -, had lived on Waiheke Island for years! So we exchanged stories about the place and people there. They were lovely and treated me as their daughter; it felt like having step parents. :) A couple of times we did a dinner evening, where we all cooked something and shared it. Both times I made my delicious Spanish “tortilla de patatas” and they loved it! B-)

Farewell dinner

The hostel not being very busy – since it was low season – made the experience a bit boring, though. Basically families staying at the motels, mostly couples staying at the backpackers’ and also 4 of the wwoofers being couples didn’t help making friends, or rather, sharing the solo backpacker experience. However, I still shared some good times with my co-workers and took the chance to just relax and take it easy. “Take it as it comes”, they say.

I was very lucky during those 2 weeks that the pub next door needed someone to do some extra hours, so I worked for them and thus I was able to make some money and keep myself busy. I worked as a dish-washer and all-rounder. I had already had some experience at the pub on Waiheke, so I more or less knew how the whole thing worked. It was a lot of fun working with the team! Especially joking around with crazy English Hannah! My hands got very, very sore, though, but it was well worth it.

The Pour House

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Discovering the western coast of Coromandel Peninsula

The western coastal road reminds me a little bit of the Great Ocean Road in Australia. There are some small villages along the way and Waiomu is one of the places I biked to from Stuart’s place. It has a walking trail leading to a Kauri grove. I expected it to be a bit more interesting, though. I found that the best part was to bike there along the coast and sit at the beach.

Waiomu beach

Waiomu walking trail

Another walking trail starts in Tapu, a few km further north from Waiomu. I didn’t get to see this one, but I reckon it’s similar to the one in Waiomu. I heard there are some Water Gardens in there, but you have to pay an entrance fee. I’m skipping most of the natural places with entrance fees, especially because the winter doesn’t do any justice to them. Also, one of the negative points of travelling during the winter is that some of the walking trails are closed due to weather conditions. I haven’t been able to do The Pinnacles or the Coromandel Coastal Walk at the very top of the peninsula because of that. :(((

What i did visit was Coromandel Town, about a 50-minute drive from Thames. Since there’s no public transport around Coromandel, I hitchhiked. The peninsula seems to be pretty safe for hitchhiking. In fact, some of the locals know and take regular hitchhikers. The drive up to the town is just beautiful: on the one hand the coast itself, on the other hand, the last bit where you drive up and down green hills. The town itself isn’t the prettiest one. It’s basically one street with a few restaurants/cafes and a supermarket. Apart from that, there’s only a coastal walk to a small harbour and a lookout. A famous tourist attraction is the Driving Creek Railway, a train which takes you up to a lookout and back down. I’ve heard it’s very nice, but when I got there it was booked out.

Pa lookout

Pa lookout - harbour

Long Bay

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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First HelpX experience in Thames, Coromandel Peninsula

My first HelpX experience was at Stuart’s place, 62, from Auckland. He’s one of the weirdest men I’ve met in NZ. XD Like Germans would say: “ein ausgeflippter Typ”. Apart from teaching on call, he doesn’t do much. He’s the laziest arse I’ve ever seen. The house is a disaster – old, everything breaks down, the water system doesn’t work properly, by which I had to shower with dirty water or at his neighbour’s place, etc. It was funny to see how he’d freak out by every little thing that broke down; such a drama queen! Also, he’s the stingiest person in the world! He’d cook nice meals in the evening, but lunch consisted of canned food, eggs, some rice, cheese and crackers. This was pretty disappointing, since the agreement was 4 hours of work in exchange for accommodation AND meals. Apart from these little things, he wasn’t too bad, I still had an interesting experience.

Stuart lives in a house directly on the western coastal road of Coromandel. The location is really good, since you have the beach just in front of you and driving up and down that road is just beautiful! Also, it’s just a 10-minute drive from the closest town, Thames. Apparently, Thames is the biggest town in the peninsula (you would just laugh at that!) and has the oldest population in NZ, according to Stuart. I can tell that Coromandel in winter is just a place for elderly people and families. Only in the summer it gets busy with younger tourists. Thames has a gold-mining background history. The town centre is pretty cute, with a couple of streets with shops and restaurants and a way up to a lookout. Also important: it has Pak n Safe supermarket, the cheapest one in NZ and the hardest to find!

View of Thames from the lookout

Lookout

Thames

At Stuart’s I had my own place – a sleepout. It was pretty cute and cosy. It had been decorated by all the wwoofers he had had before. The only negative aspect was that it was very cold and I had to use a gas heater, the smell of which I sniffed and made me high XD. Also, it consisted of only a bedroom, no toilet. Oh well, at least I had my own room and the views were stunning!

Sleepout

Views from the sleepout

Stunning sunset views from the sleepout

My tasks as a wwoofer were to take care of the garden. It was my first time doing that, so I was pretty lost. Stuart showed me a little bit how to weed and trim small trees. I improvised quite a lot, though, and he seemed quite happy with my work – I guess he was just very happy not to have to do it himself! Ha, ha! The job itself wasn’t too difficult, but it was a bit physically demanding. Especially when trimming trees, I ended up with sore arms. I also got a back ache from bending when weeding. The weeding part was fun, though – I’d go crazy pulling out all those “evil plants”, like he called them. It was kind of de-stressing! The not-that-funny part was “bumping into” worms and other little insects. But I have to say that – as a city girl – I didn’t do that bad!

Me trimming a Hibiscus tree

On the last day, I made a big fire to burn all the collected “evil”. It was the most relaxing part, just standing there, controlling the fire - or rather smoke - and adding “evil”.

Me burning the “evil”

An interesting activity we did together was fishing. Just at the beach in front of his house. He had built a float - I think he called it like that - in the sea, where the fish would bite the pieces of fish in the hooks. The birds flying around the water was a sign that the fish had been “caught”. So we’d just take two paddle boards and the fishing stuff and head there. I only looked how he picked the fish and gutted it. I could never do it myself... eww!

Stuart and the fish he caught - I think a Kahauai

Smoking the fish

Most of the evening meals he prepared were basically variations of fish he caught. One night, he prepared paella with seafood. He had been shown how to cook it by other Spanish wwoofers he’d had. It looked pretty good, but it rather tasted like “arroz caldoso con pescado”. It was ok, but nothing to do with my mum’s tasty paella! :D Still, thumbs up for him!

Kiwi “paella”

Another thing we did together was to go to a bar in town to play poker! I had never played poker before in my life. Playing poker at the bar is something he does every Thursday evening. I wasn’t really interested in doing that, but he was so excited to take me to the game that I agreed to join him and I actually had fun! He was very enthusiastic about it, so he decided to teach me how to play beforehand. Two days before the game, he took out the cards and explained all the rules. To start with, he showed me all the possible card combinations and made me take a picture to remember them. He always took his wwoofers to the game, so it was all figured out like that XD.

Texas Hold’em

We practised for an hour and on Thursday we went to the bar. I must say I did pretty well for barely knowing how to play!! B-) There were 3 rounds and I made it to the end of the second one! Stuart promised to give me some more chips to play if I made it to the end of the first round. And I actually played longer than him! Ha, ha! The people who played were very nice and patient with me. I guess they are used to all the wwoofers that accompany Stuart. Unfortunately, the picture Stuart took of the game was blurry, so no evidence of me playing... :(

Apart from working every morning and doing a couple of activities together, it was pretty boring. The weather didn’t play along and I had to stay in a few days. Also, the short days in winter – getting dark at 5:30ish – and wwoofing till 12ish don’t give you a lot of time to do stuff. Despite this, I still had the chance to do a couple of excursions to Waiomu, Thames and Coromandel Town – the highlights of the western coastal side of Coromandel. Moreover, we had some interesting conversations and watched tv together, laughing at stupid TV programmes. On my last night, Stuart had a friend visiting and it was funny to hear some of his stories, like the one about his wife running away with the nanny... XD Bless him!

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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From Waiheke Island to Coromandel Peninsula

Like I said in my previous entry, I left Waiheke Island after 4 months and headed to Coromandel Peninsula, about 1,5 hours from Auckland.

One of the most beautiful ways to get there is by ferry, a 2-hour journey to Coromandel Town. However, due to bad weather conditions, it wasn’t sure that the ferry would be running. Besides, the place I was heading to, Thames, was 50 minutes away from the harbour, and I don’t have a car or a driver’s license. Bugger! Therefore, I had to leave from Auckland. I thought of hitchhiking, but starting from a big city like Auckland didn’t seem very easy or safe. So I did some research online and found a bus company which was new, modern and cheap! Everyone tells you about Intercity as the only bus company which runs around NZ. However, this new company – Manabus, which works together with Nakedbus – has really good prices and double-deck, fully equipped buses. Also, their timetables are better. The fares start from 1NZ$, depending on how busy the journeys are and where you want to go. I paid just 23 NZ$ for the trip from Auckland to Thames. NZ has a very poor public transport system, but in comparison to the Aussie one, it’s at least considerably cheap.

https://www.manabus.com

Once I arrived in Thames (/thiiiiiiimes/), like the local people pronounce it - I’ll talk about Kiwi pronunciation another time, funny stuff! - my host picked me up. As mentioned before, I found my host through HelpX. HelpX is a network, which apparently was created in NZ in 2001, where hosts search for people who may help them clean/build, etc. their place and helpers look for a place to stay and help in exchange for accomodation/food. Wwoofing is basically the same type of network, but slightly more focused on farm work. I haven’t tried the wwoofing website myself, but I’ve heard good things about it. There are a couple more websites like these, but I can’t remember their names. These two are the most used ones.

http://www.helpx.net/nz/ https://wwoof.nz/

Becoming a member of these networks is free of charge, but it won’t allow you to contact hosts, only hosts can contact you. This makes it pretty difficult to find accomodation. If you pay 20€, however, you become a premium member and are allowed to search for and contact hosts, according to your own wishes/criteria. The premium membership lasts for 2 years, so it’s well worth it!

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Change of plans!! (5)

And finally, not to forget mentioning my life at the hostel with my amazing wwoofing team and my lovely cat. Thanks for the great teamwork! :D

Me & Marylou & Magda chilling

Me & my big love Puss-Puss

Hostel people @ The Cove

My last day of cleaning! - Tom & Florencia & Flavia & me

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Change of plans!! (4)

My time working at Malones went by soooo fast! It was a lot of fun working with my beloved colleague and spending time/going out with friends I met there. One of our days off we went out in Auckland and spent an amazing evening! Also, on the day after my last day, the boss gathered the team and a few close friends at Malone’s and we had a few drinks together. Again, lots of fun!

QV bar in Auckland - Me & Sam & Dylan

On the way to Auckland by ferry - Dylan & me & Alex & Sam

My farewell party at Malone’s

With the boss - Me & Ita

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Change of plans!! (3)

One of the most beautiful places on Waiheke is Stony Batter, a historic reserve. It was of part of a counter-bombardment battery system in 1930s. It had observation posts and was supposed to engage enemy naval forces entering the Hauraki Gulf. Today, you can visit the gun emplacements, but the tunnels are currently closed. Around the place you can also find unusual rock formations. The green hills surrounded by the sea offer beautiful views. You can’t access the place by public transport, just by car. The eastern part, where Stony Batter is located, is considered private land. So most of the population of Waiheke is concentrated in the western part.

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Change of plans!! (2)

One of the coolest activities you can do on the island and over vineyards is the EcoZipline. I went there with my work colleague and my boss on an amazing, sunny day! We slid from tree to tree (3 tres in total) and then walked back up through the bush, getting explanations about trees and birds.

Sam & Ita & me

https://www.facebook.com/lauga.withdrago/videos/vb.631341175/10154660531586176/?type=2&theater

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Change of plans!! (1)

Time flies!! I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I last updated my blog! Shame, shame…

Changes!! Especially when you’re travelling, one of the things you really don’t wanna take too seriously is making plans. It doesn’t really take you anywhere, because things and situations are pretty unstable. Of course, zero planning is not the best thing either, but a bit of “go-with-the-flow” is the best plan to follow!

This is very applicable to my former plan of working on Waiheke Island through the whole winter and then starting travelling. To refresh your minds: I arrived on Waiheke at the beginning of March, started wwoofing at the hostel where I stayed and worked at the Irish pub, Malone’s. I did both things till the beginning of June. This is when I finished working at Malone’s - after 3 months - which is the maximum amount of time my visa allows me to work for one same employer. Also, after all this time working in the morning AND in the evening, I thought it’d be nice to have 1-2 weeks of holiday and then start looking for another job. Well, it turned out that the winter season hit its peak, which means that the island got DEAD. Just a few tourists and too many workers equalled no vacancies available or just part-time jobs. Not worth it for me, since I can only work another 3 months in the country and I wanna make as much money as I can. Moreover, after a few days of holiday, I had already seen most of the places of interest and nothing was new for me anymore. So, the whole situation got extremely boring and frustrating: too much free time, the island not being busy and therefore not meeting any new people, the weather turning shitty and colder, nothing new to see, not finding a job, etc. My mind was blowing up, so I had to change plans. I thought of travelling some part of South East Asia, but I wouldn’t have enough money to still travel NZ and the rest of Australia (my actual plan) after that. Also, right now it’s not the best time (concerning the weather) to travel NZ or the part of Australia that I wanna travel. After A LOT of thinking, I made up my mind and decided to keep on doing wwoofing in different places in the North Island of NZ - which is not too cold - so I can still see new places without spending tons of money. I heard about HelpX, a website where hosts and helpers can connect, so I signed up and looked for hosts. So far, I’ve found 2 hosts in Coromandel Peninsula, about 1,5 hours away from Auckland, and moved here last week. I’ll update about the experience in the next entry. Today I’d like to explain a little bit more about the time I spent on Waiheke.

Waiheke is a beautiful island with nice beaches and walking tracks and is especially well-known for its vineyards and wine tasting tours. I did a couple of wine tastings to try out the different wines and see the beauty and the views that the vineyards offer. Also, having friends working in the vineyards was awesome, because they would always bring wine to share! B-) Here are a couple of pictures of some wine tasting.

Melissa & me @ Cable Bay

Magda & me @ Stonyridge

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laugaloraexplora · 7 years

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Life on Waiheke Island

It’s been a while since I last posted on my blog. There is a good reason for it, though: I’m working!! It might sound lame, but I actually am working quite a lot of hours and have just very little time for myself. This doesn’t really bother me right now, since earning money for my purpose of travelling is my priority! I went through hard times in Australia for not being able to find a job at the beginning and this year in NZ it seems to be working out for me. Fingers crossed for further success! It’s been about a month that I arrived on Waiheke Island, Auckland:

My intention was to visit the island for a couple of days, but when arriving at the hostel I was going to spend the night at, I saw they were looking for a wwoofer. A wwoofer is a person who does a couple of hours of work at a hostel/house/farm, etc. in exchange for free accommodation. It normally involves some cleaning and tidying up the premises, but it can vary depending on the place. Some places, especially farms, might need some help with maintenance, gardening, etc. and might offer free food too. WWOOFing (World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is a very good option if you’d like to save money on accommodation and you don’t need a working holiday visa for that, you may do it as a tourist too, legally. You just need to be careful not to be exploited. The average agreement is to work for 2 hours a day in exchange for 1 free night. Some places might take advantage and ask you to do 3-4 hours of work for just 1 night. This is not fair!!

Back to my arrival on Waiheke: I got to Hekerua Lodge, the hostel I booked, and saw the ad. I talked to the manager of the hostel and she said I could take the position if I wanted to. I checked around for a few minutes, talked to some people and thought: this is actually a good opportunity to start off! I definitely needed a job apart from this, since you can’t make any money through wwoofing, but I was told that getting a job on the island was pretty easy. So, I decided to take the position and start by saving some money. The hostel is pretty central and has everything you need, including free WIFI.

Hekerua Lodge

Other advantages of wwoofing are that you get to do your laundry for free once a week, sleep in the wwoofers’ room - separately from the guest dorms - and use the staff kitchen and toilet. This makes your life more comfortable. Especially when you’re working, having to share toilets/kitchen/rooms continuously with newcomers can be exhausting and annoying. Thus, having your own “private” sphere helps a lot! Wwoofing at Hekerua Lodge takes 2 hours in the morning, from 10am-12pm, and basically involves folding fresh bed sheets, making up the beds for the new arrivals and cleaning/tidying up the guest kitchen and toilets. It’s pretty relaxed, so I cannot complain. We’re 3 wwoofers in total: 2 lovely Frenchies – Marylou and Jessica - and me. They’re very funny, cheeky girls and we get on very well. It’s fun to work and live with them!

Jessica & Laura & Marylou after wwoofing

Jessica & Marylou tyding up THEIR mess in our room

Once I started wwoofing and wasn’t spending money on accommodation, I was a bit more relaxed. It really does make a difference! Life in NZ and especially on Waiheke Island is expensive! Think about it: if you work and get an average of 500 NZD/week but spend about 200-250 NZD/week on accommodation plus around 100 NZD/week on food, you really have nothing left to save. Therefore, wwoofing and working at the same time is the best chance ever! After a few days of wwoofing, I started looking for a job. I had a chat at one of the wineries on the island, but they didn’t have enough hours at that moment and the job was as a dishwasher, which is a very hard job. In the meantime, I posted an ad about myself looking for a job on a couple of FB groups for work on Waiheke and got a message from the owner of the Irish Pub Malones. I had a chat with her on the next day and got the job straight away! I was pretty scared, since I’d never worked in a bar/pub before, but I have to say that I tried it out and really liked it! My second day was St. Patrick’s Day, so imagine what a crazy day that was for me! However, I managed to survive and it was fun! Now, I’ve been working at the pub for almost 3 weeks. I get 35-40 hours/week, the pub is just 10 minutes away by foot from the hostel and it’s always evening shifts, which works out perfectly with the morning wwoofing. It’s fun to work there and I’ve learnt a lot about drinks, especially beer, taking into account that I don’t drink beer at all! The people who come to the pub are basically locals and backpackers who live on the island, so you know most of them. Mondays are my day off – we close the pub – and otherwise the busiest days are Thursday to Sunday. We normally have DJs playing, sometimes live bands, or just music from a jukebox, pool days, happy-hour times, etc. I personally like Sundays, because we do “Latin night”. There are lots of Argentinians living on Waiheke, so we always have an Argentinian DJ playing reggaeton on Sunday. My colleague is an amazing guy and we get on very well, laugh a lot and it’s fun and comfortable to work with him! Also, a few of the guys who used to work there come by often and help us out and entertain us. These cheeky boys always make my day (even if they sometimes misbehave)!

Dylan & Sam & Kane & Laura & Alex @ Malones

This is basically what’s going on in my life right now. A “normal” day involves waking up at around 9 am, wwoofing from 10-12, having a nap, going to work in the evening, coming back to the hostel early in the morning and sleeping. It might sound boring, but every day is different, especially at the pub. I really am having fun even though I basically just work! My plan, for now, is to do this for about 6 months, the maximum I can work in NZ, and then travel. Let’s see how it goes!

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