Job Hunting

27 Jun 2011

In the early morning, we went to Talleys to submit application form. Unfortunately we were asked to wait for call. At night, we met another two ex-housemates coming here to look for work in Talleys. This town is full of our friends now. I am very happy staying here as there is a group of Asian friends.

28 Jun 2011

We heard from our friends that there are a few new staff going into Talleys each day but we do not know why we are not one of them. We decided to go to Talleys tomorrow morning again to try our luck.

We are spending money each day and the largest portion goes to the hostel rental. We couldn't survive long if the situation continued to be the same. We offered ourselves to the owner to clean her hostel in order to exchange for free accommodation. Unfortunately she only needed one person to clean the kitchen. It was hard to pick one among ourselves to do the work. Everyone wanted to do it to save the rental.

I finally proposed to the owner that all of us will take turn to do the work but she only needs to exchange for one free accommodation. She accepted our proposal surprisingly.

We actually know that she doesn't need people to do the work. She is trying to help us. Thank her so much.

29 Jun 2011

We knew that even we went to Talleys, we would only be asked to wait again. Still, we didnt give up and walked in to the employement office. As expected, we heard the same answer. We will give ourselves one more week to wait for the vacancy before we have the next plan.

1 July 2011

As what have been told, we went to the employment office again today. We knew that many other backpackers will be going to grab the opportunity today as well and consequently we had to reach there as early as we could.

Instead of four together, we walked in two by two. The reason was because if they have no intention to hire four new staff at one time and if they know four of us are travelling together, they may not give the offer to us.

The strategy worked. The first two of us were asked to wait for their call in the afternoon on the same day. The other two and the rest of my friends were asked to wait till Monday. Obviously it showed that they did not need that many people.

In the afternoon, we were happy to receive a call informing four of us to start working on next Monday. Hurray!!! We were happy also to see our beloved friend, Kelvin coming to this town and join us together.

Picton and Blenheim

23 June 2011

We will be reaching in south island in the morning but we had yet obtained any available accommodation in Blenheim. Through i-site, we tried to book for a room at Leeways and Copperbeach BBH but unfortunately we were told no booking is allowed. We were asked to walk in and the room will be given on first come first serve basis. The i-site officer was so shocked to hear such policy. He even apologized on behalf of his country for this such poor hospitality. We finally made the decision to stay in the highly rated BBH in picton called Tombstone, opposite of a cemetery. There is no doubt that it is rated 95%. There are free spa, pool, and breakfast.

pic: Feroz Benzema,a migrant from Bangladesh who has just finished his degree in IT

Without waiting long after checking in, we drove to Blenheim to look for work and accommodation. In Koanaui BBH, we were so happy to meet someone we miss again. They were our housemates, Joyce and Sook Peng. It seemed like people are moving down to south island and I cant wait to meet more friends soon.

24 June 2011

We received txt from sook peng telling us that they are employed by Talleys in Westport. Few hours later, we received another txt from King saying the same statement. I think it is time for us to grab the vacancy instead of trying some pruning and wrapping work in vineyard. We will be leaving to Westport on sunday and hopefully we can get the offer.

Before we left, we went for Green Charlotte River view during the Snout Walk. It was a cloudy day and I didn't take many nice photos.

25 June 2011

We moved to Blenheim and stayed one night at Koanui BBH. This was our first time not having a feeling to cook breakfast in a bbh due to the poor cleanliness in the kitchen. The dishes were never cleaned. This was also our first time not having an intension to take photos of the hostel's surrounding. The only place we visited here was the Whiter Hill Farm Park.

26 June 2011

The next morning, we went to the lookout point at Picton for the Green Charlotte River view and this time the view was stunning.

We then headed to Westport. At a petrol station, we met Joyce and his fellow friends again and we in three cars were all on the same way going to westport until we reached the beautiful Lake Rotoiti. The view was awesome. Soon, we reached another lake called lake nelson (rotoroa) where we got to see a mountain with snowy peak.

pic: Lake Rotoiti

pic: Lake Nelson

After we hours, we finally arrived the nice TripInn hostel in Westport. It is a 150-year-old antique building which looks more like a palace.

Walking around the windy city, Wellington

22 June 2011

We made a full day walk around the city in Wellington today. It is a city full of working ladies and men walking on the streets and crossing the road. They are wearing black coats, boots, and high heels. This city is so different than the outskirt town we have been staying previously. It is a busy hustle city with limited parking space. This was also our first time having to pay 11.50 dollars for one day parking when we stay in a bbh in New Zealand as the car park is not provided.

We went to Te Papa Museum as we heard that it could not be missed. To me, it was nothing much special except for the large colossal squid.

We then went to see a few historic buildings such as the parliament and cathedral. At a traffic light when we were crossing the road, we met our ex-colleague (lovely couple from Germany and French) in Satara. They were the closest friends I met in Satara. They were the ones i always made complaints about the supervisors.

pic: The parliament

pic: The railway station

Stepping into the capital city, Wellington

21 June 2011

After our last half working day in apple packhouse, we drove for 4.5 hours from Hastings to Wellington. It was much faster than we expected but unfortunately we were lost few times in this big city. We were like in the Hong Kong city center. We had troubles looking at the complicated map with small street names on it. There were too many one way streets and we always got lost easily when we turned into the wrong streets. We took about an hour to reach the backpacker. At night, we met our japanese housemate, Richo. Can you imagine? New Zealand is such a big country and Wellington is such as big city but we can meet someone we know in a restaurant.

Apple Packing

16 June 2011

We had our first apple packing today. Unlike working in a kiwi packhouse, we did not have to wear apron and disposable cap. We did the grading, packing, and stacking in one line. When the machine worked fast, we could not cope with the speed at all and this was why 3/4 people were assigned in a line helping to do the grading and stacking.

The supervisors were not strict. They even told us not to grade if the machine was fast. Their management was weird. They can just ask us to leave our position and helped others in the busier line even though we were the only one doing all the work in our line. When we went back to our own line, all we see was a table full of apples waiting to be graded and packed. There was definitely someone else who can be grabbed to give assistance but not those who was working alone in a line like me. I just do not know why I was always the one who was asked to help others!!!! Was that because my performance was too good, or too poor?

A1 Plus BBH at Hastings

14 June 2011

We drove for 6 hours from Whakatane and we finally reached Hastings for a 2-night break before we moved down to south island. We chose A1 plus backpackers as they claim that they could help us find job. We did not put much expectation as we knew that the apple season has ended. To our surprise, we were told there were a few days of apple packing. We accepted the offer without thinking much. It was good to earn some fast cash before we travel down to south island.

Again, it is a really nice backpackers. There were not many people and it was queit. The hall looks nice and the room is spacious. Heater and extra blanket are provided. But, there is only one functional electrical switch in the room and it stops every one hour. It will not work until you press a button to start the timer again. The biggest problem with this switch is that you have no other switch to put own electrical converter when you plug on the heater. Consequently, heater and laptops can never be used concurrently.

There are too many sensors in the backpackers. There is smoke sensor in the kitchen and heat sensors across other places including the bathroom. We have to make sure the alarm is not activated due to the cooking or else we will be fined 50 dollars. It could be stressful to stay here.

There is a notice saying that we can only have maximum 10 minutes for shower. It is definitely not enough as we still need to mop the floor after the shower. Anyway, we are so far not warned about this issue.

There is a tall guy called Lee from UK who has been staying in the house for quite some time. Hence, he has been treated as the leader of the house all the while.

Windsor BBH at Whakatane

13 June 2011

We stayed in Windsor BBH as recommended by i-site and it is really really nice. We stayed in a private room for 4 persons with own bathroom and television. It is only 22NZD per person. The backpacker was very quiet as there were not many people. I felt like we could fully occupy every single corner. I especially like the pool table in the hall. It was only 1NZD per game and thus I played crazily for a few games.