A Special Christmas Celebration

25 Dec 2012

Santa Claus, big bag of presents, christmas tree, white snow, choral song are what I imagine Christmas to have. In Malaysia, we do celebrate Christmas, regardless if we are Christians. It is a special day to do gift exchange and have a sumptuous dinner such as steak, salmon and turkey in restaurant on the eve with your beloved ones. Of course, Christmas is so meaningful to us because it is a holiday.

I always wonder how it is celebrated in Christian countries. Some say that it is like the Chinese New Year, when all family members are gathered at home to have a warm reunion dinner and consequently, the streets and the city should be silent. Perhaps this was how "Silent Night" was named. But Christmas eve is never a dull night to us. Shopping malls get crowded with people who gathered together and count down for the midnight. Fire crackers always follow after that. 

While I was in New Zealand, I got to know that some people prefer to celebrate the Christmas on eve, while some other may prefer to have it on the day. Onuku Farm Hostel decided to have the pot luck with guests on the Christmas evening. I remember it was full house on that day. Together with staff, there should be more than 50 people who took part in the pot luck celebration. Every one or two person(s) brought a dish, end up we had a full table of dish. There were crayfish, paua (abolone) patties, ham, salad, mix vegetables, meat balls, crepe, muffins, cakes, ice cream and etc.

Fresh crayfish contributed by the host's son, also a diver

 

pic: Eloise from french, signature dish: Crepe

The gift exchanged happened after the dinner. Secret Santa game was played among we crew members. I've got a bracelet made of paua shell.

pic: Kiwi bird from Gemma

pic: All presents for Tom and Gemma from friends

Swimming near the Pacific Ocean

25 December 2012

There were always lots of outdoor activities can be done when spending time in Onuku Farm Hostel, from walking tracks, catching mussels, fishing, swimming to diving. Sometimes, I went out to the Akaroa harbour with fellow friends on Graham's small boat. 

 

Well, it is not really small. It can take 5-6 passengers along with diving gears and few bags of our gain.  We drove the boat further out from Akaroa harbour, closed to the South Pacific Ocean. I enjoyed sitting on the bouncing boat and the cool wind blown on my face. 

They did diving while I did swimming or fishing. I had never tried free diving once. Though it was summer, the water temperature can be as low as 10 degree celcius, depending on the weather and the water depth. On a hot day, we were lucky to have about 15 degree celcius water temperature.

The tight wet suit played an important role, but it still can't stopped the water from flowing in. I couldn't spend more than 15 minutes in the water. It was a total unique swimming experience. Wearing long tight wet suit, swimming in the border-less "pool" which was so so near to the pacific ocean, and when the temperature was only 15 degree celcius. Have you ever had this experience? 

It was a lot easier to fish in the harbour. There were always fishes coming around and got caught by our fish hooks every few minutes.

What I fished were normally small. My friends caught variety of seafood from the diving, such as abolone, crayfish, moki, and butterfish. I had a lot of seafood during the three months in Onuku Farm Hostel. Thank you guys.

Except for fishing and swimming, I help keeping an eye on the divers to make sure they returned before their oxygen tanks were used up (about 45 minutes). If they didn't return,  I would need to locate their position and drive to them. I was taught the simple driving skills. But I had not use them. 

Sheep Shearing

19 December 2011

'Baa baa bass' white sheep and the barking dog had waken me up early in the morning. Onuku Farm Hostel no longer has a working farm and as I knew almost all the sheep were put far from the hostel. I wondered where the noise came from. I woke up and walked to the shed. I was surprised to see herd of sheep. Soon I found out that they were from the Akaroa town, would be sheared in the shed here. 

I am someone who is terribly afraid of injection. I saw their fear, their worry from their face and body. I felt their emotion while they were waiting for their turn, as if I was waiting for my injection. 

Each of them was tagged with different color label on one of their ears. The special design of the wooden fence with a little door allowed the farmer to put the same category of sheep into the same area. It worked in this way. The sheep came in one row, one after another. The farmer stood near the door. The sheep with blue label were place on the right section and so the door were opened to allow them to move in. Otherwise, the door was closed so that they could only move straight forward into another section. They ran pretty fast. Sharp eyes to identify the label and quick hands to open/close the door were mandatory. 

pic: They were waiting painfully for their turn in the shed

Machine shears were used to remove the woollen fleece near their buttock, for the hygiene purpose. Sometimes, they struggled and got injured by the shears. 

The shed was full of stinking fleece by now. The day ended with the cleaning.

vid: Here is a video of the shearing process

原来快到了

19 December 2011

经理打算到基督城扫货，问我有没有什么亚洲食品需要买。我想了一想，最后还是拒绝了。我告诉她我就快回国了，晚餐基本上都很少煮，怕来不及吃完。她讽刺的笑我，还有很长的时间。两秒后，她又很惊讶的说，其实一月也就快到了。

我本来也以为我会不舍得离开这个国家。但是我现在确实很期待回家。可能在这里已经待太久，最近又没有工作，闷得发烧。现在想的都是回去后庆祝新年，看看家人，吃一些想吃的食物。

其实也没什么特别食物想吃。只想到鱼头米，油条，瓦煲老鼠粉，兰姐非洲鱼，南乳斋菜，点心还有妈妈的酿豆腐。

Big dinner meal every night

18 December 2011

I am so glad that I am finally back to Onuku Farm Hostel. Things are different. There are new faces, more flowers, newly made up reception and etc. The biggest difference is that we now take turn to cook dinner for about 8 to 10 people. This includes staff and some of the guests who stay here for long term. The manager told me that it started with a joke. One of the staff cooked a big portion of meal one day and since then everyone started to cook on different days.

I think it is also good to keep the kitchens less occupied so that the guests have more space when they cook.

Since the first night, we had home made lasagna, then chicken masala, devil's sausages, paua patties and crayfish. I cooked cheese baked rice then and the next day someone made pizza and crepe. There are too many to list all here. Everyone is trying hard to think of something nice and special to cook. After two weeks, most of us started to scratch our head. We had run out of idea of what to cook.

Towards the End of The Journey

8 September 2011

It was a special day. It was a day when I have sold my only asset in New Zealand. It was also a day when I closed my tax account and I could no longer work in New Zealand unless I am paid in cash.

There is still about one month before I go back to Malaysia. However, it seems like there could hardly be any more interesting chapter in my journey and hence I have decided to sell my car and close the tax account. For the rest of my time in New Zealand, I would be working for accommodation in Onuku Farm Hostel until the last two days in New Zealand. I am glad that I can spend my last month in my most memorable and favorite place.

While I did the car ownership transfer with a young boy from Germany today, it brought me back all the memories I had during my first week in New Zealand. I showed him how to do the ownership transfer like how the previous owner had shown me. The previous owner was a German too. Life is like a cycle.

I saw his uncertainties on his face, not knowing where to go and what to do next. Nevertheless, I could still see his passion and excitement burning in his body. This was exactly what I have gone through.

And now, I have almost reached the end point, which was also the starting point. I am now like back to what I was at the beginning of the journey. I came here with 1500 dollars, and I will be bringing back a similar amount back to Malaysia. I didn't really earn much. But at least I have not spent a cent from my initial fund throughout my 9-month journey and I have earned a full bag of great experience.

I couldn't wait to share my experience with my beloved friends and family in Malaysia. I couldn't wait to see the new faces added to my family, Nigel and Haygen. Just another 40 more days to go.....

The Hot Summer Christmas Parade

4 December 2011

Christmas is coming!!!! Although it is the beginning of December, the town has been filled with Christmas atmosphere. I am so excited as it would be my first Christmas celebration in a western country. Unfortunately, the Christmas would be in the summer season, without the snow.

Today's afternoon, there was a Christmas parade held in Riccarton, Christchurch. Despite the hot weather and strong sunshine, I went for the parade and joined the joy. It was crowded, but it was not too bad if compared with the big celebrations in Malaysia.

To my surprise, there were many different races taking part in the parade, including Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese, Philippians and Thailands. I enjoyed the parade so much, but it was really painful to stand under the sun for hours.

New Brighton and the Pier

3 December 2011

I could not work any longer in LCL and decided to leave without informing the manager  as we could not fulfil the commitment to work for two weeks. I know it was bad. The manager was mad and sent me a couple of threatening messages but Gemma comforted me and convinced that blacklisting me would not work as I didnt provide my real name. She even welcomed me to work with her again at Onuku Farm Hostel. 

Hence I am here in Christchuch now to sell my car. It means I am pretty sure that Onuku will be my last stop till I get back to my home country. I get to know Eric and Kelvin are also in Christchurch so we arranged a trip to New Brighton.

All I have heard about New Brighton were the beach, the pier and the library. The 300 metres pier was built in 1990s, behind the library and it goes all the way out to the sea.

pic: It is now summer. It is getting more people going out to the sea with their wet suits

pic: There were also people catching crabs with the chicken bones as the bait. 

The library is situated in such a strategic location, which allows the people to read while looking out to the sea through the big windows.