Just passed my 2-month mark yesterday and I need to congratulate myself for lasting that long here and there are still many more months to come!
(My memory is failing that I need to rely on my IG stories to recall what I did the past week)
For the first time ever, we had no work scheduled for us on a ‘random’ thursday. Not sure if they over-hire or the peak season came late but.. yep we had no work and no pay for one day; and we ended up spending money (what else could we do?). We went to the casino and took part in their free bingo game with.. majority of the crowd being senior citizens above 60. I was surprised at their enthusiasm and their fast listening and there were times I couldn’t even catch up with the numbers calling. Sadly, I didn’t win anything (not even close to anything) but it was a pretty entertaining time-waster.
The highlight of it all would be my snowboarding experience on Saturday.
We were thankful for the weather – it was sunny with low winds – totally perfect for a day out at the ski resort and well, it meant that there were huge crowds as well. I kind of overheard a staff saying that the visitor count crossed 1,900 as at 9am in the morning.
Once again, it was a big group outing – with 9 of us in 2 cars; heading to Methven, the town which was nearest to Mt Hutt (the most popular and nearest ski resort from Christchurch). From the pick-up location at i-site, we boarded a bus ($25; return trip) which brought us up to the resort (approx 30 mins ride). To be honest, I don’t recommend driving all the way up unless you’re a really good driver and you have a good 4 wheel drive car. The terrain up is really steep, winding and it’s mud/rocky terrain. Should there be snow, snow chains will be required plus the parking up there is pretty limited. If you are late, you may have to park at the lower carpark and transfer to their shuttle bus to get up. We took the 7:45am bus and we reached the resort at about 8:30am. The bus had to go rounds around the various accommodation before heading up to the mountain.
TIPS TO SAVE MONEY
If you’re coming from Christchurch, you can rent your ski clothes and equipment from shops like Snowmania. We paid $12 for waterproof pants, $8 for helmet and $5 for goggles. If you’re renting from Mt Hutt directly, it will cost $30 for either pants or jacket; $39 for a set and $12 for helmet rental. They do not provide goggles rental here.
As it was our first time, we opted for the beginners package which included equipment rental (snow board + shoes) and 2 lessons (morning + afternoon).
We have already collected our ski pass card and lessons voucher at the i-site at Methven, which means that we can skip the queue at the mountain. After alighting the bus, we went to the rental area and collected our shoes. Oh gawd, the shoes are bloody tight. It took me quite a while before I manage to put them on and I didn’t take it off until the end. After the shoes, we collected our snowboard and walked up to the snow floor; looking really cool.
Conclusion: I suck at snowboarding and I have 0 sense of balancing. Nevertheless, I had a fun time, even though I was falling most of the time. I was very thankful that I had amazing instructors – Becky and Scott – who probably had a hard time trying to get me up each time I fall.
As I type, my muscles are aching – from my neck to my shoulder to my thighs to my knees. Sometimes I feel that age is catching up on me and my body is breaking apart. Oh wells, but the blessing is that I didn’t suffer from any severe physical damage.
Random thoughts
I’ve been spacing out quite a bit at work these days cause there’s quite a bit of repetitive brainless jobs. Many thoughts run through my mind and one of it was really about what I plan to do in the future. I’ve been speaking with other WHV-vers and most of them say that they do not want to return to their previous job/industry and that’s the reason why they are on a working holiday right now. This serves as kind of a transition phase where they figure out their next steps in life. As of now, I still have no plans about my future and I’ll just see how things go when the time comes.
I’ve to figure out if it is worth it to do the 3-month extension. Going for the Australia Working Holiday experience is pretty tempting too but I’m not sure if spending 2 years away from the workforce is too harsh on my resume. At the same time, I’ve heard that there’s working holiday in Canada as well – but it seems pretty far for now.
It’s so tempting to start planning for my 2020 vacations right now by securing cheap and discounted ticket but then a part of me wants to keep all my options open as anything can happen. Oh crap, I have to attend 3 weddings next year.
Anyway, before I left for my trip, one of my cousin asked if I wanted to do this for some ‘soul-searching’ or something as she had a friend who commented that you can never find it or something. I thought further about it and I realised that 9 weeks on, I still haven’t thought of my purpose for this career break. Was I trying to seek for answers or anything? I really did come over without any expectations and is this reason to shallow to be legit?
With regards to my potential relocation plan I have shared last week, I have yet to receive a single reply yet. Not sure if I’ll be ready to leave should it really happen but I guess I should get used to being on the move. The thought of moving out from such a comfortable place scares me but then again, everyone is gonna leave sooner or later.
(I wrote this post with a lot of distraction as I was talking with my room mate so haha the thoughts are once again left flying all over.)
It’s 11pm right now and way beyond my sleep timing. Not looking forward to work tomorrow as I’m gonna be doing a boring standing job but oh wells, at least I get the money.
See you next week !
*Yawns and eyes are closing*
You are pretty brave to try the snowboarding. It looks like a young person’s sport to me. Take care of yourself. Here’s hoping you have an amazing dream telling you where to go! (I’ve been waiting for one of them all my life too… :-))