Greetings from Wanaka~
I have finally shifted out of Christchurch, the first city of my WHV adventure and a city I felt too comfortable to leave. I had a good 2.5 months in Christchurch – staying across 3 houses. This move from east to west had been something I had planned for in my second week but the plans got derailed after I did not get the job offer in Cromwell. Better late than never, I am now.. living in a really quiet and peaceful town; it’s not even a city.
The pace of life will only get slower (and slower..) for me.
Throwback to my last week of life in Christchurch..
It was my last working week in the plant nursery. I know I promised to write a post on it and I’ll try my best to upload it within this week before I procrastinate further. It should be able to give you an insight of what (hard)work is like when you’re working with plants. Guess what, from tomorrow onwards I’ll be back interacting with humans. Haven’t done it in a while.
To my somewhat surprise, I didn’t exactly feel sad on my last day. I guess the time spent was too short and perhaps I knew that this quitting emotion(s) is going to happen a few more times this trip. As a result, I didn’t feel sad at all; just like an intern. No idea if I would ever meet these people again but I’m still glad for the happy memories. On my final day, I also had a go with ‘piece-rate’ which means that you get to earn more if you’re fast and if my calculations didn’t fail me, I only earned $1 more than minimum wage for the whole day. Goodbye squats, goodbye back pending and neck sore; I will be working out on my other muscles in my next job.
The hardest thing to let go of it all was.. my housemates. I had such an enjoyable 1.5 months with them and I really didn’t mind staying longer in Christchurch if I didn’t get my current job. Everyone is so nice and it makes lazing in enjoyable. For our last few nights, me and my room mates (3 of us) talked a lot and slept really late. For my last night, I think I slept at 2:30am? It’s amazing how they made sharing room so comfortable. I have never shared room with anyone in a long while and with them, it was so easy and comfortable. I’ll always remember the ‘sudden attacks’ that happened to me twice while I was drying my hair. I was totally caught by surprise and I’m not someone that gets shocked easily. I’ll probably still have a chance to meet a couple of them and I hope that fate will let us stay together again?
Packing up was so difficult. I had so many things and accepted many donations (like the pillow). As I had a car, all I had to do was to dump everything in. It was so nice of them to wake up on a Saturday morning to send me off. Even though I told them I did not need any help with moving my stuff, they helped me anyway and suddenly all my stuff was packed into my car and they stood outside to watch me drive away. I didn’t cry, well I don’t usually cry but it was a bittersweet feeling to drive away, unaware of what comes next.
I embarked on the great move. It was a good 400+km drive on Saturday to Tekapo + return trip to Tasman Glacier.. This was it, the longest drive I’ve ever done my whole life. My fuel was dropping so quickly that I had to pump it up the following day. The trip was kind of special as my second friend over here in NZ offered to accompany me, even though she has already visited Tekapo a few times. We stopped by Fairlie to eat the delicious pies, then went over to Lake Pukaki to eat the salmon sashimi ($38 for 500grams) which was so worth it but a bit too filling for 2 of us.
Next, we proceeded with a drive to Tasman Glacier and trekked up to see the blue lakes and glacier view points. It’s a little sad that the blue lake wasn’t blue anymore but I guess it’s all part of global warming. After that, it was a long drive back to Lake Tekapo, where we checked into YHA (new and clean hostel, $40/night).
The following day, we headed up to Mount John for breakfast (roads only open at 10am). It was a pretty chilly Sunday and the weather wasn’t looking too good as it was too cloudy. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the drive and all was good. After lunch at Kohan restaurant (Japanese) where I had a bowl of salmon don, it was time for me to set off my for my solo road trip drive to Wanaka. It was a 2 hours 20 mins drive and the roads were long and occasionally winding. I was pretty thankful to see the snow mountains when I drove into Wanaka at the end of my journey. This is the city where I’m gonna spend my next 6 or more weeks.
Moving on, I’m still having mixed feelings about my current accommodation. Wouldn’t say I’m pretty happy or unhappy with it but I’m still hoping to find somewhere with a cheaper rental. Let’s see.. I don’t exactly have much luck with houses or perhaps the problem is with me.
Starting work tomorrow. Wish me all the best. No idea if I can make myself fall in love with snowboarding given that I suck so badly at it. That’s it for now. See you next week!