Week 15: Savouring the last few moments in Wanaka

Hello there, it’s Tuesday evening and here I am sitting in the TV room of the beautiful YHA hostel at Lake Tekapo.

I didn’t get to post my weekly update on Monday night this time as I’m not staying at ‘home’ right now; but last night was spent in a lovely AirBnB house in Oamaru.

Quite a bit of things happen in this past week and my plans are somewhat changing as always. But.. nothing is new right?

On Tuesday, I went to Cromwell to walk-in to every single orchard/fruit stall that I could find. It was something I couldn’t imagine myself doing as I’m usually not so thick skin but there wasn’t much of a choice cause I wasn’t receiving much positive response online. The first farm I drove into, it was really small and probably it was the owner’s house. She came out of her door looking puzzled and I introduced myself and told her I was trying my luck to get a job by doing walk-ins. She said that she has finished hiring for the season and that I should be trying my luck with the larger companies. Alright, first rejection.

Second one, it was a large company and I originally interviewed for a position in the retail shop before I came. This larger company rejected my application for cherry packhouse as my unextended visa was expiring in December and the cherry season lasts till January. The staff that I spoke to tell me that for any vacancies, it will be listed on the website. Anyway so basically it was a wasted trip.

Third company, it was a large company and I was trying my luck and.. at the door of the employment office, they sticked a signage which says that application will begin online on this date and that walk in was not necessary. I went to the office and asked if there’s any other jobs apart from that and they rejected me politely.

Fourth company, it was a fruit stall (no crowd at all) and the person at the counter gave me a form to fill up. I finally filled up one form and attached a CV which I printed from the library ($2.60 for 8 pieces including computer usage). Haven’t heard from them and it has been a week. Oh wells.

I drove into a vineyard but it was sadly closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and.. finally I went to the lavender farm at Wanaka who had emailed me to walk-in in October; back in August. Sadly, they said that they have already lined up interviews for the gardener position; plus it wasn’t a job that could extend the visa as it was not registered as an agriculture business.

With that, I ended my hopes of finding a job in Wanaka. I had to leave.. or risk going back to SG on Christmas Eve.

Anyway on Wednesday, I went up to the ski fields for my early shift and.. went down again cause the resort was closed due to snow, low visibility and strong winds. Yep, spend 2 hours going up the mountain, get paid for 2 hours and down I go. What to do? This was the sacrifice I had to paid for having a cool job. Fancy having two closed days in just four weeks of my work. Damn but life goes on.

So for the first time ever in NZ, I slept afternoon nap. It was a short nap but felt pretty amazing to be able to feel so slack. Did a bit of baking and went to some lake for some sightseeing. Continued with cooking dinner and it was a pretty chill night.

As there was closure on Wednesday, Thursday was pretty crowded and Friday was slow. I even had time to ski on Thursday and Friday. Haven’t skied for two weeks and my turns became horrible. No idea what went wrong but I didn’t get any lessons this time. It may be my last day on the snow this Sunday as the weather this week looks so crappy that I don’t know if I will get a chance this week.

Also this week, I had chance to dine out at my friend’s place and had the chance to enjoy dinner in a big group. Ever since I left Christchurch, I haven’t had much chances to have a long and fruitful dinner. Would really miss these days in future and not sure if I will be able to find lovely friends in the next chapter.

Anyway, one happy thing was that I finally got offered a job in fruit thinning one week after my ski field end. I’m slightly afraid of the job as it is physical, outdoor and also requiring to climb ladders. To be honest, I’m prepared to expect the worse and just praying that I can survive the three weeks. I think my job in zealandia should prepare me well for it but we will never know. Let’s see; come what may.

(Between just now and when I’m writing it now, we went out to have dinner at a Japanese restaurant plus played card game and went to stargaze at the famous chapel. Sadly, it was like 80% clouds so we can’t get much nice photos; but we did had a lot of fun.)

Anyway, so I’m gonna have to move cities (or perhaps gowns) again. I’m pretty used to it by now and from my current job to my next job, I requested for a week’s break but oh wells, I haven’t firm up any of my plans yet. I’m still thinking if I should travel alone or forfeit the perks or try harder to find company to share the driving and fuel. It’s so amazing how we do minimal planning and my life is filled with uncertainty almost all the time.

Oh, and last week we had to say goodbye to another couple. Didn’t know them for a long time but there were still happy memories together. I’m getting used to this and this coming weekend I’ll have to say farewell to my entire team and.. move on.

I shall summarize the road trip in the next entry as.. it’s better to talk about it as a whole. I’m staring to re-love traveling in big groups. Hope I don’t get too comfortable with it as I have to spend most of my time alone anyway.

Time really flies and I’m starting to miss this life before it even happen.

I guess that’s all for this week and it’s amazing how I type this on my phone and right now I’m lying on a double-decker bunk bed falling asleep the moment I put my phone down. It’s been a while since I have to sleep on top but the bed is pretty comfortable.

Cheers to a happy last day of work this weekend.