Moving on...
Trip Start
Feb 17, 2005
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30
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Trip End
Feb 27, 2006
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Mount Maunganui, New Zealand
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Since my last update, I continued working at the packhouse for another week or so, despite threatening to quit on a number of occasions! By the time I did finish last tuesday, I was more than ready for some time off. Often, the packhouse would be short staffed, and in such circumstances, common sense indicates that the speed should be turned down. However, common sense and the packhouse managers go together like chalk and cheese, and often the speed was actually turned up! A particularly amusing incident occurred when I was running around doing the work of 3 people, only to be told by the manager to make sure the stickers on the boxes were completely straight...I could have screamed!
Despite this whinging, I look back fondly at my time at the packhouse (now it's over!). I certainly met so many friendly people, and it was fun working with my Japanese friends, Kazu and Shinya. They were great workers, and we often helped eachother out when it became hectic! On the rare occasion when it was quiet, I spoke to Kazu about life in Japan, and I am seriously considering going there in the not too distant future, maybe to do some English teaching. After work, at 4am in the morning, we would go to the bakery then have a few beers in the kitchen (or in their case, white wine!). Their capacity for drink wasn't the greatest, often resulting in a declaration of drunkenness after a single glass! One day it was after 8am when we got to bed!
My personal taxi driver to the packhouse was Yumi, one of the sweetest girls I have ever met. I enjoyed talking to her at break times, as she spoke very good English. Outside of work, we hung around together too, going to the cinema on a couple of occasions to see The Interpretor and her favourite, Madagascar! I wound her up about eating all the popcorn, and I let her use my library card so she didn't have to pay the $30 to join! I was sad to see her go yesterday, but she is going to be in Queenstown at the end of July and so I want to make sure that I'll be there too. I definitely want to stay in touch with her.
My plan was to work at the packhouse until the end (Friday), but when I met an English guy called John on Wednesday afternoon, I decided enough was enough. He was going to the pub that night to watch the Lions game against Wellington, complete with face paint and flag! I couldn't let him go on his own, and so I used some of the old face paint myself and we set off to the Irish Bar at about 6pm. A few friendly "All Blacks" taunts came our way en route, but the Kiwis love their rugby and a number of them came up to us after the game to discuss the performance. The Lions won 23-6, but they haven't been overly impressive on the tour so far, and they'll need to improve ahead of the First Test next Saturday.
So, tomorrow I'll make my way down to Wellington for 3 nights, and my ferry to Picton is booked for Wednesday morning. I am very excited to be going on my travels again, even though I haven't saved as much money as I'd have liked. Having said that, I want to spend at least 4 weeks travelling down the wext coast before I even think about getting another job. Some of the things on my 'to do' list include the glacier climbs, lots of tramping (or walking as it is usually known!), and some kind of bungy variation in Queenstown.
Also in my thoughts is the fact that my 2 favourite bands are playing Australia's East Coast in the coming months. Teenage Fanclub do a few shows in August, and Oasis do a few in November/December. I'm thinking about going to see Teenage Fanclub in Brisbane and Oasis in Melbourne, thus leaving me free to explore Sydney and the surrounding areas on my journey home in 2006.
There is a lot to think about, but right now everything is rosey on both sides of the world!
