let's see where was i....

it's been a while, but i'm from now on able to go online for free, so i thought that was a nice opportunity to finally update my blog. i'm staying at a hostel two minutes from the gorgeous beach in paihia, a small touristy town about 4,5 hours north from auckland. a lot has happened since my last blog, so let me start where i ended last time...

first of all some pics from auckland:

some random stuff


nz signs in souvernir shop, the skytower and creepy santa as seen from my window


all in auckland domain, a giant park near the center of the city


clare, mau and giles arrived in auckland after spending some days with my dad and jade in singapore. they couldn't fly out of bangkok, so singapore was the easiest way to auckland. because of a screw up at the reception we stayed in a family room for two nights, which meant our own bathroom and a tv in the room! after that i started housekeeping for free accommodation and was transferred to the worst room in the hostel, noooo!! the air con was broken and my room had no windows :S luckily i shared it with tom, sweetest guy ever. i met more people who were also housekeepers and ended up in a different room a few weeks later with vivien from germany and kay from the uk, loads of fun! so the work was really easy, you have to work fifteen hours a week and get free accommodation. and it's just changing beds, bit of hoovering, cleaning up the kitchen, lalala. in my spare time i watched loads of movies in the tv room, looked around for jobs, worked occasionally at the nightclub, chilled with loads of other longtermers and hung out at the gay musketeer's place, kate nico and gandy's appartment, the gayest place on earth!


jagerbombs!!!


at globe bar, in the basement of the hostel


luke, kem and chris at the smoking spot outside of the hostel, where i spent most of my time, me and ofir and me luke and tom

clare and mau left to see clare's mom for a while and i spent my christmas there enjoying the bbq, sunshine, gorgeous scenery and clare's family's hospitality. it was so weird to walk around in a t-shirt and shorts for christmas...


giles actually took the one with the horse, and the right one shows the view from the backyard


me and clare in the car, we had a bathroom/drink and ciggie break in a tiny town on the way to clare's mom

PRESENTS!!!!

FOOD!!!!



grace (clare's sister) playing piano, drinks and cuddles

views from frontyard, how nice is this!

unfortunately i had the most boring newyears of my life, working my ass off at the nightclub and only making eighty dollars, what a waste! it really sucks to start all the way at the bottom of the ladder again workwise, since i worked my way up for two years at my former job, but i guess it's the sacrifice you make when you decide to leave your comfort zone behind. anyway, since i couldn't find any proper work in auckland, i travelled up north to kerikeri to work on a farm and do some mandarin thinning. my god, that was the most boring thing i've done in my life. and you also get payed by the tree, so you're basically working for eight hours in the burning sun and still making minimum wage. on top of that, that special person i spoke of in my previous post met someone else and broke my heart, so having to do boring brainless work and being really fucking sad is really a bad combination for someone who can get as depressed as me. so i quit the second day already. i'm usually not someone who gives up so fast, but i was really starting to get depressed and i just couldn't handle a broken heart that well. besides, i was stuck in kerikeri, the most boring town in the world and my first few days were pretty hard and spent crying most of the time. i really should just stop falling for girls and not get so attached so fast, but i really believed that even though we were miles apart, we'd make it and finding out that it really won't work out pff, it's such a disappointment and makes you feel like a complete idiot. so from now on i'm not gonna fall for anyone, ever. not gonna happen. seriously. not me.

once i got out of my dark hole of love sickness i realised that my roomies over there were awesome. there was a girls building and a boys building. i was staying with bev, fran and jen all from the uk and also hung out with matt, dan, jose, emily, franco, paddy, a couple of irish guys and loads of south americans who definitely know how to party. i managed to work here and there a couple of days (i was stuck at the hostel since i already paid for the week and they somehow didn't do refunds, bastards) and was supposed to leave on saturday, but ended up staying because we had a birthday and i crashed in jen's car that night, since i already checked out and some new girls confiscated the empty bunks.


a puppy!!! middle one is jen and the right on is bev and fran


me and matt, me and jose, me and birthday hat

dan being all excited about a musical birthday candle, me and jen, franco the birthday boy

jen was so sweet to give me a ride to paihia, which is about twenty minutes from kerikeri. i ended up staying at the mousetrap (where i'm staying right now) and have been looking for work, chilling out on the beach and hanging out with kemper and luke, who i've met in auckland. i went on a try out on an overnight cruise called 'the rock'. it was incredibly awesome! i saw dolphins right next to the boat, went snorkeling at roberton island and night swimming. and the work was all right as well.

trumpey, views from boat

roberton island:




but they called me this week to let me know that i didn't get the job :(

and then we come to this week. ana, an irish girl who i also met in auckland, came over a couple of days which was awesome. i partied in town for the first time since i got here and it was really cool. so yeah, i'm housekeeping at the mousetrap and had to commit for four weeks and although i'm starting to lose hope, i'm still looking for a job. luke and kemper are housekeeping in a different hostel across the street, with a swimming pool a giant tv and loads of films, so i hang out there most of the time. i've only been doing housekeeping here for a few days, but i already really like the other housekeepers and i only have to work two hours a day, six days a week, easy as! i'm flying to sydney in a couple of weeks and i'm trying to not spend any money on things i don't need. i've been keeping up a budget in excel and have cut back on all my expenses, no more cigarettes (but tobacco instead) no more partying (too much), only the cheapest food available and no fun stuff :( i'm so incredibly bored most of the time and am thinking of borrowing kemper's guitar and becoming a street musician...i really don't know what to do if i can't make any money before sydney, don't want to be stuck there for ten days with not a dollar to spend! i already paid my flight, the party ticket and have free accommodation, but i need to at least have money for food and a beer or two. i think i picked the wrong year to travel around, people are spending less money on leisure and all other stuff basically so jobs are hard to find, but maybe it will get easier after summer, when students go back to school and i will probably head down to wellington, a bigger city, so hopefully more work! i'm already trying to find a job there for when i come back from sydney, because i will probably starve to death without one!