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Published: June 29th 2014
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Hello everyone.
28 June 2013 – 28 June 2014 Today it’s exactly one year since I left Curaçao for this adventure of travelling and working around the world. So far everything went well and I don’t regret the decision I made. Today, one year and about 20 countries later, I’m looking forward to continue with the journey in a couple of months. I'm not home-sick but I miss Curaçao, my family and childhood friends. I can’t wait to be back home and see everyone again but at the same time I want to stay away a little bit longer to see and experience more of the world. Because once I go back home, I wouldn’t easily make such a trip again. Curaçao is on my mind every single day because I listen to the music, read the news and regularly have contact with family and friends back home. Time passes quickly and before I know, I’ll be back home!
Working in New Zealand One month after my arrival in New Zealand, I found a job at a 4-star hotel in Tongariro National Park. It’s a beautiful, medium sized hotel built in 1929 and has 106 rooms
and 9 villas outside. I had an interview on Skype with the Human Resources manager who called me back the next day with the good news. I was hired as porter/receptionist, although I haven’t worked at reception (yet). The first month was a little bit difficult because I really had to get used to everything and with the isolation of the place. I was wondering if I would be able to remain here the whole period of my contract. But then I started to get used to it, getting to know people around etc. and now I do see myself staying until end of October (could be a little earlier or a little later).
The hotel has a lot of employees of which many are foreigners. There are employees from Russia, Germany, USA, South Africa, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India, Portugal, Kazakhstan, France, United Kingdom, Spain, Fiji, Tonga, Israel, Czech Republic, Ukraine and Australia...surprisingly nobody from the Philippines ;-) . Brian and I are the only ones from the Americas at the moment, he’s a receptionist from the USA. I must say that the majority, let’s say 98% of the people that work here are very nice to talk
with and are friendly which is a good thing! For accommodation I pay just NZ$95 per week and it includes free meals every day and also free laundry. Only the internet is expensive, NZ$70 for 20GB and it expires within 30 days. Our neighbouring hotel uses the same company but their employees pay NZ$20 for 10GB. I already complained about this and they’re going to look into it. The area is very quiet and there is not much to do, other than different walking trails and winter-sport in the mountains. Therefore you don’t get to spend a lot of money, unless you smoke or drink a lot like many colleagues do. I save at least ca. 90% of my salary for my further travels. During my time off I hang out with other colleagues, go to the gym at the neighbouring hotel (it’s a bit crap, but that’s the only option I have) or I just stay in my room playing my games on the laptop, watching movies or chatting/speaking with friends and also typing my articles for Ñapa and GoWeekly in Curaçao. So I don’t feel bored too often, which is good. Most of my direct neighbours are from
South Africa and those are the ones I spend more time with and also a couple of other very cool people.
As a porter I work three shifts. The Early shift is from 07:00-15:30, Late shift 15:00-23:30 and Night shift 23:00-07:30. The later the shift is, the more I hate it. I tried to like the night shifts but I can’t. It messes up your whole sleeping pattern and it makes me feel like I don’t have time to do anything else than just sleep, eat and work. As porter we do a variety of things. We help guests with their luggage, we help to clear the glassware from the lounge, put the movies on in the little cinema, remove dirty pool towels and put clean ones, put wood on the fire to keep it going, look if everything is all right, put up the flags at sunrise and bring them down at sunset. In the evening you do security checks along all the floors of the hotel and all the hotel properties outside (villas, staff lodges, maintenance garage, the tavern and the café) to double check if every window, doors etc. are well closed and locked and
that it’s not too noisy in the staff lodges. And we do pick-up or drop-off guests at the train-station or the bus-stop with a little shuttle-bus and a small trailer for the luggage. When there are functions in the hotel, we’re the ones who need to set-up most of it (conferences, weddings, parties etc). There are more things that we do, too much to mention now. The job is easy and everybody could do it. But it’s definitely not a job I’d do for too long. I have a goal to travel and see more, therefore I was ready to do any job, as long as I could save enough for my further travels. Sometimes I work at the tavern down the road as well, as a delivery driver in the village and as general help. It’s always a nice way to make a couple of extra hours and to do something “different”.
Winter officially started last 21
st of June and everyone is waiting for more snow in the mountains so the ski-fields of Mount Ruapehu can open. Last week the amount of people in the village grew with the arrival of all the staff working up on
the ski-fields and the chairlifts. School holidays are starting very soon and we are expecting a very busy period to come. I like snow and everything, would be nice to see it here where we are (1100m) but not too much hahaha. For me it should stay higher up where people go skiing and snowboarding. In May we had a couple of freezing days (-5 C) and we will definitely get more of them mostly in July and August. I think I’ll go skiing once, maybe twice but that’s it. I’m not interested to go more often.
Sometimes you “have” to leave this place for a day or more. So far I went back to Rotorua twice for two/three days and two days to Wellington too. In another blog I’ll write about Wellington. Don’t know what else to say. I’m doing well and I know I’m doing my job well because about three weeks ago the Human Resources manager asked me for a print out of my visa because he thought it was expiring this month. When I brought the print out he said “ohh that’s good, because we don’t want to lose you”. Isn’t that great to
hear?
Thanks for reading and until the next one!
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Ido STEEN
non-member comment
pregunta.
Awor ku bo tin un par di luna ta traha na N.Zeeland, gerente a laga kambia bo porta di kamer?