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Published: December 29th 2014
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Hello there,
I hope you all had a great Christmas!
This one will really be the last blog from New Zealand, unlike I said on my prior NZ blog.
Before leaving Tonga, I contacted one of my former-colleagues from the hotel, Brandon, and asked if I could stay with him in case I decide to go to the village for about two days. He actually lives in a little house in the village and has space. He said it was all good and nobody else knew I was coming. I just wanted to go there and see everyone again before leaving New Zealand. I just had to call my airline to change my flight without having to pay any fees.
I arrived late at night from Tonga and spent the day in Auckland. Then I took a bus to the village. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to see me again and I was happy to see everyone too. It was the last day of one of the porters, Thomas, and he had like a small party at the staff lounge that night. When I arrived, everyone asked me if I was staying for the staff
party, organized by the hotel because it's the end of the year. It was held on the day I actually planned to leave the village. I told them that I'd ask management if I'd be allowed to attend and if so, I would stay an extra night. I got the phone number of X, head of my department, sent him a text and asked if I could attend. I didn't get an answer. The next morning I went to the staff room, around 8:50. Breakfast runs from 6:00 to 9:00 and whatever is left over, they throw away. So I thought, I'll go and take a look if there is any left overs to eat. There I saw X (head of my department) and I greeted him. He didn't even greet back, but with a serious face he asked: "Did you pay for the food?" When I tried to explain about the left overs etc. he interrupted me and said that the food is only for staff. He said it costs $10 a day and need to be paid at reception. To prevent further problems, I went and paid my $10 for the day. He said the party is a
only for staff and it's a "no" for now, but he'd talk to the human resources manager. At lunch he came and said that he spoke to the HR-manager and that the food is $10 per meal, not per day and that I'm not allowed to attend the party. (I obviously didn't pay more than that $10 I had already paid for the day). Someone else also called the HR-manager asking about me attending the party, and he said that it's X's decision whether I'll be allowed to attend or not. So X tried to make me believe that the HR-manager made the decision.
I was SO disappointed and agry! I felt like I was treated like a stranger, like an intruder. It was just 5 weeks after I left the job, after I worked there for 8 months. It wouldn't have made any difference to let me attend the party and spent some time with the people I worked with. On the other side, I got support from literally ALL staff and even other people from management who didn't agree with X's decision. Three people from management even said they'll have a word with X and
I told them that they don't have to, it's up to them. X remained with his "no" and told each of those three people a different reason for his decision. Everyone was astonished and couldn't believe why he acted so "mean". It's hard for me not to believe that X has personal issues with me. I have no idea what I could have done to him, but I couldn't care less anyway! I'm aware of the fact that not everybody will like you, which is fine.
X's decision and negative reaction didn't surprise me at all. He treats certain employees with a certain kind of preference, he has always done this and more employees noticed this. He never, ever gave me any compliments or showed any sign of gratitude towards my work while others from management did. But whenever I forgot something or did something wrong, he'd tell me off! Even though I never said "no" when they call me to work on one of my days off, or when they ask me to come in earlier or to stay at work longer, I called sick just ONCE and I never came 20, 40 or 45 minutes late like other
porters did. Yet you prefer not to let me attend the party. It's a pity that the actual hotel manager wasn't there, I'm sure he would have said yes. When he's not around, X is in charge of the hotel. But like I said, it felt really good to get support of all the others and I sent an e-mail to X and to the whole management regarding what happened.
"X is an ungrateful cunt"! After this he couldn't even look at me in the face anymore, such a piece of shit! I'm sorry for the words, but that's the only way I could properly express what I felt towards him. I obviously didn't use this language in the e-mail, I kept it professional.
Anyway, enough with X...may God bless him! I went back to Auckland and updated my Facebook-status saying that I was on my way to the city. Then my Italian friend, Gabriele, reacted and said that he was in Auckland. We were roommates in Darwin, Australia back in 2008 and I met him last year in Milan again. The next day I met him in the city, on his birthday! He had just arrived
from a year of working holiday in Canada a few days before and came to New Zealand for another working holiday experience. It was just cool to catch up again, I told him about my NZ experiences and he told me about his Canadian ones. In the evening we went to his friend's place where he was staying and cooked some dinner.
During my last day I met with my first fellow Travel Blogger ever:
Jo McCarthy! We met for a warm drink just south of Auckland city centre, an area called Mt. Eden. She's a very nice, friendly person and we spoke a lot about our travels and about this website, travelblog.org . Jo met several fellow bloggers before, including Alex Watters who's the founder of the website. We sat at this café for about one hour and Jo had to go to work. I decided to walk up Mt. Eden (196m), a dormant volcano with a 50-m deep crater! After this I went back to my hostel to prepare and pick-up my stuff and met Gabriele again for some time, before I boarded the bus to Auckland Airport. Here I boarded my flight to Australia and the "only" reason
to visit Australia, was to see old friends/acquaintances I met when I was there back in 2007-2008 and catch up with them. If it wasn't for that, I would have stayed just a week or so, or maybe even skip Australia entirely!
A Happy and Blessed New Year for everyone!!!
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Neyca Sint Jago
non-member comment
greetings
Dear Elton, i wish you a very nice flight. Remember there will always be people who will disappoint you with their behaviour. People will envy you because of your adventurous spirit. Man, you travel around the world while some never leave thier home town! Just Ignore those pittyful individuals. Look forward with your head held high. A big hug from the whole family! Tot gauw, Neyca