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Published: November 3rd 2005
I have returned from my boat cruise in one piece, and very much enjoying my time in New Zealand. I boarded the ship via a little motorboat with 9 other people and was welcomed aboard by the crew of "The Rock". We then headed out to the Bay of Islands and did some air gun shooting at a bottle being towed behind the boat. Lame as it may sound, it was pretty fun! We then fished at dusk for Snapper. I am proud to say caught 2 out of the 3 fish that we had with our nice dinner of steak, assorted salads, bread, fresh mussels and dessert. I then chatted and got to know the crew, my fellow visitors and the captain. He was telling me that he is trying to open a hatchery for endangered turtles in Indonesia. It was quite the interesting conversation. Then I was treated to the light show of the ocean. The phosphorescence of the water was amazing. You just swish you hand around the in water and it's like a glow stick has been lit up. Very amazing, and beautiful. I sat by the fire that they had on the boat, and spoke with the captain about life, home and family. I then stood at the back of the boat and was amazed by the stars. Finally, a clear night, with no city lights around to ruin it. I was shown the southern cross, which is on the New Zealand flag also. I had the greatest intentions of waking up for the sunrise, but by some cruel fate, my alarm clock did not go off. The next morning we had breakfast, were taken to some isolated beaches, climbed some hills and had lunch. The captain then asked for volunteers to harvest some fresh green mussels. I of course was totally down for that. So I pasted on a shorty wetsuit and headed with a couple crew members and other guests. I didn't have gloves on, so I didn't go full steam about getting a lot of mussels, plus I wasn't fully protected from the swell. And boy, was it a swell, you really had to be careful, because otherwise you'd be picking mussels out of your skin for weeks. I managed to get about 5, but it's hard. You really have to twist and pull to get those buggers free! And it's extremely cold here, I mean the water is...hehehehe. My legs cramped up about 10 minutes into being the water. We then started back for home, and were able to eat tonnes of fresh mussels on the way home. I can say I kinda like them, but the jury is still out. I figured, heck, I'm not going to turn away free mussels, so I didn't. Very salty, but pretty good.
I'm now based in KeriKeri, population 5,000. A town just 15 minutes north of Paihai. I managed to find a decent job through a seedy hostel owner. I'm working 5 days a week, 8-5 at a nice family owned and decently small nurseryb (I thought Opa would be proud if he could see me doing the transplants today). I started today, so I'm pretty tired, but it's better then picking zucchini, which is killer on your back. I'm getting paid $11.50 an hour (to start), also better then fruit which is usually only $10 an hour. We get tea time at 10:30am and 3:00pm and lunch at 12:30 for a half and hour. I'm staying pretty much my whole time here at the local YHA. A good and clean hostel chain. They have weekly rates which helps. So I'm going to stay here for a little while, probably about 1 month at least to save up some money to continue my travelling. And in the mean time I can build a bed and the like in my camper 😊
Things are going pretty good, I found a job the minute I got here, even though the seedy hostel owner didn't like that I wasn't planning on staying there. Sorry, but it was not a nice place to be staying, so thems the breaks right? Have a good night everyone and big hugs!
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jopark
Johanne Park
Sweet you're finally employed
Glad to hear you found a job. Glad to hear you like muscles. :) $11.50/hr is pretty damn good! Be good, be safe, don't get into too much trouble. Jo