Advertisement
Published: March 14th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Today I bade Paihia farewell en tearfully boarded the bus back to Auckland...somehow my 4 week stint of cleaning at the Mousetrap snowballed into 5 months and 6 jobs and I loved most minutes of it!
I really enjoyed working for Larry (the owner of the ice cream store that I deflected to) but after 6 weeks of dealing with incompetent customers I was ready for a break...the average day involved the repetition of the following conversation at least 50 times:
me : "hi ya, what can I get for you"
customer: "i'm still looking...you have too many flavours.............i'll have the hokey pokey"
me : "sure, would you like a single or double scoop"
customer: "hmmm.....hmmmm.......hmmmmm....a single please"
me : "would you like that in a waffle or regular cone?"
customer: "just the hokey pokey"
me : "okay, would you like that in a waffle or regular cone?"
customer: "just a single scoop"
me : "sure, would that the regular or waffle cone"
customer: "H-O-K-E-Y P-O-K-E-Y"
round about this time I would make the decision for them and cross my fingers! customers are pretty random sometime...one guy ordered 1 small and 1 large cappucino and when handed the
cups asked which was which...I politely pointed out that the large came in a bigger cup than the small...another lady arrived at 10:05pm (we close at 10 and switch off the freezer lights to indicate this while we clean), Larry explained that we were already closed but offered to serve her anyway, he switched the lights back on and she proceeded to read out the name of every flavour (there are 23)...once done she said "what a pity I'm not allowed to eat ice cream" and then happily tootled off...a guy read the menu board and asked what an Italian Soda was...I was standing next to him as I was cleaning the windows and so started describing what they were...he cut me short by saying "I wasn't aware that I had asked the cleaner...and since when do we get Canadians to do our cleaning?"...I politely pointed out that I wasn't Canadian (if you're gonna insult people at least get their nationalty right - love ya Se) ... the most memorable moment was a foreigner asking me for "some passion" (aka passion fruit) and me going "sure, that will be $2-80" before thinking "man, we're cheap" and then trying to stop
my shoulders from shaking in silent mirth!!! I had awesome colleagues and was always in stitches when Amy (from America, need I say more 😊 ) asked the tons of customers if she could help anyone only to be met by stony silence...as soon as anyone else asked the same question they would be overrun by customers placing orders...I left on a high as crazy cappucino lady told me that I made good coffee (and also because I had had my daily dose of Rush Munros Cookies & Cream ice cream)
Living in the house in Haruru Falls was such a blessing...we ended up staying there for 4 weeks and it was awesome having home comforts (remote control) and some peace and quiet...I got into the habit of running into town a few days a week and absolutely loved jogging through the mangrove forests and seeing the falls...Laura, Christina and I have been involved with the local Baptist church for a while and it was awesome having the time and space to reflect on stuff (or stuuuuuuuuuuuufffffff if you're from York)...
To celebrate Waitangi day (a public holiday in NZ) we were up at 4:30 am...the plan was
to get to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds at 5am for the commerative service...we braved the wind and the rain (I know Poeks) and found on arrival that the Marai was fill to the brim and so ended up sitting on a picnic blanket outside until all the hobnobs came out to be photographed by the press...not really sure who we saw but the press were real excited about snapping them...
I finally made it up to Cape Reinga...was picked up at 7:30 am and had an awesome day looking at Kauri Trees (think I may have had my fill of big trees on this trip), having coffee, chilling at the lighthouse and the beach, sandboarding (yip, finally scraped together the courage as I wanted no regrets this time round and absolutely loved it!!!!), driving on 90 Mile Beach, eating Tua Tuas and then having a late lunch at the Mangonui Fish and Chips shop. Was a brilliant trip!
My birthday was awesome...we made home made pizzas on Monday night and ended up with stacks and stacks of pizza...Pippiana cutely assisted in building pizzas by making & then sprinkling clumps of cheese...Julia & Elin (my Swedish colleagues) made me
a beautiful cake with my name written in the strawberry sauce they had scrounged off work...in true Dickinson style Laura attached a theme to my presents and so I now have numerous things with pictures of bugs on them...The actual birthday night was celebrated with dinner at Pastor Bill's with a candle placed on top of my slice of cake...after that I had a few drinks at the Beachhouse with Christina, Laura, Maria, Justin and Marina...it was an awesome way spend my last night in Paihia! Thank you so much for all the messages...it was great being remembered!
Tomorrow I head back to Kaihu Farm for the weekend...I fly to Queenstown on Monday and start the Milford Track with Jana, Lea and Alex on Tuesday...plans for after that are a work in progress (more work than progress)...may not have cell phone reception/e-mail access for the next while (silence is golden Moeks)...return to Auckland on May 1st and fly to Sydney on the 13th before heading to London a few days later! Can't wait to catch up with everyone (Big News: my oldest sister (Dot) is getting married in November so I'll be back in SA for a quick visit
then!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.151s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 51; dbt: 0.053s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
sam and sean
non-member comment
is it coming to the end of your travels??????
love the blog you seem to have had an amazing time in NZ IM NOT SURPRISED you better be going to DoutFoubtful sound its brill and don't leave without climbing the fox glacier we are leaving Cambodia today we are making our way to bangkok for Paddys day i'll be updaten our blog soon love ya lots like jelly tots.!!!!!