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Published: August 13th 2014
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Today it’s exactly 22 weeks since I started working at the hotel and I have 11 more weeks left...can’t wait to pack my stuff and hit the road again!
During my time here at the hotel, I also visited
Wellington, New Zealand’s capital and second largest city. The city lies on the south of the North Island with about 400.000 inhabitants and is also known as the “windy city” (like Chicago), although it wasn’t very windy when I was there. It gave me an impression of being a relaxed city; not too busy and not too big. The city centre is not big and I did most things by foot. I drove to Wellington with Ivan, a colleague from Hong Kong who had a car and we shared the fuel costs. He drove all the way from work to Wellington and I drove all the way back. It’s a 3,5 to 4 hours drive. The most interesting place I visited was the Te Papa Museum (Museum of New Zealand), without a doubt! It’s a big museum with different floors (4 or 5, can’t remember exactly) and it’s all about the geography, flora, fauna and history of the country. I
spent about 3 hours wandering around in the museum; very interesting! A very particular thing, was the colossal squid they have. It was caught in Antarctic waters in 2007, by accident, by a fishing vessel and brought to the museum. There is a short video showing how it happened and it was a massive and difficult operation to finally bring the squid to the museum. I had a lot of interest in the chambers about earthquakes and volcanoes in particular and also about the migration history and the Maori history, showing about how they battled against the British settlers in the 19th century. Another good thing was, that the entrance to the museum was free! I’d highly recommend the museum to everyone who ever visits Wellington. The museum has a lot of audio-visual features and also a small room in a house in which they simulate an earthquake, so you actually feel how it feels like inside a house during an earthquake of 6,5 on the scale of Richter.
Not far outside the museum you’ll find the Civic Square with a round sculpture hanging above, consisting of the endemic silver fern leaves of New Zealand. I wandered around
Wellington’s main streets in the city centre, such as Victoria Street and Dixon Street and had lunch along the Te Aro Park. At night I went on top of Mt. Victoria from which you can enjoy excellent views of Wellington. The weather was perfect! Wellington is well-known for its cable car which appears on most postcards. The city is located between some hills and the Wellington Harbour. The cable car was opened back in 1902 to connect the city centre with the top of the hills. It’s a “must see” when visiting Wellington. On the top, just next to the cable car station there, there is a small botanical garden and also an observatory. I actually liked Wellington and I’d like to spend at least two more nights there before I leave the country. In my opinion, the city has its own character and is much different than Auckland (which wasn’t bad at all but to me it was “just another city” along the water with some skyscrapers).
Here at work, winter arrived and we've had snow three times so far! The first time the snow stayed for around 5 days, the second time for one day and
since yesterday it has been snowing again. The first time it snowed, the area of the hotel looked like a completely different place. It was beautiful and I was happy to see snow again after about 6 months (since USA last December)! But when the ice starts to form on the streets and sidewalks, I hate it! I never slipped and fell but some people did. Therefore I’d prefer to see the snow staying up in the mountains where people can ski and snowboard, down at the hotel I don’t need the snow hahaha. During the first two weeks of July it was school holidays in New Zealand and the hotel was at full capacity. There were many kids around and it was fun to interact with them. After those weeks, it has been busy mostly during weekends when many people come from Wellington or Auckland to ski or snowboard. Because of the busier season the hotel hired many new employees, mostly house-keeping and food & beverage (waiters) staff, including a Dutch guy, two Argentinean girls and also a new porter from France. During all this time, many employees left the hotel as well. So there is a constant a
wave of people coming and leaving. When someone leaves or has a birthday, they usually organize parties in the lounge at one of the staff-lodges. The parties are fun because many employees come together but some people drink too much, can’t behave themselves, make too much noise and play loud music etc. and those sleeping nearby have been complaining about the noise. Some have to wake up at 6am to work, so it’s understandable. Now there are no parties allowed anymore at that lounge, unless the noise is not excessive. I still hang out a lot at the tavern down the road too, just to have a few beers, play pool and interact. I’m not a frequent visitor of the tavern though, let’s say I go once or maximum twice a week.
Many colleagues have been to the mountain to ski or snowboard. I haven’t been yet, but will go at some point. I’ve only done skiing once, indoors, and that was about 10 years ago in the Netherlands and I hated it! I guess in the mountains it’s not the same as indoor so I’ll give it a try to see if I’ll like it. The internet-card thing
still hasn't changed so I'm going to ask soon again!
Like I said in my prior blog, most people working here are really nice and that’s a good thing because you wouldn't want to be surrounded by dickheads. In mid-July I wasn't much in the mood because of some small annoyances at work, which I prefer not to mention (at least not yet)...a shooting at our airport back home which killed 2 and injured about 6 also made me a bit sad and then I was shocked to hear that an acquaintance from Curaçao, Kevin Jesurun, also died aboard the Malaysian flight MH17 they shot down above eastern Ukraine. Especially because this guy loves travelling too and it could have been me sitting on that plane! So yeah, I guess everyone goes through their moments when they feel a bit sad and down. This made me realize, again, that life is short...we’re around today but we don’t know if we’ll be around tomorrow. Therefore we need to live life, every day, enjoy it, be good to one another, make the most out of it and do what you love. Most people at work noticed immediately that I was different
during those days and I explained some of them why. But slowly I started to feel better and I’m OK again, being positive as always! So yes, 11 more weeks and I’m counting down. Very soon I’m going to start my extensive research on my next destinations to see where I’d like to go and where not etc. and also make a budget for the adventures coming up for the months after I leave the hotel.
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