Work and Food

            After three nights in Wellington it was time to move on. We had only planned to stay for two but after all the traveling we decided to take an extra day to sleep in and rest. Chelsea also wanted to spend time creating a CV so she could start applying for jobs. In New Zealand a CV is their form of our resume. It is set up a little differently. I have noticed that people in NZ have very strong work ethic. Even in fast food restaurants such as McDonalds, kiwi employees take pride in their work. Minimum wage is around $13.00 and each person in NZ is covered medically for being citizens, not because of limited benefits within a job  (their health care system seems to be great from what I have learned). Servers and bar tenders do not depend on tips or become bitter from the lack there of because they are paid hourly. While food is slightly more expensive here it is nice that while going out to eat tipping is not necessary because the employees are being paid well. I have noticed that service while eating out is definitely of better quality than the US.

`

Before I came to NZ I tried to remind myself to buy some Heinz ketchup to put in my suitcase before I left. I remember being in Europe and missing ketchup because their form of tomato paste didn’t cut it for me. I was pleasantly surprised that in NZ there was Heinz ketchup and it actually tastes quite great! Looking at the list of ingredients of many similar products from the US really surprised me. The number of ingredients is much smaller and artificial products in foods are avoided. Oreos taste incredible here, which is nice because it is a dairy free food. It has been a little more challenging avoiding dairy; it is used in high quantity on a lot of products. Also, many employees do not know whether or not dairy is used in some of their products when I ask them. I have only seen one product labeled vegan since I have been here. I can’t complain though because all the food I can and have been eating tastes so good. Fruits and vegetables are fresh, especially avocados. Eggs taste wonderful and look almost florescent yellow compared to eggs back at home. Soymilk is also particularly tasty with less preservatives and fillers. Can you tell I’m hungry?

            Anyways, Tauranga was our next destination. There are so many small little beach towns along the costs that all have their own vibe and even look. It took us seven hours from Wellington to this beach town and again the drive went by in a flash because of all the beautiful scenery. We arrived at the hostel just before the sunset. Our hostel mate was an English girl who had once been a fruit picker in Australia. She came down to NZ to travel the South Island and do the same. A lot of farms in the south will hire young adults as fruit pickers in exchange for housing. NZ is split into two islands with a ferry in between. Where the north is considered more developed and warmer, the south is considered MUCH more beautiful, desolate, and cooler. Auckland and our travels so far have all been in the North Island. The sights have been so amazing already that I can only imagine what the South has in store. I want to plan a trip there during a longer break since it is quite far away and is something that can’t be missed.

            While we were in Tauranga we went on a walk towards the harbor. When we reached the water I started kicking myself I did not bring my camera. I need to stop the mentality of “I won’t need to bring my camera right now” because in new places you never know what you are going to see ahead. The bridge we were walking on was awesome and had a spectacular lookout on all the boats. The time of day was perfect too for pictures- dumb, dumb, dumb! After walking around we found a strip of restaurants and bars along the water. I didn’t even realize what day it was until I saw signs for “Valentine’s Day Special Tonight.” It never feels great not having a Valentine, but having discounts on food and drinks helped heal the pain, haha. It was a weeknight and I was surprised to see that we were one of the last customers. I assumed because the restaurant had an open bar that it would stay open late. Not the case, the entire town both bars and restaurants shut down starting at 5 pm and the ones left open closed no later than 10 pm. It seemed that every time Chelsea and I thought to go shopping in NZ it was after 5 pm and nothing was open. I like that about NZ though, the society is clearly not demanding or driven by money and work.

New Flickr Photos Are Up

Click Here To See my Flickr Photos

Some Interesting People

My first hostel experiences…surprising to say the least.  Chelsea and I arrived in Rotorua late evening and checked into the YHA hostel. I had envisioned in quite detail what a hostel would be like. The reality of them did not match my expectations. I believed hostels were cheap places to stay because they were grungy (with bedrooms similar to those seen in movies about third world countries and bathrooms I would be afraid to step into). But not at all! Hostels were very clean with new washed bedding and once even a towel wrapped in pretty bows with a Hawaiian flower attached. I was also surprised to see how many adults were staying there as well.

Going to Rotorua brought me back to fond memories of high school. And not so found memories of rotten eggs. The whole town smells like sulfur because of the natural hot springs. I was lucky enough to go on an educational tour abroad with my best friends my sophomore and junior year summers. Rotorua was one of the first destinations on the New Zealand/Australian trip my junior year. The town itself is known for very touristy things to do such as zorbing and leuching. Zorbing is when you are put in a huge plastic ball with water on the bottom and pushed down a huge hill. The water on the bottom keeps you from tumbling upside down. Leuching is when you ride down another huge hill on a small gocart with no motor. Leuching will forever make me laugh because it will make me think of the time that my friend Jenny somehow managed to fall off of her “vehicle” and literally roll down the hill for a ways. Huge hills have definitely been a theme in NZ, they are everywhere and incorporated into extreme sports. For instance, jumping off of sand dunes to see who can land the furthest from the top of the mass hill has been made into a sport.

Since the price of everything in Rotorua was pretty steep, we stuck to seeing things that were free. Or so we thought! We couldn’t seem to find the hot springs that we were searching for. Note to self: next time I will have to do a better job of finding an actual address instead of just an area of town. Sections of town have many long roads that lead to the middle of nowhere. We did manage to see a beautiful area called Blue Lake. And I was especially pumped to spot out a pit bull puppy. I almost stole it; I miss mine so much.

On the way to our next destination we stopped in a little town called Levin. Jill told us the area has lots of small little parks that are a lot of fun with ziplines and hamster wheels. When Chels and I heard hamster wheels we had to find it! I have an entire new respect for hamsters that can truck it in those things. A real life hamster wheel is extremely hard to move or balance in and usually running results in dizziness while tumbling over and feeling like you will flip upside down. I developed many bruises from that experience. In NZ people definitely let their kids get into extreme sports fast, that was the most dangerous looking jungle gym I had ever been too! I about fell off of every zip line there and have never seen steeper slides.

The next stop was Wellington. The city has a great nightlife for young adults and houses stack on hills similar to a look of California. What really stood out about Wellington were the VERY interesting people we met there. So in our first hostel we didn’t actually get to meet our hostel mates because they were gone when we left for diner, asleep when we came back, and gone before we woke up (kind of strange not knowing at all who is sleeping across from you in the dark)! I was disappointed to see that when we walked into the hostel in Wellington, once again our hostel mate was gone. Now that I think of it I wish that she hadn’t returned! I can’t remember her name but I’ll refer to her as “crazy lady.”

I have to give crazy lady some credit; she was very nice and friendly. I just wish I had never asked her where she was from because that started the crazy talk. She lived in Christchurch. The reason she was staying in the hostel was to escape the after shocks of the earthquakes and look for a job in another town. A huge earthquake wiped out a lot of Christchurch and many subsequent ones were still happening months after. She was scared to currently be there, many of her favorite fish and chip shops since childhood were destroyed. I can definitely understand her worry and desire to get out of the city. But she didn’t stop there with her talk of destruction. Basically, Chelsea and I heard how the world was going to end. “You girls better travel now if you want to see the south island before it is completely destroyed with volcanoes and tsunamis. I will be leaving NZ in March, I know that is when it is going to happen,” she said. She also explained the phenomenon in Christchurch that scientists are “dumfounded” by. Blue and white light is currently beaming unexplainably out of the cracks in the earth. After about 30 minutes of this intense conversation, Chelsea and I found an excuse to exit the room. 

The same night I bumped into the next peculiar lady. While standing in the bathroom waiting for Chelsea to come out of the stall, I was contemplating whether or not to put up my hair. I decided to ask what the lady standing next to me thought about it. She became more than excited that I asked her and yelped out, “I have a vision! I am a hair dresser, I will help you put it up!” Before I could respond my hair was being pulled in every which way as she was carefully thinking and braiding with her tongue out. Chelsea came out of the bathroom laughing at the scene and watched the lady in action. Before Chelsea could say anything, my hair was finished and she moved straight on to fixing Chelsea’s hair with great excitement. Finally she completed her “vision” for the both of us and not only screamed “done!” but finished with a grand finale of doing a split right on the dirty bathroom floor while throwing up her hands in the air. Keep in mind she was around 40 years old.

           

On our second night there we gained another hostel mate. No lie, she had to be at least 70 years old. This would have been fine if she wasn’t mean as a snake, looked like the grim reaper, and went to bed at 8:30 PM. Since lights were out so early Chelsea and I went downstairs to socialize with other people in the hostel. At last we met an interesting person in a good way! His name was Scott and he was in town for a friends Birthday. Scott was excited that he had met Americans that were not Bible beating Christians and had an intelligence level that exceeded a fifth grader. It was sad to hear about his experiences of the past with Americans, leaving him thinking that America was very narrow minded and all about money.  He told us that after our conversations, we broke many of the stereotypes he had once held. He was very smart and brought up many unique topics such as lucid dreaming and the history of the Maori tribes. Scott explained that his passion was in being a builder but he was frustrated in the lack of intelligence other co-workers possessed. I recommended finding a job of similar qualities that required some kind of college degree. I never would have guessed that Scott was 18. I’m glad that we were able to give him a pleasant experience with Americans and we were able to learn a lot about people from NZ.

           

After bumping into Scott, the rest of our experiences with new people were quite enjoyable as well. I have discovered that my favorite part of traveling is not seeing all of the landscape, but meeting all different types people. Of coarse, the beautiful land of NZ is definitely an added bonus! During the rest of our stay in Wellington, we talked to people from Ireland and Canada. I learned that Enda was a common Irish male name. I also heard all about how awful the beer was here and how Ireland has the best beer in the world, the Irish definitely take pride in their alcohol and abilities to drink it. It was nice to finally have a normal hostel mate for the last night in Wellington. Claire was 24 from Toronto and was currently in school.

Throughout the beginning of the trip I had noticed a theme of people from NZ disliking the city of Auckland. Everyone I talked to in each new town spoke negatively about my new home. It was slightly bumming me out, since that was the place I picked to go to school. So I was very happy to meet Mike, the first person who was from NZ that admitted to loving Auckland and went on and on about all the good qualities.  He use to live in Auckland and was missing it all of the time living in Wellington. I gathered from our conversation that a lot of people from NZ just do not like big cities and stick to the countryside. 

Captured snapping shots at Waihi Beach, haha thanks Chels

Living out of our car at the YHA hostels

Road trip begins

   While spending three nights adjusting to the time zone and city in Auckland, plans for a road trip were well underway. In New Zealand a driver can be as young as 18 years old to rent a car. Of coarse, it was a must to use this privilege immediately. Receiving things at ages not allowed in the US always feels just great. The thought of buying an old beat up car and painting it all different whacky colors definitely went through our heads. It would have been sweet to have a car for the entire five months abroad to travel on weekends, but Auckland has no place to put a car and my imagination ran a little too big. Before my orientation in the middle of the month, we rented the car for eight days.

   I always feel that the best way to find out good travel information is through conversation, I can’t stand to look at a map! We decided to contact a former UNCW student named Jill that had gone to high school with one of my best friends. Jill had spent a semester studying abroad in Hamilton and liked the country so much she ended up moving here. She was such a wonderful resource to have and was so kind to not only give us advice, but also offered a place to stay. Before planning out the whole trip in Auckland, we wanted to make our first destination Hamilton to meet up with Jill.

   We began our journey in a Nissan from the 1990’s that had a broken centre consol. I thought that not having speakers in the car would be a bummer. But I soon realized that the landscaping while driving was so exciting and visually pleasing that not having music didn’t even matter. Traveling in a car through the countryside of New Zealand has been more than entertaining. No drive in the US has matched what I have seen so far. The drives went by incredibly fast, even the seven hour drive to and from Wellington. Every hour driving the environment seems to completely change with all kinds of different plant life. Amazingly steep and beautiful hills are EVERYWHERE. The green within plants here almost looks neon at times it is so bright. Green seems to cover every inch of land.  The roads are quite windy but it is amazing that there are hardly any cars on the road for the majority of every drive. Chelsea has been a huge trooper and has been driving the whole time. I’ve been a bit of a weenie so far thinking about driving on the opposite side of both the road and car, but she’s been doing an awesome job!

   Before arriving in Hamilton we decided to spend the day in a small surfer town on the way named Raglan.  On the drive there we were getting worried that we got directions to the wrong place because twenty minutes away there were no signs of water. It was funny because the ocean beautifully appeared all of a sudden after winding up a huge hill just ten minutes before we got there. The beach in Raglan is famous for it’s waves and I could see why. Even though it was a slightly rainy day the water was filled with surfers. People who grew up surfing in that town probably don’t understand the concept of waiting for a good wave since they literally come one right after the other. It was a cute little town and had a great vibe with laughing and smiling people surrounding it.

   Hamilton was only an hour up the road. It was so good to meet up with Jill! She is such a welcoming person. When I heard her voice at first I thought she had developed a full New Zealand accent. After listening closer I could start to hear the Maryland dialect. I found her speaking pattern really cool! To me, New Zealand accents are very pleasant to listen to. It’s so interesting to me that people’s dialects morph to those who surround them. I’m curious to see when I first return to the states if people tell me that my voice has shifted at all. I guess it all depends whether or not I get to live with people from New Zealand. I really hope so because I loved meeting Jill’s roommates. It was fun drilling them with questions about differences we have from one another in things like slang and lifestyle. People told me before I left that people of New Zealand are known for their friendliness and so far it’s dead on. Jill was an awesome host, she showed us around the college campus she attended. People in NZ call college Uni and high school college. This explains the look of confusion on many “kiwis” faces when I told them I was in college (fyi if you didn’t know, kiwi is a term used for New Zealanders).

    It was a really fun night in Hamilton. It took me less than a week to whitness an emergency and see my first New Zealand ambulance. Thankfully I wasn’t in it (haha, I bet half of you reading this thought it was me with my weird luck). Jill’s boyfriend Cam actually had trouble breathing and it was quite a scare at the time. I’m so glad he was ok, he ended up feeling better and not having to go to the hospital. It’s definitely a nice benefit that in New Zealand if an ambulance is called the person in need of help doesn’t have to pay.

   The next day Jill had to work but we came along with Cam to work at the Uni’s swimming pool. Jill’s roomie Jason also joined us. The pool was filled with kids from P.E. class having to tread water. The P.E. teacher walked along the pool laughing and stepping on the kid’s fingers trying to take a break. It was comical. The water was pretty cold, I hoped right out. After a dip it was awesome that Jason showed us around at a big garden in Hamilton. It was quite a neat set up, the garden was divided into sections. Each section had a different theme influenced by a particular country. The American garden had a pop art Andy Warhol theme.

   After a great stay in Hamilton it was off to our next stop Rotorua. Thanks again Jill for everything! Whipping out the map with us and giving the low down helped so much.

The link below will take you to the photos on my Flickr account

Click Here to go to see my pictures on Flickr

In case the link doesn't work you can look me up on Flickr. My screen name is BethanyOtten.

Sunset during the drive to Wellington

Picture of skyline of Auckland I took outside of my hotel the first few nights

Checking In

       First off I would like to suggest not sleeping on the trey table in front of you on a plane for 9 hours. Secondly, I would recommend trying not to stick your head below your seat to retrieve your bag at the same time the person in front of you is reclining their seat; it will result in a large goose egg. So after a full 20 hours of traveling and a pulled neck, we made our way onto the airbus from the airport to Auckland. I thought I spoke quite clearly to the bus driver while asking him about the street our hotel was on, but at that moment it was made clear that I am now a foreigner that will be having many an awkward conversations. I tend to have many in America, but those seem to be a product of my own “unique” humor as it often leaves others feeling weird instead of me. Haha, I find it funny in general and even feel a small sense of failure when I have an awkward conversation since I have a degree in Communication Studies (it should prevent these kinds of things)! But hey, I guess a marine biologist can’t name every fish. Ok...enough of the rambling!

       We stepped off the bus to check into our hotel around 8 a.m. on a Sunday (that means it was 2 p.m. on a Saturday in North Carolina). The hotel called Quest on Mount was very close to the heart of down town. It is located across the street from the apartment style dorms called Wellesley that I will be living when school starts. Since our check in wasn’t until 11, we started the day off early roaming around. I was amazed at how quiet the streets were.  It almost felt like I needed to whisper! I am curious to see if that is how it is every Sunday or if the town was especially shut down because of the Maori holiday we had arrived on. People in the town started to come out by noon and so did the sun! I was especially excited to feel the heat, leaving behind the winter of the U.S. and arriving into the summer of New Zealand was awesome! I wasn’t sure what to expect with weather but so far it has seemed to be cloudy and cool in the morning, sunny and warm up into the late afternoon, and breezy and cool at night. A light jacket or sweatshirt is needed at night, but shorts or jeans with a t-shirt or tank top are comfortable during the day.

  To describe Auckland in relationship to other big cities, the first words that come to mind are cleanest and greenest. Of any of the large cities that I have ever been too, the cleanliness and plant life are quite spectacular in comparison.  Besides the main strip Queen, the parks, building, and streets do not feel like they are a part of a big city because it is all too beautiful. I love the buildings architecture within the town. Everything looks very modern. I think the reason I have not gotten lost yet in Auckland is because there are so many new and cool looking landmarks. Lots of glass and unique shapes are incorporated into establishments. Even chains such as Starbucks or McDonalds are particularly well designed inside. Speaking of Starbucks I think it is cool that the one down the block from me is not only really nice looking inside with huge ceilings, but the doors are kept open and cute little birds are flying around landing on chairs besides you. The people roaming around could be compared to those of New York City, there are lots of different nationalities. Yet the pace is definitely slower, and crowds much smaller. Cars are all around but by no means does Auckland have traffic like big cities in America, especially NY! Not only does Auckland have a taste of the big city, but beaches as well. A ferry ride can take you to multiple different islands or a bus ride can get you to local beaches as well. The harbor downtown is really pretty. There is a place called the Viaduct along the water that has many bars and restaurants. As for food, sushi restaurants and kebab eateries are everywhere but all kinds of food can be found. Kebabs are similar to greek gyros. But food and drink is definitely a pretty penny. For instance, a small soda bottle around the city tends to be around $3.50 in New Zealand dollars. American products are marked up a lot especially. I think pretty soon I may forget what a surplus of something is. Conservation is big in NZ. Especially in the efforts to save water, there are two different flushes on a toilet. And signs of “If it’s Yellow let it mellow, if it’s Brown flush it down,” can be found all around. I have come to realize in the first days that what I had once had unlimited amounts of will no longer be there. Wifi Internet is often $10 for a day or even for just an hour. And it’s either an hour of online time or a certain of amount of data used, whichever one runs out first is when you are cut off. Hopefully in the dorms the rates will be a little better. McDonalds has free Internet but prevents certain websites from loading such as Skype or instant messengers. There is a bit of a monopoly going on as local calls in NZ are $0.89 per minute, but yet it is $2 for a 60 minute international call. Because of that, no one calls unless of emergencies and people use text messages sparingly at $.020 a text.

  For the Superbowl Chels and I decided to pay our respects to America, and managed to find a bar at 12:30 in the afternoon on Monday that was playing the game. The only people watching the game were some American students from Dartmouth, an Ivey league college in New Hampshire. It was nice seeing a friendly American that took us to a really beautiful park and showed us around the campus of Auckland University. However, after some time had passed this particular Ivey leaguer started telling us how rich he was and went on about being served everything on a plate and told us proudly “the world is mine.” We walked our separate ways. Haha, so haven’t made new “friends of a lifetime yet.”

Take Off!

Finally! I can stop talking about going to New Zealand and actually just be here.  After much research and planning, B.O. has traveled half way around the world to Auckland, New Zealand (sweet initials aren’t they? Thanks mom and dad, haha).  It would be ideal if students traveling abroad received a one-hour class credit for just applying, haven’t filled out this much paperwork for anything I’ve done thus far. But how amazing that applications, emails, signatures, and the use of the Internet can get you thousands of miles away.

On the flight to L.A. it was slightly unsettling that right before takeoff a strange noise of what seemed to be a mechanical failure went on for about 10 minutes. It sounded like the noise of a dj spinning a record amplified times thirty. But after that, it was smooth sailing. On Air New Zealand the flight crew was beyond nice. Definitely have never been on a more accommodating flight. Hearing the accent of the pilot come on the intercom for the first time gave me a rush of excitement; this trip to New Zealand was really happening!

I’m so lucky to have my friend Chelsea come along with me. She calls me inspector gadget because of my vast collection and dorky knowledge of electronics. I think that half of the weight of my packed bags includes my camera equipment, computer stuff, and some kind of cord. I’d rather be swarmed with cool things that light up then any kind of clothes, which is probably the reason why my newest pair of jeans are from my freshman year of college bought used. I call Chelsea doc, short for medicine doctor because she is such a peaceful person and definitely a free spirit. Which makes her the perfect buddy to travel with. So on to the next week of the adventures of doc and inspector gadget before my schooling begins!