Working Holiday in New Zealand (June-August)

I left Warkworth with Kaiyang to work for accommodation in a farm at Hawera. Finally we left the tough work behind and started a peaceful life in front of the beautiful Mount Taranaki. We only worked in the mornings like mending holes, raking, feeding cows...etc. The winter had come but we managed to keep each other warm and happy. We were so green to hitch-hike and our first catch was an hour after! Nothing was more important than enjoying the company. Ten days later, we hired a car to have a short travel around Mount Taranaki. With his encouragement, I could drive the automatic without any damage.

Afterwards, I got a housekeeping job in Wellington for a week and then was fired. The host had mental problems and I was more than happy to leave the horrible place. Can you imagine that my job was to sit for eight hours without talking? At the capital of New Zealand, I seek advice from the Citizen Advice Bereau and wrote two complaint letters to the Department of Labour about my last two jobs. At least, I have tried to voice out how the backpackers were abused in this country.

My Dark Age in New Zealand was also in Wellington for two weeks. I didn't know what I was waiting for. There was no good/professional opportunities for a foreign traveller. Even though I avoided so hard to go to further south in winter, it seemed that I had no choice.

Picton, where was a small town across the sea, had a great BBH hostel called Sequoia Lodge. It provided free internet, free ice cream and puddings, free pick-up and drop off, free hot tub...I love it. A British couple(Ashley and Gareth), a taiwanese couple(Emily and Vincent) and I all worked for accommodation every morning with one day off per week. As we were such a great team, we always finished early and enjoyed our tea for hours. Nice people and nice host. You cannot ask for more!

I made good friends with the Taiwanese couple. They were great I learnt different recipes from the Taiwanese couple like sweet and sour pork, sweet corn soup...etc. Vincent introduced the books of 倪匡to me and I recommended 九把刀. I think he likes the series of 獵命師傳奇most. When the weather was good, we went walking/hiking or collected mussels. If it rained, Vincent read the e-books and Emily and I played jigsaws. When they knew that Kaiyang had bought a manual car for me, they were all worried except Vincent. He said, “Nice to meet you“ instead.