Sorry this one is extra long we have almost no wifi here at our jobs!

We found jobs in Omarama! We made it down to Omarama from Christchurch in 3 days because honestly who is ever in a rush to start a new job. We stopped in Timaru to camp because it was the only campsite with a toilet on the way to Omarama, or so said campermate (the app we use to find freedom campsites). I guess it wasn’t 100% a lie because there were toilets just no roof for the toilet and it was only kind of down pouring…But you know what none of that matter because we saw a Blue Penguin, the most adorable kind of penguin. They are nocturnal so we had to wait for night fall then we took a leisurely stroll on the beach until I spotted one, and man were we excited, penguins are my favorite animal. I was unfortunately too excited to keep it quite so we drew more attention then we would have liked and then strangers were coming to gawk at MY penguin, yes I immediately became territorial over the penguin.

By the time we made it to Omarama it was around 4 and the Wrinkly Ram (I know what a name…), which is where our new job is and they had us work for the hour until closing. The Wrinkly Ram is an interesting place they are a mix between a café, a restaurant, a store, and a shearing studio. We kind of quickly came to realize this could be another bakery incident but marginally better. I think we are just so blessed and use to living in a place where business run really smoothly and there are roles, a roster, rules, contracts, actual training, and consistency, God bless America! They do however play country music, which everyone else working ther hates but coming from NC it’s so good to hear. They even play Eric Church and Chase Rice, gotta love the NC boys! This job means we are back to working a damn till. The only place we have fully and thoroughly enjoyed working the till is on the foodtrucks, I don’t think we will ever have a better job than the foodtucks.

The plus sides of the job are free lunch and milkshakes. I love making milkshakes and I get to scoop ice cream, which is great and a life long dream of mine. I always wanted to own an ice cream truck; this is as close as I might get. Also we now have the benefit of living in a house, which means hot showers, laundry, a refrigerator, and forced friendships! We live in the house with a girl from Germany, a boy from France, and 2 Kiwis and we all get along splendidly. Because we live in a house and get free showers that means my running schedule is back in action. They have some beautiful running tracks here, which is good because there is not much else going on in this little town. Maggie is also getting into the running game but she won’t let me run with her so we occasionally find a good hike to do together. We recently did the Benmore Peninsula track. I also found a basketball court and now all I need to do if find a basketball and I’ll be set for ages!

At the moment Mags and I have separate days off (this will and better change because it was a stipulation we made before accepting the job). This is great news for Mags so she can have her Maggie days, not as great for me. I spent my first day in a long time all by myself, because I was the only one with the day off and there aren’t really people in this town. It wasn’t the worst I did get to watch some American TV, which I so dearly miss. However the show I was watching had a girl eating a bagel and I got so homesick, the rest of the world just doesn’t know what a good bagel is. On the plus side one of the Kiwi girls made cookies which was a mix between the Toll House cookies mix (they don’t have that here her mom is from Kansas so she know what semi good food is) and the cookies we sell at the bakery.

We get some weird weather walking to work.

We have also seen behind the scenes of how NZ works. We met Logan, the builder. He is doing renovations on the café for expansion. However I’m not convinced he’s a real builder. First off when he was in the kitchen during work hours “fixing” something the whole ceiling fell down. The ceiling hit me knocked over pots and pans on the stove, almost caught on fire and broke most of the eggs. I took this as I sign that I’m not meant to ever be in a kitchen. Then at the end of the day he took down that piece of ceiling and wires came tumbling out. He picked them up and then asked me “Do you know what this is for”. When I asked him “Aren’t you suppose to be the builder” he just said “I’ll just push those back in like it never happened, if you can’t see it it’s not a real problem”. While I find this all hilarious I did ask the 2 kiwis I am living with about it and they said that sounds pretty normal for a New Zealand builder. How are more people not dead from bad wiring or falling down buildings?

Monday the 20th was yet another public holiday and I have no idea why. Now we just assume there will be a public holiday every 2 weeks at least. But this meant the newbies to the café didn’t work because the boss didn’t want to pay too many people holiday pay. That was more than fine with us, Maddie (one of the Kiwis we live with) Mags and I jumped at the chance to take a road trip literally anywhere else besides Omarama. So Maddie drove us to Oamaru, where they are known for the Blue Penguin colony. We didn’t get to see any penguins because it was too early in the day but we did see seals and the town is just adorable! Maddie also showed us sushi place that was actually reasonably priced! On our way back to the house Maddie needed to stop by her house to pick up a few things. Maddie comes from a sheep raising family and her property is to die for, it is so stunning! There were also puppies galore, it seems like a really great place to grow up!

Well we went out with our amazing work mates and maybe drank a little too much! But Tequila is a girl’s best friend. However I did fall off the sidewalk and hurt my foot but I can wiggle my toes so it’s not broken*. It feels like we have been working at the café for ages. The only upside is there are dogs that come all the time. Forget the 2-legged customers I will run straight for the dogs and offer them water way before I even acknowledge the owners. Also the easiest way to find out if you have cuts on your finger is to clean teacups with salt…yeah that’s a thing I was asked to do. The other plus side is that Mags is finally learning to make coffee! That night Larisa, Maddie, Mags, Jo, Felix, Hannah, Xiaxue, and Haruka all went Oamaru because supposedly the southern lights were going to be very visible that night. However it ended up being so foggy. But all was not lost because we got to play on a sick playground and saw PENGUINS. Yes I, probably what you would call, assaulted the penguins. There should 100% be more policing around the penguins because of people like me! And yes I did this all for Christie so this was technically a selfless act!

Mags and I finally got days off together so we were off to Dunedin. So far Dunedin is our favorite “large” city of New Zealand. There is a road called Baldwin St. in Dunedin which is famous for being the steepest street, we did not walk this street because of the bummed foot but we saw it for sure. However I think San Francisco has steeper streets. The main reason for going to Dunedin was to go to the electronic store so Mags could buy her beloved headphones. We had our most American moment. We got super impatient because we had to wait more than 10 minutes to be waited on and we were frustrated that there were only 2 people working the floor. Then we had to calm ourselves down and remind ourselves that we were in NZ. We also had to hit up Cadbury World. It was amazing so much chocolate!!

Can't miss a brewery, Speight's Brewery.

We went to the mall and man was that a huge mistake. NZ is not known for their signage. There is literally one horribly laid out directory on the basement floor level and then no other signage. You could be lost in that place for ages. We tried going up the Otaga Peninsula but it was so foggy it was a bit hard to see. Our campsite that night was pretty sweet it was on a beach. I woke up at 7:30 and it was still dark outside, the sun didn’t rise until 8. That morning we went to see another lighthouse, unfortunately it was fenced off when we got there…lame. But up swing, there were seals and penguins there. I thought it was quite strange that penguins and seals could cohabit the same island. The seals were right by our feet Mags almost ran into one. Then we went to see the Moeraki boulders, not sure of their importance or how they got there but they are on a bunch of post cards so we felt we had to see them.

Here are the boulders, yep those are some rocks.

...and thats what the rocks look like on the inside.

We drove back through Oamaru to get home and there I stopped at Farmlands, my new favorite store. It’s full of clothing and equipment for farmer I tried on almost everything; I just had to buy a woolen jersey (sweatshirt). It’s so comfy and will keep me warm through the hard NZ winter. We also got some great real fruit ice cream and rode an old school bike!

End Notes

When working at customer service job lots of people try to guess where you are from. So far no one has guessed America. I have gotten German, Spain, Sweden, London, and Russian.

One of the Chefs, Julie, has an apple tree in her yard but is allergic to apple so we get all of the fruit. She brought over a giant bucket of apples that we have all been working on. I brought one to work and bit into it and there was a worm…I didn’t know that could even happen in real life!

We have at least 2 mice living in our house so suffice to say Mags and I will be sleeping in the van. We already did the 5 years of living with rodents while in Boston, we have already paid our dues.

The Café is by far the slowest paced job we have ever had, and it kills us a little. We like being busy and useful. Here we do a lot of wiping down of the same table for 10 minutes.

Being the dishwasher is the best job when Cathy the baker is in. I get to lick the spoon and bowl while also getting samples. It's like baking with none of the hard work just the fun.

*Called mom and apparently wiggling your toes is not a sign that your foot is not broken. Either way I think it’s fine.

Apparently Papa Bear also hurt/maybe broke his foot back in the States! We are such kindred spirits.

While Villanova is out of March Madness at least my 2nd favorite team Gonzaga made it to the finals this year!

I make people at work make me hot chocolates but I insist they must have unique designs made out of chocolate on top. I'm very demanding.

End Notes

Shout out to Mama Paris! Hope she had the best birthday.