See Mags was not even furious over her ramen gone wrong
We have basically moved in with Ben. The poor boy didn’t know what he was getting into when he said we could park our van in front of his house. We landed around 11pm and when we finally were ready to go to bed it was 2 or 3 so we decided to for go dinner. So the next day we were starved except we don’t have any real food because we were gone for 3 weeks so we ate easy mac and ramen instead. Well they turned out to be altered easy mac and ramen because I somehow put the ramen flavoring in the mac and cheese. I was very confused as to why the powder was not bright orange. So we just switched powders so I had ramen with cheese and Mags had elbow noodles with spicy ramen flavor. Now that we are officially back home Maggie has to pack to leave for the USA in 2 days, after we just landed. On top of all the packing our sleep schedules are whack. We haven’t been able to fall asleep at night but then we have to wake up early anyway. The one night we were actually feeling quite tired our friend Raphie and Selena wanted to grab drinks. We couldn’t say no to that, they are only in NZ for 10 more days! So after drinks we said our final goodbyes…that is until come and visit them in Germany. All of our friends keep leaving and now Mags is leaving me too, I might not make it. I’m going to have to make some more friends stat.
The day of Maggie’s flight I actually had to get up earlier than her to take a bus to Oamaru because my Wrinkly Rams friends were picking me up to take me to my first rugby game. So I got up moved the van so I could pee and then parked it back in front of Ben’s house and Maggie, the little butt, didn’t even wake up to say bye! It’s fine she is stuck with me for a while longer when she gets back! She’s leaving me for a whole month and some change. That’s ok we will be reunited soon, she can’t get rid of me that easily. I rode the bus and was reunited with the gang; we of course had to eat at Fat Sally’s because it is the best. That chicken salad is to die for. Then we drove the 2ish hours to Dunedin with a packed car. I really don’t deserve these people they are too amazing. They even took me to farmlands because I hadn’t been inside one in weeks I needed a fix! Face paint was applied, some more than others.
The rugby game was amazing. I wasn’t sure what was happening most the time but thanks to Maddie I was able to understand most of the game. There was drinking, yelling, flag stealing (it’s not really stealing if people leave them behind, besides I’m foreign I deserve a souvenir to remember this momentous occasion), and surprisingly a lot of kilts. Then when the game was over we all drove the 3 hours back to Omarama. I was driven to Maddie’s house to spend the night! It was so great getting to see them again I very much plan on dropping by with Molly when she comes to town. Staying at Maddie’s meant I got a hot shower, a real bed, amazing food (tried mutton for the 1st time, quite tasty), a toaster, and of course the amazing company of the Gibsons and the pups!
They were kind enough to drive me back to Oamaru to catch the bus back to Christchurch. I got off the bus with a dead phone and not really knowing where I was. Being 10pm meant that the cabs were nowhere to be found (gotta get use to things closing so early again). I did the only thing I could thing of I put my thumb out there and started walking. Turns out I’m a phenomenal hitchhiker. (Start of rant: Yes I know hitch hiking can be dangerous. It is a very reasonable and popular way of getting around NZ. I was very careful. Everyone was so nice. It was a college town so not too many creeps mostly people my age. I didn’t die. It was fine. :End of ran) A kid named Mike picked me up and he took me to a good place to get some food (at this point still hadn’t gone to the grocery store). His friends ended up walking in and invited me to a party. Of course I said yes because it was either that or being alone in the dark in the van. These people were great and this meant free food and booze, more excited about the food than booze. Everyone was quite tipsy needless to say I crashed on the couch of who’s ever house I was at. Woke up and someone, I think his name was Matt maybe, was making breakfast and put some more eggs in the pan for me and of course I asked for toast!
I spent a good portion of the day at that house getting some wifi brushing my teeth and just trying to recover. I asked Matt for a ride back to my van but he took it upon himself to show me the town before he dropped me off. He even drove quite far out of the city to go to the Cookitime factory! I forgot how amazingly nice the Kiwis are! Then I had him drop me off at the library close to Ben’s house and I walked to the van. Because mama didn’t raise no fool, never have a stranger no matter how nice they are take you to where you live even if you home is mobile and won’t be there the next day, play it safe kids.
I got back to the van around 11pm and crashed. My sleep schedule is way out of whack coming from Asia and not having a regular sleep schedule since we landed. In the past 4 days I’ve gotten an average of 3 hours of sleep a night. The next morning I went inside to say goodbye to Ben, I might not see the boy ever again…isn’t that sad. Then I was off to Kaikoura.
I spent the night half way between Kaikoura and Christchurch at this very sketchy looking campground, but there were other vans there and it was dark and foggy so I said why not. I almost didn’t make it into the campground because it was so muddy and my tires were just spinning, but somehow I did, I would worry about getting out in the morning.
In the morning it was time to problem solve because there was no way I was making it out in the condition the road was in. Also my windows were frozen. I think we are going to need and ice pick or maybe its called and ice scraper. (Gah I’m so not prepared for driving in snow I don’t even know what the tools are called.) So I used my noggin and grabbed one of our buckets and started filling it with the gravel of the road the street over and started filling in the muddy holes that I got stuck in. This took upwards of 2 hours but it worked, I’m a genius! Then it was an hour drive to Kaikoura.
Kaikoura is beautiful although there is very little free parking so I parked a bit away and packed my backpack and started walking! There are seals all over the place not just on the beach there was one on my walking path and I was only slightly terrified. Before I knew it, it was 3 o’clock and I was at the tip of the peninsula thing hours away from Paggie. So I started my very long walk back, except as luck would have it a couple from Ireland picked me up and we drove to a lookout and had a bit of lunch. They were so sweet but I honestly had the hardest time understanding them, they had the thickest accents and talked so fast. I said my good byes to the couple and started walking towards town, not even 10 min later 2 boys from Amsterdam saw me walking and picked me up! They were headed to find some grub so I tagged along, we of course ended up in the pub.
The pub owner, maybe manager, I don’t really know turned out to be the most amazing person. We were there for a while and the boys had opened a tab so we made a night of it. I told the owner/manager/employee, Oliver, about how I was on my own for a week and spent way too much money in Asia. And this is how easy it is to find a job in NZ, he said I could help out around there. It wouldn’t be much pay but I could have as much food and a few beers a day! This might have been the drinks talking but I accepted no questions asked. I told them I had to go find my van though. He wouldn’t have this he told me Liam an Will (I had no idea who these people were) were staying in a house that had an extra room I could stay in, so I said sure why not! This still meant I had to go find Paggie to get my stuff but I literally had no idea where she was. So Liam who I just met 2 seconds ago drove me around Kaikoura to find her, the whole bar got a laugh at how I could lose an entire van. But we finally found her, Liam said I could park her at a cross street from the pub because she probably wouldn’t make it up the hill where they lived.
We drove 10 to 15 min away and this was no staff house this was a giant gorgeous house. I have no idea of Liam and Will’s occupations or how they knew each other or how they knew Oliver, or if this was their house or if they were just renting it, but I didn’t ask any questions I was ok with everything! My room had its own bathroom with an amazing shower and giant bathtub; there was a tv, wifi, a queen bed, 2 pups, and a toaster. Yes I made a big deal about the toaster. I realized living in a van just how important toasters really are to my happiness. He said to make myself at home and Tea (dinner) would be ready in 30 min. At dinner I finally met Will who didn’t seem to have any problems with a random weirdo moving in for a bit. But man do these boys love to drink and I mean the hard stuff, I had to tap out after the 2nd drink, they were way too strong and I was super excited for a shower!
This is the house and my only picture because I didn't want to seem like a creep taking pictures of these lovely peoples house.
I didn’t have to be in the pub until noon so I thought I would go explore a little bit. I was on my way down the giant hill when someone asked if I needed a ride, I must just have that face that looks like I’m lost all the time because this is crazy pants. I kindly said I was all set (shout out to Mags) and kept walking. I found my way to the pub and thought I would be front of house or just cleaning or something, but turns out I was mostly working the bar. I guess you don’t need a license in NZ to work the bar. The day was fine the nights weren’t that bad either because Kiakura is not a super happening place. But it was a bit tricky because they have liquors here that we don’t have so it was a lot of me trying to look for things. I did teach them about long island ice teas and Moscow mules. I’m not sure if they have them here or if they probably call them something else. Maddie told me once when we went out that cocktails in NZ can’t be sold with more than a certain percentage of alcohol in them or something along those lines. Well when I was working the rules didn’t apply, you cant make a weak long island ice tea….can you?
This went on for a couple of day. I would wake up Liam or Will would make breakfast then they would head out to somewhere (still have no idea what they did) I would play with some pups or go for a run find my way into town by walking or hitch hiking and then I would “work”. I made lots of friends being the “bar tender”, no worries nothing was ever given away for free. This meant I did more going out than usual. At one point I lost my phone for a few days and was 0% concerned because I thought it was just somewhere in that giant house. But turns out I left it at a different bar and someone recognized me and brought it back to my pub (so sorry for not responding to you people). In the end the little money I did make mostly went towards going out. So no loss really but no gain either unless you count friends, a bed, daily showers, and a toaster a gain, which I 100% do.
The day came where I had to get back to Ben’s house to park the van to fly out to Melbourne so I had to say goodbye to all my friends. I gave everyone a hug I’m pretty sure I hugged a customer or 2 but that’s fine. Then I realized I didn’t have Paggie, I had lost her again. I couldn’t for the life of me remember which cross street she was on. I clearly couldn’t tell the people so I said goodbye and started my search. One of the people I met on one of my nights out, Jack, saw me and I had to tell him I lost my van. So he put me in the car and we went on a search, so I’m sure this got back to everyone at the pub and they probably all had another good laugh at me, but I did find her.
I was finally back home at Ben’s. Ben was no longer there because I think it’s break or something for NZ universities. But I’m crazy excited about Oz I get to see some old high school friends and of course I get to see Molly on the 27th and I can’t wait! If you even kind of know me you know Molly is my absolute favorite thing….right after my puppy of course!
Endnotes
I only ended up spending a total of 3 nights by myself and cooked once for myself since Mags left!
My fear of the dark is still very prevalent
I’m a phenomenal hitchhiker
Friends are so easy to make
I only lost paggie waggie twice which I think isn’t too bad. And honestly I was not super worried when I lost her I was more scared of what Maggie would do to me if she found out I lost her (Maggie if you see this it’s all a joke Paggie was never out of my sight not even once for a second)
I am mostly jealous of Maggie going back to the states, not for the food, family, or summer weather, but because she gets to go to the dentist. I would kill to go to the dentist, oral hygiene has been a bit of a concern over here!