New Zealand: week two- June 20-25

Saturday June 20

Suz, Emerald, and I went to Suz's parents' house to help them get things in order for their open house the next day (they are "shifting"…I find that I like this term better than "moving" now.) I finally got to meet Rob and his wife. And here's where the back story to how I came to be in this family begins…My friend, the one I mentioned in the previous post, dated Rob for a couple of years and even moved to New Zealand for a bit with him. Funny how the universe works, eh? Anyway.

Hello, chicken.

Hello, cows.

Hello, more cows.

For some reason, they were freakin' me out. Shouldn't have though because my grandparents had cows when I was little.

Little road-side statue

As you probably noticed, the sky was dark & cloudy from rain...

But it made for a beautiful sunset.

Sunday June 21

Someone I worked with at Hebrew school told me about some relatives of hers that moved to Queenstown, so I added them on FB and she told me about her son that lives in Auckland so we had become FB friends as well and met up to watch "The Hobbit" (only the first one) and walked around the marina for a little bit before I went back home.

Monday June 22

I went back to one of the places I thought seemed promising to hire me, but unfortunately the manager wasn't around, so I ended up going to the bank to open up an account and had to set up an appointment for the next day. I guess at least it got me out of the house for a bit.

Tuesday June 23

I went back to the promising café and met with the manager and she told me to come in for a few trial shifts starting Saturday and Sunday 7-4:30! Woo-hoo! Then I went over to the bank…not even kidding, it felt like a date. They asked me so many questions and wanted to get to know me and I guess it's nice they want to try to get you the best account possible, but like an hour later it kinda becomes annoying. I just want a cheap/free checking account for the time that I'm here…now open that account up for me. Just super drawn out in my opinion. Then I went to buy some new pants for my new job. Today was Suz's birthday! So her in-laws and her friend and friend's son came for dinner. Another daughter of a friend of Suz's made her a really amazing cake. It was a lovely night.

Finally had some hokey pokey ice cream. I'd eat it again :)

Wednesday June 24

It was much too cold to enter the world…it got down to the low 30's the night before and I couldn't fathom leaving my warm bed. So, in case you didn't know. It's winter in the southern hemisphere. In New Zealand, they don't have central heat/ac. They're doing good to even have a wood-burning stove to heat the house, and some houses have towel warmers because it's so cold (and humid) that the towels won't dry. Also, like in Israel, dryers are a luxury so you hang everything to dry. It's been much easier to dry clothes here because of the fireplace than it was Tel Aviv with no air movement in the apartment and didn't run the heat much because of the possibility of causing a high electric bill. Suz's friend and her son stayed the night the night before and again this night. She lived in China for 14 years and picked up some pretty tasty recipes and treated us to one of them.

Thursday June 25

I have now officially been here TWO weeks :) I decided I would make us dinner. Super easy-looking recipe, how could I not give it a try? I went out to go to the grocery store and while out, I went in a couple of restaurants/cafes and gave them my CV. Why not? Picked up the groceries I needed and headed home. I hadn't been home for more than an hour when one of the places gave me a call to see if maybe I'd be interested in having a couple of trial shifts! Score! Two potential jobs! So I am to start this one Monday morning, 6am sharp. I really hope this one works out because it's maybe a 10 minute walk. Back to dinner, it was a hit. So easy…I even had some (heavy) cream left over so I made some whipped cream. I am so proud that I know how to make that so now I don't have to buy it out of a can anymore!

What a great week...home-cooked meals, mini-farm visit, meeting a bunch of family and friends, learning how to do things/cook, and two upcoming job trials. In case you are wondering what in the world is a trial: a trial is where you come in and work for a couple of hours, usually unpaid, and management can see how you work and if they want to offer you a job or not. Interesting concept, yeah?

New Zealand: week one- June 11-19

After I made the decision to go to New Zealand, a friend of mine got in touch with a few friends of hers that she had met during her time in New Zealand.  One them offered me a place to stay for couple of days upon arrival. I was appreciative but unsure if I would take her up on her offer.

My time in Arkansas was coming to an end and I was stressing out about where I was going to stay so I reached out to my friend's friend to see if the offer was still on the table. Thankfully she said yes and I told her it would only be a couple of days.

I said my goodbyes to my friends and family in Arkansas and headed to Las Vegas to say goodbye to friends there as well. I was only there a couple of days before my friend, Jessica, and I set out on a road trip to Los Angeles. We experienced our first AirBnB stay in a nice house close to the airport. It was also close to the beach…which, in my cry-baby opinion, was cold and spent most of the time in a hoodie or wrapped up in a towel. Still, it was nice to put our feet in the sand and look across the ocean. We went to a hookah bar, a comedy club, and had a mini spa day.

I spent my beach day in Jessica's hoodie...brr!

I couldn't stand it being June and not have a warm-looking beach picture.

Garden at the AirBnB

What a gal :)

This was a lot of fun...I should go to comedy shows more often!

Thoughts like "wtf am I doing?" And "have I completely lost my mind?" Had been spinning through my head and finally made their way out of my mouth. Jessica took me to the airport and reassured me that everything would be fine and reminded me this was what I've been wanting to do…and off I set to begin my New Zealand adventure.

See ya when I'm lookin at ya.

13 hour flight starts....NOW.

This is all I packed...feels like too much and not enough at the same time.

I was scheduled to leave on flight NZ1 at 21:45pst (that's 9:45pm for you who are too lazy to figure that up ;) ). The guy next to me chatted for a while until the girl on the other side of him joined in and I slowly stuck my headphones in my ears to begin a movie. It was a rather short plane trip, even though it was 13hrs.

Thursday June 11

Upon arrival just before 6am, I logged into the free wifi and tried to make contact with a woman I've never met before who would be taking me home with her. Even though we'd never met and both of us had a vague idea of what the other really looked like, we made eye contact almost immediately. Now, I have officially met Suzanne. We drove to her house where 3 of her 4 daughters were buzzing around getting ready for their day. One for work (Misha), another for school (Emerald) and the other would be going to work later (Jasmine).

Jasmine kindly took me to get a sim card for my phone. Ah, connected to the world again. After she went to work, I walked back to town for another look around. They actually live in South Auckland (which by bus, is about 1.5hr to city centre). Interesting small town. Came across a graveyard, so of course I'm going to check it out. Now, remember, winter just started over here…just thought I'd throw that in there before I mentioned we had homemade chili that night.

Friday, June 12

Jasmine took me to the bank where I was unsuccessful at opening an account. But we did have a nice little lunch at the PizzaBox. I had fries with my tiny pizza so naturally I asked for mayo but was given something even tastier…aioli. That night we had fish and chips for dinner. Very yum. (They don't say yummy here, I've gathered. Just yum).

Saturday June 13

Suz, Emerald, and I had a drive around the city. It's so pretty! I was thankful that Suz drove me around because it definitely helped with trying to place places in Auckland in the map in my mind. Two close friends of theirs came by to have dinner with us. Hilarious couple.

Sky Tower...

Auckland- The City of Sails

Nice warm fire for a cold winter night

Sunday June 14

We all had a pretty chill day. Watched a movie and lounged around. After discussing it with the girls first, Suz offered to let me stay instead of trying to find somewhere else. How sweet of her!

Monday June 15

Even though Suz had offered me a place, I had already set up some viewings for rooms in the city. My first viewing was at 10 very close to the city centre. It was an interesting living situation. I would be sharing a room with 2 girls (3 beds side by side) and another room occupied by a couple for $110/wk. It was a very small place, had a great view, and I could maybe get used to being that close to people…but what I wasn't going to get used to was the smell of curry. Even just the thought of curry makes me feel violently ill. I left there and walked around, finding the coolest stores. I can't wait to have a job so I can go back to them! My next viewing was at 13:00 and it was already 11:30 so I decided I had better get to that area in case I got lost. The bus dropped me off in a super residential area with houses only…no shops or anything really in the vicinity. Not a good sign. Finally found the house and I was early so the person I was supposed to meet wasn't there. Instead, two guys who lived there ended up showing me around. I knew it wasn't for me so I decided I would just leave. It was drizzling and they were kind enough to drive me to the bus stop where I waited about 30 minutes for the next bus. Yeah, never would've made it there. Once back in the city, I decided to be in the area of my next viewing which was at 16:00. Walked around for a while and found a cool cemetery. I could've spent the entire day exploring it and the neighboring park area, but eventually had to make my way to my next appointment which didn't happen as they were "busy" at work. Went home and shared about my day and how it was mostly a failure in terms of finding housing, but it actually turned out to be a win since I decided to take Suz up on her offer to stay with her and the girls. They have been truly amazing and I'd be crazy not to stick around for a while.

Fancy a dance?

Definitely want to dress in layers. Kept getting hot then cold and it rained off and on most of the day.

Such a pretty little hill

Interesting looking church.

Came across this cemetery (Symonds Street Cemetery) which you can read about here.

Add a little black and white...make it a little extra creepy <3

Read more about Symonds Street Cemetery here

Here's another interesting article...

How cool is this place?!

Basque Park (here's a Wiki link if you want to learn about it)

Gotta have some rain to have rainbows ;)

Tuesday June 16-Friday June 19

I mostly spent these days working on my CV and looking for job postings online. No nibbles yet, but I did have some success with getting in touch with someone at Beth Shalom in the city who got me in touch with someone who added me to a Facebook group for Jews in Auckland. I introduced myself and before I knew it, I had somewhere to go for Shabbat dinner. It was nice because it's been a while since I've done a proper Shabbat dinner and I've missed it. The family was nice. They let me light the candles (pressure!), did the blessings, the daughter played violin while we sang "Shalom Aleichem", ate dinner, and we struggled reading through the end of dinner prayers, but we did it! I also sent off to get my IRD (tax number) and dropped off my CV at a couple of places.  

Nice and easy first week in New Zealand. A lot of people are asking for pictures...they will come with time, but for now I'm busy trying to find a job so I can work for a bit and then I will feel more comfortable traveling around at least in Auckland and the surrounding area. Other than a job, I'm looking up and joining interest groups on Meetup.com as a way to make some friends. Saturday, June 27, I'm attending my first Meetup with the one Jewish group I found on there. It's dinner in the city and I'm looking forward to it...

Up next...week two!

So...why New Zealand?

This is the question I get asked a lot. First of all, why not? But seriously, here's the reason...

Back in March I made the decision that I wanted to follow through with this idea I had formed a few years ago. In 2011, I went on this west coast road trip adventure and planned out where I wanted to end up by 2014 and that destination was New Zealand. I ended up not following that plan. Instead, I lived in Arkansas for a period of time before moving to Las Vegas for two years where my life changed completely. At the end of my two year stint, I went back to Arkansas for a month before venturing off to Tel Aviv, Israel. Now, that wonderful experience is a story all its own. I am still mad at myself for not keeping a journal of some sort. I'll always have the memories though, right? Anyway, even before my time was over in TLV, I started freaking out about coming back to the U.S. I was not ready for that…

I got back to Arkansas in mid-February and not a week later, I was in Las Vegas for a week. My reason for going was to try and figure out my next plan of action. I left Las Vegas without much clarity, but was happy I got to see my friends, nonetheless. I got back to Arkansas and started working part-time at one of my old jobs, Western Sizzlin. Even though I had some ideas, I wasn't 100% sure what I was going to do, but I knew I still needed to make some money in the meantime.

I had been toying with the idea of teaching English in Thailand, working on a cruise ship, working as a waitress in the Virgin Islands, making Aliyah to Israel and maybe going back to school, or applying for a working holiday visa (WHV) in Australia or New Zealand which has an age limit of 18-30 years old. "Wait…I'll be 30 in September," I remembered. My reduced-price school idea from making Aliyah was also on a 30 year old age limit, but as much as I want to live in Israel I knew it would be better to put some distance between Israel and me…it wouldn't be the same considering everything…and also I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't do the WHV.

I started doing some research about which WHV was better by reading blogs for inspiration, asking people who have done something similar for their opinion/advice, etc. I didn't really want to go to Australia as much as I did New Zealand, and also the visa for Oz is in the neighborhood of $450 while the visa fee is waived for NZ. Uh…I think the decision was pretty clear.

I applied for the visa and heard back pretty quickly that I was accepted. I applied March 14, got a response March 18, and bought my one-way ticket to Auckland on March 26 for June 9.

I made zero plans, didn't do any real research (where to live, work, visit), etc because I'm irresponsible I like to fly by the seat of my pants and also didn't want to get my hopes up to be let down.

During the rest of my time in the States, I got to go see my life-long best friend, Siobhan, in Florida and spent the majority of my time working, spending some time with family and friends, and trying not to freak out. I also got to go see my favorite band, mewithoutYou, in Oxford, Mississippi, thanks to Zac as my Secret Shlomo gift. And probably my biggest regret, if I truly had any regrets surrounding my insane decision, is that I didn't wait to see when MWY was going to release their new album/tour dates. Wouldn't you know they started like 2 days after my departure date and release the cd the following week. Maybe they'll decide they need to visit New Zealand.

So, anyway. That's sorta how I ended up deciding to go to New Zealand. Didn't want to live Arkansas, Vegas isn't really home anymore, Israel wouldn't be the same, and it's something I said back in 2011 that I wanted to do. Didn't want to disappoint past Starr.

Stick around to see how it turns out...in the meantime, enjoy this song from mewithoutYou's new album (click here to buy it) :)