After I checked out I decided to visit my two German friends, who I met at the caravan parc. Isabel and Laura are from Bavaria and have wwoofed in a huge house in St. Helliers where they have to take care of cats. They stay  on the other side of the city and so I had to take buses I have never taken before. When I finally had arrived at the bus stop where they live, I couldn’t find any street names, and so I decided to hitchhike at about 8:30 pm. This time a nice old woman picked me up (her name was Sandra) and gave me a lift to the house of the girls. It wasn’t at all on her way, but she was happy to have somebody to talk to. When she dropped me in the driveway she gave me all her personal details and invited me to her house in St. Helliers whenever  I will come to Auckland again. I was very glad that I had got this lift from Sandra, said thank you and goodbye, and walked along to the house, where the girls were already waiting for me. We spent a really funny night playing all kinds of games, we played with dices, UNO and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner. I could print out all my tickets for my trip and had a nice place to stay over the night.

Today I got up at 5:30 am, had breakfast and caught the bus to downtown. After a 25- minutes-drive I arrived at the bus stop and realized the nakedbus to Rotorua was already  there. I checked in and we departed at 7:15 am. Four hours later I arrived in Rotorua.

After I had booked the tour to Te Puia and had checked in at my hostel, I met a nice Japanese girl called Ayli and told her about my plans. She wanted to join me and so we arranged the booking together. We started the tour by bus to Te Puia. Te Puia is a Maori cultural place with hot geysers, mudpools and Maori cultural perfomances. There, first of all, we went to see the Maori perfomance, which was due to start at 12:15 pm. It was really interesting to see the Haka, a traditional Maori dance to scare away their enemies,  different dances for the men and for the women.

Both of us, Ayli and me, took part in the different kinds of dances and the Maoris showed us and other tourists (most of them older than us), the dance moves. One dance position I definitely liked best, maybe you will find out which one it is in the pictures.^^

Marcel the Maori

Dancing for 40 minutes was quite hard, and so we decided to walk to the Pohutu Geyser and the mudpools. Since I’ve never seen an active geyser before,  that was an exciting experience for me. It’s so impressive to watch this hot mixture of water and air splashing out of the earth. The blue pool had a really nice colour and a little waterfall was coming down to it.

The mudpools were also very impressive to see. But I was a little bit disappointed because I had expected to take a bath in them or go for a swim. :/  Unfortunately thas was not possible, or we missed the right ones, I don’t know.

For lunch we had Hangi (the traditional meal of the Maori). The meal was served in a handmade boule and the ingredients were pumpkin, sweet potatoe, chicken, pork, a special rice served with gravy and the typical Maori bread on top. It was really healthy and tasty,  but not enough for me, so I bought another pie and a muffin for dessert.

When we had finished I was full and we started to walk to the Kiwi station. That was quite dull because we just saw one kiwi and this one was sleeping. We waited really patiently and didn’t make any noises, but when a huge group of tourists appeared,  we just went off.

At the end of our Te Puia tour we took some beautiful photos with our guardian angels. Mine is the guardian angel of wisdom (April).

Back at the hostel I decided to go to the Polynesian Spa. It was just a few meters away from my hostel, and I chose the program “Lake Spa”. In the queue in front of the Spa I met a Swedish girl called Sarah. We spent almost the whole time of our stay together, had good conversations, enjoyed the different-temperatured pools (42-45°C) and took some beautiful photos.

In the end of my spa-stay I met a really cool family from California who invited me to stay with them when I come to California. I left my signature in the recommendation book of the spa and went home.  On my way back I realized, that my necklace has changed its colour. Now it looks more like an used “ old-travel-necklace” because of the hot pools. Actually in Te Puia, I had found out, that my necklace symbolizes the Hei Matau, a traditional Maori hookworm which signifies strength (Mana), prosperity and peace and harmony with all water elements. Blub^^

The last days (from Monday to Wednesday) I worked for Retail Dimension. After work I went to the harbour almost every day, enjoyed the beautiful weather and got to know a lot of nice people. On Tuesday I went out with a 28-year old Japanese girl to a really nice restaurant called “degree”,  which is close to the harbour, and we enjoyed a nice view, good conversations and had a lot of fun together.  The restaurant is famous for its stone-grill-setup. Kanoko chose a meal where they put a hot stone with fresh meat in front of you and you have to cook it yourself. It was quite funny and I found it really nice to see how everybody could prove his cooking skills. She did quite well.

When I went home from the bus stop, I realized that I lost my phone. :/ I tried very hard  to get it back, went to Starbucks coffee and asked if someone had found it and finally called vodafone to block it. They blocked it and  mentioned, that someone had tried to dial numbers from my phone after 12 (the time when I had used it the last time) but they weren’t aloud to give me the details of the numbers. Privacy laws… So from now on I have to live without a phone. I will try to get online as often as I can. I will start travelling tomorrow. My first stop is Rotorua, where I want to see the Pohutu Geysir and jump into the legendary mudpools. The next day I will catch the nakedbus and will go to Lake Taupo. After that I will take the bus to Wellington, where I want to work for some weeks.

Today I started to work at 10:00 pm. I worked for a company called Allproof Industries ( a new and young company) where I met a lot of guys my age or younger. In the beginning I had to pack different products from Allproof…

different endings…

…for plumbs

After lunch we started to unload the container. It was a 30 m long container full of insulation-mats which weight around 40-50 kg. We had to unload the whole container, to lift and carry about 1000 mats from the container to the hall.   We had started with 4 guys working together,  in the end it was just me and another guy from Tradestaff.

Carrying two mats was more fun and much harder

done

We finished at 5:00 pm and I took the bus home. On my way home I got a call from Retail Dimension. They wanted me back for tomorrow, I was such a good worker.   I agreed and will work there tomorrow again.

                                                      WOW that was a good workout.

Today I got up at 6:20 and caught the bus at 7:05. When I arrived at work Carl wasn’t there yet, so I decided to get a coffee. When I came back Carl was there and we drove to the gas-station “Caltex-Albany” with another man. We had to stick the new panels all around the gas-station because they switched there design from red to orange green.

before

So we had to measure, cut, glue, lift and carry the panels. I stood on the scaffold with Carl and sticked the panels to the wall. We had to work exactly and carefully.

Scaffolder No. 1                          some cones                     our truck

After lunch the work got really hard, because some wind had been risen and the panels almost flew away. So it got really hard to lift, turn and get them properly on the scaffold. :/ We were a good team and handled everything very well. See the results

after                                      our territory ^^              finished

The other man who used to work with us was from Fiji and I had really good and funny conversations with him. He told me a lot about Fiji and invited me to his daughters house. When I will be in Suva I will catch up with her maybe. I will see. He gave me a lift to my caravan park and I was really exhausted. 9 and a half hours standing on a scaffod in 4-5 meters is not as easy as it looks like.

Today I got up at 8 oclock (very late) because I had to start working at 10 o’clock. When I had arrived at the demanded address, there was nobody around and so I called Tradestaff. The building was hidden between  two other companies, and so it was really hard to find. Nevertheless I found it in time. The CEO, my supervisor, is called Brent, he is a nice, funny and presumably very rich guy. The company sells its goods worldwide and is quite famous for delivering products of good quality. I asked Brent how much you have to pay for one biomag, and he said 750NZD, so approximately 350€.

some biomags

We had to load hundreds of biomags, lots of cartons,  tables,  cupboards and sheets on containers, had to lift them and carry them, recycle the waste, clean the warehouse and were on our feet during the whole day.

Brent gave us some of his products for free. Quite nice.  In the end I got two new pairs of socks, a new T-shirt and some new pants.   In the end we (another woman from Tradestaff and me) had been working for 6 and a half hours (not so long ). When we had finished the woman (Vickie) gave me a lift and dropped me at my caravan-park.

Today I got up at 5:20 am because I had to be at work at 7:00 am. The busride took me 35 minutes and then I had to walk for 20 minutes till I got to the company. The company was called Retail Dimension (it is a company that produces paintings, advertisements and posters for different companies). At the reception I met a really nice guy called Carl, who informed me about being too early. (I will work for him on Wednesday ) He showed me where I could  get some coffee, and we had a good conversation till 8:00 am, when Richard, my supervisor, arrived. We headed straight to work to a construction site inside a store (got there in his van with all the necessary equipment). Westpac Bank wants to move in, so we had to design everything in red.

Richard (who is a really nice guy too) and me built up a wall for the ATM’s and the different bank counters. It was hard work and it took us till lunch to build it up.

Richard working

After lunch I had to scrape off the old advertisement from the windows inside the shop. Richard gave me a scraper and a watersprayer.

window with ad…

sexy HiViz …

You can’t scrape off posters without water, otherwise you would scratch the window. So I did this until 5:00 pm.

scraped poster

during lunch

finished work

On my way back (RIchard gave me a lift to my caravan park) I got a call from Tradestaff, that tomorrow I will have a job in a warehouse, on Wednesday with Carl, and on Thursday I will have to work in Beachhaven to unload containers.

Tough program for the week.    When I got home I went for a jog to the shops and bought my groceries for the next days.

Today I got up at 8:30 am and asked for the way to Henderson’s at the reception. I wanted to go to Henderson’s because there is the Tradestaff branch for which I want to work in Auckland. After a one-hour- bus-drive I arrived there. The guys in the office were really nice and they said they will call me as soon as there is some work available. So I had some free time and decided to go to Waiheke Island for the rest of the day. I checked how I could get there as fast as possible and arrived on Waiheke Island at 2:30 pm.

Down there I didn’t want to spend too much money and so I decided to hitchhike. A nice couple gave me a lift to the next town in their 4WD.

I spent the whole day walking around the island, enjoyed a beautiful scenery around me, met really nice people and the weather was warm and fine. I enjoyed a perfect day, went swimming in the sea, relaxed on the beach and took a lot of photos.

I returned by the ferry at 7:00 o’clock, had enjoyed a really good time and was just tired. On the way back to my hostel (half an hour walk^^) I got a call from the job-agency. I GOT A JOB STARTING ON MONDAY!!! AS A LABOURER. I was really happy about that and enjoyed a nice dinner.

Today I got up at 7:00 o’clock, said goodbye to Tim Lars and took the airport shuttle at 7:30 am. At the airport I had to wait for 2 hours, met a lot of nice people and arrived in Auckland at 12:15. Then I checked in at my hostel, did some shopping, called some numbers for jobs and finally walked around in Auckland (Harbour, Skytower, Harbour Bridge,)

Harbour

Skytower

Harbour Bridge

It was my last working-day in Christchurch and it was – to be honest – the hardest. We had to dig holes for 9 ½ hours.

I figured out why we had to dig the holes. The house had to be lifted up. So we had to dig a hole with a cave under the foundation to place the jag ( it can lift 20 tonnes).

the jag

me

the house

how to place a jag

We had to dig a hole every two meters (half a meter deep under the foundation) so that the jags can lift up the big house. 🙂 It needs to be lifted up because they want to fill the ground with cement. So that the house will be more solid and stable against e.g. earthquakes.

Tim Lars working

 

finished work

 After work we drove to Tradestaff to return my work-gear and my timesheet. 🙂 Then we drove to our hostel and I had to do my laundry, arrange my airport-shuttle and pack all my stuff. 🙂 The hostel was called Dorset House Backpackers and it was a really nice and luxurious hostel.

It was Tim Lars‘ and my last evening together before I will take off to Auckland, so we talked a lot and both agreed, that we had enjoyed a wonderful roadtrip together and hopefully we will see each other again in Auckland. 🙂

Today we got up at 7:00 and got to know our new boss. He’s called Richard and is a really nice guy. We drove to the house. It is one of the houses that had been destroyed by the earthquakes some 2 years ago.

We had to pull up the floor, remove nails, carry heavy stuff, dig really big holes and worked for 9 ½ hours.

After that we were really exhausted and went to New Brighton to take a shower on the beach.

Tomorrow we will work on another construction site at another damaged house. So we will sleep tonight in our car next to it again. 🙂