I was supposed to have flown out of Auckland for home YESTERDAY. WHAT?! that doesnt even make any sense in my head...that this trip was supposed to be over yesterday. I can honestly remember landing in the Auckland airport like it happened a week ago...I was greeted by my room mates Ed and Jason and we went off an explored the shit city of Auckland together..I remember crying in my empty dorm a little bit because it hit me like a sack of bricks that Holy shit, I am completely alone, with no friends or family around, on the other side of the world, for 4 months. But as soon as I manned up, the weeks flew by..wwoofing with the Mackintosh's, 2 weeks through taupo and rototrua and tongariro, becoming a surfer hippie in Raglan for a month, christmas, new years, 2 week road trip with Amy, messes and successes in Australia, back in NZ for stargazing and music..and then all of a sudden, I'm working on this freaking awesome boat and extending my stay for another 2 months. Good thing I didn't plan this trip out.
Mom, Dad, and Eric, I miss you guys a ton, and I'm sorry that I'm extending my stay here in New Zealand, and that you have to erase all of the red circles on your calendars marking my return to the homeland, but if you could see me now, how happy I am here, how much fun I am having on The Rock, the friends I've made, and the experiences I'm having...I know you would understand why. I wish so badly that you all could come here and visit, because I know you would absolutely love it and be really proud of me :). You have been the most supportive family I could ever ask for, and thank you for encouraging me to follow my dreams, and for giving me the skills and confidence to take advantage of opportunities like this one. You're all the best! And eric- take advantage of being able to eat meat every day for dinner still while I'm not home haha.
But-The Rock Life...it's nearly a month into my employment, and I still get excited to go to woek every day. This job is so rewarding , but also so incredibly challenging...every single day I am learning something new, whether it be about handling the boat, driving the dingy, how to manipulate people into cooperating with you, how to pull up a 190 kg anchor while hanging off the bow of the boat, climbing up on to the roof of the boat while it's moving to turn on the wind generator...and yet every cruise, I still somehow make some sort of critical error that warrents either: 1. me getting a "stern talking to" by my boss (aka being made feel like I am 5 inches tall because I could not see another boat 800 m away), 2. me getting thrown into the ocean with my clothes on (for saying "ya'all", or for me just simply being American), or something being broken (i.e. 10 glass bowls, a wine glass, dropping a serving dish off the side of the boat and into the sea....whoops). It's a running joke now that Kristi gets thrown into the ocean at least 3 times during every cruise- once at the end to entertain guests, abnd the other 2 are usually done by Ben and Adam pretenting I need to check something off the side of the boat, and because I still don't know what I'm doing half the time, fall for it EVERY TIME, and then i get shoved into the water much to the delight of the crew and guests. But I guess my work problems could be a lot worse than getting tossed into the south pacific :).
We've done some amazing snorkels recently....the best had to be a muscle rock when after collecting hindreds of green lipped muscles, ben and I swam alongside a massive long tailed stingray. My favorite part of snorkeling is when I take a dive knife down with me and crack open the Kina- the fish go crazy for the eggs and you can be surrounded by about 30 feeding fish, all close enough to touch. Some day, Adam is going to take us all spear fishing for some Snapper...yum. a few days ago, a few of us went out for a sunrise fish on our morning off..and as I was eating my hot crossed buns and tea while out on the water at 6:30 am...I looked around me and asked myself, "how is this my life?" The sun was rising over the islands, the 3 of us were cuddled together in our hoodies sipping tea and pulling up little snapper, and we were all just so, so happy. And even last night, When i went back to my new flat and was having a quiet night to myself, my 3 room mates, a peruvian, an argentinian, and an spaniard, made us a family dinner and we sat and drank wine and talked about their different cultures and learned how to dance like a south American mamasita.
Yeah...I'm not quite ready to go home yet.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
The Rock Life
I can't believe I was meant to be on a plane home to America in 3 days, and now here I am, in my bed to my house that I just moved into in Paihia, taking advantage of the first night off of work and going out since I arrived here for my trial. I just changed my flights today, and am officially coming home May 6th. But I'm going to FIJI before that to do my diving courses. HELL YES.
The Rock is still a dream. We work our ASSES off for 25 hours, somtimes 50 or 75 hours straight with the only break being when we sleep, but I am still awes every day by the incredible opportunity that this job has become. Not only is it a way that I am saving money to go off to get my diving certifications, but I have also acquired a new family of 5 travelers from around the world, who even though we spend every waking and unwaking second with them on the boat, we still go camping together, to to waterfalls to climb together, still go to each other's house for port and pizza after work, and still dance on tables together at Pipi patch (a horrible excuse for a night club similar to Tomato Patch Euro Dance Nights in Corolla). I've also been learning a fuck load about boats, the Bay of Islands, fishing, the oceans of New Zealand, how to make a proper cup of tea, how to handle being verbally abused every day for being American by my boss and co-workers...the list goes on and on.
Here's a sample itinerary of what a typical cruise is like, just so you guys can kind of grasp what it is we do:
-Head to the wharf around 2 pm, picking up laundy, lunches, and various other supplies to restock the boat for the cruise that night. Spend 2 hours cleaning, prepping, cooking, and sometimes dancing/stripping to get ourselves into the Rock Mindset.
-at 4 pm, our other boat, Climax, heads to the wharf to pick up customers. The are taken to The Rock, where we greet them, bring them to their rooms, learn all 36 of their names by dinner time, and try to ease the awkwardness of 36 random people getting together on a boat by serving them alcohol or asking them questions about themselves that we must pretend we are actually interested in learning about (aka- where are you from, how long have you been in NZ for...etc).
-We start cruising out into the Bay around 6 pm, and while we cruise, guests get to shoot a plastic duck target with a paintball gun as a competition, while the other crew members make popcorn and continue prepping for dinner
-We find a secluded bay and anchor up, and we start preparing the bait for fishing, wich must be descaled, filleted, and chopped into pieces enough for 36 guests for an hour of fishing. We get the fiishing poles out for a sunset session, and hopefully catch fresh snapper or Kawhai for dinner, which has happened about 50% of the cruises. We have to unhook every fish that guests catch, and we can only keep snapper about 27 cm. The rest get thrown back. But the big ones we keep and get thrown on the bbq with brown sugar and lemon pepper. YUM.
-After fisahing, if we have a Kahwhai, Adam picks a guest to kill the fish by bashing it on the head, and then surprises the guest by telling them that by killing the fish, they have to eat the dead, still beating heart. They always succumb and eat the heart...except for one time, in which i was nominated, and my vegetarian ass had to eat the beating heart of a fish in front of 40 cheering people. Yum.
-We then set up dinner, which is a bbq of steaks, sausages, pasta, and veg. dinner is by candle light and is very romantic and fun
-We clean up everything, and then we prep the guests for night kayaking, where we take them on a 20 minute kayak to see phosphorescence in the water, which is INCREDIBLE. The other night, it was so bright, you ciould see the outlines of fish in the dead black water, and when they moved, it looked like fireworks. Amazing.
-When kayaking is over, we start a fire down the back of the boat and the guests roast marshmallows and play guitar.
-The next morning, we get up at 6:30 to prep for the day/make breakky. Breakfast is at 8 am, and right after breakky, we go snorkeling!!!!!!! which is my favorite part of the job, and since I am like a fish in the water, I am always on snorkeling duty :). We see heaps of fish, kelp, stingrays, eels, starfish, and we collect Kina and Muscles.
-After snorkeling, we bring the guests to an island, where we go for a hike to the lookout, and the play on the beach for the rest of the time. Weve had a few intense ganes of beach soccer, volleyball, and even beach flags going. Some of the crew has to stay on the boat, where they strip and make all 36 beds in a little over an hour.
-Guests come back to the boat, we give them lunches, and then we entertain them with music, board games, trivia...anything for the next hour until we cruise into Paihia and they leave.
- We clean for another 2 hours, and end the shift with a beer and a reading of the guests comments, which usually sing our praises :).
There is so much more to this job though than just entertaining guests- its customer service, being a tour guide, house keeper, chef, sailor, sea-man, team mate, conservationist, historian, and you have to do everything with a smile on your face and a skip in your step, even though 3 minutues earlier you just got reamed out by your boss because the mugs were facing the wrong way. But hey- I can take that if I get to go snorkeling every day and get paid to do it!
The Rock is still a dream. We work our ASSES off for 25 hours, somtimes 50 or 75 hours straight with the only break being when we sleep, but I am still awes every day by the incredible opportunity that this job has become. Not only is it a way that I am saving money to go off to get my diving certifications, but I have also acquired a new family of 5 travelers from around the world, who even though we spend every waking and unwaking second with them on the boat, we still go camping together, to to waterfalls to climb together, still go to each other's house for port and pizza after work, and still dance on tables together at Pipi patch (a horrible excuse for a night club similar to Tomato Patch Euro Dance Nights in Corolla). I've also been learning a fuck load about boats, the Bay of Islands, fishing, the oceans of New Zealand, how to make a proper cup of tea, how to handle being verbally abused every day for being American by my boss and co-workers...the list goes on and on.
Here's a sample itinerary of what a typical cruise is like, just so you guys can kind of grasp what it is we do:
-Head to the wharf around 2 pm, picking up laundy, lunches, and various other supplies to restock the boat for the cruise that night. Spend 2 hours cleaning, prepping, cooking, and sometimes dancing/stripping to get ourselves into the Rock Mindset.
-at 4 pm, our other boat, Climax, heads to the wharf to pick up customers. The are taken to The Rock, where we greet them, bring them to their rooms, learn all 36 of their names by dinner time, and try to ease the awkwardness of 36 random people getting together on a boat by serving them alcohol or asking them questions about themselves that we must pretend we are actually interested in learning about (aka- where are you from, how long have you been in NZ for...etc).
-We start cruising out into the Bay around 6 pm, and while we cruise, guests get to shoot a plastic duck target with a paintball gun as a competition, while the other crew members make popcorn and continue prepping for dinner
-We find a secluded bay and anchor up, and we start preparing the bait for fishing, wich must be descaled, filleted, and chopped into pieces enough for 36 guests for an hour of fishing. We get the fiishing poles out for a sunset session, and hopefully catch fresh snapper or Kawhai for dinner, which has happened about 50% of the cruises. We have to unhook every fish that guests catch, and we can only keep snapper about 27 cm. The rest get thrown back. But the big ones we keep and get thrown on the bbq with brown sugar and lemon pepper. YUM.
-After fisahing, if we have a Kahwhai, Adam picks a guest to kill the fish by bashing it on the head, and then surprises the guest by telling them that by killing the fish, they have to eat the dead, still beating heart. They always succumb and eat the heart...except for one time, in which i was nominated, and my vegetarian ass had to eat the beating heart of a fish in front of 40 cheering people. Yum.
-We then set up dinner, which is a bbq of steaks, sausages, pasta, and veg. dinner is by candle light and is very romantic and fun
-We clean up everything, and then we prep the guests for night kayaking, where we take them on a 20 minute kayak to see phosphorescence in the water, which is INCREDIBLE. The other night, it was so bright, you ciould see the outlines of fish in the dead black water, and when they moved, it looked like fireworks. Amazing.
-When kayaking is over, we start a fire down the back of the boat and the guests roast marshmallows and play guitar.
-The next morning, we get up at 6:30 to prep for the day/make breakky. Breakfast is at 8 am, and right after breakky, we go snorkeling!!!!!!! which is my favorite part of the job, and since I am like a fish in the water, I am always on snorkeling duty :). We see heaps of fish, kelp, stingrays, eels, starfish, and we collect Kina and Muscles.
-After snorkeling, we bring the guests to an island, where we go for a hike to the lookout, and the play on the beach for the rest of the time. Weve had a few intense ganes of beach soccer, volleyball, and even beach flags going. Some of the crew has to stay on the boat, where they strip and make all 36 beds in a little over an hour.
-Guests come back to the boat, we give them lunches, and then we entertain them with music, board games, trivia...anything for the next hour until we cruise into Paihia and they leave.
- We clean for another 2 hours, and end the shift with a beer and a reading of the guests comments, which usually sing our praises :).
There is so much more to this job though than just entertaining guests- its customer service, being a tour guide, house keeper, chef, sailor, sea-man, team mate, conservationist, historian, and you have to do everything with a smile on your face and a skip in your step, even though 3 minutues earlier you just got reamed out by your boss because the mugs were facing the wrong way. But hey- I can take that if I get to go snorkeling every day and get paid to do it!
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