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!
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