Ending with a surprise

What do a rainy day, library, job rejection, surprise and my brother have in common? I know right, a strange combination.

Parting ways

Only a few days after my brother left us, Simon and I also went our separate ways. As Simon found a job before me, I took the car, and only three days later, I also got a job, a HelpX. It was a job that I couldn't imagine getting even in my wildest dreams.

Working for food and accommodation

Ever heard of HelpX? It's a website where travellers can find hosts who offer accommodation and meals in exchange for a few hours of work per day. During my travels, I was lucky enough to stay with a host in Christchurch who owned several beautiful villas. While I can't reveal too much about her to respect her privacy, I can tell you that she was a wonderful person - warm, kind, and knowledgeable.

Working for her was a great experience - I did some light gardening, window cleaning, cooking, and other small tasks in exchange for a private bedroom and bathroom, delicious meals, high-speed internet, and full use of the property's amenities, including a pool, jacuzzi, sauna, and a large living room. Best of all, I got to live and work in two of her beautiful villas.

Back on the road

Unfortunately, my host, Kirsteen, had to leave for a week-long music festival on the North Island, so I had to find another place to stay. She kindly offered to let me stay at one of her villas if it wasn't already booked on Airbnb, but it turned out to be already rented out.

I moved North, just 15 minutes out of Christchurch, to lower living expenses and because camps there are not in between the concrete jungle. For 15$/day, I found quite a cute campsite that was 200 m off the beach and 3 km from Kaiapoi library (free internet).

Kirsteen and I agreed that we would hear from each other as the week passed, and she came back, but exactly on that day, I landed a new five-week job in Akaroa. We decided that we would meet again when I finish my job, but as you will read below, we didn't have an opportunity.

Batmobile

I never really touched the subject of our old but reliable car. A car that was bought in somewhat of a hurry, in the first two weeks in New Zealand, that was mostly reliable but was able to make a few grey hairs here and there.

As we expected, everyone was looking for a car when we arrived in New Zealand at the end of October, as the summer was knocking on the doors. Every newcomer dreamed of buying a reliable, self-contained vehicle so they could sleep anywhere they fancied.

Truth be told, you could find such cars, but they weren't cheap, or if they were cheap, they probably weren't good. Then there was a problem with resellers, which tried to scam you out of your every penny. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

Simon and I have seen quite a few of those cars and even drove in one, but in the end, we decided it was not worth the risk. We started looking for a non-self-contained caravan long enough for 2m tall people to sleep in it.

We were quite lucky, I guess. We found a car that had 100 000 km less on the odometer than self-contained vehicles in the same price range, and we also knew that it would be easier to sell it when we leave New Zealand because the car wouldn't be appealing only to backpackers, but also to New Zealand residents.

As mentioned before, to keep us entertained, the car would occasionally lose power when on low RPM, leak water through the trunk's speakers on your head while you are sleeping and it is raining outside, drive over two screws, so you wake up to a flat tyre, produce a hole in the radiator so that you need to buy new coolant and fix the hole DIY, as it would be too expensive to have a professional repair, have a radio that will from time to time raise the volume when you're trying to lower it and vice versa, have a passenger’s window motor working slower and slower, up to a point you're afraid to use it, develop a loud squeaking sound in front right shock absorber, that would turn heads when you're doing slower speed corners, unlock the door only if you do it on a driver's side of the car, but in the end, never leave you on the edge of the road. And for 2600$, we couldn't expect more!

Toaster, the man's best friend

At the end of March, in the early morning hours, when the first specks of light started to appear above the horizon, fighting with the rain and wind, I was driving backwards towards my tent. I did this so that the car could be as close to the tent as possible, to rip the tent out of the soil and throw it into the vehicle.

I knew I still needed to be careful how I packed it, as I would need to use it for one more week during my trials, and I didn't really want the insides of the tent to get wet. That's why the tarp went into a big box, keeping the water from spreading all over the other parts.

The forecast for the upcoming week was nowhere close to what I got used to sleeping in. It was a warm-weather forecast with no rain, and I was looking forward to it. I mean, who wouldn't be? If you have to sleep in a tent with 3°C outside, in a sleeping bag with a comfort zone at around 10°C, a 10°C night temperature forecast is something to look forward to.

And then there was THE JOB, the best job in my whole New Zealand experience. I was sleeping in a caravan and working as a receptionist and morning cleaner in a holiday park. Stunning bay surrounded by rolling hills, pitch-black night sky, the silence that hurts your ears, and the cheapest accommodation ever.

For 50nz$/week I got a caravan with a joined hut only for myself, with a big king-sized bed, couch, TV, big fridge, sink, and a few utilities. It would be almost too good if there were no drawbacks to that price.

There was no bathroom, so I needed to walk 200m through cold, rain, wind and night to the main camp facilities to shower or go to the toilet. And the biggest drawback no heating whatsoever and paper-like insulation! Luckily, there was a pop-up type of toaster in the caravan, so I modified it (I duck-taped it so it wouldn't turn off) and used it for heating, toast toasting, hair and washed clothes drying. Now that I think, I'm lucky it was there, as I would probably freeze without it.

Promise land? Not really

As beautiful as New Zealand and Kiwis were, they still didn't grow up to my expectations. 100% Pure New Zealand tourism slogan, PLEASE!

Every year, New Zealand faces massive immigration, which brings short-term wealth for the country but long-term decline. One of the ways to get permanent residency in New Zealand today is to invest 2.5 million nz$, this brings a lot of Asian and Indian immigrants who invest in buying themselves a house. This drives the housing prices to go up and up. Because of this, a few months ago, New Zealand became the world's worst country to purchase a house. Every news outlet has been broadcasting for months now that most young Kiwi families can never buy a house without their parents’ or loans. Also, in Auckland, there are more foreigners than New Zealanders, and not that I have anything towards foreigners, but it feels strange.

Because of this influx, it is also harder for immigrants to land a proper job. I completely understand Kiwis when they want you to have a New Zealand diploma and New Zealand experience to get a well-paying job. It doesn't matter if you have a doctorate and ten years of experience. In New Zealand that counts close to nothing.

I decided I didn't care about this and that sooner or later, I would get a job that I like, but boy, I was wrong. I was sending job applications from November to April, to no avail. On a few occasions, I even got into the second round of selections, but in the end, there was always a Kiwi that got the job.

The environment is abused too. Money-hungry capitalism didn't spare the land down under, especially the North Island. Due to abusive agriculture, the soil is soaked with pesticides and rivers brown with cow and sheep faeces. This year the government decided to clean 90% of rivers and lakes, so they become swimmable again by 2040. A bit late in my opinion.

The sun! Because of the clean air and ozone hole stretching from over Antarctica, the sun is so strong that it will burn you in less than 10 minutes. No wonder New Zealand has the highest mortality rate due to skin cancer. Sunscreen with factor 50 is a must, and everyone uses it.

No one knew

No one but the persons who were crucial for execution knew what I was planning. Not landing a proper job, and with the winter coming, I decided in the second half of March that I would return home. I was not in the mood to spend money on winter clothes and footwear, not be able to sleep in the tent and continue working casual jobs just to get by while knowing that there is summer in Europe.

So I bought a plane ticket on the 18th of March and kept it a secret. For the cherry on the cake, I caught a fever and sinus infection just a few days before my flight and made an appointment with a doctor just in case I needed a medical certificate that I was unfit to fly. Luckily, the day before my departure, I was like 90% OK, so I cancelled my appointment.

A day after my last working day, I got a lift from one of the park's guests who dropped me off 3 km from the hostel I booked in Christchurch. It was 900m from the airport, and it had one of those Japanese sleeping pod rooms. I must say it was quite a funny experience, sleeping in a tuna can. I went to bed at 7 PM and set the alarm for 2:30 AM. At 4:00 AM, I had already checked in with 7 kg overweight bags that no one noticed, and 36.5 hours later, I was in Venice.

Mr Friedrich

The plan was carried out by the book. After Simon and David had picked me up at the Airport at 6:50 AM, they drove me to Miren, to my grandmother's house. Firstly, they needed to prepare her not to get a heart attack, then after all the happy hugs, I convinced her to call my parents from her phone and act out that there was a man speaking in a foreign language, that she doesn't understand and that wants to talk to my father, Radovan. I knew it had to be a foreign language to make it harder for my dad to realise what was happening. Great success.