Ayumi's Adventure

Monday 13.10. That was the day I started working at the kiwi orchards. Of course I knew it wouldn't be easy, but especially after my first day I was completely exhausted. My neck was really hurting because I had to look up the whole time. Even my eyes were tired from the sunlight. But now after doing around 38h the same job, I'm getting used to it :) It makes fun to work while listening to music, podcasts or audiobooks!  What's my job? First I want to clear up a misunderstanding. Until Monday I thought I'm gonna do fruit picking (put the kiwi fruits from the tree into a basket). But what we actually do is thinning (remove some buds to get bigger kiwi fruits). That's what I see every day: The small round balls are called buds. They have the size of a cherry pit. As you can imagine, it's not possible that all of them get to kiwi fruits, so we have to remove some. Thinning rules top 5 1. Triple: Take the two buds on side, leave the king. 2....

Sunday 12.10 was a day of adventure! Morning Jorge and I had to arranged to go for a walk, so first we went to a Maori waking path. It only took about 25min. It looked like a jungle and there was a very huge old tree (2000 years old!!).  Thats the entrance. Then we went to the beach next to Opotiki. The path was actually part of a cycling trail I want to try, that's so beautiful: On the way home, we walked past a really lovely garden. I think owner noticed my amazement, he offered us to walk in. He even gave us an avocado and a couple of lemons of his garden. As we asked his name, it turned out that the man is Bridgitte's landlord 😂 Afternoon I made some pasta for lunch. It's so difficult to make meal for only one person! Every time I make a bit too much. At 1pm, the orchard conductor came to give me the contract. He is Indian (most conductor are Indian here just like all the other workers at the orchard no joke)....

In Germany, especially during school, I was under time pressure. Every time when I was having a break I thought like "What's my next task? Did I forget something?". I simply didn't know how to rest. Now I have plenty of time, but I'm still in a kind of rush mode. Faster, more efficient, don't be lazy! That's what my brain says. How can I get out of this paradox?? Please give me some advice. ------ What I do in my free time... 1. Take a walk : Opōtiki hqas always beautiful and peaceful views to offer. And horses of course. I was a bit scared when I had to pass a horse today as it was blocking my path :D 2. Go to the library It's one of my favourite places in Opotiki. You can enjoy internet and enough books. Today I started reading "1984" by George Orwell in English even though I've already listened to a audiobook but in German. The story reminds me to "Corpus Delicti" by Juli Zeh which we read at school. I liked it. I...

Yesterday I arrived in Opotiki by bus. It took me 7,5h. My accommodation? I found a offer on Facebook, 200NZD per week (=15€ per day!). It's so easy going here and I love my landlady. She's very spiritual, likes to walk in her garden barefoot and is so caring :) She even drove me to the supermarket after arriving. Opotiki It's is a small town next to a river and near to the sea. This morning I took a walk along the river. It was a bit cold. There is actually nothing but that's exactly what I've wanted. It's a nice place to calm down.  The downtown is quiet as well. I saw a laundromat, a hotel, a fire station, a small supermarket, a hairdresser and a modern library. After buying some apples I visited the library. They had WiFi so I decided to do the video call with Clark in the library. However the internet didn't work well and I had to get to my accommodation. As I tried one more time, Clark was talking to another random p...

I've already told you about my friends Seona 🇰🇷 and Faustine 🇫🇷. We talk in English so I think my English is getting better and better :) Now I'm gonna tell you our stressful but funny story about job search and the certain problem about the one-on-one appointmen with Clark... 1. Kiwi fruit or Frappuccino Right at the beginning, Seona and I wanted to work together at the Kiwi farm in Opotiki where I had already been accepted. It looked good for us because my employer offered us to work together. We even had luck in terms of accommodation, because the landlord of Bridgitte (my accommodation in Opotiki) had space left for Seona. But Seona wasn't sure if she joins me. That's acceptable because she actually wanted to work at Starbucks in Queenstown (sth. she is used to doing). However, she was still waiting for an interview on that time... That's how it was last weekend (4./5.10). 2. No matching conditions Shortly afterwards, Seona got an offer from another Starbuck...

On the 6. and 7. October, we were given a lot of information about Work&Travelling in New Zealand. There were around 20 people, one French girl, one Canadian girl and everyone else was German :D I managed to become friends with the French girl named Faustine. She's also 18 and unfortunately, her luggage was lost 😭 I'm so sorry about that.  Part 1 (06.10) - SIM cards : Prepaids are recommended, common companies are Spark, 2degrees, one.nz. In general, internet is more expensive in NZ than in Germany. - Safety : Emergency call is 111, police is 105, danger in sea called rip (strong flow which pulls you away from the coast), they don't recommend hitchhiking - Bank account : To get paid by your employer and to be able to pay in NZ, you need either a NZ Bank account or a Wise account (multi currency bank). They recommend a Wise account because it's much easier and faster to get, and you need it anyway for refunding tax at the end. - ID : Take your passport always with y...

This post is about some organisational crises and might be less fun :D And there will probably be more English mistakes as usual. And I'm fed up with German work and travellers. I really think that 80% of the people here are German. EVERYWHERE you hear German. So that I can really learn English, I might just pretend to come from Japanese. 😋 Car market At the morning, I got up early to visit a car market (with Seona of course) at a parking area taking place every Sunday from Ian to 1pm. There was a cute Japanese car (Suzuki Swift 2005) for 3900NZD (=around 1900€) in very good conditions but we didn't buy it because we weren't certain about Seonas job yet. The seller was a really friendly British man who let us have a test drive :) After then, my employer 🥝 offered us to buy his car.  At the café (again) Seona is thinking about working in Opotiki with me, but she also applied for a Job in Queenstown (South island). My employer allowed me to bring a friend along. I really wa...

So let's continue in English :D If you find any mistakes, just let me know. Mornings Well, on my second day I woke up at 9:30am, climbed out of my pot quietly and got to the bathroom. On the way to the kitchen, I met a French girl wearing a t-shirt with a logo of the anime "attack on titan" so I spoke to her :D I made a sandwich with humus, avocado and egg for lunch (I usually skip breakfast), put it into my small backpack and went out to visit Mount Eden. Outside of the hostel, there was standing a asian-looking girl and she spoke to me spontaneously. We got on well quickly (maybe we're both Asian...?) and went to Mount Eden together. It was sooo windy but we had a beautiful view of Auckland :) She has been looking for a job so I offered her to ask my employer, if he can take her too (he will let us know tomorrow). By the way, I ate my sandwich for dinner because we went to a kind of hot-pot restaurant together (where I ordert a not-hot-pot 😂). The soup ...

Erster Flug Der erste Flug von Frankfurt nach Dubai (6h) ging ganz schnell vorbei. Neben mir saß eine deutsche Mutter und ihr Kind, die zunächst dachten, ich spreche kein Deutsch (kein Wunder, allein am Aussehen erkennt man das ja nicht :D). Der Transfer in Dubai war ganz okay. Auf der Toilette habe ich mir die Zähne geputzt (ich kann nur empfehlen, bei langen Flügen eine Zahnbürste mitzunehmen!). Zweiter Flug Der zweite Flug von Dubai nach Auckland (17h) war wirklich lang. Zum Glück saß ich in der vordersten Reihe, sodass ich meine Füße ausstrecken konnte. Rechts von mir saß ein älterer Herr aus Neuseeland. Da hab ich schon gemerkt, dass ich mich an den neuseeländischen Akzent gewöhnen muss 😂 klingt aber voll schön! Links von mir saß ein junger Mann, der ausversehen sein Wasser auf meine Hose geschüttet hat 😭 Aber halb so schlimm, war ja nur Wasser. Ich hab versucht nach dem ersten Essen direkt zu schlafen, um den Jetlag zu minimieren. Bewertung z...

Es ist so weit: Ich sitze hier mit meinem Reisegefährten - der Name ist Oreo - im Wartesaal zum Boarding. Meine Familie ist mit mir zum Frankfurter Flughafen gefahren, wo wir nach der Gepäckabgabe noch zusammen eine schöne Zeit verbracht haben :) Flugdaten und Zeitverschiebung Fluggesellschaft: Emirates Flug 1: Frankfurt 22:20 - Dubai 2.Okt. 6:40 Flug 2: Dubai 10:05 - Auckland 3.Okt. 10:50 Insgesamt bin ich also 25 Stunden unterwegs. Neuseeland geht übrigens 11h vor Deutschland. Das heißt, wenn ich in Auckland ankomme, ist es in Deutschland 23:50 des 2.Oktobers. Führerschein   Und ja, tatsächlich habe ich die Fahrprüfung am 29. September erfolgreich bestanden! Den internationalen Führerschein hab ich auch direkt am 30. bekommen :) Jetzt bin ich meinem Traum ein Schritt näher gekommen, mit einem Camper durch die Natur zu fahren und darin zu übernachten! Vielleicht klappt das schon in Neuseeland. Da ist sowas ziemlich üblich unter Backpackern :D Job und Unterkunft  D...