Post 8: Opotiki

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 person although my session wasn't finished yet :( As I didn't have many questions, I just wrote him per Email. He didn't replied yet but he sent me the CV with some suggestions for improvement.

Lunch

Today I made Tacos-Rice. In my opinion it's a pretty balanced meal: Rice, Meat with tomato sauce, salad, tomato, cheese and optional egg. Today I forgot to make fried egg🍳:

What's going on in my head

1) Vehicles

I first really wanted to have a small japanese car to drive around and get used to driving on the left side. But there are two problems: 

- Because Opotiki is a small town, there aren't many offers. 

- If I buy one, how do I get rid of it? There is no guarantee to get even just a part of the money back...

So I decided to buy or hire a bycicle :) I think that's enough and a good cheeper alternative. In fact, Opotiki has many beautiful cycling trails I really want to try.

But I'm still dreaming of freedom camping in a self-contained van... Now, I don't have the money for it yet. Most self-contained vans cost 8000+ NZD, which I probably can't afford by myself, so I need to find someone sharing with me. Maybe Faustine? I think Seona isn't that keen on it. Anyways, I'm gonna work and save hard, motivated by such images 🤗:

I hope I can find something affordable despite of summer high season... 

2) Job

More or less I'll need some money. My goal is to save 10.000 NZD until mid December with fruitpicking. Therefore I need to have enough working hours, but as I mentioned in my last post, it's not guaranteed because of wether depending.

Let's do a bit maths:

Expenses per week

Accommodation: 200$

Groceries: 50$

-> 250$~300$

Budget now: 3460$

Need to be earned at least

10.000$ - 3460$ = 6540$

6540$ + 250~300$ × 10(weeks) = 9040~9540$

Income per week

Working hours around 25h-45h a week

-> 25h × 25,38$/h = 634,50$

-> 35h × 25,38$/h = 888,30$

-> 45h × 25,38$/h = 1142,10$

If I work until mid December (10 weeks):

10 × ? × 25,38$/h = 9040~9540$

? = 36~38h

-> That means, I should work 36-38h per week in average to save 10.000$ until mid December. It's realistic.

There are actually better contracts but I think I don't need to get the best one. I'm fine with Opotiki and I'll do my best here!

Wish me luck 🍀

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Bonus photos: