Motueka Sunday Market

Last week I totally forgot about this weekly event held at Motueka and I woke up at 11am. Today for no reason, I woke up automatically at 9am before realising that there's Sunday Market in town today!

I reached the market around 10am. To be honest, this market is quite similar to the night markets in Penang, except that this market is held weekly on Sunday morning. They are selling various things like snack, books, coffee, fruits, clothing, kitchenware, etc. Most of them are food vendors. I finally went home empty-handed, nothing for me to buy there haha.

Sausage + Bread costs only $2.

If I'm not mistaken, these ice-cream costs $6 each. Wow.

Chinese vendor, selling dumplings, etc.

Mobile Cafe. You can see it almost everywhere here in New Zealand.

Paintings for sale.

Takamine guy. Street art performance.

Kaikoura, See You On Wednesday

I had already bought the bus ticket to Kaikoura on 02 March (Wednesday), so I will probably move out form my current home on next Wednesday morning before boarding onto the bus to Kaikoura in the early morning, 8.25am. I will probably reach Kaikoura around 3.25pm as there will be 2 transfer on the way, stopping in Nelson, Blenheim and finally Kaikoura.

I had made up my mind to save more money on this trip, so I paid for only two activites, the Albatross Encounter and Seal Swimming, I did not bring any swimsuit with me so I guess I have to buy one before next Wednesday. Even so, it still cost quite a lot for me for the transport and accommodation. I made some estimates for this trip and I think it will cost me around $500, including food and other expenses. I think I will go for the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, maybe in the third day or so as it doesn't cost anything and I get to see the beautiful nature side of this place. :)

After spending few days in Kaikoura, maybe I will head to Christchurch and then Akaroa for a few more days since my job will start around 14 March. There's actually not much things to do in Akaroa, it's a very small town but the dolphin swimming activities are quite famous among tourists though. I will make up my mind when I got there whether I will be paying for the dolphin swimming or not, as there are a lot of outdoor activities and walkways in Akaroa for me to discover. If I get to hire a mountain bike that would be perfect for this short trip! Haha.

离别 Leaving

Today I finally checked out from The Laughing Kiwi Backpackers hostel after staying there for a whole week. The people there are nice, made some friends and got some really good advice from my friends there. There is always a Goodbye in every Hello, right? This hostel is very nice if you ask me, the facilities are all excellent and most importantly, it is just $25 for BBH members. The facilities are far better compared to the hostel I spent a night in Auckland. If I were to come back to Motueka in the future for travelling purposes, I will come back here for sure!

I headed to my new home today morning, which is a single bedroom I rented for $100 per week in Fearon Street, which is in the north-end of Motueka town. So basically it took me some time to talk to the supermarket, 5-10 minutes to the nearest supermarket, Countdown and probably 15-20 minutes to the other supermarket, New World. But if I am free I will still go to New World, most of the items there are cheaper compared to Countdown, even though some items in Countdown are cheaper.

The first time I got here few days ago I have no complaints about it as I felt the price is really worth it. I got a single bedroom with that money. But guess what, I totally felt this place isn't suitable for me after all. This house is very badly maintained, so dirty that it seemed like it was never cleaned for a year, things are thrown everywhere, like toys and shirts, the dishes in the sink were left unwashed, the butter used to make cookies were left there, covered with a cloth instead of keeping it into the fridge. Moreover, there is a very weird smell in this house, I can't tell what the smell is and where it came from, but it certainly made me uncomfortable. Lastly, there is no Wi-Fi here, I had to use my mobile data and hotspot in order to update my blog, and I can't surf YouTube with the 1gb data plan, it will drain all the data within a day or two.

Honestly, I was already planning to move out in my first day moving in. I already found myself a better place, it is a shared room with 3-4 people, with only $90 per week and include both power and Wi-Fi. My friend lived there and had no complaints, I never went there before but I think it is worth a try, I'm sure it is better than here anyway. Now I gotta talk with my room owner as I told her I will stay for long term, but there is no other way, I'm not living here for any longer haha. Why live here when there is somewhere better to go? Furthermore, if I move there, I can get to know more friends instead of spending my time here alone!

Actually I had a plan about this, I will live here for a week first, since I already paid for this week.
Then maybe I will go Kaikoura for a day or two. I went to library today and made some researches about what to do in Kaikoura and I was like "Wow!", Kaikoura is not a big town but the activites there are plenty, you can go dolphin watching, swim with dolphins, watching albatross and different species of seabirds from a boat, whale watching from a boat or from the sky, trekking on a llama, swim with seals, watch sheep shearing show and a lot more! But averagely, all the activities cost about $100 each, which are very expensive for me.

So if I were to go to Kaikoura for the trip, I will probably come back to Motueka empty-handed. Guess I will be going to the i-Site tomorrow to ask for more details about it. :)

I will be starting the apple picking job at 10-15 March here in Motueka. Originally I planned to go Timaru for apple picking as it starts at 3 March, which is a week earlier than in Motueka, but somehow, it is delayed by a week, so I decided to stay instead. In the previous years, the apple picking season starts on February, somehow this year it starts a month later than usual, is it caused by the global climate change?

After my apple picking job starts, there will not be much time to enjoy or go for a trip anymore. If everything goes well, I will continue with the kiwifruit picking job which starts almost immediately after the apple picking season, so I will be working all the way until June, maybe end of June. So if I were to have any trips, it would be after June. By the way in New Zealand, people don't call the kiwifruit 'Kiwi' as we did in Malaysia, the term 'Kiwi' refers to the citizens of New Zealand, the fruits are 'kiwifruit'. I actually took some time to get used to it haha.

In end of July, maybe I will be back to Penang to join my class trip to the east coast of Malaysia haha. But the trip is not planned yet since some of my classmates are having the retake exam of STPM Semester 3 in two weeks. If everything goes as I planned, the time left for me to travel around South Island of New Zealand would be less than a month, that is why I am planning to go Kaikoura before I start my job in two more weeks.

But there is one thing that I learned from this trip to New Zealand, the plans never go the way you wanted them to, so just let go of it and see how it goes! Just hope that everything will be in your favor! :)

Cycling Trip to Kaiteriteri Beach

This is probably my first time waking up so early in this hostel, 8am, even though it's not really early though. Lol. I have always been wanting to do this since I am so free now as I'm still jobless. Do what? Cycle to Kaiteriteri Beach!

It is actually quite far away from Motueka, but not really far away, like 14km. According to Google Maps, it will take me 55 minutes to reach there, but guess what I ended up taking 90 minutes to reach there, as I stopped many times for taking photos and having some snacks on the way.

I walked to a bike rental shop early morning to rent a bike, it costed me $30 but I had no other way, there is only one bike rental shop here in this small town. He said 'You pay for what you get', but his bike was really not something I expected for $30, it was crappy, low-end bicycle, the kind that you can get for less than RM500 in Malaysia.

I started my journey on 10.30am, under the big sun, but I didn't really sweat though, it's kinda cool here and the sun wasn't really hot. After I reached Kaiteriteri Beach I sat on the bench for over an hour, not even a single drop of sweat came out from my sweat gland. There were hundreds of people here, some of them sunbathing, reading, kayaking, swimming, and eating, like I did, I prepared a lunchbox prior to my departure from the hostel. I forgot to take a picture of it though.

It seemed like my photography skills are still suck, most of the pictures I took are unusable. Gotta make more efforts to improve them.

I guess I didn't cycle for too long, my butt is pain as hell after the journey. I returned the bike to the shop at 3.30pm as I could ride anymore, it's breaking my butt. I guess this is the most 'lifeful' thing I have done since I started living in this hostel. Hahaha.

The Motueka River

On the way to Kaiteriteri...

I forgot what beach this is, it's a small beach, I stopped by for a snack.

The Kaiteriteri Beach

The Little Kaiteriteri

 On the way back home..

When your photos suck but you still want to make them look good haha. Processed in Lightroom.

First try Panorama in Lightroom!

Just a Saturday In Motueka

Okay, so today I finally got tired of being so bored, I made up a plan for something to do on Monday.

I'm gonna rent a bicycle to cycle all the way up to the Kaiteriteri Beach, which is located 14km north of Motueka. Renting a bicycle here is kinda expensive though, it's $30 per day, but it's much more cheaper and flexible than a motorbike, which costs $75 per day. So I think I will go for the bicycle instead. Hopefully it will be a great journey haha, and hopefully I will get the chance to witness a fur seal near the beach, my friends told me it is quite common to see the fur seals near the beach here. Seals I'm coming!

There's an uncle in my hostel who are seriously cool. Talked to him for almost an hour in the hostel. He is a retired pilot, he had been staying here in this hostel for a month or so and in New Zealand for months. He's like someone that cycle around, do something crazy, do some video recordings of himself everyday, records what he do everyday. Seriously, I'm gonna learn from him, his life are so interesting. He even published his video recordings and photos in New Zealand Nelson newspaper. After that, a South Korea newspaper actually paid him to share his videos and photos! Cool!

Today I finally went to have a look at my future room, which I found it in a Facebook page few days ago before I reached Motueka. It's a single bed room, kind of small but it is tidy so I had no complaints. Moreover, the owner is very helpful and welcoming, so I think I will be staying for quite a while. I am allowed to cook here too, great! But I'm not sure whether there is free WiFi here, I'll check it out on Wednesday morning! There are 3 kids in the house, I hope they don't come and play with me too much, I'm really not good with children. Lol.

And the amazing thing that happened today is that I finally found a basketball court here! I was on my way to the Warehouse to buy something before I ran into three boys bouncing the ball behind me. I just asked them the location of basketball court and they brought me there, I played with them until 9pm. In New Zealand, even though it's 9pm, it is still bright like 6pm in Malaysia, I didn't even realised it was 9pm by the time I left.

Life of a Jobless Man in Motueka

It's my third day in Laughing Kiwi Backpackers, and I am still searching for a job. My friend, Yue actually introduced me a fruit packing job which starts on Monday, but she is not sure whether there is a vacancy or not so I think I will just follow her straight to the workplace and ask the boss individually, since she said that they may need some men to do the heavy jobs like carrying things etc.

A contractor, Terry, who is from Malaysia told me that there are jobs in Timaru, which is south of Christchurch, that's fucking far away! The job starts at 3 March which is a week earlier than the fruit picking job starting in Motueka on 10 March. I am still making up my mind whether to stay or go, it a long way down and I already told the house owner that I will be moving in next week. The banks here suck, too much procedures for opening an account, damn complicated, I don't know whether I can get a job without a bank account or start without it and apply later. If I cannot work without a bank account, which I will be opening on Tuesday upon my appointment with the banker, then I would be stucked as I cannot start the fruit packing work on Monday. I think I will try and do some talking with the boss and hope that everything turns out well.

I actually talked to my friend on phone from 1am to 3am, and the next day, I woke up at 12pm. The moment I woke up, I had the feeling, the feeling of a lifeless and jobless man. Shit. The feelings gone after a while so never mind. I went for a walk in Motueka at 4pm as I never actually take a look seriously at this town, I went to the beach with a shipwreck on it, kind of far away, but what a jobless lonely man like me have is time. I eventually walked 30 minutes there and 30 minutes back. Took some photos, and in the progress, I stepped into some serious mud, my feet are fucked up, the mud are so persistent I can't wash away easily even though I used all my drinking water to wash it. At the end, I just took a few photos, not really nice photos, since I started heading back right after I stepped into that shit.

At night I went to somewhere like an entrance of an orchard as there are no street lights around to try my camera for taking Milky Way photos. The moon is too bright so it's kinda hard to get a good shot. Anyway, the cool breeze outside, wow. Haha.

The dog owner actually asked me to take this photo of his dog. Lol.

 The Janie Seddon shipwreck.

Motueka

It is the second day I had arrived in Motueka, and my plans are not going well as I thought that finding a fruit picking job is easy here. Turned out to be freaking hard when it is not the season. Most of the jobs available in the Internet are in North Island instead of South Island, I don't really want to go back to North Island, I just came from there! And I never knew the kiwifruit season in North Island is earlier than in South Island, I thought it is supposed to be the same. The kiwifruit season starts around April in South Island.

This small town is built along the highway, so most of the shops here are along the highway and the residence house are in the branch roads of the main highway. Most of the shops and houses here are one or two storey, you can't really find a tall building here. There are two supermarkets here even though it is just a small town. So, for the backpackers who cook, like us, it is quite convenient to buy the raw materials here. By the way, the fruits here are not as cheap as I thought because most of the fruits are of high quality, most of them local, not imported from China which cost lower than other countries. The meats here are good-valued, bought 2 full chicken breasts for only $7.30, can be separated into several meals, great.

I am currently living in the Laughing Kiwi Backpackers, quite a nice place, people here are good, facilities are good, beds are great, kitchen aren't crowded and most importantly, there is free unlimited WiFi. (even thought it's slow as hell) I met a Chinese girl from China, Yue and a girl from Kuala Lumpur, Kim here, both of them are quite helpful, gave me some advice about living in New Zealand and finding a job, told me what to buy like food storage container as lunchbox when I am working and wind jacket etc.

I went to an orchard yesterday, wrote my name on a namelist, I was told that when there are fruit picking jobs available, they will call us one by one, but it was said that there is no guarantee and there is no exact date on when the fruit picking job will start. Yue gave me a phone number of a Chinese man, Terry (I'm not sure whether he is farm owner or contractor or whatever), I called him and he told me the apple picking job will start on 10 March, damn that's three weeks away! I'm all stucked here, jobless and there is only outcome and no income for me now, I have to save on everything, and cook every meals so save the money, eating out here in New Zealand is freaking expensive, you can actually use the money you dine outside to cook 3 meals at home, or even more!

I found a room to rent next week, so I will be moving out from the Laughing Kiwi Backpackers next week. The room rental is $100 per week which is relatively cheap compared to backpackers hostels like this one. I found this room rental in Facebook, someone in Motueka had set up a page for the Buy & Sell in the town, most of them are junks, like table, chairs, baby toys, and a lot more. But somehow, there's someone posted about the room rental and somehow, I saw it and messaged her, this thing went smoothly though, unlike the job finding. But since the room is available next week, I had to spend quite a lot more to live here in Laughing Kiwi Backpackers, which is $25 per night, I booked for 5 nights, $125, a little too much for a jobless man, haiz,..

It turned out that it is very hard to go to your workplace without a car, so most of the fruit pickers will buy a second hand car to get to their workplace. Cars here in New Zealand are cheap, you can get one for $1000, of course, do not expect a good car for it, but at least it can be moved. You pay for what you get, right? Then, they just sell the car they bought to another backpackers, in conclusion, you don't really lose a lot of money doing this, the pros are bigger than the cons.

I tried hitch-hiking for the first time yesterday. When I went to the orchard to write my name, it was raining moderately when I was on the way there, it is located quite far away from my hostel that I walked for almost 30 minutes, after that I am too lazy to walk all the way back, plus it was starting to rain heavily, so I just gave the hitch-hiking sign that my French friend taught me yesterday in Nelson, and guess what, my first try actually succeed, a Chinese family stopped down and let me hop on. They are from Shanghai, came here for a holiday. Actually it is quite easy to hitch-hike here in Motueka, as the only main road is the highway, so it is easy, you don't really have to ask them where are they going, because there is only one direction to go.

I just realised I did a really stupid thing today, that I left my towel in Nomads Fat Camel Backpackers Hostel back in Auckland, now I had to spend an extra $10 for a towel, damn.

12 Hours in Nelson

That day was really a long day for me, even though I stayed in Nelson for only around 13 hours.
First of all, I took the domestic flight from Auckland to Nelson and finally arrived here at 6pm, and I spent the next 1 hour in the airport to charge up my phone.

Before that, I had a plan, after leaving the airport I will be going to the 24-hours McDonald in Rutherford Street, which is 7km away from the airport. I was thinking that maybe I can walk there, it will take me around like 90 mins to 2 hours, but in the end, I took a taxi and my $26 was gone. (The taxi fare starts with $3 and $3 for every km travelled)

When I arrived in the McDonald I thought everything was going to go well, until I found out that all the electric sockets are cut off by the manager, he said it was for safety purpose. (bullshit!) So I had no choice, I used the remaining battery to watch Star Wars 5 until 11.30pm when one of the employee told me they will be closing the dine-in section at 12am, WTF? I thought it was supposed to be 24 hours...

I got no choice but to leave McDonald and look for some accommodations. I went to The Palace Backpackers, Bridge Street Backpackers and YHA Hostel but all the receptions are closed. I changed my mind to sleep on a bench in the church since I had no other way.

I was walking around the church until I met a backpacker like me, walking on the street without destination so we had a conversation, he is Jeffrey from France, like me, he was planning to spent his night in the McDonald too. He is 21 years old, started backpack travelling since he was 18, wow. At last, both of us ended up miserable and homeless, but luckily, he got a tent with him. So, we set up a tent in garden of the church at 1.30am.

I can't really sleep inside, I don't know why, like in the airport, I just don't feel sleepy in there. I think I napped for 30 minutes until 3.30am, when he had to leave to catch up a taxi as he got a flight to Hamilton later on.

So again, I'm homeless,

I was sitting in a bench where I met Jeffrey few hours ago, wondering where to go next. Thanks to my friend, spending 40 minutes to talk with me. I don't know why I don't feel like crying or anything, if there's something, I think I felt calm more than nervous, it is a really safe country, not much of people around so I'm all alone in the street, it's not a main street by the way, just a small street. After that 40 minutes talk with my friend, I changed my socks and pants before moving on. Well, I changed them in public but that place is not really visible, it is darker so nobody will see it. Yes I know it's crazy.

I spend the next 2 hours in the petrol station convenience store until 7.00am to catch my bus departing to Motueka. The guy in the convenience store is kind enough to let me charge my phone with his adapter. Great.

The Auckland City

Finally arrived in Auckland International Airport this evening and I decided to spend a night in the airport to save some accommodation cost. And even though I found a bench to sleep on at 1am, I still had a bad time sleeping and in the end, I only slept for 3 hours, can't sleep anymore at 4am, more and more people are coming into the airport and stores are opening, too much noise.

Had subway for my breakfast (again...) then I took the SkyBus shutter bus to Auckland City for NZ$28 (around RM77, everything is expensive as hell after converting to MYR!) after I managed to book a dorm bed in Nomads Fat Camel Backpackers. Honestly I had a hard time walking in the Auckland City, my backpacks are a little too heavy for a newbie like me and also, I am sleepy as f**k.

The weather today in Auckland City is nice, but I am not used to the wind humidity yet, it so cool and yet so dry, I had to frown my brow, make my eyes even smaller as the wind is drying up my eyes.

The streets are so busy, people are walking around, cars are everywhere and I notice there are so many chinese here, tourists and those who work here. Even some of the advertisements are in Chinese instead of English.

Other than that I also noticed that the drivers in New Zealand are more tolerant than those in Malaysia, they always come to stop when people are trying to cross the road, I think the drivers in western countries and Australia do this too, maybe Malaysia is one of the few countries where the drivers are mad.

The SkyTower is not as tall as I imagined, and I arrived kinda too early so there were no sky jumps or sky walks around there. The Auckland City is kind of too big for me to explore when I am so sleepy so I spent 4 hours having a nap in the hostel until 8pm, had some dinner and continue spending my night in the lounge until near 12am then I'm in the bed until 8am again. 12 hours sleep yes. There is no fan here, just windows, and I did not sweat at all even though I was wearing jeans. But, the lifestyle here in Auckland is not really my cup of tea, so I hope that the one in Motueka will suit me more?

Flying from Auckland to Nelson later before taking a bus to Motueka tomorrow morning, I think I will be spending the night in the McDonald since I arrive Nelson at evening and my bus will be departing tomorrow morning at 7.30am, moreover, The McDonald is just opposite the bus station. If everything goes well, I will be able to start my job in two more days, great.

Took SkyBus, 45 minutes from airport to the city centre.

The SkyTower, tallest building in Auckland.

Aotea Square

The recycle bins in the city

Random street shots

Taken in the Albert Park, took a 10-minute nap around here. There was seagulls (or whatever) everywhere here!

 The University of Auckland