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! :)