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.