Bye Bye Wellywood Hills

Did you know that Miramar, the peninsula in Wellington where the filmstudios are, is known as Wellywood? There used to be a sign that said “Wellywood”, but the natives, including Peter Jackson, thought it was too cheesy, and so they took it down and erected a sign that just said “Wellington with the last letters getting blown away.

Anyways, I left the beautiful North Island’s South on Thursday night, after a day of watching Stranger Things on Netflix. David, our Teamleader went on vacation and the people who were supposed to work with us all had the flu. So I didn’t have to work on my last day, which was quite nice since I had plenty of time to pack and wash my clothes. And to relax.

Seeing the Wellington sun is always special, and this might be the last time!

The bus ride was relaxing as well, at least for some of the 11 hours. It was not too bad, I even slept for a little while. Still, sitting for that long is uncomfortable. I don’t know how I survived the busride from Ohio to Florida a few years ago that was twice as long. The thing that bothered me most was that there were no power outlets, not even USB chargers, so I couldn’t charge my phone. The guys that came down from Auckland said that their bus had outlets, but appearently I wasn’t that lucky. That ment that the Wifi on board was basically useless, since I needed to save my phone’s battery so that I had a chance of finding the CV office in Auckland. I had bought a book, the original Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, but since it was dark and the lights on the seats weren’t very strong, I didn’t read a lot. The most exciting thing happening was smelling Rotorua. What’s better than being woken up by the pungent smell of Sulfur at 3 in the morning?

Please, Please, Please, Let me get wh[ere] I want [ to be]Lord knows it would be the first time

When I finally arrived in Auckland, I looked for a nice café for some much-needed caffeination. There are plenty around, but I was looking for a Hipster-shop serving soy milk and vegan food. Appreciating the bus-wifi one last time, I looked for promising placed on google maps. Successfully. And there was a busstop right next to it. When I got there after walking for a few minutes. The obvious happened: It was 7 am, the shop opened at 10. So I just went to one near it, and only had a coffee and no real breakfast. I did not really know where I was, but I figured that I some bus could bring me to the general area I needed to be. The bus stop by the café was, of course, out of action due to construction work. To say it with the words of my favourite overdramatic Englishman: “See, the luck I've had, can make a good man turn bad”. It took me a while to find a working stop, and then it took me a lot longer to figure out which bus I should take. How are you supposed to figure that out if they don’t post plans at the station? In the end, I just got on a bus and hoped for the best. The driver was  extraordinarily nice. For some people, that’s probably not a big deal, but I’m Austrian. You don’t ask Austrian bus drivers questions. They will look at you as if you just tried to sell their mother for two apples and a broken screwdriver. Where I’m from, you either know where you’re going, or you don’t go anywhere. It’s not the drivers job to do anything else than take your money and not crash the vehicle. Here they are... nice. She actually helped me figure out how to get to the office. I was astonished.

At the office, I dropped off my luggage and then went to look around to find something to eat, wich is not that easy for special snowflakes like me. I eventually found a place and had rice pudding made with coconut milk. 

Then I got to listen to the CV-introduction again after the seven other volunteers arrived. Thankfully, our group is much more mixed nationality-wise and I am not just surrounded by Germans.  Two Taiwanese people, two Germans, two Belgians. After the introduction, we had a few hours to walk around town, which I spent exploring Queen Streest, buying a new shampoo bar from Lush, and buy a salad for lunch. I embraced my sectet inner Goth eating by a scenic graveyard.

A dreaded sunny day  so I meet you at the cemetry gates - I have been listening to The Smiths a lot on this ride. I even changed my phone wallpaper to a picture of Morrissey and Johnny Marr. Pathetic.

Special shout out to this church advertising LGBT serivces on a huge sign! 

Then I got to spend another three hours in a car driving to Atiu Creek, where we are staying and working now. It’s quite nice here, very remote. I won’t get woken up by an ambulance or roaring lions, the only noisy thing is the occasional sheep. Of those, there are many here. We have several citrus trees, and the freshly picked lemons are giant. And since today, we even have wifi!