After a struggle with the buses and incompetent bus drivers that I'd rather not talk about, we finally found our way to the hostel, WorldWide Backpackers. This is by far the best hostel we stayed in during our travels in New Zealand. At first glance it looked small and maybe a bit old, and our first room was unfortunately extremely small. But the hostel had an inexpensive weekly rate, and it boasted free wi-fi and breakfast, which is just about impossible to find in New Zealand backpackers.
The next morning we woke up exhausted and still overwhelmed. After having weeks of quiet time on the farm, suddenly being surrounded by people EVERYWHERE made us feel crowded and uncomfortable. I never thought I would dislike meeting people, but I swear that morning I was determined not to speak with anyone new.
There was only one problem with this plan: WorldWide Backpackers has only one big dining table that everyone has to crowd around. Like it or not, Mariah and I would either have to sit next to strangers, or we would have to not eat. And, given our current financial state, not eating a free breakfast wasn't gonna cut it. So we sat down in whatever seats we could find. I began to eat silently, avoiding eye contact with everyone but Mariah.
But then, to my horror, the guy sitting in between us began to speak.
"Where are you guys from?" he asked casually. I glowered anti-socially at my cereal while Mariah politely answered.
Eventually (after I downed my coffee) I opened up to the conversation. And I'm so glad I did - Pier ended up becoming a great friend!
Through Pier, our roommate Laura (part of the "Room 6 Top Bunk Club"), and subsequent breakfast times, we managed to make a cool group of friends relatively quickly. It didn't take long for me to remember why I loved meeting new people, and before we knew it we were doing sight-seeing, playing the Fellowship of the Ring board game, and organizing beer pong and flippy cup tournaments with these people. Since we all made it to the breakfast hour (between 8 and 9am) every single day, we started calling ourselves "The Breakfast Club."
We celebrated Karsten's birthday by hearing some live local music.
Rob, Pier, and Holger thinking hard about their next move during the Fellowship of the Ring board game.
Little did they know, I only had Gimli cards in my hand.
Rob decided to allow Laura to do his makeup. Aka just another day with the Breakfast Club.
After a night or two the hostel owner, Wendy, moved us to a fancy two-person room, and then finally into Room 6, the long-term girls' room. We happily stayed in Room 6 for the next several weeks. It's not often that hostels will organize their guests according to gender and length of stay, but this was an extra bonus for the whole experience. Living with all girls is a luxury I underestimated before living in hostels long-term. Even though there are plenty of considerate, non-smelly, non-snoring guy roommates out there, the girls we stayed with were consistently considerate and quiet - not to mention the fact that we can finally change in our rooms, rather than going all the way to the bathroom. Indeed, we were living the good life at WorldWide.
Impressions of Wellington
Despite a rough first night in the city, Wellington easily won my heart over. This city is plagued with wind, cloudy skies, and hills, but it has a feeling of realness that Queenstown lacked. You can tell Wellington is populated mostly by Kiwis or at least by proper residents. Queenstown, on the other hand, is populated mainly by tourists and backpackers. While Queenstown is of course gorgeous, it somehow doesn't have the depth of culture that Wellington does.
Nestled between hilly, narrow streets are coffee shops galore. Wellington is known for being the coffee capital of New Zealand, and rightly so. There is also something charming about the many quirky small businesses lining every street, making me feel somehow cozy despite the chilling wind. I'm still figuring it out, but there's something about Wellington that makes me feel like I'm living in a city with life.
Job Hunting in Wellington
Although we were having plenty of fun hanging out at the hostel, Mariah and I acknowledged the sad truth that we would need to find jobs ASAP if we were going to be able to survive the next month or so. We already knew the drill from our Queenstown experience: print out resumes, visas, and passport photocopies, and visit as many temp agencies as possible. Since there are 20+ agencies in Wellington, we figured we would have no problem finding some sort of temporary work.
We were so wrong.
Wellington is nothing like Queenstown. Not only in culture, but only in employment opportunities. Everyone is looking for work in Wellington. And people on working holiday visas are far from what most companies are looking for.
Most of the recruitment agencies were only hiring people who had specific office, reception, or administrative experience who wanted to stay a lot longer than one month. This was a far cry from the daily texts for hospitality jobs we got through Add Staff in Queenstown. We weren't in Kansas anymore.
After a full week of intense job hunting, whether it was through handing out CVs to business, going to recruitment agencies, or searching online Mariah and I did some serious calculations. We decided that, at our current rate of spending, we could survive until Mariah's departure on the money we had. We would stop our job hunt and would simply enjoy our few weeks left in Wellington. We budgeted so that we would have enough money left over to pay for an epic North Island Tour for Mariah's final ten or eleven days. That would have to be enough.
We continued enjoying Wellington, hanging out with our new friends and seeing new places nearby, such as the Red Rocks - see photos below:
Posing is hard.
Mariah exploring the tide pools!
Who is this mystery man? Stay tuned...
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