Work, work and Halloween parties
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Dominique
01 November 2016 | Nieuw Zeeland, Auckland
Work, work and Halloween parties
The second month is almost over as well, gosh, the time flies. I have had a great month again, with some fails too, haha. And best of all, Maud, Rhodé and I decided to go to the South Island over Christmas holiday! So we are going to make a trip to the South Island, rent a car and travel to see the most of NZ as we can. Wooooeh, so excited.
The first weekend we went on a surftrip to Raglan (New Zealand’s most famous surf spot) with New Zealand Internships. We went with about 50 students (pretty much). We left on Saturday with a bus from Auckland City. I went to the city with Rhodé, my roommate, and Ferdinand, a French guy who lives in Lucas Creek too. When we got there we already knew a lot of people. It was a pretty long drive to Raglan. We stopped somewhere at a supermarket, because in the evening we would be at a hostel without a bar or anything. So what we wanted to drink/eat, we had to buy there. And of course you can guess what everybody bought, haha. Anyway, when we got to Raglan we went into our rooms first. Rhodé and I were in a room with two other girls, Lisanne and Luca. After we got our room we got some instructions about surfing, cuz yeh, it is a surftrip. I was pretty excited to go surf. Had never done it before. After the instructions we went to the beach, got a wetsuit and a surfboard and we could go into the water. The waves were pretty big (if you go surf for the first time) and rough too. A couple of times I could not even stand anymore and got three waves over me, right after each other. Though I managed to get onto the surfboard and stand for a couple of times! That felt pretty good haha. Would love to go surf again, but rather somewhere with some calmer waves. We had a lot of fun anyway. In the evening we had a party at the hostel, but everybody was really tired from surfing, so a lot of people were in bed before midnight already. The next day we went to Bridal Veil Falls, which was really pretty. Went down the stairs this time and got a look from below. After that we went to the Hamilton Gardens. These gardens were a bit disappointing. The sky was grey from clouds and since I went to Japan this summer I got used to the beautiful gardens there (they are amazing). Had fun anyway, even though I did not sleep much (I was sitting outside at a bonfire with some other people the night before, till pretty late).
The next week I had a really busy week at my internship. We had to prepare a lot for the Taupo Ultra. Which is an Ultra Marathon, that means there are distances longer than a marathon... The distances were 100KM, 74KM, 50KM and 24KM. Who the hack runs 100KM!? well, a lot of people actually, 84 people finished the 100KM run (374 people finished in total from all distances). But because this was such a long event and it was not around the corner, we had to go to Taupo on Wednesday (I actually left at 4.30AM, gosh way too early). On the way Jullieanne and I picked up a new volunteer, Hannah. She had lived in Hawaii for several years (omg, I would like to go there), and lived in North Carolina before. I spend a lot of time with her this weekend, which was a lot of fun. We worked a bit in the Total Sport office in Taupo, walked around the lake, went to some hot pools and enjoyed the company from a lot of ducks (who Hannah loved). Friday was a long day. We started at 7.30AM and worked till midnight. But it gets even better! The next day (Saturday), was the event. We had to start around 3 or 4AM, yay, we slept for like one and a half hour. And then we worked till 1.30AM THE NEXT DAY, yeh, that is like 21 hours of work that day (but Hannah and I took some small naps during the day, which were awesome). The next day we packed everything again. Hannah went for a logroll off the hill and Hannah and I went for a short run (about 4KM) to get some course markings off. This is the part where I almost ended up face first in the water. This happened because I saw the lake, and I got excited to go onto the small beach area. But there was a small creek in front. But I saw some gravel, and I thought: aah I can walk over that. NOT, my whole foot went into the water and then I almost fell. And of course Hannah was laughing really really hard (I did too). But yeh, then I walked onto the beach, since my feet were wet now anyway, it didn’t matter anymore. I also went into the lake, which was really cold. After a minute of enjoying the view we started running again. Like 20 meters further you could walk to the beach without going over the creek. Oops. Anyway… after our run Mark picked us up and we started driving back to the Bothy (where we stayed the night). After about 10 minutes driving, all of a sudden my door flew open, gosh. New adventure: almost falling out of a car. But that is not even all! Before we went to the Bothy, we had to bring some stuff away to a warehouse near. We put everything away and jumped into the car again and after a minute we heard a slam. Hannah forgot to close the trunk XD we were like, hmm hopefully nothing fell out… and drove further. What a day.
Anyway. We got back again on Monday, so I had Monday and Tuesday off to get some rest. The next week we had another event in Waihi, so I had to work again on Wednesday, so we could leave again on Thursday. And I was just happy to sleep in my own bed again, then we left again. Damn haha. Anyway, good weekend, awesome weather. The longest run was a marathon from 43.5KM, so did not have to work as long as the weekend before (only 12 hours now). This weekend we (Mathilde, Alex and I) had some time off, so we went to two waterfalls and enjoyed the weather. Overall, normal event weekend.
The next Monday was labor day, an official holiday in NZ. So had Monday off. On Tuesday or Wednesday I asked Dave if I could have the day off on Friday as well, me and my roommates wanted to go to some Thermal hotpools. And we had a Halloween party on Thursday evening. This is pretty funny. We drank a bit at home and went to the pub for the Halloween party. When we arrived there, almost nobody was there, the pub was so empty, we were like, let’s go to the city instead! So we did some shots and went to the city. Stayed there till a little before 4AM. The next day we went to the hot pools, which were awesome. Went to the beach as well, while we were waiting for the bus. This evening we had another Halloween party. In the city this time. Luckily it was more crowded here. Had a fun night again. I was so tired on Saturday, I didn’t do more than go to the supermarket, ate something and fall asleep while watching a movie with my roomies.
The next day, we got up around 9.30, because we planned a daytrip to go sandboarding! We went to lake Wainamu, there are big black sand dunes (pretty amazing scenery), and a lake (duh). Denis was the first to get his face in the sand and get his mouth filled with sand. This was so funny. He made a logroll of the dune too. Even though I didn’t really fall off the board, I did end up with sand in my mouth. Not so awesome. After the sandboarding we went to the lake for a swim, since the weather was real good (got a bit sunburned as well). Summer is coming! I’m so excited for summer. My first Christmas and New Year in summer, that will be strange. This evening when Maud, Rhodé and I went to Domino’s to get a pizza, we saw our neighbor with some other students sitting in their backyard (it looked really relaxed). They asked us to join, so we ate our pizza at home and after that Rhodé and I went there. It turned out to be the last day in NZ for one of the guys living in Lucas Creek, he was leaving to Australia the next day. So that was enough reason for a small party. We made a bonfire and ate marshmallows, some music on and had a good time. Eventually I got home around 2.15AM, was in bed around 2.45AM… so I had around 4 hours to sleep, before I had to get ready to work. Always a good idea to go party on a Sunday evening *ahum*. But I survived, I was happy there were not many people at the office, so had a pretty calm day.
That pretty much sums up my second month. And that also means I’m almost halfway through my living abroad time (noooo, I don’t want to go home yet, too much to see here). Anyway, Cheers
The second month is almost over as well, gosh, the time flies. I have had a great month again, with some fails too, haha. And best of all, Maud, Rhodé and I decided to go to the South Island over Christmas holiday! So we are going to make a trip to the South Island, rent a car and travel to see the most of NZ as we can. Wooooeh, so excited.
The first weekend we went on a surftrip to Raglan (New Zealand’s most famous surf spot) with New Zealand Internships. We went with about 50 students (pretty much). We left on Saturday with a bus from Auckland City. I went to the city with Rhodé, my roommate, and Ferdinand, a French guy who lives in Lucas Creek too. When we got there we already knew a lot of people. It was a pretty long drive to Raglan. We stopped somewhere at a supermarket, because in the evening we would be at a hostel without a bar or anything. So what we wanted to drink/eat, we had to buy there. And of course you can guess what everybody bought, haha. Anyway, when we got to Raglan we went into our rooms first. Rhodé and I were in a room with two other girls, Lisanne and Luca. After we got our room we got some instructions about surfing, cuz yeh, it is a surftrip. I was pretty excited to go surf. Had never done it before. After the instructions we went to the beach, got a wetsuit and a surfboard and we could go into the water. The waves were pretty big (if you go surf for the first time) and rough too. A couple of times I could not even stand anymore and got three waves over me, right after each other. Though I managed to get onto the surfboard and stand for a couple of times! That felt pretty good haha. Would love to go surf again, but rather somewhere with some calmer waves. We had a lot of fun anyway. In the evening we had a party at the hostel, but everybody was really tired from surfing, so a lot of people were in bed before midnight already. The next day we went to Bridal Veil Falls, which was really pretty. Went down the stairs this time and got a look from below. After that we went to the Hamilton Gardens. These gardens were a bit disappointing. The sky was grey from clouds and since I went to Japan this summer I got used to the beautiful gardens there (they are amazing). Had fun anyway, even though I did not sleep much (I was sitting outside at a bonfire with some other people the night before, till pretty late).
The next week I had a really busy week at my internship. We had to prepare a lot for the Taupo Ultra. Which is an Ultra Marathon, that means there are distances longer than a marathon... The distances were 100KM, 74KM, 50KM and 24KM. Who the hack runs 100KM!? well, a lot of people actually, 84 people finished the 100KM run (374 people finished in total from all distances). But because this was such a long event and it was not around the corner, we had to go to Taupo on Wednesday (I actually left at 4.30AM, gosh way too early). On the way Jullieanne and I picked up a new volunteer, Hannah. She had lived in Hawaii for several years (omg, I would like to go there), and lived in North Carolina before. I spend a lot of time with her this weekend, which was a lot of fun. We worked a bit in the Total Sport office in Taupo, walked around the lake, went to some hot pools and enjoyed the company from a lot of ducks (who Hannah loved). Friday was a long day. We started at 7.30AM and worked till midnight. But it gets even better! The next day (Saturday), was the event. We had to start around 3 or 4AM, yay, we slept for like one and a half hour. And then we worked till 1.30AM THE NEXT DAY, yeh, that is like 21 hours of work that day (but Hannah and I took some small naps during the day, which were awesome). The next day we packed everything again. Hannah went for a logroll off the hill and Hannah and I went for a short run (about 4KM) to get some course markings off. This is the part where I almost ended up face first in the water. This happened because I saw the lake, and I got excited to go onto the small beach area. But there was a small creek in front. But I saw some gravel, and I thought: aah I can walk over that. NOT, my whole foot went into the water and then I almost fell. And of course Hannah was laughing really really hard (I did too). But yeh, then I walked onto the beach, since my feet were wet now anyway, it didn’t matter anymore. I also went into the lake, which was really cold. After a minute of enjoying the view we started running again. Like 20 meters further you could walk to the beach without going over the creek. Oops. Anyway… after our run Mark picked us up and we started driving back to the Bothy (where we stayed the night). After about 10 minutes driving, all of a sudden my door flew open, gosh. New adventure: almost falling out of a car. But that is not even all! Before we went to the Bothy, we had to bring some stuff away to a warehouse near. We put everything away and jumped into the car again and after a minute we heard a slam. Hannah forgot to close the trunk XD we were like, hmm hopefully nothing fell out… and drove further. What a day.
Anyway. We got back again on Monday, so I had Monday and Tuesday off to get some rest. The next week we had another event in Waihi, so I had to work again on Wednesday, so we could leave again on Thursday. And I was just happy to sleep in my own bed again, then we left again. Damn haha. Anyway, good weekend, awesome weather. The longest run was a marathon from 43.5KM, so did not have to work as long as the weekend before (only 12 hours now). This weekend we (Mathilde, Alex and I) had some time off, so we went to two waterfalls and enjoyed the weather. Overall, normal event weekend.
The next Monday was labor day, an official holiday in NZ. So had Monday off. On Tuesday or Wednesday I asked Dave if I could have the day off on Friday as well, me and my roommates wanted to go to some Thermal hotpools. And we had a Halloween party on Thursday evening. This is pretty funny. We drank a bit at home and went to the pub for the Halloween party. When we arrived there, almost nobody was there, the pub was so empty, we were like, let’s go to the city instead! So we did some shots and went to the city. Stayed there till a little before 4AM. The next day we went to the hot pools, which were awesome. Went to the beach as well, while we were waiting for the bus. This evening we had another Halloween party. In the city this time. Luckily it was more crowded here. Had a fun night again. I was so tired on Saturday, I didn’t do more than go to the supermarket, ate something and fall asleep while watching a movie with my roomies.
The next day, we got up around 9.30, because we planned a daytrip to go sandboarding! We went to lake Wainamu, there are big black sand dunes (pretty amazing scenery), and a lake (duh). Denis was the first to get his face in the sand and get his mouth filled with sand. This was so funny. He made a logroll of the dune too. Even though I didn’t really fall off the board, I did end up with sand in my mouth. Not so awesome. After the sandboarding we went to the lake for a swim, since the weather was real good (got a bit sunburned as well). Summer is coming! I’m so excited for summer. My first Christmas and New Year in summer, that will be strange. This evening when Maud, Rhodé and I went to Domino’s to get a pizza, we saw our neighbor with some other students sitting in their backyard (it looked really relaxed). They asked us to join, so we ate our pizza at home and after that Rhodé and I went there. It turned out to be the last day in NZ for one of the guys living in Lucas Creek, he was leaving to Australia the next day. So that was enough reason for a small party. We made a bonfire and ate marshmallows, some music on and had a good time. Eventually I got home around 2.15AM, was in bed around 2.45AM… so I had around 4 hours to sleep, before I had to get ready to work. Always a good idea to go party on a Sunday evening *ahum*. But I survived, I was happy there were not many people at the office, so had a pretty calm day.
That pretty much sums up my second month. And that also means I’m almost halfway through my living abroad time (noooo, I don’t want to go home yet, too much to see here). Anyway, Cheers
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
