Once we arrived in Auckland we quickly discovered there wasn't much going on and finding work was our main priority. Luckily for us I worked with a really nice lady in the UK that recommended a lodge in the north of New Zealand and she assured me they would help us out.
2 Days later we arrived at the amazing Hone Heke Lodge Keri Keri (refer to our post about hostel heaven for more details about the lodge)
We spent the weekend exploring the area and settling in before starting the job hunt the first Monday. For Jas the hunt lasted one day and she secured an interview at a chocolate factory! the interview went brilliantly as expected and she started working that Wednesday! she works full time around 40 hours a week. She helps package and label the chocolates and brings home a bag of FREE treats after every shift. Yeah free chocolate every day. The factory doubles as a tourist spot and café. The shop attached has a large viewing window into the factory, so Jas is often faced with an audience of cameras as she works. The factory is about 3-4km away so Jas rides a push bike there and back everyday. The morning ride is a struggle as it is all uphill but that means after a long day she gets to ride downhill all the way home. The exercise burns off all that free chocolate. Her contract is only for 6 weeks but she is 2 weeks in and doing really well.
I've had a slightly slower approach into work. As the kiwi picking season didn't start for two weeks there wasn't a lot of work available. This didn't slow me down too much though. I took on a few day jobs more for my sanity to get me out the hostel than anything else. My first day job was grape picking on a vineyard. It was an early start but after a week of doing nothing i was ready to go. I was working with one other person from the lodge. We arrived at the vineyard at 8:30am and picked grapes for 8 and a half hours. It was back breaking work. To make things extra difficult, because of the wet summer they have been having here the grapes have suffered from what's called sour rot. This meant we had to not only pick the grapes but sort the good from the bad which made the whole process slow going. Safe to say i had a few beers after that day.
As well as this I worked an afternoon in a café as a kitchen hand washing dishes and prepping food. Nothing glamourous but it pays the bills.
Just recently i have managed to get a few nights a week in a local bar. Anyone that talked to me before i left the UK may recall me saying i didn't want a bar job. After 6 years bartending i wanted my weekends back. Well that break lasted about six weeks. so i am currently doing about 20 hours a week.
We are a few days away from the start of the kiwi picking season so the work load is about to triple. Our plan is to work hard now and earn as much as we can then buy a car and continue on with our travels.
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