This trip
has been filled with Dean Luck. Some of you may ask what Dean luck is…well… it
is an unfortunate event that isn’t serious but inconvenient and even funny
after the fact.
It is aptly
named after my old flat mate Stefan Dean who has a funny way of ending up in
situations that are funny for those of us listening but are frustrating for him
in the moment. My favourite example of it is one time on the train he went to
use the toilet and walked in on a woman with her pants down. It was horribly
awkward but not the worst thing to happen. Stilling having to go to the toilet
he walks into the next stall and catches another woman with her pants down.
Classic Dean Luck!
I’ve been
working in Blenheim picking grapes for 3 weeks but the end of the season came
and it was time to move on. I was stressing because I didn’t expect it to be
that soon and had no plan for my last month in New Zealand. I spent a lot of
time on the backpacker’s board looking for another job or a place to woof.
Finally I
figured out what I was going to do...head to the Golden Bay area, do the Abel
Tasmen day hike and then head to Napier to woof at a hostel for 2 weeks. I had
completely decided to go having booked a bus but at the very last minute I got
wind of another job in Blenheim and after an agonizing hour trying to make a
decision, I decided to stay and forfeit my bus ticket and cancel on the hostel
in Napier. The decision should have been an easy one, stay and make money but
my gut had been telling me to leave. By the time I got home from the library
that very same day I was informed by my flat mate that they now only had one
job left for the two of us.
Not going
to lie, I was seriously pissed that I didn’t listen to what my gut was telling
me. Once I was done making a scene and being pissed, I let my flat mate take
the job. We both needed it equally but my gut said leave so it was time to
leave…again.
I decided
to stick to my plan of heading to Golden Bay but the hostel in Napier had given
away my position so beyond Golden Bay I was once again floating in the wind.
Hours
before I was to catch my bus to Golden Bay my friend texted me and said she
knew of a job in the North Island picking grapes so I made the decision to go
meet her instead of going to Abel Tasmen/Golden Bay.
Once again,
this time for the last time, I hoped on the ferry to Wellington to meet my
friend and head north to Martinborough…
When we got
there the place we were staying was a shit hole. It was attached to the Marae
which by all accounts should be cool but there was no heat in the rooms, no
soap or toilet roll, no locking doors and mice and cockroaches in the kitchen.
The work it’s self was the usually grape picking stuff but people didn’t talk
to each other and the stuck to their races. There was the Indian group, the
Malaysians, the Chinese and then us, so it was very lonely.
We decided
after 2 days to leave which turned out to be a bit of a gong show.
The manager
tried to scare/threaten us into staying but of course I scared him more by
quoting labour laws. We left super early to catch the bus which never came so
we call and complained. My friend sort of broke down because just wanted to
leave so we called our co-worker and he was going to drive us to the next town
and we were going to spend the night and catch the bus in the AM. Half way
there the bus company called us back and apologized and said they were sending
us a private van to drive us to Lower Hutt to catch the last train from there,
so we turned around and headed back to the bus stop. The driver who came was
super awesome and said he would drive us right into downtown Wellington, we
could drink in the van and if we needed to stop we just had to say when.
It was the
most random of nights and I’m not sure of any other place that would send a
private van for two stranded backpackers even if it was their fault but thankfully it happened.
Oh the Dean
Luck has been strong with me on this trip but it always works out in the end.
XOXO
Sid
