After Christmas, it was time to get back to work! This time, my hosts had me cutting some weatherboards to clad an exterior cabinet that houses their hot water tank and electrical controls for it. My hosts live off of solar and wind power, and built their own systems to manage the generation and distribution for multiple buildings on this property. And same with the hot water, which is heated by a wood fireplace! This tank had been exposed for quite a while and was an eyesore as you came into the yard, so it was time to cover it up. I had a really tough time cutting these boards accurately, but I was given the time and space to figure it out myself and craft a procedure so they would toe into the existing boards on the house. I was really proud of myself when I started making real, fast progress! It just took a few mangled boards to get there haha.
The next day, my host took the Germans, his niece, granddaughter, and the cousins and I out on his sailboat for another ride!! It was such a beautiful day, and we sailed out to a few islands to swim and explore. We packed some mean as lunches and had a wonderful time. I really loved getting to see the operation of the sailboat, and I’m becoming a lot more interested in learning how to do it myself. I got to hold the rudder a few times, but with a low wind speed we had to drop the engine for the second half of the day.
I got out the next afternoon for a run, and because I love Gaia GPS and finding weird places and trails, I found myself climbing a mountain about 5km from home! It was pretty steep but nothing too crazy, and it had the most amazing views of the whole area around us. I stayed up there for quite a while, enjoying the bees, the clouds, and the howl of the gusting wind. Being up there made me feel very connected to the land around me, and I reflected on how I was so grateful that this was my first Workaway experience, and my entry to life in New Zealand. This place will be special to me for a long while.
The Germans and I took off the next day to check out one of the best beaches I’ve ever seen, Waikawau Beach. It’s this massive bay, and we had the most amazing lighting and clouds overhead as we walked the full length of it to the rocks at the far end. It involved lots of goofing off, and I think being silly is both Mats and Pia’s super power. We even cranked Starships by Nikki Minaj with their horrible speakers on the way back, since they had one CD and no Aux cable.
And then it was New Year’s Eve! The friends I made one afternoon in Coromandel invited me out to party in Whitianga, only about 1.5 hours of driving across the peninsula. So I headed over, enjoyed the sights and extremely windy roads, and rolled up to the house they rented. I was greeted with pasta for a late lunch, and I took a great nap on the couch before getting ready. It was a half hour walk in the rain, but I linked up with Eno for a drink (and dinner for me) before heading out for this funk night. And it was… something else. Really felt like a high school reunion for all the 20 year olds in there, and no one really knew much of the music. But then Eszter arrived and it was time to party!!
With an hour left to go, we decided to jump bars for the one with a full band playing covers, and it was definitely the right choice. We ran into Eno and Eszters coworkers, danced to Sublime, and were screaming the lyrics to Summer of 69 right before midnight (an odd choice, but I loved hearing the Canadian classic!) We grabbed indian takeout on the way home, and we stayed up way too late. It was perfect.
