Today I left Fat Cat and arrived at my first WWOOFing house just south of Thames.
Part of my main intention for this trip, was to build relationships and create good connections, I covered that in two days at Fat Cat. It's hard to even know where to begin when I try and put into words my experience at Fat Cat Hostel in Auckland. I am so happy that Fat Cat was the place that I landed on when I chose my hostel. In the short amount of time that I was there I met so many good people. I have never before heard so many different languages being spoken all at once in the same room. At one point I was disscussing the enviornment with a young woman from France, a girl from Brazil listened and a group of Germans were off on a tangent. At some points there were conversations in German, French, Spanish, Polish, Estonian, Portogese and unavoidably English, happening at the same time in the same room. :)
Upon arriving at Fat Cat I knew that this was a place that would be willing to feed me if I worked hard for them when I could and would build genuine relationships with the people there. So on my first day there I made sure that I became useful. After an unfortunate morning trying to open a bank account and to get a cell phone I spent the rest of my day at Fat Cat cleaning the fireplace in the commons area as well as cleaning the fire pit under the fire bath, two jobs that needed to be done but not to many people really wanted to do. After this the long term WWOOFers really warmed up to me and I felt welcomed into their community, my time at Fat Cat became smooth as silk.
In exchange for free meals I worked out a deal with the managers to tune up the bikes they rented to backpackers so they would be able to go into town. Friday I tuned up seven bikes, which was a very tall order considering the condition of the bikes and the tools available in the garage. But myself and my German protege Jan got them all done about the same time that many of the WWOOFers were returning from their day selling fruit. Friday night was a very good night. Having made a run to the "Coffee Shop" everyone was in high spirts that night. There was music, good conversation, wine, and another night in the fire bath. :)
There always seemed to be someone cooking, most likely someone French. There was merryment and cheer all of the time. Besides the thirty or so WWOOFers that were staying long term at the house there were probably eight to ten backpackers comming or going. In the back between the garden and the tree house there was a yard full of tents. We all ate dinners together. Thirty or more people sitting on the floor gathered around a big table talking over one another in different languages, stopping only to cheer the cook of the night or to eat home made bread with wine. After dinners there was always conversation, relaxing around the fireplace, maybe tea or coffee, and always cigarettes being rolled, most likely by someone French. :)
Fat Cat was such a wonderfully perfect first experience in New Zealand. It quickly imparted upon me the laid back nature of New Zealand and how truely open it is to new people and powerful new experience. It was hard to leave such a wonderful community of people, a place that I felt so comfortable and a place that I could have definately stayed longer. Yet it was at the same time very exciting to leave knowing that this is just the begining of the journey, that this trip has just begun, and that I have only scratched the surface of my own potential here. :)
