So now it’s time to tell you what I’ ve been doing in Mount Maunganui for the past month! Originally I was told that Tauranga was a beautiful place to visit but my roommate in Hahei had told me that Mount Maunganui (a suburb of Tauranga) was much nicer so that is the bus ticket I purchased!
I arrived late afternoon to Mount Backpackers, a cute hostel I read about in my backpacker’s bible, aka my “Lonely Planet” book. The hostel is a minute walk from the beach with a beautiful mountain in the background!
Immediately I met a great group of people, including Onda the cat, hanging out back and that’s where my family began to grow!
Since people continuously mispronounce my name in New Zealand (I’m usually called Meeeegan), I’ve begun to start many conversations with a lesson in how to pronounce my name. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is to explain “There’s an egg in my name!” I guess this is a good opening line because this is how I met my now boyfriend André, hey whatever works!
Soon before I arrived in the mount the container ship Rena had crashed into a reef close to the shore spilling oil and the contents of several thousand containers, into the ocean and onto the beaches in the area. Some people at the hostel were talking about several volunteer operations that were currently running in the area including one on Motiti Island; the only place left in New Zealand completely run by the Maori people. The reef was directly off shore from Motiti Island so they were hit the worst. Normally white people were not allowed on the island but since Rena hit, groups of volunteers were being flown out to the island for a week at a time, all expenses paid, staying in their village and helping clean the beaches. I immediately jumped at the opportunity to not only help a community save their island but to also become immersed in Maori culture. I secured a spot going out the following Monday for 4 nights and 5 days!
The following day, a group of us were offered work packing kiwis in a Kiwi Fruit Packing plant for 2 days. It was perfect timing because my funds had been steadily disappearing and it was time to start making some money! This experience was pretty hilarious and I’m sure you’ll all appreciate the following picture.
We arrived at 8am at the “Puke Plant” in Te Puke the “kiwi capitol of the world!”
Our job was to essentially re-pack the kiwis that had been packed months earlier and kept frozen, for a shipment going out that weekend. So, boxes of kiwis would come down the line in front of us, we’d grab a box and sort through the good, the bad and the moldy to find the perfectly firm kiwis worthy of being packed and shipped to their desired destination.
The good ones went in the new box, the bad ones got thrown onto a conveyer belt to their final death.
The good thing is we got 3 breaks; tea in the morning, lunch and another break in the afternoon. We also got to listen to some pretty sweet tunes while squeezing hundreds of kiwis, including but not limited to; Queen, Michael Jackson and the Spice Girls. The bad thing is we were squeezing kiwis for hours and hours which can get pretty monotonous. The woman next to me was a very nice Maori lady who had been doing this job for 8 years! Before that she picked kiwis for 2 years. That is a loooooong relationship with kiwi fruit.
Oh and since in New Zealand a “Kiwi” can mean a New Zealand native, a bird or a fruit we were reminded it’s very important that while in a packing plant you refer to the furry little fruits as Kiwi FRUIT.
I spent the weekend on the beach and hanging out at the hostel with some of the best Canadian’s, Germans, Italians and my special Brazilian!
One of the amazing things about this hostel is that it appears only attractive people who know how to cook are allowed to stay here. And it seems the best chefs are the men! It sort of feels like utopia…there’s really nothing better than a kitchen full of hot men with accents cooking delicious food! And, one of those hot cooks happens to be my boyfriend André!
One night we were all honored to have Diego cook us some authentic Italian spaghetti with meat sauce including garlic bread from some lovely Canadians!
When we’re not eating International homemade meals we frequent the cheap and delicious fish and chips place across the street!
Back at the hostel we like to do really sophisticated activities like hula-hooping.
But really, there is a Canadian girl I like to call hula-hoop who has truly turned hula-hooping into an art form! I will have to get a video up for you all to see the wonder that is Lauren!
Well that's all for now, coming soon…Motiti Island!
