Napier

After I couldn't find work after 1,5 weeks in Blenheim my time to work somewhere got too short to wait much longer. My hostel was advertised as that they help you to find a job, but I didn't see that they put any effort in. I went to all job agencies, of which none had any work to offer. After one week I moved to another hostel where they told me the grape picking season is about to end and no more workers are needed. The only alternative was working in a factory, but to be honest spending about 60 hours of work inside standing around and packing food in tins is not worth your limited time in New Zealand. 

It didn't look like I could find a job, so I applied at various places on the North Island, willing to fly up to the first place that guarantees me a job. After just two days I already found both a hostel and a job. I ended up flying to Napier, located in Hawke's Bay. 
My work started the day after my flight and I was working 5 and a half days a week, but I tried to do things together with the people from my hostel when I had time. It was a very small hostel and all of us came along together very well.

On one of our sundays 5 of us went on a walk to Bluff hill lookout and the north shore of Napier after we unsucessfully tried to find a way to get to Cape Kidnappers.

 Another graffiti I really liked. I don't think I've seen any scrawled graffitis in all over New Zealand. In Dunedin they marked the locations of their graffiti wall arts on the city maps.
On our walk we also came across this group of little shags. Just like cormorants they get wet in the water and you can see one drying its wings pretty often.
Also located in Napier is the National Aquarium featuring both Little Blue Penguins and Tuataras. All of their blue penguins are rescues and the one pictured lost one of his eyes due to an injury.
 My hostel was located on the waterfront and I saw a lot of sunsets and a few golden sunrises.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NaMoPaiMo 2020

Image
Namo...what? You've probably never heard of this.  NaMoPaiMo stands for National Model Painting Month, and takes place during the month of February. You basically dedicate this month to paint one model horse and achieve a goal you always wanted but never reached. While some people just sign up because they might win a prize and choose a model that doesn't challenge them, most pick a challenge. Some use this as an opportunity to finally try painting their own models, others to learn new painting technics or new paint mediums or a new scale that they haven't painted yet. One may note that this isn't a contest or a competition, everyone who finishes their model in February is basically a winner. There a prizes for a few people that outdid themselves with their pieces. Most of this happens via Facebook where people post their progress and give tips to those who need help or struggle a little, but you can also participate without it. I know a lot of people that are ...
Read more

Christchurch

Image
 Haere mai to Christchurch! We arrived in Christchurch on 13th of March  in the early afternoon and unlike me most people only had one night in Christchurch, so I joined a lady from Uruguay walking and exploring Christchurch, seeing the monuments and parks and everything.  Christchurch is very spread out city after the earthquakes. The last big earthquakes were back in 2010 and Feb 2011, and they are still reconstructing the buildings that suffered major damage, eg the cathedral. After those two earthquakes the city council decided to spread out the city so less buildings will be in the centre of the next earthquake and less damage.    They started recording earthquakes in Christchurch in the mid 1800s and since then they had a earthquake of minimum 5 in magnitude every 5-10 years. That was the very special atmosphere I realized during my stay. Christchurch is located right above the tectonic plates and earthquake after earthquake hits, but th...
Read more

Friesian Horse Inspection Schlüchtern 2019

Image
Unlike last year, this time I planned my visit at the Friesian Horse Inspection in Schlüchtern months before. I was the official photographer this year, so I had a little bit more preparations to do this year. We started the day with Ibop tests, which are basically friesian-specific riding tests. This time, we only had dressage entries, but driving tests are often just as popular as dressage. Like most riding arenas, this one had almost no windows. Schlüchtern is located in a valley, and at this time of the year the sun rises quite late. There was no light during the first two tests, but it got better after an hour. The fact that friesians are always black didn't help the lighting problem in the morning.  The award ceremonies then took place outside.   After the ceremonies we continued with the actual inspections. The individual horses are inspected seperately and then may be integreted into the different studbooks. The foals might be entered into the foa...
Read more