The next day Paul, the owner, brought me and three others into Westport in order to catch buses. It was still raining and I needed to hitch another 50 km to Punakaiki, where I would be working in a hostel for the next two weeks in exchange for food and accomodation. One woman from New Zealand brought me part way, telling me I was the first hitchhiker she’s ever picked up (I’ve heard this numerous times, I must still exude “Minnesota Niceness”). After that, two boys from Alaska brought me the rest of the way, entertaining me with crazy stories of their drunken night before with the rowdy Rugby crowd and singing. They couldn’t turn their van off because it wouldn’t start back up, so they were on their way to find a mechanic.
I didn’t end up having to do any work that first day. I just sat in the staff house reading and eating muffins. I started working with four other kids—Theresa and Johannes from Germany, Bastian from Canada (French-Canadian), and Tamao from Japan. We all got along very well instantly, like we’ve known eachother forever. The next day, Bastian showed me the daily procedures. At ten, we meet in reception and find out what beds need to be changed. There are around nine houses with between one and ten beds to clean with their own kitchens and bathrooms. In order to get to these houses, you walk along paths through the bush lined with streams and trees. We finish around two in the afternoon and have the rest of the day to ourselves. The first three days were very rainy so we just hung out around the house. Tamao and I tried to bake cookies, but I accidentally used muffin mix instead of flour so they turned into Mookies (fluffy muffin top cookies☺ ).
The next day was my turn to bake. Everyday one of us gets up at seven a.m. to bake a dozen muffins and four loaves of bread for people to purchase. That night, that same person also has to cook dinner for all the workers. Since it was almost Thanksgiving, I cooked a pseudo traditional meal. I attempted my mother’s cheesy hashbrowns but was missing the majority of the ingredients, they were still good though@ Johannes cooked up some vegetables while I breaded some chicken thighs (with Cornflakes, Grandma Lucius’ recipe) and fried them with a lot of oil—delicioius. There are a few vegetarians here, actually outnumbering the carnivores, so I just did the same with a block of Tofu…I have no idea if that was good or not but they put on a smile for me anyway. I wanted to cut it into the shape of a turkey but didn’t have the time. Also, I baked apples with brown sugar, a favorite fall dessert of mine! The next meal I made was pizza from scratch, dough, sauce and all! Who knew I was so domesticated? I’ve getten a lot better at cleaning, too. The first day consisted of a lot of cussing being that I haven’t made a bed in about a decade. Ask my mom, I’ve been sleeping on the floor since I was 15 so I wouldn’t have to make my bed. On our free time we go on short hikes. Punakaiki is “home of the pancake rocks and blow holes” not as cool or appetizing as it sounds. We went to look at them when the weather was awful..raining with crazy strong winds, but it made the waves crashing against the rocks violent and maginificent. They are called pancake rocks because they develop in thin layers and tower out of the ground. I’ve also been running a lot which is difficult here due to the huge rolling hills. The only other things in Punakaiki are a pub, a café, and an information site. No grocery store, so they buy us food, which I am getting good and fat on:). Tamao has been teaching me Japanese phrases and is putting me in contact with some of her friends in Tokyo. She says my Japanese pronunciation is very cute—Arigato!
My last night in Punakaiki, James took a friend of his, Tamao and I to Murphy’s restaurant and bar in Greymouth where we drank and watched a few bands. The first one was AWFUL (sorry, but I hated it) and the main act was ok. The lyrics were just ridiculous being that they were trying to be serious. "There's a rock in your rockin' shoes" is just the tip of the iceberg. My favorite was the second band called Vorn. It is a one man band (a guy named Vorn) who looks like a life size version of a lawn gnome and plays the accordian and is absolutely hilarious; check out his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/vornmusic!
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