Some Attractions in Hastings

While May and I worked hard, we didn't forget to discover interesting places and activities to do in Hastings as Working + Holiday = Real life experience!

Hastings Town Area:
It's normally quiet in town on Saturday and Sunday since most of the shops closed. Most buildings with unique architecture design could be seen throughout the city.

One of the recommended and must-go tours is the Cape Kidnappers Safari Experience in Hawke's Bay Gannet Colony, New Zealand.

Gannet Safaris Overland - Cape Kidnappers

This is the coach we jumped on it. It brought the passengers traversed riverbeds, wide rolling pastures, native bush, steep gullies...before we reached the gannet colony. Along the trip overland, we managed to catch some photos. Stunning ones!

Ahhh......The world's largest accessible gannet nesting place is here! They were the heroes and heroines of the day...

This is the well known Cape Kidnappers. If you are interested to visit, you can get more information from i-site(visitor centre) when you are in Hastings or visit online at http://www.gannetsafaris.co.nz and http://www.gannets.com

Te Mata Peak:

Drive through the place and you will be amazed by the panoramic views.

Rush Munro's Ice Cream – 100% natural ice cream and one of the best in New Zealand. The fruit ice cream made with REAL fruit, I love it really much!

Rush Munro's in Hastings

Everyone loves ice cream! Daddy & son were enjoying their delicious ones
in the ice cream garden.

Rush Munro's 100% natural ice cream made in New Zealand since 1926

Rush Munro's Ice Cream Garden – Open 7 days, all year round. Address: 704 Heretaunga Street West Hastings, Phone: +64(0)68789634

Sometimes, I like to take this sort of funny pictures when nothing much to do.

The big apple & the baby apple

The big pumpkin & its baby

Twins pumpkin! I wonder if it tastes better?

First Working Destination in New Zealand (Part II)

Before long, May and I got a chance to experience another job. Thanks to my new Brazilian roommate who was just moved in. He recomended me to work in a pumpkin pack house under his employer. His employer arranged everything well for me and my friend. Again, we were so happy and said goodbye to the vineyard job. We worked in an informal pumpkin pack house which offered good remuneration, nice panorama and kind people. We even had a private driver to pick us up to work, hihi...:P

In the morning, workers gathered in the field before the work started.

The surroundings of the packhouse...

In the pumpkin packhouse...

Since we have experienced outdoor work, we appreciated so much to work under a shelter; at least not burned by the hot sun and get wet by the rain. I encountered both conditions, they were 'good' experiences!

I saw people picking pumpkins in the field by chance. Looks fun but I know it isn't easy!

It's not a bad idea to socialize and make some friends while in a foreign country. You'll have more chances in finding work, accomodation, information...whatever. Having a working holiday life abroad sometimes can be pretty hard to predict what's going to occur as changes could simply happen due to some facts.

I didn't stay long in the hostel. My second accomodation was in a motel, still located in the town area. Since I made some friends who are always kind to recommend some jobs to me, I didn't rely on the job offered by the hostel except the first job. So, my friend and I moved to a room in a motel which was cheaper that only costed us $150 in total, compared to over hundred dollars for each person in the hostel. However, that was a special circumstance because this is the only room that the motel owner make such an offer and I have my friend to share the cost. Most importantly, I know the couple who was going to leave the room, so it's our luck! :P

The front facade of the rooms

Eluktronics N870HP6 Pro Premium VR Ready Gaming Laptop - Intel i7-7700HQ Quad Core Windows 10 Home 6GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 17.3” Full HD IPS Display 512GB Performance SSD + 16GB DDR4 RAM

Our room is at corner but it's not a bad deal.
Paying $75/person weekly for a commodation with double bed,
private shower room & toilet, cupboard, TV, fridge & some accessories. 

At weekend, occasionally we worked for another contractor. We worked in vineyard again but this time we tried different tasks and they were easier for us to handle. We asked for the work only when we wanted. Usually, we were paid by hour basis for the jobs.

Ginkgo plants

During my stay in Hastings, sometimes I worked in different places for part time due to the instability of most of the agricultural works. Well, this is another task i did. Picking ginkgo leaves, just for 1 day. It's not a hard work but a bit boring.

Ahh! This is blueberry picking. The job challenged my patience. Those bluberries are small and I had to fill them full in an ice-cream container merely to get a $2. The blueberries were undeniable lovely, but 1 day work was enough for me to experience.

It's common that when people think of working in New Zealand, they think of the job of picking apples. I didn't work but a friend of mine worked in an apple orchard. He drove us there to take some photos on the day before our leaving. In fact, it's the first time I saw so many red apples hanging on the trees, so amazing!

Please don't think that apple picking is easy, I saw my friend using the ladder to climb up and pick the apples from tree to tree. To earn a $30-40 wage, one big container should be filled full with the apples.

First Working Destination in New Zealand (Part I)

Once May and I reached, we called the hostel owner to pick us up. We stayed in a working hostel - Hastings Backpacker Hostel. We used to pay weekly rent as it's always cheaper especially with BBH card. It's worth to buy one if you're going to spend most time staying in hostels while working holiday in New Zealand. It's also very handy to book the hostels through the BBH website if you have the member card number. Thus, remember to get one as soon as possible while you arrived in New Zealand. The card costs $45, includes $20 pre-paid local and international phone call value. The BBH card is usually available through the participated hostels or you may also order it online. However, another $5 will be charged as handling fee for online orders.

I stayed in a mixed dorm with my friend and 4 other backpackers from different countries, languages and cultures. Basically, I like everyone of them. I was lucky because I got one and the only single bed in the room :D

We first thought that perhaps we would get a job within first 2 weeks if we were lucky. Surprisingly, we were offered a job on the day we arrived and we were asked to start work on the next day. Yahoo! We were so cheerful as we could get a job so soon. Our first job was......working in vineyard. Excited? Feel cool to work in a vineyard? Well, yes...only before we involved in the actual work :S

There are different stages of work needed to apply in vineyard, but I would say that the initial stage of work we involved is the hardest and toughest especially this is our first outdoor work. We had to bend our back all day long to do the task, by extremely long row and row of grape plants. We left the vineyard exhausted and both of us complained of having backache on the first working day. It's not fun but we tried to work for a week anyhow to prove that we are serious being a working holidaymaker : 0