Job Searching on a Budget

Once I moved into my first NZ flat, I spent the next three weeks in a routine of getting to know Wanaka, searching for a job, finding climbing partners, and contributing to Blog4NZ.  On Wednesdays, I went out in the morning to get my copy of The Messenger and sit by the lake to read through the ads looking for work. Thursdays I headed up to Basecamp, the indoor/outdoor rock climbing gym, to volunteer with their youth climbing club after school. The other days of the week I spent writing cover letters, dropping off CV’s, going to interviews, wandering around town, updating my blog, and finally catching up with some friends from back home.

View from my room

I applied to numerous restaurants, ski fields, the local swimming pool, Wanaka Paragliding, and inquired at nearly every establishment I could think of that might need staff. Unfortunately the resounding message from most places was still that I had arrived at the wrong time. I was able to remain hopeful with the occasional interview, and finally saw a glimmer of hope with the paragliding job!

Yoga Workshop

I keep procrastinating when it comes to writing this post. Today I went out to lunch, rode a bike to the climbing gym and had an intense hour-long bouldering session, continued on said bike through some strong winds to the beach (beautiful!) where I met up with some fellow backpackers from my hostel, took a swim in the ocean, biked back to the hostel, ate dinner, took a shower, shook out all of my sand-coated belongings (it was quite windy at the beach), mended a couple things that required repairing (thanks, Mom, I've used the sewing kit a few times now!), chatted with new travelers at the hostel, checked my bank accounts, went on facebook, and then stared at a blank screen for a while before writing. Even now, by summarizing my day I have put off getting into my real reason for writing!

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a three day Ashtanga Yoga workshop with Peter Sanson, a fairly well known name in the Ashtanga world. (No, I didn't really know of him until I did my research.) He studied with the Guru who popularized Ashtanga yoga (though it has been around for thousands of years), and now goes around leading yoga workshops all over the world. He was born a Kiwi, but moved to India to study with his Guru for 21 years. He has since returned to NZ to raise his two-year-old son while continuing to travel for workshops. Sometimes Peter will teach a "led" class where everyone stays at the same pace as they move through the series of Ashtanga poses, but more often he leads workshops where each individual moves through the poses at their own pace  (called "Mysore style" or supervised self-practice). During these sessions, Peter moves around the room and makes adjustments to correct positioning or assist you in going further in your practice. He is a gifted teacher and uses a gentle hands-on approach to encourage you - and your body - to release into the practice of Ashtanga Yoga.

fun as; muddy as; sore as; sweet as!

I could not have asked for a better host to introduce me to such a beautiful country! "Mase," as his students call him, provided me with ample opportunities to get out and be active, while learning a bit about Kiwi culture at the same time! In my first five days, I went to an intense Bikram yoga class, rode a bike to some beautiful cliffs overlooking Auckland and took a walk with my camera, chatted with some neighbors, tried Marmite, sat on a deck overlooking the ocean to draw, learned the difference between the buttons on a Kiwi toilet, climbed at an enormous indoor rock climbing gym (and began to figure out the comparisons between NZ and US route ratings), discovered a chocolate bar called "Dairy Free" that tastes amazingly like milk chocolate, tried to play the Ukulele, army-crawled through the "Cube of Doom" (an awesome self-esteem/self-discovery/trust/courage-based maze challenge Mase built in his outdoor education classroom), hiked/tramped for probably 12 hours in a matter of 3 days, slept in a bivi under the stars, taught some introductory yoga to high schoolers, played  an extreme game of Egyptian Rat Screw with some random working holiday travelers in a hut up in the mountains, actually ran out of games and challenges stored in my brain because these high-schoolers had seen them all, took a dip in some f-f-f-freezing springtime river water, picked up on some teenage Kiwi slang, learned how to use trekking poles, swam in a pool fed by natural hot springs, got "take-away" and ate dinner by the sea, went climbing again (and can now brag about how I'm climbing 20s), and figured out how to get to my next destination via public transportation! There has been so much packed into my days that I can't possibly describe everything!

I wish I could add more right now but I have to go pack up and catch the bus!