Hugs & bikes on Courtenay Place (Wellington)

I dont know why I thought moving to New Zealand would be easy. That I would be able to find work relatively painlessly. I had a bit of arrogance, I suspect, in thinking that my experience would give me an edge down here and that there would be tons of work just waiting for me to come in and code away. The plan was that Id get here, live off my savings for a few months, then start working my buns off in about February, after I came back from Australia.

It didnt turn out that way.

Maybe it would have, had the economy not hit the crapper. If 10, 000 expat Kiwis didnt decide to flock home, tired of their own struggles out in the world. Maybe if Id not sat in Auckland that first month, and instead had gone on the bus tours and stuff that Id read about, I wouldnt be sitting here now wondering at the series of events that have brought me to where I am now.

This week has been the hardest, I think, since coming to this country. When I arrived in Wellington on the 15th, the kindness of strangers gave me a fantastic place to try and launch myself from. Every day I scoured the net looking for job postings in my field. Id figured that while I was waiting for a web job to come in, Id be able to get a retail one to pay the bills. In the mean time, Id find a great flat to rent a room in, and the money from the retail job would start coming in as my savings ran out.

The reality is a little bit different: Yes, I had an amazing place to stay (thanks again Allyn and Bex!), but I wasnt able to find a home. I went and saw 6 places, all were available too late in April (I needed something asap), or they didnt pick me. I applied for countless jobs, and was told one of the following things:

1. they couldnt commit to me yet (this from a place Id pretty much scored a 6 month contract with)
2. I needed to be an NZ resident, as the jobs were permanent (this was from about 4 different places in Welly, Christchurch, Tauranga and Queenstown
3. I didnt have enough experience (this from the four temp agencies that I actually managed to get a real life response from)
4. that I had too much experience (this from an ad agency that wanted someone more “junior” (read: cheaper) than me. And yes, I offered to negotiate, but they werent comfortable hiring someone with my skill level for that role.

Frustrated but not ready to give up, I began looking at the backpacker job boards, hoping to find some work/stay offers in the hostel industry. I found one that looks absolutely great, in the Marlborough Sounds… but just as we were finalising things, I was told their current workers had decided to stay 2 more weeks and so they werent hiring anymore. Ive written them to say that Id still like to come, at the end of April, if they would take me. Im still waiting to hear back.

Lodgings-wise, I found a room in an internationals-only rooming house. It’s clean, comfortable, the residents are nice. The man that runs the place though is a little… rough… and Im not content to stay here any longer than I have to. Ok, that is an understatement. Im actually pretty unhappy here, but it isnt just the house (although that isnt helping). It’s that Ive only $500 left to my name and no real work prospects. Every time I think Ive a lead somewhere, it falls through. Im exhausted from the stress and the rampaging emotions. Sometime in the last few days I gave up what little semblance I had of being positive about it and turned my facebook into the be-all and end-all of depressing status updates (sorry.).

I dont want to come home. Really, it would break me, I think.

I spent two hours this morning going through the backpackers boards again, and wrote to about a dozen hostels that were advertising they needed help. Its usually 2-4 hours a day of work in exchange for accomodation. It would leave me time to do freelance work (when that does appear, Im positive it will!), get me out of this house, allow me to see the South Island (almost all of the places I wrote to were there), and give me somewhere to live.

I just need one place to say, ok, come… and I can at least have a bit of mobility again. This feeling of being stuck and stagnant in a musty old house really isnt all that pleasant. It’s depressing.

So, hopefully within a day or two I will have my new plan in motion (that is, work in various hostels until I can get to the place in Marlborough, then stay there for a few months while I save up some cash as that job is paid). If not… well… that plan is take my ferry trip across the Cook Strait, then the train down to Queenstown. Spend a few days with Barbara, spend the last of my money on a trip to one of the glaciers or to Milford Sound, then find the cheapest way (for under $100) back to Auckland, then come home. I *really* do not want this plan, but its there. I wont leave NZ without not having seen a proper kiwi mountain, and will spend my last dollar to make sure I do.

In the mean time, I just need to calm down, breathe, and try and enjoy the sunshine in Wellington (which I seriously do love).

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