huh. work, sleep, work, sleep & 4 pay slips, ive been picking cherries in Cromwell for a month already.

too bad that i think i might still not have enough money to travel. things seem to be ok until i started to think about settling back in auckland. by the end of my travelling i think i should have enough to pay rents for at least 3 weeks before i start my RA job. the problem is paying rental bond. im not too sure about how much i have to pay, so im looking at 700 dollars. coupled with 350 for 2 weeks of rentals back at auckland, i pretty much lost the money i have planned to spend on my travels...

my only solution for now is to work for another week, and shorten my travel from 10 to 6 days. it sucks, but i need a roof on my head when i get back to auckland. i have totally lost my motivation to continue picking, imagine if you are doing the same thing for 8 hours everyday, 7 days a week. not even a weekend break. and you start at 7am, when its maybe 5 celcius in crazy Central Otago weather. at noon time, you might be talking about 30 celcius, and there is no clouds to protect you from the hard, skin piercing sun.

but outside of work, life is good down here. had a good christmas party, been hanging out with quite some numbers of cool people, although most of them are either Czechs or Chileans. learnt how to fish, build a BBQ fire, love dogs, smoke socially, and also met some beautiful girls...

also at here, i started to appreciate the fact that im a Malaysian. ive been blessed with at least 12 years of English education, and it helped me immensely to mix and mingle with other people, and not just stay back with other Mandophone (mandarin) speakers. almost all of asians here in the orchard are doing just that. no wonder why people can get prejudiced about them.

New Zealand rural life is awesome. so far i am not missing auckland, not even one bit. so ill try my best to enjoy my final 2 weeks here in Cromwell, before i jump on a jet to get back to Auckland - the "not so New Zealand place" in Kiwiland.