RoarRoads

Sasha & Fabio on the road. Currently somewhere in Southeast Asia.

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There is an ongoing trend for 'authentic' travel experiences. Wouldn't it be nice to go to an exotic country and experience its culture to the fullest? To blend in with the locals? Well, be careful what you wish for... After 10 hours on this train the only thing I really want is Starbucks. 😅 #vietnam #traintravel #nighttrain #authentic #nottobemissed #roarroadstrip #glupachkichill (at Nha Trang)

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Probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. Definitely the most dangerous one. It was a very steep climb down a locally made bamboo railing with ropes for support. The sign at the top said not to go down. The pathway was slippery and the railing was awfully unstable. It took us 30 minutes to get down and another 30 minutes to climb back up. But it was all worth it! #kelingkingbeach #nusapenida #bali #hikingadventures #hiddenparadise #roarroadstrip (at Kelingking Beach, Karang Dawa, Nusa Penida)

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I didn't have particularly high expectations of what Thailand would be like. Sometimes, it's the best way to go about things. Turns out that regardless all the tourists, scammers, ladyboys and party people, Thailand still has plenty to offer. Ko Pha Ngan perfectly fits my idea of an idyllic tropical island. I think we were also lucky to visit it during the rainy season—the island was all ours and it never rained too much. 🌴🌴#amazingthailand #lostparadise #drivingaround #longwayhome #travelgram #roarroadstrip #glupachkichill (at Ko Phangan, Surat Thani, Thailand)

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Goodbye Bali! While I really enjoyed our time here, I'm still not entirely sure what to make out of this place. It's definitely not the paradise island it used to be when the first generation of backpackers and surfers started to arrive here. 🚗 Bali is congested, crowded and heavily polluted. It's a rather small island inhabited by over 4 million people (don't forget to add all the tourists). 🔥 People here like to burn plastic rubbish everywhere so you constantly inhale the toxic fumes while driving around. 🦀 Everything revolves around tourism here. You are constantly being offered all sorts of goods and services. Massaaaaaaz!! ☀️ Still Bali has its charm, there are plenty of beautiful sights, ancient temples, rice terraces and crazy monkeys... Obviously it's also a perfect surfing destination. P.S. The beer and local people are very nice as well. P.P.S. Massaaaaz wasn't bad either. #bali #southeastasia #travellife #longwayhome #travelnotes #roarroadstrip (at Ngurah Rai International Airport Denpasar)

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Unfortunately, this is a very common sight in Bali. As you can imagine a good part of that ends up in the ocean. It is heartbreaking to see plastic rubbish floating in the water. Every year, 5-13 million tonnes of plastic go into the world's oceans. Only 5 Asian countries—China, Indonesia, The Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam—dump more plastic into the oceans than all other countries combined. #indonesia #environmental #issues #plasticworld #pollution #roarroadstrip (at Bali, Indonesia)

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We left sheep and cows a long time ago and went back to the city life. Living in Dunedin was what we needed after so much time spent around; the plan was to find a job and stay there till the beginning of the winter season, but we ended up working for accommodation at a backpacker again, watching tons of Netflix shows with the roommates and going around the beautiful Otago Peninsula. Working for food and accommodation during those months was fun, but after a while, it was time to get a proper job and go back to our beloved capitalist system.

Wanaka is a lovely little town surrounded by lakes and mountains with amazing views. If you get here in winter there is most likely one thing you will wish to do... We got our snowboard gear ready as soon as we arrived.

When NZ was simply a fantasy, I had a list of only a few things I really wanted to do when I come here. Buying a van and drive all over the country and spend the winter snowboarding was definitely on the list. I didn’t know much about working on a ski field and I started the season without any expectations. The people I met here were easily the biggest surprise; we have created a great group from the very beginning sharing a genuine passion for the mountain and finding any excuse to hang out together. Being a barista in a very high volume cafè is quite intense; more than 200 coffees are usually made in a day but everything would still be fine if it wasn’t for the customers. I've realised something important about myself: hospitality is not my thing. The jump from IT to a front-of-house position is way too big. The job would be nice if it wasn’t for the forced smiles, small talks and crazy customers complaints. After all of this, I sadly admit I miss my office job.

The best part of working in a ski field is obviously the free season pass and the chance to ride whenever I want; that has been the only activity I cared to do in my spare time. I've also realised I want the mountains in my life and I don’t really know how easy it will be to make this happen when we will need to find a job in Europe.

Fabio

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Wanaka life

As you might have guessed by looking at our pictures, we're spending our winter in beautiful Wanaka, surrounded by mountains and crystal clear lakes.

We are living in a house that slightly resembles a ghost-haunted mansion from horror movies, 30 minutes' walk from the town centre. It's hard to describe how nice it felt to get our own room and shower after 4 months of wandering around NZ. Wanaka is precisely the kind of idealistic place that comes to your mind when you hear the words "mountain town". It's a laid back small town populated by warm-hearted people. Everyone knows everyone in some ways. You really get what sense of community means here. Quite many travellers choose Wanaka as their base which adds a pleasant vibe to the town. However, it's nowhere near neighbouring Queenstown, the most popular backpackers' hub in the South Island. We prefer it to be this way. Honestly, there is little joy in seeing drunk British 20-year-old guys every time you leave your house after 6 pm.

In summer Wanaka offers endless options for outdoor activities: hiking, kayaking, mountain biking, paragliding, skydiving, etc. In winter everyone is here to ski or snowboard, of course. Right now, the season is at its peak, and if before we used to spend a good part of our time hiking, now we're using every single day off to snowboard.

Fabushka is a superstar who got a barista job at Treble Cone, the largest ski resort in the South Island. Thanks to that he got his season pass for free, and I got a 50% discount on mine. And it's a lot of money, guys, about 900 euro to be precise. Snowboarding isn't a cheap hobby, especially in NZ.

And me?

I'm waiting tables again, only this time I'm actually kind of enjoying it. Have I gone completely mad/hippie? Nope. It's just that this time I really like most of my colleagues, and like with most jobs in this world, the environment defines it all.  Having genuinely nice colleagues and managers is something that I always lacked in my previous hospitality jobs. I had to accustom myself with a number of new exciting things such as Coke/lemonade and raspberry, for example. Apparently, Coke on its own wasn't sweet enough for Kiwis so they thought it would be a good idea to add a shot of raspberry syrup to it. I also appreciate when people ask me for fire engines, fluffies, hot toddies, night riders and schooners of beer.

"A what?"

"A schooner, please."

(Me running to my British colleague in despair.)

"What does he mean by a schooner?? Ah...so that's how they call pints in Australia...I see."

I also have a housekeeping job in a small motel, just a few hours a week. My favourite part of the job is knocking on the door and saying, "Hello, it's housekeeping...hello, it's room service!" Don't get me wrong, scrubbing toilets and doing beds is, by all means, a great fun as well.

So yes, I'm working a lot and snowboard once or twice a week, which leaves me with no time for anything else. At the moment, snowboarding has completely replaced the hiking part of my life in NZ. I'm progressing slowly but surely, and it makes me very happy. I'm finally past the stage when you end up in tears of anger and frustration every time you go up the mountain. Learning how to snowboard is a very painful process. It takes so much to achieve that effortless carving style, but once you're there it feels like nothing else you've done before. Your mind is clear, you are so focused on riding that there is no room for any other thought in your head. The feeling of absolute calmness.

Before coming to New Zealand, I had almost no real hiking experience. When I was a teenager we used to go camping for one or two nights, we slept in a tent, sang by a campfire and swam in the sea during the night.  I still remember those times and really miss them. But somehow all that camping experience never included the actual walking part. I think we compensated it with the drinking part... Still, I've been always attracted by the idea of getting out and spending my days outdoors. 

NZ has a completely different vibe comparing to any place I have lived before. Even if you live in one of the big cities here like Auckland or Wellington you are never far away from nature, and in most parts of the country nature is what completely dominates the lifestyle of people. I did my first three multi-day hikes here. I find walking very therapeutic, in some ways, it's very similar to meditation. When you start your brain throws a thousand of random thoughts at you, it works very fast, it can't calm down. But the longer you walk, the quieter your head becomes. You no longer think about what kind of pants you should buy for snowboarding or why that lady said that thing last night. You find peace and relaxation. There is something very special about the air in the mountains, inhaling it feels like drinking pure water.

Clearly, multi-day hikes can be physically challenging. One of the main differences from a one-day hike is definitely the backpack, it's so heavy, even though there is almost nothing in it apart from the sleeping bag. There is always a moment when you think you're done, you feel exhausted. You want to fall on the ground and die, but you just keep on going instead. And what's your choice really, no one is coming to pick you up.  

We are leaving soon, and I have mixed feelings about it. I'm surely excited to travel more and see more, but I'm also very sad to leave this country.

Sasha

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Working away

Hey, hey, hey,

Since we left Auckland in February, we have been changing our location all the time. We haven’t really stayed anywhere for longer than eleven days. We have slept in the car for weeks; we have slept in an old caravan, nice hostels, shitty hostels, beautiful houses, you name it. We’ve had all types of accommodation one can possibly imagine.

In May, for the first time in a while, we had a place to stay for more than a week, and it felt good. We were in Dunedin—one of my favourite cities in NZ—working in an okayish hostel for accommodation. The deal was three hours of work per day in exchange for a bunk in a six-bed dorm. We had two double beds in our dorm which kind of made it an eight-bed room. So yes, those days I was living like Snow White with her seven dwarfs; the only difference was I had six men sleeping in the same room with me instead. The room stank sometimes so we had to keep the window open even if it was freezing cold. New Zealand is similar to Malta in terms of central heating, it just doesn’t exist here. Anyway, Dunedin was fun, we made friends with the guys who worked there with us and had plenty of time to enjoy the amazing Otago Peninsula with its sea lions, penguins and albatrosses. It was also an ultimate couch potato time for us, we watched two entire seasons of Gotham, for example. As to the work itself, we mainly did housekeeping (cleaned the kitchen, rooms, toilets, did the beds) but also took part in renovation works, which was much more interesting. 

We arrived in Wanaka two days ago; the plan is to stay here for the winter season, so it feels like the right moment to tell you the tale of our Workaway adventures.

Workaway is a great project, really. Everyone benefits from it when it’s done properly. It allows people like us to travel long-term without spending money on food and accommodation. As a rule, you mostly meet other travellers while travelling, which is great, but if you want to mix up your experience a bit, Workaway gives you a unique chance to meet some local people and observe their everyday lives from within. It’s great for the hosting side as well because they essentially get workers for free (it actually doesn’t cost them too much to feed you).

Sheep and beef farm in Pahiatua

Just before we signed up for our first Workaway project, I had a chat with my friend Ilona who was doing the same thing in Greece at the time. Inspired by her words, I convinced Fabushka we should definitely give it a go. I told him we would only work a couple of hours a day, and anyway it wouldn’t be a “real work”, just helping sweet farmers cuddle their animals. At least that’s how I imagined it. 

Our first experience turned out to be slightly different… We worked five hours a day, and the work wasn’t easy at all. In fact, it was much harder than everything I’ve ever done for money. We were hosted by a young family which consists of a 35-year-old Kiwi guy, James, his 37-year-old wife, Stephanie, and their 3-year-old daughter, Elsa. James was raised on a farm; many years ago he left NZ for almost 5 years to travel the world, but after years of wandering, he understood that he wanted to live in NZ. So he came back home and bought his own farm very near to his father’s land. The farm is huge, James has two thousand sheep and a few hundred cattle. Stephanie is French; she arrived in NZ seven years ago and met James when she came to his farm to work for food and accommodation just like us. When we were there Stephanie was eight months pregnant with their second child. Elsa is a funny kid, a bit spoiled perhaps—she cries every time she hears a “no” (how do I know it? We made her cry twice!)—but mainly funny. Stephanie didn’t look particularly happy with her life situation. To be fair, I couldn’t stop wondering what it felt like to leave France and relocate to NZ’s countryside, to live in a huge house in the middle of nowhere (the nearest city is 1,5 hour’s drive away), no friends, no family nearby. Nada. Plenty of sheep instead.

James had a very unusual approach to the whole Workaway thing, he just decided to treat us as free labourers. So instead of having meaningful conversations with our hosts, exploring NZ’s culture and hugging the sheep, we ended up working like slaves five hours a day.

Just to give you an idea, our very first task was to move a bunch of huge sacks full of sheep wool from one shed to another and then to take the wool out of the sacks and equally distribute it on the floor to let it dry. Why was it wet? Because the wool wasn’t quite normal, it was, in fact, the shittiest kind of wool, cut from the sheep’s bums and covered in poop.

Another time we spent an afternoon picking up hay for James’s neighbour. I was the only girl there because the job required a certain amount of physical strength. So it was just me, Fabushka and ten Kiwi farmers. We spent hours repeatedly lifting heavy bales of hay (each of them weighed 15-20kg) and putting them on a trailer attached to a moving tractor. When the trailer was fully loaded with several layers of hay bales, we drove it to a shed where we had to unload it. As you can imagine it was all very hard. After two rounds, they asked me if I could drive a car, and I said yes because technically they didn’t ask me if I had a driving license. Thus they offered me to drive the tractor instead of lifting the bales. It was a great fun as it was also a FIAT tractor. At the end of the day, James’s neighbour tried to give us money since he was paying everyone who helped him out with the hay; we didn’t take the money of course, but it made me realise how crazy James was to ask us to do something which was considered a proper farm work.

We did a lot of other things: fixed and cleaned roofs, pressed wool, picked up dirty tires and dug holes. However, James decided to save the best activity for our last days there. We spent three days drenching young sheep, around 400 lambs per day, and in case you don’t know what drenching is, I will explain it. Drenching is a procedure of injecting a liquid drug into the mouth of an animal using a special drench gun. The drug normally treats a broad spectrum of parasites. Anyway, it’s easier said than done; we had to push the lambs into a small yard, restrain them with our knees, stick our fingers in their mouths and dose them one by one. The lambs were super scared; they were trying to escape and kept shitting and pissing on us. 

At the end of the three days James asked us how it went, and when we replied that it was a bit of an unusual task for us, he said that some things are much more fun after you’ve done them than while you are doing them. Yep.

Sheep and beef farm in Hawke’s Bay

Sheryl and Andrew have a beautiful farm situated in Hawke’s Bay; their wooden house overlooks the ocean. Both of them are in their sixties and manage the farm on their own. Andrew has three sons, but none of them was attracted by the idea of dedicating his life to farming. The youngest son decided to enlist in the Army and is currently serving his time in Iraq. We didn’t speak much about it, but I could see that both Andrew and Sheryl were really worried about him. Sheryl doesn’t have her own children, however, she met Andrew when his sons were still young and helped him to raise them.

Andrew and Sheryl have sheep, cattle, two stunning horses, a sweet working dog, two chihuahuas and a fat cat: a perfect combination of animals. Axel, one of the chihuahuas, is a well-respected dog who deserves some special attention. He made me forget my hatred towards small dogs, I fell in love with him! Sheryl has a huge garden where she grows so many fruits and vegetables that they almost never have to buy any food in a supermarket. Everything comes directly from the farm, including meat of course. 

The work wasn’t hard at all, we were mainly helping out with the garden and doing some small farm tasks. The worst thing I had to do there was to pick up horse manure with my bare hands. Sheryl uses it as a fertiliser as she prefers to stick to the organic way of living as much as she can. Other than that I wasn’t asked to do anything unpleasant. When we told them about our sheep drenching experience they were really surprised and said they would never ask workawayers to do anything like that.

Dairy farm in Taranaki

The third time’s the charm they say and indeed it was for us. We stayed with Leanne, Ian and Jack on their lovely farm in Taranaki for eleven days. Taranaki is an incredibly beautiful region, its landscape is dominated by a lone volcano, 2,518 m high Mt Taranaki, which we got to climb on our last day there. It is also famous for its surf beaches that are among the best in the country.  Mt Taranaki gets enough snowfall to be turned into a small ski resort during the winter season, therefore, the best thing about the region is probably being able to go surfing and snowboarding all in the same day. 

Leanne and Ian own a dairy farm (400 cows), hence every morning we had to clean the cowshed where the cows were getting milked, it was covered in shit, mostly liquid shit, but strangely I wasn’t disgusted at all anymore. It’s funny how drastically your level of disgust towards animal poop diminishes after just a couple of weeks spent in the countryside. The first days on James’s farm left me deeply shocked, but by the time we came to Taranaki I was happy to walk ankle-deep in the shit. Moreover, I must admit that it felt great to hold a high water pressure hose and make all the shit and dirt go away at once. It had a certain therapeutic effect on me. 

Apart from that, we helped Ian with some fencing work, which was an easy and even satisfying task. One day Ian told me not to worry too much about making a mistake, he said the fence was only psychological, and if a cow wanted to escape it could have easily destroyed the fence. I thought it was a very meaningful observation to make, I took it as a metaphor of course. Leanne and Ian are in their mid-thirties, Ian works full-time on the farm and Leanne is a self-employed accountant who divides her time between her practice and the farm. She used to work for a well-known financial company in Sydney, but at some point of her life, she realised that it wasn’t the way she really wanted to live her life. Jack is 19 years old, he lives with Leanne and Ian, works on the farm part time and studies. Jack is in a wheelchair which absolutely doesn’t stop him from being an incredibly energetic and positive person. He is active in a number of sports for disabled people (basketball, cycling, swimming); he participates in various regional competitions and dreams of becoming a Paralympic athlete one day.

It was easily our best Workaway experience. Since the very beginning, we felt that they truly got what Workaway was all about. They treated us very well, the accommodation was fantastic, and Leanne cooked so many delicious dishes for us, every day something different. They shared stories with us and gave us a good insight into the NZ lifestyle. We met other travellers there as well, played games with them and listened to their stories. A German guy who once slept in a paper box on the street because when he arrived in the town, all hostels were fully booked and he didn’t have a tent (my style). And a super sweet French couple, who were in the middle of their year-long trip, Indonesia - Australia- NZ- Tahiti- Thailand. It was an amazing experience.

Hotel in Southland

Initially, our plan was to start looking for a job as soon as we leave the North Island and arrive in Christchurch. However, when you’re travelling plans change very quickly, thus we ended up with another Workaway project, and up until today, we haven’t been to Christchurch.

Our fourth Workaway project was very different from the ones we had done before. First of all, it wasn’t a farm, it was a small hotel/pub in a tiny town in Southland. Secondly, during our stay, we had almost no interaction with the hosts, a couple in their fifties who treated us well but didn’t really care much about spending time with us or talking to us. Luckily, we had a company of other workawayers there. 

We did housekeeping in the morning and washed the dishes in the evening, which was quite boring, but after two weeks of sleeping in the car, we were happy to be bored for a little while and have a bed. By the way, we slept in an old caravan parked outside the hotel. It was cool but not really comfortable.

Several hospitality jobs have taught me that sometimes it’s better not to know what’s happening backstage in restaurants and hotels. What really surprised me was that all the sheets and pillow cases were washed in cold water there. Moreover, the dishes were washed manually in a sink filled with soapy water without rinsing off the soap. Plus I saw a mouse in our lounge twice. Yay!

Sasha

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Notes from the road

When Italian blood meets Russian blood everything is possible. The opportunities to break the rules and benefit from the system’s flaws are endless.

This is a story about how we saved 8 dollars (something around 5 euro). What would you do to save 5 euro? I personally would and did lie on the wet cold ground for 40 minutes. But let me start from the beginning.

Here in NZ, they have plenty of camping grounds where you can stay overnight and sleep either inside your car or in a tent. While some of them are quite expensive, others are free or very cheap. That night we decided to stay at a camping area that was only 8 dollars per person. When we arrived, there were just a little humble box and a sign suggesting we should leave the money in the box. Simple. But as there was no one to check on us we came up with a revolutionary con strategy. What if we only paid for one person? How about that, you Kiwi capitalists? It sounded like a perfect plan to us. So that’s what we did. We cooked our usual rice with tomato paste, read our books, brushed our teeth and went to sleep.

The next morning the voice of my beloved wakes me up, “Cazzo, Sasha!!” I immediately understand it all but still decide to look out of the window just to confirm my guess. As I move the curtain I see a lady wearing a reflective orange jacket near the camping ground entrance. “We are doomed”, I think, “shame, humiliation and…well, mostly shame.” But wait, maybe there is a way out of this misery, maybe we can still save ourselves from the embarrassment? We figure I can try to run away and exit the camping ground through the forest which will allow Fabushka to pretend he was the only person in the car all along, safely drive out of the camping area and pick me up on the road. The next thing I know I’m running in the woods with my hoodie on and my heart racing insanely. So I’m running and running until I run into a fence. Voilà, these Kiwis aren’t so naive after all. I panic a bit, just a bit, but keep on running until finally, I find a spot where the fence is slightly broken and manage to jump over it. I’m free! Now I just have to wait for Fabushka, so I decide to hide in a bush, you know… just in case.

Here I am, sitting on the dirty ground behind the bush, after a while it starts raining. I watch a few cars passing me by, but none of them is our car, just other people leaving the camping ground. I’m slowly starting to worry that something happened, they probably saw me running away and now are holding poor Fabushka there, looking for me. As the time passes I become more and more paranoid. Now I’m sure our fraud has been revealed, they are looking for me and won’t let Fabushka go before they find me. And just as I keep dwelling on the idea, I suddenly hear—just as a confirmation of my fears—that someone is approaching the bush slowly but surely. Then I see it: the orange jacket! The lady is walking my way with another guy wearing the same kind of jacket. Without thinking for too long I lie down in the dirt behind the bush trying not to breathe and cursing my bright blue hoodie. I’m 95% sure they will see me, but I’m determined to fight until the end. As we’ve all heard, fortune favours the bold: a miracle happens, they pass by without noticing me. I’m covered in dirt and nasty insects, but happy and incredibly proud of myself. Sasha 1-0 New Zealand.

To make a long story short it all lasts for quite a while, the orange jackets pass by one more time forcing me to lie down in the dirt again. I see many cars leaving the camping ground but not a single sign of Fabushka. Finally, after I’ve been waiting for maybe 50 minutes, I see our car and jump out of my bush with a happy smile…but the car doesn’t stop for me! “That’s it for me for today,” I think. I can’t be bothered to be noticed anymore, I leave my shelter without a second thought and start running behind the car. I wave and shout as loud as I can, “Faaaabusha! Faaaabushka!”

Epilogue

It turned out that, in my moment of despair in the forest, I ran too far away up the road. No one was looking for me except Fabushka, who was desperately driving the same road back and forth but never reaching the place where I was hiding. It never occurred to him that I could have gone so far in such a short time.

Stupid? Maybe… but hey, it saved us 8 dollars!

Sasha

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A month and a half have passed since we left our jobs in Auckland and it seems so far away; it is impressive how many things you can do when you do not work. We left the city and travelled to the beautiful coast of the Coromandel Peninsula and down to Rotorua, the land of Redwood forests, hot springs and boiling rivers. We then drove all the way down to the stylish Wellington and flew to Melbourne. I was truly excited to be there again, several years later, and surprised to find the city as beautiful as I remembered it. I just have to accept that I will never live in my favourite city. We came back to NZ and started working in a couple of farms through Workaway. It is basically a website where you can find some jobs in exchange for food, accommodation and social interaction. The idea is to work some hours per day, live with the host and visit places nearby. Well, every place has been really different. Overall it was a mixture of hard work, relaxing time spent in beautiful lonely places, sweet animals, dirt and shit, awkward moments and interesting conversations with the hosts. For instance, I learned what sheep drenching means. Imagine to hold a sheep still with your legs and open its mouth with one hand and inject a shot of liquid with the other hand while it screams, kicks and shit on you. Then imagine doing this to 1400 sheep. I don't remember if this was on my to-do list when I came to NZ but it is checked now anyway. Last week we finally managed to do our first real hike in the Tongariro National Park. 10 hours walk to the top of the Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom if you know who Frodo Baggins is). We are in our third farm now and we are completely spoiled here. We work no more than 3 hours per day, the tasks are simple and they treat us with amazing food and a private room in the cottage. We have time to visit the surroundings here in Taranaki and we are getting ready to climb the summit of the volcano as soon as we get good weather. Oh, we went shooting rabbits and possums last night because they are apparently a serious problem in NZ. It was like in the movies, we had a Chuck Norris car style with torches and we were going around shooting from the back of the car. I have to admit it was pretty fun and rabbits are pretty safe with me shooting. It's time to move again soon and this is going to be the last farm for now and the end of our trip in the North Island. We are finally going to the South Island next week and we have already planned some big hiking trips for April.

Fabio  

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The last period at work before you quit is always very special. Doesn’t matter if it’s after three years in an office or three months in a cafeteria. In those last days nothing can upset you, the job and people around you are nice and time goes faster. My coffee skills have drastically improved in the last couple of weeks. I dont know exactly what happend, I just started doing beautiful flat whites at some point. We have lived in our apartment for two months. Even though the flat was often dirty, and the flatmates didn’t really pull their weight it is probably the most comfortable accomodation we will have in this journey. Auckland has been home for three months. During that time I worked in a cafeteria, Sashenka worked in a restaurant and then in an office; we bought a car and traveled to many places; we spent New Year’s Eve on the beach; we went on a sailing trip and did kayaking, snorkeling, surf and caving; and finally we quit our jobs. It feels like we have been here for ages. It is time to pack all our things, empty the room and throw everything in the car, Kublai, which will be our mate and home for a while. We are going to do as many kilometers as we can afford and even though we have done many things we whished, our to-do list today is longer than yesterday. It is pointless to look too far though so let’s just focus on this week’s road trip before going back to my favourite city in the world, Melbourne!

Fabio

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Our first road trip

Our time in Auckland is coming to its end, in a week’s time we will take Kublai (we wanted to name our car after a character from Marco Polo, and— considering the size and age of the car—Kublai Khan was the obvious choice) for another road trip, this time moving down south. The idea is to reach Wellington on the 15th or 16th of February as we’re flying to Melbourne on the 17th early morning. Ah, Melbourne… the best city in the world according to Fabushka and numerous magazines. This is one of the cases when my favourite formula “low expectations = no disappointments” simply won’t work. I’m super excited to see the city, the expectations are set higher than ever.

So yes, we only have one week left of some sort of stability before we hit the road again: jobless and without a clear plan of what to do next after we are back from Australia. It doesn’t bother us, though. One of the things I really like about travelling long term is that you have enough time to improvise and make mistakes. Whereas when you only have ten days in a place you really have to make sure you spend your time wisely.  

Fortunately, we have already had a chance to test Kublai as well as ourselves. Over the holidays, we took an eight-day road trip to Northland: the warmest part of New Zealand, full of amazing beaches (the famous Ninety Mile Beach, for example), rainforests, enormous kauri trees, glowworm caves, and small towns populated primarily by Maori. Throughout the centuries, the Maori population has been concentrated in the North Island. And it’s in Northland where it can be noticed clearly. Northland is a very popular holiday destination for Aucklanders throughout the summer months and it gets especially busy during the Chrismas season. Now, we’ve heard several New Zealanders complaining about how crowded NZ is nowadays and how nice it used to be before; and while I totally see their point (I mean, from a European point of view, there were almost no people here some 100 years ago), I can only smile in response. Everything is relative, and NZ by no means is Iceland, but honestly it’s never too crowded here. However, to understand that one should probably try to sunbath in Liguria on a summer day first.

In those eight days, we drove all the way up north to Cape Reinga, the very end of NZ’s North Island, the point where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The place is incredibly beautiful as you can clearly see the line where the currents of the two oceans collide, and the colours are so bright. Maori believe that the cape itself is a giant platform from where the souls of the dead depart the mainland on their way to the afterlife. The spirits are believed to descend into the underworld by sliding down the roots of the famous pohutukawa tree into the water below. They then travel under the sea to the Three Kings Islands where they stop for a moment and offer their last farewell to the land before returning to their original homeland Hawaiki. It’s a beautiful myth and it gives Cape Reinga that special mystical vibe you always feel at various religious sites all around the world. We stayed in the area overnight, at Tapotupotu Bay campsite, which was very nice, located by a river flowing into the ocean; and when I went for a swim in the ocean there it felt so strange like I was swimming at the end of the world. The next morning we set off to test our new hiking shoes. We tried our best to follow the established coastal track but somehow managed to get ourselves lost and had to climb a steep rock covered with all sort of prickly plants.  

Some countries are just meant to be travelled by car, Iceland is a good example, for instance. And NZ without any doubts is one of those countries as well. Many of the beautiful places we’ve visited here are not accessible by public transport. And while you surely can reach the most famous sites and attractions on a tourist shuttle bus, it won’t allow you to experience NZ’s beauty to its fullest. I’ve always liked the idea of road trips when long distances and empty roads become a valuable part of the journey. And now, when we have a bed in our car, I start to like it even more. There are plenty of campsites in NZ and freedom camping is very popular as well (the areas where you can stay overnight for free, normally there are no showers or, in some cases, even toilets). The cheaper a campsite is the fewer commodities it will have, obviously. Sleeping in the car turned out to be surprisingly comfortable, especially when we managed to stay at the camping areas with hot showers. It didn’t happen too often, though. Most of the time it was either a freezing cold shower or no shower at all. Luckily for us, Mother Nature is always happy to provide alternatives; so sometimes we just went for a swim in the sea instead of a shower and once Fabushka washed himself in a river. It was super funny, he just sat in the river like it was a bath and started washing his body. Haha. By the end of the trip, my hair turned into a bird’s nest and the skin on my face got so dry that it hurt even to smile. But that’s all right, I can live with that.  

On the way to Cape Reinga, we stopped for a couple of days in the Bay of Islands, which was one of the trip’s highlights. The Bay of Islands is the most popular summer destination for Kiwis, there are several cute little towns in the area and the bay itself consists of over a hundred small subtropical islands, accessible only by boat. The place is also home to aliens (sorry, I mean dolphins), penguins, and other sea creatures. Sometimes even orcas, also known as killer whales, can be seen there. We celebrated the New Year by a campfire on a riverbank, listening to a group of very young guys playing the guitar and singing. Actually, it’s a funny story because we stayed at a campsite just up the road from the campfire place, but it seemed that the guys there were having much more fun than the people at our campsite. So just after 11 pm, we decided to go down the road and crash the party regardless the fact that technically we were not permitted to enter another camping area. The party was for the people who paid to stay at the camping only. Anyway, it did not stop us and we confidently joined the guys by the fire. After a while, I noticed that all of them (a group of 10-15 people) seemed to know each other and seemed to be quite young as well. And then it struck me that they could be a group of students on a school trip. I laughed so much imagining that we are just two creeps for them who appeared from nowhere and started speaking to them like it was totally fine. Haha. But it wasn’t true, I just like to entertain myself.

We almost left the Bay of Islands on the 1st of January, but luckily decided to stay and go for a sailing trip the following day. There are many options available and we haven’t tried them all, but I’m pretty sure we chose the best one. Gungha II! I’ve been on sailing boats a few times before, but this was the first time when we actually used the sails most of the time. The owner of the boat, Mike, is a very nice Canadian guy who is strictly against any form of unethical tourism, things like chasing dolphins on speedboats, etc. He does this job for six months a year and spends another six months sailing the open ocean. Over the years, he has already sailed to Fiji, Tonga, New Caledonia, Tahiti, Hawaii and even Mexico. We had such a good time on the boat, we sailed for a couple of hours before reaching a super beautiful private island where we anchored for quite a long time. Mike made sure that we had enough time to relax on the island, go snorkelling and kayaking. We even went for a hike around the island…barefoot. By the time we left the island, we were the only people there.  There are many tours in the Bay of Island that specifically target dolphins, sometimes it is even allowed to swim with them. Every day hundreds of tourists go on the speedboat tours to spend hours looking for dolphins and when/if they find them, the tourists quickly jump in the water. Like I said earlier, Mike didn’t seem to be particularly happy about this kind of tourism, so we were never promised to see any dolphins… but it happened! We saw so many of them jumping out of the water just in front of our boat, there were probably twenty of them. I even spotted a baby dolphin. And I have to admit they were cute aliens, those dolphins.

To conclude, we really enjoyed the road trip and I’m pleased there are still so many of them to come.

Sasha

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If you are an unexperienced hiker it might be really hard not to look down most of the time. So imagine that you've been walking uphill for 30 minutes, carefully trying not to twist your ankles, and when you decide to stop for a break, you lift your head up and see the ocean ❤ #waitakereranges #westauckland #visitauckland #newzealand #workingholidaynz #northislandnz #karekare #tasmansea (at Zion Hill Track, Karekare)

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La Porchetta’s new job

We have been living in Auckland for a little over a month now, but it feels much longer. So many things have happened since we arrived here that I've almost lost the feeling of my life before NZ. It all seems so distant now: Malta, my job in recruitment, our apartment. Here in Auckland I've already changed my job and guess what I'm doing now? Just take a wild guess. 

I'm working for a well-known charity organisation fundraising for the campaign focused on constructing and repairing clean water points and toilets in a slum in Bangladesh. I know, it sounds so surreal that it's almost funny. It makes me laugh as well. In fact, sometimes I can barely stop myself from laughing while talking to people on the phone. So yes, instead of being La Porchetta in an Italian restaurant I am now an annoying charity fundraiser, the kind of person you would want to hang up on. The job could be considered quite hard by many (I mean who likes calling people and asking them for money?) but not by someone who has spent the last three years working in recruitment. I'm very used to annoying people on the phone. That's just what I do for a living. 

So when I came across this charity job ad online I immediately decided to apply for it. The way I think about it is: if not you, Sasha, then who else would be a good fit for this kind of job? 

But, all joking aside, I'm actually enjoying it. At the end of the day, it's an office job, and I definitely feel much more confident in an office than in a restaurant trying to figure out which side of the table does the knife/napkin/fork belong. It also pays well, and the office itself is super nice, including the people who work in it. 

I like my new colleagues, especially the Russian/Kiwi girl who speaks English with a strong Kiwi accent occasionally inserting random Russian words, like "my babushka". Or the Irish girl who has been travelling with her boyfriend for four years and was granted a permanent resident status in Australia just a couple of weeks ago. Or the young Kiwi guy who is so passionate about everything he says on the phone that I sometimes catch myself listening to him with admiration. Or (perhaps my favourite one) the English guy who had been calling Bangladesh "the Bangladesh" for a week until we stopped him and then told us that he didn't even know where it was.

At the moment we're calling Australians and it's a fun experience: speaking with Aussies, hearing the famous accent. Of course, most of the people are not happy to be called, but that's alright. The most important thing is that overall people donate a lot. Really, you would be surprised, I have had several people donating $1000 and $500 on the spot. And there are plenty of people donating anything between $20 and $100. 

All in all, I have to admit, it feels good to work for a charity. I know it’s a cliche, but it makes you feel like you’re contributing to something important. 

Sasha

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To reach this place we had to walk down a very steep slope for 30 minutes and then climb all the way back. But it was worth it, we found almost no other people there and the whole beach just for ourselves. P.S. The waves were just crazy! #anawhatabeach #westauckland #waitakereranges #newzealand (at Anawhata Beach)

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I have just bought a car. My first car.

We have been living in Auckland for a month and we have recently moved into a nice small apartment in the city centre. I am a barista in a cool Swedish bar at the harbour in front of the sea. Yes, Swedish. It is small, but well known and most of the customers are people who work in the offices nearby. Part of the job is to talk to them, remember their names, where they work and what they like. Everything looks so familiar and awkward when you are on the opposite side of the bar. A couple of months ago I didn’t need to say anything walking inside my favourite bar in Malta for a cappuccino and croissant every morning before going to the office.

I am working every morning and my goal is to master the coffee machine. Apparently espresso and cappuccino are not the only options for the rest of the world so I have to deal with the various flat white, latte, long black and americano. The next programming language or JavaScript framework is not a problem for now, I am learning how to steam the milk properly, perform some latte art and remember the proportions of our special ice coffee. And yes, I have just bought a huge station wagon with camping gears and a bed inside.

Fabio

[roarroads-blog]

“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do. The task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand. Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks, are charged with listening to music or following a line of trees. [...]

At the end of hours of train - dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves - that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are. [...] 

If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colours and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.”

- The Art of Travel by Alain de Bottom