On my to-do list for today: make pancakes (check), put away the mess of clothes on the floor of my room (a weekly cycle), clean the house (gotta pull my housemate weight), go climbing with Jenna, write blog post (checking that one off), plan sisters’ visit (sister time in NZ!!), and drink Earl Grey Kombucha.

Phew. Feels good to write that down. Today is day 2 of my 3-day weekend that occurs every week. I recently began working at a restaurant where one of my colleagues from the cafe is manager (if that makes sense). He really cracks me up, and we now spend lots of time together (he’s 40 and married so don’t get the wrong idea). Anyway, it’s an asian fusion restaurant right in town, which is sweet because I can bike there. The food is delicious, so that’s a huge plus, and I can fit it in after a day working at the cafe. The plan is essentially to work extremely long days for 3 days a week and then get 4 days off for adventure time. The plan has not quite come to fruition yet, but I’m working on it.

Of course, the nights before I started at the resturaunt, I got ridiculously anxious about it. Only I could have a stress dream about a part-time job at an extremely inconsequential restaurant. Sheesh, I gotta figure that out. Anyways, as expected, it all ended up being totally fine and I did not screw up massively. Especially for those of you who haven’t worked in food service, the hospo (hopsitality job) superstars are honestly so impressive. There’s always 6 tasks to do and so much to remember and it’s easy to get super overwhelmed. My mom always says that everyone should work at a restaurant in their life, and I now agree. Next time someone (maybe a 23-year old ginger girl) forgets your order, smile and cut them a little slack!

As desired, the work-hard adventure-hard lifestyle gifted me many fun times this week. I went on a big adventure run yesterday! When I first got to Wanaka, I did part of the same trail and officially put it on my list to complete the whole thing. Yesterday, I did! That feels good. I also passed tons of TA hikers on the trail (the big thru-hike here), which I really enjoyed. Although I wasn’t in the mood to chat much, I was marvelled by all of them as I think that would be such an incredibly difficult thing to do. It’s HOT here recently, so just getting baked by the sun day in and day out sounds brutal. Some absolute legends!!

That is something random but I absolutely love the amount that people say “legend” out here. Someone asks for tomato sauce for their pie at the cafe, I give it to them, and they respond “You’re a legend” before rushing out the door to get in their pickup truck. It’s a constant little hype up for me. To return the favor, when someone picked me up while I was hitchiking home from my run yesterday, I promptly swung open the door and exclaimed, “You’re a legend!!” What goes around comes around.

In other news, I recently made the decision to stay here through the winter (the US summer). Although it feels quite sad to let my time at Overland go, it would feel even sillier to let extra time on my NZ visa go. I really love life here, which is such a special feeling and experience. To spend so much of my time smiling — I’m truly grateful. Although I’ve been warned to not even begin to compare skiing here with the experience in North America, I’m excited to give it a go. Apparently, the town totally transforms in the winter so I’m eager for that too. Perhaps, I’ll look into living elsewhere for the season. But, that feels to stressful to think about at the moment. I want to take advantage of my geographic location and travel before winter starts, so please pass along recommendations if you have them! Thinking of a big trip during the shoulder season.

Especially at a time where things are so crazy and scary in the US, I feel very lucky (and honestly conflicted) about living in a blissful elsewhere. It’s also interesting (and sometimes annoying) to hear commentary from other countries on the state of the US. If you ever need to escape America even just for a few minutes, give me a call! I’d happily to tell you about all the funny habits people have here (including taking dirty shoes off before entering a store so it’s totally normalized to see people in bare feet at the grocery store). What legends.

Here’s some photos from the weeks past, enjoy!

Sincerely,

Jacklin