I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!

Hello, 

Well, it is a Sunday afternoon here in New Zealand and the weather is beautiful. Some people are at the beach, and I may join them later...but right now a few of us are just here hanging out, talking, making lunch, and relaxing. 

It is shocking that my original plan was to be back home in ONLY NINE DAYS! In just a little over a week I would have been home, but I have decided to extend my trip. I am so far away from home, can only get the working holiday visa one time, am taking a year off, and most of all--am having so much fun! So, why not stay a little longer? I will stay for a few more months so I can keep working and then travel. I have thought about it a lot, and in the end I think it is the right decision. I am very happy here in Hastings at the backpacker. It is like a big family, and so we will stay together for Christmas and New Year’s, and then move on with our travels. 

The latest news is that I was fired from my job. I worked doing “pear thinning” for about 2 weeks. Like all seasonal work, it had its boring moments. 10 hours a day of picking pears out of clusters on trees was not the most exciting job in the world, but when the weather was nice and the wind was blowing, and you worked alongside your friends, there was really something beautiful about it. Sometimes we talked about how when we were up on our ladders and the wind was blowing, and we could see ALL the tree tops and mountains around us we just felt so free, and that the nature was so beautiful. Other times we were holding on to our trees and ladders for dear life in hope not to be blown away. On our short breaks we would talk, laugh, share food, and share either happiness from a lovely day, or pain from waking up at 5:30 in the morning and climbing ladders all day in the rain or cold. The weather is truly insane. 4 seasons in one day! 

However...back to the point! The pear thinning ended. We were told we were going to be picking nectarines for only ONE day before starting to apple thin. So, we all got up, and went to this new orchard. We were given these BIG bags to wear that had shoulder straps and the bags hung on our chest/stomach. We had to climb ladders and pick the fruit and put the fruit in our bags. Then when our bags were full we had to CAREFULLY empty the fruit into these buckets, making sure not to bruise the nectarines. We started at 7:30, and somehow after 2 hours....Air, Goong, and I were fired. At 9:30 they told us to be ready to go home at 10:00. We thought we just had a crappy boss who didn’t even take the time in 2 hours on our FIRST day to help us out, but then we found out Ray, who is our contractor, never wanted to hire us again...even for the apple thinning job. It was so confusing, and still no one knows what was wrong. We think maybe they just wanted to get rid of people, and we happened to be the unlucky ones. It has come up in many a conversation over the last week, and no one knows. 

Now---Air, Goong, and I work together at Longview...another big company. We are apple thinning. Work begins at 7:30 and ends at 5. The days are long, it is hot, and the three of us miss our old team from the backpacker when we were pear thinning. This work is very hard, and at this point we fear we may not even be getting minimum wage. They pay $1.35 per tree you complete, and that means you have to get about 10 trees per hour to make minimum wage. I think most of us can manage about 5-7 trees an hour. So, if we are not getting paid minimum wage, working like this is useless. We will find out this Thursday when we get paid. 

The last news is that we had another bbq last night for Louisa’s 22nd birthday, and then went to Napier. I offered to drive because most people had been drinking. It turns out Nico’s car has a clutch and stick shift etc...I tried, but I could not do it. Finally Sarah drove and everything was fine. Napier was not so good. We got there past midnight, and I realized I should have stayed home. I was too tired, and did not want to be in the middle of a crazy crowd with blasting music and flashing lights. I wanted to ask someone to take me home, but we had just gotten there! 

Finally things got to be a little more fun when we started dancing, but I still was ready to go back ANY TIME. On the way home Sarah was speeding a bit. I didn’t even know because they use kilometers per hour here, and because I don’t drive I don’t even know speed limits etc. She wasn’t going too much over, but I guess enough for the police to pull us over. They gave her an alcohol test. She passed, and they gave her a warning and a ticket for $170. She was upset, but slowed down, and we were okay. We arrived past 3 in the morning, and everyone was just DONE and ready to go to sleep. We drank some tea, talked, and went to bed, It was a long night.

That is all for now. Hope all is well :)