About a month ago I got extremely cabin fevered and irritated and needed to escape the Au Pair house. So I took a weekend roadtrip to Auckland and was too lazy/didn't have Photoshop to post anything until now. Sorry for my procrastination, I'm working on it!!
It was the night of July 14th (okay it was way more than a month ago). I had just gotten back to the house from an evening workout to realize that the parents had used the "Au Pair car" to run errands all day. Which they had every right to do, they owned the fucking thing. However...I had just paid for $50 worth of gas the night before...and they had used it all up...brought the car back to the house on an empty tank....and weren't offering to pay me back or fill it up anytime soon. Here's the thing about being a live-in nanny: the parents think that since you're staying with them rent-free, they barely owe you the $185/week they're paying you to basically raise their kids for them. So, even if they've got quite a bit of wealth (both parents I worked for were doctors at the local hospital), they're still going to be stingy about your work-related expenses and will constantly take advantage of you financially. After all, there's a reason they decided to hire a backpacker rather than a professional nanny; they're cheap motherfuckers.
The gas thing had been getting on my nerves ever since the day I started working for them. Sometimes I felt like my job was basically being a glorified chauffeur. On a typical day I'd use the car to drop the kids off at school, pick them up, take them to whatever after-school activity they had scheduled for that day (which most of the time was at least a half hour drive), then take them home. Let me tell you, Adrian is one of the most accomplished six year-olds I know. He's now an orange belt in karate, taking guitar lessons and doing better than the older kids in class, reading at an American 3rd grade level thanks to the local library program, riding a horse confidently, and swimming like a goddamn dolphin. These parents have money coming out of every hole in their body if they're investing this much in a six-year-old's extra curriculars. And yet, they didn't think they should pay my gas expenses for driving their kids to all these places. I was probably spending half of my earnings on gas. So to come home and see that they decided to ditch both of their BMWs and use the beat up VW Golf just to be able to help themselves to MY $50 worth of gas... I was beyond over it. I was at a serious risk of getting myself fired because all I wanted to do was go upstairs and go off on these assholes. So on the spot, not even bothering to shower after the gym, I immediately started packing a weekend bag, and threw it in the trunk along with a comforter and a pillow. I sent a short text to the parents if they needed me to work over the weekend. Thankfully they said no, so I told them I was going out of town and would be back in time to take the kids to school Monday morning. I went back down to the garage and put the kids' car seats into one of the shiny BMWs, and GOT. THE FUCK. OUT. OF. THERE.
I immediately felt better the second I drove off their driveway. After making a quick stop at a gas station and cringing my way through spending another $50 to fill the tank 3/4 full, I started driving aimlessly. God that felt good to be able to do. I remember as a teenager living with my parents wishing I could do that exact thing; just checking out for a weekend and driving somewhere far away. About an hour and a half later of being on some random beautiful mountainous highway, I decided I should probably pull over and plan where I wanted to go. After looking my gps, I realized I was on a major highway heading north-west towards Auckland (New Zealand's capitol), and decided to just keep going that way. With another $50 gas stop somewhere along the way, I made it to the city center around 3 am - it was about a 7 hour drive. After driving around a few blocks I realized, as safe as New Zealand is, I was not about to get out of my car and wander the streets of Auckland alone in the middle of the night. So I parked at the beachfront Starbucks and slept in the backseat of the VW for the night. I woke up the next morning around 6 am, bought my over-priced comfort drink (Matcha Green Tea Iced Latte), and walked along the beach with my camera. It was one of the most relaxing mornings I had since arriving in New Zealand.
I was using the data on my NZ sim card that I had been hoarding all month to listen to a morning Spotify mix. I had decided it would be a "treat yourself" type of weekend. And right as Little Rowboat by Daniel Ceasar started playing, an actual rowboat was making it's way across the beachfront. It was such a perfect moment that the universe had created just for me, and I was so excited to be able to capture it with the breathtaking morning sunlight. As I like to say: the universe came in clutch.
That mini-gift from God set the tone for the rest of the weekend. I spent it doing whatever the fuck I wanted; like going to the botanical gardens for free, buying avocado toast and a mango smoothie for brunch, going to a bar in the middle of the day just to chat-up the bartenders, and buying sweatpants and a pair of earrings from the retail strip. The most hilarious part was driving around one of the millionaire neighborhoods just to geek-out about the cool houses and take pictures of them. Then within 10 minutes, getting stopped by neighborhood security, being forced to delete the pictures from my camera and phone, being escorted out of the neighborhood by a friendly female security officer who, after a few minutes of talking, proceeded to offer me an Au Pair position which I politely declined. It was a good weekend. The peaceful time to myself had helped me decide before driving back to Hawke's Bay that I'll probably never Au Pair again during my travels. Unless I'm really desperate for a place to stay.
Speaking of finding jobs, that's exactly what I'm distracting myself from doing at the moment. Josh and I are currently at a cafe in Hastings. He's working on his freelance, and I'm taking a break from job applications to write this post. That's right, Josh is finally here!!! He arrived exactly two weeks ago. Neither of us can actually believe that long-distance is really over forever... But I'll talk about that more in my next post. I've been having a hard time getting him to pose for a picture, but I promise it wont be a month gap until I post again.
After spending that first night at his Airbnb instead of my Au Pair bedroom, I knew I needed to quit sooner rather than later. After expressing this to the family, my six-month contract turned into four months because they were already speaking to an 18 year old girl from France who was interested in coming to New Zealand ASAP... I wish that girl the best of luck because thanks to her I was able to pack up my stuff that same weekend and move in with Josh. The downside to that was my time with the kids was cut short. I really, truly miss them. I fell in love with those little monkeys. They made my shitty experiences with their parents more than worth it. Most of the time they preferred spending time with me rather than with their own parents. Towards the end of my time working with them, they had been asking for me to put them to bed instead of their mom or dad. I guess I must be somewhat petty, because the parents knowing that their own kids liked me more always made me feel better. I definitely plan on seeing those munchkins again before I leave the country. But for now, time for the next chapter.
