I'm very aware of how late this post is...guys I've been without wifi for almost two full weeks now. Please cut me some slack.
Oct 8, 2017
I'm writing this on my apple notes again while Josh and I are sitting in our van. We’re waiting to see if the guest-house our company booked for us on a farm will let us stay an extra night. Our car suspension shock-absorber is busted. And it’s Sunday, so all the mechanics are closed. So now we can’t head to our next location for work until tomorrow. It’s all gonna be okay though. We’re at the end of our week in Rotorua. Like I mentioned, the company finally sent us out of Auckland. Maybe they knew what they were doing by keeping us in the city an extra two weeks. Josh and I and our team leader Mani were the top performing team in the entire company this week. So yeah, we're doing okay. The wait was worth it.
We kicked off our trip last Friday with Jared and Ale down to Matamata. Josh got his birthday present early last Saturday when we spent the day at the one and only Hobbiton fucking movie set. Well, not the whole day, it was kind of a rushed two-hour-tour to be honest. I wish it could have been the whole day, but I’m sure that would have cost a shit-ton.
But the over-priced two hours were well worth it just to see Josh running around like a kid in a candy store. I'm sure it's how I would have acted if we were in Harry Potter world instead. But Hobbiton is definitely cooler since it's the actual movie set, not a dumb Universal Studios replica. Even though I wasn’t super into the tour, I still had a lot of fun taking pictures of Josh, Jared and Ale while they were geeking out.
I tried to avoid being in as many pictures as possible though. My self image issues continue to be at an all time low. It's gotten to the point where I get visceral reactions every time I see a picture of myself. There was a picture Josh took of me on my camera that I immediately deleted because I was disgusted by it. Later that day when he found out, he got (very understandably) upset with me because that’s a memory he’ll never be able to get back. So now we have a deal: no deleting pictures of each other without the other person’s permission. No matter how much I think I look like a chubby Oompah Loompa.
It’s definitely a habit I’ve had since I was a pre-teen. Back when Facebook was new and everyone wanted to fill their profile with pictures that made them look cool and interesting. I’d usually be the photographer for my sisters and friends. My task was finding the perfect angle to make size 0-4 girls look as skinny as possible....And then they would try to take pictures of me at a very overweight size of 12. Looking at pictures of myself always made me want to cry. It kind of broke something in my brain I guess.
So I had a bit of a PTSD moment after having taken pictures of the group all day. Ale is of course gorgeous and has actually modeled at one point. Jared looks like a fucking Chilean-James Franco. And of course there’s my Viking, Josh. Very tall, very handsome, not quite dark yet but he’s working on a mean tan. Yeah I look like an actual fuckin fat hobbit next to them.
We spent the rest of the day and that night at a campsite near McLaren Falls. I’m starting to really like camping to be honest. Hanging out in beautiful campsites with friends, just talking and eating and listening to people playing guitar. As long as I can still get a hot shower before bed, I’m a fan.
Sadly, the next day we did have to say ‘see you soon’ to the other half of the AJ squad. Jared and Ale headed back north to the Bay of Islands to do a little more exploring before heading to AUS. And Josh and I headed a little further south to Rotorua for our first week as roaming fundraisers. I guess that’s how it goes when you become friends with other backpackers. You share a really close bond with them over a really short period of time, and then you have to move on to the next adventure. We’ll definitely be seeing them again sometime in the future though. I have so many pictures from these past few weeks that I’ve been meaning to post. So I’ll be spamming you guys with those over the next week if our accommodation has WiFi this time. Cheers wanderlusters
