I've apparently neglected my poor little blog for the past few weeks. Sorry!

Two weeks ago, most of my fellow workers and I moved to a different hostel, after a confrontation about holiday pay. Minimum wage in New Zealand is $12.50/hr +8% holiday pay. Our contractor (as well as the owner of the hostel at which we were staying) wasn't paying us the holiday pay, even though the company was paying him our holiday pay. He told us he didn't legally have to do so. So there was a series of explosive meetings, and he ultimately decided to give us the 8% (though he continually told us that he wasn't legally required to, even though we called the Department of Labour and they said he did). That Saturday, we moved. For myself, I didn't want to stay in his hostel because he made it really uncomfortable for me. Our new hostel was much nicer and much cheaper.

We finished up work last Saturday, and afterwards, we had a Maori hangi. Some of the ladies cooked up a massive meal for us and I ate more than I thought possible. It was delicious. Then we had to say goodbye to everyone, and I hugged more people that I don't really know than ever before in my life. Everyone wished us well and seemed sad to see us go. I was actually kind of sorry to leave! Since then, I've just been hanging out, trying to figure out what to do next and saying farewell as everyone takes off. There are still 6 or 7 of us hanging around, so I'm not by myself.

I've signed up with Help Exchange, which is kind of like WWOOF (if you know what that is). It's an organization that helps travellers find people who need help in exchange for food and accommodation. I've contacted a couple who breed dogs, and will hopefully get to stay with them at the end of September or October. Until then, I don't know. I'm hoping to stay with some folks who own a kennel for the rest of August (maybe), then travel the rest of the North Island in September. After that, I want to go to the South Island, then hopefully go to Australia in January or February. We'll see how things work out.

For most of this week so far, I'd felt vaguely sick about being here, because I felt directionless and with no overall plan for how things were to pan out. But now I think I might have things organized a little better, and I'm already a lot happier! But I may be counting my chickens before they hatch...