24 and Still Unemployed (plus some tramping tales)

It is now December and I’m back with an update that is not much of one. I am still unemployed and searching for a job – I have applied to countless positions online, hand delivered copies of my resume, and have been to recruitment agencies to see if they can place me somewhere temporarily, all to no avail. Each job application sent out feels like yelling “I AM NOT STUPID AND USELESS!” into the void, and sometimes I hear back the echo of someone else’s success: “We regret to inform you that we will not be moving forward with your application…”

One problem is that I cannot work over the Christmas/New Years period because I will be tramping for three weeks straight, and many retail jobs are looking for people to work then. On the other hand, many industries in New Zealand shut down for several weeks over that period, so they’re not hiring either, leaving me, simply put, in a pickle.

It’s not all doom and gloom – I got to take a very nice trip up to the top half of the South Island in the middle of November. After Travis finished his finals, he and I drove up and spent two nights with his parents, who live in Blenheim. Meeting someone’s parents is always an enlightening experience one way or another, and this was no different – I immediately recognized things he does in the way his parents do things. We did some nice walks, and I also finally got to go to the Dutch Bakery in Picton, from which I had been thwarted THRICE last year (first time was Good Friday after Easter, second time was Matariki, another public holiday, and the third time was a Sunday and they were closed). Unfortunately they were out of veggie pies but I much enjoyed the apple slice I got.

After two days in Blenheim we drove to Nelson and picked up my friend Halley, and then drove to a place south of Motueka, where Anja was staying! She was back in New Zealand for a couple months before heading over to Australia to finish out her working holiday visa there. It was really nice to see her again, even though she was busy most of the time we were there.

Travis, Halley, and I did a day hike up Mount Arthur, which was my first foray into Kahurangi National Park. Kahurangi is called the Noah’s Ark of New Zealand because other parts of New Zealand have been underwater several times over the past couple million years as sea levels have risen and fallen, but Kahurangi is higher and therefore acted as a refuge for all the plants and animals flooded out of the rest of the island. Indeed, walking in the forest there feels ancient – very different from some other places in New Zealand I have been. Our day trip up Mount Arthur was nearly 30 km (19 miles) total, which is the second farthest distance I have ever walked in a day – when we reached the end though, I was surprisingly fit and happy and could have kept going for a bit! Seems like all my time working outside finally paid off, and my energy levels were back to what they should be.

The next day was my 24th birthday, and Travis and I spent the morning making a pancake stack cake with yogurt and jam between the pancakes, which was quite yummy. We ate with Anja and Halley, and then Travis and I went and did a day walk in the Abel Tasman. I had done the whole great walk there over 5 days last year, but it’s a beautiful area and well worth going back to. It also really made me think about what all had changed in the year and a half since I had last been there – quite a lot actually!

After packing up the next morning, Travis and I said our goodbyes and headed out. We drove down to Murchison, bought some last minute essentials, and then headed up to the trailhead to the Thousand Acre Plateau.

For the first bit of the hike I was unexplainably angry, which subsided when we had lunch. After lunch we had to climb a hill of around 1000 meters, which was quite the slog. Coming up onto the Thousand Acre Plateau was worth it however, and that evening we watched a nice sunset from Poor Pete’s Hut. The next day we walked to Larrikin Creek Hut, ate lunch there, and then climbed a mountain called The Needle (which is right next to The Haystack) in the afternoon. This was a bit of an eventful afternoon, and I turned the story into a Trog (short for Trip-Log). Trogs are published as a book every year by the tramping club, and this one has been submitted for next year’s, so enjoy.

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Travis and the Pitted Prunes

With me freshly unemployed and Travis between uni and his summer internship, we decided to take a wee trip up to the Thousand Acre Plateau. During our first snack break, I asked Travis, “so, what have you got for snacks?” Travis pulls out a pack of pitted prunes, along with some pretzels. “Pitted prunes?” I asked. “You know the only reason I know anyone would eat pitted prunes is because they’re constipated, are you constipated?” “Hey, they’re yummy! And I’m very much not constipated, thank you very much,” Travis answered.

The next morning, we had a lazy morning before heading off to Larrikin Creek Hut around 9:30. Every time we stopped for snacks, out came the prunes. We reached the hut around lunchtime and had lunch (Travis had more prunes) before climbing The Needle as our afternoon mish. Having seen how many prunes Travis ate, I chucked the toilet paper into the pack, even though he insisted he was fine.

Following the path up to The Needle proved challenging, and I may have misled us once or twice maybe. At one point, Travis and I had taken different paths after crossing a stream, when all the sudden I hear from across the flax and tussocks “Hey Ronja…”

“Yes?”

“Where’d you put that toilet paper?”

“It’s in the top of the pack.”

“Ok, nature is calling…” Travis gives me the sign to turn around, and I start looking for somewhere to sit and wait.

“It’s calling quickly!” Well ok then, I’ll just sit down right where I am.

The rest of the walk up the Needle passed uneventfully, and the views of The Haystack, the Devil’s Dining Table, and Mount Misery were to die for.

On our way back down, I carried the pack. We made our way quickly down past the Spaniards and had just started the final descent to the hut when I hear “Hey Ronja….?”

“Yeeesss…?”

“Do you, uh, have that toilet paper? I want to try to make it to the hut, but I have to bolt.”

I quickly handed over the toilet paper, and Travis started down the hill at top speed. After about 15 meters I hear “I’m not going to make it to the hut – I’m just going to go into the bushes here.”

I stopped for a couple minutes and then decided I might as well head down to the hut – Travis would follow. “Can I walk by you or are you on the path?”

“I’m deep enough in the bushes, you can go by.”

As I walked by, I glanced over into the bushes, and through the gaps I saw Travis, shirtless, with the shirt tossed into the bushes. “Why is your shirt off??” I asked. “Well, you see… the branch I was holding onto broke and I may have fallen, and I may really need a wash when we get to the stream… prunes are my enemy.”

I headed down to the hut, dropped the pack at Larrikin Stream, and went to grab the soap and towel. As I neared the hut, I hear from across the clearing “Can you also grab my scuffs?” I look back to see Travis emerge from the bush, naked except for his socks and shoes.

That evening, after a thorough wash, Travis decided to have some instant noodles for dinner. “I’ve had enough laxatives, now I need some blockatives! And I’m not having any more prunes on this trip.”

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After weeks of nothing on the job front, I finally I got an invitation to do an asynchronous online interview with Ticketmaster for a casual box office attendant position, and then an invitation to do a follow-up interview on zoom. The job would start in January, and I should hear back by early next week, but I am hopeful. The good thing is I can look for another job to work in addition, which would be ideal.

I also attended my first ever concert of a popular musician: I have been listening to Hozier casually for years, and then saw that he was coming to Christchurch on his tour. I didn’t want to go by myself, but luckily I met an exchange student from Denmark on a tramping club trip who was going, so I bought a ticket. I listened to his music more and more from that point forward, and by the time of the concert, knew all the songs he played well enough to sing along. I was pretty nervous before the concert – because I am very noise sensitive, and was worried I might get overwhelmed and have to leave early. That was not the case however, and with some earplugs in it was still loud but bearable, and most importantly I loved hearing the music live and seeing him sing and all the other 8 people on the stage sing and play their instruments as well. Overall, it was an incredible experience, and I would not be averse to doing something similar again someday.

I am still working on my project with the lab, inching ever closer to a publishable paper, which means my days are not completely empty of thought. I have also spent quite a lot of time and energy (and money) preparing for the 7 days plus 10 days of tramping over the Christmas New Years period. This includes things like dehydrating my own food, preparing dehydrated meals (you know it’s serious when you start using a scale to measure how much food goes in each bag), cutting down the amount of gear I bring, and buying lightweight versions of things to minimize the weight of my pack. Hopefully it will all be worth it and my pack won’t be atrociously heavy, allowing me to walk faster and keep up with Travis, who somehow always manages to pack a lighter pack than me. (I say somehow, but I also have to bring twice the amount of clothes he does because I’m always freezing, and a common question from him while tramping is “Hey Ronja, can I borrow your lighter/sunscreen/knife/towel/etc.”).

All in all, this past month has been fairly frustrating and disheartening, but I’m not lonely or depressed and not running out of money yet. I’m excited to do lot’s of tramping and hopeful for my job prospects in January. Wishing everyone happy holidays and hoping you can spend it with people you love!