38. Traveling by Sleeper Van (Part 14) Back to Napier Again

I have driven to the eastern side of the map. Now, in my heart, I am starting to get used to the surroundings. Although the sea remains as beautiful as ever, and I am grateful for this travel experience, at the same time, at this moment, I no longer feel the desire to see anything else anywhere.

It just so happened that another thought struck me: there were still three weeks left before my visa expires. Although I initially planned to drive around and wait until the day before my flight, when I thought about it, another goal of coming here beside traveling (which I have already done) was to save money. And in these three weeks, if I try contacting my old boss, there might still be some work for me to do.

So, I contacted the Thai aunt I first met in Napier and told her I would visit. It took me about two more days to travel back to Napier, staying one night at a seaside place and another night in Gisborne, parking in a dark corner not far from the public restrooms in the city center.

         Although driving back to Napier wasn't part of the plan from the beginning, the feeling of driving back to a place I felt familiar with was quite pleasant. After being a nomad, moving around for three weeks in the car, as I started to approach Napier, I realized that the scenery of the route into the city from this direction, which I was experiencing for the first time, was much more magnificent than the memories I had of this city. The view of the sea was vast and expansive, or perhaps it was the bright sky of that day that made the drive back home today particularly bright.

I parked my car and stopped to buy oranges at an orchard. There were oranges in boxes of various sizes, with clearly marked price tags indicating the cost of each box. However, what impressed me about this shop was that there were no salespeople. There was only a box attached to the wall for dropping money, with a message that read, "Please put the exact amount of money in the box according to the price of the oranges, as we cannot provide change." Seeing this, I couldn't help but admire the owner's idea and the livability of this country, which made them brave enough to use this method. In the end, I got a large box of oranges, which is my favorite fruit.

I arrived at the aunt's house in the late morning. She still looked as healthy as ever. I stayed at her house for about a week and got a job with the same agent I had worked with before. This time, the job was new to me; it involved hammering nails into poles to be used for tying wires in the vineyard. In simple terms, it was about clearing the land from the time the grapevines were still small. Doing this job gave me a different perspective from seeing the large grapevines because it helped me understand how the vineyard started.

After securing a stable job, I moved back to Hastings again due to the shorter distance, which helps save on gas as usual. But this time, I chose to sleep in the car instead of having a private bed, because after the experience of camping in the car, I found this method quite convenient.

I had the chance to meet some new Working Holiday teenagers from Europe who had just arrived in NZ not long ago (since I'm an old-timer renewing my visa). It made me reminisce about the early days when I first arrived in NZ around the same time last year. They seemed surprised to see me sleeping in a car, which reminded me of when I first saw someone doing that. I used to think it must be a very miserable and uncomfortable way to live, having to sleep in such a cramped car every day. But when I actually experienced it, it turned out to be a very pleasant feeling. Even though the space is limited, there's a high level of privacy, and you can change the scenery for your rest. The rent for utilities in a backpacker is also over 30% cheaper. I can say that if I get the chance to do something like this in NZ again, I would quickly look for a car like this. But I wouldn't recommend it for places with hot weather because I'm not sure if you'd get the same feeling.