6. The first city move

About two weeks before leaving the restaurant, I bought a bus ticket to another city. The city is called Hastings. You might wonder why I chose this city, right? The reason was that during my stay in room 701 at the first backpackers, I met many different roommates from various nationalities who came and went. Some stayed for 2-3 nights, some for just one night, and some for a week. I enjoyed meeting people from different countries and cultures. I like diversity, and I almost invited everyone who stayed to chat and exchange perspectives, which was beneficial for me as a newcomer to this country.

If I met people who were staying to wait for their flight back home, I often asked questions like, "Where have you been for the past year? Is there anywhere you particularly liked? Are there any good jobs in any city that you can recommend?" And Hastings was one of the cities that a Japanese surfer who once stayed in the same room as me recommended. He said there are many jobs there, and the one he liked the most was blueberry picking. So, I decided that the next city I would go to was Hastings.

You might be wondering what made me so confident, right? To explain, I can usually sense people's feelings when talking to them, understanding how they feel about what they're saying. In fact, you could call it intuition, but that's another topic to set aside for now. Anyway, I felt that the city he was describing genuinely made him happy. At that moment, I felt that this city would definitely be a place where I could work and save money. So, I checked the city's location on the internet and then bought a bus ticket to prepare for the journey.

Finally, in mid-October, I took my first long trip in NZ. I was able to save an additional 200-300 dollars from working at the restaurant, which I can't remember exactly, but I felt like it was a bit more than before. At this point, I was getting more accustomed to the atmosphere in NZ and ready to travel out of Auckland.