Nomads No More — HaffsWay Around The World

After two and a half months of traveling, and an epic visit from three wonderful friends, Will and I headed to Manapouri in the Fjordland area to WWOOF for about a week at a hotel, take in the beautiful scenery, and get down to business in our job searching. Each of our WWOOFing experiences have been completely unique, and the Manapouri Lakeview Motor Inn was no different. We each worked a mere 3 hours a day doing a variety of hotel and restaurant duties, and in return were rewarded with a dinner of our choice from the restaurant as well as lodging in a nearby hut. We were given a great deal of independent time, and made use of it by exploring some of the areas in near by Te Anau and sections of the Kepler Track.

The hotel we WWOOFed at for a week in Manapouri!

Meanwhile, we each busied ourselves with applying to lots of jobs in the Wanaka and Queenstown area, as we decided it was a great location for day and weekend trips, as well as a good base for all of our visitors this next year. When we got an email back from a place near Wanaka that stated they wanted to meet BOTH of us for potential positions, we jumped on the chance and drove down to the historic and picturesque Cardrona Hotel.

The Cardrona Hotel was built in 1863 during one of the mining booms in the area. It is now a quaint 14-room Inn, Restaurant, and Pub, with arguably some of the best pub food in New Zealand (many of our customers have told us so!). After putting us up in the hotel for a night so we could work "trial shifts," we both happily accepted full-time positions- with Will on the bar and myself on the floor of the restaurant primarily. Since it is a smaller operation, we have both gotten the chance to do a variety of job duties. The people we work with are great, and we have felt very accepted and at home here. Will additionally has gotten the chance to work at a local Wanaka Brewery as well once or twice as week! Although it sounded overwhemling to me to work two diffferent jobs, as aforementioned Will is one of the hardest workers I know, and as his goal is to work for a brewery when we return home, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up!

The drive to Cardrona from the fjordland area.

The famous original facade of the Cardrona Hotel and Pub.

The expansive beer garden. Lots of weddings and events take place out here :)

The view from the walking areas in front of the hotel, our new front yard! In the distance the snowy ski hill areas can be seen. These are hot spots in the winter season, and the cozy Cardrona serves as a preferred apres-ski destination.

Will the newest barkeep. Basically Kvothe.

Cardrona is ramping up for their summer busy season, and each day we see more and more patrons coming through, marveling at the cozy space and expansive beer garden, and general scenery around the area. The jobs are quite physically demanding, and we are both still trying to get more confident in our positions and job duties, but each shift passes pretty quickly with ample chances to chat with fellow travelers, hear lots of interesting stories, and have lots of fun with our co-workers along the way. One of my favorite days, albeit a very long one, was when Cardrona hosted a 135 person wedding- it was beautiful, and very fun to be a small part of one of the most important days in two families' lives.

One of the big perks of these jobs is the on-site accommodation in the "staff cottage." Having also been built long ago, it is sized for humans small than Will (see photo below), but has definitely suited our needs for the time-being. We are always on the look-out for housing in Wanaka or Cardrona, in hopes of gettings a place that would allow us to host visitors, but for now it is great to have the lodging we do- as the Wanaka and Queenstown rental market is very difficult to break into! These areas are beautiful, and therefore absolutely saturated with backpackers like us looking for short term work and housing as they pass through.

One area of the bar, to see the rest of this very unique building you'll have to come see us yourself!!

Our little cottage! It was built for humans much smaller than this 6'2" beer salesman.

See? He only bangs his head on the pantry door once or twice day.

Will putting up a Summit Brewing flag that he "needed to pack." It does look good above our Bed/Bunk Bed, I must admit (begrudgingly)

Driving into nearby Wanaka, where we're still keeping an eye out for appropriately tall housing in this beautiful town :) For now we're content coming into town a few times a week and having a 15 meter commute from the cottage!

It's a completely different type of job than I worked back home, and does make me miss social work quite a bit, but oddly enough customer service does demand some of the same skills :) It has renewed my respect for folks in the service industry, and makes me think about all the people who work these jobs every day alongside much bigger responsibilities, like taking care of family or children, trying to get their education, or just survive in communities with high costs of living without much support. When I get done with a 10-hour shift on my feet, it's all I can do to get home and fall into bed- I can't image how difficult it would be to try and go to school full-time or raise a child at the same time. I would encourage all of us this holiday season (and beyond), as we go out to restaurants and diners and bars, to thank their servers heartily. Their jobs are straight up HARD.

It will be good for us to work, feel productive, and see the bank account go up for once instead of down... down... down. But of course, we've already begun talking about our next adventures that we'll tackle at the end of our year abroad! Our nomadic days are not yet totally over. But for now we are happy to settle down, and host as many friends and family members as we can in this beautiful place!

If anyone is looking to send a letter or Christmas Card our way (read: PLEASE SEND US THINGS WE WILL BE SAD SO FAR AWAY OVER THE HOLIDAYS)- we do have an address! Things can be sent to:

Laura Hughes or Will Haffield
Cardrona Hotel
Crown Range Road RD2
Wanaka 9382
New Zealand

Lastly, one of the reasons we chose this location is so we could have a home base for some more in depth travels in this part of the world. Over our last weekend off, we drove up to Fox Glacier on the West Coast, which was a place we didn't get to see during our earlier travels. After spending the night at a motel (we're employed now- we can splurge without guilt!) we checked out several short walks in the area, including the picturesque Lake Matheson- definitely a must see! The drive back through Haast Pass was one of the prettiest we've seen yet, and we have felt very lucky to be just a few hours from so many natural wonders!