Mount Summer

What is the best thing to do if you just quit your job? Right, go hiking! So while Patrick is away, some of his friends invited me along on a two day trip to Mount Summer, as a Mid Winter Christmas thing. There was snow (loads!), there was cold,


there were fun people, there were presents (the puppets are the result!) and yes there was good food and even better drinks (Will's home brew stuff was fantastic!) so very much like Christmas! Thanks to all of them for the great weekend!

And I still love playing with my camera so here is a selection!

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1) Our hut for the night: seems so close by, right? It took us an hour to get there: finding the track in the snow was difficult but hiking in snow is even harder. Especially for Paul who was upfront...
2) Partners in crime: Katrina, Paul and Cloe (don't think it wasn't cold because of Cloe's short sleeves: it was cold and I was wearing thermo's and a warm fleece jacket!)
3) Me in front of DOC sign: just to indicate how much snow there was...we didn't see the sign at first!
4) One of the presents was clay: everyone made something, who says it is just for kids?
5) Along the way we saw some giant icicles: I reckoned they were good murder weapons but Paul used them as an tooth pick...

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Icy pictures

On the hike we came across a waterfall which made everything around it frosty and icy...Narnia country: amazing if you ask me...

Mount Richardson

Just a day trip, but truly excellent. Mark (Patrick's flatmate) took Christine, Patrick and me into the mountains. Pictures say it all. And due to the fact that some people were complaining about the absence of pictures of Patrick, I post this one. Gnagna, I think nobody meant it like this and both you as well as Patrick won't like it...Tough luck, you are all in Europe, so come and get me if you dare...



Me struggling to get up the hill: whoever invented walking poles did a great job!


















A freezing Patrick who is only smiling because he knows he is having lunch after the picture moment..

The working life

Although it is officially winter, NZ is taking it easy on me to let me settle in nicely. The other weekend Patrick and I went for a day hike and we were treated with lovely weather. We had excellent views over Christchurch and the bay on the other side. Doesn't the water look tempting to jump in?

The weekend after Jill and I went for a long walk along a windy beach, more like winter this time...Jill took some really nice pictures, which of course, I don't have...Jill has a proper job at the moment so we are both thrilled with the fact that her visa got extended. In the meantime, Jill has surrounded herself with Dutch people. Me of course, her boss and her girlfriend has Dutch blood in her. Good on her: the Dutch rule!! (since when did I become patriotic...I'm not, but it is weird to see how many (semi-) Dutch people I bump into).



And how about my job hunting? Well, I am doing my best and I am sure I will find that perfect job. The moment that you have a nice chat with a company and they say 'ahah, your credentials sound great, but you are not a resident so we are not even looking at your resume...' you feel pretty cheated. I mean, being rejected AFTER they look at your resume, ok. But not even taking a glance at my amazing CV...autsj, that hurts. To be honest, it's their loss, but as long as I don't have a work permit it is unfortunately also my loss!
But I do understand; who says I am that committed to stay as I say I am. I know I am, but how do they know? It's Murphy's Law: all those immigrants in the Netherlands who had difficulties entering the country, are now punishing me by making it hard for me to stay in NZ...

But in the meantime my contract at the company got extended so I must be doing something good. It's still ok work, but I would like to use my brains a bit more. I mean, since I have them, I might as well use them!! Customers can be friendly, but you have some weird ones...A tip of the iceberg:
- one lady rang to complain about her bill. She transferred from another company to us 2 months ago and now she had to pay 2 bills of 200 dollars. I looked into the matter and advised that the bills were correct for the services she had. And she was amazed, I quote 'I transferred to you because that would mean I did not have to pay any bills'. When I explained to her that you always have to pay for services no matter where you are, she hung up. I'm sad to say that this person was Dutch. Bloody Dutch, always complaining about money...
- one woman called me a 'silly cow' after I said 'Goodmorning, you're speaking with Maaike' and she kept abusing me till I transferred her to the department she wanted to speak to (I found out later that the abusing kept going even though that person wasn't a customer with us...)
- an old man rang to ask whether our digital TV channels had any sex movies. No hesitation or shame whatsoever, just straight forward...
- one guy went totally crazy when I couldn't find him in the system (he was already annoyed because his phone at home wasn't working). The thing was that he didn't know his customer number (understandable) nor his own phone number (hmmm) and when I tried finding his account with his name, he told me different names 3 times...So he wanted to speak to my supervisor and I was just laughing because he was so ridiculous insane. And guess what, he rang back a week later to apologize...to me...personally. Imagine being in a contact centre and someone rings back a week later just to say ' I was wrong, sorry'. Is that customer service or what?!

My supervisor already mentioned vaguely 'we should keep you'...That freaked me out: I mean, I am more than happy to do a job which isn't within my area and I will do my best for ANY job, but customer service...Naaaaah, not my future career!

Busy bee...

After travelling little bit less than a year, it makes sense that reality hits you. Luckily I have been there before (twice!) so I know how realities feels like(quite soft to be honest).

Sure thing, I miss the travelling, I miss the different cultures, I miss my absolute freedom to wander off whenever I feel like it. But do I want to be a traveller non-stop? No way. And no better place to 'settle down' than New Zealand!


So, busy bee as I am, I'm all organised already. Bank account, IRD number and my precious (yes, I got one too) green mountain which was lend to me by David who I met in Peru. House search was funny: it can take you several months to find a place in the Netherlands, and here it took me a week...I had a look at a few places. One was nice, but the tenants were a bit racial... They were complaining about foreigners, so I looked at the guy thinking 'I'm a foreigner' and then he quickly said he meant 'Asians'. As you can imagine the decision to NOT take that house was easypeasy. So thanks to Patrick who did some pre-arrival search for places to life, I have a nice room in an absolutely luxurious house (2 bathrooms, dishwasher...) with 2 guys, Matt and Hamish. Both lovely and I made them 'stamppot': I guessed that was the only proper way to introduce them to my Dutch side. I also bought a bed via Internet for 100 dollars and I still cannot believe how nice the bed is.

And work...Well, that's the reason it took me 3 weeks to write something on my blog. Since it's my first time ever of being unemployed, I dived into job ads in papers and Internet. My friend Jill, who is looking for a job as well, and I are having serious meetings about 'How to get a Canadian and a Dutch a proper cool job' and we send each other job ads (Thank God we are not in the same area!). And thanks to Patrick's friend Julie I have one killer NZ proof-resume.



I started writing cover letters and ringing people. Result: nice chats with friendly people on the phone who all wanted to have my resume, some interesting applications are still 'in the air' (fingers crossed) and at the moment I am working at a contact centre for a telecom company. Answering the phone, talking to customers and helping them sort out their stuff. And you know me: I like it! I think every job has its challenging aspects and within this position I get more acquaint with customer services in English. So far I had one angry(ish) customer who wasn't angry any more after we finished the talk. I don't know whether it was my 'telecom' expertise (I can hear you think 'Maaike, do you know anything about telecom?' Answer is no...) or my 'cute' accent: main thing is that it worked. And how much fun is it to help out a 75 year old lady to work out what the cheapest way is for her to ring her daughter in Australia and her son in the UK? Seriously, I like it!

The only down side is that I have to work on Saturday too. So while the people of the good life enjoyed hiking outside the city, I was working. And writing cover letters...But I'm not complaining; I'm actually happy to work again, yay!

The added pictures are from previous weekend: mountainbiking and hiking with Hannah, Warrick and Patrick...

The Dutch 'me'

The dutch things: the Dom, the canals and my bike for the week. Can it get any more Dutch than that: an orange bike! (with special thanks to Sara!!)















My 2 weeks in the Netherlands involved a lot of eating, drinking and having excellent BBQ's with VIP's from the Netherlands (meet the vibrant Guusje) and Belgium (meet the lovely Eefje). And yes, I must admit I choose that beer because of its name...Am I a 'flierefluiter'?








The main reason of my 'Dutch trip': to see my family (sorry no pictures there...) and friends. My dad always says 'Maaike, you have too many friends': for once I agree because I didn't have enough time to see everyone. So yes many friends and many friends in different generations...Some wise men (Thomas and Jan) who think they are getting older, but I disagree. They also think they are getting wiser... My best friend from university, Catherine and boyfriend Floor who do scary grown-up things like having a mortgage, doing a phd and having a steady job. And last but certainly not least: My good friend Petra with her gorgeous son Toon who I adore (he already likes olives...repect!)

My two weeks have flown by: it was fun, I enjoyed it but I'm happy to go. I will not miss the Netherlands, but I will miss the people who live here. I have started a pro New Zealand PR and EVERYone has said that they will come and visit...

With both feet in the Netherlands...

After an absolute brilliant trip around the world, I am back at the start: the Netherlands. In the last 10 months I have tried to describe what I enjoy about travelling, the countries I visited and the lovely people I met. I have often thought 'damn, I'm the luckiest person in the world' and I'm truly fortunate that I kept thinking that till the end, and to be honest I still think that now. Perhaps this picture of my last weekend in Suriname gives it away: Neirude and I, absolutely enjoying each others company, having fun by wrestling in the grass in Suriname. Ever wondered about true happiness: I definately found it!

So before I start meeting up with everyone, some future frequently asked questions (FFAQ's!)

- Ever wondered whether quitting your job was the right decision?
Nope. Never ever doubted it, not for a minute. I can highly recommend it...
- What was your favourite country? (Petra's husband Lex was to quick for me: he already asked me that...)
I have no idea. Cliché enough I truly enjoyed every single step of my trip.
- Do you wish you had done something else along your trip?
Nope. For me this trip was excellent: culture, nature, travelling alone and sometimes with friends and a 'Western' break in the middle.
- Did you miss 'home'?
Euh no, but I sometimes wished I could go for a coffee, or have dinner and a nice glass of wine with my parents or friends. But miss...no, sorry, if you do what you enjoy most, it's difficult to really miss something.
- So the one million euro question: what's next?
Well, a holiday in the Netherlands and then back to New Zealand on May 16th where I do have to get 'serious' again and find a job, get a house and some 'normality' in my life. Sounds absolutely scary at the moment, but I know I will enjoy it...till I start dancing in the rain again and decide to put my travelshoes back on!