So the title only works if you know the pronunciation (Pie-heah). Anyway…

I am in a tiny little town called Paihia on the Bay of Islands, about 4 hours north of Auckland. I looked up the population online and it says 1700 but right now it must be about half of that. It’s a small resort town and a seasonal getaway for wealthy Aucklanders, most of whom own expensive homes in the area that are only lived in a few weeks out of the year. You can walk from one end of the town to the other in about 20 minutes, and I’m reminded everyday of Isla Vista. Well, an Isla Vista with only 10% of its population.

The backpackers I am staying and working at is called the Saltwater Lodge, and is about 30 seconds from two bars and the beach. It’s a two-story building with about 16 rooms, a large patio and lounge area. I am one of 6 or so “workawayers” or “woofers”: guests who stay for free in exchange for about 3 hours of work a day. We all stay in the same dorm room, and right now I am the only American and the only male. While being the only guy on staff sounds great on paper, in reality it means I am permanently assigned trash duty and heavy lifting. My mornings (10-1:30 approx) mostly involve sorting through recycling, emptying a few dozen trash cans, and being called in every 20 minutes or so to move a bunk bed or couch. In short I have lots of “Charlie Work” (Sunny in Philadelphia) and a healthy respect for anyone who cleans for a living. On the plus side I find lots of fun treasures in the trash, and I get to listen to music while I work.

The other staff include Julia, Mona, and Myriam from Germany. There is Servane from France, and a Chinese and Taiwanese girl who names I unfortunately won’t be able to spell. Everyone of us is here on our own and there is definitely a sense of solidarity in the group; a sense that comes from having to clean up the mess of everyone else staying here.

The local bar scene isn’t great but it’s definitely good enough. There is an adjacent bar (The Saltwater Pub) and a backpackers bar a little ways down the street that has sand covering its floor. Alcohol is really expensive here, about 25-30 NZ dollars for a 12 pack of beer or hard cider. I’ve started to pregame with wine because it packs the best alcohol to dollar ratio, and the staff and I usually play Kings Cup or some such nonsense before heading out.

I’ve watched a few rugby games at the Saltwater Pub too. The big league here is known as Super Rugby or Super 15. It has five clubs each from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. In essence it’s a Champions League for Rugby and is the biggest club tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. The games were pretty interesting and I am looking forward to seeing more next weekend,. The quick notes I made were that they have instant replay, advantage play, and the refs wear pink. Also some old guy next to me said they call soccer “kick and kiss”, because they run around kicking the ball until someone scores, and then they all kiss each other. Other random notes on New Zealand: they say zed instead of z, coolers are known as chilly bins, and making fun of Australians is a national past time.

I have five days about left working at the Saltwater Lodge. After that I think I will be moving in with a young family that runs a small kayak touring business in town. I met the owner, Taylor, through workaway and he let me tag along on one of his kayak tours yesterday. He and his wife seem like really nice people and I’m looking forward to working for them and getting to stick around in Paihia for longer.

I’ll have more details when I get to know this place better but for now I am having a good time and feel like I’ve found a pretty special little corner of the world. I do really miss March Madness though.