#00后##出国打工##新西兰##打工度假#
This is the 4,203rd real story we have told
I'm Zander, I'm 23 years old, interior designer.
Since I was a child, I have always wanted to see the outside world, but my family's economic conditions do not allow it, and I am not competitive with my studies, so I am not qualified to study abroad. After graduating from university, I worked as an interior designer and also volunteered for travel.
Now, I have chosen the "working holiday" approach and traveled to New Zealand alone to make my dream of "world travel" come true. However, my experience has been bittersweet and intriguing.
(Now I follow the local customs and like to go barefoot)
In 2000, I was born in an ordinary family in Ezhou, Hubei. Although my family lives in the city, my parents are not highly educated, do a small business, and are usually busy. Therefore, although I am an only child, I have a low sense of existence.
When I was a child, my parents would tell me to be well fed and clothed, and I didn't care much about anything else. They often quarrel in front of me, and they smash bowls and pots at every turn, completely ignoring my feelings. Whenever they quarreled, I had to hide in my room and cry secretly.
As a result, I was not confident and reluctant to communicate with others since I was a child, and I developed an avoidant attachment personality. Since childhood, I have been accustomed to solving problems and digesting emotions by myself; No matter how good a friend he is, I can't make a deep friendship with him.
However, when I was a child, I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents. My grandfather served as a soldier for seven years and participated in the war to aid Laos, and under his influence, I developed a strong side of character.
And because my parents don't care much about me and don't know how to manage me, I have to make up my own mind about many things in life, and I just have to talk to my parents when I decide, which makes me become independent.
(I pick kiwi fruit on the farm)
However, when I was a child, I really wanted to see the outside world, but the conditions at home did not allow it, so I had to give up. But a seed of wish has been planted in my heart.
Maybe I'm not reading material. From elementary school to junior high school, my academic performance was always in the middle of the pack. In my first year of high school, my academic performance continued to decline because I was very playful. In my second year of high school, my family was very anxious, afraid that I would not be admitted to university, so they asked me to study art, and finally reluctantly admitted to an ordinary undergraduate.
In college, I studied harder, but when I was about to graduate, I took the graduate school entrance examination, and I still missed the list by two points. I was hesitant, I was lost, as if everything around me had become gray. In addition, due to the epidemic at that time, I was locked up at home, and my whole mental state fell into a trough.
Later, the lockdown was finally lifted, and I also found a job that matched my major. I happily went to work, but it still didn't go my way.
Because I studied environmental art design, I was looking for a job in interior design, which was also useful. But the starting salary of this job is very low, the monthly salary is only 2,000 yuan, except for the rent, the rest of the money is not enough for my living expenses.
(First residence in New Zealand)
At that time in Wuhan, my name was assistant designer, and I was actually an apprentice. Because what I learned in school is completely different from practical work, although I basically sit in the office and draw drawings, I have to learn from scratch, and occasionally I have to go to the construction site to follow up the progress of the project, and it takes about a year to increase my salary after accumulating a certain amount of experience, but I heard that it will not increase much. So after half a year, I resigned.
I especially don't like to follow a step-by-step approach, but rather do something I love to do. After all, life is short, and I want to be brave enough to try a variety of different lives.
So I gave myself a window period to go on a volunteer trip to Hainan.
There, I made a lot of friends of different identities, all of whom had different experiences. Some of these people are college students, some are about to go to graduate school, some have just returned from studying abroad, and some have been working for many years. They use their vacation time to volunteer while traveling.
Through the communication with them, I have a new thought about my future planning.
I saw that there are many possibilities in life, and you don't necessarily have to follow the rules, graduate, work, get married, have children, and then live this life plainly. I'm thankful to have met these people, and they were the ones who gave me guidance.
(Sheep grazing on One Tree Hill, Auckland)
And some opportunities may always be with you, depending on whether you find it or not.
One day, I swiped a post on the Internet about a working holiday, the content is very novel, this senior works to make money while traveling. Because I have just graduated and have no savings in my hands, and my family is ordinary, this form suddenly attracted me.
I was as excited as I had discovered a new continent, and I immediately set about getting ready.
It turns out that there are many ways to find a job on a "working holiday". New Zealand has a relatively small population, so its per capita resources will be much more than ours in China.
After thinking about it for a few days, I landed in Auckland, New Zealand, on November 10, 2023.
(During the break, I swing under the big tree)
The clouds are low, the roads are wide, and the scenery is beautiful. But there are a lot of Auckland slopes, and it is tiring to walk, so I named him "Opolan".
If you take the bus, you have to swipe the card to get on and off the bus, and if you don't get off the bus, you will be deducted the whole fare. Once, I got in the car and brushed it, and accidentally got out of the car and brushed it twice, so I calculated the cost of getting on the bus again. Hey, let's do as the locals do.
So when I save money, I have to buy a car first, otherwise it's really inconvenient.
So far, I've worked seven jobs in New Zealand, all of which are at the lowest level of manual labor. The minimum salary here is 22.7 New Zealand dollars (about 100 yuan / hour), of course, different jobs, the salary is also different.
My first job was picking small or badly shaped kiwi fruits on a kiwifruit farm for 25 New Zealand dollars (about 110 yuan) an hour, but I had to prepare the meal one day in advance and bring it to eat at noon the next day.
It's a simple job, but you need to keep your head up, your hands above your head to pick the fruit, and your body to move constantly.
(Meals I made at a café)
At the end of the day, my neck, shoulders and lower back hurt so badly that I could barely move, and I really wanted to run away. But I had spent all the money in my hand, so I could only grit my teeth and persist for a few more days, but I didn't expect to slowly get used to it later.
Once, for two weeks, I went to work at 8 a.m. and finished at 5 or 6 p.m. every day, and I didn't feel tired.
But farm work depends on the weather, and if the weather is bad, there is no job, and there is no income. So after 2 months on the farm, five of our best friends decided to leave.
At that time, none of our five good friends had their own cars, but there were more than a dozen large and small boxes, which was very inconvenient if we didn't use them. Luckily, some of our other friends had already bought cars, and although we had known each other for a few days, they drove several cars and dropped us off at the station without saying a word.
How lucky it was to be in a foreign country and to have the help of "friends", and we were all so moved that we couldn't speak.
(I get along well with the ladies at the café)
Immediately after, I got a job in Auckland in a slaughterhouse that specializes in beef and mutton.
I wake up at about 5:00 every day and leave for the office at 5:30 to finish bathing the sheep. And when I picked up the water gun to flush the sheep, I found that the water gun was very heavy, and I had to pinch it very hard to hold it, and I had to wash hundreds of sheep a day.
By the time I got to work, my hands were completely weak, but I had to drive home, a 20-minute drive for 40 minutes. When I got home, my hands were blistered several times, and it hurt so much that I couldn't even hold a glass of water.
In addition, this job is very boring, I am only a Chinese, and no one can talk to me. What's more, the bloody scene of slaughtering cattle and sheep makes people sick when they eat and nightmares when they sleep.
I couldn't take it anymore, and there was only one thought in my head: I don't want to continue this job. So after only 2 days, I ran away in a hurry.
(Bathing sheep in the slaughterhouse, hands foam at the end of the day)
However, I immediately received another offer – a job as a backroom kitchen at a café.
This part-time job was found online. On the way back from dinner with my friends that day, I saw the post and made a phone call, and my boss told me to go to trial work during the day, and then I successfully stayed.
It's an easy job, I call it "Auckland Cafe Fairy Job", but it pays the lowest hourly wage at NZ$22.7 (about 100 yuan/hour) per hour.
If there are no special circumstances, every Thursday to Sunday from 9am to 3pm, one staff meal and one drink every day, all freshly made. Now I finally don't have to eat overnight dinner, and I'm really happy.
I mainly work in the back kitchen, preparing the dishes, chopping mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, etc., making some snacks and some simple drinks, serving, washing the dishes (using the dishwasher), and writing down the menu, what ingredients are available for each dish......
The work is simple and the working atmosphere is relaxed. Because I am a newbie and have no experience in the back kitchen, both the chef and the owner will teach me patiently, which is very friendly.
(Watch the sunrise)
I used to make myself brunch, which consisted of coffee and some meals, and the meal was that white bread, eggs, bacon, and tomatoes. I also like to cook, so this job is not only painless for me, but also a little happiness.
During this period, I also met a very interesting Chinese eldest sister.
I lived in a Chinese home while working at a café, and my Chinese roommate was a woman in her 50s.
She was almost 50 years old when she came to New Zealand a few years ago. Her original intention was to educate her daughter, she first studied for a master's degree here, and then went to early childhood education because it may be difficult to immigrate or get status.
It is indeed easy to immigrate to early childhood education, but she also needs to retake IELTS.
This IELTS is not something that ordinary people can test, and older people will refuse to learn English, but she can still concentrate on taking IELTS. When I find out what she wants to do, she will rush forward without hesitation.
(Can you still recognize this as me?)
I was so impressed by her drive. From her, I saw and learned a lot of tenacity.
It also makes me more convinced that as long as you want to do something, you will definitely have a good result, and even if you fail in the end, you will at least work hard and not regret it.
Working at this café is one of the happiest and most interesting days I've ever had, and it's especially memorable. But because I had to continue to collect lots, I only worked for a month, and I had to reluctantly leave my immortal job.
After that, I also worked as a blueberry picker, a health care product packaging factory, and a nut factory. Changing jobs became a regular occurrence for me, and at the most frequent times, I even changed jobs four times a week.
I am now doing tre-prep in a kiwifruit packing factory, and the so-called kiwifruit is Zespri Jinguo that I eat in China.
The hourly wage for this job is relatively high, at 27 New Zealand dollars (about 120 yuan) per hour.
The job is also relatively simple, which is to pack the kiwifruit in a box before packing, and I only need to put a plastic bag on it and put it on the conveyor belt.
(First road trip, in the campsite, in the sleeping car)
But sometimes the speed of the production line is very fast, and it can still be tiring, because you need to stand all the time and repeat the same action. However, from time to time, the supervisor will come to greet him: "Are you OK?" Do you want to take a break and drink some water? "I feel very intimate at this time.
In fact, now that I get used to it, I don't feel very tired, not to mention that I need to save money.
I'm in a kiwi town, and every year at this time, a lot of people come to work. Friends we met on the farm have come together to work here again, and we often chat while working, so time passes quickly and we don't get bored.
After work at four or five o'clock in the afternoon, if the weather is good, the park and beach here are full of people, and you can see many parents bringing their children out to play. We can go to the beach together to catch the sunset, have a picnic, have a party, and have a good time.
The wages here are all hourly pay, and you are paid once a week for the number of hours you work. It is double the salary of the same type of job in China.
（街头躺椅上的homeless）
If the working hours per week are stable, about 50 hours, according to the minimum wage, you can get 5,000 yuan a week, then it will be more than 20,000 yuan a month. And the monthly salary of the type of work I do now is about 25,000 yuan.
But the prices here are also frighteningly high, about 20 or 30 New Zealand dollars (about 120 yuan) for a normal head shaving, 17 New Zealand dollars (about 75 yuan) to buy a pound of vegetables, but meat and milk are slightly cheaper.
There are some strange phenomena here, which are incredible.
I don't know why, New Zealand is a country without snakes. Many of the pigeons here are not afraid of people, and even if you walk next to them, they won't move.
If the guy here marries a daughter-in-law, there will be no bride price. Many children are barefoot, even if the wind is strong and the ground is cold, I don't know what they think.
However, a walk or two away from the city will reveal homeless wandering the city centre, often curled up quietly on the street or in the lounge chairs and corners next to the shop. Although it looks scary, passers-by basically don't care and walk by calmly. Outside of the city, there is basically no homeless.
(Seeing a large meadow, I can't help but lie on it)
When I arrived in New Zealand, I realized that life can be so relaxed, and it turned out that all I wanted to pursue was people and nature.
New Zealand's innate sense of relaxation will really make everyone who comes here deeply experience.
In the next two or three years, I will continue to work to save money and play all over New Zealand. I might go to Australia again, or maybe I would go back to China for a while and start my trip around the world again. Because I want to be a digital nomad, I can travel and work at the same time, without any restrictions.
Maybe in the future I will stay abroad for a few years, and if I can, bring my parents out to experience life here. Because during the time I came out, I have adapted very much to life here, and I have lived very comfortably, which is the life I want.
But no matter what, eventually I have to go back to my home country and bring the money I earned from abroad to spend at home. Because my roots are in China.
(Welcome to the protagonist account "Zander")
[Dictation: Zander]
[Written by: Smanro]
[Editor: Wuxi Wu]
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