No Worries
‘No Worries’ is a kiwi saying. And it’s caught on with me, it’s actually a really great phrase. Especially after a weekend that I’ve just been through. I know I’ve changed when I’m presented with several stressful situations, and the first thing I do is laugh. Laugh at the ridiculous and hilarity of life, and of human nature. So let me preface this by explaining that I’m now in the small town of Wanaka, close to Queenstown in the South Island. I planned this trip weeks ago in hopes of meeting good friends, relaxing, and just enjoying a few days off from Auckland and work. Well, I had that experience, and a whole lot more.
First, when I landed in Queenstown on Saturday, I wasn’t sure I’d get a campervan, and my good friend texted me to say she didn’t have a bed for the night- which means, all hostels in Wanaka were booked. So what to do. Well, the old Xandra would probably start stressing out, panicking, pacing the terminal. What did I do? I just sat down next to an internet terminal, found the van depot, called them, walked there and dealt with yet another fiasco. The van depot wasn’t really a depot, so they couldn’t process payment. I had to fax my info to Australia (Auckland was closed), and wait for them to get back to me. The australians promptly bitched at me for not checking my email first which would have explicitly said that I was supposed to pay in Auckland, at which point I responded- calmly- by saying I had been sick all week last week (which was true) and didn’t check my email. After over an hour, (I had the van already, the Kiwis trusted me after I said I WORK for the company), they called me to say that my card went through. Now imagine if I were an actual customer. Yes please do.
So onwards! I had a van. Yay! I drove to Wanaka, my friend lent me a ton of comforters, and I ended up sleeping in the van-which was, I must say, very comfy. So comfy, I ended up staying in it for another 2 nights! Anyway, the whole time, I just felt blessed to be surrounded by so many awesome people, and gorgeous scenery. And suddenly felt I had lost something (this was on a walk next to the lake), and I had! My amazing little camera!!! It must have dropped out of my bag, and when I went back it was GONE. Well, hmm. Old Xandra- freaking out, crying potentially, wanting to kick myself repeatedly. New Xandra: Calmly walked to the info booth, asked where the police station was, and she said wait, maybe someone dropped it off here? Sure enough. They had it. Yippee!!! (Insert: I love Wanaka!)
So now that’s all sorted. Next, I kept thinking- I really want to stay another day…but the cost would be way more than I budgeted. So I decided against it. This morning, I woke up really early, started the van, drove towards Queenstown, picked up some snowboarders on the way to Cadrona (a ski resort), dropped them off, noticed a weird sweet smell and lots of smoke coming from the exhaust. Not 3 minutes later, the van just broke down. Kaput. It didn’t start, nothing. At this point, I realized. I have 3 minutes left on my prepay phone, I don’t have the phone number for roadside assistance for Wicked because I didn’t have a real contract, and I was in the middle of really- NO WHERE. Sure cars were passing me to go up the mountain, but really- what were they to do? I stopped one van, he gave me a local auto shop number, which I promptly called but because I had almost no cell coverage, he hung up. Down to 2$. Because again, I was in the middle of NO WHERE. Sweet.
So what to do. I laugh. Funny! Haha. My flight leaves in an hour, I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no minutes on my phone…why not! I could cry, but why? This is just too funny. Really. I work for a company, that I’m flying back to work for, that has vans that breakdown ALL THE TIME. Great. Anyway, after lots of laughing, I finally get a hold of the folks in Auckland (by texting their neighbor who then calls them who then calls me), get the Roadside assistance number, and call them (0800 numbers thank god). And it’s Australia roadside assistance. Yes Australia. Not New Zealand. The woman barks at me- CALL the New Zealand number. Oh okay. Sorry. I’m just one of YOUR EMPLOYEES, and didn’t know there was a New Zealand number. So I call the New Zealand number. Oh Hello, there’s no way we can get you to your flight on time, and if we did, there would be an extra charge anyway. So I say, you know… I wanted to stay another day anyway. About 15 minutes later, they call me again, oh we are just getting someone out there. 10am the tow truck arrives. That’s an hour and a half after I started the process. MY plane was already departed, at 10am.
So I call the airline. No, no -its a non refundable ticket, you have to pay for another flight. That’ll be $300. How will you pay? Cash or credit? Oh, sorry your first card got declined (this was the one I was used to make my campervan booking). Oh okay, sure here’s another one. That one works!
So now, I’m sitting at an internet cafe, in Wanaka, my campervan is in the shop, I’m booked into a flight tomorrow morning, I’m surely running out of money (which I had little of before this job), and I’m happy as a clam that I got another day in this beautiful part of New Zealand.
I went stargazing last night. Life is good. Yes, I have definitely changed.
