Hahei - My first day in a maid outfit

It's Sunday the 3rd of January and I am in Hamilton but only for the previous night.  Today I am on my way to Hahei to start my maintenance, maid job.  Not sure what to expect, as all I know is, it is 3 hours a day of cleaning at the hotel, in exchange for room and board, and that I will be sharing a house with 3 other people.  This is definitely a new experience for me.  I have lived alone since I was 17, and can't imagine having roommates.

My bus arrives and I get on in the front seat.  The bus driver turns around and says, "Hi Rob!".  I am like, "Hi?".  How does he know my name.

Over the 2 hour bus ride, I find out Rich's entire life.  He has lived in Hahei for over 30 years and personally knows the hotel owners I am going too.  He even mentions maybe we can go for a beer one night at the local pub.  If his wife allows him. lol.

2 hours passed really quickly and I am now walking up the driveway to Tatahi Lodge Beach Resort.  Debbie one of the owners is in the office and greats me with a big smile, and tells me I have excellent timing as the team just finished for the day.

The team currently consist of Casey, the 23 year old Aussie girl, Julia the 18 year old German girl and Maria, oh no!, a 26 year old French Canadian girl.

We chat for a few minutes and then Glen, a full time worker drives me and the girls up to the house and wow.  We live on the side of a cliff, over looking the Hahei beach.  What an amazing view from the living room and from my private room.  Yup!, I lucked out.  I get my own private room, with shower and crapper, because I am a guy and can't share a room with the ladies.  Fine with me!

Below is a picture from my balcony, my room view and our living area.  About a 6 minute walk to Hahei beach.



The first night with roommates went by quickly.  We basically just chatted about the work, the area, and our past travelling adventures.

It is now the next day, and we are walking down the hill to work.  I am not going to enjoy walking back up this hill, I assure you.  Damn it is steep!  Casey laughs at me bitching about the hill, and Julia tells me I am old, double her age.  She points this out often.  No, worries, I get my revenge :)

Well, we arrive at the lodge and today I will be working with Glen cleaning.  He will be my mentor for the first day to show me what I am doing.  Cleaning shitters is a highly technical job and I want to be certified by the end of day.

Without going into crazy long details, my job is to clean each bathroom, from 9:30 to 12:30 each day, and then sweep whatever if there is remaining time.

Fast forward a few days!

The job has been going great, but we rarely finish at 12:30 as we agreed.  Even if everything is completed, they try and sucker us into 15 or 20 minutes more.  Not sure how much I am liking this, as they are getting extremely cheap labor, without giving us meals, or days off.  Every woofing job I have heard about is commonly 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, in exchange for a bed, with 1 meal a day included.   However, the work is extremely easy, we live in an amazing house, with tones of cool beaches.  All free!