Kia Ora, welcome to boatlife!
- Charlotte Scanlan
- Jan 8, 2018
- 4 min read
With no money in my hands or my coat or my pocket, I somehow found myself in Auckland, New Zealand. I needed a job ASAP. After 2 excruciatingly boring days of applying for every job on seek and every shit backpacker fundraising job, I got offered a job onboard Ipipiri with Hauraki Blue Cruises.
I started working as a 'Cruise Coordinator' the monday after I arrived in New Zealand. This involved living and working onboard Ipipiri. Living and working in such close proximity to my crew mates was new to me but luckily for them I'm awesome and we soon became a very dysfunctional, incestuous, family. It is due to this little family that I ended up working on Ipipiri for the whole of my year in New Zealand and I don't regret a second of it.
Ipipiri is a beautiful 45m catamaran based out of Auckland Viaduct. It was not only a job but also a home for my whole time in New Zealand.
I basically was in charge of managing the crew and organizing the day to day running of the hospitality side of the boat. We sailed everyday at 2pm for overnight cruises which consisted of afternoon tea, kayaking, and an evening 3 course meal and a buffet breakfast in the morning before we returned to the Viaduct at 9am. While high season consisted of back to back weddings, low season was way more chill with some fun crew outings involved and many 'do no work parties'.
It was with some of these beautiful people that i conquered one of my biggest fears and bungy jumped of Auckland harbour bridge! I don't think i have ever been more scared or cried so much in my life!! A massive shout out to my number 1 homie Jake for making me do it! Love you buddy!! Before Jake left us for his travels around the world we had a 'under the sea' themed leaving party for him in trusty provos where we all made our own costumes and drank a little too much!!
Working on Ipipiri we typically worked four days ON and four days OFF, during our days on we lived on the boat and had our own crew cabins down in the crew quarters.. where all the madness happened! Our nights were filled with laughter and a lot of games to keep us sane! Our Skipper Rich would bring on cards against humanity and then everyones true dirty sides became exposed! Especially funny when CTRIP wanted to join in! On the few days that we would get a shore day we headed out on the town for a well needed night out usually resulting in me getting kicked out of Dannys and heading to Maccas for a MacAttack! My days off were spent drinking wine on Waiheke with my favorite Frenchie from Phi Phi (Me Julie!), living with Julie in Tauronga and living up North on Deliverance 2... more about that later...
While working on Ipipiri we celebrated numerous weddings, New Years Eve and my personal favorite charter the world masters games. We have had many laughs and inside jokes between Mike offering to cook a protected bird over the open radio to spannas cyst. We have also enjoyed many pranks, some memorable ones include: kayak in Alex's bed, wrapping spannas entire cabin in wrapping paper and that time the boys locked me in a guest bathroom by baracading the door with dirty linen! But with the good times also come the lows and I would like to thank every single member of crew for helping me through some tough times with my health scare and the breakdown of my relationship with my Ex. I was in a really bad place and I could not have handled it so well without my daily laughs with Alex and Paw Wah, impromptu alcohol dates with Ross Burge, bitching sessions with Becky, trips away with Mike and Spanna and just overall love and care that we all had for each other. We escaped boatlife only to head inland to Hobbiton, join other boats and tours up north with the dolphins and of course to climb the Tangariro crossing and Mt Doom - which will forever remind me of Mike throwing my kinder egg ring into the summit!
The weekend after I broke up with my ex, Jono had a great idea... a sailing trip up to the bay! this was exactly what i needed and was the first of many spontaneous trips away with this bunch! With a boat full of alcohol we spent four days sailing Deliverance 2 from Whangarei to Russel. Alex, spanna and I took Jono's monster truck to Pak'n'Save for supplies before we boarded our adventure. We had such a great few days: diving the Poor nights, eating our daily catches of scallops, crayfish, marlin fish and snapper, night swimming in the bioluminescent plankton, taking Mike on his first snorkeling tour and just enjoying our time together.
For christmas I got the best present I could have wished for as my Mam, Dad and little Sister came to new zealand to visit me. we had a wonderful time exploring north island with day trips to lake Taupo, Rangitoto and Mt Eden and I got to take them on ipipiri for a night to show them what i actually do! Our days were spent exploring and our nights filled with fun and laughter... and the occasional alcoholic beverage! I am so happy that they could come ands experience what I am doing with my life and meet my crazy friends who somehow keep me sane! I was an emotional wreck when they left, but I am so grateful that they all came out to see me!
New Zealand really was an emotional rollercoster for me but the highs definitely outweigh the lows and I am so proud to call everyone I met in this beautiful country a friend. With so many amazing trips and nights out I would love to write about all of them but I would be here forever! Towards the end of my time in New Zealand I took a few weeks out and travelled the South Island - it felt so good to be back on the road again! I hiked and skied my way around the south island all the while getting my fuel from FergBurgers but it didn't take me long to find another boat as I jetboated the aptly named Skippers Canyon and cruised around Milford Sounds.
NEW ZEALAND, I LOVE YOU!
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