Settling into Life in Mapua

I feel surprisingly rooted for having only been here two weeks.

Last Sunday was my trial day at Coppins. I was able to jump right in and start helping people. It’s a small shop, and there was never a hectic moment, despite my coworker’s exclamations of how busy it was. I think the busiest moment of the whole day was similar to the quietest moments on a slow day at Mike’s Bikes where I worked for three years. This will be an easy job, hopefully a fun job, possibly a boring job, and certainly a better job than washing dishes. I just can’t handle the frantic pace of hospitality, so working for a little mom n’ pop shop like Coppins is better suited to my style.

I’ve eaten too much good food to remember it all. Some readers won’t miss it 😉

I offered to work again on Monday. The shift is 8:30-5:30 with a half hour lunch. Part of my job is selling what we have on the floor. Luckily, I used to work for a Specialized dealer, so I’m already familiar with a lot of our lineup. Even for the other bikes I don’t know, most people’s questions are simple enough to answer using my breadth of knowledge from my years of experience. I never did sales at Mike’s, but I’m pretty good at helping people find what they need. I sold a couple bikes.

An hour and a half before closing, I took on the task of merchandising a huge shipment of mountain bike tires. They pointed to an empty wall, and I got started setting up the wall-hooks and devising an elegant and logical way to organize everything. It took me til closing.

That evening, Christmas Eve, the next door neighbors invited us to join them for dinner. It was a lovely chance to meet some people and get a good feed. I ate too much.

Christmas day was rainy, so we kept it low key. I spent the morning reading, only stopping to open my two presents, a pair of avocado socks from the folks and a ferrero rocher from the neighbors. We did have an epic meal. Tom cooked up some lamb while Robbin steamed a purple cauliflower and potatoes and made an awesome mint sauce/gravy for the meat. After eating, we played a few rounds of a number game of which the name escapes me. We had a pavlova for dessert with berries and a lemon mousse on top! I needed a walk after all that food and was greeted by a picturesque rainbow spanning the bay.

Wednesday started with another bike ride down to the Kina peninsula. The weather was lovely. In the afternoon, I went up to Coppins to negotiate my wage. The manager said he couldn’t make any promises without talking to the owners first, so I was forced to wait, which was frustrating.

Thursday started with a grocery shopping trip followed by lunch at Eddyline. It was early, so I wasn’t ready for a pizza. The salmon salad delivered, for the second time.

I spent most of the afternoon cleaning my bike. It hadn’t been washed since my arrival, so it was long overdue. I’m super meticulous, so it took forever. You can be sure it looked new when I was done.

A kid I met at the bike shop hit me up for a ride, so I loaded up and set off for Kaiteriteri Mountain Bike Park up the coast. We didn’t start till around 6:00, which meant we were rewarded with shady climbing and golden hour views at the top. The trails there are pretty awesome for being a local trail network, and I can tell there are more rides in store. When I got back, Robyn fried up the remainder of the lamb in the mint gravy, yum.

The next morning, Tom and I biked down to the bakery to pick up more gluten free bread. That afternoon, I facetimed my friend Ben just as the whole squad was turning up to his house, so I got to talk to everybody. Later, we went down the the wharf to meet Mic, the owner of Eddyline Brewery, and his family. There were a ton of people out enjoying a sunny Friday, and kids were jumping off the wharf like penguins off an ice shelf. The water is clean and warm, and you float easily compared to freshwater. The tide was on its way out, so you jump off and float while the current delivers you to the ladder where you exit the water. Mic’s family is sweet, and we enjoyed some drinks and live music at the brewery after our swim.

Disaster ensued. Robyn had biked down to meet us, and when we left she wanted to beat us home. She collided with a car pulling out of a parking lot and ended up breaking her clavicle and a rib, which we found out the next morning after her x-rays came through. She’s spent the past couple days at the hospital and will be coming home this afternoon (Sunday).

Yesterday (Saturday), I face timed Tyler in the morning before getting invited on a ride in Nelson. Harry from the first ride introduced me to his friend Campbell who is also a keen mtbiker. We rode at Codgers, another excellent local bikepark in Nelson. I needed to get back to Motueka before 5 to finish my wage negotiations, so we just did a quick lap of a trail called Firball. It was 1,100 vertical feet of bikepark style jumps and berms, not my preference but certainly fun. I had time to grab a shower and lunch back in Mapua before driving the rest of the way to Mot. They had offered me $18 dollars originally, but we settled for $19.50. I had my sights set on $20, but it’s close enough. I’m a temporary employee, anyways.

Tom and I whipped up some pad thai for dinner, watched the news hour and a Netflix show, and turned in early.

I have work today (Sunday), but woke up in time to eat something and write all of this. I wasn’t all that inspired to write this time, honestly. The best I can offer is a penguin simile.

Now I’m off to work.