Thames Coromandel, New Zealand, 2009

My time on the coromandel was spent, in large part, trapped in the country in a large holiday park, cleaning up after a few guests and several men (roughly 30-40 of them) between the ages of 22-45 from the soloman islands. Technically they are an english speaking people, but honestly, communicatuion with these dudes was a real struggle. They could understand me, and with a little effort on both parts, I could understand them, but more often than not they were too terrified of me to speak to me, or even look in my direction. I once passed one of the older ones in the hallway and instead of walking by me like a normal person, he froze, turned to face the wall, and giggled uncontrolably until I had passed by him. Any way, thats not what this story is about, just a fun side note so that you understand that as well as being out in the country, I was quite isolated as well. Sure I was living/working in a holiday park, but this park was full men the size of pygmies who were probably less adept than actual pygmies at having a normal conversation with me. Any how, I chose to stay there for 2 weeks, in order to adequately explore the surrounding areas. I wanted to see the hot water beach, and do the hike where they filmed that one part of the narnia movies, cathedral cove. Plus I heard the little township there was worth some time as well. So I put up with being a maid and the soloman island boys in order to invest in some quality "jessie/New zealand" time. One thing you should know, if you haven't been to New Zealand, is New Zealand is covered in Germans. For some reason every German youth in the year 2008/2009 decided that if they were going to learn/perfect their english, NZ was the place to do it. So now there are thousands of Germans running around with obnoxious kiwi/german accents. Sick. So any way this German girl turns up, and as its the off season, its just me and her staying in this little cottage that the holiday park owners are using as a back packer suite until the kiwi picking season is over and the islander guys leave. So me and this German girl are chilling out, we ask the usual traveler "get to know you" questions as we are sharing a room, kitchen, toilet, and living area for the next few days. Any way, through the course of the conversation she reveals to me that her favorite actress/person is Xena- warrior princess, and that this is actually a huge part of why she is in NZ in the first place. She then proceeds to pull out from her luggage: Xena-warrior princess playing cards, DVDs, and a lap top with a background picture of a soaking wet, leather clad, xena posing with a sword and a come hither expression on her face. Then this german girl decides that now is the right time to tell me that "jessie is my favorite name for a woman," and that I remind her a lot of her ex-girl friend. Yeah. So. Moral of the story? I'm one of 2 girls surrounded by 30 or more island men doing physical labor, and I get hit on by the other girl.