Cleaning the Ipipiri, and Some Very Large Trees

I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned this yet, but Jen and I have yet another job. We are now working for the tour group “Fuller’s Great Sights,” cleaning their overnight cruise ship Ipipiri. Working for Fuller’s, a huge company, at least in NZ terms, has its benefits: free trips, bus rides, local discounts, and free ferry trips across the bay to Russell and back. And at $15 NZD/hour (about $12 USD/hour), it’s nearly the highest paying job either of us have ever had – and, once again, we’re cleaning toilets.

The Ipipiri has three decks and about forty rooms, each with their own bathroom. There are usually four of us making up the “ground crew,” as we’re euphemistically titled, and together we whizz through the rooms. We strip the beds, make them again, wipe fingerprints from the walls and dust from the table tops, vacuum, and clean the bathrooms, which for some ungodly reason are all done in white. We have three hours before the next tour bus pours on ship and we have to hurry back onto dry land, trying not to be seen as if we’re little house elves. Occasionally they give us muffins.

Today, using my nifty watch that was a birthday present from my brother, Jen and I timed ourselves making each double bed. It was very intense.

“Ahhh, I can’t get this hospital corner to work! We’re losing valuable time!”

“Duvet! Go, go, go!”

“Last pillow…and…TIME!”

Our first bed took us nearly four minutes to complete, but I am proud to report that we made our last bed in exactly two minutes and 48 seconds.

Jen would like to add that cleaning toilets has an added level of grossness when you have seasick people on board. Also, as one of the other crew pointed out, men have trouble aiming on solid ground - let alone on a rocking boat. Yeah. Gross.

The vacuums, however, are awesome. You strap this space-age, jet-pack-like container to your back and waltz around with the hoover rod in front of you like a goofy housecleaning robot.


Just so that you guys don’t think all we do is work in this place (although lately it feels like that) I’ve gotta tell you about the trip we took to see the kauri trees. The ancient kauris (some of them more than two thousand years old) are literally the most massive trees in the world.

Jen and I and Jamie visited the Waipoua Forest on the west coast. The verdant, towering, open forest carried the same feeling of majesty and strength as the redwood forests of California do. From Tane Mahuta, the tallest tree, to the quiet and shockingly pretty Cathedral Grove, I felt calm and very happy, there among these sacred creatures. Fifty meters above us, entire ecosystems sprouted from their branches. The Maori people believe they hold up the sky, and standing at their massive bases (some sixteen meters in circumference) it was easy to believe.