I don’t usually believe in luck, but we’ve had a good ’bout of it lately. We’ve found one of the only Mexican restaurants down under. And they needed a bar man and a waitress. And they hired us both.

The long, detailed version of the story isn’t worth repeating, so I’ll try to summarize the events that led us to now.

2 months ago we stayed with Elspeth, in Tauranga, our favorite stay to date. Her home is magical and wild and free in the best of ways and we learned so much from her ways of living, gardening and thinking about the world. More here and here about that stay.

While in Tauranga, we went to happy hour at a local bier haus, met the owner and inquired about the “help needed” sign outside. We were offered jobs on the spot as a bartender and waitress, though we declined since we  weren’t ready to commit to something like this early on in our trip.

About a month ago, we revisited our budget and realized that being employed here for a time might be a great way to extend our travel budget.  We started thinking about our options.

Long story short, we ended up in the right place at the right time. Elspeth is going on holiday for 2 months and needed a house-sitter. The beer cafe has since been converted to a tapas style Mexican restaurant, called Mexica, and the entire staff has turned over. We made a phone call to inquire about employment and accepted jobs over the phone – Cole as a bartender and me as a waitress.

More details about Mexica to come, but we wanted to share a few pictures of our week since we began working. The hours have been long and filled with painting, sanding and cleaning to prepare for opening. We hope to master the cocktail list and our Spanish pronunciation soon!

Cole hard at work, stocking the bar

Our manager trying out cocktail recipes

Me explaining how to wallpaper a men’s bathroom

 Adios!