Laundry Nightmare at WSA in Auckland

New Zealand Diary, Entry #3

Living in a foreign country has its good and not-so-good times. Little deviations from what happens and what was expected could become frustrating. Take laundry for example. It costs NZ $3 for using a washer and another NZ $3 for using a dryer. In US $ that's a little more than US $2 for washer and the same amount for dryer. Isn't that too steep? Well, that's hardly part of my frustration though. I wouldn't mind paying an extra buck or two as long as the work gets done.

Wellesley student Apartment Building, Photo by: Digital Subway

Let me brief you about my unfortunate laundry experience yesterday. I live in Welleseley Student Apartments, managed by AUT (Auckland University of Technology). The laundry machines only accept coins but coin change machine was broken. I had all my clothes and laundry detergent already in the washer. (My fault, I know). I walked down the streets to a mini mart and asked for change at which my request was rejected. It turned out more students went to the same mart for a change than to make a purchase. His frustration was understandable. I did manage to get some change at another store by resorting to my emotional appeal and making it clear that I already had all my clothes inside the washer.

After completion of washing cycle, I loaded my clothes into the dryer. 40 minutes after, I opened the washer door only to find the clothes were still soaked without any signs of dryer even doing its work. I checked to see if I had forgotten to press the start button. Nope. My coins were already deposited into it's coffers and the machine had indeed started when I had left. Arrgggh!!!! I had to do repeat drying cycle. Time for more coins. No way! I was not going to those stores again. I went upstairs to  my room, on 9th floor and checked all over. I found one NZ $1 coin and one NZ $2 coin. Fortunately enough, the coin change machine worked if you were exchanging coins only. I dropped my NZ $2 coin and got two NZ $1 coins.

I loaded my wet clothes into another dryer (just to be extra-careful) and put coins and started the machine. This time I made sure the machine had started. 40 minutes later, I opened the dryer door again only to find my clothes had merely been transported  in space but unchanged along time domain. Not a single drop of water or moisture had evaporated from any of clothes' surface. Their state had not changed a bit since I loaded them from washer to first dryer and then second. This was absolutely ridiculous. No more coins to redo it. Fu@k. I missed laundrying at Trinity for the first time. For US $1 each, I could use washer and dryer. And I didn't have to worry about getting coins since all it required was a swipe of my Tiger Card.

Calmly, without kicking any of the dryers, I took out all my wet clothes and carried it back to my ninth floor apartments and hung it out to dry on  a cloth drying hanger. With so many clothes all around, my room looks like a drying room. I opened my windows to let in air to speed the process. Of course since it is the peak of winter, it didn't take long for my room to become frigid. I woke up next morning to find none of my jackets or sweaters had dried up. I was stupid enough to laundry all my warm clothes at once. I had to wear my semi-dry jacket to class at 8 in the morning. Welcome to a life in foreign country.

I could go rambling on and on about other little unsatisfactory experiences here but these are all of course part of learning to live in a foreign country.

Read Entry #2 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #1 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.