Settled!

Whew, what a past few weeks. Two weeks ago we found out we could get the keys to our new house a few days early! I am living with an English girl and French girl that I met in the hostel. Since we had already booked nights in the hostel and had no beds yet, we still moved in on the much anticipated 12/12/12! We got the keys on Monday and took a look around the house for the first time. The house is AMAZING and I absolutely love it! (pictures to follow) My favorite part of my room is a pull cord over my bed so I can turn the light off from my bed.

Its not until you live in a hostel for 4 months that you can understand the pure joy from simple things like being able to leave your shampoo in the shower, having hangers, having space in the fridge and not having to keep your stuff in a bag. We were absolutely ecstatic.

Tuesday I had a job interview for what was essentially my old job, but for the competitor, despite the fact that they weren't advertising any openings. It went well and on Wednesday they offered me the job. It would be a 6 month contract starting mid-January. Life was looking great as on 12/12/12: we found beds, got our house set up, moved in, and I got a job. I also found a car I was going to buy. I finally felt settled.

Friday they called to let me know that some big projects had changed and they were no longer able to guarantee me the job. Basically its not a no, but they can't tell me yes until January. I was a bit bummed, but fortunately I was volunteering all day Saturday and Sunday at the yacht club. It's hard to be unhappy spending the weekend on the water with beautiful weather and sunshine, so life was good. Monday the job hunt continued. We did some more shopping for the house and put up our Christmas decorations!

Tuesday I got a nice surprise! My grandma and Bob were in town a day early on their cruise! The weather was a bit crummy but we went to the Aquarium (really cool!!!) and to the Museum! It was a fantastic day and we concluded by having dinner at a nice restaurant on the viaduct! While dining I remembered my friend had said they were hiring and so I asked and had a trial run last night.

Wednesday we went to the sky tower for an amazing view of the city and then I headed to my trial run! Seeing as I have never waitressed before I figured this would be an interesting experience. Fortunately I managed to hold my own and was actually working a whole section by myself for most of the night. At the end of the night they offered me a job and I start Friday. Its going to put a kink in some of my plans, but its all going to be okay. I am still looking at other jobs, but this will tide me over in the meantime. My friends come to visit in about a week and I am SUPER excited.

So that's pretty much an update on my life. I am getting my car tomorrow and then I will officially be settled.

Family Visit!

I am so glad I left my job a week early. I had a blast being a bit of a tourist in Auckland since I hadn't really done it yet. A friend and I went to Devonport for some hilltop views and beautiful beaches and I also went to the zoo that week. I found out I didn't get the job I was hoping for, but that also told me I could look for more permanent housing in Auckland. Good news is my friends and I found a place and we move in on the 12th!!!! I am super excited and so ready to get out of the hostel. Maybe I will actually get some homework done now : )

My family came to visit and I was so antsy for them to arrive for the few days leading up to their arrival. Especially knowing they were already on the plane. I met them at the airport and we flew straight to Wellington. I had spent all this time convincing my sister that Lord of the Rings is really downplayed here and no one really cares. Unfortunately I didn't realize the Hobbit premier was in Wellington the week after we arrived, so the city was completely decked out in Hobbit-ness. Didn't help prove my point at all. We hiked up Mt. Victoria, went to the Te Papa museum and walked around town. We also played our first of about 15 games of crummy rummy for the trip.

Monday we took the ferry to Picton and did a hilltop hike that was foggy the last time I had done it. The views were pretty incredible. While we are all complaining about our knees, my sister comments "isn't it nice not to have knee problems?" and then proceeds to wipe out about ten seconds later. My dad struggled a bit with being on the other side of the car/road and turned on the windshield wipers every time he went to signal. It gave us all a good laugh. We drove to Nelson along and incredibly beautiful scenic drive.

View from the hilltop in Picton!

View from our place in Nelson!

Tuesday was a slow day and we went to a few wineries and sat and enjoyed the beautiful view from our patio. Wednesday we hiked Abel Tasman and it was absolutely beautiful. Much prettier than the last time I did it in the pouring rain.

The mountains in Nelson looked cool at sunset!

Thursday we drove a long drive to Fox Glacier. We stopped at the longest swing bridge in NZ and the pancake rocks for some leg stretching. The drive is absolutely beautiful and rated one of the top ten drives in the world. My mom couldn't believe how many cows were laying down and has decided that the cows in NZ are just lazy. We got a good kick out of that.

Awesome timing on my mom's part at the Pancake Rocks!

We tried to do ice climbing at Fox Glacier, but unfortunately it was all booked up so my dad and I did the glacier hike instead. It was raining all day and gloomy, but it didn't ruin our hike. We had fun but my dad didn't appreciate the constant reminder to stay on the trail.

View of the glacier from a distance

Since we couldn't ice climb, our guide showed us how to make an "ice climbing gone wrong" photo to make us feel like we did. Don't worry, the photo is actually turned.

We spent the next day driving to Te Anau. My dad was in shock at how the main highway can have one lane bridges so we had a contest and my mom won by correctly guessing 27 one lane bridges that day. She was absolutely in love with the yellow flowers on the side of the road. We did the glow worm tour at the end of the day and the cave was cool but I don't think any of us were convinced that the glow worms were real. My dad pulled a first by getting in the car and actually sitting down on the wrong side of the car before realizing he wasn't in the driver seat. We got a good kick out of that.

We started Sunday off by my dad sitting in the wrong seat AGAIN! Then we went on a tour of Doubtful Sound that included an overnight stay on the boat. There were two couples and another young girl on the boat and everyone was a lot of fun. It was pouring rain all day, so it kinda ruined the views, but it didn't ruin the fun and it made the waterfalls spectacular! Despite everyone thinking we were crazy to go kayaking in the rain, everyone was fine standing in the pouring rain to fish. Once we caught our dinner we headed to our mooring for the night.

I think one of the coolest pictures artistically of the trip!

Us "crazies" kayaking in the rain!

Fortunately the sky cleared in the morning and we got to see Doubtful Sound in all its glory. Our family caught a float plane back to Te Anau and it was awesome! I got to be copilot which really just meant getting the best view. We went to the theater in town to watch a movie on the fjordlands and then drove to Queenstown. We took the gondola up and did some luging and then I finally won at a game of Crummy Rummy.

Tuesday my dad finally got to play his round of golf and then he returned and we played a family game of frisbee golf in the park. We wrapped up the evening by playing (shock!) some more cards! Wednesday we drove to Arrowtown to look around and then caught our flight back to Auckland. Fortunately my family got a quick walk around the town before having to leave at 3AM for their flight.

So now I am back to the hostel life and working on finding a job. I am super happy to have a place to live and we are making plans for Christmas dinner at our place. It feels weird that its Christmas time and it's summer, but I'm excited to have a summer again! Whew, so congrats to you if you made it through all of that. As always, send me an e-mail and keep me updated on your life!

It's me again!

Whew! What a week. Well, I guess it wasn't that exciting. This week was supposed to be my last week at my job, but on Friday I decided I had had enough and quit on Friday. Its been really nice having the week off so far and seeing as it is supposed to rain all week, I'm appreciating the ability to be indoors. Now I just have to find a productive way to spend my time.

Friday a friend and I went up to Mt. Eden for a picnic dinner. It was awesome being able to look out over the city and I finally got to check another tourist thing off my list. Wednesday we are going to the Zoo!

Blurry view, but you can see where our perch was

Clearer view of Auckland at night!

Sunday I volunteered again on the start boat and it was a beautiful day out! I even got to drive the boat! (Not really that exciting because its about to fall apart and goes extremely slow, so I think they were just happy they didn't have to hold the steering wheel for forever. Its so old they couldn't even get it to turn off and had to pull a spark plug).

I still haven't heard back on the job, but I keep thinking no news is good news. I plan to use the rest of my week speaking with some agencies and looking into some jobs for when I come back in a few weeks. That's right! My family comes on Saturday and I get to go traveling with them!!!! So excited!!! Other than that, life is still amazing! I'm having a blast with my friends and not ready to leave at all!

I know its been awhile....

So I apologize, I know it's been awhile. Unfortunately when I got back from my trips my computer died and I had to get a new hard drive installed. Since my computer was pretty much wiped clean I had to wait until today where I could reinstall all my programs. Therefore, I finally have internet again!! Woohoo.

Gisborne was a lot of fun. It was significantly better than our last road trip. The first night we stayed in a hostel that was pretty much a shed on someone's front lawn. The bathroom (in another tin shed) didn't even have a light in it. It was absolutely freezing and no one got any sleep. We woke up and our boss moved us to a motel which was a million times nicer. He said it was because all us girls "kept complaining" but he wanted to move just as badly. Apparently all of NZ had TERRIBLE weather that week, but it was absolutely beautiful the whole time we were there. Apparently there was even an earthquake in another town a few hours away that was felt there, but we completely missed it.

My co-workers and partners in crime on our road trip to Gisborne!

I caught an early bus back (everyone else decided to stay for the food and wine festival) so I could get back to Auckland for my flight to Queenstown. Queenstown was INCREDIBLE. I had been before, so I didn't expect to be that awed by it, but it is still an absolutely beautiful city. I can't even count how many times we said "how can this even be real?" when looking at the scenery. It was great seeing friends again, even if i had only known them for a few days before. It was like we had never been apart. Since I wasn't in such a rush to do all of the tourist things it actually felt like a vacation instead of traveling and it was really nice.

Right when I got there we went and did the luge again. It was definitely more fun with more people. Then we went out that night to celebrate one of the girl's birthdays. We dressed up in flourescent and made quite a scene. The next day we took a drive on Devil's staircase and went to a beach for a picnic. Unfortunately it was raining so we had our picnic in the car. It actually turned out to be a blast and we probably laughed the whole time. We had a lazy day the rest of the day and then coincidentally ran into a few guys that were also part of our group up in Auckland. It was a complete renunion at that point. The next day we went out for a ribs lunch and then played frisbee golf. Everyone was a bit skeptical because they had never heard of it before, but by the end they were completely in love with it. I was really sad to leave but unfortuately had to return to the "real" world.

Ugly town, isn't it?

getting ready to luge!

Lift up to the luge track. Another ugly backdrop!

getting ready for the fluorescent party!

Where we had our picnic! The sun came out for a few minutes!

Chilling by the beach!

The whole gang! The camera was tilted so everyone decided to lean to make it look upright. This was at the start of frisbee golf!

ugly backdrop for frisbee golf, huh?

The view from our hostel as the sun was setting. It didn't look real to us either.

Picnic in the back of the van!

While I was in Gisborne I found out I had a pretty good shot at a job in yacht design. They keep delaying the date when I will find out, so I am trying my best to patiently wait, but so far I am thinking no news is good news. Because of this I have upgraded to a smart phone so I can constantly check my e-mail. As nice as it is, I am so ready to switch back to my "dumb" phone.

In the meantime I am still at my job doing door to door sales. I will keep doing that until my family comes in a few weeks (YAY, can't wait!) and then I will try for a real job if this other job doesn't turn up. I'm still having a blast and making new friends. Halloween was a lot of fun. We were really impressed at the awesome costumes that came out of people having to be resourceful.

Final Stop: Tauranga

I went to Tauranga because I needed to head to a small town called Te Puke (pronounced like cookie) to meet with a yacht designer. It was one of my favorite cities and where I will probably end up living if I get the job in Te Puke.

I spent the first day in Te Puke meeting with the designer and then made the mistake of getting back on a bike to go to the grocery store. Hills and traffic (and then rain) do not mix with my bike riding skills. Especially carrying groceries on the way back. Fortunately I made it!

The next day I went and hiked Mt. Manganui with one of the guys I met at the hostel. It was one of the steepest hikes yet, but there were some really pretty views. He is one of those people who likes to go off trail and explore so we had a lot of fun and saw some awesome views. We went to go see a blow hole (which we still can't figure out where it was supposed to be) and ended up climbing all over some rocks (due to my knee, he was a bit more adventurous than me). We came across a seal that seemed really sickly and then we determined he was just mad we woke him up from his nap.

Kalon REALLY wanted to go to this island and kept coming up with ways to get there. He decided he was buying a kayak.

The beach at Mt. Manganui

The town of Mt. Mangauni

Our viewpoint from this awesome rock we found off the trail

Climbing around on the rocks. Kalon got a bit more adventurous than me and ended up getting soaked.

Mt. Mangauni

The next day was rainy so not much got accomplished. I tried to go on some walks and see some sights, but they were all pretty much a let down and not too exciting. I took the opportunity to sit around and read. Unfortunately a youth soccer team showed up and turned the hostel into a madhouse. It was great when they all went to sleep.... until they woke up at 7 am and were kicking the ball around in the hall (which included our door). Fortunately it was my last day, so I woke up and headed back to Auckland.

I have met A TON of people in Auckland and there are so many long term people at my hostel that it feels like a family. I've had an absolute blast the past month or so here and as much as I am ready to get out of the hostel, I will be sad to leave. I think my posts are now all caught up so you get to read in real time again. Woohoo!!!

Next week I head to Gisborne for a week for work and then I head to Queenstown for a few days with some friends I met in Auckland when I first got back here. I'm super excited about that and then when I come back I get to sort out my life one more (and hopefully final) time.

Stop 14: Rotorua

Sorry its a little late but the travels continue.

The next day I headed out on a short bus ride to Rotorua, known for its geothermal activity. The town smells TERRIBLY of sulfur. I don’t know how people live there. A pizza sounded really good so I got a $5 Dominoes pizza and managed to eat it all by myself (oops). It was still raining, but I did my best to walk around a little bit. 

Hot Springs

more hot springs

Some geothermal activity with a rainbow in the background (look at the trees).

They had a floating Rotorua thing. It looked fairly new so the plants hadn't really grown in yet.

That night I did a Maori cultural experience. The Maori are the indigenous people here and their culture is really integrated into society. They fought really hard when the Europeans came and earned equal rights. The Maori language is everywhere and is still a thriving spoken language as here. This cultural experience is an evening devoted to their history and get a feel for what their villages feel/felt like. 

 

Other than the dolphins, it was probably one of the coolest things I did during my travels. You start off with the Maori introduction between tribes which is one of the craziest things ever. Their traditional facial expression includes tongues sticking out and eyes bulging. It’s pretty impressive when you see them do it. Then they have different stations explaining their carving techniques, the history of their facial tattoos (tattoos are REALLY common here because of that), war training techniques and weaving. I’m glad I did it more towards the end because it really tied in all the history I had already learned. They then did a show for us with traditional songs and dances, including the Haka. Earlier they had taught us how to do it, but it was really impressive to see the pros do it. For those of you who don’t know, the Haka has become famous because the All Blacks (NZ Rugby team) do the Haka before every game, as they used to do it to prepare for battle. 

Traditional Maori attire. The women have tattoos on their chin and the men have them covering their whole face.

We were then fed a feast cooked in the ground using all the geothermal heat, called a hangi. I ate WAY too much food, but it was so amazing. The only thing I didn’t like were the potatoes because they tasted very strongly of the sulfur from the ground. We then had an absolutely HYSTERICAL bus ride home and it hurt to laugh so hard with such a full stomach. Our driver was a riot and had each country on the bus pick a song to sing. Then he started singing “She’ll be coming round the mountain” as he started into a roundabout and continued around the roundabout until the song was over. It reminded me of my dad doing the same thing when we were in Paris. Then he had us sing the wheels on the bus and proceeded to do everything the song indicated, including honking the entire way down a street around 10pm.

Pulling our dinner out of the ground.

The next morning I went to Wai-o-tapu Thermal Area. I met an American lady on the bus and also ran into an Aussie I had met the night before. First we went to see a geyser, but were really disappointed when we saw they triggered the geyser. The American kept talking about how much better Yellowstone is and now I really want to go even more. The rest of the park wasn’t as exciting as I had expected but there were some pretty cool colors here and there. Some of the trees were red or yellow from the sulfur covering them which was pretty cool. I came back completely exhausted for some reason and took a nap. 

mud pools. They made such fun noises

Red on the hillsides from the minerals

The trees were just coated in yellow

This was the craziest color green and the picture doesn't do it justice. Tilt your screen until its neon and then you are close to the right color.

Then I headed to the Redwoods per a recommendation from a yacht designer I had talked to. It was suggested I take a bike for the bike trails. Was that an experience or what? I’ve never really driven a bike on roads before and throw in traffic laws I’m not used to and I was shocked I made it to the redwoods in one piece. Already exhausted when I got there, I ended up walking my bike up some massive hills to the bike trails. I ended up running into the Australian guy again crazily enough, but he was heading out of the park. I figured I should go easy on my knees and only stick to the easy trails (also the bike I rented wasn’t equipped for anything more), but about 15 seconds into the trail I chose I thought there was no way this was an easy trail. I was expecting a nice stroll through the woods, but no, this was a proper mountain biking trail with hills and curves. I’m convinced I’m on the wrong trail, worried about the bike staying in one piece and wondering what I got myself into. Everywhere in NZ has been incredibly well marked and this one the one park that wasn’t. I hit a fork in the road and a sign said “trail continues” and then didn’t tell me which way to go (and these were one way trails). Fortunately a runner was coming through and directed me. About 20 seconds later, he was out of sight, which tells you how slow I was going on the bike. 

I then got onto a part of the trail that was even more difficult and I thought for sure I was going to destroy the bike. I came out on a trail completely lost, asked for directions and got sent the wrong way, but eventually, I made it home. I was completely exhausted, my butt was sore, but my knees probably had a good workout and it was a good experience.

The next day I went to the Rotorua museum, which was an old geothermal bathhouse. It was pretty cool and they had this show on the volcanic history in the area and the seats and everything shook along with it. There was also a really neat nature photography exhibit that I could have looked at for forever. I spent the afternoon shopping for pants for my job interview the next day. It proved incredibly difficult, but just when I was about to give up, I peaked around a corner by my hostel and found a store called Just Jeans. JACKPOT (I had decided I wanted black jeans). Then I caught the bus out of town.