Windy Welly

I've been living in Wellington for about a month now and things are going fairly well. My flat is about a 5 minute walk to the centre of town where most of the bars/cafes and restaurants are. Welly is pretty small and entirely walkable. It reminds me of Halifax in that way. I haven't taken public transport once since I've been here. My flat mates, although very young (all 3 of them are 20 years old!) are actually really great. Annemieke (pronounced Annameek) works part-time at the Museum and Art Gallery in Welly. She was originally going to move out and go travelling in OZ for the summer but decided to stay, and I am very glad she did. Kate works at the University in Welly on the school council. Girls in Welly tend to wear fancy clothes a lot. I have never seen Annemieke or Kate wear pants and they are always walking around in high heels. I must look like such a slob to them...but at least I'm comfortable! David is a builder and he works at the Uni as well. We all get along very well and cook for one another all the time. Sorry I don't have pics of them for you yet. Next update, I promise.

This is what my room looks like. My queen size bed is so super comfy...

This is where I am sitting right now writing this blog...


I got a temp job in an office for 2 1/2 weeks doing data entry and although I was grateful to be making money, the work itself was doing my head in. I literally did 4 tasks over and over again for 8 hours a day. If I thought about it too much it made me want to throw myself out the window (which is probably why they didn't open). The wages in NZ are a little more than half of what they were in OZ so even though I was so unhappy, I was contemplating staying on if my contract got extended because it was a higher paying job than anything in hospitality. Luckily the decision was made for me and the contract wasn't extended. I was quite relieved. I'm sure it won't be long until I find something new.

A few days after I got here it was Guy Fawkes Night. Here is Lindsay and I on the beach waiting for the fireworks to start. I met Lindsay in Melbourne at Cirque Du Soleil. She is from Regina. I was used to 30 degree weather on the island so 15 degrees was a bit of a shocker to me, as you can see...


This is Ivan. He is from China. We hang out with him a lot...

This is Brian from Seattle. We hang out with him a lot as well...

and this is Annette from Germany. We weren't sure whether we were supposed to be supporting the fact that Guy Fawkes didn't succeed in taking down the parliament or the fact that he tried so we just kept yelling "Yay Guy Fawkes". For some reason it was hilarious to us at the time...

This is the waterfront in Welly. It's very pretty but Wellington is so windy that it's often hard to go and sit by the water and enjoy.

There was one day however that was hot enough to go to the beach, although you have to be very careful with the sun in NZ because there is absolutely no ozone layer to protect you because of this. It's easy to get burnt in about 10 minutes, even when it doesn't feel that hot. Lindsay wasn't taking any chances...

We played a game of Scrabble which Lindsay won by 1 point. So annoying!


Do's/Don'ts:

Do: Ride a unicycle around the city...

Don't: Build a water fountain in the middle of Cuba Street (very busy street with lots of cafes, bars and shops) that splashes water about 3 feet around the borders of the fountain so you get wet if you walk by...take it down to fix it...and then put it back up just to find out it splashes water about 4 feet over the edge now...

Do: Go to Southern Cross Bar where they have giant Jenga competitions...

as well as giant Connect 4 and regular size Scrabble that you can play while you're drinking beer with your mates. They also have hot water bottles and blankets that they will lend you if you're sitting out back on the patio and it's cold out (why don't we have this in Canada?) They often also have free really good bands playing including a Brazilian band that I went to see where there were at least 10 people on stage with instruments. So good!

Don't: I know Movember is for a good cause and everything but man am I glad it's over. Now I can see what the men in Welly really look like. (Pic taken at a Couchsurfing party that we attended)...

I also went to see the Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Wellington City Art Gallery after Nathan highly recommended that I go and I'm really glad I did. It was different then anything I've seen before. If you ever get the chance, you should see her stuff. She's a very interesting lady...to say the least.

Just a regular Sunday afternoon for Lindsay and I. Most likely hungover and enjoying Bloody Mary's (they don't have Caesar's here) on a patio (although it's not usually nice enough to sit on the patio!).

One Sunday Brian drove us to a beach about an hour outside of Wellington. I'm pretty sure it was Waikanae Beach. It was cloudy most of the day but warm enough to sit on the beach and play a game of Scrabble and have some snacks.

On Wednesday nights there is a quiz night at The Kiwi Pub. We somehow managed to win 1st prize one night (not on account of my help at all...I suck at trivia...however I gladly took part in the winnings:). I think it was mainly due to our multi-national team mates who were made up of a Canadian, a German, an American, an English dude and a few Kiwi's. We got a $50 bar tab and since they have $10 super jugs there (about the same size as a pitcher in Canada), it resulted in a bit of a rough Thursday considering it was a school night...

Here we are on one of our many nights out. This was at The Establishment which I try to make a point not to frequent often. It's such a typical backpacker pick up joint.

Ivan's big nerdy head is hiding my pretty one...

Aren't we a good looking bunch?

This was when we decided to leave the boys at home (or wherever they went that night) and have a girls night...

Because Welly is so small and there is never a cover charge to get in anywhere, we tend to get to no less then at least 4 bars each time we go out. If we're not feeling the vibe somewhere, we just go somewhere else.

Linds and I at a Couchsurfing party we went to last weekend...

Lindsay's birthday present to one of her mates that she met while she was living at the hostel when she first came to Welly...

No hands!

Nice!

We also went to the Santa Clause Parade. Which is always still so strange since it's not cold out...

I'm not sure what The Ghost Busters or...

Star Wars has to do with X-Mas!?

At least Santa Clause showed up. That made sense...

Speaking of Santa Clause...if anyone wants to send me a card or gigantic present (actually gigantic is not such a good idea since I need to be able to fit my life in a backpack), or money or a plane ticket home for April from Bangkok I will be at this address until the end of January:

153 Ghuznee Street

Te Aro, Wellington, 6011

New Zealand

I'm actually looking forward to X-Mas this year (can't believe this is my 2nd x-mas away!). My flat mates are all Kiwi's and will be with their families so my house will be backpacker central. Nerys, Brady and Chaz (who is from Welly) are coming around Dec. 15th for a few weeks as well as Nathan who is coming for a few days on Dec. 27th and my friend Hendrik (who I met while on the Island) at some point around the same time as well. Should be good times.

Side note: One of the things I love about NZ is their history and how much it differs in terms of how the Aborigines who first settled here were treated compared to the violent history that Australia and North America have. In 2006 the population of New Zealanders was 429,429, Europeans 2,609,592 and the Maori population was 565,329. From what I know (which is not much at all) Captain Cook was not interested in conquering New Zealand and so a Treaty was signed between the Europeans and the Maori chiefs. I realize it hasn't all been roses and there are many different versions of what actually happened and how the treaty has/has not been executed, but just the fact that the Maori population is so much bigger here than the Native population in Canada and that Maori songs/language and traditions were learned in most schools by everyone is a huge step up from Canada's violent history.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope Santa is good to you all!

Candy canes and turkey and over eating and chocolate and fancy parties where co-workers get too drunk and do embarassing things to you all. Hope it's not too cold. Brrrrrr. (I'm going to be SO annoying my first Winter back in Canada, complaining every second about the cold. I apologize in advance).

Sweet as, bro!

After adjusting to the change in weather I ended up having a nice time in Melbs catching up with the friends I had met when I was there. I stayed with Nerys half of the time...



and Damien the other half....


On Friday Kara (who I met while working at the Red Cross) took the day off and drove me out of the city to Ballarat. We went to a museum and learned about the settlers in Ballarat and a small civil war (I think about 12 people died) that they had over gold and who should have to pay taxes on finding it. Here I am super excited to learn about the history...


It didn't take long for us to start acting inappropriately...

Really inappropriately...
I found a Canadian flag in the mini-movie theatre in the museum...

AND there was a place called "Canadian" on our way home which I made Kara stop at so I could take a pic...

One of the dudes who first came to Melbourne had the last name Batman and apparently they considered naming it "Batmania". How awesome would that have been!? Still, having a Batman train station is pretty great.

I also caught up with some old Cirque friends including Ashley and Lucy on my last night in OZ at my favourite bar in Fitzroy called The Black Cat...

Kara came too!

Then I flew to Christchurch on the 22nd, spent one night in a hostel there and then went to meet Nathan in Oamaru which is about a 3 hour drive away. I met Nathan in Sydney last December and we have kept in touch. He had lived in OZ for many years but recently moved back to New Zealand, where he was born. I was pretty happy to catch up with him after several failed attempts at doing so previously.

Nathans sister Tania who I had never met before picked me up and drove me to Oamaru because Nathan was having an art show that night. Tania and I got along sooooooo well. The conversation flowed easily and her 10 and 17 year old daughters Erin and Julia (who are also insanely awesome) were along for the ride as well. When I happened to mention that I owned all 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer our friendship was sealed and I was immediately adopted into the family. I even spent the day with her when I got back to Christchurch before flying to Wellington and she did an astrology reading for me and cooked me dinner. Nathans Mum drove me from Oamaru to Christchurch after my visit with him had finished and we got along swimmingly as well. She made me laugh so much. Such an awesome family!

I was in Oamaru for about a week and stayed with Nathan and his lovely flat mate Kate (on the right)...

and her 2 dogs Lurch...

and Slade. Who despite how cute they look in these pics proved that they can be vicious animals at times when they got into a fight and bit Kate's hand during her attempt to pull them apart. She was bleeding quite a bit and had to go to the hospital and take a few days off work. It was rather scary. As usual my reaction was to walk away from the situation. Don't ever rely on me in an emergency. I just can't deal.

The night that I arrived Nathan had an art show. He is a Graffiti artist and now uses other mediums for his work as well. The show was called Scratch and Sniff. Here is some of his sick work!

This is an instillation which he entitled "Sin City".

At the end of the show he did a live paint for an hour. It was pretty fun to watch.

Hellz yes!!!

The next day we headed out of town to do some touristy stuff cause Nathan had a few days off. On the drive we saw this dude and I couldn't help but take a pic of him. How long do you think he's owned that bad ass outfit for? It's hard to see but it has all these badges sewn onto the arms. Amazing.

Nathan's lovely bosses let us use their trailer about an hour outside of Oamaru.

The view from the trailer was amazing and so green and hilly compared to Australia...

Even though the trailer itself was super rustic with no running water or electricity...

But it was cozy and cute and Nathan and I managed to make dinner on a gas burner and play a 5 hour game of Scrabble which he ended up winning by 5 points. So gutted.

The next day Nathan took me to see the Moeraki Boulders. The website for the boulders claims that they are a number of huge spherical stones, found strewn along a stretch of Koekohe Beach near Moeraki, a small settlement just south of Hampden on New Zealand's Otago coast. These boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions which have been exposed through shoreline erosion from black mudstone coastal cliffs that back the beach. They originally formed in ancient sea floor sediments during the early Paleocene some 60 million years ago. The boulders weigh several tonnes and are up to three metres in diameter. Maori legend tells that the boulders are remains of calabashes, kumaras and eel baskets that washed ashore after the legendary canoe, the Araiteuru was wrecked at nearby Shag Point (He he he Shag point).

But Nathan and I reckon they are Alien pods. Some of which have hatched...

Some of which probably still contain Aliens who are spying on us...

They slowly make their way from the cliffs on the side of the beach. Creepy!

Nathan also took me to see the Lanarch Castle in Dunedin. It cost $25 to go in though so we just hung around in the garden and had Devonshire tea (Scones with jam and whipped cream yum!)

One of the main differences between OZ and New Zealand is how green and lush it is since there is no drought here. It's very beautiful.

We also went to Baldwin street which is the steepest street in the world. Pretty crazy. I wasn't keen to drive up in fear that the brakes would give out on the way down, especially since it was a rainy day and the pavement was wet so we walked up instead. Apparently a while back a few college kids died after going down the street in a wheely bin and going head first into a car.

Nathan demonstrates the reason why caution is needed when walking on Baldwin Street...

After staying with Nathan and hanging out for a week I headed back to Christchurch for 4 nights. I stayed in an amazing hostel called Around The World Backpackers. It was run by a charming couple who made everyone feel really welcome and since it was small it was easy to make friends. I did a lot a partying in those 4 nights (apparently the bars don't close until about 5am in New Zealand and there is tons of live music so it's easy to get caught up when you go out). I did manage to get to the Museum one day though and saw some cool things including this house which a local had decorated with shells. It was the tackiest thing I have ever seen.

I also got to (pretend) to ride on this super awesome bike...

The night before when we went out we found THIS bike locked up outside the pub. Yep that's right, someone rode this bad boy to the pub. I really should have waited outside for them so I could have proposed.

There was a river which ran through Christchurch which was really pretty...

and you can take romantic boat rides on it...

they also have old trams not unlike the ones in Melbourne...

So yesterday I took a 45 minute flight to Wellington. I am staying in a hostel called Wellywood and for the first time in my many nights spent in hostels I had a bad experience with a room mate. This 18 year old wank who was waisted came in at 3am, turned on the light and started chatting to us while eating chips really loudly. I told him to shut up, turn the light off and get out. He kept asking what my name was and I wouldn't tell him. When he finally went to bed (after sitting in the corner loudly finishing his chips) he moved around all night and once and a while did this crazy loud snoring thing which another girl in the room later described as scream snoring. He thought it was all pretty funny in the morning. I didn't. I moved rooms.

I went to see a flat today and took it on impulse. I am kind of skeptical as I haven't met the other 3 flat mates yet but apparently there are 2 girls in their early 20's and they haven't found the 4th person yet. I guess the main reasons I took it were that a) it's a 3 month sublet which is hard to find b) it's furnished which saves me the hastle of buying furniture and then selling it a few months later for half the price and c) it's a 5 minute walk into the centre of the city (not that Welly is that big. You can pretty much walk anywhere). So I move in a week today. Hopefully I won't have any aweful room mate experiences between now and then. I have been emailing my resume to temp agencies today and tomorrow I will drop it off at cafes and restaurants. I am excited to start working again. It's amazing how much you can appreciate working when you don't have to do it!

If you want to hear what an exagerated NZ accent sounds like and some of their crazy words/sayings...watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA. I have already started saying "sweet as" all the time!

Exes and Ohs!