Monday, October 31, 2005

News

First off, I finally found a replacement for my US Weekly obsession. There is a magazine here called NW Weekly. It's perfect. The cover this week was celebrities without their makeup. It doesn't have the quotes from the celebs like US Weekly, but instead it has sarcastic captions to pictures. It's pretty funny. It's trashier than US Weekly but it'll do. I know most of you don't care about my mag obsession but there are a few out there who will enjoy this knowledge.

Halloween is not a big deal in NZ at all. I saw not one kid dressed up and trick or treating. I think part of the reason is because they don't have a Thanksgiving so it's basically Halloween and then they wait two months for Christmas. So it's not like the start of a holiday season or anything.

I might actually have gotten a job. It's not for sure yet. The zoo cafe called back and I went in for an interview today. The manager, Chris, was wicked chill but when he found out that I didn't have any waitressing experience he was kind of disappointed. So I am now going in on Friday for 2 hours as a trial run. He said he will make a decision after it. I am not too worried about it but any suggestions will be appreciated.

Short and quick. I want to know how Halloween was on the Jersey end of things. I am sure some of you have plenty of stories. Peace out.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Budgeting my money and wasting my time

It's been a rainy Sunday in Wellington which means I have done pretty much nothing besides my vacuuming. I filled out a bunch of job applications yesterday and went back to the places that had my old number so hopefully something will turn up by the end of the week. I am not strapped for cash I just want to get out of the hostels and get some regularity into my schedule.

My English boys have left to travel the south island so basically when I am done with my vacuuming instead of playing cards I kind of twiddle my thumbs. I think the boredom that eventually will set in will motivate me to look for jobs a little bit more. It's weird travelling on your own. It's not very consistent. At home or in school I always had a schedule, a very busy schedule at times. Now I really don't have much to do. It's a good thing and it is very relaxing, it's just taking some getting used to.

Thanks for all the support about the stolen stuff. I hope everyone is going to have a great Halloween. I still don't think I am going to be anything. I can't think of anything good. The job hunt continues!!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I am a stupid stupid girl

I woke up this morning, put my cell phone on my bed and then went to clean rooms. When I came back three hours later, my phone and my ipod, which was in my backpack next to my bed were gone. The guy whose name I don't know that had been sleeping in my room was also gone. I was soo stupid and didn't lock my stuff up and now it's stolen. I had to go to the police station to fill out a report so that I can start my insurance claim. Baahhh.

What sucks is that my cell phone number is the only way for employers to contact me. Now they have the wrong number. After I left the police station I went and bought another phone, so tomorrow I am going to retrace my job hunt steps and update the information.

In perspective, things could have been worse. My credit cards and passport were on me and my digital camera wasn't in it's case, it was in a shoe (dis-organisation helped me there). I think the worst thing about this was that there was this guy Ben who was around when I realized that my stuff was stolen and all he could do was tell me how it should have been expected since my stuff was just lying about. I know he's right and all but I didn't want to hear it. If I wasn't so stunned I think I would have told him to shut up. Fortunately my english boys were there and one them told him to shut up about it. I feel like a wuss since I was near tears over a stolen phone and ipod. I think what got me is just that my stuff was stolen, not the actual material property of it, but my ownership. I have no idea if that makes sense.

Anyway, besides that debacle things are good. Alan and I went to a punk show last night. It was good to go somewhere else besides the hostel bar. The bands were good too. There's another concert in a couple of months called Big Day Out. It's in Auckland and is a lot of money but...The Living End is playing!! I am definetly considering buying the ticket and just finding a way there when it happens. For those who don't know, The Living End is an Australian band who I have loved since high school. I have never seen them in concert and one of my goals while I was here was to see them. The White Stripes and Franz Ferdinand will be playing too plus a bunch of NZ bands. I think it will def be worth the money. It's just hard to commit to something that is two months away (the concert is Jan 20). But I think the commitment needs to be made. If worse comes to worse I can always sell my ticket when it gets closer.

At the hostel bar there are always drink specials for girls, like dollar refills. Well the boys were upset over the sexism so they conquered it by dressing in drag to take advantage of the specials. It was really funny. They were all trying to play pool in mini skirts. Hilarious.

Basically when I am hanging in the hostel all I really do is play cards and pool. Pool is a little hard here though. Their balls are smaller and the pockets are smaller also. It makes a huge difference. Since the cue ball is smaller, it's center of mass is smaller. That means that if you don't hit right in the center it won't go straight whereas in the states if you don't hit the cue right in the center, it still will go straight. They also play different rules. Say you are solids and you hit a striped ball first, then the next player gets two shots since you fouled. They don't call their shots at all either. It's pretty interesting. Everynight there is a pool competition and the winner gets a 50 dollar bar tab. My friend Nate has won two nights which was great because he is a sharer.

I don't have any plans for Halloween. It does look to be kind of big out here, but they also just started selling fireworks, which apparently are legal so who knows how they celebrate it here. I don't know what I will be doing tonight. I ran into the girl from the coffee shop who told me about some jobs and she said she's having a bbq tonight. I want to go, but tonight is also the last night that the English boys will be here. We'll see.

I am kind of bummed about getting my stuff stolen but in the same respect, it was just materialistic stuff. I didn't need the ipod to survive in NZ and cell phones are replaceable. It sucks that it happened but I learned my lesson and everything is going to be locked up constantly. Hopefully the insurance claim will go through easily. And in the end I am still in a beautiful country having fun and having amazing experiences. No worries.

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Chillin in Wellington

The job hunt is on!! Luckily, there looks to be lots of jobs out here. Basically I have just been walking around Wellington and when I see a help wanted sign I walk in and fill out an application and give them my resume. I have feeling that by the end of next week I will have found something. That will be great because I really want to find a flat and get out of the hostels. They aren't bad it's just tedious to always have new people sleeping around you and being around your stuff.

Today me and the English boys went to the zoo. It was really fun and I got some good pictures. The zoo is hiring for their cafe so I filled out an application there too. I think it would be cool to serve coffee and then on breaks walk around and see the animals. The chimpanzees were my favorite, as they always are at any zoo that I go to. We saw this Australian pelican that looked fake. It was floating in the water I was saying how weird it was that they had a fake pelican when the pelican moved to land and started flapping its wings and walking towards us. I freaked out and ran away. I thought for some reason that I had offended the pelican. It was pretty funny.

Nothing crazy on the agenda for the near future. There are some walks I want to do but that's about it. When I hit the South Island in a couple of months I think I will start with the adrenaline rushes again. Although I do get an adrenaline rush everytime I cross the street. That's because in NZ they drive on the otherside of the road and I still habitually look the wrong way. It's to the point that I just look both ways constantly and I even wait for the crosswalk signal. My jaywalking habit has become too dangerous. Sad.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Randomness

I've been in Wellington for only two days, but it's been a random two days. I spent the better part of yesterday walking around the Te Papa museum. It was free and really interesting. They had a whole section on families who migrated to New Zealand. There were family portraits and background stories on the families. Anyway, when I left the museum I got a text message from this guy that was on the plane with me over here. We had both hung out in Auckland and apparently he was in Wellington. We went to this coffee shop and caught up on what we both were doing. As we were talking one of the waitresses picked up on our accents and asked where we were from. We started talking to her and I told her how I was staying in Wellington to look for a job. She told me that I should come back on Tuesday because she knows a lot of places that are looking for employees and she will give me there contact info on Tuesday. Random.

I got back to the hostel and just decided to ask if I could work for my accomodation. They said yes. So in exchange for staying in a room that will normally cost 26 NZ$, I will vacuum for three hours in the morning and get the room for free. Sweet. That's gonna save me some moolah while I look for jobs. The cleaning people are really nice too so it's a pretty relaxed thing. Don't get any ideas, mom. I will not be vacuuming when I am home.

Today I heard about a punk festival and thought it would be cool to check out. One of the other people on the bus, Allan and I went to the festival. It was five dollars and really fun. The festival was held in this small one room building on top of a hill that had great view and a soccer field next to it. Everyone went inside for the bands and then just chilled on the field while the next band set up. This one band was made up of a girl on the drums and a guy on guitar. At one point the girl stopped singing and playing and turned to the guitarist and said that she couldn't hear him playing over her playing. So he turned the speakers toward her. She got made and said don't turn the speakers toward me, turn the volume up. He turned the volume up and then she said it was too loud. He said he thought everything was fine and then just started to play. I just think it's funny how they stopped their sight to have a squabble for no reason. Everyone was laughing. It was a fun time.

Tomorrow is laundry day yet again and then Tuesday it is hunt for a job day. I'm not too worried though. It looks like Wellington will be a cool place to live for awhile so the job will just follow after I work at it. Peace out.

Friday, October 21, 2005

In Wellington

Today is Saturday and I got to Wellington yesterday. Before I got to Wellington, I white water rafted! I hopped on the Kiwi bus and we were driven to River Valley. It is a small hostel whose sole purpose for existence is to house people who are going white water rafting. The hostel is in the middle of nowhere and the bed situation was very interesting. About thirty of us who were on the bus walked into this giant room that contained eight enormous bunk beds. Each bed fit four people. We all just started laughing and decided if this was gonna work, we were all gonna need to drink a little. So we spent the night just hanging out drinking and playing cards. It was really fun. The sleeping wasn't too bad except that some people thought that that night would be a good time to hook up. Needless to say they were pretty embarassed the next morning. We woke up around 8:00 but since it had been raining all night we didn't know if we would be able to raft. The guide came by a half an hour later and said it was a go, so I squeezed myself into a wetsuit (no pics of that ever!) and we were ready to go. We hopped onto a small bus to take us up the river. I was really nervous. The rapids were grade 4 and 5, which is the highest grade before it's classified as waterfall. And to add more adrenalin we found out that someone drowned last week. By the time I was getting into the raft I was seriously considering not doing it. But I got in...in the front.

Our guide took us through some smaller rapids so we could get the feel of it...then he flipped the raft over so that we could get a feel for falling out. The water was cold and your first instinct was to breathe in, which is bad because then you inhale water. We body surfed down the small rapid and then the guide showed us how to help each other into the raft if we actually did flip. We then started doing the rapids and it was so much fun. We kept paddling and then the guide would scream hold on and then we would put death grips on the ropes attached to the raft. We went down a four meter drop which was awesome. It was weird being in the front because I say the dips and everything and I got most of the water in my face. We almost flipped over once. We went down this one rapid and my side went up in the air. I lost the rope in my left hand, but held on for life with my right. Everyone else on my side held on also then the raft leveled itself out without any of us falling in. It was a rush.

At one point we had to get out and carry the rafts because the river was to rough due to the rain. We carried the raft over rocks, which were falling. It was insane! When we got back into the raft we went down another rapid and then the raft pulled to shore. Our guide pointed up to a ledge about 30ft up and said "You don't have to jump off of it, but it's obligatory." We climbed up the ledge and started jumping. I, as usual, did a death scream while I was falling but it was fun. White water rafting is definitely something I want to do again in the states. It's a rush.

It's labor day weekend in NZ so I'm gonnna just chill out and start looking for a job on Tuesday. Wellington is a cool city, but it is really windy. I feel like I'm back in Southwest at UMass. It looks like there are a lot of jobs here so I'm pretty confident that if I really get out there I will find something. And yes Mr A I am looking for stages to sweep, although the theater doesn't look to be that popular here, but we'll see.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Skydiving Pics

























No glowing maggot poo pics

I couldn't take my camera in the cave with us since there was water all around and we all know I would have dropped it into the water. I will try to find a good postcard of it to send home.

I don't remember if I mentioned this but on Saturday and Sunday there was no one in my room at the hostel besides me. It was glorious. On Monday I got four Englishmen. They're friendly and are on the Kiwi bus I am getting on tomorrow so it's good. Apparently yesterday two of them met these two German girls who were following the bus around (a Kiwi groupie?) and offered the girls a place to stay in our room for free. I didn't think much of it until we were out at the bar and one of the Englishmen, Allan, told me that he just walked the girls back to the hostel so they can sleep. I turned to him and said that he better hope that all of our stuff is still there when we get back. Apparently Allan had never thought this might have been a scam, it's a pretty good one too, they had a getaway car and everything. Fortunately, my skepticism proved wrong and everything was still in the room when we got back.

Apparently Tuesday night is universal trivia night. It was fun and a good way to talk to a lot of the people that I will be getting on the bus with.

Ok so below are the sky diving pics. I'm not going to caption them because they are pretty self explanatory. Just remember my face looks weirder than usual because I was screaming the whole time.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Leaving Taupo

The package I have been waiting for should be getting here either today or tomorrow so I will be leaving Taupo today or tomorrow. It's not a bad place to hang when it's not raining.

The post before this is all of the pictures I took so far. Start from the bottom and work you way up, that's the chronological order. I'll put up the skydiving pics once I am in Wellington.

Not much to say right now, I have just been walking around enjoying the good weather.

How's the bathroom going Dad?

That's it for now!!












Craters of the Moon, another thermal park.


Horses! NO fence separating me and them!

Contemplating life.

Cows!

I love clouds.

The extinct volcanoe that overlooks Taupo

So pretty

I need to figure out how to rotate these.

Stretch your neck and enjoy the view.

foamalicious

More of the huka.

Huka Falls. Huka is Maori for foaming.

More of the waterfall that I don't know the name of.
The first waterfall I ever saw in person


The geiser erupted for 45 minutes.

Steamy

More geiser action.

Me and the geiser.

Park of Thermal

Th Th Th Thermal Park

More Thermal Park

Thermal Park

Mud pools at the thermal park.


Thermal park with geisers!

A Maori carpenter carving something that will eventually look like the other carvings.

More carvings.

Maori carvings from a cultural center that the bus stopped at.

Laurie and I before we luged.

Self explanatory

The view in Rotorua before street luging.

Rooster!

The view from the bridge.

The bridge after the windowless caves. It was not the sturdiest of things.

The bus crew after we got throught the windowless part

Again, no windows

We were at the caves that created their own windows, except we were at a windowless part so we had to use our cameras to give us light. None of us thought to bring a flashlight.


This is Whitianga and this beach was two minutes away from my hostel. Whitianga is where the first Polynesian explorer landed.

Stretch that neck

More of the Cove

This is just sticking out of the water at Cathedral Cove.

The land masses sticking out of the water are tops of eroded volcanoes.

Cathedral Cove

At Cathedral Cove

Taking a break from walking.

Walking
First stop on the bus is a 45 minute walk to Cathedral Cove. This is the start of the walk.

Done with Rangitoto, now it's time to go out and celebrate.

Very excited that I walked up the summit ( It took an hour and a half).

Guess where I am?

Still there

Top

Still at the top

For my BFF...still at the top.

I was really excited to get to the top

More pics from the top

I like how on one side of the picture the clouds are white and puffy and how on the other side the clouds are dark. Still at the top of Rangitoto

The view from the top


At the top of Rangitoto!

The picture doesn't do it justice but halfway up Rangitoto there is this bowl of dense trees.


Walking to up Rangitoto.

The pathway up to the summit of Rangitoto. It is all just broken up, cooled down lava.
These trees ( I forget the name of them, maybe Coromandel?) are New Zealand's christmas tree. In December, which is summer, they bloom red flowers all over.


Rangitoto Island. This is the view from the ferry before I walked up to the summit.
Our failed attempt at a funny self timed picture.

My Nova Scotian friend Vicotria in our posh six person hostel room in Auckland.

More Maori carvings from the museum. I can't figure out how to rotate pictures. Just consider it my way of helpling you stretch your neck while at work

I went to the Auckland museum one day. This is a traditional Maori boat with hand carved designs.
Look at him go!

My Kiwi bus driver, Andy, skiing at One Tree Hill. It had just rained so he went pretty fast.

Me on top of One Tree Hill. Auckland is in the background. I do love the clouds in this country.

This is One Tree Hill. In the background is Auckland and those dots one the green are Sheep!! For real!! No fences or anything! They just wander around like the people.


This is the free Auckland bus trip I took. The city behind us is Auckland. The bus I am on from Kiwi Experience is like coach bus but it is just as green as this one.