I got a job!

Yep! You read it correctly, I have a job. I start Tuesday and I am so excited! I will be working full time, most likely Tuesday-Saturday. I get an awesome discount (which I have already used to buy a pair of pants) and I am just really into the clothes at this store so I am pumped.

Anyway, on to more things....
Eoin and I went for a walk yesterday on the Southern Walkway. It is a path that goes all over Wellington. You can (but we didn't do this) start at the bay near Central Wellington and walk all the way to the Zoo (near our house) or Kilbirnie (where we get our groceries, about 10 minutes up the road). We just did a loop from our house to the Zoo, it took us about an hour I think and it was actually pretty nice. We got to see an ostrich for free!
Today we took another trail up to the top of Mount Victoria. That was more intense than the other walk, it was pretty much all up hill. However, there are apparently filming locations for Lord of the Rings along the Mt. Victoria path, we didn't see Frodo or Samwise or Gollum though. We also couldn't figure out what the filming spots were, but when we take the LOTR tour (at some point, its expensive!) we can let you all know.

From the top of Mount Victoria (called Mt. Vic by all the local Kiwi's) you can see all of Wellington. I learned, after our walk, that people were killed up there by a low flying helicopter a few years ago. We didn't see any helicopters, so we were safe. Don't worry.


:)

This COULD be where the Hobbits were fighting over mushrooms and Frodo saw the Nazgul and shouted, "Get off the road!" But it could also just be a really pretty spot on Mt. Victoria.

The view of Wellington's central business district from the top of Mount Victoria.
This is from one of our visits to Te Papa. It is a display of fruits and vegies brought to NZ by settlers. Apparently, they had canned peaches back in the day!

Video Link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVLQIDGCNsM

That is the link to the video of the Fur Seals. You may have to pause it in order to see the seals.
Also, on the left hand side of my blog is a section called "Blog List". There you will see some links. One of them is Eoin's blog and the other is my good friend Lucas's website.

Lucas is such a wonderful little boy and gives the most amazing hugs in the world. Check out his website and find out why he is super special ( and see pictures of how adorable he is too!).

There is no news to update you all with. My references are being checked tomorrow, so some of you out there may be getting a phonecall! Please say nice things. :) Hopefully my next blog will be more exciting and will have things in it like "I am so tired because I work 30hrs a week and make a million dollars" or "today I won the lottery and now I have a mansion and get pedicures every day" or "i really like when Eoin brings pizza home from work".

The last one is true, actually. Alright, thats all for now. I miss you all so much!

Alexa

Quick Update

I am sitting in our room listening to some music and waiting for 8:10 to roll around so I can hop on the bus and meet Eoin for dinner. He got a job and works nights, the hours aren't set in stone yet but it seems like he will be working 4-8:30ish most nights. As for me, I have a job interview tomorrow morning at Glassons. I already had my phone interview, filled out two separate surveys and now I have an interview. It is for a full-time position at their busier store in Wellington (on Lambton Quay..amazing shopping!). Eoin and I also are both going to be working events at the WestPac Stadium, so that will bring in some extra money as well, plus we get to see rugby and cricket games for free! We should be hearing about that job in the next couple of days and go in for training on Wednesday night.



Eoin and I went to the zoo a few days ago, its a really nice zoo actually. It's really clean and the animals have a ton of space. Each "cage" (I put it in quotes because they are really not cages, you will see in the pictures) are made to be as close to what the natural habitat is in the wild. I was about one foot away from the head of an ENORMOUS Giraffe, saw some Kiwi Birds and even learned that when female Baboons have a swollen red rear end it means they are ready to mate. I am so much more knowledgable now.



Today we had planned to take the historic cable car ride to the top of a big hill that overlooks the city and is connected to a botanical garden, but on our walk to the bus stop it started to rain. Plan B was to go back to Te Papa (the National Museum of New Zealand) and explore some more. We still haven't seen it all. We have two more floors to go, not to mention the temporary exhibits we didn't even see yet.



Well, tomorrow/today/Thursday your time at about....6 PM EST think of me because I will be at my 1.5 hour long interview with Glassons. So scary! What are we supposed to talk about for 1.5 hours?!



Wish me luck! Miss you all!





A Kiwi bird named Kahi. Kahi only has one leg, but learned how to hop around instead of walk. The zoo made him a prosthetic leg, but by the time they tried it on him he had already adapted to hopping and didn't use the leg.


A capuchin monkey. Eoin and I got to throw walnuts to the monkeys, but this one hoarded them all and didn't share. Meanie.


I am not making this face to be funny, it was really scary standing so close to a giraffe. His tounge looks like raw chicken and he kept licking the posts. He also kept staring at me with his enormous eyeballs.

In Wellington

The past few days have been interesting. We got a room in a building about a 10 minute bus ride from the city center. It takes about 30 minutes to walk from our place to the city center, and we plan on walking to work (once we get jobs) when it is nice out to save some money because bus fares here are not cheap. We have our own room with a bed, desk, dresser and closet and we share a bathroom and kitchen/living room with the other people that live here.

Eoin and I wandered the city looking for jobs and handing out our resumes (called CV's here) in the hopes that SOMEONE would want to hire us. I have a few promising leads but haven't heard anything yet, although it is Sunday so maybe tomorrow the phone will start ringing! I applied for jobs at Glassons (a clothing store), Base Wellington (A hostel), a gym and another clothing store I forget the name of, woops.

Aside from job hunting Eoin and I did some exploring of the city. Cuba Street and Lambton Quay are the main shopping areas. Cuba Street is funky, with costume shops, cafes, book stores and clothes (mostly second hand/super funky stuff). Lambton Quay is more high fashion clothing, home furnishings and businesses. We also spent a few hours at Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand. We went in an earthquake simulator, saw a bunch of dead animals that were stuffed so they looked real but they were totally dead. They also had a large exhibit on the Maori, and even had a real Marae inside. A Marae is a meeting house used by the Maori. We are definitely going to go back because we didn't even cover half of the museum.

On Saturday we went for a walk at Te Kopahou reserve. Te Kopahou has a beach that is very rocky and is home (in May - October) to male Fur Seals. There were around 400 fur seals and we probably saw at least 50. They blend in really well with the rocks and the water, and I was actually standing about 6 feet away from a sleeping seal without realizing it.

On to the pictures!!

A nice view at Te Kopahau. Eoin kept asking if I wanted to walk up a trail the side of the "hill." I am so not ready for that.







This was taken after I realized the seal was there and ran away. I was closer before I knew he was there and posed for the picture. Do you see him?



A link to a video of the seals will be posted soon.

Kia Ora!
That’s Maori for Hello/Welcome.

We are in Rotorua, a pretty town on a lake that is surrounded by hot springs, geysers, spas and camp grounds. Eoin and I made our way down from Auckland yesterday in our new car. He only drove on the wrong side of the road once, and every now and then I have to tell him when he is about to go off the road though. Other than that he is doing a good job.

Today was pretty busy, but very fun. We woke up early, around 8 AM, and headed over to the Buried Village. The New Zealanders call it the “Pompeii of New Zealand”. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was nice. In 1886 a volcano erupted in Ta Wairo and covered the town with mud, lava and ash. Almost everyone perished. They have excavated a few of the houses and shops and you can walk around the fields. They also have a museum that tells you a bit about the people that lived there and shows artifacts that were found in the ruins.

Then we went to Wakite Thermal Springs. That was amazing. It’s about 5 pools that are filled with hot natural spring water. They also have private pools (hot tubs basically) and those were nice too. It was very relaxing and definitely something I will do again. We were at the pools for about an hour or so and then drove a mile up the road to Wai-O-Tapu.

Wai-O-Tapu has geysers, boiling mud, sulfur caves, water falls and lots of smelly pools. It smelled horrible, like bad chicken soup, wet dog and eggs. The water in some parts was a turquoise color, and there were random steaming rocks all over the paths. They also have craters that were formed by acidic steam rising out of the ground. It was very beautiful but again, smelled horrible.

It is about 5:30 now and I am so tired from all we did today. It was a great day though and it was worth every penny (er…dime…they don’t have pennies here) spent.
Here are some pictures from our adventures today.
Talk to you all soon. If you want a postcard send me your address, I left my address book at home.

Alexa








A fireplace that was left in Te Wairo at one of the Hotels.

A waterfall at Te Wairo.
The Devils Bathtub at Wai-O-Tapu.

I made it!

We made it!
The flight to Syndey wasn't bad at all. I slept on and off for about 7 or so hours, ate some food and walked around the plane a bit. We had a layover in Sydney that we spent wandering the airport and emailing our parents to let them know how we were doing.
We arrived in Auckland around 3 PM and settled into our hostel. Eoin and I walked around downtown Auckland and had dinner at a really good restaurant. They had amazing french fries. I fell asleep at 8PM and woke up this morning around 5. Nothing is really open until 7, but we went for another walk and explored the city some more. We went to the harbor and saw some boats, and then opened up our bank accounts, applied for TAX ID's and bought a car!! (we will get it Friday or Saturday) It needs a few minor repairs, but as soon as thats done we have a 1990 Toyota Corona. Not a Corolla, but a Corona.
Anyway, I am extremely exhausted right now (Its 5 PM) and my feet hurt from all the walking we did today. But we got a lot accomplished.

The space needle thing. You can bungy jump off of it and walk around the outer edge. No, I did not and will not do either of those things. Thanks.


Palm trees in one of the parks. Eoin was convinced there were monkeys in the trees. He also says every bird we see is a kiwi...but really all we have seen are sea gulls and pigeons.




Some sailboats.