Sheep Brains and Skinks

As you all know, Eoin and I have to eat in order to survive out here in New Zealand. We go to the grocery store in Kilbirnie (about 3 minutes away) and get the majority of our food. We get our fruit from the farmers market on Sunday, and occasionally browse other grocery stores too see what they have that good ol' Pak-N-Save doesn't have. We have discovered a variety of...things..that one would not normally find in a Shaws, Wegmans, Hannafords or Publix (to name a few).

HEARTS: Sheep, chicken, and lamb. Deeelish! Sheep and lamb hearts look like normal hearts. Chicken hearts look like really big kidney beans.

BRAINS: Sheep and Pig. Looks exactly how you think it would.

STOMACHS: Sheep and Pig. It looks like regurgitated vanilla pudding with noddles mixed in. My favorite!

KIDNEYS: Lamb. Look like giant kidney beans. Duh.

INTESTINES: Pig. Looks kind of like a brain, actually.

PARTS: Chicken and Goat. I don't even WANT to know what "parts" are.

If you want to know, Eoin and I have been sticking with chicken (sausages mostly), fish fillets and the occasional lamb.

Anyway, on to less disgusting things.

Yesterday (Sunday) Eoin and I were supposed to go Sea Kayaking, but waking up at 8AM on a Sunday was just not what we were ready for, so we opted to go back to sleep and wake up a bit later to go to Sommes Island. We took a ferry to Sommes Island, but first it stopped at Seatoun, Days Bay and Petone. It was beautiful outside, with just a bit of breeze and the boat ride was really nice. We got to Sommes Island just around 11:30.

Sommes Island is another wildlife reserve that is home to birds, reptiles and bugs. We got to see tons of Skinks, which are a type of lizard, similar to a gecko. We also saw North Island Robins, Variable Oystercatchers (look like crows kind of) and Red-Crowned parakeets. The island is also home to the illusive Tuatara, which we didn't get to see, and the worlds smallest penguin, Little Blue Penguins. Unfortunately, it is nesting season for the penguins and they were all holed up in the nesting boxes being anti-social.

Before Sommes Island was a reserve, it was used in WWI and WWII as a holding place for enemy aliens. Prior to that it was a quarantine station for animals and humans. There is also a lighthouse on Sommes Island, and it is the first lighthouse in country. Impressive!

Eoin and I walked every trail on the island, all three of them :) We saw where the quarantined animals were kept, where the detainees stayed and where the WWII artillery was placed. We also saw sheep! It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful place.

Looking out towards Wellington from Sommes Island.
Sounds...delicious?

Long overdue update

Sorry that I haven't written anything for a while, but nothing exciting has happened since my last entry.

I love my job at Glassons, its actually really fun playing with clothes all day long and helping people put together cute outfits! I also absolutely LOVE my 40% discount and I have been taking advantage of quite a bit. Woops :) I will post some "modeling" pictures of me in all my new outfits later, I know you are all dying to see them.

However, today I am going to post pictures of flowers. Why? Well, who doesn't like a nice picture of a flower? Eoin and I went to the botanic gardens today, and it was the perfect day for it! Last time we went (remember..the cold windy day that we just went to the cable car museum) it was horrible. Today it was sunny, warm and the flowers were in full bloom. We did the basic walk (there are several trails and paths to choose from) that cuts through the center of the gardens and loops around a few highlights such as the Lady Norwood Rose Garden, which had no roses, the Fern Garden and the Peace Garden which features a small duck pond. We saw two mother ducks with their ducklings, and it was so cute! For the most part, the ducklings stayed close to their mothers, but there were two daring little ducks that swam all over the place and climbed around with no fear... until a little girl ran after them and scared them back into the pond. I have never actually seen ducklings before, so it was really neat to see so many of them together and swimming around.

We definately want to go back and see the Herb Garden, Large Duck Pond and Rock Garden to name just a few of the gardens we didn't get to see today.

Thats about all the excitement for today, but hopefully later this week I will post some more! If anyone wants a post card just let me know!

The Succulent Garden which features plants such as Cacti, Aloes and Begonias.

Some flowers in the Main Garden.

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.