You DON'T want to stay at a Weta Hotel...

Hey everyone! It's another wonderful day in Wellington. Work has been going well, and I am enjoying myself very much.

Today, Eoin and I went to the Korari Wildlife Sanctuary. We weren't sure how it would be until we got there, because it has been raining on and off all weekend, but we decided to take our chances! For the most part, it was windy and a bit chilly but no rain (except for a few sprinkles). So we lucked out.

The Korari Wildlife Sanctuary was built to try and promote the native birds and reptiles of New Zealand to mate and produce. A lot of the native animals became extinct when settlers arrived and many more are close to extinction. So, the reserve is completely "pest free" (no rodents or predatory animals can get in) and then even check your bags apon arrival to ensure you aren't sneaking any mice or rats into the park!

Some of the animals they have at the sanctuary are Tuatara (a reptile that is definitely worth a wikipedia look-up), Wetas (nasty gross bugs), Kaka's (a parrot that is sooo cool) and Tuis (neat birds) and of course, Kiwis. We saw all of these but the Tuatara and Kiwi. Tuatara don't like the cold, and today was too chilly for them, they stayed in their burrows where it was warm. Eoin was really bummed, but I am sure we will have many more chances to see a tuatara on our adventures. We didn't see the Kiwi because, well, they are nocturnal and very good at remaining hidden in the forests.

Another interesting highlight at the sanctuary was the Goldmine. Back in the day, there was a goldrush in New Zealand. One of the places people looked for gold was in Korari. They have re-opened one of the mines and Eoin and I got to go in it. We wore hardhats and had a cool flashlight that allowed us to look for cave weta (gross bugs). We found one, and that was good enough for me. I don't know what I would have done if there were several of them all hanging out in there. Gross...

Anyway, I think that is about it. I am sure Eoin will have a lot more to say...he is the writer out of the two of us you know...

Here are some pictures for you!

This is a weta that is staying in a "Weta Hotel". Basically, it is a huge log that has small holes cut in it for the weta to crawl in. Inside, there are "rooms" for the weta to sleep in. They are such gross bugs.

This is a Kaka at one of the bird feeders in the park. There is also a Tui in the lower right hand corner, behind the Kaka. The Tui are afraid of the Kaka, but not scared enough to eat its food when he isn't there. It was funny to watch the Tui eating the birdfood and then fleeing when the Kaka came close by.

Here we are, at the top of the observation tower! Ooooooo

I get motion sickness too easily...

It has been 10 days since my last post, and not a lot of exciting things have happened.

However, I have been working like crazy at Glassons and am really enjoying myself. I tend to work Tuesday - Saturday 11-6, with the occasionally 11-8 or 9-6 (however that is a very rare "occasional" but it happens). I get my first paycheck on Wednesday and it should be about 1 million dollars. Not bad :)

This week Eoin and I have been working hard, trying to save up as much money as we can so that we can do some fun trips! We really want to go to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary next weekend, so hopefully my next post will be about that! We also heard that we can go to Sommes Island and see penguins and tuatara as well as other New Zealand animals. That is also on our agenda for an upcoming weekend trip. Lastly, Eoin and I have plans to go Sea Kayaking the first weekend of November. Now that I've typed it all out, it looks like we have a few busy weekends ahead of us.

This past weekend, Eoin and I took it pretty easy. We went to Te Papa (again) and nearly finished the entire museum! It only took us....3 trips? They have a new exhibit called "Our Space" which has an interactive map of New Zealand. You can step on any part of the map, and on a separate screen a picture or sometimes a movie pops up and shows you something unique about that part of NZ. Pretty cool. There is also a wall that is made up of large computer screens that anyone can upload pictures or videos on to. Eoin and I put a picture of ourselves on the wall. There was also a picture of a crying baby, videos of Maori Haka's and pictures of native plants. Everytime you go in to the exhibit the wall looks completely different, it is constantly being changed by various visitors to the museum. The highlight of "Our Space" are two rides. The Deep Ride and the High Ride. They are both simulation rides, the former being a journey to an underwater volcano and the latter being a skydiving, bungy jumping, vomit inducing never-would-i-ever-go-on ride. Guess which one we did!

I wish I had pictures to show you today, but it seems like everytime I get my camera out to take a picture it is either...
A) got dead batteries
B) got dead batteries that I JUST bought
C) got dead batteries

So, I will try again next update.

I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! It is about 60-70 degrees here and sunny (with the occasionally huge gust of wind). How is it in NH/NY/MA/Wherever you are?

<3 Alexa

How to speak like a Kiwi (the person, not the bird)

Here are some words and phrases I have learned so far in New Zealand.

Sweet As = It's okay, it's fine ... can also mean awesome
Example: You accidentally bump into someone and say "oh sorry!" and they say "it's sweet as".

Fizzy Drink= Soda/Pop
Example: My favorite fizzy drink in NZ is LIFT.

Singlet = Tanktop
Example: Do you have any singlets in a size 8?

Does it suit you? = How does it fit?
Example: How did that dress suit you?

Cardis = Cardigans
Example: Cardis are great to wear with a dress on cool days

straight away = right now
Example: I need a chocolate bar straight away!

Capsicum = Green Pepper
Example: I would like some capsicum please.

Bin = Garbage Can
Example: Put the rubbish in the bin.

Dairy = Corner Store
Example: I'm going to run to the dairy and get some gum.

Lollies = Candies (gummies or hardcandies)
Example: Lollies are soooo delicious! Eoin smells.

Jandal = Sandal
Example: You can only wear nice jandals to work at Glassons.

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.

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.