Flyin' High

I told ya I believe I can fly ;-)

The weekend is there to always get out 'n about in Auckland City. Jack, James and of course the Cap't (I need one as I'm in the City of Sails after all) and I with a few other friends head out to make it a good time. The only problem is that there are not enough food establishments open from 3am to 7am - sometimes I just want a crappy Perkins breakfast at 4am, or some Taco Bell! Don't worry, I have the below to keep track of these memories ;-)

"KIWI DOINGS: FOR THOSE DOINGS THAT CAN'T BE SHARED ONLINE :)"

 Since I'm a bloody tourist, I go ape over any views of downtown Auckland and any other tourist trap. Thus, I just had to stop at the Salvage Memorial. #112 on the memorial list I must say - so I don't remember what it's about (I have a picture of it somewhere).

This is it. 

I love it.

Another "sunny" day in the city!

Of course I'd like to fly a kite. Since Auckland is a windy city (that's how one is able to sail) what better activity to do than fly a kite on the bluff.

Mr. Krabs

It's like the Macy Day Parade

It's real life Crush!

Jump! Here's my fake Chester (he just doesn't toot as much)

Kiwi's count horsies instead (sheep are too realistic here)

 Boxing Day.

Finally I popped over to Juice Bar in Parnell, Auckland for my flatmates boxing fight. It was sparing so "there are no winners, there are no loser; just athletes having a good work out" (Wikipedia never told me of such a thing!). Nonetheless it was a grand 'ol time - there was blood, so at least there were some good fights to watch.

I'm sure it's an official sized one.

That is some one's daughter, so close that mouth!

Reps from the Auckland Paraplegic Association 

Just never say never about anything

Of course me flatmate had one of the higher energy fights.  It's a good thing he wasn't paired up with the Asian Infusion guy - although, that would have been an intense fight. 

[When I'm not so lazy, I'll upload my flatmates fight video. I'm sorry, I don't have 255 minutes to watch it upload at this time]

I Misplaced my Holiday.  Again.

This working holiday seems to becoming a bit too much working with not much holidaying. I volunteered for overtime which, funny enough, I hear is taxed even more than your regular tax. At this  rate, I should be eligible to go on the freakin' dole when I please.You know what this means?! I'm planning more holiday's :D

Now, who misplaced the wine?! I seem to be all out of it; and what an absolute disaster Transformers: Dark of the Moon is.

I Believe I can Fly

 No, I was unable to find gaudy American attire to wear on 4 July! Gosh darn I sure tried though!

My American flatmate from Georgia - he's a full on bible preaching, gun touting, Obama hatin' Republican complete with accent - moved back to the states recently. I don't care where you are from, everyone gets on well with a drank in hand. Nonetheless, the flat is now a quieter place now that we're down one.

And what's a better way to celebrate going back to the States than an impromptu rock-climb session! Nothing like being sore the next day for your 18 hours in airport world.  

Curt, Kane and their Missuses.

I wouldn't trust the two of 'em a bit

Competition: Guy love. 

Don't worry y'all, even though we did celebrate with a night downtown I did manage to get Kane back home for his flight. No leaving him in the train station overnight this time! Have a blast Kane and hope all goes well for ya!

Queue time.

Going back to that rock climbing, what kind of cheats do we have?!

Sneaky cheat.

Hah, that's redonk.

Superhero man.

Anyway, coming back to me (after all, this is all suppose to be about me), I have some news:

Westpac, my current employer here in New Zealand, has offered me a permanent role within their Insurance and Investments team as a customer service representative. Fun? Not as much as you think. But, I'm learning all the trickery of investing and insurance buying. This does also mean I'm applying for a 2 year work visa and then, from there, a possible resident visa. Scary. Thank you Minnesota State for reminding me of that great times in college - it's quite fun paying off.

I'm like magic :-)

I piad 6 New Zealand dollars for a can of Pringles. I'm going to go enjoy those now.

Getting On With It

Since I receive more e-mails, comments, txts and messages related to this thing I decided to give this Kiwi Doings blog some TLC. Here we go...

What's new? Work, work more, drink hard, repeat. That's nice.

So really, I needed a holiday from my working holiday.  I hiked it up north to Whangarei, Northland the modern way - via car and motorway (and gladly paid the $2.20 toll).

Up north NZ and up north MN are eerily similar. Breathing in the crisp winter air while enjoying the view of the ocean is comparable to going to Duluth. We were in the midst of school holiday's as well so the place was riddled by tourists. Those gosh darn bloody tourists I tell ya what!

Being a tourist in Waipu, NZ :D

On a caffeinated note, I had the best cappuccino in my entire 23 years of existence! Bob makes a splendid one that will surely make you wet your pants in multiple ways. Plus I had to try the Bubble & Squeak - Traditional Potato Mash, Cabbage, Onion, Bacon, Poached Egg and Hollandaise Sauce for 14 NZD. Orgasmic (I should seriously become a food critic as my talent for describing food is above par from most). A cultural note, if Kiwi's have a favorite sauce it has got to be hollandaise - it comes in practically every dish.

Had the opportunity to photograph the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand (below). Only had to climb down 98 steps to get to the bottom (this was also where I parked a car for the first time in the Southern hemisphere!).  It was gorgeous, green and reminded me of Disney. 

Above Whangarei Falls

Whangarei Falls

Additionally, spent too much time at the clock museum attempting to tell time. Archibald Clapham amassed a collection of over 400 clocks (take a 360 tour online). So much arithmetic was involved in time calculation back when my parents were kids - there wasn't an outlet in the place to plug in my clock! I thought Mrs. Randall was mean making us learn time via an analog clock. Thank-you Bill and Steve for making my brain go to mush.

Counting balls (it's a French thing). I believe this is how parents learned time.

It's much more peaceful collecting plates, stamps or coins.

I found a piece of Sodor Island (remember Thomas?!). Unfortunately Thomas and friends came down with Whopping cough (it's a bad one this winter) and thus we were unable to visit 'em. Nonetheless I touched where they all chug along when they're busy working.

Okay, I'm not sure where the pic I'm in went to...

Sodor Island is going through recession as well.

I honestly forget which museum I saw the below images (it was in Whangarei, so probably the Whangarei Museum I'll assume). But, the pics are of a Kiwi bird too shy to come out so I did a sneaky and took a picture of the cameras they installed. The chest of drawers below actually were on the bottom of the ocean around 1850 when the ship sank whilst coming/ going from NZ.

My goodness that's a pale bum.

My God, I'd buy it. 

 Oddly enough, I noticed the fire directions in the hotel. Westpac is currently updating Health and Safety and I received a massive PDF on what to do during a fire (apparently common sense of leave the building is too difficult to grasp, so let's bury it in 142 pages). The hotel has the same idea since leave the building is #5 on the fire to-do list.

I have now returned to my downtown corporate job. Sitting at my desk Monday thru Friday from 9.30 to 5.30. Routine. But don't worry, I'm getting ready for the new Batman movie to arrive and looking forward to doing a bungy off the Auckland Harbour Bridge!

I had me Weet-Bix for breakfast!

This is a Drive By

I drove. On the left. I will be the first to say I have never, ever given so much concentration to driving before in me life. My hands were at 10 and 2 and I never took my eyes off the road - not even to change music or scratch that bloody itch!  Only two mishaps and zero accidents!

Kiwi Road Rules, both written and unwritten include:

• Flipping a U-turn whenever and wherever they need to turn around. It's acceptable and terrifies me every single time. 
• The terrain is mountainous and there is skill involved in taking those corners and regular speed.
• Give way rules changed when I arrived. Don't worry, I practiced online (which only confused me more). 
• The two rules I read on a pamphlet for North American travelers included
• Only make a turn at an intersection on a green light (absolutely no turns on red folks)
• KEEP LEFT (that's verbatim of how AA* wrote it) 

 [*AA means Automobile Association as well as Alcoholics Anonymous]

I was sweating nervous.

There's  no yellow center line. White & Yellow and totally confusing!

Once I became accustomed to staying on the left when completing turns (thank you medians!), adjusting my peripheral vision  (there was a lot of car to look after on my left) and not turning my wipers on when attempting to signal my turn driving was easy as!

I can now officially parallel park in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Tick that off the accomplishment's list!

Oh, and look what I found! COWS!