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!

9 Weeks On...

...hold up, it's only been 9 freakin' weeks?! Holy hot tamale Batman, I've done heaps already!

My travels have thus far included:

Again, I plead the Fifth

• Auckland
• Largest Polynesian city ever at 1.5M people 
• Rotorua
• Where I did the bloody Zorb last time round. My US mates can pop over to Tennessee and do this themselves!  
• Gisborne
• Failed attempt to first see the sunrise (it rained - no, it poured!)
• Napier
• Art Deco architecture galore 
• Wellington
• NZ capitol city - looked, tasted and felt like a capitol
• Taupo
• I plead the Fifth on this :)
• Hamilton
• Outdoor gardens with a terrible representation of a Californian backyard 

For you picture folks, that's most of the North Island! 


On 7 May I commenced working at Westpac NZ. At this fine Australian/ NZ bank I perform investment health checks for current Westpac customers. Let's say I'm now fully versed in New Zealand financial law, investment products and retirement planning. Why? No particular reason (under NZ law, I can have me bumbum booted if I even whisper something remotely perceived to giving financial advice).

This is where I work!

Former Tongan Embassy

For a solid two weeks I resided in the former Queen of Tonga's embassy located in Parnell, Auckland NZ. It was a very historic, holistic delicious villa located just outside the city center. Here I was really able to get my hippie on!


Bought myself heaps of hokey pokey (honeycomb toffee) vanilla ice cream. Almost, literally had to padlock the freezer because it is that orgasmic-ally delicious!

Toured the Viaduct Harbour night scene. Was kicked out of me first club by the bouncer who was at the minimum 3 times my size (I wasn't gonna argue with him). Woke up the next morning with stamps up and down both arms - because I'm very classy like that :)

Lastly, I have moved in to a flat in Glen Innes, Auckland! The community residents are not of the highest socio-economic status BUT it is not nearly as bad as other Auckland neighbourhoods. I get to see fairly frequent protests because heaps of state housing is being torn down and thus residents are in a forced move. Yes, one night I was almost jumped on my walk home from the bus stop so I remain vigilant and aware of my surroundings now and do not venture out alone at night; And this is a massive eye-opening living experience. (I will very well be moving in August once my current contract with Westpac expires.)

However, my flatmates are very cool. One young Kiwi, another older Kiwi, an American from Georgia and our islander landlord all reside in this humble abode. Yes, I found a place with an HRV system to remove the infamous humidity and dampness NZ is known for - so it's almost like being at home (minus the non-insulated walls). You betchya 45F feels pretty chilly by dawn.

I hope this update satisfies all y'alls cravings of me :P I miss every one of your faces tonnes and lerve each of you heaps!!

Cheers fer now,
:D

"I STARTED WITH NOTHING. I HAVE MOST OF IT LEFT"

PS I'll let ya in here on my very deep mind (I'm in the great category haha) :P

Great minds discuss ideas;

Average minds discuss events;

Small minds discuss people.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Lest We Forget

 

"IN REFLECTION WE FIND 

A SENSE OF HISTORY, 

A SENSE OF PLACE, 

A SENSE OF WHO WE ARE..."

 

25 April is ANZAC Day to commemorate the Australian New Zealand Army Corp's landing on Gallipoli Peninsula in the first World War. 8,500 NZ troops landed, 4,800 were wounded and 2,700 bravely perished. Australian forces did not fare any better.  From that, ANZAC Day was born (so to my American audience, our equivalent is Memorial Day).

Guard them flags Flag Cadets

There are no gaudy New Zealand flags being handed out, or those ridiculous people dressed in flag colours with their faces painted, or groups shouting patriotic slogans. This was a value-oriented ceremony that largely promoted peace. Throughout the speeches, there was never a mention of "protection" or "freedom" or 'it's our God given right to spread our ways to the world' mentality. Instead speakers focused on remembrance, unity and general peace - and the folks only used the phrase "current conflicts" when referring to America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Attending this ceremony was the first time I kept my head down close to my shoulders and certainly did not tell anyone I'm from the States. I honestly started questioning the media, political and general patriotic American sub-cultures in wondering what the hell is their agenda? Sounds like a bunch of treason?



 Left: Wreaths laid in remembrance

Right: "From The People of the United States of America to the People of New Zealand in Commemoration of ANZAC Day 2012"












Still a moving and eye-opening experience to witness. Other factoids picked up:

• there is a special Maori unit for only Maori folk 
• Sun glasses are also referred to as "sunnies"
• New Zealand has 2 national anthems - the first half of one is sung in Maori (and half the crowd at this particular ceremony were easily able to sing along)
• The red poppy is used as the flower of remembrance 

Now be off and enjoy your 25 April America!

Cheers,
:D

P.S. If anyone is counting, I've been here a solid month and have observed 4 public holiday's thus far. And I know Queen's Birthday is just 'round the corner! :-D

You know you're an honorary Kiwi when....

• You love your Watties sauce (still a hardcore Ranch fan here!)
• "Sweet As" is not just a phrase, but a state of mind
• You walk barefoot through the middle of town (No shoes, No shirt and I still get service!)
• You address other people as "youse fullas"
• You support any team playing against Australia
• Meat Pies are an essential part of your diet (even better tasting at 4am)
• You've met someone on Shortland Street 
• "Yeah, nah" is an answer to any question
• You've thrown plastic beer bottles at a rugby game (now added to me bucket list)
• Marmite is a delicacy on white bread (No. Vegemite may be though)
• You finish every sentence with "aye" (not "eh", mates)
• You spread Marmite on your toast in the morning (and then promptly spit it out)
• You don't think Salmonella Dub is a type of food poisoning
• You pay for things using your EFTPOS card (You still have to PIN for that McDouble)
• You think Jandals will match anything you are wearing

  

  Toilets do not flush counter-clockwise here. They gush.