All Settled In

For those of you who have not already heard, I landed safely in Auckland on Friday morning, May 4, at 5:20am, ahead of schedule.  That seemed to be the trend with all my flights on the trip over, fortunately.  Jacques had arrived at the airport for 5am so he was eagerly waiting when I came through through customs!  In fact, I think I managed to get more sleep than he did the previous night.  I had an entire row of 3 seats to myself on the plane, including the extra blankets and pillows.  I was either laying down or sleeping for about 8 hours of the 12 hour flight.  I also watched We Bought a Zoo and the Vow to keep me busy.  In LAX, I met a Swiss girl traveling to Hastings, NZ to work as an au pair for the first time.  I saw a girl by herself with a backpack and thought that looked familiar so I asked her where she was headed.  We went through security together and sat and chatted until I had to board the plane.  She ended up being on the flight that departed 45 minutes after mine.  When I headed over to my gate to see what seat numbers they called, I asked a girl who looked like she was wondering the same thing, and so we chatted and got in line together.  She was headed back to NZ for only a month to see her boyfriend down in Christchurch where they had been working on the their PhD's.  Then June 1st, she's off to Woods Hole on the Cape to complete her studies for her Marine Biology degree.  Crazy enough, she was in the seat across the isle from me, so I chose a good person to befriend before getting on the plane.  At least we both had someone to talk to when we were awake.

Friday morning, the I got to see the beautiful sunrise over the city as we drove home from the airport.  Luckily, Jacques' new job (where he had only worked 4 days) knew I was arriving and allowed him to come in late to work and even leave early!  So we had a little bit of time to relax before I had to get reacquainted with driving on the left side of the road to drop him at the bus.  Either from excitement of being back or have a decent sleep on the plane, I felt energized and like it was any other normal day.  I completely unpacked and moved in and then headed down to Devonport to see Jess and Ariel before the school pick-up.  I had a nice vegan green smoothie (with kale) call "Shrek".  Apparently there is only one supermarket in the country where you can buy kale, and fortunately it is on the North Shore (close-by).  The downside is that they don't always carry it!  Perhaps I need some seeds to grow my own!

On my way back north, I stopped in at the Clinton household to see the kids.  They were surprised, however Tessa has apparently been talking about me all day, knowing I was arriving in the country that day.  Then she played shy when she saw me! Had to hold Julia's hand and hide behind her.  It was pretty cute actually, but only lasted about 10 minutes until she was pulling on my hand to go play in her room.  Libby was her usual energetic self jumping all over me and running in and out of the room trying to make loud noises and surprise us.  Reuben took a minute from his play date and lego building to give me a hug.

As my phone was not working yet, I borrowed a phone to call Jacques and see if he wanted to be picked up from the bus.  Turns out he had gotten out of work early and was locked out of the house because I had his keys and no one was home so was waiting at the mall for someone to come home.  One thing I certainly did not miss is rush-hour traffic on the motorway.  It took much longer than usual to get up to the mall.  We got a few things including replacement hangers because I had raided the house of all spare ones I could find.  We ate dinner and had a quiet evening, watching the American Idol I had missed on Wed night on the plane.

Saturday, I woke up a bit earlier than I would have liked, but we got our errands done before Jacques had to be at CrossFit at noon.  Later we had a "bring a plate" dinner at Matt's so I could see Matt, Sam, Nick and Marc.  By the end of Saturday night, I really felt like I could have only been gone 8 days and not 8 months.  Everything is so familiar, it's almost like I'd never left.

Sunday, I got to see the views from Jacques' new office building! 37th floor of the 2nd tallest building in Auckland (next to the sky tower).  It was another nice sunny day so the views were very pretty.  Then we printed out all the documents we needed to prove our partnership so that I can submit my application for my work visa this week.  We also went grocery shopping to make sure I had some vegan food to eat in this household full of meat and egg eaters.  We discovered there is a MUCH smaller selection of all things but especially almond milk or rice milk.  Both are very expensive and also very sweet! I'm still looking for unsweetened versions!  So vegan eating will be a bit more difficult here, but I'm managing so far.

This morning I drove Jacques to the bus for 5:30am so he could catch it to the airport for his flight to Gisborne, where he will be until Thursday night for work.  Really not the best timing, but he had to learn the ropes down there and being only his 2nd week of work there really wasn't any way around it. At least he shouldn't have to go back for awhile.

My stuff....did a bit better with the packing this time

Obie trying to protest my leaving

My row on the plane :)

Nice sunny day to welcome me back :) View from the bedroom

Overall, I am very happy to be back.  I can't wait to catch up with other friends I still need to see in the next few weeks!  I also can't wait to see Tessa dancing at toddler toes tomorrow.  She and her friend Katerina are so adorable together!

NZ-Bound Once Again

Just 1 day 12 hours and 15 minutes to go until I am on my way back to Auckland!

We had a lovely departure picnic yesterday where I got to say goodbye to lots of family and friends, featuring many vegan dishes.  For those of you who did not know, Mom, Dad and I have been eating vegan since March and loving it, so planning on keeping it up in New Zealand!  

Since being home for about 8 1/2 months, I have:

• Taken Anatomy and Physiology I & II w/Lab online
• Taken Abnormal Psych online
• Worked as a substitute paraprofessional at Wildwood elementary school (from October to when Jacques arrived in December)
• Worked as a wrapper on the weekends at Yankee Candle from October-Dec
• Started working as a PCA and spending some awesome days with Damien Oct-April
• Traveled down the east coast and back up via Nashville with Jacques, showing him as much of the USA as possible in his 2 month visit.  
• Played indoor soccer and won the championship :)
• Became a dog-sitter

The next part of the plan...I am on the wait-list at Springfield College of the entry-level Master's of Occupational Therapy.  Chances are, I will end up studying to become and Occupational Therapist in NZ.  The next possible start-date for the program is in February.  Other options...nanny for awhile, hope to get a job in the Rehab and Occupational Studies department at AUT as a research assistant, APPLY for my work visa.  Fortunately, in NZ, because Jacques and I have been together over a year, and I will be living with him upon arrival, we qualify so that I can apply for a 2 year work permit as his partner, having the visa granted within 25 days.  However, there were a lot of things I needed to take care of before hand!  I had to get a chest x-ray, physical and blood work to prove I'm healthy, fill out an extensive application form, get police clearance, prove Jacques and I are not related, and also provide extensive proof of our relationship.  So that has been a project all in itself!  But it is just about complete! The only thing left to do is apply once I arrive....and cross our fingers that it's granted!

So let the next journey begin!! Although everyone at home will be greatly missed, I am excited to see what else New Zealand has to offer.  Since I had such an enjoyable first experience, I can't wait to see what the next one brings!

Rest assured that you can keep up with my on-goings as I live with the Kiwis once again.  

Journey and Arrival Home

I departed Auckland on Thursday afternoon, Sept 15th, exactly one year after I had arrived.  My visa was expiring on Friday.  I flew on Air Tahiti from Auckland to Tahiti (where I arrived at about 9pm Wednesday night, confusing even for the airline employee who checked me in).  I was greeted by the tropical guitar player and hula-like dancers before going back through security and waiting in the half indoor/outdoor lounge before boarding the plan again to fly to LAX.  I arrived in LA Wednesday morning at about 10am...a day and a couple of hours before I even left Auckland (technically).  There I had to collect my bags, go through customs and luckily only walk up the sidewalk a slight distance to check back in with American Airlines.  With my cart full of my 4 huge bags, I nearly rolled back down the slight incline I was trying to go up.  And it was HOT in LA....people were looking at me like I was crazy for wearing Ugg boots!

I had plenty of time once I checked in, so I got some chips and dip for the flight to Dallas.  When going to pay, I had to think twice about the price, forgetting that I had to add in the tax to what I was expected to pay.  Soon I was on my way to Dallas, where I had another short layover before continuing on to Hartford.  There I decided to have another snack, cinnamon sugar Auntie Annie's pretzel will vanilla icing. It was delicious!  Already, I was exciting about all the yummy food I'd get to eat when I got home.  Feeling pretty tired at this point, standing up to board the plane I thought I saw someone I recognized, but thought maybe I was just imaging the similarity... just to be sure I walked around the line to get a better look and sure enough, I had been in the country less than 12 hours and I was about to get on the same plane home as Rose, a girl I swim with in high school!  Even crazier...she was in the seat directly behind mine!  So I had someone to have a little chat with, though we would have needed way more than a plane ride to REALLY catch up since it have been about 6 years since we'd last seen each other!

Finally, I arrived in Hartford just after midnight.  In the car waiting for me was another snack, a chocolate cream-filled donut from Atkins! Yum Yum!  We got home just after 1am where I proceeded to unpack all my things searching for things to show my parents.  I was up until after 4am and then slept until about 2pm Friday.  I didn't jump right back in to settling in to the time difference.

Friday night, Dani came and tried the new Mexican restaurant at the end of our street with use.  It was PACKED so we ended up bringing it back to my house, but it was pretty delicious!

Saturday, we headed for Fenway Park with Greg and met Auntie Diane and Uncle Jim to watch the Red Sox.  A nice little homecoming outing (apart from the fact that they lost and continued to lose the rest of the month....).  It was a successful day in all though, since I had Chipotle, which I had been missing for quite some time!

The next week we spent at Cape Cod visiting with Jack and Sandra before they drove back to Florida.  Although, I spent the majority of the time catching up on my Anatomy and Physiology w/lab course online.  I had 3 weeks of material to learn for the exam that weekend.

Now, I am all caught up on sleep, studying, eating, laundry, organizing and starting an Abnormal Psych course as well.  Soon I'll probably start applying to Occupational Therapy Master's programs and continue searching for some money-making opportunities so I can save up for when Jacques arrives Dec 22nd!

Tahiti Welcome Crew

FIJI

From Sept 3rd-Sept 12th, Jacques and I were in Fiji! It was a nice tropical holiday, and my little dose of "summer" before heading home for my second winter in a row.  We flew into Nadi and spent one night at a place on the beach near the airport there.  Our taxi driver that dropped us off, offered to pick us up in the morning and drive us down to the Coral Coast to the Hideaway Resort, where we'd spend our next 5 nights.  It was much prettier on the Coral Coast than where we stayed in Nadi, but there was NOTHING around, they obviously tried to keep you in the resort!  I was slightly disappointed that you could only go in the sea when the tide was high, since there was so much coral, the break was miles offshore and there was maybe a foot of water at low tide.  But when It was high, there was great snorkeling and kayaking.  We saw some Nemo fish right at the resort.

Breakfasts were AMAZING! Buffett of anything you could ever want at breakfast time and a guy making  any kind of egg you asked for, showing off his cooking talents.  We often walked down the road to this little "restaurant" I guess you could call it, where we made friends with some locals and got advice about the local bus (since it was SO cheap) and at out of the resort sometimes since it was much cheaper.  We asked at the resort how much a taxi would be to the closest town, Sikatoka...they told us $50 return.  So we just stood out front of the resort with some of the locals that worked there and waiting for the next local bus.  It was $1.90 each to get there and a slightly fancier bus was about $2.00 each back!  And either the buses were frequent or we just hit the schedule perfectly without knowing it!  Each time we wandered out front of the resort to catch a bus, one appeared in less than 5 minutes!  We even caught one to another resort up the road for dinner one night and then found out that they had stopped running.  The security people at the Warwick (the resort we ate at) told us to stand and flag down one of the shuttle vans and they would take us back to Hideaway.  But being dark, you pretty much have to try and flag down every car that comes by.  Lots just kept driving, but the first one to stop was not a van, but a man in his pickup.  Turns out his job was basically to drive this girl back and forth from Nadi to Suva all the time and he was just on his way to back from a trip so he gave us a ride for $5.  A couple days later, we saw the same man making a pit stop in Pacific Harbor (about 1.5 hrs down the coast from where he'd picked us up)!

Our last day at Hideaway, we did horse trek along the beach, through a village and into the forrest up to a pretty waterfall.  It was really pretty scenery and nice to see something away from the beach.  Then we caught the bus along the coast, headed toward Suva, to Pacific Harbor, where we'd spend out final 3 nights in the Treehouse dormitory of the Uprising Resort.  It was nice to be a little closer to a town (not quite as big or touristy as Sigatoka and walking distance from the Resort).  We had many more eating options with much cheaper prices.  And we found a place showing the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony (in Auckland) on a huge screen.  They had even just brought in a solid hardwood table to complete their furniture earlier that day.  We watched about 20 people unload this table weighing 1.5 metric ton.  It was quite a process!  It was nice that Fijians were so into their Rugby so we didn't feel too far away from the action, but we felt a little silly seeing it on TV when we could have easily been there in person!

Our second to last day in Fiji we took a jet-ski safari tour out to Yanuca Island in Beqa Lagoon.  The ride out was a lot of fun, plus we had a lot of extra play-time on the jet-skis while we waiting for them to  find one with a good battery for the guide to ride.  I drove on the way out and since we were the closest to the guide (in our formation) he kept trying to spray us by swerving, so I decided I'd try to get him back...only I sort of forgot how how such a sharp turn could affect a passenger on the back...oops! Luckily, Jacques had a good grip and avoided being thrown off.  He said it was close though!  At Yanuca Island, we had lunch and there was AMAZING snorkeling.  We saw many more kinds of fish of all different shapes, sizes and colors.  The water was easily 20-25 deep in places but crystal clear right to the bottom.  Driving back on the jet-ski, Jacques was a much nicer driver to me than I was to him, fortunately, I didn't need to worry too much about getting thrown off :)

Monday, we got a taxi from the Uprising back up to Nadi and actually right to Denarau Resort Island to check out all the high class resorts, restaurants and shopping before heading to the airport.  We ended up paying half of what we did to get to Hideaway (which was only about a 90 min trip) and this was closer to a 3 hour trip!  Crazy how prices differ so much.  Local transportation was the best way to go!  Getting from Denarau to the airport, a Taxi wanted to charge us $30 for the 10 min trip....we had only just paid about $40 for our 3 hour one, so we waited for the bus to come around, where we'd take it to the station in Nadi and switch to one going past the airport.  The bus we rode to the airport was mostly full of school children on their way home.  It stopped outside and we walked from the road into the airport, I can't say that I'd even walked up to the airport before!  But it was easy and worth it since it only cost us about $5 to get there versus $30 by taxi!  In general, Fiji was beautiful and nice and warm! Although, we only saw a bit of the southern coast of the main island.  I would love to go touring all the little island groups just north of that island, I'm sure it would be a whole different experience!

Coral Coast, Hideaway Resort

There goes a nemo fish!

Happy hour torch lighting ceremony

The Wicked Walu restaurant

Moving the huge table!

Table finally in place

Pacific Harbor, Uprising Resort

Hold on tight!

most of the shells on the beach walked

Staring competition with Nemo

our final local bus to the airport

Playing Catch Up...

So, as you all probably already know, or may have figured out by now, I am back home :(  I can't believe my year-long, exciting adventure is over! Anyway, there are few other exciting things I did before I left that I haven't yet discussed yet...

First of all, I took a solo ski trip (since Thursday and Friday 25th and 26th of August were going to be such good weather, and no one could come with me)!  I left Auckland around 4:30am Thursday morning and arrived at Turoa, at the base to get my ski's 4 hours later.  I was delighted to find out that my car actually made it up the mountain road!  However, I ended up leaving my lights on...since it had become light out, and they don't beep at me...so my battery was completely dead by the time I went to drive back down to Station Lodge.  Fortunately, they had someone come and jump it and it was fine from then on.  I guess that happens to lots of people, just because their cars aren't used to the cold weather!

It was absolutely gorgeous weather and a great day of skiing.  Friday, I drove around the mountain because I wanted to try out the Whakapapa side before leaving NZ.  That turned out to be another beautiful day full of really nice ski runs.  But the trails weren't quite as connected as they were at Turoa, and I found out the hard way, that if you want to stay up on the nice snow you stick to the T-Bars and avoid going back down to any of the chairlifts where all the kids and traffic and slushy snow are.  Here are a few photos from my 2 days....

Turoa

Whakapapa