Getting Colder Here

The weather is getting colder here as winter is officially in full swing. It has been for a while but like everything else on the island it can be rather unpredictable, even more so than anything I've ever experienced in Alabama. I managed to pick up a lot more wool clothing to deal with the shift and also I find myself simply acclimating to the weather which is nice. The wind here has been horrific, literally knocking me off my feet with rain and wind on my walks to work.


I still don't have my scooter fixed yet as Chris has been sick for a few weeks and so I'm waiting on him. No scooter means a 20 min walk to work in said wind which is not amazing but not a huge issue. It's good exercise in any case. Also without a scooter it means I can't go to kung fu class since it is now too far to walk. 


Monday night has become Catan night at my new flat which is my favorite game that the parents got for me a couple of Christmases ago. More about that later but now I have to sleep. Good night all!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

I want to be a contender too!!

Cinco de Mayo

Oh Mexican food how I miss thee... Normally I would be out with friends on this occasions enjoying you and margaritas listing to a mariachi band! Not so much in New Zealand...

Today is Cinco de Mayo ( 5th of May) which  is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín.  It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance in Mexico itself, the date is observed nationwide mostly in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.

Jess's Birthday

Jess's Birthday was yesterday along with Intergalactic star wars appreciation day on May the Fourth! (may the fourth be with you). We gave her a card with her engagement gifts which consisted of some money toward the wedding and some Reel Time vouchers (Todd's movie rental store). We made her a chocolate cake with cream cheese icing, or rather Rachel did. I just decorated.
Happy Birthday Jess!

This is Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas - that movie you never wanted me to watch mom!

Food and the like

My food quest in Wellington:

In my attempt to find mexican food I went to Arizona restaurant

eh. they were ok.

this was amazing!

this wooden indian was just chillin at the mic

and then I went to the farmers market to get veggies and snacks

where I fond the perfect homemade mexican food <3

Road Trip to Wellington , New Zealand

Most Pimped out Burger King ever! I believe it's in an old bank building

phone booth

Rail way station:

According to Wikipedia : When completed in 1937 the station was New Zealand’s largest building, partly because it was designed to accommodate 675 head office and district office staff.^[2] The land upon which it is built is reclaimed, and it was the first major New Zealand structure to incorporate a significant measure of earthquake resistance. It was constructed by Fletcher Building as one of its first major construction projects. It was designed by New Zealander W. Gray Young, famous for his neo-Georgian styles.

When it opened in 1937, Wellington's two former stations closed, removing the inconvenience of separate stations for the two routes out of Wellington: Lambton (on 19 June), built by New Zealand Government Railways to serve the Wairarapa line; and Thorndon (on 8 June), built by theWellington and Manawatu Railway Company to serve what became the North Island Main Trunkvia Johnsonville.

It has a steel frame encased in reinforced concrete and supported on groups of reinforced concrete piles. Bricks used for the outer cladding are of a special design, with slots to accommodate vertical rods reinforcing the brickwork and binding it to the structural members. It required 1.75 million bricks, plus 1500 tonnes of decorative granite and marble. The station is registered as a Category I Historic Place.^[3]

The station was used in a 2009 TV advert in the United Kingdom for a train ticketing company,TheTrainLine, where a large flock of sheep use the station facilities.^[4]

Parliament

  

Parliament-beehive

Wikipedia: The Parliament was established by the British New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 which established abicameral legislature. This produced a parliament very similar to Britain's, with a lower house, called the General Assembly, and an upper house, called the Legislative Council. The members of the General Assembly were elected under the First Past the Post system, but the members of the Council were appointed. For the most part, the Council rubber-stamped legislation the lower house wished to pass, very rarely playing any notable part in the policy process.

Due to this ineffectiveness, the National government of 1951 abolished the Legislative Council, making New Zealand legislature unicameral. Parliament received full control over all New Zealand affairs in 1947 with the passage of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act, and the ability to amend its composition with the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947 (UK). In 1986 a new Constitution Act was passed, restating the 1852 Act's provisions and consolidating the legislation establishing Parliament.

Wellington cenotaph

Wellington cenotaph

It reads: These laid the world away poured out the red sweet wine of youth. Gave up the years to be of work and joy and that unhoped serene that men call age and those who would have been their sons they gave their immortality

Supreme Court of New Zealand. This building was opened on the 18th of Jan 2010 by His Royal Highness Prince William K.G. on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Queen of New Zealand

Back Home

For those of you who don't know, I am from Alabama, USA which was devastated by a tornado this past week. Luckily for me and my family no one I know was killed or seriously injured although there was some property damage. I'll take that with a smile over loss of life any day. I know not everyone was so lucky.

Funnel Cloud
Tuscaloosa, AL

Tuscaloosa, AL

Birmingham, Al

Tuscaloosa, AL

Tuscaloosa, AL

Tuscaloosa, AL

What's Going on

A hot cross bun!

Things got crazy here at work in the past week with everyones deadline coming up at once. We were closed Good Friday and Easter Monday so two short weeks in a row at such a tight time only made it worse. I had to spend my days off recovering from 12 hour days. It's almost 9pm now and I only just got home! Ah! But today is the last day of all that shenanigans so the next few days no matter how crazy will seem so placid compared to the last week.

Even with all the crazy my workmates are a blast. We ended up doing an ABBA sing-a-long tonight after hours  which was horribly awful and tons of fun. Cinco de Mayo is coming up and now that I have a key to the office I think I'm gonna decorate it on the 4th and make enchiladas for everyone, just to make it fun. Another girl's birthday is coming up soon also and she loves Alice in Wonderland so we are collecting miss-matched tea sets for her un-birthday party which will be fun too. 

Todd's Mac Mini Carrot Cake

We recently had Todd's birthday party which was also a blast. Every morning Todd gets everyone's coffee from Cafe Cuba and then comes into work around 9. I'm pretty sure most days he also gets lunch and dinner there too. Since they know him by name I called them early to let the workers know it was his birthday. They sang him songs and gave him lots of free food which was good. When he asked who tipped them off one of the girls replied "I don't know but she had an American accent". Well, he got a kick out of that too. Rachel and I made him a carrot cake from scratch icing and all in the shape of a mac mini for noms. It was amazingly delicious if I do say so myself.

Since I had a four day weekend I had hoped to take a bus down to Wellington and do some major clothes shopping, hit up every Mexican restaurant (I made a list) and Te Papa (the national museum) but it didn't happen. Apparently all the stores were closed as well as my workplace so I rescheduled my bus and hotel for this weekend. Less time but more accomplished. I was/am in desperate need of winter clothing. The cotton gear from the US is not built for this weather and I am sick of freezing to death at my desk. Still need to build up the wardrobe to stay warm here but it's coming along. I'm still used to that good 'ole Alabama weather. Even tho it's not much colder than what it gets in AL and it's not as damp it's still somehow COLDER here that there. I think it's because of the wind and the fact that it's arctic air directly from Antarctica. Remember, there is nothing between here and there for us.

Ah well , will upload pics of what I did get later. Hugs to all!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to one and all! This Easter was spent relaxing, reflecting, and remembering. I remember running around the house on Easter morning looking for my hidden basket. It was always in a new spot either in the cabinets, dryer, shower or behind the curtains ( that one took forever!!) and was of course a blast to find. New Dresses for church and uncomfortable shoes always to follow.

I also remember stuffing hundreds of Easter eggs for the great easter egg hunt behind my house. How chocolate melts and jelly beans are best. I don't remember ever getting the prize egg. I remember Jessie and Lee William but not me. Good times and memories. 

What I've been up to

This past week at work has been crazy with getting a magazine completed to go to print. Our client decided to go to print on Easter weekend which was a actually a big issue since everyone in town including us and the printer is closed for good friday and Easter monday which is also ANZAC day here as well. ANZAC Day is is observed in New Zealand as a day of commemoration for those who died in the service of their country and to honour returned servicemen and women. Below is an example of some of the process, there are 74 pages here, all of which I worked on and some designed myself. Most of them Todd helped me on but I really needed a four day holiday. My brain is fried.

Holy Cow what is it?!

Walked into work this morning very early and after turning on the lights decided to go into the kitchen and warm up my breakfast before starting the day. That is where i found this huge bugger that was about 1.5" tall and 2" long crawling his way across the carpet. I promptly screamed "WHAT IS IT?!" and ran into the other room, turning running back into the kitchen and grabbed a glass to trap it. When Jess came in about 10 min later I had completely forgotten about it but I could hear her laughing from the kitchen. She informed me that it is a Weta bug and actually quite a small one. Apparently (according to wikipedia) there is some sort of Giant Weta and 'people' like them as 'pets'. Crazies. ;)

We put the weta outside and Jess took this pic (where he looks much less scary) for a job where she needed a pic of a weta. It worked out great for her!

Giant Weta - Note: I pulled this off the web for an example. Mine was not this big nor have I seen one this big

Anyhow, we put it outside and within 5 min it had already worked it's way back under our door but became sluggish. We prodded it a bit and thought it dead after squishing itself but I put a glass on it to be sure. 5 min later the thing was trying to escape again so we took it back outside for more picks before leaving it in the rose bushes. We named him Jesús

Random things in Palmerston North

You don't get plastic bottles, you get glass

Humongus Leggo Man!

Random teams running about

Peter Anders is a parking lot whore

Don't let the neighbours kill your kids!

i have to walk under this creepy thing 6 nights a week

chillin with my gnomies

New printer at work

Today's big news included a big printer that is 3x's the size of the old one. Here is "goliath" and my boss Todd.

Goliath

Todd messed with the wrong printer

Best of New Zealand

The Best of New Zealand according to Yahoo! News:

Kiwi Experience polled the 'best of' in New Zealand for hot spots and hidden gems. This is what they discovered - do you agree?

Where in New Zealand is the best place to:

Buy a pie?
Steak & cheese from The Stove Oven Bakery in Devonport 

Chicken curry pie from Better Quality Pies in Rotorua

Have a beer?

Lake Wanaka waterfront in the afternoon sunshine

Bungy jump?

Nevis canyon in Queenstown

Go skinny dipping

Lake Mahinapua (where? The west coast, 10 kms south of Hokitika)

Try your luck at fishing?

Catch some snapper in the Bay of Islands

See some buskers?

World Buskers Festival in Christchurch

Make a new friend?

On the bus!

Spend some hard earned cash?

Queenstown nightlife

Skateboard?

Wellington Waterfront

Meet some locals?

Waitomo

Have a dance?

World Bar in Queenstown

Climb a mountain?

Mt Tongariro in the Central Plateau

Get up close to New Zealand wildlife?

Baby seals at Ohau stream north of Kaikoura

Sample the local cuisine?

Hangi at Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua

Experience a taste of Maori culture?

Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua

Have a picnic in the park?

Abel Tasman National Park

Sunbathe?

Cathedral Cove in the Coromandel

Watch some live music?

Monsoon Bar in Franz Josef

Witness a New Zealand sunset?

Lake Taupo

Eat fish and chips?

Kaikoura

Go for a surf?

Punakaiki- just you and a pod of dolphins