our new place.....finally an end to moving around

Hi everyone, sorry we haven't been in touch on the blog lately but today I was speaking to my cousin Karen via facebook, she mentioned the lack of posts and I have been spurred into action. You'll probably notice there are a few different entries today - if any have disappeared off the page then you can use the "older posts" link at the bottom to retrieve them.

Anyway, yes well the photos above are our new place in Moana Road, Highbury, Wellington - I should mention that we only have the upstairs part and the downstairs will be rented by someone else. Unfortunately we have to pay for this one but it is all ours for the next 9 months which is fantastic. It's got a great view, a balcony, two bedrooms - I can't really do it justice here so you'll just have to come and see it for yourself.

We will post more photos once we get in but for now we need to try and furnish the flippin place (it's unfurnished) which is going to be pretty funny as we will be doing it on the cheap (and on the scrounge ;o) We can move in on the 23rd of March but will be need to finish our housesit first before moving in for real.

Life is going well just now for both of us - We now know where we will be living, Katie has been busy sussing out employment prospects (in between managing to respond to adverts for houses - you have to move so quickly here to get the place you want.) and I have been busy teaching at the school. My job is certainly busier than I would like but I'm sure the pace will settle down soon - still enjoying it though although it is hugely different from secondary.

We are both still managing to get out and run regularly - it's so much more motivating to exercise here cos everyone is doing it. Both of us are definitely seeing a big improvement in our fitness which is great.

Newsflash - it's only just over three weeks before my Bro arrives here in Welly - it is going to be brilliant and i can't wait. Will be great to see the big man again and I am sure he'll enjoy it over here (it's all Hobbits and magic and stuff ;o)

After my bro leaves my Mum and Aunt Christine then arrive which will be brilliant too - we are meeting them in Christchurch and doing a wee tour of the South Island before coming up to Welly for a few nights.

Some other great news that we had over the last few weeks are that good friends of ours from back home have decided to up sticks and move to New Zealand too. Unfortunately they will be in Auckland but it will be brilliant to have them in the same country and I am sure we will make every effort to see each other as often as we can. (they shall remain nameless in case not everyone back home knows already - I'm sure they do, but just in case)

Right I'm off now to fix my bike - the brakes have decided they don't want to work anymore which is going to be a problem what with the steep hills here in Welly.

Will write more soon - and will try to remember to be more dilligent!

All the best,

SB

Cuba Street Carnival

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Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

Another big event we went to recently - the Cuba street carnival. It was great, lots of live bands, people dressed up, street markets etc. For the parade itself though it was pretty hard to see anything so most people ended up doing a bit of a spiderman and climbing up on buildings - we were with Tara (teacher from my school from England) and her boyfriend Will and decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. We ended up getting drinks passed out from a nearby pub so we were having drinks on the roof watcing the parade.

Billy Connolly

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Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

Not the best photo I will ever take but there were people lurking ready to steal cameras from anyone caught filming or photographing this show. I did feel however that I should take a photo for my Dad as he very kindly paid for our tickets and our dinner before the performance. Thanks Dad.

Winery tour

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Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

Just a quick photo from a winery concert we were at a couple of weekends ago at Alanna estate in Martinborough with our friends Shona and Steve - all the New Zealand favourites were there - Anika Moa, Opshop and the Legendary Dab Dobbyn. Never heard of them? What do you mean? ;o)

Wellington Rugby 7's

Well, we managed to get tickets for the Welly 7's finally - and even though the rest of the world is apparently oblivous to this event it is the biggest thing to hit Wellington. Everybody just gets dressed up and walks around Wellington getting hammered. It is very entertaining to walk down the street to see three blind mice, 22Sheikhs, Hulk Hogan, The Joker and 10 walking ipods all hanging out in the pub. Hilarious.

Our costumes were pretty reserved - we were working with limited time and resources so I cracked the kilt out and we both wore Scotland tops (yes, Scotland were competing)

In fact Scotland did fairly well and won the "Losers cup" aka the Bowl competition. But at least it gave us something to cheer about.

For anyone that cares about who won the big cup - well England beat New Zealand in the last seconds of the final which, it is fair to say, went down like a lead balloon.

Wearing Scotland gear certainly made us popular and we made lots of new contacts and friends who we will no doubt be bumping into again at some point over the coming months.

The street party went on until 6am and I would love to say that we stayed upi all night partying on the street but the reality is that sitting in a warm stadium drinking beer all day meant that by 12 we were both a bit knackered so we made our way home before the drunken mayhem got too out of control.

Spent most of today taking it easy and had a cracking barbecue tonight which was much needed.

Ok, won't really write much more - the photos kind of speak for themselves. Will write again soon with a more comprehensive round up of our latest news.

All the best,
Steph

Life in Wellington...

A pic of the city from the waterfront

We have been in our new but temporary home for 6 days, its really fantastic and will be a huge come down at the end of March when we have to stand on our own two feet, but it has been a great way to save money for more travels and also to get to know a city without committing to renting. We've met some great people in Wellington, Shona and her fiance Steve have really looked after us and been good friends to us for which we are really grateful :-) We feel we are settling in really well and beginning to enjoy all the city has to offer. There's a real buzz about it and there's always something on, not to mention it is a very pretty city with the harbour on one side and lots of houses built into the hills on the other. For the whole month of Jan there have been been open air music concerts on every evening in the Botanic gardens so everyone just goes down with a picnic tea and sits in the sun enjoying the music. All in all its a real outdoor lifestyle.

Workwise, Steph started last week and is enjoying it. Its more hectic than he expected, for example finding there is no real PE curriculum to work from and having to basically write it is just one of the little surprises he has unearthed. I am not actively applying for jobs at the moment and am using this period of "free living" to work on two projects (mainly the Masters but also the visitors pack for Bayview). I've also been meeting and continuing to mae contact with lots of people in the NZ sporting world i.e. junior golf, Massey Uni, NZIS and SPARC just to get my face known and maybe some work might come out of it as a result. If nothing comes up by the end of Feb I will start the job hunt!

A very strange thing happened on Tuesday, I made date scones!! Odd behaviour I know, but I think it was the excitement of being in a real home and a real kitchen that had all the ingredients. According to Steph they were the best scones he ever did taste, I think he's just saying that so that I will keep making him things...I have also been on packed lunch duty.

I don't want to get all sentimental, but Steph's mum sent a package of clothing from home and I just so happened to sniff the clothes and guess what they smelt of home! Needless to say I spent some time sitting on the couch with a t-shirt stuffed up my nose! I mentioned what I had done to Steph last night and we both laughed because he had done the exact same thing! It was really very comforting, but I didn't realise we smelt so much....why didn't anyone tell us!!??

Well, last weekend we went to the Wellingon Cup Festival, the biggest horse racing event in NZ and this weekend we are going rugbytastic at the NZ Rugby 7's, a major tournament held in Welly. Scotland are playing, and so are England, so that should be good craic and next weekend we are off to Martinborough Wine Festival to watch live bands and yes, you guessed it drink lots of wine!

That's all for now!
K xx

The new living room

The new living room
Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

Wearing that bloody Uni shirt again - almost every photo!

The new living room

The new living room
Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

The new house-sit

The new house
Originally uploaded by katieandsteph88

We are in such a nice house now it is going to be hard when we have to move - we are in a posh suburb in Welly and have a great spot.

Ok, so our house isn;t the big one unfortunately (thats the indonesian embassy) but we are in the one to the right in the shade.

It's really good and it is for two months this time. I have Sky sports, the daily newspaper delivered and it takes me 10 minutes to cycle to work. The business.

SB

Back to Rotorua...

We didn't go back, but I thought I would add some of my ramblings and photos on Rotorua now that we have a computer in our new house (which I will explain all about later :-)

We decided to head up to Lake Taupo and Rotorua on the 6th of Jan for 10 days to have a wee holiday before Steph started work. We managed to blag another free car relocation to travel in style and made our first stop at Lake Taupo (not before coming across a 19 year old biker who fell off his shiny new red xmas present on the road and broke his leg!!) We were first on the scene and tried to help until the ambulance came. Anyway, Taupo was lovely, the lake, the scenery and the acommodation, as soon as we arrived, we got the distinct impression that you just had to engage in some dangerous water activities so we went for the most dangerous we could find at the time and took a jet boat ride on the Tongariro river. It was pretty good thrashing about for 40 minutes, doing 360 turns and riding rapids but to be honest it was quite tame....



Our next water based adventure was far more exciting, we headed off the next day to Waitomo where we did some caving. We opted to do the "Haggas Honking Holes" which was the most physically challenging and consisted of abseiling, crawling and climbing down through caves, tunnels and waterfalls. Really exhausting but a great experience, very cool to see the glow worms and be 80 metres underground sloshing about in pools of water!



On to Rotorua where we were very well looked after by my friend Joanne's Auntie Eileen. We spent 4 days in Rotorua visiting all the geothermal sites, ooing and ahhing at the plopitty mud, taking in a traditional Maori concert complete with Hangi feast which was pretty cool and indulging in some spa therapy at the Polynesian Spa.



So that was Rotorua! It was a lot of fun and just what we needed before Steph started school.

K x

p.s. Sorry if I was going over old ground as I know Steph wrote a bit about it too, but I thought that adding some pics to the chat would be of interest (there are quite alot of geothermal pics i.e. bubbling bits of ground on flikr if that's of interest to you?!)