Split Apple Rock, the Abel Tasman National Park. I cruised around this in a boat on ym trip up the coast which was lovely, the birds are shags (lots of colonies of them here)
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Pot luck dinner - Patrices and Aurores leaving do. Thats Gareth at the back with the knife!!
Pim and Masonne are the knew managers replacing gareth and jessica. Today the new woofer replacing me and eva arrived shes called martina and shes from switzerland. she seems nice, hopefully she will be happy here too. I will barely get to see her to be honest as I'm out today, will be going out for a roast dinner tonight, then working Monday, out to the Lighthouse in the evening, working tuesday and then out to my psychic development group Tuesday night, then going wednesday, so thats my next few days all planned out!
am looking forward to my roast tonight, not had one in ages! Its a good deal $12.95 for a 3 course meal and its a help yoursefl so you can eat as much or as little as you want!
I have been ill for what feels like weeks now with a cold and cough so I have been craving fruit and veg alot this week so I made masses of roast veg when we had another pot luck dinner for evas birthday this week and yesterday I made fresh bread and ate a bean soup which was scrummy, so I can feel very virtuous and healthy!! It'll be weird going to Port Ligar and eating what they eat instead of cooking my own stuff.. I'll just be joining in with family life and eating what they are eating etc! but thats cool! I like trying new things and all that. they own a mussel farm so I'm guessing there will be mussels! (lucky I've got to like them then! I would never cook them for myself or choose them off a menu but I dont dislike them)
That Night out at the grumpy Mole ages ago
Am going to start wading through my photos and putting them online so am going back in the past a bit now!!
Remember that night out where I had to be princess laya and find my partner or something?! (obviously couldnt dress up as her as didnt know I was going to be her till I got there) anyway that was this night. The first photo is of me and Aurore and the second is of Eva and Aurore.
By the way sorry I havent emailed or written on my blog for a while, I havent been online in ages and have been so busy! Cant believe I leave Nelson so soon! Its Sunday today (although it will probably say Saturdayat the top - as I havent worked out how to chnage the setting for the time and day over here! not that it matters!) anyway, I leave Wednesday so I literally only have a couple of days left. I'm looking forward to going to Port ligar though.
It was my leaving do at work on Friday (even though I am still working Monday and Tuesday of this week before I go) which was lovely. They paid for my dinner and fed me alcohol (strangely have not felt like getting drunk in ages, the photo above will probably not make you think that but have been strangely off alcohol for months), thye made me a card and all the staff put lovely messagesin it, such as come back and get your residency and thatI fitted in so well and that I was great to work with and all nice thingfs like that, and they got me this really pretty neclace, so all in all it was lovely and I shall miss it so much!!
Saturday, August 19, 2006
am getting ready to leave Nelson in ten days time! (is like leaving home or something have got so used to it here!)
so am culling down my stuff again (mum and dad must have had so many packages over the last few months of stuff I want to keep but cant be arsed to carry around anymore!)
I am going to Port Ligar on the 30th:
www.portligar.co.nz
I will be staying with the shand family. I am really looking forward to it, it looks beautiful and they souns really nice! There are photos of the family on that website so you can get a good feel for where I am going! am hoping to see lots of wildlife and all that! (apparently lots of dolphins and blue penguins etc!)
This weekend is my last weekend working at the backpackers which is pretty sad, I have enjoyed it. My leaving do at the nursery is on Friday 25th. we are having fish and chips and wine after work, so that should be cool! and so sweet of them to organise for me! I shall miss Nelson!
Cat Shand is picking me up on 30th, I think its going to be a really windy road so am going to prepare myself with travel sickness pills!!
I shall miss going to the Lighthouse evry Monday. Have got into going there. Every week is on something different but gernally there are always mediums going around telling you stuff and last week was pretty interesting, there was a pyschic healer who did this channeling of light and releasing of emotions thing (I'm sure it has a special word - some sort of intergalactic healing of somesort?!) anyway, I am open to all these things however strange they sound. It felt pretty weird though, I felt floaty for days afterwards! which I'm guessing is a good thing! I would really like to do a workshop on reiki healing and learn how to do it. (according to people at lighthouse I am connecting to the spirit world as well
so am culling down my stuff again (mum and dad must have had so many packages over the last few months of stuff I want to keep but cant be arsed to carry around anymore!)
I am going to Port Ligar on the 30th:
www.portligar.co.nz
I will be staying with the shand family. I am really looking forward to it, it looks beautiful and they souns really nice! There are photos of the family on that website so you can get a good feel for where I am going! am hoping to see lots of wildlife and all that! (apparently lots of dolphins and blue penguins etc!)
This weekend is my last weekend working at the backpackers which is pretty sad, I have enjoyed it. My leaving do at the nursery is on Friday 25th. we are having fish and chips and wine after work, so that should be cool! and so sweet of them to organise for me! I shall miss Nelson!
Cat Shand is picking me up on 30th, I think its going to be a really windy road so am going to prepare myself with travel sickness pills!!
I shall miss going to the Lighthouse evry Monday. Have got into going there. Every week is on something different but gernally there are always mediums going around telling you stuff and last week was pretty interesting, there was a pyschic healer who did this channeling of light and releasing of emotions thing (I'm sure it has a special word - some sort of intergalactic healing of somesort?!) anyway, I am open to all these things however strange they sound. It felt pretty weird though, I felt floaty for days afterwards! which I'm guessing is a good thing! I would really like to do a workshop on reiki healing and learn how to do it. (according to people at lighthouse I am connecting to the spirit world as well
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Play fighting penguins and baby seals!
Havent been up to much this week. Ended up working all day everyday that that was good for the money situation! can pay for me doing a helihike or something when i get to the glaciers!!
Tuesday was Auroers and Partrices final night I have been saying they will leave soon for ages as they kept ending up staying longer - but this time they actually left. am very envious as they are off for a month is samoa. we had a nice last night. I had suggested months ago that we should have a pot luck supper and we hadnt got round to it so we decided to have it on their last night! there were about 8 or 10 of us and we all cooked a dish so it was a great 10 course meal! I cooked chocolate brownies and some garlic bread. It was good night! sad to see them go but we shall all be off in our different directions in the next couple off weeks (16 days for me I think to be exact!)
Then yesterday I finally got round to going to the abel tasman national park. I got the bus from nelson to marahau, then a boat up to onetahuta, going round tonga island and all the little bays. On tonga island we saw a blue penguin playflighting with a baby seal which was a funny sight!!
*** as I was writing I felt another earthquake!- only a mini one again! Pim came in concerned asking if we get tsunamis here! I assured him we didnt - well I assume we dont - the radios on so hopefully they'd tell us to run?! anyway I assured him nothing happened the other week when I felt one!
anyway where was I? oh yeah penguins! then we got off the boat (just 2 of us, me and this english girl called mary, we did a lovely 13km walk (felt longer I have to say but probably as I am unfit!), over beauticul bays with stunning views and over a swing bridge (soo coool! was really swingy and creaky going over this huge canyon!) there were plenty of other pretty sights such as waterfalls etc! I will put the photos on here at some point!!
This morning I went into town and went to the Sunday morning car boot, not that I can buy anyuthing as I cant fit it in my backpack but always good to have a wander!
I am job searching for when I leave Marlborough Sounds, am looking for a decently paid managers position or something. As cool as the job as manager at the backpackers is, it is so poorly paid that I earn almost as much in a day at the nursery! But its a good job for couples as one can stay at the backpackers during the day while the other works or something. srill its enough for food for the week which is all we need really!
still I want to save up to do a helihike when I get down to the glaciers! (a helicopter would take me up to the top and then I could hike up there, rather than spend days hiking up it! (sounds like a good idea to me anyway!!)
Tuesday was Auroers and Partrices final night I have been saying they will leave soon for ages as they kept ending up staying longer - but this time they actually left. am very envious as they are off for a month is samoa. we had a nice last night. I had suggested months ago that we should have a pot luck supper and we hadnt got round to it so we decided to have it on their last night! there were about 8 or 10 of us and we all cooked a dish so it was a great 10 course meal! I cooked chocolate brownies and some garlic bread. It was good night! sad to see them go but we shall all be off in our different directions in the next couple off weeks (16 days for me I think to be exact!)
Then yesterday I finally got round to going to the abel tasman national park. I got the bus from nelson to marahau, then a boat up to onetahuta, going round tonga island and all the little bays. On tonga island we saw a blue penguin playflighting with a baby seal which was a funny sight!!
*** as I was writing I felt another earthquake!- only a mini one again! Pim came in concerned asking if we get tsunamis here! I assured him we didnt - well I assume we dont - the radios on so hopefully they'd tell us to run?! anyway I assured him nothing happened the other week when I felt one!
anyway where was I? oh yeah penguins! then we got off the boat (just 2 of us, me and this english girl called mary, we did a lovely 13km walk (felt longer I have to say but probably as I am unfit!), over beauticul bays with stunning views and over a swing bridge (soo coool! was really swingy and creaky going over this huge canyon!) there were plenty of other pretty sights such as waterfalls etc! I will put the photos on here at some point!!
This morning I went into town and went to the Sunday morning car boot, not that I can buy anyuthing as I cant fit it in my backpack but always good to have a wander!
I am job searching for when I leave Marlborough Sounds, am looking for a decently paid managers position or something. As cool as the job as manager at the backpackers is, it is so poorly paid that I earn almost as much in a day at the nursery! But its a good job for couples as one can stay at the backpackers during the day while the other works or something. srill its enough for food for the week which is all we need really!
still I want to save up to do a helihike when I get down to the glaciers! (a helicopter would take me up to the top and then I could hike up there, rather than spend days hiking up it! (sounds like a good idea to me anyway!!)
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Princess Leia
I've ended up working lots this week and have lots of work next wek too which is great - particularly since my boss heather had told me I probably wouldnt be getting any more work when the new full time worker started work on Monday of last week!
I feel quite guilty as I quite enjoy my job and all my housmates hate theirs! Patrice has handed his notice in to McDonald's. He lasted 1 day at the fish factory, 1 day as a dustman and 1 week at McDonalds.! Aurore and Eva are stil lworking at McDonalds though. After tax they get $8 an hour which is minimum wage - pretty much what I got in Akaroa and most other places. I am so lucky as after tax I get $15 an hour for my current job. Mind you how do NZers afford to drink in pubs? I went out on Thursday night and drinks were $7-8 each - seeing as though most of Eva's work colleagues were there (at the "grumpy mole" that means they have to work an hour for a drink! still eva says most of them deal drugs so I guess they get extra cash from that and also dont have to drink that much as they are already wasted! I dont know if drugs are a problem in NZ (probably no more so that the UK I'm sure) as they do a drugs test in your interview when you work at the fish factory! seeing the state of the peoples skin whom I shared flat with in Thames for one week thats enough to put anyone off drugs for a while! I didnt write much about it at the time as they were always around while I was on the computer and I didnt want them to read what I was writing! But they had think skin disease that was turning their skin black, the girl even had it spreading over her face. I dont know if was the drugs causing it or not but it cant help the situation- they were into hard stuff, ie lots of tin foil everywhere etc.
Anyway back to Grumpy Mole - we went to a singles night! we each got given a sticker saying who we were and a cow boy hat (?!) and we had to find a partner. I never found mine! I was Princess Leia. I had several vodkas before I left the backpackers (to save money) and I havent had any alcohol in AGES. Whoops! I was a teensy bit trollied at the end of the night I have to admit! Actually it made me miss my friends back home as this loy left at 10pm leaving me there on my own. (apparently they told me they were going but I clearly wasnt listening and whwn I came back from the loo they'd disapeared. They swear they told me three times and offered to drive me back but apparently I just said I would be fine. so I cant complain, I can imagine that I didnprobably say that when I was drunk.
I felt so OLD, how didn this happen? how did I get to be 27. Everyone in the bar was about 18 - up on tables kissing their partners. The bright side is that I didn get ID"d (but then they ID pretty much everyone). I was thinking about age, when I was a teenager my aprents and other people their age would say they didnt feel any different than they felt at 21 or something. So young people think your old but you dont feel any different from them! what age do you stop feeling different. I felt different from the ages 18-20-22 or whatever as I knew at 18 I was all into drinking and clubbing and at 22 I was settled down with a boyfriend. But now at 27 I realise I dont feel older than I did at 25, but teenagers or even people in early 20's think 27 is old.. and I dod when I think about being nearly 30 and not having done all the thinmgs I expected to have done by the time I was 30! anyway the point was that it is weird being 10 years older than everyone else in a pub!
I have plenty of pictures of the grumpy mole but you'll have to wait until I put them on CD (which could be a while, I wait until my card is full and I dont take that many photos in Nelson as I have obviously taken a photo already of evrything there is to see).
I'm been thinking (dangerous I know - but actually I am of course meant to do lots of thinking while travelling, that and findingmyself or something!). But I was after all miserable and depressed in the UK and came to NZ to chnage things.
I have been thinking about jobs and careers and have written alist of jobs that interest me (ie possible careers) there is probably a flaw or a problems with each of them but at least I've started thinking! So here goes:
I feel quite guilty as I quite enjoy my job and all my housmates hate theirs! Patrice has handed his notice in to McDonald's. He lasted 1 day at the fish factory, 1 day as a dustman and 1 week at McDonalds.! Aurore and Eva are stil lworking at McDonalds though. After tax they get $8 an hour which is minimum wage - pretty much what I got in Akaroa and most other places. I am so lucky as after tax I get $15 an hour for my current job. Mind you how do NZers afford to drink in pubs? I went out on Thursday night and drinks were $7-8 each - seeing as though most of Eva's work colleagues were there (at the "grumpy mole" that means they have to work an hour for a drink! still eva says most of them deal drugs so I guess they get extra cash from that and also dont have to drink that much as they are already wasted! I dont know if drugs are a problem in NZ (probably no more so that the UK I'm sure) as they do a drugs test in your interview when you work at the fish factory! seeing the state of the peoples skin whom I shared flat with in Thames for one week thats enough to put anyone off drugs for a while! I didnt write much about it at the time as they were always around while I was on the computer and I didnt want them to read what I was writing! But they had think skin disease that was turning their skin black, the girl even had it spreading over her face. I dont know if was the drugs causing it or not but it cant help the situation- they were into hard stuff, ie lots of tin foil everywhere etc.
Anyway back to Grumpy Mole - we went to a singles night! we each got given a sticker saying who we were and a cow boy hat (?!) and we had to find a partner. I never found mine! I was Princess Leia. I had several vodkas before I left the backpackers (to save money) and I havent had any alcohol in AGES. Whoops! I was a teensy bit trollied at the end of the night I have to admit! Actually it made me miss my friends back home as this loy left at 10pm leaving me there on my own. (apparently they told me they were going but I clearly wasnt listening and whwn I came back from the loo they'd disapeared. They swear they told me three times and offered to drive me back but apparently I just said I would be fine. so I cant complain, I can imagine that I didnprobably say that when I was drunk.
I felt so OLD, how didn this happen? how did I get to be 27. Everyone in the bar was about 18 - up on tables kissing their partners. The bright side is that I didn get ID"d (but then they ID pretty much everyone). I was thinking about age, when I was a teenager my aprents and other people their age would say they didnt feel any different than they felt at 21 or something. So young people think your old but you dont feel any different from them! what age do you stop feeling different. I felt different from the ages 18-20-22 or whatever as I knew at 18 I was all into drinking and clubbing and at 22 I was settled down with a boyfriend. But now at 27 I realise I dont feel older than I did at 25, but teenagers or even people in early 20's think 27 is old.. and I dod when I think about being nearly 30 and not having done all the thinmgs I expected to have done by the time I was 30! anyway the point was that it is weird being 10 years older than everyone else in a pub!
I have plenty of pictures of the grumpy mole but you'll have to wait until I put them on CD (which could be a while, I wait until my card is full and I dont take that many photos in Nelson as I have obviously taken a photo already of evrything there is to see).
I'm been thinking (dangerous I know - but actually I am of course meant to do lots of thinking while travelling, that and findingmyself or something!). But I was after all miserable and depressed in the UK and came to NZ to chnage things.
I have been thinking about jobs and careers and have written alist of jobs that interest me (ie possible careers) there is probably a flaw or a problems with each of them but at least I've started thinking! So here goes:
- Owner of backpackers or B&B
- Mental health worker
- Psychotherapist\chef
- Business owner or amanger of bookshop, cafe, childcare centre or crystal/ alterntive shop.
- Travel writer
- Private investigator (!)
- Pharmacy Worker
- Psychiatrist
- Life Coach
- Reiki Healer
- Play therapist
- Art therapist
- worker in homeless shelter or young teenagers pregnancy hostel.
- Internations Aid worker (orphanages etc)
- Fostor Parent
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