after 3 hours of catching up with emails and putting a few more photos online I'm fed up with sitting inside on a computer so you'll have to wait and few days or weeks for more photos and for me to write what I'm actually up to!! In the short of it I have just left the sounds and am in Nelson on my way to golden bay!

The marlborough sounds

me and two children at my old job (wont mention their names in case paretns ever do a search and come accross thier childs photo online)

Me on the swing bridge and the swing bridge at the abel tasman

another pretty photo of the abel tasman!! hmnn this is getting a bit repetitve!!

Another pretty view at the Abel tasman!

the clear clear water again!! (abel tasman although the water was this clear at the sounds too!!)

Me on a bridge at Abel Tasman

A pretty photo showing how clear the water is in Abel Tasman

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)

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!!

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

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!!)

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:

• 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

So thats quite a list, should take me a while to work my way through all those jobs and find out which one suits me!

I forgot to actually give you the deatils of my turkish restaurant interview
Turkish Guy (TG) "do you have any experience?"
Me "Not really"
TG Do you know how to take orders?
Me "No, well havent ever but I'm a quick learner?"
TG Have you served wine?
Me No, dont even know how to open a bottle
TG Well at least our honest start at 5:30pm

Anyway night was great, sooooo busy you wouldnt believe!
My first job was a huge party with bottles for me to open, I told them the truth that I didnt know how to open wine yet and they thought it was so funny, I got the whole table clapping when I got one open after 10 minutes of trying!!!
But I did do well and managed everything asked of me, then it was cash in hand so that was cool! no tax!
I didnt finish till 11:30 and then TG gave me a lift home. He was pretty sleezy but just with words he didnt actually try anything (or might have had to use my self defence skills!)

Forgot to say that the other day I went to Kaiteriteri, it was lovely. Its in the golden bay and the sandy beaches really are golden!! Kaiteriteri is in the abel tasman, so I finally got there after saying that I would ages ago! It was lovely! I was lucky to cadge a lift with two english girls staying so that was good!
Last nights work do was good. I've always said I dont like wine and people have always said it comes with age! well now I'm the grand old age of 27 it seems I dont think wine is too bad! I preferred the sauvignon to the chardonnay. I had a few glasses which was nice! work was paying so that was even better!! NZ has this thing in most restaurants where you bring your own. Most charge corkage of a few dollars but its still works out cheaper than buying restaurant wine!
Have two nights work next week at the nursery so thats cool! I was online trying to decide whether to move on and then they rang! we'll just see what happens!
This evening I am working in a turkish restaurant called Turkish Delight, jessica works there but she has the night off as its her birthday. The guy was saying he might take me on full time.. but who knows! we'll see how it goes! I dont really have any restaurant experience and it is a saturday night and fully booked with parties!! They even have a belly dancer on saturday nights!! still if its all a disaster at least I've tried and its only one night!! he said I can take drinks orders so that shouldnt be too confusing! (hopefully!) I have to be there at 5:30pm tonight till closing (which I guess will be late). What amused me is that Jimmy was saying that I had to be careful as Jessica didnt get paid for her trial. But I replied that He'd better bloody do and Jimmy (my boss of the backpackers) said that he was sure he would as he wouldnt want to get on the wrong side of me!!!! (LOL! am I that scary!?)
anyway just got in from town with anna and a package was waiting for me! Thanks dad!! MY camera is fixed!! yay!!! I can take photos again and you can see them as I can put them online again!! yay!! also my new bank card arrived which is cool! everythings sorted!

Its Friday and I have my work do tonight. I actually dont feel fantastic, have a cold again, thats the trouble when you live in close proximity to people - you catch their germs easily!
I'm gonna go to the market tomorrow and buy plenty of fruit and veg to ward it off!
The nursery called and I have 2 days work next week which is fab - better than nothing, will pay for food for a few weeks!
I had been looking lots online at jobs coming up. theres so many possibilities of places I may end up. I'm still wondering whether to go back to Akaroa for the summer. I said I would call the pharmacy in October to see if there was any work. Aot of places are now advertising for people for the summer season. lots of things I cant do (ie I'm not fit enough to be a glacier guide! and I might get sea sick being a dolphins swimming guide) but some things I am considering who knows!
Its Aurores birthday today so I am going to make her a cake.. chocolate mud cake! Pity I'm going to be out this evening to enjoy it with everyone! they've got to save me some!
Its Jessicas birthday tomorrow as well. they are integrating more with people now which is good! they used to keep themselves to themselves, I've discovered Jessica lives inbetween Wigan and Bolton! (thats where mumns side of the family come from)
Jimmy (the woner of the backpackers) is going on holiday in a couple of weeks and is considering closing the place, jessica and gareth finish on Monday so he might close it from then! who knows? what a stress! dont worry if you've snt anything anyone though - he has to give us notice of somesort! one option is that we could stay as a houseshare and the hostel would be closed to guests (which sounds cool unless he wants me tp pay rent which I assume he would!? its okay for paying guests as it wouldnt chnage their finacial situation!) oh well will have to wait until monday to find out!

feelinng very happy and chilled.
Just got in from work for the day. I have no more work booked and a new fulltimer is starting work there on Monday so I might not get anymore. But theres no point stressing, I'm sure it will all work out in the end! I will just have to live on more of a budget next week! I have been to see a couple more nurseries. I went to one the other day which shall now be known as the baby zoo. their sleep room was a wall of "cages" . It looked like a vets, you know that room with the wall of cages all on top of each other, admittedly the ones at the nursery have wooden bars but they are still one on top of each other and open like cages! It was really weird as some of the babies were awake and looking through the bars like little animals! so I'm not sure what it will be like working there, they seemed well cared for apart from the cages!?
Yesterday I went to a Peace festival in lower moutere (pronounced mooo tree), it was cool, had lots of organic food, music and healing. Alot of people got emotional in the healing as it was bringing the ermotions out, but I just felt chilled and happy (Thats a first!) They made this scrumptious ice cream out of real fruit in front of you too! Its was yummy!
am also continueing to go to the lighthouse on mondays, enjoy watching all the claivoyancy and all the inspirational quotes and stories etc!
One of the daughters of the family I will be staying with in Port Ligar is going to drive me from Nelson to Port Ligar so thats great! So I will be leaving here on the 30th August - just over a months time! It will save me money and then I know I will have accomodation, and food sorted for 2 weeks, and in reality that all I need to stress about, as long as I have a roof over my head and food I'm okay! Have no idea what will become of my bank loan in england though at some point. But I guess I shall worry about that when it becomes a problem!
Its my work do on Friday, I'm looking forward to that as I dont go out for meals very often as I'm on such a budget!

My first earthquake

well I had a good birthday! I went for day trip to the nelson lakes which are 118kms away. Partice drove so the 3 of us had a good day out (Patrice, Aurore and me). it was freezing there!! when we got outthe car it was so windy my woolly hat kept blowing off I had to hold it on!! we went for a couple of walks round the lakes etc as its a national park.
we alos had dinner at a little alpine cafe - yummy burgers! I had to say there is not alot in st arnaud, basically a shop and a cafe! however I did get lots of photos of snowy mountains! But your going to have to wait until I get home to see them as they are on a throaway camera. I got the last fim developed the other day, photos as far back as the coromandel, of mount maunganui, gisborne and white island etc. it was nice to have some real photos rather than just seeing tehm on the computer but of course it does mean I cant show you them all. I could have had them put on disc but it costs loads! I am looking forward to when my digital camera is fixed!
I had a few cards to open which was great and my sister send me some eglish cadburys! yum! I had forgotten how yummy english chocolate is!
Then when we got in from out day out they had decorated the house with balloons etc and attacked my with party popppers! we watched a dvd and had dinner and everyone made me a chocolate cheesecake as a surpise while I was at work the precious day! so that was great! they had, had a collection and got me a voucher for the bead gallery (an amazing local shop) I cought a mother of pearl neclace which is a cross between a koru and a fish hook (both maori symbols). I have been wanting it for a while. I also want this really nice koru in the shop but it was really dressy so I decided to go for the everyday wear one! as I dont get a chance to dress up much here!
There are two more bithdays this week, Aurores is on friday 28th and Jessicas is on the 29th, so we shall have more cakes and collections. Unfortunately on the 28th I am going on a work do so shall miss aurores birthday evening. I sm however looking forward to going on a work do! we are going out for a meal. Its nice to be included in a community and do normal stuff!
today while working at shortbread I was laying down reading in the sun when the ground shook, at first I thought it was a big truck but then it carried on!! Apparently we are on the same fault line as Wellington and wellington are meant to get an earth quake a week. the whole house shook anyway and all the furniture. it was only a mini one but I have never felt one before, it was really weird!!
we alos have another longtermer at our backpackers, her name is anna and she is english, has lived in brighton for 5 years etc, I really get on with her which is cool. Her boyfriend will be joining her soon and she will be taking the job as the new managers of shortbread during the week. she is trapped in NZ as she got pregant while backpacking but has a blood clot and cant fly, so she has to have the baby here, then have an operation and then can go home! so her backpacking experience is a bit dfferent!
Aurore, Patrice and Eva have started working at McDonalds now, I dont think they exactly enjoy it, but its money!!