Moira (my boss), me, her daughter Tess and her boyfriend Tim or the balcony at the backpackers, and my bedroom with the obligatory cat on my bed.. there is always a cat on my bed..! ( I chuck them out when I want to go the sleep though or they are a right pain)!

Sperm whales tail and more dusky dolphins!!

More of a sperm whale and kais picture of the moon (mine better when I get it put on disk) but its so amazing isnt it. My favourite thing to do of a night it sit in the hot tub and stargaze! I intedn to go on the star gazing trip again before I go which I am looking forward to!

Dunsky Dolphins when I went out a few weeks ago.. I just love these dolphins! there are just so many of them and its hard to show how many of them there are because they move about so fast!

Me in the Maori Leap Caves (which was unfortuntely nothing maori). He had a sea urchin rock which he asked us if we knew what it was which I called kina and he had no idea what I was on about but thats what the maoris call sea urchin..
I've started watching a kids TV programme in the afternoons to learn a bit of maori which is quite cool (when i say started watchign i mean I had time one afternoon once.. I have tried since but the bell always rings just as it starts!)

The Maori Leap Caves in Kaikoura, a little cave where this old man with a good imagination gets you to pretned each rock is an animal or a person.. but this one does really look like a sheep I admit!!

Friday 13th

Its friday 13th even though the date in this blog will disagree with me!
So far my day hasnt been fab. a huge storm hit overnight so I didnt sleep a wink because doros were banging and it sounded like the backpackers was going to fall down (of course in the morning people complained and this was my fault!)
Once I woke up and walked round the backpackers to see what the noise was about I started worrying about things I hadnt done so by the time the alarm went off I wa sknackered, and starting off the day knackered is never good, then Ruth slept in till half 9 so I was cleaning on my own for 1.5 hours.. (she usually starts at 9)
the place was a mess and people didnt want to check out because the hadnt slept and people wanted their rooms to be ready to check in at 8:30am.. so it was a matter of going round and waking poeple up at 10:15am and telling them poeple were waiting to check in their rooms! they said thing like oh were going to stay another night (and its like.. um no your not.. were fully booked..)
Then of course its raining which meant a tumble drying day (which takes forever with the laundry) and all the whalewatching and dolphin swimming was cancelled so people were hanging round bored and under my feet all day..
I have also been having a clumsy day.. I ran out to buy a razor since I lost mine 2 weeks ago and was about to turn into a gorilla and nearly got hit by a car (theres not exactly many cars in kaikoura so gos knows how I managed that!), then when I shaved my legs (while listending for the bell and answering the phine I slipped and got bruises all down my back and bum (luckily didnt get cut by the razor.. there was some luck!)
Then later while putting bedding away tooth butted the shelf and thought I was going to have knocked my front tooth out.. it still hurts but dpesnt seem wobbly, still later I came flying down the stairs when the bell rang.. I want running promise.. but came thudding down scraping, back, bum and elsbow and getting serous bruises..
Luckily Ruth covered for me for an hours and a half and I had a nap and i feel so much better.
I am however going to go out so will feel even tireder tomorrow but its wonderful to go out, everythime I get to the end of the driveway I feel like wooping with delight I'm so happy to get out of here.. and it doesnt happen very often so am looking forward to it. if i can stay awake that long.. hence me typing in the evening which i never usually do..
But its ten to 9 and I can close reception in ten minutes, cash up and then lock the spa at 10pm and go out.. yay!
Charlie is going to coem and pick me up as there is a surf party out of town. I'll probably manage about an hour but it will be nice to be out and to see people who arent tourists!! I also wont be the life and the soul of the party by far.. to tired for that!!
Have decided to tell Moira I'll be leaving late May as I can feel I will get ill if I carry on working like this and i'm not saving enough as its shit money.. the childcare centre in nelosn have been emailing me about working so I might well head there! I can earn alot more there for alot less hours..
On the bright side there are things i love here:
I will miss the sound of the sea.. I love laying in bed at night with the window open hearing the waves crash...
I will miss the snowy mountains.. its been bloody cold this week and has snowed loads on the mountains.. its just stunning..
I will miss the dolphins jumping around..
I will miss having my own bedroom and double bed and only sharing my lounge and kitchen wiht one other person..
I will miss my rooftop balcony and spa..
so however much I moan its not all bad!! there areb great things here!!

Its a good job I dont have a violent streak (or a gun) because I am getting grumpier and grumpier! Its a combination of tiredness, exhaustion and nooying backpackers..
Yesterday we had a booking for 7 people who were picking up their hirecar at 10am in Christchurch and would be here by 3pm at the lastest.
By 9pm when reception shuts there was no word.. and I was due to go out for once in my life and have a social life so I left a note to say they could call me on my cellphone or I would be back at 10pm (I'd done the cashing up early but had to come back to lock the spa and do other stuff). they were all waiting in reception when i got back (having arrived 5 minutes before) but they were quite put out that no-one was on reception for them..
I could of course have left a note telling them where to go.. which is easy with double rooms but a bit dodgy leaving dorm keys on reception (since your leaving a key to where other people have all their possessions) so I'd been kind. Beisdes I had a feeling they'd need duvets, i knew they wouldnt be the sort to have sleeping bags.. so once I'd booked them in, shown them round and given them all duvets and blankets. they complained they couldnt use the spa (it gets locked at 10pm. Then I proceeded to go back to the pub as there was a live band on.. they then got really angry sayign wasnt there anyone on reception in the night to help them..? My god.. people who have only stayed in huge base backpackers or whatever shouldnt be allowed out on their own.. I politely explained that no I worked 98 hours a week already..
This mornign when clearing up after them, they had trashed the place.. mess everywhere, they couldnt get up in time for check out.. sometimes I'm nice but since they made me work late I wasnt going to let them ruin my day by making me be doing washing and changing beds in the afternoon so Ruth and I went in and opened the curtains etc! (the other poeple in the dorms had already checked out!). they then proceeded to make mess all around the hostel. I told them to wash up and dry up but they huffed and puffed and wouldnt.. bloody poms! (blond English girls with short skirts..)

My naughty streak!

I've been feeling like I have cabin fever lately.. its been so bust over easter I never have a minute to myself and theres been this guy called James staying who was driving me mad, he was here for 5 days and never went out, instead he chose to ring the bell and annoy me every two minutes.. I was change, can you turn my change into a note, light the fire, my bedroom door squeeks, I want an extra blanket, I cant get the TV, microwave, washing machine, tumble dryer to work, I want washing powder.. you get the picture, generally always moaning about something anyway.. it was the change that used to drive me mad.. at least 10 times a day he needed 2 dollar coins..
He also got phonecalls all the time on the personal phone but wouldnt anser it so i had to find him.. never a please or thank you... so last night when it was 10pm and time for me to lock the spa. I apologised to the boys in there and told them I had to lock it.. he then complained and said I had been hogging it all evening so he hadnt been able to get in.. (I popped in a 9pm till 9:20pm).. well that just tipped me over the edge.. (people get in and out the spa all evening and and up to 11 people at a time.. he never goes out so he can use it at any time..).. anyway I saw red and before I knew it I swung the spa lid round (I always have to swing it round to move it over and on it..) but swung it too far so it whacked him on his back and sent him flying.. then had to keep a straight face and apologise..! (I couldnt help myself. dont know what came over me?!! I will stand up for myself and say it wouldnt have actually hurt him (much). Its not hard or sharp or anything. (I'm not that viscious)
Anyway.. he's checked out now thank god! I hid the guest comment book this morning do he couldnt write anything bad about me in it.. guess I wont be winning any hospitality awards of the year or anything...

I got my visa!!

well that was quick!! I have got my visa for Australia! Now all I need is $5000 and plane ticket. I wont get in the country without an ongoing ticket so I'll probably buy a return ticket to NZ, that will be cheapest.. So I guess I'll look out for cheap flights online. Its a while ahead yet though.. dont need to think about it until December.. but I do need to get my arse into gear and earn lots of cash!! (and not spend it!). I've made some fudge this afternoon so hopefully that will sell well!
Its still manic hear, not as many phonecalls as yesterday but still fully booked.. (I turned about 200 hundred people away yesterday!!) what is it with Easter weekend?! where so all these people come from?! I do feel sorry for these girls turning up and having to tell them were full and so will everywhere else be..
I might go out tonight as I havent been out in ages and Ruth will be going out with Charlie and Bree. I wont have a late one like them but it will be nice to go out. Shes always coming back having these brilliant nights so I feel i'm missing out a bit.. but it probably wont be the same for me as I wont be as drunk (I'll have a couple but theres no way i can handle getting drunk and having a hangover when i have such a week ahead of me!
As I am working this week straight without a day off I have a 98 hour working week so I dont think a too late a night would do me much good!! I'd be an emotional wreck!!
My novel is coming along well though, in between cutomers and the bell ringing I am madly writing! who knows if anyone will ever read it but I am enjoying writing it! I wish I had a laptop though.. as its handwritten at the moment its going to take a while to type up and I'm using alot of paper notebooks!!
Its cool as while I'm sleeping I think up more storylines for it.. so it keeps me occupied all the time!!

Australian Visa

Today I applied for my Australian visa. This is a big thing! It means I commit myself to another year travelling, to leaving NZ (that makes me upset) and to not going back to the UK for another year at least (technically 18 months since I have another 6 months here). Of course its not really committment as such if I dont like it I can leave!!
I feel really weird having applied for it, my stomach has butterflies in it like when I applied for my NZ visa. It could be accepted in as little time as 48 hours! Lets hope I get accepted or I'll cry! I cant think of any reason I wouldnt but you never know..
I got an Easter egg today which was really nice. Moira brought me and Ruth an egg round, she is going away for a week so I am not getting my usual day off on Monday, I dont have a day off until next saturday so I am going to be pretty tired by then!
The backpackers is manic again, it quietened down over the last few weeks but then over Easter weekend it is VERY busy!! This is the first time I have sat down all day!!
Mind you its been a little cooler today which was nice as it gave me a chance to do jobs its been too hot to do like dig up potatoes etc so I've probably created work for myself.
Picked the last of the peaches today as well which must mean summer is over or something which is a bit sad.. also lit the fire for the first time last night (I'm hoping its just a cold snap) its still warm in the sun though..
We've had lovely people in lately, so I've had nice people to chat to and stuff, I also met some nice people at yoga last night.
It was really exciting to go out last night (can you imagine what ts like living and working somewhere 24/7 as once I've worked my 14 hours per day I just want to fall into bed so I never leave the place apart from my day off.. so to go out to yoga was great!! (and good exercise wise).
I've been looking at my life goals list and seeing what I can achieve at the moment.
Can tick off number 28 -seeing a whale in the wild this week, and am currently working on number 58 - write a novel, also got a Jane Austen novel out the library so have started on number 45 - read the entire works of jane Austen, have applied for my aussie visa so am on my way to achieving number 1 which is to live, travel and work in australia. I wrote this list in 2001..
Before I leave NZ I might try and achieve number 47 - live temporarily on a commune
and number 59 Hand glide... I wonder what I'll do when I've done everything on the list.. write another list maybe? mind you its going to take me a while - the list is pretty long!! (101 things!)

so I had a another great day off!
Hank (my skipper from the dolphin watching trip on my previous day off) had texted me to say he'd sorted a whalewatch trip for me which was great (saved me 130 dollars!)
I got up early (5:30am) and watched the sunrise which was beautiful as usual and then trekked off to where to whalewatch boats go from (usually people who are going on the whalewatch walk to the office and get bussed up there but since I had a freebie and had to go find some bloke called Chevy I had to walk to the docks). It was a nice walk though, it took about an hour through the race course and along the beach. It was sooo worth it though!
I was beyond excitement when the big sperm whale suddenyl popped up less than 5 metres from the boat!!
They dont use sonar as they say the whales dont like it so they put a kind of mirophone in the water to hear the, so they can tell when their in a two km radius of the boat.. you can also see then blow from up to 2kms away too..
We only saw 1 sperm whale (often they see more) but it was amazing as he hung around for ages and did really rare stuff like surface feed and jaw snap (he turned upside down and snapped his jaws so we could see his teeth!!) when they go under its usually for 40-60 mins (the ones in kaikoura ayway, other ones elsewhere stay under longer)so you usally only get one chance to get that tail shot.. but we were lucky as he was messing aorund and came up again, and again for a total of 5 times... probably as he was surface hunting a shark!! Anyway, I could so go on this trip again and again!! It was great, we didnt seen any dolphins close up but 3 different species of albatross were flying around close by including the largest which is the royal albatross.
Then I came back, trudged to New World to do my weekly shop, had lunch down the fish and chip shop and went out to "The maori leap caves". they were very cute, not very big and not that spectacular but the little old man showing us around had lots of imaginative interpretations of every single stalagtite etc.. if you look closely this ones the virgin mary and this ones a sheep.. etc, but I wa sglad I went, it was a good way to spend a couple of hours and I like to feel that I've seen everything is the area.
Then I went and got a roasted duck and truffle pizza from the black rabbit and before I knew it, it was time to go on the star gazing trip.. which was great! I might just take up astronomy when I grow up! I will defiantely go again in a couple of weeks. He wanred me that as it was the full moon the sky would be so bright that we wouldnt be able to see as many stars but it was still fab!
You just have to see my pictures of the moon! You can put your camera up against the lens of the telecope and get a photo of it! It wa sso close up it was great!! AND I have a photo of saturn and jupiter, jupiter admittedly just looks like another moon in the photos, but you can blurrily see the rings around saturn.. throught he telescope it was amazing.. it literally looked like he had put a sticker on the elns it looks so perfect it looked like a toy!! It was sooo cool!!
I learnt all about the southern cross and how to find south and the millions of starsin the milky way (we have a better view in the southern hemisphere.. and we can also see orions belt and stuff as well).
Now I'm going to really show my "blondeness" now.. I've always been into star signs and stuff but never really thought about where they come from and stuff.. this was an amazing way to see how its done.. you could really see the moon in virgo and that saturn was in cancer.. how cool is that!!?
Needless to say by the time I got back at 10:30pm after having been awake since 5:30am I was shattered! So it was straight to bed for me! I was still recovering yesterday.. it was a busy day yesterday as Moira had let 4 kiwi experience people stay.. which meant they had left the place a complete state (and they wonder why they have a reputation?)
I was quite gutted actually as a kiwi experience guy had left him digital camera/ video camera behind 2 weeks and not phoned.. I was beginning to think I was going to have a nice new one for myself.. but he sent his friend by to collect it yesterday.. shame. Strange what people leave behind and never bother to phone up for..!
Tonight I have the evening off which is really exciting off. Ruth has had a lot of time off over the last few months so she is going to pay back some of her time by giving me a couple of evenings off, starting with tonight. I am going to go to a yoga class, and if I like it she might work Wedesday nights for me from now on!) which will be great!! as its really hard to get exercise when your working all day. I have been doing a pilates video I got out the library quite alot but its good to have variation! (and I hopefully might get to meet some other locals).

More of the whales tail.. you'll have to wait for more photos till another day off. 9I have to coem into the internet shop to download photos from CD as the CD drive at work doesnt work) and theres much more fun things to do on my day off rather than sit in fron of a computer.. but I had to print off my aussie work visa application as well sicne theres no printer at home either..
will update tomorrow at work to tell you all how great the whalewatch was!

The sperm whale today called Little Nick

View from my balcony and a sperm whale blowing

More of the southern aura and the sunrise this morning

The Southern Aura the other day.. strange lights around the sun.. hard to take photos of but its very cool!

The other night in the spa.. relaxing glass of wine before bed.. and drinking games on Jakobs leaving do.. (thats Charlie with the bottle.. she lived at the backpackers for a while but has just loved into jakobs old room)

Another sunset and my bedroom here in kaikoura.. notice all the black and white pics on my wall, mainly all of my neice.. I still need to print some pics off of my new neice as well..

Another sunset from my place, and the trip out to Fyffe House with some friendly people staying at the backpackers on my last day off.