Settling in to life in NZ

I've been a bit re-miss in not posting any updates to the blog since arriving in New Zealand, but in my defense I've been busy settling in. After spending a week in Christchurch when I got here I came up to Wellington to check the place out and decided that Wellington is where I'm going to call home. After heading briefly back to Christchurch to grab all my stuff, I drove up the coast of the South Island and hopped on the ferry from Picton. Once arriving back in Wellington, everything fell into place fairly quickly. I arrived back on a Wednesday evening and by the Friday I'd signed a lease on an apartment and did an interview for a job at which I'm now gainfully employed. Of all things I'm now actually working for an Irish company in New Zealand!

I spent Christmas in Sydney with Shane, unforuntately having to come back to NZ to work for a few days between xmas and New Years. That's so I have a few extra holiday days this year to cover getting back to Dublin in June and to take some time in March to go to Kelly & Steve's wedding and to have some time when Mum and Martin come over to visit.

Sunday 23rd Sept - Christchurch

Graham took me on a whistle stop walking tour of the city centre. It was drizzling today, so New Zealand is really starting to feel like home! Christchurch city centre has quite an English feel to it, which I suppose isn't that surprising given that it was settled by mostly English people. I'm looking forward to getting a feel for the place over the next few days, and will probably head up to Wellington for a few days as well, before making a final decision on where I'm going to base myself.

Saturday 22nd Sept - D Day

Arrived safely in Christchurch and found the welcome to the country by the immigration and customs, much more welcoming than the one I received in Perth. Both Oz and NZ operate fairly strict bio-security to ensure that no unwanted organisms make their way into the country, such as plant seeds, or anything else which might be harmful to the environment. In Perth this involved them literally rooting through all my bags, and examining some wooden items in detail (which I had declared). In NZ, they just asked me what the wooden items were, checked that the Australians had checked them out, put my bags through an X-ray and wished me well on my time here.

Myra and Graham picked me up from the airport and we headed out for a drive to the Port Hills, which are near Christchurch which take you out to the harbour at Lyttleton. The scenery is pretty spectaculour, with a steep drive which takes you up through the hills, with a sheer drop on one side. What a view though. There's the crater of an extinct Volcano which is now filled with water. Sun was shining, but its a few degrees cooler here, feels more like Ireland.

Fri 21st of Sept - Bridge Climb

Weather forecast for today is good, so hopefully there wont be any more rain during my bridge climb. As it turned out the weather was just perfect, the sun came out, it wasn't too hot or too cold and the Bridge Climb was awesome. I'm not really afraid of heights but have to admit to being a little apprehensive when we got out onto the bridge. I felt better as we got higher. The views of the Opera house and Sydney harbour are fantastic. Definitely one of the highlights of my time in Sydney.

I made my way to catch the train by heading through the Botanic Gardens in the rough direction of Kings Cross station, which will take me through Wooloomooloo. The lads were talking about staying up all night to watch the Ireland V France rugby match which is on at 5am, although I have a feeling that I wont be joining them with my flight to Christchurch being just before 10 in the morning.

Thurs 20th Sept - Bondi Beach

Weather a bit crap today. Its warm enough, but spitting with rain on and off. I decided to set off on foot for Bondi beach which is about 40 mins walk from Seamus' place in Bondi Junction. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting but I have to admit to being just a little underwhelmed by the beach. Its tiny! I'm sure its nicer in the height of summer when the sun is out but if I'm honest I didn't think much of the place. I stopped for lunch while there and was unsurprised to find that all of the staff and probably half of the clientelle of the café I went into were Irish.

The rain re-appeared in the afternoon so I decided to escape by going to catch a flick at the cinema when I got back to Bondi Junction. After a nice Thai curry headed out again with Paul & Seamus. Probably could have done without excess beer given that I have to pass a breath test before doing the Sydney Harbour Bridge climb in the morning!

Wed 19th Sept - Sydney Harbour

Took the ferry over to Manly which goes through the harbour, passed the Opera House with great views of both Sydney harbour bridge and the Opera house. Had some lunch in Manly and then came back to the city to do the tour of the Opera house. Finished the day off with a pizza in an Italian place in The Rocks, which is the area just beside the harbour bridge.

Tue 18th Sept - Sydney

Had a little time in Brisbane before heading to the airport, which gave me enough time to suss out public transport options for getting to and from Brisbane and Sydney airports. They both have rail links with the city centre, and this seemed like the best way to get around. When I arrived in Sydney I headed for Bondi Junction on the train and armed with a hastily sketched map of the area which I got from Google Maps, I set off in search of Hough St. Seamus, one of Shane's friends lives here in Sydney and is very kindly putting me up for the few days I'm here. Initially I set off in the wrong direction but after a short while managed to find Seamus' place. A little gate climbing later and I'd retrieved the key that Seamus left out for me. The guys are in a great location, its only about 10/15 mins on the train to the city centre. Bondi Junction has plenty of shops and places to eat and the guys are only a few mins walk away from here.

When Seamus & Paul got in from work, the lads cooked up a bit of grub and we ended up going out for a few pints, not before Seamus managed to scorch all of the hair of his right hand while lighting the barbeque!