Picton : Day 4

After day 1 of breakfast duty, I asked Ben if I could do it every morning.. First this he replied was .. " Why?"
Then I told him that I needed a motivation to wake up early in the morning, and then go for a run, and start my day. He said " Ok, if you want to, I'm sure the rest wouldn't mind at all !" That's true.

So this morning, I went for a short jog. Yay! I'm so proud of myself... Well, it was just a short run, but at least I started, and it was a bit too cold, cos I tried to pull one of those crazy Kiwi thing, and ran in shorts.. in winter !! Gosh amanda... what were you thinking? Tomorrow, I'll go again, but with leggings underneath my shorts! A weird dressing, but that's the only thing I have, it'll be stupid to jog in my jeans. Lol

Day 4 of work exchange at Sequoia Lodge, and I quite like it. Start work at 10 am every morning, and will be done by no later than 12.30pm. After 4 days of housekeeping and making beds, I'm beginning to get the hang of it ! Am a bit more systematic now. hehe
After all of us are done with our duties, we sit down to have a cuppa tea, and some amazing cookies ! ( see why i need a daily run?)

Then everyone is off to do their own stuff.. be it taking a walk, shopping, or just chilling out in front of the fire with a good book. And for me, a good hot shower, nd a walk to the library - for Internet and some reading, of cos. Was just telling Mandy, that I'm probably at the library more that I was back in MMU !

Mission of today - sit down to plan out my destinations for the next 9 weeks ! Wow, boy does time flies.. in 9 more weeks, I'll be back in KL. That will be the end of my holiday :( sighh...

Of ferries and choc pudding

And there's a spa pool too !

Of ferries and choc pudding

I've finally crossed over the Cook Straits. I'm now in Picton, doing a work exchange in Sequoia Lodge. I have to work a few hours a day, and in return, I get breakfast and bed, and choc pudding!

This hostel boasts of their nightly choc puddings, served with vanilla ice-cream. It is very yum, it is a great that they serve all their guest choc pudding, but its greater that I have been offered the duty to make it now ! It was my first attempt tonight, and it turn out pretty alright.. so I asked Ben if I could make it every night now... he said by all means !! Yay! oh you know me and baking... Can never take that out of me !

Haven't got the slightest idea how I will travel South Island, but I'm sure I have all the time here in Picton to figure that out. Today I had my first go at housekeeping, I had to change the sheets in a few rooms, and did some tidying up. Tomorrow I'm in charge of breakfast ! So I will need to get up at 7am, and lay out the four types of cereal, 4 kinda bread, and 4 different tyes of spread. I likey this job !

It's a good start for me to go into hospitality ! LoL !

All set to sail..

and I've booked my ferry, I'm ready to sail. ( a sing along to "I'm leaving on a jetplane")

Well, my bags are definitely no packed yet, so I gotta do them tonight, and need to sort out my finances a bit, then check the timetables for the bus and train I'll be taking tomorrow.

Finally, I'm heading to South Island, been wanting to be there since April. I remember, at the beginning, I said that I would only spend bout a month in North, and then travel my way down to New Plymouth to see Nana, and then down to Wellington to see Brian & Lillian. Well I did both of that.. only bout 2 months later! But it's all good, I had lotsa fun, and did not regret a single delay.. except for one, which I really should have done it from Day 1 itself. Sigh, this will always be in the corner of my mind. ( G - you would know exactly what it is aye)

For the past few days, there has been so much thoughts in my mind, mainly about my future. Been job hunting for the past 2 days, and to start doing that, I gotta update my CV and write a cover letter. Given the fact that I've probably read more than 100 CVs in the last 3 months of 2008, I should be pretty good at writing my own! But, trust me, it wasn't easy at all ! I had to look at so many sample resumes to finally complete mine. Well, I was probably trying too hard, cos I know what the employers would be thinking when they look at it. ( esp when you have a critical one!)

Anyways, that's done now, and I'm good to go ahead with the job hunt. And no, it's not a real impressive one. I basically listed down everything I did in the past few years, and made it a simple, straight forward one. Applied for a few today, and let's just keep my fingers crossed!

If anyone of you were to pay attention to world news, you would have read about the earthquake down south. I was on my bed texting a friend around that time, and my bed rattled for a few seconds. To be honest I didn't know there was an earthquake till a friend down in Singapore texted me an hour later, asking if I was alright. The exact question was " are you ok ????" notice the 4 question marks? Thanks my dear..

But here's the news clip..

July 16 (Bloomberg) -- New Zealand was spared a destructive tsunami after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off its South Island, the U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.
A tsunami warning issued by the center was in effect for about 2 1/2 hours after the quake hit at 9:22 p.m. New Zealand time yesterday, with the residents of Auckland and Wellington advised of a possible threat, according to e-mailed alerts. No other countries in the Pacific were affected. The quake was followed by a magnitude-5.8 aftershock 19 minutes later.

Interesting to know.

Breathing the city life in Welly

We are finally in Wellington.

Well, it's just me now. Therese is now in Kaikoura. We left New Plymouth last Friday, after spending a good few days on the farm, and up to Mt Egmont National Park. It was a good few hours walk, but the view up there was totally worth it !

After a few hours drive on the Surf Highway 45, and then on State Highway 1, we finally got to Wellington. Stayed a night in Rosemere Backpackers, apparently it used to house a brothel.. interesting aye? And the best thing was the location, it's located right behind St.Paul's church. :)

Therese and I had the most crappy dinner that night, it was Fantastic noodles with canned tuna, and some curry sauce for me. Well, usually I'll be more than glad to have instant noodles, and not that I minded it that night, but as compared to what we had in New Plymouth for a week.. It was crappy. hahah

After dinner, we decided to walk around the city a bit. It felt really good to be in a big city again, after so much countryside and national parks. We walked along Cuba St, which is a pedestrian mall from the 60s. On our way, there was a young girl singing on the streets, and had a sign that says " I am saving for a new piano, pls support me." She was quite a good singer, and the second song that came from her was I'm Yours, so we sat down for a moment to enjoy the music, and dropped some coins in her piggy bank.

We called it a night after buying our vanilla ice cream from New World, (the far one, mind you ), went back to the hostel to enjoy our apple crumble and free internet. Yes, we had a crappy dinner, but we had apple crumble for dessert ! ;)

The next 2 days with Therese was spend sight seeing in Welli. We went to museums, churches, shops, and Weta Cave - quite an awesome place to visit, as it is a mini muesuem of all the artwork they have done for some of your favourite movies. Just to name one - Lord of the Rings ! LOTR fans will love this place as they are also selling figurines and souvenirs from the trilogy.

Therese set sail for the beautiful South Island on Monday morning, leaving me here to breathe more of the city air. haha. So I've been sitting around Brian and Lillian's house, reading and enjoying Oreo's company - their proud grey cat! It's been raining quite a lot down here, so there's nothing else better to do than to curl up with a good book. Having said that, I was out in the city though, went out to town to meet Norbert - a guy from Sabah whom I met in the plane. He is taking his phD here in Welli, we met up for lunch and I paid $8.50 for a bowl of curry laksa, but it was worth it cos it was a yummy taste of home! There are heaps of Malaysian restaurants down here in Wellington, never noticed that the last time I was here. But oh well, I guess it's a good thing for the Malaysians who are homesick. Lol.

For a change

Been a week since i left Hamilton now, been out and about and did many fun things.

First times added to my list : -
My first bungy jump - AWESOME !
My first Ski lesson - TIRING !

Am now in New Plymouth, been staying with Nana for a while, it's such a lovely change as compared to the many hostels and instant meals I've cooked myself. She would always put out a cuppa tea with her lovely homemade cookies and cakes. Ohh, she is spoiling me here ! It's an enjoyable stay out on the countryside.I spend hours listening to her talk about her travel adventures, playing board games and going to Women's meeting with her. This is such a good way to relax a bit !

Would be moving on down South pretty soon, am hoping to spend a few days on Viv's dairy farm before that. That should be a whole lot of fun !