Crys In Aotearoa

Seek wisdom in experience. Find adventure beyond your backyard. Explore.



Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Queenstown

A few weeks ago I found out that my sister Tia was going to be coming to New Zealand. She was going to be in Queenstown for like ten days. After much debate and research I finally bit the bullet and bought a plane ticket. I am now in Queenstown sitting in an internet cafe while my sister is on the computer next to me. It feels SOOOOO GOOOD to have family around. It's so natural and relaxed. It feels like I just saw her yesterday, instead of LAST YEAR.

I was really getting to that home sick and tired phase and now everything has switched for the better. I have a job starting the day after I get back to wellington. It is working in a call center for Kiwibank. Inbound calls only, so it will be inquiries mostly. I should be fine as long as i am quick to learn the policies. I will be paid well, it will be in the Central Business District, so should be easy to get to no matter where I find my flat, even though I am really loving where I am staying now, I can't be a freeloader forever.

I have a boyfriend. I am seeing more of the country. I can finally say that I have been to the South Island now! I am in Queenstown!! So beautiful here. The weather is hot and the lake is lovely. We have a view from the house that we are staying at that allows us to see the sun set and the sun rise, as well as a daily view of the lake and the mountains opposite the town. Seriously. This is happy Crys to the maximum.

Will hopefully update with pictures soon. Cheers!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day Ever-body!

Well.... Where do I start? I have been keeping it a secret from most of you, but it seems the perfect holiday to break the news. For the first time ever. I have a valentine. A real male female partner relationship type valentine!

His name is Ryan.

This is an update of the last week or so, and about how I met him.

My friend Miriam is from Germany and she has a car, so on one of her days off from work, we went out to a beach to relax and tan on the sand. This is the day we had:

Miriam - Sinking in the sand

Boy in a tiny wet suit.

Dog Chase

Foot and seed pod

Boy and Truck - GO GO GO!!!

None of them really need any explanation. It was beautiful and there were quite a few little families and people around to watch and secretly photograph.

We ended the day with Fish and Chips at the top of a hill overlooking a bay. We had fish and chips, a massive portion, for only $4 each!! It was real, fresh battered stuff too.

Sunset - Titahi



The whole rest of the week was a blur. I was trying to find work but to no avail. I went out to a bar called Shooters, it was a little like the sticky wicket in Victoria. I met a couple new people there including a guy named Ryan, from Portland. I had a great time and was invited with a few of the others to come to his house for HOME MADE PIZZA. You can see how well this is all going already.

I wish I had taken more photos that night, so I could showcase the pizza. Seriously guys. You think my pizza is good, you should try his! Maybe it is the pizza stone he uses? Or something... I'm going to nab his dough recipe.

HOME MADE PIZZA!!!


We had our first official date on Saturday. He introduced me to geocaching. This is an ultimately geeky but totally awesome hobby... What happens is you go online and find co-ordinates that you program into a GPS. Then you go out and hunt for the mystery "cache" or box. Inside you find a log of the people who have found it, then you find miscellaneous toys and trinkets that people have left behind. You write a note and leave something new or exchange it for something already there. Anything you find is free for the taking. Then you re hide the cache back in its spot so somebody else can find it. It's like treasure hunting for grownups. I LOVED IT!!! We went all over town and found FOUR caches. The last of the four was found at Red Rocks. A beautiful area on the edge of a scree covered slope overlooking the water.





The next day we went to the zoo:

Cotton-Top Tamarins:


Funny Signs:




Good Company:


RED PANDAS!!!!!

These guys were so cute. They bumbled around like koalas, but without the hooked hands so they could amble around on land. We saw them in the mid afternoon which is when they are most active. SO COOL. I WANT ONE!! I guess I'll just HAVE to go to Nepal now, seeing as how that is where they are from.



When I was researching for my trip to New Zealand, the Wellington Zoo was on my list of places to go. These guys were on the top of my list for animals to see.



Yup. So Ryan and I have been pretty much inseparable since. He's a really great guy. We have very similar senses of humour. We have a lot of interests in common too. He is an awesome cook! I just... he's just.... I don't know where he came from, but I think I'll keep him around for a while. I wish you could all meet him. Maybe someday you will?

Miss you all!

Take care.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Ketchup-Catch up

Photo post:

Luging in Rotorua. You pay to get to the top on the gondola, then you get free rides back up on the ski lift after you luge down! It was an awesome day. Definitely value-for-money as Sam and Julie might say.

Rotorua Luging

That's Dave in the front car with Julie. He was in our dorm room and joined us for the day of hill racing. He is from England. SO MANY BRITS HERE!!

Rotorua Luging

On the way to Taupo, we whitewater rafted. We didn't pay for the picture CD. I wish I had now, but to keep with my theme, NO REGRETS. It was a blast, but highly commercialized. I wish the river was longer and wilder.

No pics posted from Taupo, though they do exist. We stayed there three days doing nothing other than rock climb and minigolf while we awaited clear skies for skydiving. The stray bus continued on to Wellington on one of the hottest days we'd seen in a while. Luckily, the air conditioning on the bus had broken as well. It was also the day we got to check out a bunch of geothermal activity. Ya, that's right. Kerosene Creek, a naturally heated stream, aka Hot water on a hot day:

Kerosene Creek on a hot day

We also stopped and saw bubbling mud, but yet again, no pics to post at the moment... I only loaded so many and now I don't have the cd with me.

Next up:

I think this is the worlds largest waterfall... as in the most amount of water flowing from it, for its type or something. It's the world's largest something, but I can't remember what, it's definitely not the highest:

Long waterfall

Wellington, FINALLY. We arrived about two weeks ago. We partied hard when we got here. It was the first place we'd seen with a night life after 8 pm since we left Auckland! Here's the gang goofing off at the park:

Frank Kitts Park

Frank Kitts Park - Julie

Frank Kitts Park - Julie and Sam

Frank Kitts Park - Chantelle

We rode the Cable Car too, it is one of the big attractions in Wellington. It's like getting a piggy-back ride on an 80 year old granny. erm... but not:

Cable Car - Wellington

Cable Car - Wellington

It was late when we got to the top and to the Botanic Gardens. This is Wellington at dusk:

Wellington - View from the Botanic Gardens

We were just about to head into the gardens when we were distracted by voices from on top of this tree:

Tripping Tree - Botanic Gardens, Wellington

The tripping tree, they called it. It was full of young adults smoking and chatting and enjoying the view. It reminded of the tree in my grandma's front yard when we were growing up, in that you could sit on top of the branches and look out. Though the one in my grandma's yard was only about 4 metres high and didn't have anybody smoking in it.

Tripping Tree - Botanic Gardens, Wellington

Tripping Tree - Botanic Gardens, Wellington

Another view of Wellington from the Botanic Gardens:

Botanic Gardens, Wellington

Once my gaggle of friends disappeared to the south island... sad... I signed up with a temping agency and on my way over I saw this in the bay:

Behind the Museum, Wellington

He was just gliding along the surface in slow motion. He was so calm and cool. I have never seen a stingray in the wild before.

Despite the disappearance of great people. I have made new friends since. This is Nick from England, but he is now a kiwi, Anke from Netherlands, and Neil from NZ:

Shooters Bar, Wellington

The boys are still here in Wellington, but Anke has continued on to Napier.

This last weekend was SEVENS weekend. It was huge! it's a huge two-day Rugby event in which teams from all around the world come to compete. It is a fast paced game, 15 min instead of 80 and you play 7 players against 7 players. It is like speed rugby on Crack!! so exciting! I didn't have tickets, but I got to watch some on TV. In addition to a lot of Rugby excitement, there is also a huge two day party where everybody dresses in costume and roams the streets of Wellington. I didn't get to many shots of costumes, but it was crazier than any halloween I have seen before. Flintstones, cowboys, Borats gallore!! Here are a few shots to show how busy the city was:

Courtenay Place, Wellington

Courtenay Place, Wellington

You have to realise that this is a street that is usually only dotted with a few groups of people this late at night. It was about 2:30 am and I was on my way home!!! can you imagine what it was like at its peak? Too much for me. I had to go home and sleep! But it was crazy fun while it lasted. I am glad I made new friends for it.

This is my good friend Miriam from Germany, we went to the beach together yesterday and had a blast laying in the sun and treating ourselves to FOUR DOLLAR FISH AND CHIPS!!! They were delicious and the serving was HUGE!!!! That's like $3.30 Canadian. I should have taken a photo. This photo is actually from two days ago when we walked around town enjoying the day:

Crystal and Miriam, Wellington

We also walked through civic centre, where this famous centrepiece (everybody takes photos of it) lives:

Civic Centre, Wellington

Civic Centre, Wellington

and that brings me to today. Waitangi day. It is a national holiday here in NZ. What a perfect day to try and do some job hunting! haha. Wish me luck!!





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