First Weekend!!

April 12-14th

Friday during the day Kel and I took the bus and walked around Wellington all day. We met up with our friend Zach from high school who has been living down here for two years. He played tour guide and showed us all the good spots!! Kel took some pictures and we'll be uploading those soon. After a long day of walking around and playing tourist, we took the bus back up the hill to Lower Hutt and met up with Fiona and Sam. It was one of their friends birthdays that evening, so we got ready to go hit the town up. We drove back into Wellington (about 20 mins -- comparable of Bellevue to Seattle or a bit further) and went to a restaurant like Benni Hannas where they cook the food right in front of you. It was fun! And the average price per meal was $30... but since Kel and I are on a budget we ordered the two least expensive appetizers and came to $20 total for both of us!! We were quite proud. From there we went to an Irish Pub called Molly Malone's.... good name.... A friend bought the first round for us and we stayed for a beer until I began to yawn uncontrollably and Kel pointed out that my eyelids were half open! Guess the jet lag is worse than I thought! The pub was fun though, and I can see us going back there. They had a live cover band, which shockingly, played the majority of American music. Oh, and Kel was getting chatted up by a local who apparently thought we were 'dumb Americans' and kept trying to say the songs they were singing were all New Zealand songs... Kel kept leaning over to me saying "This is the White Stripes, right?" or "I'm pretty sure this is Pearl Jam... and they're from Seattle, which is in America" What an idiot. Couldn't slip one past us!!

Saturday - Kel and I rose at 7:30am.... while Fi and Sam slept in past 10 (lucky)! They have a great room here at the house which looks out to beautiful rolling hills and sheep dotted across the green grass, and its our favorite room to be in!! So early in the morning we sit out there with our cup of tea and read the books we brought down with us. Once Fi and Sam woke up, it turned out Sam had food posioning and would end up sleeping the rest of the day. We had planned to take a hike over to the sheep on the opposing hill, but since Sam was ill we had to cancel. Kel and I continued to read and eventually went out to the front lawn since it was a glorious day (as they all have been so far). I'd say mid-60s or so. Afternoon rolled around and Fi invited us to go to the neighborhood pool to swim. Since we are rather stuck at the house, we decided to go on this adventure! We got down to the pool and it was HUGE and packed with children. We realized we were the only adults there with no kids to care for. This pool had a giant slide to go down into the pool, as well as a rope that kids could swing out from. Kel, Fi and I played around for a few hours then decided to go home. Sam was feeling a bit better and it was his nephews birthday, so they went out to dinner to celebrate while Kel and I stayed back to cook veggie burgers. Then we got ready to go to a house warming party of a couple that work at the school I will be working for!! We went to the house in Upper Hutt - about 20 minutes north of Lower Hutt, which again is 20 mins north of Welly. At the party we got to meet 10 or 15 teachers from the school which was really nice because i start there tomorrow so I'll have a head start on the names!! Kel and I really enjoyed ourselves there. The people are very laid back and fun!! Once again around midnight my eyelids started dragging so Fi initiated the move home.

Sunday - Kel and I slept in until 8:30 this morning!!! Then did our usual routine of reading in the lounge area. Around 11 we decided to walk down to the Dairy - which is the neighborhood convienent store. We headed down and took our time - maybe a 10 min walk down the hill - then browsed around the store looking for unusual things to get! Today we settled on Balsamic Vinegar and Onion chips! They are really good! Then I wanted a taste of home so I got a 12oz can of Diet Coke - which was $1.50... that will be a rare treat for me! : ) Then Kel and I made the hike back up to the house - they live on a very large hill! Once we arrived back home, we wanted to make home made hummus so we started that up in the food processor and it turned out really well!! Fiona was getting home from Church as we were starting on my homemade Minestrone Soup for dinner tonight. She did some errands and my Sous Chef Kelly and I finished the soup. Once we were all set to go we headed up to do the hike we planned on doing yesterday. We took off around one and didn't finish the hike until a bit after four!!! It was a lot longer than we all had been planning on!
I can't wait until we get the pictures off of kellys camera to show you how amazing this hike was!!! We started up on what i would consider a normal hike, a little trail with forest/bush surrounding you. And as we went higher the bush cleared out and we started walking along a pasture. It was the same area that we stare at every morning!! Although, as we were walking and passing cows and sheep every few feet, I kept waiting to see a Cowboy ride up on his horse and start yelling at us to get off his land! Apparently though, that doesn't happen down here.
As soon as the photos are up, it'll give you a better idea of what it looked like. But it was hard work, and amazing journey to see. At one point on the hike we were able to see both the bay in wellington and the other side of the island where the Tasmania Sea is! It was beautiful!!! We could also see far enough to see the south island.
We got home and started up the soup to reheat and Fi made homemade rolls for us. It was delicious!! We put on Dave Matthews in the background as we ate and chilled out from such a glorious day!

Tomorrow I get to start at my new school!!! SO excited to meet more coworkers, my students and see the school! I'll be sure to update more as I can and hopefully will have many fun stories to share!!
Love and miss you all.