Loving Life

Lilly Caitlin's Lamb

First of all, I can not begin to express just how much I am enjoying my time in New Zealand. I apologize for taking so long to leave a post but let me remind you that this is not a weekly blog like my other one. I have been meaning to write for a long time it is not a lack of time thing but a lack of motivation. The last month (yes I have already been here for over a month) has been great but extremely intense. Between trying to settle into my routine, strengthen new relationships, maintain old ones via the internet, enjoying this country and wrapping my mind around the fact that I have left Germany I have not been in the mindset to reflect. And don't even get me started on the stress of preparing for University from the other side of the world. I haven't even had the mental energy to write in my personal journal so please give me a break and try not to nag me on this :)

Even though things are stressful I am proud to report that my days are filled with complete happiness. My days are filled with a lot of relaxation, exercise, silly games, laughter and Bop It (the electronic game that I have become champion at). I cant begin to tell you how well I get on with my new host family. Conversation flows easily, we laugh a lot, talk about everything and are able to just hang out together. In the beginning it was a little bit hard with the kids as they were still sad about the last au pair leaving, but they have warmed up to me and they are just awesome kids.

I absolutely love living here, the yard is amazing, there is nothing better then sitting down for dinner and knowing that everything I am about to eat is from the backyard. The fact that the people of NZ are so laid back and easy going, there is no rush for anything and not much to really worry about. I have joined a gym and a pilates class. I work out everyday and run around Hamilton Lake three times a week, after this long time of traveling I have felt better about myself then I ever had. My whole outlook on life has changed and I am really happy with where I am at.

I am pretty sure everyone by now has heard about the horrible earth quake that happened a week ago today. It has truly devastated the entire country, and every single person on these islands have been impacted including me.

To catch you up on all the awesome things I have been doing:
The weekend of 11-13- On Friday I went over to my friend Rosie's house, we met back in language class in Oldenburg. It was great to see her and to be around a familiar face. That night I joined her and her friends to a costume party and had a blast. I consider myself pretty lucky to have Rosie. Tourists are so common here it is very hard to get to know kiwi people so to know an insider makes me pretty lucky! Out of all the au pairs that I have met so far (even the ones who have almost been here a year) haven't had an experience like that where they are only with kiwi people.

Krista, Erin, myself and a piece of Rosie-Raglan

The next day I went out with a German au pair Claudia. She is really nice but unfortunately leaving on Monday. We had a good time and it was nice to finally experience the night life of Hamilton.

On the drive to Katikati stopped for the view =)

On Sunday Rosie called me up and asked if I wanted to go to the beach, obviously I wasn't going to say no. Rosie, two of her friends Erin and Krista and I. Drove the 35mins to the west coast to a town called Raglan for fish and chips and a swim. It was amazing! Absolutely beautiful and I had no idea that I was actually so close to the ocean!

Finally made it! the top of the Mount

Weekend of the 18-19-(East coast time!) Matt and Karen went to Wellington to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary. I drove to Katikati with the kids to Karen's parents place. They are the nicest people ever and have a beautiful home. The have an Avocado orchard and a Palm tree nursery. I stayed with them for the weekend. On the Saturday I drove to Tauranga Kay or Nana had packed a lunch for me and maps prepared. I started the day by checking out the city center, then climbing the Mount,

the funny little Katikati museum

when I climbed the mount I met an English woman named Claire who was roughly my moms age give or take a few years. She was amazing! I swear that it felt like I was talking to my future self. At the bottom of the mount she told me that she thought the same thing, she said she had the most overwhelming feeling that she had just climbed a mountain with her younger self. A completely bizarre but amazing experience for the both of us. I spent the afternoon eating my lunch and lounging on the beach, burning to a crisp with an occasional dip in the water. At around four I was joined by a couch surfer local Olivia. She was awesome and we had quite a few laughs, I ended up going to her house and joining her family for dinner. After dinner we went to town and met with a french couch surfer Leny. We had a good night and it was cool to have another great experience couchsurfing.

Caitlin and Nana Kay

On Sunday Kay, the kids and myself went had a look around Katikati, had an extremely bizarre time at the museum with a guided tour by an 85 year old blind and deaf couple(really quirky but I loved every minute of it) and ended off out visit with mini,golf. It was an awesome weekend and I hope to go back there at some point before my time here is done.

Feb 22- Christchurch Earthquake

the Rocky Horror Picture Show viewers

Weekend of 24-27 On the 24th I went to the Hamilton gardens to see Rocky Horror Picture show with a few other aupairs, none of us had seen it before and I think we all had an awesome time although some of the German girls were blown away as they were unaware of the movies theme.

Jenny the German, Laura the Canadian and Stef the Danish

On the 25th I went out and got the full Hamilton experience for the first time it was awesome and the whole group of us had a blast. On the 26th the same group of us went out again this time as me as the sober driver, I loved it even more, the bars in Hamilton are great and I think I will be the sober driver often because it is insanely expensive here. On Sunday I once again joined Rosie and her friends in Raglan for a day at the beach where I majorly chickened out over diving off a bridge. My freak out was also caught by a local news crew who were filming the last days of summer and interviewed this "weak Canadian" as I panicked haha. Maybe I wont be making it out of that plane in Queenstown ;)

Raglan!! 35 mins away =)

Funny NZ slang.
tea- supper
Togs-bathing suit
Bench-kitchen counter
Gandals-flip flops
Boot and Bonnet- trunk and hood
kiwi- New Zealander
Singlet- tank top
Jersey- Literally anything you can put on that will make your upper halve warmer, long sleeves t-shirt sweater etc.
reckon- I reckon/I think
Power cut- power outage
mean-the equivalent to Canadian slang sick
Far out- haha my host dad Matt says this all the time.
"AS"- hard to explain but probably my favorite one that I have definitely already adopted into my vocab. I guess it means very. You could say, sick as, sweet as, mean as, grumpy as, sore as. Its just funny.

and many more that I know I am forgetting.

Raglan; fish and chips

Until next time =)

Coromandel and the Bay of Islands.

Nic and I at Coramandel

 Well I suppose I have a lot to catch everyone up on. I have been loving my time here so far. My first couple of days were focused, on sleep, getting to know the family and just settling. I practiced driving a few times which is not that bad. It rained most of the time and then on Monday morning Karen, Nicolas and I headed up to Coramandel to go camping at the caravan. Caitlin was spending time with a friend and Matt had to work. We had a lot of fun, ate a ton of sea food, went snorkeling twice, kayaking and swimming everyday it was great. By the end of day 1 I was burnt to a crisp but other then that everything went great. It was amazing to see how comfortable I was with staying in this tiny little space with people I hardly know. I didn't feel uncomfortable at all and conversation flowed easily. I already feel a lot more relaxed in NZ than I was feeling in Germany. For one I can understand everyone at all times and second, the people here are very laid back and their mentality is a lot more similar to Canadians. It is much easier for me to guess the outcome in situations and to kind of use my intuition where as in Germany everything was kind of up in the air.

Sam and I had beers every night at the Duke, this was our view from the Patio

After a great couple of days Karen took me to Orewa to hop on a bus to visit my good friend Sam in Russell. I was so excited to see her and we had a LOT of fun. It was so great to catch up, to remember old times, and to see what she has been doing there for the past few months. We had a lot of fun, seeing the sights of Russell and the surrounding area. We hit up almost every restaurant her tiny historical town had to offer, we did a dolphin tour which was amazing we saw a lot of dolphins. I met a lot of her friends none of which are from NZ, I have a feeling that will happen a lot when traveling.
Russell was beautiful and Sam's host family owns the oldest hotel in NZ called the Duke. I could write pages of my weekend there but all I have to say was that it was amazing. Timing was perfect as I was starting to freak out, it was hitting me that my Germany days are behind me, so it was really nice to have a piece of Germany with me for a while.

Sam and I on the Dolphin Boat

Since returning back to Hamilton I have been driving a lot, hanging out with the kids and getting a hang of the new routine. Things so far are great! The kids start school next week which I am very excited for(having the hours off in the day will be awesome). Till then, Laura.