Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

Since I didn't have to work this weekend we took off for a little look around. The plan was to go to Hamilton (supposedly a 2.5-3 hour drive) and explore as well as check out Raglan - home to a world famous surf break. By the time we got packed up, turned back to get the pillows we forgot, stop to rearrange the surf rack we were getting to 6pm. So somewhere along the way we decided to go straight to Raglan rather than drive in the next day from Hamilton. So it was nearly 10pm when we got there but we had called ahead to a campground to book a site so we knew we could check in. We set up and went to sleep only to be woken before dawn by the roosters that live onsite! Unfortunately there was not much happening for surf so we drove out to Bridal Veil Falls where there's a 10-15 forest walk to get to the different viewing areas. It was pretty gorgeous. Then we kept driving the country roads to find a spot to stop for lunch. We found a little pull-off overlooking rolling hills whe...

Raglan: one of the longest lefts in the world. But it was not working today. Looking 55m down Bridal Veil Falls near Raglan Camping in Hamilton Statue in Hamilton On the way home through Otorohanga The Sheep Shearer in Te Kuiti

So it's now October and New Plymouth is more and more familiar. We keep making adjustments to our place so we're getting more comfortable there. (Little things like Dustin using his carpentry skills to make the doors and cupboards close properly...) I got a job on Friday. She called in the morning and I went in for an interview which was more of a "this is the job, please take it?" kind of meeting. They have a woman who was injured on the job and hasn't been able to return to full duties yet so they were really happy that I was just looking for something temporary. That way after a couple months she will be getting better and they won't have to employ someone who wants more work than they can offer. So far I've found them to be a great workplace and to be very supportive. I am working in a Retirement Village in a suburb up the highway called Bell Block. It maybe takes about 10 minutes to drive there, a bit more to come home since it's usually busier ...

As of tomorrow the GST here is increasing from 12.5% to 15% so all the stores have been pushing sales to "beat the GST rise." So we booked our ferry travel and paid our road user charges this week. The ferries were nearly booked up around the time we want to head South so it was a good thing to get it sorted. On our way back there was a lot of choice but we didn't want to leave it until later. The more decisions we can make up front, the fewer we have to make on the road. And if we learned anything last time, we learned that making heaps of small and large decisions every day wears on tired travellers. So we're on a later ferry going down and a morning ferry coming back. Hopefully one of them will have clear weather because on our previous trip it was a foggy, rainy day so we didn't get to marvel at the scenery. Yeah, since we drive a diesel we pay an extra fee which amounts to about 4 cents per kilometre and it's called road user charges. There isn't as m...

On Sunday afternoon we walked around the Lake Mangamahoe Circuit. It was about an hour and a half to hike it. This lake is only about 15 minutes away and I think it's more of a resevoir and dam for drinking water and power so it's not meant for boating and swimming. But there's nice picnic areas and it's nice and quiet - you can hear the birds singing and even their wings flapping. We figured we were going to get caught in the rain but it held off long enough for us to get back to the car just fine. The water level was so high that the bottom of the bridge was sitting in the lake. Calla lilies grow wild everywhere here! These flowers smell likes onions and then someone saw us looking at them and told us they are called Onion Weeds. We looked them up and they are like spring onions and you can eat them!

There is a big peak just in town so we decided to go hike it on Saturday. First you go up at least a hundred steps and then you hang onto a chain that's been mounted and climb up the rocky bits. It takes about 15-20 minutes to get up. It was a little scary up on the rocky parts because there's no real railings or anything if you lose your balance. But once you're up you can see out over the city! If it was a little bit clearer out it would have been even better. The view from the top Looking over the port and industrial areas towards the city There's our car! How did we get up here? That's the side that we climbed up This is the other side from down on the beach A waterfall on the beach... but then the battery died in the camera...

What a busy day it turned out to be! After making Dustin's lunch and seeing him off to work, I had breakfast and then started some chores. I was just finished cleaning the bathroom when the phone rang from a temp place (one I signed up with last week) for some work. I had all of 30 minutes to shower, make a lunch and walk the 15 minute walk to the office. Since another lady had to come get a timesheet at the office, I hopped a ride with her to the job site. It's a company that manufactures lumber and they also have a construction side. My task was to fill the knot holes with wood filler on finger-jointed beams. It was a long enough day to just do better than break even since I had to get steel-capped boots to work there! haha. But they have lots of different jobs and it sounds like they often call on this agency so hopefully I made a good impression and that they have other work for me down the line! But I've been to work and back and Dustin's still not home - although ...