Pictures from Auckland

So I will forewarn everyone that there aren't any pictures of me in here... with the humidity my hair wasn't exactly looking good and I didn't feel the need for the stretched arm self portrait. But I did promise some pictures of Auckland and so will deliver. :)

All in all it was a good trip and it served it's purpose. :) Someday I'll go back and be able to do more than just roam around Auckland and see more of what NZ really is all about.

A maori carving - this is like the tatoos they would have had back then

View from the Auckland Museum

University of Auckland's business school building - which puts the Australian School of Business to shame (UNSW's overall business school)

Clock which looks like it'd be a church but is the U of Auckland student building

The water front

A Good Day in Auckland

After going to be at an elderly time of 9PM (aka 7PM Sydney time) and sleeping till 8AM I was up and running after a tea and breakfast at the local coffee stand (which also happens to have free wifi). My plan of attack was to make my way to the Auckland Museum. Once I was off and walking I quickly realised one thing... Auckland has A LOT of hills. This obviously made my trek much more arduous. Slowly but surely I got there and was actually pretty impressed. Not only is the building pretty spectacular but the content was good as well!

View of the main entrance

The newer area of the museum

I found it interesting to see the similarity between the Native American artifacts and those found here. It's something which I'm surprised is never taught in American schools or even noted here. The majority of their artifacts are much like what you would find in an American museum with the main difference being in the use of leather versus natural fibers and other things which are inherent with the difference between island life and land life.

Additionally interesting was their use of non-traditional means to support their displays. They used live showcases for some of the animals and plants which were on display, and also used smell and sound in very interesting ways. As part of their orchid show they had a couple different stands where you pressed a button and it released a smell which you were then asked a question about.

After a good couple hours at the museum it was time to head off. I wandered through a trendy little area of town and wound my way back to the city center. Last night I'd scoped out a place which has proper taco salads and so was able to take advantage of that for dinner. After having talked for about 5 hours I felt I had earned a pedicure so treated myself to one.

While traveling by yourself can be okay it does suck during the evenings (especially when you are on a tight budget like I am) so I took advantage of "Tight Ass Tuesday" and saw The Proposal. After the movie I went back to try to get some sleep... unfortunately it must have been social night at the hotel and there was a group of drunks outside making quite a bit of noise. If I'd been a bit more awake or at least a bit drunk I would have joined... but playing catch up is never fun when you feel like the walking dead.

I left my camera cord in Sydney so will post pictures when I get back. The best news is my visa was approved and so today I have a day of relaxed shopping and other random bits aroudn the city.... I might catch another movie to burn time in the evening but we'll see.

Talk about Weird Accents...

So I've arrived safe and sound in Auckland. This is after getting 2.5 hours of sleep (probably less with the tossing and turning), getting to the airport at 5 only to find out the flight is delayed by 1.5 hours to let the crew sleep longer (am still jealous!), more delays enroute, and a quick cat nap on the bus into the city. The hotel I'm in is more of an upscale hostel, which suits my purpose. I have my own room with a stunning view of the construction site next door, small fridge and bathroom which I don't have to share with strangers.

My new visa for Australia is now lodged, so now I just have to sit pretty here and wait to hear back. Luckily it's all online so it should be pretty easy to facilitate. It's almost 5 here, so now the big question is how long I can stay vertical without starting to bump into walls. I might try to take a gander down the main strip and take a couple pictures for my next post. So far my first impression is that (like I've been told) there isn't much here but what they do have is actually alright. The only strange bit so far has been trying to figure out what the locals are saying - they have the weirdest accent - and having a girl give me a survey at the airport all about nuclear power and genetically modified foods - the underlying premise was would I still visit a country which use those things, considering I'm from one that does what do I care?

Anywhoo, will post more tomorrow as I actually have some fun things to update about now. :)

Auckland Here I Come!!

So a while back I identified another 12 month visa which I qualify which will allow me to do contract work... with my student visa running short I need to now switch to that visa. To do this I unfortunately have to apply for and be approved for the visa outside of Australia. So... Auckland here I come!! Not unfortunately this isn't the vacation or holiday which I would hope. Auckland was simply the cheapest flight outside of Australia. The weather won't be great - it's actually supposed to be pretty shitty weather - and there isn't much to do there. But this would put me in the position to start contract work and actually be able to starting having a justifiable income.

I will keep everyone updated as there won't be much going on so I'll update things as they go. Immigrations says the visa can take 2 hours, 2 days or longer to be activated for the visa.

Good Start to the New Year

The new financial year that is... Recent days, weeks, and months have been pretty quite in terms of the job front. This has been very frustrating as I'm qualified even without the MBA, but with it I'm surely qualified. However with the start of the new financial year things are looking a bit brighter. I had one interview yesterday and three today. These are in addition to the one position I'm already being considered for - where they are simply waiting for the contract to be finalised.

So now I just need to get all my visa stuff in order and make a quick jog over to New Zealand to switch to a longer visa. This visa will allow me to work for the next 12 months, hopefully with a sponsored position coming through in the next month or so which would allow me to stay for much longer. While the visa things are pretty important, I think the thing I'm looking most forward to is the prospect of having a real income again. Poco's cantina pays the rent but that's about it... Will keep everyone up to date but please keep your fingers, toes (and anything else you can) crossed that something comes through soon!

Time Management

I've had lots of time on my hands recently... You can only spend so much time productively job hunting each day so the rest of my time is left pretty much wide open. So I've managed to find a couple things to fill up the time.

One of things I miss from the US is the food channel... so to improvise I have found a solid 2 hour block of cooking shows on in the afternoon. First off is Ready Steady Cook - a show which I am trying to get onto and was supposed to be in the audience for. For some reason they canceled the taping so I am on hold till I hear back from them. :( This show is a competition between two chefs who are teamed with two audience members who bring in random ingredients. The chefs have to come up with a menu from the ingredients (which they don't know until the taping) and then have 20 minutes to make 4 dishes. After that the two chefs make 3 additional dishes from another set of ingredients in 10 minutes. It's fun to watch and they are quite entertaining.

Next up is Alive and Cooking. This show is a bit odd and the host is quite different, but its a cooking show nonetheless. After that is Huey's Cooking Adventures, where an older gentleman makes different dishes from different areas of Australia and the world. He is a bit of a Paula Dean without the extreme need to fry everything.

All of the shows use very Australian ingredients which aren't really used in the states so it's fun to see how they are prepared and used in cooking.

In the evenings my nights are a mix of basketball, work, relaxing and an occasional night of salsa dancing. I think I posted something about a year ago about this - but my flat mate dances as well so we've been going down on Thursday nights to put in a couple hours of dancing. It's been great so far, however our usual dance partner is moving to Perth so the next couple weeks might be interesting... hopefully we'll be able to find someone suitable to dance with that isn't too hideous. :)

First Official Day of Officiating! :)

Yes realise I have a previous post which talked about how that was my first weekend of officiating... that resulted in a very bitter me having woken up at 5:30, called the 'wet weather line' and being told the game were still one, traveling 1 hour to the fields only to find out the fields are closed because of the "rain" (it was sunny by the time I got there) and to top it off stepping in dog shit. So I've blocked that experience from my memory as much as possible and will now use today in its place.

I still had to get up at 5:30, but found a shortcut to the fields which will allow me 20 more minutes of sleep in the future (yay!). The games did go - granted it was freezing for the first two games - but it was really fun! The first game was for girls which were around 12-13 years old - which I was a side ref for - the second was for around 10-11 and I actually was the center ref. It was a pretty one sided game (the final score was 7-0) but I was given an 'A' from the guy watching and am now approved to ref harder games (which means more $$). The last game I was supposed to do the side but ended up being center for a completely other game (again more $$) and then ended with the side of the Aussie equivalent to Varisty game.

While I know this will sound cheesy but it was fun to ref the younger girls as I feel like I have a part in helping them learn the game. :) I won't comment on the state of the varsity teams soccer skills - but just say our JV would have killed them.

I've found some pictures of the fields I was at as I know people like pictures. Will keep you posted on how everything goes in coming weeks!

This picture makes the fields look much nicer than they are - but this is where all the little girls play

This is where the big kids play - and is actually in the center area of a greyhound race track of all places....