Hi Everyone,

Well ok yes it has been quite a while since I last wrote anything on here after Melbourne.

I arrived in New Zealand back on the 10th Feb and been busy working ever since.After a week of visiting agencies I landed a 5 month contract at the Victoria University Wellington doing admin in their facilities management section. It been bit of a tough job…not the work so much but more the section I work in has quite few problems and issues between different members of staff. This does not make for a happy office environment and I am debating staying the whole 5 months or not.

For a while I stayed at the Cambridge hotel, which has a hostel section to it.Although being back in dorms took a bit of getting used to it was a great place to meet new people and it probably is one of the friendliest places I have stayed at this entire trip. I have now moved out of the hostel and into a private rental about 10 min walk from where I was previously.Still really handy location as it is near town and on the bus route to work.

Met a lot of new people through the hostel and stayed in contact with them even though I have moved out. We often all meet up on a Wednesday night to do the quiz at the Cambridge Bar.I am really enjoying living in Wellington and can understand why a lot of people move to NZ from the UK.Wellington is such a lovely place and quite small considering it is the capital of NZ. I love walking along the harbour of a weekend and seeing what is going on. One thing you have to get used to in the Wellington wind…ohhh….my…..gosh this is serious wind. When the wind comes up from the south it is sooooo cold you feel like you freeze in the spot.It is just relentless on windy days and is so strong it makes walking a bit of a challenge sometimes!There is quite a bit to do here and although I have been here 2 month there is still quite a bit I want to see.

I have managed to get out of Wellington on two occasions, first time to Martinborough and then more recently to Napier. Martinborough is just over an hour away over a mountain range called the Rumatukas which makes for interesting driving (my dad would have had a field day!).Pretty little wine area and I happened to visit the weekend of a huge craft fair - the largest in NZ. I love crafts fairs so I was in my element especially with all the jewellery.

I returned from Napier yesterday as spent the long Easter weekend there. Napier is the Art Deco Capital of NZ after majority of the down town area was rebuilt after the largest earthquake in NZ history flattened the area back in 1931. It was a strange but lovely place as it all seemed a bit artificial. A group of friends joined us in Napier and we all stayed in the same hostel and then went on a wine tour of the area. The really do like there wine here in NZ and some of it is amazing. Visiting Napier was also a chance to meet up with an old friend of mine who I did my MSc with back in Bournemouth. Heli has lived out here for 2 years and now has temporary residency. Heli lives in an old farm building in the middle of no where and has the most beautiful view outside her window of the mountains. It was so good to catch up with her and chat about all the good old times at uni. I hope to see her again before I leave especially as she is expecting identical girl twins come July!

I spent the rest of the time in Napier exploring different view points, soaking in the hot salt water thermal pools and getting up early one morning to see the sunrise. Napier is meant to be one of the first places in the world to see the dawn each new morning. It was definitely worth getting up early for as it was very spectacular.

Really enjoying NZ so far and very much aware that time is ticking fast toward my return to the UK on the 18th November. NZ is a very beautiful place and very excited about seeing more of it come August and the October when I get to explore the rest of the North Island and then the South. It is very much like the UK might have been 30 years ago so to me a lot of NZ seems quite dated. Over Easter the shops were completely closed Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday morning. So different to the UK were everything is pretty much open 24-7. In a way it was quite nice as it meant everyone had the same days off and it really felt like a holiday.

Don't have any more major travels planned until August but from then on it is pretty much travel non stop. First North Island, then a week in Fiji island hopping. After this Mum and Dad come to visit for the Rugby World Cup and to see me so will be spending about 2 weeks travelling around with them. Before I head home then I plan to see the South Island in late Oct - early November when the weather is better.

I am finding NZ a lot cheaper then Australia and feel like money goes a lot further over here. All in all glad I came to NZ 3 month before I planned.Can't believe I only have 6.5 months left, time has gone so quickly but also excited to come home as there is a lot to come home to.

Bye for now and I promise not to leave it two month before I write again!

Rhi xx