So finally i get to New Zealand! I am just so excited to be here! I arrived into Auckland at 3pm on Friday afternoon. I then got an internal flight straight down to Wellington - where my Big brother and his lovely girlfriend tash met me at the airport!

At one point i thought i might not get down to Wellington because when i landed in Auckland i realised that i had printed out the email confirmation of my working visa but i had not prite out the paper copy of my actual visa!! oh how typical! Anyway - i explained my dizziness to the immigration people and they were so cool about it and said that it isnt a real prolem because my visa and details will be on their systemand if they need to check anything then they can! yey!

I headed into theairport terminal and then collected my bags. They came out onto the carousl pretty quickly and mine were some of the first out. However - as my backpack came trundliing round towards me - what do i see......its open!! Not totally all open with anything falling out but the lid was unclipped and flipped back. Oh dear! i thought. I wasnt sure what i should do but i always remember my uncle telling me that you shouldnt touch an open bag - always go and get a secrity dude to get your bag off the carousel....so i did. I have to say my heart was beating a bit faster - i didnt know what to think. The security man was really nice though; he just put my baggage on a trolley and directed me towards the baggage service counter. The staff just got me to check my bag to see if anything was missing; i was told that unless anything had been taken they didnt need to make a report. I was actually more worried that someone may have put something into my bag! Anyway - everything was just fine - it must have been the baggage handlers that were a bit rough!! haha! My flight had got in early so it was only 3.25pm, i wasn't due to fly to Wellington until 7pm! I love airports anyway so spending a bit of time in a new ne was cool!! haha! i was starving too - so i thought food and a bit of people watching would be good! I had to walk about 1Km to get from the international arrivals bit to the domesic departures terminal. When i went outside i was expecting it to be quite cold - but it wasnt - it was really mild! The domestic departres was a nice building - a lt smaller but it was set out so that you could check your baggage in whenevr and then stay in the terminal because as soon as you went through to the gates there was nothing there - just the gate! So iwent to get rid of my baggage -and....i had to pay for excess baggage - i guess thats fair enough on such a small flight! $55NZD. The girl at the check in counter was quite sweet - she was asking if i was travelling and where i had been - she then went to ask her manager if she still had to charge me cos id been away travelling and that was wy i had so much baggage! haha! It didnt work - i still had to pay but no worries!!!!!!!!!!!

I was ridiculously excited and wanted to enjoy the airport but i just wanted to see my brother! The time passedpretty quick. We were a little late in setting off - it was a smoth fight until we cam to land in Wellington! Windy Wellington! Anyway it was a quick move to get off and i thought i would have to get my bags and then go through to arrivals ...but you actually walk traight into the arrivals hall and get baggage later! So i was looking for my bags and J and Tash were standing right beside me!! It was so so so cool to see them - big big hugs all round!!!!! Lucky again - mine were the first bags onto the carousel soJ picked them both up and off we went - god bless him he was trundling ahead with my 2 big bags and i was chatting away with Tash - we had a lot to catch up on!!

On Friday evening (13th) Jand Tash cooked dinner while i was 'settling in'! Their apartment is lovely and i have my own room -it was decorated with pink balloons when i got there and i had a little card too - it was so cute; me thinks it was Tash who did the balloons! They both wrote in my card; Tash's message was a nice welcome, J's went soemthing like....Monday - dishes, tuesday - laundry, Wenesday cleaning....... hahaha! We had a bottle of red wine with Dinner and j's best mate Krip came round for a few drinks - which with J turns into a few more; just as you take the end of your last drink he has another one open for you - so you can ...have just one more..' Friday is generally a quiet night though becasue the boys play football on saturday's. Tash was telling me that there are 3 days of hell when a match is lost! J and Krip sit at the tabl with thesalt and pepper (as players) to decide why the game was lost and where it 'broke down' needless to say they are never the players to blame!! haha! We all got to bed by 2am ish...!

Satuday (14th) morning J was working at 8am - i never heard him leave; i didnt wake up until he got home at 11.15!! unusual for me! Tash and i planned to go and watch the boys play football later that afternoon. Before that though we decide to goout for a walk - it was a beautiful day and Tash showed meround the city. We went for somelunch too at a cute little cafe. 2.5 hours later we realised the time and realised that we were only going to get the second part of the second half of the match!! oops! wehad been sitting and chatting. Anyway when we arrived J's team was losing 2 nil with 10 minutes to go! hmm.

I got to meet the team coaches Gaz (one of J's good mates - was a player last season) and Keith (older guy who is from Scotland - lovely). After the match the players went to the club for a drink and for the fines to be handed out!! haha! Tash and me headed back home. We were all going to a party in the evening. It was a house party at Neru's house. Neru is J and Krips boxing coach. Krip picked us all up as he was driving. It wasnt a long drive - but a very hilly one! Neru's house is way up on top of the hill and the view out across Wellington is just fantastic! It was a nice house and Neru seemed like a really nice guy. On the introductions though i think he missed the bit where J said i was his sister because later on he came to talk to me and said '...oh english accent? where abouts are you from? how come you'reover here?' it was so funny Krip and j were laughing loads - where did Neru think the random englsh girl at his party had come from!!!!!!

The party was a lot of fun - Neru is also a dj, so he had all the speakers set up and was playing cheesy disco sets! Tash and me were dansing and so were a lot of the other ladies there - pretty soon te front room was the dance floor and all the men were outside round the bonfire drinkig beer and wine!! haha!

There was one older lady there; Deb.....