Ally & Suzy's Blog

This week was filled with early morning rises and plenty of kung-fu baby kicks. A good week all round, with lots getting done on both the job front and the getting out and about front. I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at job interviews. One of which I have already got a job offer from, the other two I am waiting on a response, but I won’t hear till later next week so I’m not worried – I think that all of the interviews went well.

On Tuesday night I took Suzy to the Carpark pub which is at the Viaduct, just off the Auckland Quay. I went there earlier with Joey and it seemed like a nice place to go and have a relaxing drink, plus it’s got a happy hour from 4 to 7pm, five bucks a drink (around £2.40 a beer) is more like a reasonable price to pay for a beer. On Tuesday it was pub quiz night and although we started very poorly, we came a respectable fourth at the end of the night. I thank my dad for installing knowledge of Gustav Holst in me from a young age, as I don’t think there was anybody else who knew that answer in the bar but me. Hurrah for Mars, the bringer of war (oh I’m such a geek)!

By the time Thursday rolled along, I was in good sprits from the successes of the last three days interviewing, but it was nice to relax. We went to the Auckland Art Gallery up on the high street which was nice. I am now limited to taking Suzy places that have public toilets now as she has to go every fifteen minutes. I have become very accustomed to browsing through gift shops and newsagents whilst Suzy takes a toilet stop! I walked through some of Aucklands more refined streets and I swear I could have been in Venice or some quaint Italian town as the streets off the High street gave way to small courtyards with fountains and other features, the roads turned to cobbled grounds and opened up into pedestrian-only walkways. Gone were the 20th century rules that stated that all modern towns must be created straight, small vennels and courtyards appeared and quaint continental bars, bistros and brasseries appeared at every turn, all with smiling waiters and waitresses welcoming you to their establishments. I wish I took the camera, but I guess you would have to be there to truly appreciate it. Perhaps I’ll get some photos some time soon. A note to Jeanette: I have already marked out a rough tour for you on a nice summers day when you arrive, every time I saw a quaint coffee shop, or Suzy shouted out ‘There is so and so shop, mum loves that shop!’ (it happens a lot!), I thought of how much you would enjoy it here, so depending upon when you get here I really hope that we will be able to manage at least one day for ‘Jeanettes Auckland Tour’  We rounded off the afternoon with a wiener from a lovely wiener stand down at the Quayside and I got talking to the proprietor of the stand, a lovely chatty woman from, of all places, Edinburgh! We walked home and got settled in for some serious TV watching, of course, my favourite show, Police 10-7 and Motorway Patrol

Friday signaled some pretty awful weather, the rain came on and off all day long and there was a little chill in the air, so for the first time in a long time I almost reminisced about Scotland, after all, when it rains here it’s usually warm rain, and it goes off within five minutes or so. I know which rain I prefer!

Suzy by the tram at MOTAT

On Saturday, I woke up early, as I had been all week, so hopefully my body clock has now accustomed it’s self to waking up at pre-9am now, which is a good thing if I am to start back at work! I phoned Symon around 11.30ish as he had suggested we meet up again on the weekend. The weather was beautiful but in my earnest desire to get out and about, I hadn’t appreciated that other people like to sleep in on a Saturday, Symon included. I woke him up with the phone call (sorry!), and after a bit of umming-and-awwing about what we would do, I plucked for a day out at MOTAT, Auckland Museum of Transport and Technology which is just off the Great North Road. Suzy was over the moon at this too because it provided copious toilet stops and she is also a secret train spotter (hahah). Symon, who is also a Mechanical Engineer like Suzy, works for Air New Zealand and he relishes any opportunity to see planes. I like the transport museum in Glasgow so if this was anything similar, I knew I’d like it as well. When we got there, I could tell I was instantly going to like it, because it’s about ten times the size of the Glasgow one and is situated over two sites (with the Auckland Zoo in between them). You get between the sites via a free (and fairly lengthy) old-fashioned tram ride which all adds to the experience. There were tons of things to see and do there, from getting up close to some old cars, trains, planes and agricultural equipment to seeing all the previous entrepreneurial spirit of this small

Suzy & Symon at the MOTAT Flight museum

nation. I particularly enjoyed the Telephone room, you got to sit in a telephone exchange and watch the rotary arms select numbers and lines from the old mechanical exchange equipment as it rang another actual telephone. To think that these systems were in place even in the UK from the 1950s right up until the late ’80s was pretty funny as they looked so archaic. Going further back in time, there were the old switchboards, complete with plug-in cables, flashing lights, buttons and dials. Entry to the museum was free for the entire month if you were an Aucklander, so for the price of the bus fare out there, it was a pretty full day of fun. We finished up around 4pm and Symon very generously offered to take us out for another trip to the Waitakere Ranges. This time we visited the Arataki Visitor Centre, unfortunately by the time we got there the weather had drawn in as it had been forecast for some rain later on in the day so the photos you will see are somewhat overcast. It did not, however subtract from the fact that the views there were absolutely stunning and remains a perfect reminder that you really are in sub-tropical climbs. The ground below was matted by a bed of palm, fern and fauna that I had never seen before. I can’t wait to get up there again towards the summer and take a sunnier photo, hopefully I’ll have a decent camera by then as well! If you haven’t been to the visitor centre, or visited the ranges before, I strongly recommend it if you can get out there.

Waitakere Ranges

With all the fresh air, I started to get pretty sleepy come five o’clock, but we pressed on and headed out with Symon to a Mexican Restaurant called Mexican Cafe which is in the city centre, just over the road from the Sky Tower. We arrived about half an hour before the end of happy hour, so we got $4 drinks until we could be seated – the place was crammed. It seems like everyone else in Auckland had the idea to come to this place. We could soon see why; the food was inexpensive but first rate. I had tacos and Suzy and Symon had a ‘fat bastard’ plate (well, I think that was the Spanish to English translation!). Their plate contained Two chicken or beef enchiladas as well as a large Taco, refried beans, rice and a salad. Don’t forget that we started the meal off with a massive plate of beef nachos which were de-vine! Not bad for $40 per head including 3 drinks each (about £18). Whilst I was there Symon and I pushed aside the gay-ness factor and plumped for two passionfruit margaritas alongside our beers. Boy-oh-boy, were they girly, but man they were tasty!

By 8pm I was feeling shattered. I mean properly shattered, so I headed home and by 9.15 I was tucked up in bed and fast asleep. What a saddo (or as Symon says, I fagged out!). Symon did not share my tiredness and although he admitted just 15 minutes prior that he couldn’t eat another morsel after the Tex-mex, he was busy ordering donuts from Dunkin’ Donuts whilst he waited on his bus home. A feat even I couldn’t achieve. I hope your consolation for not having a late night out was worthy enough!

Well, that about sums up this week. See you all next time!

Manly Margaritas in the Mexican Cafe!

This week was a real settling in week. I think we have both completed our realisation that we are now living in New Zealand and that it’s not a dream, we really are here! In the past weeks I’ve often got up in the morning and started to brush my teeth, only to say to myself mid-brush ‘Hey, I’m in New Zealand!’. As firmly footed as both Suzy and I are, you can’t help but get a little carried away at the beginning. We are now firmly in the grips of reality. The usual weekly duties of shopping, taking the trash out and cleaning up are all the routine. We also spent a little time on a budgeting website this week to keep our finances in check, Suzy pulling in the reins where my spending is somewhat irresponsible at times.

We pretty much resigned ourselves this last week to staying in the house. The weather was pretty so-so all week and I was concentrating on lining up more interviews. I had an interview with Vero, which although went well, turned out not to be a role that I would work well in, so I think we mutually agreed that the role wasn’t for me. I touched base again with the folks up the road whom I talked about before and I set a date with them (Thursday) to go visit them again. This is a ‘meet the team’ visit, which is nice and cosy and seems like a positive step towards a job offer (I hope). I’ll find out more on the 19th.

The latest news on the job front is from a job I applied for on Wednesday. The turnaround this time was in 2 business days, so I am pleased at that. The initial phone interview was brief but went well and I just got word that I’m going in for a full interview on Wednesday morning. This role is definitely up my street, and might actually turn out better than the one I talked about above. Wish me yet more luck!

On Saturday I went to Piha Beach with Symon. Suzy was feeling a little tired and peeky so went back to bed whilst we toured down to the coast in the afternoon. The weather on Saturday wasn’t great. Heavy rain in the morning, followed by high winds (but no rain) in the afternoon. The view from the top of the hill, overlooking the Piha Beach area was stunning, the weather front rolling over the bay. In the distance, the Tasman sea glimmered where the weather front ended and the sun shone through. Even although the day was filled with poor conditions, the views there were just spectacular. Down at the beach were surfers, and an old man who waded up to his thighs in the water, so I guess it’s not -that- cold, but I wasn’t chancing it! The surf was unlike any I had ever seen in Scotland before, so I can certainly see why the Tasman sea is such an attraction for surfers.

The beaches on the west coast are all dark in colour. They look more like tar than sand at some points because of all the volcanic activity in the area, probably a Geologists dream! The East coast has more of the golden beaches which you see in the holiday brochures, or so I’m reliably informed. I’ll get to check that out soon enough, but patience must permit first!

We ended the night by grabbing a few DVDs from Symons house and a KFC Bucket (first time in a very long time) before heading back to the house where Suzy, Symon and I scoffed and watched a couple of films. Good day, good company, what more could I ask for!

Another busy week lies ahead of me on the interviewing front. I really hope I can start securing jobs instead of talking to people about them in the not too distant future!

Saturday saw the return of the All Blacks to the Tri-Nations test matches once more, this time to take on the Wallabies in Melbourne. Some Kiwis might have been a little apprehensive that we were no longer playing on home soil, but that didn’t concern the Hakka Squad as they trounced the Aussies 49-28. Suzy, Symon, Tristan (a work mate of Symon’s) and I went to a sports bar called Foxies at the Viaduct. It was rammed. Seriously rammed, but I guess that all added to the atmosphere as the place just erupted when the All Blacks scored try after try. Another great night, another bunch of beer pitchers depleted. Whoopsie!

Symon said that he wondered if I wanted to come along to see the pretty famous Aussie band ‘The Temper Trap‘ on Monday night. He had a spare ticket going free. I asked him if the Pope was a Catholic. The performance was excellent, and their support act, a bunch of Aucklanders, although fairly fresh faced, sounded pretty damn good as well, so keep your ears and eyes out for a band called ‘The Naked and Famous‘ coming to you lot in the UK some time soon.

You may be wondering about the title of this particular blog post ‘You stay classy, New Zealand’. If you’ve ever watched Anchorman, you’ll understand a little of what I’m about to say. TV in NZ is a mish-mash of the stuff from the UK (You get the crappy soaps like Coronation Street and Emmerdale). It’s also got lots of stuff from OZ as well like Neighbours and Home and Away. Then there is the NZ stuff, which is almost always hilariously cheesy. Take for example, one of my favourites, Police 10-7, which is sort of like Police, Camera, Action meets Crimewatch in one, except instead of all neds, it’s a showcase of which Maori folks TVNZ & The Police want to ridicule that particular day. Some gems on it of course, such as the now legendary “You must always blow on the pie” phrase, which I blogged about earlier. Other shows like Shortland Street are the equivalent of a mish-mash of Casualty, Holby and Eastenders in one, but with far less serious story lines and much more cheese. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that most TV in Kiwi is taken like they take a lot of their pies: With extra cheese (nope, I’m not kidding, cheese filled pies are big business down here!). I have saved the best TV program till last, and it may surprise you. The program I hold in most esteem of cheesiness has to be, the TVNZ One News. As soon as the intro title rolls, I feel like standing up to attention ‘DUM DUM DEE DUM DA DA DUM DUM DUMMMMM!’. ” THIS IS THE ONE NEWS HEADLINES WITH YOUR HOST, DUMBASS BLONDE AND RAZOR HEAD”. The show has around four newscasters that seem to do different jobs in rotation, presumably as they get bored with one job, or perhaps if another reporter is busy on the toilet. The whole program from start to finish is a rollercoaster. On the most serious of reports, perhaps, say a little boy has been gruesomely killed in a motor accident, the reporter will conclude the report without as much as a breath, and start the next report, which is usually about something like ‘Kiwi bird with an addiction to Speights Lager’.  It gets better though, today I watched the afternoon bulletin, a report was coming from Auckland Zoo where a new tiger cub had been born and was being checked over by the Zoo’s vet. The newscaster said, without any hesitation that the cub was ‘feline alright’. It gets worse. The weather reporter looks like he is constantly nipping off to swig from his hipflask, returning a second later to roll around his studio. He forgets the names of all the places, can’t put the right slides up and asks you to ‘look at that beautiful photo that was sent in’, of course, there is no photo. At the end of the news bulletins I feel myself saying “You stay classy, New Zealand”, just right out of Anchorman. The similarities are so close, I reckon they must use that film as official training material.

Regardless, the way the TV is over here is just another reflection on how the Kiwis seem to take themselves: not too seriously, and this was one of the things that attracted me to the country. Life seemed to get awful serious some time in the late 1980′s in the UK. Money seemed to mean a lot more than it should have to a lot of people, and society suffered as a consequence. For those reasons, I hope that the TV down here doesn’t loose that light-hearted (if a bit cheesy) nature.

Till next time; You stay classy!

Been a busy week for me this week. Suzy has been feeling a little queasy with the baby quite a lot this week, so plenty of bed and sleep for her.

Behind the bar in Minus 5!

Joey Adams whom I was friends with in Edinburgh had embarked on a backpackers tour-de-force from September 2009 after selling up his Edinburgh house. He’s been to Thailand, Lau, Malaysia, Australia and many other places too, sounds like a lot of fun and his photos seemed to prove that. Anyway, he arrived in New Zealand on cue on Monday night, and Joey and I went out that night. He introduced me to a bunch of backpacker friends he had met just that day, most of them from the Isle of Man or Preston, and we went to a bar called Minus Five. Although it was a ridiculous $35 for entry to the bar and two cocktails, it was a must-see attraction for all of us. The bar is completely made from ice: the walls, the ceiling, the sculptures, even the bar it’s self is all made from loads of ice. We were given wooly jackets and gloves before entering the bar, and I popped on a big Ushanka to keep my baldy head warm! As you can see from the photos here I look like a real eejit, but it was all good fun!

After that, we went over to Danny Doolans for a few, before finishing up around midnight. Joey and I ended up going out on Tuesday night as well to a place on Vulcan lane called Cassette Number Nine, which was pretty decent and we got free nachos. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the free beer, which had all gone in fifteen minutes, but isn’t that just life?!

Wednesday saw yet another social event for me, again Suzy wasn’t feeling well so she couldn’t make it which was a shame, I met up with a guy called Stuart and his wife, Kim. They are local Kiwis but they lived in Edinburgh for a while, as well as in Canada and a few other places. After all their travels, they said to me that NZ is still the best place to live by far which is good! Joey, Stuart, Kim and I went to a Chinese restaurant up near Mount Eden on Sandringham Road, which is near where Symon lives. Stuart and Kim know Joey through work they did in Edinburgh for the Bank of New York (Joey also worked there a while back). They both seemed really nice folks and I hope that Suzy and I have a chance to meet up with them in the future as it would be nice to make some local friends! We had a nice dinner but I was back home fairly early to ensure I had enough sleep-hours for my interview the next day.

Joey and I meet up for the first time in many years

After a pretty rubbish nights sleep (didn’t sleep until around 3am) I woke up and went out for my first face to face interview with this firm (I had a phone interview on Monday which I passed with flying colours). This is another company than the one I was talking about last week. As I was feeling fairly tired, I downed a can of energy drink and I was firing on all cylinders once again and I think I did pretty well at the interview. I hope to hear back about whether I am going for a third interview with them next week at some point, however no date is fixed yet. The job seems like a pretty good job, and the company are a huge name down here so it would be a good company to have on my CV. They seemed keen on me as well, saying that the running was down to just me and someone else (who unfortunately already works for the company, putting me at a slight disadvantage), however there may be other roles within the company they may consider me for if I’m not successful here so perhaps there isn’t much to worry about. Another positive sign was that they had been interviewing and looking for someone to fill this role for a year and a half and couldn’t find someone like me before this point, so that’s another plus. I’m positive, let’s put it that way!

On less fortunate news, I didn’t get through to the last round of interviews with the company I interviewed for the other week. I was a bit upset by this because I thought I did very well at the interview and that the role seemed just right for me, however the manager told me that there was a massive and extremely good bunch of candidates, which he said included me. He was impressed by my abilities that he offered me a try out at another role within the company and so I’m looking into that right now, I’ll let you know how that goes.

Just a little part of the Q at the Vodafone Shop

On Friday, Suzy and I took a wee walk through the town centre to shop a little for maternity clothes as Suzy will really be showing in a few weeks time. We managed one outfit but that was pretty much all Suzy could find. We are going to have a look online to find out more maternity clothes places. I also wanted to have a face to face look at the new iPhone 4 which was released in New Zealand that day. There had been a massive debacle over it’s release down here, which led to Vodafone (the main retailer of the phone) not having the phone listed on their website, and not being available in their stores until mid-day, despite people queuing up outside the stores from 4am. Just imagine how annoyed they would be if the phone didn’t turn up at all! Needless to say, I wasn’t waiting in any queue just to gawk at a phone I wasn’t even buying. The queue was out of the vodafone door, up the street, in a shopping mall doorway, and back up the street again. Hundreds and hundreds of Apple fanboys. I think the iPhone is the best phone on the planet, even after the years it’s been out, and the other close competition but come on, 4am? honestly?

Anyway, I’ve blabbed ranted enough now. Till next time, see ya!

The booby prize!

The start of this week was mainly uneventful, apart from Tuesday evening when we went to a pub quiz in a local Irish bar called ‘The Bog’ in Parnell. Symon came along too and we had a great laugh, especially because we came last place, not just by a little bit as well! Our handicap, I told the bartender, was that we were Scottish! – I don’t know whether he felt sorry for us or what, but he gave us a booby prize of a Cocktail Jug (complete with a cocktail of my choice) to drink so we didn’t feel so bad about loosing so badly! The bartender was a nice bloke who we got chatting away to after the quiz and he let me know about another recruitment agency I should try, so that was nice!

On Friday, Symon invited us out to his ‘local’ pub, yep, you guessed it, another Irish bar near Eden Park. Suzy was getting tired before the night had started, so Symon had to twist her arm, but even she enjoyed herself when she got out! The bar was called Clare’s Bar, on Dominion Road and many of Symon’s friends and work colleagues were there. There was an band (made up of an Irishman, an Englishman, oh and a Maori too!). They were pretty good and the singer in the band (who also works at Symon’s work – Air New Zealand) cracked a few funny

Me overlooking the Museum from the Auckland Domain

jokes along the way. We headed home around midnight but didn’t manage to get to sleep till around three am for some reason, perhaps just our heads buzzing from the loud music!

On Saturday we didn’t feel up to much as we were both tired, but as it was such a beautiful day – T-shirt weather, I managed to coax Suzy out of the house after lunch. We went up Parnell Rise which is pretty steep (Suzy was huffing and puffing by the top!!), but we managed to get to the Auckland Domain which was nice. I showed Suzy the duck pond and we walked through the Domain and down to Lovers Lane, which comes out near the bottom of Parnell rise, which is where we started our walk. It’s a good circular route for taking the little tike out in the buggy in seven months time!

I’ve put more photos in the Gallery as usual, so click on the link to your left to view that if you haven’t had a chance yet and we will have another update for you next week, hopefully with some job related updates too (fingers crossed!).

On Sunday we went out to the Dove Myer Robinson Park which is up in the corner of Parnell. It has a nice rose garden (which will look better in the summer!). It’s also got a small bay at the bottom called Judges Bay. I’ve put some photos in the Gallery so check them out!

Not only are Suzy and I now feeling tons better, we have the Internets in our new pad so finally I can get back on to Skype-ing and blogging to you good people!

This week, the weather has been mainly very good for mid-winter. Temperatures have been a solid 14-15 degrees most days and the sun has been fantastic. Just yesterday I took a walk back home from my interview with a company called OSS (more on that later). I walked through the Auckland Domain which is a beautiful park just to the left of the city centre. It contains the Auckland Museum (which we already visited a few weeks ago with Symon), but it also contains lovely paths such as the Lovers Lane and a nice duck pond. The air is lovely and fresh, making you forget you are in a massive big city and there are some nice bird calls that I have never heard before in my life.

As I was saying, I went for an interview yesterday. This will be my first proper interview since my arrival, as the others were mainly just getting to meet with recruitment firms. This was a proper interview for a company called OSS. They need a Support Services Manager to manage a team of staff who provide managed IT services to enterprise-level customers. The services they provide are on the Data Centre end of things, so right up my street, and it’s all Open Source stuff, OSS stands for ‘Open Systems Specialists’. The company is fairly small compared to even Picsel, but the salary is in the right ball-park and the job sounds like it’s custom designed for me. I’m excited about it, and I think I did pretty well at the first interview, but there is quite a lot of competition I believe so I won’t be getting my hopes up at this early stage. Please keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me though, I think I would really enjoy that job!

Me outside a church in Parnell

To celebrate the fact that we were both feeling a bit better, and that my first interview went well, Suzy and I went out to have dinner in Parnell last night. We went to of all things, an Irish pub & restaurant, called the Bog. Had a nice dinner in there and cozied by the fire in the pub until it was time to go home. Just to give you an idea of Parnell, if you imagine the distance of Morningside Road from say, Newington Road, that’s the sort of distance we are from Parnell. I think Beach Road (our road) still falls under the Parnell district, however, I wouldn’t quite call us ‘Parnellians’!. Parnell is a very exclusive little part of Auckland. It’s quite old, has some lovely architecture and lots of lovely shops and boutiques. There are lots of little vennels and secret but pretty alleyways revealing more coffee shops and boutiques. Suzy was quite delighted at the shops, not so delighted that we couldn’t spend any money in them!

So, the big question I am sure you are all wondering, is are we still enjoying ourselves here and do we miss home? I am speaking for Suzy here as well, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that we are both extremely happy with our decision, we’re not missing home too much and we are definitely not coming back any time soon. The first purchase I will make when I get a job is a car, as there are so many wonderful places we keep eyeing up in the guides we have. I also fancy doing a 2 week train ride across the north island, you get to stop at some great locations, you just hop off the train, take as much or as little time in the place as you like, and then get back on the next train down the track. It’s fairly cheap as well, it’s around £60 per person in the winter season.

Today saw the first of the bad weather return in quite some time. Plenty of rain today, however we ventured out to have Suzy’s 13 week ultrasound. Everything is normal again and baby looks like it’s getting to be quite some size already. On the way back we bought an ADSL modem and wifi router, so that’s why I’m on the net today and we also stopped in near the town hall for a bit of lunch. Suzy’s off for a wee nap right now as all this baby-carrying is making her sleepy. I’m just glad to have my Internet back. I’m going out tonight tomorrow to watch the All-Blacks take on the Springbocks for the second test. I hope the All-Blacks give them as much of a thrashing as last time because they were phenomenal – might even get into this Rugby lark!

‘Till next time!

Hi people. I’m sitting in a coffee shop over the road from our new apartment because we still don’t have broadband in the house yet (hopefully by Monday or Tuesday we should be back in business). It’s raining right now, but when we walked over, it was beautifully sunny. July is the mid-winter month in NZ, and the weather won’t get any worse than this at least! I would say that the winter weather in NZ is much like a fair spring in Scotland. Some days you get a bit of rain, some days are nice and lit by a high sun.

We don’t really have any photos for you this time because we have literally left the house to go to the doctors, that’s it. We’ve both been bed ridden for most days this week, I’m feeling well enough to venture to the coffee shop to appease my web withdrawals but otherwise, we won’t be doing much else this week either. I was supposed to have a technical ability test and interview with a recruitment firm yesterday morning but I was coughing up a lung and visiting the toilet every few minutes, so I had to cancel, making it the second interview I’ve had to cancel thus far. I’m bummed to say the least.

The doc’s have told me my immune system is a wreck and that I’ve got various things all going on including the flu and streptococcus c, so I’m on a heavy dose of antibiotics for the next ten days. Lucky me!

Suzy is not really much better, as she can’t even take any medication for her ills, so she is coughing constantly. She’s not getting much sleep at the moment either so combine that with the pregnancy, I’d say she’s been better!

Every cloud has a silver lining though, on the day I went for my blood tests to figure out what was wrong with me, Suzy also went for her ultrasound and just in case you’ve not seen the photo already, here is our little mite bouncing around. It very nearly brought tears to my eyes in the clinic seeing the miracle of life in action!

Bambino Ross!

Last night I went to see Bill Bailey with Symon at the Civic Theatre. As per usual, Bill was on form. It must be quite hard really doing his job: he has to travel to all sorts of places like New Zealand and Australia as part of his many long tours. I’m still exhausted (admittedly still having the man-flu doesn’t help), but travelling so frequently and so far, must make you screwy – still, Mr Bailey’s quips certainly satisfied my intellectual humour bucket, he was right on form and he certainly does everything to extol the virtue that there is a very fine line between genius and insanity!

Monday was our wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, Suzy was at the worst point of her woman-flu which she caught of me, and was a shivering wreck in bed pretty much all day, so I did the dutiful husband duties and got her all she needed and made sure she was as comfortable as could be (not very). The poor lamb continued to be quite green around the gills into Tuesday and Wednesday as well, I really hope she gets better soon!

This week will likely be a fairly non-eventful week until Friday, when we get the keys to our new apartment. I don’t look forward to carting the four suitcases from the lodge on the bus in two trips down to Parnell, but once we get settled I’ll be a happy chappy.

I will leave you with a photo of a local burger joint in Ponsonby. Enjoy.

Murder Burger

At the Waterfront Quay, Auckland

It’s been a busy old week! We spent the Sunday saying our goodbyes in the morning at the Airport. It was pretty overwhelming seeing so many of you at the airport to wish us a farewell. I felt really ill as I had a bad dose of the man flu (which I still have by the way, and I seem to have now given to Suzy), so if I didn’t appear grateful at the time, I’m sorry about that, but I was dying!

What can I say about the flights? Well, the first connecting flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow was with BMI and went well. We sat around in Heathrow for a few hours and had a pizza, then we got checked in when the gate opened for our onward flight with Air New Zealand. I would thoroughly recommend them, the service was excellent, the ride comfortable as economy class gets and the champagne was free of charge, as was all the food so I can’t complain there. We arrived in LAX on time, hung around for the plane to get cleaned and re-fueled and then got back on for our forward destination. I don’t like the American immigration folks – asked me all sorts of questions about why I was going to New Zealand, took my fingerprints, my retina scan and all sorts. I felt like telling them ‘none of your damn business!’, but I thought better of it!

Arrived in Auckland on time. Sailed through Customs, Security and examination (we had to get our bags checked because we declared that we had trainers that had been used for hillwalking). When we were heading for the door, I looked straight ahead, and there infront of us was Symon Tait, a friend of Adam Duff’s who I had recently got talking to on Facebook before I left to go to New Zealand. He stood there grinning with a poster saying ‘Ally & Suzy’ on it

The Man, The Myth, The Legend: Symon Tait!

This was all at around 5.30 in the morning, mind you. Not only did he drive us to the lodgings where we are shacking up for the first 11 days, but he gave us a wee pit-stop tour of the city in the wee small hours! Since then, everything has been as plain sailing and as pleasant as this. We were utterly bowled over by the pleasantness of not just Symon, but everyone else we have had proper dealings with in New Zealand so far. At least the rumours I had heard about Kiwi’s being a friendly bunch is one truth we can agree on!

For the first few days, jet lag sapped most of our energy and our sleeping pattern was pretty irregular. It wasn’t until day 6 that we started to return to anything resembling a decent sleep pattern. However, one (hopefully long-term) side-effect of this jet lag is that is has cajoled me into waking up at around 7am most mornings with the rising sun. I feel happy to do so, as I had mostly been sleeping around 12 hours before waking so I was at least ready to wake. I think this will bode well with getting back into a work routine.

By Wednesday we had managed to get out and about as far as the top of the road in Ponsonby, which is the area our lodge is in. Ponsonby is quite an up-market area, which was not our intention, it just worked out that way. There are lots of nice boutique shops, pubs and restaurants up on Ponsonby Road, which is about 5 minutes walk from here.

Suzy on Ponsonby Road

On Thursday, we ventured up Ponsonby Road and met a nice lady at the ANZ bank called Vera Kawan. She set up our account and made sure all our pennies came through. She was really nice and helpful and told us which hospitals were good for having a baby, which is good to know! Vera must have thought I was a real hobo though because I was still dying with the man flu, and not only that I couldn’t hear a thing out my ears as they were completely blocked up (from the flights). To top it off, I had conjunctivitis in my left eye, so all in all I pretty much looked like Sloth out of the 80′s film, The Goonies! There was puss coming out of my eye and it was all inflamed and everything. Not nice!

After spending over $100 dollars in Woolworth’s for some medicinal stuff and food, we headed back home. Friday rolled along quicker than I had imagined and I got booted and suited for my meeting with Martin Wong at Hudson recruitment which was in the Gen-i Tower in downtown Auckland. It was a huge, rather intimidating looking skyscraper (as many are down there). I went in there and was met by Martin at 2pm, I went through quite a lot of interview type questions with him so he could assess I whether I was just another idiot, or whether I knew what I was talking about. Hopefully, I was in the latter bracket! He seemed to think my salary expectations were accurate, which was pleasing to know!

Friday was also a busy day because we had two other appointments which we had made on the way back down Ponsonby Road the day before with LJ Hooker Real estate and another real estate firm. Firstly we saw an apartment up on Wellesley Street, it was fairly cheap but it was pretty ropey looking so we gave it a miss.

Our Pad in Parnell!

After my appointment at Hudson, I went down to the Parnell area to view an apartment on Beach Road. It was pretty spiffy so I showed Suzy and her decision was what made it concrete. We took the bus back to Ponsonby and signed the lease there and then with LJ Hooker. Very easy to do – they didn’t even want to see proof of income or anything. I guess I must just have a trustworthy face! We are due to move in on the 2nd of June. Friday was the first day we saw any bad weather since we got here. The temperature all day was a steady 13 degrees C, but the rain started around 11am, and didn’t stop until around 3.30pm. When I say rain, I mean heavy duty, bouncing off the ground and back up 2 inches or so rain. After the rain stopped, within seconds, the clouds disappeared and as you can see by the sunlight in the photo to the right, by 3.45pm it was lovely and sunny again. Apparently this is normal for Winter in Auckland!

A Pepperoni Twist

On Saturday we agreed to meet up with Symon again, and we went into the city again on the bus. We met Symon at the Britomart train station which is at the bottom of Queen Street (Aucklands equivalent to Princes Street, although a lot bigger!). Symon is a big fan of a Gourmet pizza place called Sal’s Pizzeria, so we went round the corner and got a few slices of that as well as something called a Pepperoni Twist. It’s basically a pepperoni pizza all twirled up. Tastes delish.

Suzy & Me at the Quayside

After stuffing our faces we went down to the Quayside, which is indescribably beautiful. It’s hard to believe that there are people in Auckland that don’t have a boat, because there are so many lovely yachts there. As well as there being plenty of boats, there are lots of great pubs and restaurants there. Symon pointed out all the good places to go so I made lots of mental notes to go visit them at a later juncture!

We moseyed up the hill to the Sky Tower after our stroll along the Quayside. Sky Tower is awesome. First, we got inside the main lobby which is huge in it’s self, and we rode the escalator up one level to the Casino. This is a -proper- casino folks, nothing like the shabby Circus casino in Edinburgh, it’s much more Las Vegas than that! I played a little roulette with Symon and Suzy

played the slots and doubled her winnings so we decided it was time to leave there before we started spending money! Then we went back down the escalator to the entrance of the Sky Tower it’s self. Going up Sky Tower’s 60 or so levels in an elevator is scary enough, but some visitors to the tower are crazy enough to bungee off the side of it! At the top there are some truly remarkable photos, which no camera can do any real justice, you just have to go up and see it for yourself.

The Sky Tower

Lying on the edge!

After leaving the Sky Tower it was starting to get dark, so we headed down to the Quayside and went to a swanky bar called Buffalo Bar & Grill, it cost around £6 for a 330ml beer, so we moved on after a pint!

Next up, we went to Danny Doolan’s pub which is an Irish bar. The beers in New Zealand I found, to my misery, are all way more expensive than they are in Scotland. It cost £4.25 for a proper pint of beer in Doolan’s which Symon tells me is about average. Regardless, we had a few pints in there whilst poor Suzy supped on her Soda and Limes . It was fairly ironic at the bar – the folks that served us were either Scottish (the barman I spoke to was from Aberdeen) or Irish.

Breakdancing in the street

Some American tourists got a massive big plate of food beside us which made us hungry, so we moved on again and headed up Queen Street, then on to the high street in search of Wagamama, a favourite Japanese noodle bar of Symons. I had a Miso soup concoction that had chicken and noodles in it, Suzy had a Teriyaki Chicken which was very nice. Just before we left we watched some Japanese kids breakdancing on the street just outside of the restaurant, which was pretty fun to watch so I touristed up and asked to take a photo. There is a lot of Japanese, Chinese and other Asian cultures here which we find really fascinating, as there is tons of different varied cultures added to the fold of the community here. Another benefit of this makes for a really varied selection of foods, so no doubt we will be tasting the delights of more Japanese, Malaysian, Polynesian etc foods very soon!

Going Maori at the Museum!

Mission Bay

Finally, on to Sunday.  Symon picked us up in his car around 1.30pm and we headed out on a day of sightseeing. Firstly, we went to the Auckland Museum. There were some really cool Maori artefacts there and some great artefacts of the last 100 years of Kiwi history too.

After the museum we went on a nice drive along the coastland of Auckland. We visited Mission Bay and looked out on the wonderful views there. It made us so happy to know that there is a beautiful beach less than 10 minutes from the city centre with stunning views. Even on a winters day like today, the car park was full and people were making the most of the sun. We trekked along the road and looked at the other beaches, including St. Helliers and Karaka bay.

Finally, we went up One Tree Hill which had some awesome views from the top. Sadly, the tree no longer stands at the top of the hill, but a large memorial is there. When we went up it was pretty windy so we didn’t spend too long up there, but here is a photo of the views over Auckland. Enjoy!

Symon drove us back to Ponsonby and we went to Burger Fuel for dinner. Their burgers are certainly unique, the one I had contained peanut butter, and others had mango and beetroot and all sorts in it, but they were pretty decent. Burger Fuel is beside ‘Murder Burger’, which has a picture of a kitten with red-death eyes that looks like it’s going to claw you up! Interesting marketing, but that’s what it’s like over here!

Views over Auckland from One Tree Hill

Old Shitty Chip Oil

Well, it’s been a busy week for sure and Suzy is currently curled up in a ball on the bed going to the land of nod. I’m off to see Bill Bailey with Symon on Tuesday which should be fun and I’m really stoked about moving into the new apartment on Friday. Maybe Suzy can blog next week’s news!

Until then, noho ake rā (goodbye for now!)