The year of two winters: New Zealand 2022
Thursday, June 23, 2022
We just landed in Australia.
A few pics from Houston, LA, Australia airports
The 14 hour flight was fine: we slept, ate, watched a bit of movies, and are sore and tired but doing fine. Our next flight is in a few hours and we hope the logistics and getting through customs in NZ later today. Thanks for your prayers and notes.
Our first sighting of NZ from the airplane window
Friday, June 24, 2022
First night and full day in NZ
Airport and customs
The view near our house
Saturday, June 25, 2022
Pictures from the hike today across from our air bnb
Monday, June 27, 2022
Our fish and chips lunch by the Pacific Ocean
Tuesday, June 26, 2022
We had a rainy foggy day here in NZ. I had a job interview at an intermediate school (junior high) and then a school visit for a new entrant position (kindergarten). I was invited back for an interview on Thursday. Tea time happens at every school in the morning when teachers and students have tea and hang out together. At the intermediate school, one teacher played guitar while the others were chatting and laughing. Schools in NZ do not serve lunch. All children bring their own food. NZ does have Kit Kats but the wrappers are different.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
We enjoyed a lovely hike through the fern forest this morning. There
are lots of buttons to remember to push to get outdoors and to make
the electricity work. We looked at a couple of apartments that we
probably won’t pursue, but it was good to start looking. I have 2
teaching job interviews tomorrow.
Thursday, June 30, 2022
A random day in NZ
So there are still those rolls of hand dryers that the US had in the
80s and 90s and pay phones! We went down to the peninsula and saw
signs for penguins at night! We will be sorely disappointed if we go
back at night and there are no penguins. A school would like to offer
me a new entrant (kindergarten) position but needs to check my
references and see if they can get me a visa. We put in an application
for an apartment in a neighborhood called Mt Victoria that j and E
loved. It only has 2 bedrooms but has a lovely garden and a family
upstairs from India with 3 kids. All the schools in NZ are within
walking distance for the zone so we walked them to the school that
will be their intermediate school if we get the apartment. We’ve only
been here a week and it seems like things are moving quickly. We’ll
keep you updated on the job possibilities and the apartment. Tip Top
ice cream is a NZ brand. There’s a lot of dairy business in NZ. It was
good but not as good as Braum’s according to Matt!
Saturday, July 2, 2022
Friday and Saturday in NZ
Yesterday we moved to our beach vacation rental at Oriental Bay for the month of July. I was offered a job teaching new entrants (kindergarten) at Miramar Central for the remainder of the year which ends in Dec. I signed and accepted, and now we hope that o can get a work visa expedited. Ambulances are free in NZ, but we hope not to need any here! We switched over to the metric system: weights in kilograms, an electric razor that can plug in without a converter, a tape measure in centimeters. The last two photos are of our lounge (living room) and out our front window of the apartment we signed a lease on today! We need to open a NZ bank account this week and pay the bond (deposit) but it seems like we have a place to live! NZ is amazing, but there are some things that are strange: You have to sign a receipt when you use a credit card, and they sometimes check the signatures. There are no plastic bags when shopping so you need to remember to carry bags with you when you’re out. They lock up electronics in the store.
Sunday, July 3, 2022
Mt. Victoria, farmer’s market, and dog pee!
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
The isolating continues but we got outside a bit
get through to our U.S. bank to transfer money. We took pictures at
the Wellington sign where we get to be the I in Wellington. I’m using
my isolation time to prepare for my doctoral prelims which are July
8-15. I’ll have that week to write 3, 10-12 page papers! Matt and the
kids are still negative for now. We’ll test them again later this
week.
gelato for the family despite the really windy day! I wrote for 8
hours on my prelims and wore an elephant shirt! We had a picnic on the
beach and ate NZ Whittaker’s chocolate. It had a gold wrapper, so I
felt like we found the golden ticket in Willy Wonka!
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
about how much pumpkin is part of the diet here. E tested positive on
Sunday but is feeling better today. I wore pineapples with sunglasses,
a unicorn, and a dragon shirt for the last 3 days of prelims writing.
J liked the animal picture in the basement of the grocery store where
we go to pick up online orders. I missed you all a lot the past 2
days!
Ostriches are so tall!
We had never seen servals. They are like really small big cats or really big house cats.
The kangaroo and wallabies are free to roam outside of cages. There was nothing separating us from this creature. Matt says it's a kangaroo due to its size. We didn't see a wallaby then.
There was a cool trampoline to pretend to be a kangaroo on. Jeremiah hadn't been on one since he broke his wrist falling off one in June. Only one person was allowed on at a time.
Meerkats! Sometimes I channel meerkats with my anxiety and scanning for danger.
The chimpanzees apparently do not like the cod and rain and get grumpy. These two were sharing food. 
Jeremiah and Evelyn were both super excited to see a cheetah.
I was super excited to see a red panda. It was sleeping in a tree. It was beautiful and exquisite. 
This is a golden lion tamarin. It is quite small and amazing.
The Kune Kune were quite friendly and enjoyed eating most of the time we were at the zoo.
Comments
Post a Comment