up to speed...

Had my first soccer match today. We played ok for a new team with many new players. Lost 1-nil to a young, fast and fit team! haha Many good things to come though. The league is set up really nicely. After each match the home team supplies food and both teams have a post game wrap up with players of the match etc. Hopefully my touch on the ball with improve with our next outting.



Last night I went to my first Pro Rugby match. I watched the Blues defeat the Bulls 23-21. Was quite entertaining, kinda hard to see from where we were sitting. Depth perception from the ends is always a little tough. Always fun to watch big sports events with a crowd in a stadium though!


The one other exciting thing that happened was a tour of the William C. Dolby steam tug boat. My friend Chris and I were lucky enough to be given a tour by one of the members of the society that is perserving her. We may even volunteer to work on an outting in the future. Shovel the coal in the boiler rooms or work in the gally. Here is the website http://www.daldy.com/Home-0.html
Was kind of a random moment and didn't have my camera though so no pics! (yet!)

A few Pictures so far....

Here is a sample of New Zealand paradise!

Hey!

Sorry it's been a while, I haven't had net access for a couple of days.
Spent Friday at the beach with old camp friend Tim. Went to Piha beach on the other side of the Waitakere ranges and swam in the Tasman Sea. The waves were big, and the scenery fantastic! I took many photos. Then we ended up on the other coast and checked out things in the Pacific Ocean. Quite a feat to swim in two oceans in one day!! Pretty cool. The water is still quite warm, considering it is the end of beach season here.

I also got to meet some "friends of friends" last week, met up with people and finally put faces to names. Everyone has been so nice and helpful so far.

Checked out a couple of apartments. It's going to be pricey living in the city, but the nice thing is they have smaller lease terms here. So I can do a place inner city until I find something cheaper in a few months if I have to.

I still have another week and a half in the hotel so things aren't getting too stressful yet!
Weather continues to be gorgeous! Can't imagine that it is going to be winter again for me soon, although my snowboard sitting lonely in the corner is calling my name!

figuring it all out....

I have started the apartment search. I am leaning more toward living alone than flatting. With the shift work it is just so hard trying to navigate others. Nice thing about here is that mostly everything is done by a weekly basis so it makes it easy to budget, and signing leases is not always as big a deal as it is at home. However it is difficult for me to think in these terms right now.

St. Patty's was fun, I went to a couple of neat irish places yesterday, and back on Saturday there was a parade complete with bagpipers just like home!

I have lost my voice! Sometime between Sunday and Monday, I sometimes go a while between speaking with people, so didn't really notice! My throat doesn't hurt I just have no voice so it was rather funny when I tried to order a smoothie and no sound came out. The guy behind the counter was as shocked as I was let alone trying to hear me through my Canadian accent!

Soccer with Div. 1 team tomorrow night, hopefully it will be a little more competitive than the stuff on the weekend. People are all really fit and outdoorsy here, it is nice to see. Lots of parks and greenspace, and all so well maintained. Auckland is a hilly city, there are beautiful ocean and harbour views from everywhere. From my hotel I can see out across the harbour to Devonport and Rangitoto Island.

Pictures will get posted soon, my internet connection is not secure at the moment and it wastes my usuage allowance to do things like msn/google chat, upload pictures and use Skype.

My weekend was fun, got to hang out with Becca (camp friend from 2004) so haven't seen her in 4 years! She had some friends over for a barbie and I got to meet some other Canadians! Went to my first soccer training last night. I am going to play with the Division 1 team here.

The weather has been awesome, it's beautiful and sunny about 24/80. Will hopefully get started at looking for a place to live this week!

It's stressful moving to a new place and setting up all the basics. But it's getting done and I am grateful to have some friends here who have been through it all before!

Getting set up,...

Met up with my nurse friend from NH (recently moved back to NZ) she was SO helpful today, took me around to a bunch of places and helped me out with getting a mobile phone as well as banking and showed me a bit of the city. Finally had a decent meal, saw some nearby neighbourhoods and places to check out. Things are overwhelmingly expensive here. Costs money even to make a local call from the hotel! But today was satitifying as I got a bunch of things accomplished, that will all help to be able to start work.

Will be able to relax a bit this weekend, and hopefully ward off jetlag. I'm sure Carmel from work will have a bunch of new things for me to do after my meeting with her next week.

Arrival

I'm here! Flight was fantastic, not even half full! Easy to stretch out and sleep, and thankfully they had the snazzy monitors on the back off the seats so you can choose your own movies. My home for the next 3 weeks is full of modern conviences including a dishwasher and washing machine :) Time for a short nap then city exploration begins!

Here we go....

Taking off from Boston in a few hours, short lay over in San Fran and then onward across the Pacific. Going from winter to the late summer weather.... currently at my destination it is 21C/70F and sunny. Hopefully the good weather will continue when I arrive.... until Snowboarding season that is!