Wellington is my home from home now, I'm living back at The Bruce in Brooklyn with Joe, Nancy and Dean and I'm staying in Paul's old room. I stayed on the sofa and in a tent in the garden for a couple of weeks until Paul decided to go north for more guaranteed work. The rent here is really cheap; I pay $120 a week (about 60 GBP) and that includes council tax, electricity, gas & water and internet as well as basic foodstuffs like oil, spices, potatoes, onions and such. Really cheap! I'm working at a posh restaurant/bar called Dockside http://www.docksidenz.com as a waiter. The people there are all fantastic and I've been having such an amazing time going out and letting loose! I worked on Christmas day, my first ever Christmas away from home and family, and I was working! It was actually a really good day though. It was a beautiful day (not as many of those this summer as you may think). We opened at 12 and the kitchen closed at 3, so we all finished by 4:30. The owner put on a full spread of steak, pork belly, ham, roast potatoes, salads and all manner of delicious food (all the food at Dockside is outstanding!) and then he told us all drink as much as we liked, it's all on him. Fantastic! We're right on the waterfront, the actual dockside, and so we all jumped in the sea and went swimming, on Christmas! I saw a huge Manta Ray (see photos), although everyone seemed quite scared of it, I thought it was amazing to see. Here at The Bruce we did secret santa, so we all got a present at least, I got a bottle of Worcestershire sauce! You can get it here, but a small bottle would cost almost three times as much as back in England, so it's a real treat!
New Years was a big messy blur, I went out with people from work and didn't finish partying until the 2nd January, so as you can imagine, my memory of the night is very much in bits and pieces!
A few weeks ago now I experienced my first earthquake. It was a 5.8 magnitude and hit north of Wellington. I was working at the time and was outside with a tray of glasses. I didn't feel the initial rumblings because Dockside is also right next to a heliport and at that moment, a helicopter was just taking off. Then suddenly, the whole world shook for about 1 or 2 seconds. Instantly, all of us outside turned to face the helicopter, thinking that it had just crashed. It wasn't until a few seconds later that we realised it had been an earthquake. Someone fell over, the kitchen staff all ran out of the building but ultimately no one was hurt and we only lost a couple of bottles inside. Even more amazingly, I kept all my glasses on the tray without any falling over! It was all over so fast that I didn't have time to be scared, and the adrenaline rush after just made me feel as though the whole thing had been more exciting and exhilarating than scary. There was another, bigger earthquake near Christchurch about a week later, and Joe was there with a couch surfer from Brooklyn, New York who'd been staying with us, and their tales are not exciting at all. Feeling it coming, in a town that was not even a year ago devastated by earthquakes, and having several aftershocks sounds honestly terrifying. Hopefully I won't get to experience another one, and I'm quite happy with my limited experience so far!
I'm going to recount a complaint I got at Dockside, as it baffled me as I think it will you too. A couple came in and were being very particular. Despite having a huge cocktail menu, they decided they wanted a cocktail that wasn't on the menu. True to Dockside form, they got them anyway and they even said they were delicious. They ordered a platter for two to share and again, told me that the food was exceptional. However, the lady continued, the number of olives on the platter was outrageous! There were far too many olives in this bowl, no one could be expected to eat that many olives and she said (I'm quoting now) that the number of olives in this bowl is a disgrace to humanity(!) and she demanded I go and ask the chef what on earth he was thinking. I began to give an explanation as to why I thought there may be a lot of them, but she stopped me short and said she didn't was guesses, she wanted me to ask the chef what the hell he's doing. How do you react to a complaint like that?! I came back told her that due to the fact that theirs was the last dish of the day, and we had a new food delivery in the morning, he'd just given her all the remaining olives (I should point out there were probably 20 or 30 olives in total in the bowl). She was highly unimpressed by this but the answer ultimately ended the complaint. They both left with a sour look on their faces and I was at a loss as to how it could have been dealt with differently. Never mind though, some people are odd!
We've been having Kakas visit us recently here too. they're kind of like parrots (see photos) and they love when we put out water and crackers. We started getting ones with tags on their legs, but since we've become more popular we've been attracting wild Kakas come too! They can be quite noisy, but it seems so surreal to see them so close. They happily eat out of our hands and keep looking and calling for us through the open window if we're not there. I've also been over to Red Rocks and seen the seal colony! They stink like you wouldn't believe, and have bigger teeth that I thought, but again it was surreal just to be near them. Continuing on the animal front; whilst my original research into New Zealand had discovered basically nothing that can kill you, what I've now discovered is that there are many spider and flying things that will bit you. They won't kill or even hurt you, but they will itch like crazy and sometimes swell to a worrying size for a couple of hours.
I've booked my ticket home as well. I leave New Zealand on June 16th and fly into Thailand. I then have a ticket out back to England (via Cairo) on September 7th. That's 12 whole weeks of south east Asia! I'm going with Paul, although we're going to travel together for a few days, then go off by ourselves for a few days, then meet back up again etc. This means that I will be back with you all on September 7th, so get the party started!
New Years was a big messy blur, I went out with people from work and didn't finish partying until the 2nd January, so as you can imagine, my memory of the night is very much in bits and pieces!
A few weeks ago now I experienced my first earthquake. It was a 5.8 magnitude and hit north of Wellington. I was working at the time and was outside with a tray of glasses. I didn't feel the initial rumblings because Dockside is also right next to a heliport and at that moment, a helicopter was just taking off. Then suddenly, the whole world shook for about 1 or 2 seconds. Instantly, all of us outside turned to face the helicopter, thinking that it had just crashed. It wasn't until a few seconds later that we realised it had been an earthquake. Someone fell over, the kitchen staff all ran out of the building but ultimately no one was hurt and we only lost a couple of bottles inside. Even more amazingly, I kept all my glasses on the tray without any falling over! It was all over so fast that I didn't have time to be scared, and the adrenaline rush after just made me feel as though the whole thing had been more exciting and exhilarating than scary. There was another, bigger earthquake near Christchurch about a week later, and Joe was there with a couch surfer from Brooklyn, New York who'd been staying with us, and their tales are not exciting at all. Feeling it coming, in a town that was not even a year ago devastated by earthquakes, and having several aftershocks sounds honestly terrifying. Hopefully I won't get to experience another one, and I'm quite happy with my limited experience so far!
I'm going to recount a complaint I got at Dockside, as it baffled me as I think it will you too. A couple came in and were being very particular. Despite having a huge cocktail menu, they decided they wanted a cocktail that wasn't on the menu. True to Dockside form, they got them anyway and they even said they were delicious. They ordered a platter for two to share and again, told me that the food was exceptional. However, the lady continued, the number of olives on the platter was outrageous! There were far too many olives in this bowl, no one could be expected to eat that many olives and she said (I'm quoting now) that the number of olives in this bowl is a disgrace to humanity(!) and she demanded I go and ask the chef what on earth he was thinking. I began to give an explanation as to why I thought there may be a lot of them, but she stopped me short and said she didn't was guesses, she wanted me to ask the chef what the hell he's doing. How do you react to a complaint like that?! I came back told her that due to the fact that theirs was the last dish of the day, and we had a new food delivery in the morning, he'd just given her all the remaining olives (I should point out there were probably 20 or 30 olives in total in the bowl). She was highly unimpressed by this but the answer ultimately ended the complaint. They both left with a sour look on their faces and I was at a loss as to how it could have been dealt with differently. Never mind though, some people are odd!
We've been having Kakas visit us recently here too. they're kind of like parrots (see photos) and they love when we put out water and crackers. We started getting ones with tags on their legs, but since we've become more popular we've been attracting wild Kakas come too! They can be quite noisy, but it seems so surreal to see them so close. They happily eat out of our hands and keep looking and calling for us through the open window if we're not there. I've also been over to Red Rocks and seen the seal colony! They stink like you wouldn't believe, and have bigger teeth that I thought, but again it was surreal just to be near them. Continuing on the animal front; whilst my original research into New Zealand had discovered basically nothing that can kill you, what I've now discovered is that there are many spider and flying things that will bit you. They won't kill or even hurt you, but they will itch like crazy and sometimes swell to a worrying size for a couple of hours.
I've booked my ticket home as well. I leave New Zealand on June 16th and fly into Thailand. I then have a ticket out back to England (via Cairo) on September 7th. That's 12 whole weeks of south east Asia! I'm going with Paul, although we're going to travel together for a few days, then go off by ourselves for a few days, then meet back up again etc. This means that I will be back with you all on September 7th, so get the party started!
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