Being a slave again

For a whole week, I hoovered flies from nooks and crannies, weeded baby oak trees, played with stupid fat dog, was jealous of cat who had its own electric blanket, polished chandeliers til sparkling, cleared out and re-filled a shed with plastic pots, seeds and bird nests, and made multicoloured pavlova with one of the kids. Not to mention bedtime story-reading! And getting head lice! (To be fair its an unsolved mystery where they came from. It was either the childrens' fault, or from a hostel I stayed in before getting to the house....I would like to think of myself as the innocent victim!). A whole week, in return for board and lodging at a luxury country retreat, which was rather nice actually. So quiet (apart from screaming children). It was a family-owned posh B&B type place, with mummy, daddy, three children (6, 10 and 11) and 1 extra exchange student from Japan who was 16 I think. They were all very nice and I was just beginning to settle in properly as a gardener cum au pair, when I got notice that my working visa for Oz had been accepted, so I got back on the plane (Virgin Blue airline - sister to Virgin in UK - it was a weird flight, eg one of the stewards told a "dumb blonde" joke really quietly over the speakers so I couldn't hear the punchline, and then they dressed up in binliners with j-cloths on their heads saying that was their new uniform and we were the lucky first people to see it...I had been up at 2.30am for the flight though, maybe I was dreaming? And most weird of all, none of the security staff asked me any questions this time. I guess that's coz I've already got the Oz visiting and working visas etc stamped in me passport, but they didn't even care whether I was carrying any muesli or honey with me this time - what if I was? And they didn't ask if I was carrying headlice with me, which I wasn't, coz they're all dead now, but if I was, that could have resulted in a national epidemic or something! And maybe NZ headlice have fewer natural predators in Australia?! See! They were a bit lax this time, weren't they) and now here I am back in Sydney. Have been hunting for interview/office clothes today coz have got an interview tomorrow! Eek!

Visa run

Finally got stupid chest xray done (so weird seeing inside my own lungs, they look ok), but had to leave Oz and wait for visa to be granted (I'm assuming it will be granted of course!). So now I'm back in New Zealand, and going to work as a slave again, but this time at a "luxury country retreat" - all unpaid work in return for free board and lodging. Sweet as (as they say). One of my hosts is called Simonetta (female)...no comment yet.

New Zealand - South island

Places: Nelson, Christchurch
I've rushed through NZ so quickly I've hardly seen anything! On ANZAC day, me and Ellen went to an art class and painted pretty pictures! (One in the middle is our teacher's unfinished one) Neither of us had painted for TWELVE YEARS! So we were very impressed with the results, even if we did say so ourselves. Ellen has feijoa and lemon and lime trees in her garden! Feijoas are lovely soft green fruits, and which reminds me I had some mini kiwi fruits too, which you just eat whole, and they had red ones too. Yum v nice.

And yes I know I need a haircut!

Update 6/5/05: Ellen kindly cut my hair for me! Thank you! I also did one of the "Great Walks", the Abel Tasman Coastal Walk. I did it over 4 days, staying in huts along the way. Very beautiful scenery. A bit chilly but I still went in the sea and froze. Also saw seals at one point, and got really close to them, but not as close as at Kaikoura, down along the East coast on way to Christchurch, we went whale-watching first and saw a couple of sperm whales - v cool - and then I went on a walk to a seal-spotting point, and the seals were practically lying in the carpark! It said you should stay 10 metres away from them as they can get dangerous, but these ones just didn't care, they were scratching their bums and stretching their flippers and completely ignoring all us tourists clicking away on our cameras.

New Zealand - North island

Places: Auckland, Bay of Islands (Paihia), Rotorua, Wellington
Well rainy and cold(ish) as it may be, its still a beautiful country! Up in Paihia went on a boat trip (and got seasick) and saw lots of bottlenose dolphins, and dragged along in the boon next to the boat! Rotorua stinks - of sulphur - steam comes out the drains as well as off the hundreds of boiling mud pools and lagoons, and lots of really pretty patterns created by all the volcanic activity here. Went on long bikeride around a big forest. All very pretty.