New Zealand 11 – “Why haven’t we had a big one yet?”

Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone back in the States. I am not enjoying a 3-day weekend currently; however, next weekend I will be thoroughly enjoying my Monday off for the good Queen’s birthday.

This past week was a lot of this -

Inspecting, Inspecting, & more Inspecting

Luckily there’s always a bit of a view–

Steeple without a Church

Once Friday morning rolled around I was quoted as saying “Why haven’t we had a big earthquake yet?”; therefore, was obviously blamed when a 5.2 magnitude hit after lunch. Luckily this was a bit fun for those of us in our concrete bunker office; however, not so fun for those off inspecting some very damaged buildings! No worries, everyone is a-okay, just a few of us were a bit shaken up, pun intended.

Friday evening we decided to have another apartment party — where all of us coworkers get together in one of the larger hotel rooms, cook a great dinner, and have a lot of laughs. This time around we decided to initiate “movie night.” One of our coworkers announced he had never seen Star Wars previously. If you know anything about the stereotypical engineer this might as well be the 8th deadly sin. We immediately confiscated the projector from the office, borrowed Star Wars from our Kiwi intern who conveniently had a copy, and set up a very comfortable movie setting for after dinner. Not going to lie, watching Star Wars with a crowd of engineers aged 24 to 50-something is quite the hilarious experience. I wish I captured a photo — one coworker even showed up donned in multiple sheets, some flip flops, and a flash light (aka light saber) to channel Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Saturday was time for a wine tour. Myself, two other coworkers, and a friend working with another firm hopped in the car and headed out in search of vineyards.  If you’ve been on the previous wine tours I’ve been on, you typically show up at a vineyard (you can tell by the vines), see a very pretty building, are ushered into the vineyard cafe to a fancy bar, and given a tasting by an employee of the vineyard. This was a bit different!

The first place we encountered was called CharEes. We drove up to a small house with a trailer outside and were a bit clueless about what to do. All of a sudden a woman runs out of the house yelling “come in, come in.” No joke, she literally brought us into their family house, sat us at the kitchen table and started bringing out wines. Her daughters were brewing tea, and another child was watching cartoons in the adjacent living room. All the while the dog kept barking at us. We must have sat there for a while. We learned so much about Esma (the woman) and her husband Charles and how they’re now living their dream after purchasing the vineyard in 2007. Charles even stopped in the kitchen and chatted it up with us about his wine making techniques. They have big plans in the future to turn the shed into a restaurant. I loved this family!

After a few failed attempts (vineyards were closed or didn’t have tastings available) we found ourselves at Melton Estate – your typical restaurant/winery. Upon asking for a tasting we were brought out individual wine planks!

Wine Plank

The owner(?) here was also fabulous. She was full of energy and even started giving one of my coworkers a back massage half way through the tasting! She helped us with directions to several other nearby wineries which was very much appreciated.

We then headed to Tresillian.  This had a beautiful home on the property; however scaffolding was everywhere and, sure enough, we saw several cracks throughout the walls. Upon parking we met up with the owner, Graeme, who was currently in the process of laying down hardwood floors in the back building. We then learned the ENTIRE story of how the house was damaged, but the insurance company paid them off and they’re lucky to have an additional space (the back building) to temporarily live in.  We were then brought to a tiny shed–literally the 4 of us with the owner squeezed in. Are you getting the trend of not-your-average-vineyard tour?  Graeme told us we were the first visitors he’s had in three weeks. Lucky for us since we were able to purchase the most fabulous Riesling I’ve ever tasted (more visitors might have bought it all ahead of time!).

We had 2 more stops. The first was Langdale, which was just a venue but the next door neighbor made wine and she met us there to give us a tasting. The last was Sandihurst. This was the first vineyard that made their wine on-site. They mainly exported to small restaurants United States. They ship to two different restaurants in DC and one is Chef Geoffs – a place I’ve been! I made sure to take their card so I can check them out again when I’m back home.

Phew! Ok, I’m done with talking wine. Here’s a photo of my loot. The maid may start to think I’m an alcoholic if I keep adding to my collection like this.

This upcoming Sunday I chose to race 10k (6.2miles) at the large, local Christchurch Marathon event (there was no way I was running the full marathon).  I definitely don’t feel prepared, but I can get through it which is all I care about at this point. Therefore, Sunday morning I sneakered up, checked on-line to see a sunny weather forecast, only to open up my slider door to POURING rain. Being the runner that I attempt to be I headed out anyways. I needed to get my long run in! The sun was glaring which just made everything worse, I kept saying to myself “New Zealand – the only place I can get pneumonia from being soaked with cold water and a severe case of skin cancer from this extreme sun at the same time.” As soon as my bitterness took the better of me around mile 3, I turned into a park loop and found the most beautiful double rainbow stretching over the city. Needless to say my mood was lifted and by the time I arrived back at my hotel the weather turned into a beautiful 20Celcius day. The Press (Christchurch Newspaper) captured a great photo below that was front page news Monday morning.

Christchurch Rainbow – The Press

Phew there you have it, work, earthquakes, Star Wars, wine, & rainbows. What a compilation! Next week will be all about the Christchurch Marathon & a few surprises thrown in there. Hopefully I can get up to Hamner Springs – the nearby spa town sometime soon to relax in a hot spring after this race is over!

New Zealand 10 – The A-Team does Auckland

Cold has overcome Christchurch. July 4th cannot come soon enough just for the chance to experience a few weeks of summer back in the States! It’s luckily not “Massachusetts cold,” but just cold enough that I have to utilize my electric blanket (New Zealanders don’t believe in central heating).

I had the “fun” experience of being in a red-carded (=can’t be occupied due to damage) building during an earthquake this past week.  Everything ended up being fine, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared at all inspecting a deteriorated structure when a >4 magnitude earthquake hit. Last night we missed a 4.9 while flying back from Auckland. Earthquake magnitudes really don’t mean too much when it comes to what the individual feels. It all depends on how deep the origin is and how far away you are from it along with a few other factors. Apparently this 4.9 last night was just enough to make a few coworkers debate for a few seconds if they should jump underneath their desk, but ultimately they just rode it out where they were standing.

EARTHQUAKE LESSON – if you ever find yourself in the middle of an earthquake, PLEASE “duck cover & hold”–this means jump under a desk/table/chair and cover your head. Don’t go running out the door or to the stairwell. Unfortunately this is how several people died in Christchurch. They had the building exteriors/canopies fall on them upon exiting or the stairs fell down.

On a less morbid note – let’s discuss Auckland! What a great getaway weekend! I flew with 3 other coworkers that we quickly dubbed the “A Team” (A for Auckland) to the biggest city in New Zealand.

Geographic Representation

We arrived in Auckland right around dinner time Friday and headed to a very quaint bed & breakfast owned by a sweet German couple. The night was packed — we headed to Ponsonby Street for dinner and actually ended up with a burrito. We’re in a constant battle to find good Mexican food in New Zealand and it is not an easy task. We luckily found a NZ version of Chipotle that produced fabulous burritos! Afterwards we headed to Parnell for dessert – an upscale suburb of Auckland with several cafes and designer stores. We stumbled upon an AMAZING chocolate cafe.  The night was young which left us to follow the lights and end up on top of a hill at the grand-looking Auckland museum. I liked the quote along the top of the structure, so here it is for the record:

The whole earth is the sepulcher of famous men, they are commemorated not only by columns and inscriptions in their own country but in foreign lands also. By memorials graven not on stone, but on the hearts of men.

DC look-a-like

Afterwards we headed to the center city and found ourselves underneath the giant, tourist-trap sky tower. Originally we thought it would be a good idea to go grab a drink at the top, but it was going to cost us $25 just to ride the elevator up and the restaurant was closing. Not really worth it if you ask me!

The next morning we caught the first ferry to Devenport. Here we sipped on coffee in a local cafe and checked out the local shops.

City view from Devenport

After coffee we hopped on the ferry once again to Rangitoto island (I’m slowly getting used to all the native Maori names across the country). Rangitoto is actually a dormant volcano–one that was formed only 600 years ago. Auckland is a city literally SURROUNDED by volcanoes! They are dormant, but most scientists warn to watch for eruption in the future.

Chilling out in the lava rock

Smiling despite hanging high over the edge of the volcano cone

My attempt at a panoramic photo from the top of Rangitoto, just another moment where I wish I had my dream Panasonic Lumix LX5 camera

After Rangitoto we ferry’d our way back to the big city, showered, & headed out to dinner at the Occidental Belgian Beer Cafe. We made friends with our Swedish waiter who told us his story of traveling to NZ for a working holiday, met his girlfriend, they moved to Sweden, and then she eventually made him move back to NZ with her. He recommended a Belgian blond beer called “La Chouffe” — it was fantastic.

Once dinner was done I found a Dunkin Donuts. Considering I can rarely even find Dunkins in Washington DC this really made my trip.

Our night ended, and the next day started with breakfast in Parnell, a visit to the Auckland museum (where we learned everything we wanted to know about Maori people, Kiwis in the World Wars, NZ dinosaurs, & volcanoes), for lunch we grabbed some fresh fish from the harbor fish market, & then begun our journey on Tamaki Drive. We timed this just right considering the sun was going down.

Looking over Auckland

We had another hour before arriving to the airport. So what do we do? Find another Mexican restaurant. I finally found a somewhat decent margarita in New Zealand!

Overall, a wonderful weekend spent in the big city!

This upcoming week is looking like another busy work week, training for the 10k race I signed up for on June 3rd (so soon!), enjoying a bowling outing, and brainstorming what the next weekend adventure will be.

As always, Cheers!

New Zealand 9 – Home Sweet Hotel

This week it started to hit me that I will be spending half of 2012 in the Southern Hemisphere. For those that don’t know my entire schedule, the current plan is to work in Christchurch until July 4th, fly back and spend the month wedding-hopping, working in DC, and most importantly spending time with Keith once again. THEN, I will most likely be hopping on a plane again in August & jet back here for another 3 months. At the end of all that I continually remind Keith we’re getting a nice vacation. This will probably occur in New Zealand, Australia, or somewhere in between here and DC; actually, I told him I don’t even care if it’s a stay-cation. I will gladly take off 1-2 weeks and to sit on the Maryland apartment futon and relax, as long as he’s there too!

Therefore, I prepped my apartment a bit. A coworker left this past Saturday and I was lucky to inherit her furniture, yes, additional furniture to add to our hotel room. Living in a hotel is actually quite nice. There’s maid service, it’s free (well, free for me), and in my case involves a very nice shower. However, living in this 200 square foot (oops, I meant 18.6 square meter) room for 6 total months made me realize some comfort changes might be necessary. Here it comes – Jen’s steps for making-you’re-temporary-home-in-a-hotel-10,000-miles-away-from-home.

• Stock the cabinets. Remember that olive oil comment last post? Well, due to inheriting some spices and finally deciding to utilize some more daily food allowance money I’m starting to fill the pantry. Note that Nutella is very necessary. Anytime you find yourself living in a Commonwealth country or Europe, stock up on your Nutella! Easy Mac is not necessary at all–I am throwing that box away as soon as I finish this post

“Pantry” ready to go

• Buy a laundry basket. Luckily I inherited this as well, but now further realize how ridiculous I previously looked carrying my suitcase of dirty clothes to the washer and dryer.
• Hang up some posters

Christchurch’s newest Crusader’s Rugby fan

I figured putting my new gym schedule on the full-length mirror made sense

• Obtain clothes storage. This is the larger furniture swap from my coworker. This particular hotel does not include any type of drawers; therefore, I was literally living out of my suitcase. This makes life a little bit nicer. I chose a good space for it and then continued to give it a good shake for self-earthquake testing. I had the pleasure of sitting through another quake on Saturday which made me continuously aware of everything that could fall on top of me in a room.

Organization Love

• Learn how to bake in a microwave. I don’t actually recommend this at all after trying it. Luckily I have a stove to cook on, but baking anything in an oven will have to wait until I go back to the real home.

Chocolate Cake?…

• Buy some travel guides to make sure you get out of your hotel room. Never stay in your room for longer than necessary, especially when you’re in a country as awesome as New Zealand.

Highly recommend the “Frenzy” guides

As for what I actually did this weekend? I worked, and I relaxed (aka went window shopping and spruced up my hotel room pre-creating this post). On Saturday I volunteered to do a site visit where we were doing some destructive investigation. This means we were destroying things to see what was actually going on with the structure behind everything that covers it. In this specific case it involved digging up the ground to see what the concrete foundation looked like. Myself and another coworker spent most of the day popping our heads through ceiling tiles to check out some beams & columns and then checked in with the construction workers every hour to see how the digging was coming.  This prevented me from doing too much sightseeing this weekend; however, this Friday I am flying to AUCKLAND! Therefore, I was okay with a weekend break.

Sunday I ran in the morning (I’m determined to run the Christchurch Marathon-10k race, I just need to get up and actually run 10k beforehand!), found another cafe for breakfast, and window shopped all over Christchurch. Got wrapped up in buying more merino wool clothing (so comfortable!) and then sat down with my handy travel guides to get down to business with the sightseeing I’d like to accomplish.

I’ll leave you with a last week site visit photo. I was able to jump through a lot of council hoops to gain official access to a site at the bottom on a not-so-stable cliff. The million $$ mansions at the top have been vacated, but their houses & pools remain– (note that there was previously a lot more land between the pool & the edge)

Aaaand, the coffee photo of the week. This thing involved whipped cream, obviously I needed to try it.

New Zealand 8 – Cinco de What?

This week marks a whole month living in New Zealand. Therefore, I’ve officially driven more on the left side of the road than the entire past year of living in the States driving on the right side of the road. I’ve also finally broke down and purchased things like good olive oil (a product I finally missed too much to cook without). Lastly, It’s becoming very difficult to do my own dishes–

*I think I’ll do the dishes tonight…no, maybe tomorrow before work, (tomorrow morning comes), oh no I’m out of time…conclusions – oh well, the maid will do them for me*

One of my coworkers jokes that we’ll all have to hire maids when we go back to the States. I should probably start getting used to chores again before I go home in 2 months!

But enough about olive oil & dishes.  This past work week included following up with site visits & reports and then on Friday I sort of volunteered myself to crawl underneath a gym floor. By sort of, when I heard the project manager ask my fellow engineer if he would go to this gym site visit and the engineer mentioned another deadline he had, I volunteered my crawling-in-small-spaces talents (of which I have none). As a background, this gym floor is built 2′ from the ground on several concrete piers. During the February earthquake several problems were noted which we needed to follow up on. This included checking underneath the gym floor to see if anything looked crooked or settled. By order of age, experience, and my apparent willingness, this lucky crawler happened to be me.  This all involved an extra-extra large disposable jump suit that the office made the project manager promise to get several photos of, and crawling around in some dirt for a bit to see what was going on. In the end it was a fairly interesting experience, and maybe shows my friends&family back home that I don’t get this free trip for nothing

attempting to start a new fashion trend

Onto the good stuff. This weekend, on Saturday to be exact, was busy. I planned a trip to Kaikoura with four other coworkers to do a coastal hike. Kaikoura is a 2+ hour drive north from Christchurch and known for their seal-viewing.

New Zealand Fur Seals at Seal Point, Kaikoura

We parked at Seal Point where we saw a few seals basking on the rocks and continued up the hills to start the walk along the ridge.

Peninsula Walk – along the ridge

Walking along the ridge was beautiful (despite the gloomy weather), but on the way back we decided to be a bit adventurous and hike along the shore instead. Typically, this would be impossible; however, the tide was low and luckily stayed low until right after we got back to the car park. We also were able to get up close and personal (a bit too close…) to the fur seals.

Peninsula Walk – along the shore with the seals

We were told to stay at least 20 meters away from the seals off the trail, though sometimes that was just not possible the way the seals strategically situated themselves across our path. Seals tend to blend in with the rocks, so we learned very quickly to step carefully! Seals are not fast, but tend to be grumpy and hissed at us a lot.  At one point we got between the seal and the water and one of my coworkers had a close-call seal attack. (seals don’t really attack, he just got a little too close for comfort)

Seal Attack

Once we got back to the trail, the seals seemed a bit more friendly and even posed for the camera.

Hello There

Once we got back to Christchurch we had a one-hour break before heading off to a Cinco de Mayo party.  An American engineer who used to work with a coworker of ours invited us to his place to celebrate (he is living in Christchurch now indefinitely).  Housing is fairly scarce in Christchurch, but since most locals are weary of living in the hills after the earthquakes, our host had a gorgeous apartment that overlooked the town and ocean below (my night iPhone photo does not do this justice).  Those who live in the hills typically have community elevators to bring them to their houses. When we left, we hoped in the lift, pushed the down button, and were brought down to our car parked several feet below. What a nice form of transportation!

Sumner Views

The party involved several engineers & spouses from all over the world. We quickly learned that outside of North America, no one has any idea what Cinco de Mayo is. Actually, several guests had to Google it before arrival and then go out to buy sombreros & ponchos to fit in. Overall, it was a great meeting so many people outside of work that are also transplanted here for a while.

Pinata Gathering

Today (Sunday) was a great recuperation day. Tried out a new breakfast place (I’ve been making an effort to try a new one every weekend), joined a local gym, bought some NZ merino wool clothing that my coworkers keep raving about, and decided to use part of my daily food allowance on a manicure…typical. I will leave you with my coffee photo of the week. Cheers!

New Zealand 7 – Sweet As

“Sweet As” is to New Zealand as “Wicked” is to Massachusetts. It’s a phrase that catches you off guard but is used everywhere. In actuality it catches us foreigners even more off guard, because add an extra “s” and we get a bit offended. But no worries mate, Kiwis are just trying to express a phrase that means “Great!”, “cool”, “yeah”, or “no problem.” As hilarious as we once thought it was, they are not trying to comment on one’s behind. Just another phrase I’m attempting to incorporate into my NZ vocabulary.

Work Ramble:

This week, I finally felt that busy bit of pressure everyone kept talking about before I arrived. I got rolling on a couple big projects that are always due “as soon as possible.” Additionally, another veteran engineer flew in from California who started teaching me about seismic assessments and how to do all these types of calculations using the New Zealand code system. Wednesday was a holiday but I ended up going into the office for a bit to get some things done, and I was in the office on Saturday for a short stint as well. All sounds good to me, the faster we can get the work done, the faster these businesses and families might be back to normal (and the faster I can pay off my loans, positives for everyone!). In reality I got a bit of a scolding on Friday, by a priest of all persons. At a brief site visit, he came out to see what we were doing and began venting about how we were the 20th engineers he’s seen look at his building over the past year and asked where his insurance money was. Unfortunately, this is the case all over Christchurch, all we can do is be sympathetic and do our job. I have no clue about who gets paid when and how much. I hope everything will work out okay in the end, but this seems to be a long road to agreed settlements for every person in Christchurch.

Speaking of Christchurch, after work on Saturday I headed down to Cashel Street which has literally transformed into a shopping center since the CBD has been closed down.  Several businesses that were closed due to the red zoned section of CBD, got a temporary container and are now setting up shop directly next to the red zone. These containers resemble large trailers you would find on the back of a truck, but are outfitted with windows, paint, and are overall really nice looking.

Container Mall (cosmiccorner.co.nz)

I grabbed a delicious ice cream and headed over to the red zone “pedestrian viewing” area which definitely holds a cloud of somberness over it. As I walked to the fence I realized getting ice cream was a bad idea, I looked like a happy teenager who was waltzing through Disney World, not an adult come to look at devastation. There were several areas of fence with flowers, poems, well-wishes, & a few angry statements.

Red Zone

I walked further down the sidewalk before getting to another fence and checking the year-long unused sidewalk beyond.

Empty

As for other weekend activities, I organized a movie outing to see The Avengers. Yes, we got to see it a whole week before it comes out in the States! I can be excited about this because 99% of the time the U.S. has movies far before they ever reach NZ. I had to call ahead and reserve our seats–in New Zealand and Australia you have to pick your seats ahead of time like going to a musical or concert. Tickets were also pricey (~US$14), but the theater was VERY nice. Most comfortable movie theater I’ve ever sat in.

This past Sunday was relaxing after our fast-paced and epic glacier hike last weekend. I went for a run. Got asked by a tourist what species of tree was in Hagley Park.

Hold Up.

This is typically my exciting moment of truth–short-term living in a foreign place and finally getting asked a question by a tourist/local. It means I haven’t completely stuck out as a goofy American. Unfortunately the second I open my mouth to expose my psuedo-Massachusetts accent that all changes, but at least I can look the part. Onto the question…I typically find the moment of truth when someone asks me for directions. BONUS POINTS if I know the answer. But a species of tree?! No joke, the couple was staring intensely at this tree. I stopped to stretch and the woman came over and casually asked me what kind of tree that was & what kind of fruit it produced. Well apparently I not only look the New Zealand part, I also appear like I would know some intelligent facts about trees.  I guess I’m okay with that.

After cleaning up and trying to look somewhat presentable for my working visa photo shoot, I headed over to another different cafe for Sunday breakfast. Coffee could seriously take up an entire post while I’m here. It is so fabulous. Proof–

Perfection

Starbucks will seriously never be the same. I actually did breakdown and go to the Starbucks here ONCE, and even that was better than any Starbucks I’ve had back home. I will be excited to get back to drip coffee; however, this is more than great for now.

In the afternoon I headed out of the city to pick up some local wine from a vineyard (wine–another drink that will never be the same back in the states), went grocery shopping, and cooked a fabulous salmon steak on rice. Not too shabby for a girl who can’t cook and only has 2 hot plates and a microwave to work with.

This may have been my most rambling post here yet, I’ll attempt for a more consistent one for this upcoming weekends adventures!

New Zealand 6 – Possum Socks

This past weekend marked the first getaway weekend I’ve had in New Zealand, and it was an amazing trip to start out on. There’s anywhere from a few to 15 people in the Christchurch office and we’re typically here for a few months to indefinitely. Therefore, especially for the shorter term employees, weekends are spent exploring all New Zealand’s two islands have to offer. There is A LOT! One of my coworkers is heading back home to California in a few weeks and the last item on her “NZ bucket list” was to hike a glacier. Most of the veteran NZ employees have done this, but the 4 new office employees (including myself) jumped on the opportunity.

The five of us woke up early Saturday and packed ourselves into 2 of our lovely ford focus rentals, paid a ridiculous amount of money for gas (New Zealand is climbing to almost $7US/gallon), and headed across the island to the west coast.

Typical Driving View (it never gets old)

We stopped in the small town of Hokitika for a lunch break and some quick shopping. I was given an extensive tour of the best shops to purchase jade jewelery (a native New Zealand stone, that can only be collected and sold by the Maori people) and found a great necklace. We also stopped in a possum fur shop. Possum hunting is encouraged since they are not a native species and are continually endangering the Kiwi bird. We figured we’d check out the fashion and were told possum socks were the way to go (versus wool).

The deer helped make this photo.

Our coworker/guide extraordinaire expressed interest in checking out a short hike to Lake Matheson, we obliged and were not disappointed.

I'd like my vacation home on this plot of land please.

We continued on to our hostel which was outfitted with giant community kitchen and back porch hot tub. Sleeping was a bit uncomfortable, but for $26NZ/night, I’m okay with that.

The next morning we awoke early and gathered at the Fox Glacier guide building. We were outfitted with crampons, hiking boots, and any other clothing accessory we may have needed. We signed up for the “all day hike”, meaning we all assumed we were in “great physical condition” (Not a hike meant for the Mature Tour bus we saw pull up. Yes, it was really called Mature Tours. It looked like the minimum age requirement may have been 75).

We had our choice of three guides — the Minnesotan, the Icelandic female, or the Kiwi. We choose the Kiwi–he seemed he knew what he was doing. He took us for a fairly (almost too) slow hike through a mountain pass to get some good views of the glacier from above, and then spent a good 5 hours tramping over the glacier itself. I’ll let the photos speak for me.

Showing off our crampons. The Captain Morgan pose works in so many life situations.

Just filling up at a glacier stream.

The bottom of the Fox glacier.

Our team (plus our friend from Sydney we insisted stay in our photo) chilling out in an ice hole.

Alone on the ice

Our trek starts to get more intense.

Somehow I ended up as the first person after the guide, so I was told everyone was watching my facial expressions to see what came next. I attempted to give as much of a smile as I could muster.

...and then I continued to descend into a very small crevice, which only proved to me that my hips were a tiny bit too big...

No such thing as a bad view

Coworkers + Kiwi guide Joe. Note Joe does not look happy at all. Definitely more of a "I-just-want-to-hike-guide" versus a "lets-sit-in-a-circle-and-talk-about-where-were-from" guide. He was great.

As for our next trip, I can’t even decide. I’ve been trying to get out of the veterans what their favorite experience has been but no one can pick one, or even a few–everything is great. I’m thinking either a low key wine tour day or maybe a trip to Queenstown may be in my future. For now back to the work week!

New Zealand 5 – Zed

One Direction has officially stepped foot onto New Zealand soil. Therefore, they have taken over the airwaves and all I have to listen to on my ride to work in the morning is “What Makes You Beautiful” and then listen to each screaming teenager that wins a pair of tickets to their upcoming concert.

The work week is getting busier, with a mix of site visits and report writing. Unfortunately I’m not all geared up in this photo (hard hat, vest etc), but I look like I’m writing some extensive notes. Most likely I am, considering I had no idea this photo was being taken.

On the Job

This was at a typical office/storage unit park. One owner showed me into his unit to which I found an entire collection of amazing classic cars. I had to be especially careful navigating myself around the pristine Rolls Royce in the middle of the unit. He then told me how the last time the Queen visited (yes, the Queen Elizabeth herself), that vehicle was rented for her visit. I really wish I wasn’t working so I could have asked the unprofessional question of “can you take my picture in the driver’s seat?”

Tomorrow I am off to the west coast with four other coworkers to hike a glacier. Yes, that’s right, an actual glacier! We’re leaving early Saturday morning, stopping in a Hokitika for a bit of shopping & lunch along the way, stopping at a scenic lake, and then on to our hostel for the night. On Sunday morning we will spend the entire day tramping (“hiking” in NZ terms) to the glacier and then along it. Another more detailed blog post with photos to come!

Can you guess what the blog title refers to? I had forgotten all my Aussie dictionary terms from my last trip down under, but I quickly remembered the letter Z is not said as “Zee,” Kiwis and Aussies say “Zed” instead. You hear it a lot especially on the radio since everything is 96.1 NZ aka “En Zed.” There’s the NZ fact of the day. Off to bed for me.