New Zealand: week one- June 11-19

After I made the decision to go to New Zealand, a friend of mine got in touch with a few friends of hers that she had met during her time in New Zealand.  One them offered me a place to stay for couple of days upon arrival. I was appreciative but unsure if I would take her up on her offer.

My time in Arkansas was coming to an end and I was stressing out about where I was going to stay so I reached out to my friend's friend to see if the offer was still on the table. Thankfully she said yes and I told her it would only be a couple of days.

I said my goodbyes to my friends and family in Arkansas and headed to Las Vegas to say goodbye to friends there as well. I was only there a couple of days before my friend, Jessica, and I set out on a road trip to Los Angeles. We experienced our first AirBnB stay in a nice house close to the airport. It was also close to the beach…which, in my cry-baby opinion, was cold and spent most of the time in a hoodie or wrapped up in a towel. Still, it was nice to put our feet in the sand and look across the ocean. We went to a hookah bar, a comedy club, and had a mini spa day.

I spent my beach day in Jessica's hoodie...brr!

I couldn't stand it being June and not have a warm-looking beach picture.

Garden at the AirBnB

What a gal :)

This was a lot of fun...I should go to comedy shows more often!

Thoughts like "wtf am I doing?" And "have I completely lost my mind?" Had been spinning through my head and finally made their way out of my mouth. Jessica took me to the airport and reassured me that everything would be fine and reminded me this was what I've been wanting to do…and off I set to begin my New Zealand adventure.

See ya when I'm lookin at ya.

13 hour flight starts....NOW.

This is all I packed...feels like too much and not enough at the same time.

I was scheduled to leave on flight NZ1 at 21:45pst (that's 9:45pm for you who are too lazy to figure that up ;) ). The guy next to me chatted for a while until the girl on the other side of him joined in and I slowly stuck my headphones in my ears to begin a movie. It was a rather short plane trip, even though it was 13hrs.

Thursday June 11

Upon arrival just before 6am, I logged into the free wifi and tried to make contact with a woman I've never met before who would be taking me home with her. Even though we'd never met and both of us had a vague idea of what the other really looked like, we made eye contact almost immediately. Now, I have officially met Suzanne. We drove to her house where 3 of her 4 daughters were buzzing around getting ready for their day. One for work (Misha), another for school (Emerald) and the other would be going to work later (Jasmine).

Jasmine kindly took me to get a sim card for my phone. Ah, connected to the world again. After she went to work, I walked back to town for another look around. They actually live in South Auckland (which by bus, is about 1.5hr to city centre). Interesting small town. Came across a graveyard, so of course I'm going to check it out. Now, remember, winter just started over here…just thought I'd throw that in there before I mentioned we had homemade chili that night.

Friday, June 12

Jasmine took me to the bank where I was unsuccessful at opening an account. But we did have a nice little lunch at the PizzaBox. I had fries with my tiny pizza so naturally I asked for mayo but was given something even tastier…aioli. That night we had fish and chips for dinner. Very yum. (They don't say yummy here, I've gathered. Just yum).

Saturday June 13

Suz, Emerald, and I had a drive around the city. It's so pretty! I was thankful that Suz drove me around because it definitely helped with trying to place places in Auckland in the map in my mind. Two close friends of theirs came by to have dinner with us. Hilarious couple.

Sky Tower...

Auckland- The City of Sails

Nice warm fire for a cold winter night

Sunday June 14

We all had a pretty chill day. Watched a movie and lounged around. After discussing it with the girls first, Suz offered to let me stay instead of trying to find somewhere else. How sweet of her!

Monday June 15

Even though Suz had offered me a place, I had already set up some viewings for rooms in the city. My first viewing was at 10 very close to the city centre. It was an interesting living situation. I would be sharing a room with 2 girls (3 beds side by side) and another room occupied by a couple for $110/wk. It was a very small place, had a great view, and I could maybe get used to being that close to people…but what I wasn't going to get used to was the smell of curry. Even just the thought of curry makes me feel violently ill. I left there and walked around, finding the coolest stores. I can't wait to have a job so I can go back to them! My next viewing was at 13:00 and it was already 11:30 so I decided I had better get to that area in case I got lost. The bus dropped me off in a super residential area with houses only…no shops or anything really in the vicinity. Not a good sign. Finally found the house and I was early so the person I was supposed to meet wasn't there. Instead, two guys who lived there ended up showing me around. I knew it wasn't for me so I decided I would just leave. It was drizzling and they were kind enough to drive me to the bus stop where I waited about 30 minutes for the next bus. Yeah, never would've made it there. Once back in the city, I decided to be in the area of my next viewing which was at 16:00. Walked around for a while and found a cool cemetery. I could've spent the entire day exploring it and the neighboring park area, but eventually had to make my way to my next appointment which didn't happen as they were "busy" at work. Went home and shared about my day and how it was mostly a failure in terms of finding housing, but it actually turned out to be a win since I decided to take Suz up on her offer to stay with her and the girls. They have been truly amazing and I'd be crazy not to stick around for a while.

Fancy a dance?

Definitely want to dress in layers. Kept getting hot then cold and it rained off and on most of the day.

Such a pretty little hill

Interesting looking church.

Came across this cemetery (Symonds Street Cemetery) which you can read about here.

Add a little black and white...make it a little extra creepy <3

Read more about Symonds Street Cemetery here

Here's another interesting article...

How cool is this place?!

Basque Park (here's a Wiki link if you want to learn about it)

Gotta have some rain to have rainbows ;)

Tuesday June 16-Friday June 19

I mostly spent these days working on my CV and looking for job postings online. No nibbles yet, but I did have some success with getting in touch with someone at Beth Shalom in the city who got me in touch with someone who added me to a Facebook group for Jews in Auckland. I introduced myself and before I knew it, I had somewhere to go for Shabbat dinner. It was nice because it's been a while since I've done a proper Shabbat dinner and I've missed it. The family was nice. They let me light the candles (pressure!), did the blessings, the daughter played violin while we sang "Shalom Aleichem", ate dinner, and we struggled reading through the end of dinner prayers, but we did it! I also sent off to get my IRD (tax number) and dropped off my CV at a couple of places.  

Nice and easy first week in New Zealand. A lot of people are asking for pictures...they will come with time, but for now I'm busy trying to find a job so I can work for a bit and then I will feel more comfortable traveling around at least in Auckland and the surrounding area. Other than a job, I'm looking up and joining interest groups on Meetup.com as a way to make some friends. Saturday, June 27, I'm attending my first Meetup with the one Jewish group I found on there. It's dinner in the city and I'm looking forward to it...

Up next...week two!