kangaroo sightings

Photos to be added shortly... Despite having lived in Australasia for a few years now, this year was the first Easter that Brendan and I have had together in this part of the world (due to different holiday schedules, business travel over the holidays, etc.). We opted to take full advantage of our 4-day weekend to check out the far north of the north island. Day 1: We drove from Auckland to Cape Reinga. We had beautiful weather on our drive and, in our usual meandering way, we managed to turn a 6-hour drive into a 10-hour drive! Luckily we left early enough so that we made it to the lighthouse at Cape Reinga for sunset. We saw a lot of sights on day 1, but my favourites were where you can see the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea collide at Cape Reinga and the massive sand dunes from a distance as we wound our way through the green cow paddocks. We stayed that night at the most-northern campsite in New Zealand, a DOC campsite in Tapotupoto Bay. The campsite was fine as we have found ma...

Brendan and I seem to get a new start every couple of years. First California, then Australia, now New Zealand. We also seem to get a new apartment every year, but I am so sick of moving that I really hope we break that trend… I have recently jointed Brendan in Auckland and am just starting to get settled. One of my goals for New Zealand (perhaps the most achievable since my other goals include 'get back in shape' and 'take nothing for granted') is to blog more. I think most people have long-since given up on checking my blog since it is updated so infrequently, so this is mainly for my family to keep you up to date on what is happening in my life. So, for the first blog of New Zealand, here is a blazingly fast update on the last few weeks. I moved to Auckland. I started work. I dealt with issues like tax number and bank account. We bought a sofa (first sofa I have ever even had partial ownership in btw). Also, the sofa and futon are both open for visitors! And most exc...

I am officially a terrible blogger. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post: - I downloaded the photos from gliding, but I didn't bother to post any (I'm still planning on doing this) - I've been working (a lot) - Brendan came for another visit. We drank and ate and listened to music and just generally caught up. It was lovely. - I've seen more varieties of Australian spiders in my apartment than I knew existed. - I've given up my no drinking alone policy (largely because of the above item) - I've finalized my latest two conference papers And...drum roll, please... - my NZ visa was approved! My next adventure is near.

Last week was a terrible week at work, but this weekend definitely made up for it. First, my NZ visa application was (finally) submitted last Friday. Here's hoping they process it quickly now. Next, Brendan came to visit me in Melbourne! We had a fantastic weekend. We had drinks with some friends, hung out in the city, had a lazy breakfast, had excellent but very over-priced beers, had a very average and over-priced Mexican meal, and went gliding. I will have to do a separate post about the gliding once I find the cable to download the pictures from my camera, but for now I will just say it was amazing. Now, back to the average and over-priced Mexican meal - I was sadly disappointed by our meal at Mamasita, a relatively new Mexican restaurant on Collins St in the Melbourne CBD. My disappointment most certainly stemmed from the anticipation leading up to our meal: we have read and have heard fantastic reviews about it, we had been talking about going for months, we had walked up a ...

This morning Brendan and I cleaned the remnants of my San Francisco shot glass out of the garbage disposal. This was the replacement for a previous San Francisco shot glass that met its demise off of the edge of a kitchen table during a rousing game of quarters. I don't know what it is about the combination of San Francisco, shot glass and me that does not work (it all seems so perfect!), but if that is the only thing we lose during this move, I will be very happy. Oh yeah, we're moving. Internationally. Again. Cue the Benny Hill theme... As of Christmas 2010, Brendan and I will be stretched out over 3 countries and 1 ocean. How cool/scary/ridiculous is that?!?

Three things will inevitably happen when my partner goes out of town: 1. Something will break (such as our internet network) that I have no chance of fixing; 2. I will receive a package that I have absolutely no chance of picking up from the Post due to their ridiculous (9am to 4pm) business hours; and 3. I will get sick. The booze trifecta (beer, wine and spirits all in one night) is far more interesting.

It has been a pretty routine couple of weeks/months. There's been work, there's been hanging out, there's been some cool weekend trips, there's been some lazy weekends at home... I would typically blog about my weekend trips, but Brendan does a better job than me at that, which is why it has been forever since I have blogged. Long enough in fact that it took me awhile to remember my login... Something happened yesterday though that broke the routine. I had a crap night the night before and went into work in not the best of moods, I wasn't being particularly friendly to anyone, I was feeling down about my job and the overtime hours I've been putting in the last few months, I was annoyed that people were interrupting my phone call to tell me that there was a morning tea on and that I should come have a cake (1. I was on the phone and 2. I have been trying to stay off of the cakes lately).... But it turns out they were only telling me to come to the tea because I w...