Hello Everyone,
I hope you are all doing well and that you are reaching for
dreams of your own wherever you are right now!
On Wednesday in the morning after dropping the boys off to
school I headed off to Mt. Eden Frasier’s, a coffee shop, to meet up with a
girl named Elina from Sweden. She was super awesome and it was really great to
get a perspective on the similarities and differences between Sweden and NZ. We
were able to catch up for a bit then I headed off to walk and pick up Brooklyn on
my way home. Brooklyn and I stopped off at the park and had a picnic lunch,
played with a couple other children who had the same idea and then hurried home
before the downpour of rain started! We made it home luckily before the rain
and Brooklyn will tell you it is because “the clouds were being so nice and
holding in all their water to wait for us to get inside so we need to thank
them, Kelcee!” Little kids are so adorable sometimes. Seriously it is so
interesting so see how they think about things or how they process information
when you explain things to them. After
work I rushed out and caught a bus to Britomart (major transport
centre/shopping mall) here in Auckland so that I could catch a ferry across the
Warf to Devonport beach to meet a group of Au pairs for fish and chips. I was a
little late and the weather was a bit overcast but luckily the girls were still
there when I arrived. We had a group of about 8 of us there and were able to
enjoy each other company and a beautiful sunset and take a little break during
the week. After the sunset Anna one of the awesome Au Pair Link Coordinators
was nice enough to give me and another girl a ride home and we drove past the “Block
NZ” houses which are real houses from a reality TV show here in New Zealand. On
the show they have 4 groups, mostly couples or siblings in sets of 2, who have
to follow certain rules during challenges and redecorate, renovate, and landscape
these houses for auction. At the end the houses are auctioned off and whatever
they make over the value of the home the couple gets to keep. I think the
winning couple made almost 2.4 million dollars or something outrageous like
that! It was dusk so a bit hard to see the houses but it was still really cool
to see something that people here in NZ are crazed about! The show was actually
really cool and I was totally into it!
On Thursday I was able to meet up with Hetal and Sandra, two
German girls, at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and the Winter Gardens. I was
able to explore it in more depth since I didn’t have a 2 year old boy with me
and it still is absolutely amazing. I had no idea that New Zealand was so
involved in WWII but they were an integral part of the war just like everywhere
else. The Winter Botanical gardens were amazing. They had three main sections:
the flower dome, the exotic dome, and the fern forest. In each of the sections I
was amazed to see the size and diversity of all the plants. I know it may seem
like I am going a little koo-koo over all the plants here but they really are
magnificent. In the flower greenhouse it was teeming with colorful flowers of
all shapes and sizes and of course it smelled lovely in there. The exotic dome
had an internal heater so it was very warm for the plants to prosper. Inside this
one we found these sweet red flowers that looked as if they were growing out of
each other, an enormous tree with leaves literally the size of my entire body,
and tons of plants that looked like they came out of Willy Wonka’s garden
(except of course they were not food)! Hetal and I decided to eat some lunch
there in the park so I shared my sandwich with here and she in turn shared with
the birds. Within minutes the ground around our bench was swarming with birds
and they were not scared of us at all. Literally they hopped on my shoulder and
my knee and feet. I didn’t really know what to do but I definitely wanted them
off of me! Pigeons are not my friend and I was not about to let them poop on
me!!! Gross! So I hurried gathered our stuff and we made our way away from that
area up to the museum to meet up with Sandra. The moral of this story is, don’t
let your friends feed the birds unless you want to share your lunch with the
whole flock! I looked like one of those crazy bird ladies off Mary Poppins! The
museum was really cool again this time and we were able to see the entire thing
and get our free museum member cards
J
This weekend I met up with Ricarda (German) and another girl
named Merce from Spain and we ate at “Circus Circus”, which is a circus themes
coffee shop, for lunch then climbed up Mt. Eden. It was really good to meet up
with her again and continue building our friendship. Merce does not speak English
very well so it is sometimes difficult to communicate but I think it is
important to always make anyone feel included in the conversation so I do my
best to try and include everyone. Also since she is from Spain she obviously
speaks Spanish so those 2 years of Spanish that I took are coming in handy
sometimes!!! Thank you Senior Richards!! From my house it is like a 45 minute
walk from me and then a 20 minute walk up the hill. So needless to say I am
getting lots of exercise here in New Zealand! The view from the top of Mt. Eden
was so cool. During orientation I went on a tour and this was one of the stops
we made and took pictures at the summit. It’s great to climb to the top instead
of driving like I did the first time because then you get a real sense of how
high it is and the finish is so much sweeter since it is a reward for making it
to the top. Looking out over the whole city and actually be able to say where
things were and point out landmarks of places we had been was really
satisfying. I guess it is making me feel like I am getting a sense of belonging
here in New Zealand when I can revisit a place and recognize many other places
from the top as well.
Later that night Ashley came into town and we went to and
Art in the Dark presentation at western park in Ponsonby, Auckland. On our way
we caught a bus and then used our growing navigational skills (and our skills
of asking for help from passersby) to walk the rest of the way to the park! The
park is near what we in the states would call the red light district so we saw
some very interesting stores and people on Karangashape otherwise known as “K”
road. We had to walk up K road in order to find Ponsonby Rd where the park was
located. On our walk we did pass this really creepy awesome looking grave yard
so we walked among the dead for a little while and I have decided I definitely
want to be buried in New Zealand when I die. When we finally made it to the
park we were a tad bit early so while we waited for it to get dark we explored
the streets around the area. Ponsonby was definitely a happening area last
night with tons of restaurants, bars, clubs, and stores full of people and the
streets buzzing with more and more people. We found an awesome little pizza bar
called Freeman & Grey that was actually affordable unlike most places
around here. So as more and more people were joining our group we met and
communed in there. Although it was super loud it was a nice place and we had an
overall good time. As we made our way over to the park to start the exhibit we
noticed the coolest traffic sign I have ever seen. When people when the speed
limit it said on the screen words of encouragement, and when people sped it
displayed the words “Chill baby Chill”, all of us Au Pairs just thought that
was the funniest thing ever! I was trying to video the sign and so I was saying
to the cars, “speed people speed” so that the sign would say the funny words.
There was a police officer near when I was saying this and Ashley said he just
started laughing at me! We met up with 3 other groups of Au Pairs while we were
there which made our group 10 girls! Four of us were from the US and then we
had 1 girl from Spain, 2 from Germany, 1 from France, 1 from Sweden and 1 from
Canada. It was really cool to meet up
with new girl and see how their stay has been and which things they like about
New Zealand. Facebook is so amazing I mean honestly it has helped me to meet so
many people that I would not have been able to meet otherwise. Some of them
were girls that I had met before and others were all together new so it was a
complete success. The Art in the dark display was really interesting because it
is always intriguing to me to see what others imagine is art and trying to
figure out what the artist was trying to portray or tell through their
masterpiece. One of the reasons this event is so cool is because many of the
exhibits use light, color, sound, or video to display the artist’s purpose so
it can be very exhilarating. Throughout the park there are many tree roots and
knots crawling over the ground and since there were supposedly over 10,000
people attending the event that night, we had to brave the mud and roots and
forge a path across the park in the dark. Surprisingly we made it out of the
night with only two casualties, Ashley cut her foot and got some blisters and I
slipped in the mud and was a bit embarrassed but otherwise we were unharmed!
Ashley and I left the group a tad bit early so that we could sort out a bus
ride home and as we walked to the bus we saw our bus coming and literally were
sprinting toward it but it left just as we were approaching so we had to wait
30 minutes for the next one. I was just happy that there were even buses
running this late at night. After we finally arrived home we found that
Ashley’s car battery was dead and do we spend the next 40 minutes searching the
house at 1 in the morning super quietly for jumper cables or something to jump
it. In the end we were not able to find it and she just had to stay over and we
worked it out in the morning. Today I am just relaxing. I am trying not to
spend a lot of money so that I can make the best of my south island tour and so
I am choosing to do fewer activities or find free things to do even though I
still have to pay for transport. I’m lucky enough to live close to the city so
there are free things on all the time and I am able to still have some great
experiences even though I do not have tons of money to spend at the
moment!
Thank you to all those who read!
Cheers
Kelcee
Sunday was a bit of an adventure taking the buses to Takapuna Beach for a picnic with some other Au Pairs. I ended up being the only one who was not German in our group of 6 at the beach. Takapuna beach is much bigger than I first imagined so it was a wee bit difficult to find the group but eventually I found them. When I got off the bus at Takapuna Platform I found the coolest flee market/farmers market ever! It was like Kelcee heaven because I love that type of thing. I have always been a yard sale or old/vintage shop person! To me it is just so exciting to fins cool old things for cheap prices. I've always had the attitude why would i want to pay more than i have to if i can find something just as good with a little more character at a thrift shop or used store. Anywho, at the market they sold everything from fruits and veggies to surf boards or elephant statues! Within 10 minutes I had found the perfect rain jacket for only 5 dollars and no worries I restrained myself and did not buy anything else no matter how tempting it was. After we finished out picnic on the beach we decided to go shopping for a bit in the mall and then watch a movie called “About time”. A romantic, inspirational movie,” About time” is probably one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time. Movies that make you feel and think are hard to find it seems to me these days. It is about a family where the men can travel in time. Obviously they must keep it a secret and use it cautiously because each of our decisions affects our life and the outcome. Most of the story is about how one son uses is powers to find true love and help the ones he loves be happy. In the end he learns that we must live every day as if we cannot go back and appreciate all the small wonders in our days. The ending was a little emotional for me because the father dies of cancer and the boy has a hard time with it but then has to finally except death to bring a new life into the world. I was so impressed with the movie! For only $9.90 I think that was pretty darn good time. After the movie I took a bus back over the bridge to the city. 
