Great news, I have a job! For those of you who read this and don't already know from various other communication media (facebook, skype etc) I am now employed by the Dept of Corrections as a Junior Project Manager working on a public private partnership (PPP) program for the design, build, and service of a new prison in Auckland. This is the first major PPP program NZ has undertaken so a position here could do good things for my longer term career prospects in NZ.
I started the job the week before Easter so eased myself in with a nice 4 day week. Unfortunately the Dept of Corrections don't get the extra half day privilege day UK civil servants do but I guess I can't complain too much as they do seem to have more public holidays than regular UK staff. The first week went pretty quickly and was pretty shattering as it was complete information overload. The busiest day involved getting up at 6, flying to Auckland (equivalent distance of London to Edinburgh), having a 3 hour meeting, flying back and then going back to the office for 2.5 hours so as you can imagine I was pretty pooped after that! I think that sort of day is likely to be the exception rather than the rule however so fingers crossed as I understand more of the project, my work load should ease up a bit.
After my first week of work I was really looking forward to a 4 day weekend to relax a bit however the weekend ended up being so full that I didn't get a chance to relax as much as I would have liked. After a lazy morning on Friday me and Em decided to go for a short walk around Wellington as she hadn't really seen the sights yet. Unfortunately it turns out that walking from Thorndon, through to Oriental bay and back again via Courtenay place is not a particularly short walk so we definitely deserved a cold beer to reward our hard work. One thing that did strike me as different to the UK when wandering around is the attitude to the public holiday over here. Where as in the UK all the shops would be open to take advantage of the additional trade, here almost all the shops were closed, with bars and restaurants all requiring that you purchase food in order to be served alcohol. Unfortunately this meant that we had to buy nachos and chicken wings with a beer. I was understandably gutted.
On Sunday we took advantage of the glorious bank holiday weather to do a bit more sight seeing, spending the day wandering around the Botanical Gardens which is a day out that I know my Mother would love. Although not at their finest at this time of year, they are still worth a look around whatever time of year you visit as you can almost forget you are in a city whilst you go around them and they provide a lovely atmosphere only minutes from the city centre. Fortunately for non nature lovers, there is also a cable car museum and a planetarium in the gardens so you can indulge the inner geek at the same time :D
Monday was another glorious day and when I got up I checked the surf forecast and it turned out that the surf was (almost) up. A five minute drive later we arrived at the beach to see some pretty nice sets coming through with a nice offshore wind so decided to drive round to the surf hire shop to see how much it would be to hire a board for the day. At $20 an hour I didn't really fancy the cost of the board hire however so I ended up buying a second hand board instead. Probably not the best idea as I am yet to receive my first pay cheque but hey, you only live once right!
After getting my board the next logical thing to do was take it for a surf but it needed waxing first and we hadn't had lunch (it was about 12.30) so we decided to go home first and come back out later especially as the forecast was scheduled to peak around 3pm. However the forecast lied and when we went back out around 2pm, the surf was noticeably flatter. But no matter, I had just bought a new board and was damn well going to use it! I had a cheeky little surf in Houghton Bay before giving up there and driving round to Lyall bay where it was smaller but had a longer ride and PLANES!
That's right, PLANES! Lyall bay is right next to Wellington Airport so every 3 minutes or so there was a plane taking off or landing. Totally awesome for someone who likes both planes AND surfing! All in all a great day out and a sweet way to end an Easter Weekend.
Photos of my shiny new board to follow as well as some of the weekend once I find Emma's camera...
