One month in...

So we have been here about a month now! We're still looking for work. :( But Brandon and I both have job interviews next week and keeping our fingers crossed that we will have jobs by the end of next week... before we kill each other! WE NEED JOBS! Not only to pay the bills but I need something to do! I'm bored!!

I'm getting somewhat used to the cold weather (meaning I make sure I have enough layers on!). The weather hasn't been too bad mostly nice sunny days. Just a few yucky rainy days. Over all it's been nice.

For some reason, trying to get cable in this apartment is impossible! We had one company come out and couldn't hook up the cable tv because the wires in the walls weren't right.... So we call another to see about having satellite tv (which most people here have) and they tell us it's going to be about 10 days before they could get someone out here... super... So we wait and finally the day came! For them to do nothing... It seems that someone cut the wires (I'll get to this) to the dish and they will have to come back to put up a new dish and rerun all the wires. Get the 'ok' from the landlord as well. Awesome...

Back to the cut wires... the electrician went a little cut happy and cut our internet wire! So they had to call our provider up and see if they could come to fix it. When they came to set it up they didn't even want to install the internet because they had to go under the house to run the wire. Thank God Mark (landlord) was here to get them to do it... otherwise we wouldn't have cable OR internet!

So we have a phone line and internet... but still no TV! Being a TV junky... I'm dying! We did get a TV and a blue-ray player so we've been watching those over and over again... (yeah! Harry Potter!) There is also a little movie rental place about a 5 minutes walk away here in Kelburn so we've rented a few other movies to keep Brandon sane.

We should have our shipment by now. It's sitting around waiting to be delivered... but it won't come yet because the US company hasn't paid the NZ company. We gave them (US) a check which bounced (forgot to move the money ... DOH!) and then we sent another which they haven't deposited yet. We want our stuff!

Trying to put money into our NZ bank from our US bank has been a pain in the arse! Xe.com is a pain but, I think we finally got all the paperwork completed and I think we might owe them our first born...

I walked into the bathroom this morning to brush my teeth and I heard a squishing noise but didn't see any water... So I yelled for Brandon and I said "Do you hear that?" and walked over the spot again... Awesome... there is water under the floor! It was just in one spot, maybe a 3 foot square. So, Brandon and I argue over who is going to call the landlord... I won and he called. (He's not scary, he's just like a parent that you don't want to disappoint and it felt like we were calling to ask for money. Like you really don't want to but you just got to suck it up and do it...haha...) There was someone at the house within the hour. Come to find out a screw in the wall behind the dish washer had gone through a pipe! Everything was fixed within a few hours.

On a good note... We meet up with some fellow Americans who I meet on the Immigration Forum we're on. Good times, Good Food! Chicken to be exact! Speaking of food, it's going to take some time to get used to the food here! It's not just hamburgers, hot dogs and steaks! This being picky thing is getting annoying! I still can't help it but I'm working on it... slowly... I've had a few different pizza's and they were good... but not like good ole American pizza!

Here are some of my new favorite food items here in NZ...

Bluebird Chips, 1.5 liter of Coke, TimTam cookies and Skittles fruits

The flavors are different! Blackberry, Strawberry, Orange, Green Apple & Lemon


They don't have grape jelly here (that i've found at least) so... I have to eat this!


Even the Harry Potter books look different!

Oh yea! and we think our neighbor is a famous opera singer! We can hear him sometimes singing from somewhere... his voice isn't bad either!

That's all for today...

~Renee~

We're moved in.... almost...

So we've moved into our new place in Keburn! We have a washer, mattress and a bed frame to put it on! We just need to put the frame together...

Our shipment is here but in customs so we will have to wait. We still need to get living room stuff and dining room stuff...we're getting there!

We were going to buy somethings today... like a screwdriver and some pillows! So when we rode the cable car down... we remembered that it's Good Friday. Which means everything is closed! EVERYTHING! If a place is open today they can/will get a fine! So the few places that are open will charge you even more... so they can pay the fine! ha! Most businesses are closed from Friday to Monday and open back up on Tuesday for Easter.

So it's 5pm on Good Friday... and we're bored! no tv... just the internet... super... and I'm getting tired of looking at this screen!

So to sign off today... I'm going to attempt to add a video Brandon took from the balcony of Gill and Big Steves place in Khandallah. That's where we were staying before we moved here to Kelburn!

One week in...

So it's Monday, April 6th... and we've been here just over a week now.

We've been able to find a place to rent (yeah!). It's in Kelburn and is about a 30 second walk to the Cable Car! (That's the picture on the top of the page) That way we will be able to take the cable car down into the city and walk to work from there.... For my fellow American's... it's a great location, just outside the downtown area! We're renting an apartment that is under the main house which is being completly redone inside. The apartment has also been completely redone so everything is brand new!! I'll post some pictures soon... we move in on Thursday!

We've desided on a bedroom set! We're only getting the bed frame, mattress and 2 side tables. We don't need any tall dressers or low dressers (they call tallboys and lowboys). The closet is pretty big and has some drawers so we probably won't need anything else.

Today we bought a new washer that will be put in on Thursday. We're not going to get a dryer because we can just hang our clothes to dry. Most places here don't have dryers because electricity is soo expensive. If we ever change our minds there is room to add a dryer...

We're still looking for jobs and have applied to many places and registered with a temp agency. Hopefully we should have a job soon....hopefully!

We've been walking around the city like crazy and our legs are killing us!

More to come!...