Februaury 19th I am home now. It's hard to deal with, because I had such a good time in New Zealand, and made many good friends. Leaving everything behind and getting back to my regular life is going to be a task. Over the course of a year I have had a lot of fun, and now I am left only with fond memories of the good times I've had, and time spent with my good friends. Traveling home was stressful. The plane rides felt never ending, and to top it all off, one of my bags was left at LAX. [View Full Entry]

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January 16th Monday morning, I went to the rent-a-car company and rented a car for Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. Sandra and I went on a bit of a vacation, just to get away from Wellington for a few days. We started by driving North-West about 9 hours to Raglan. Raglan is said to be one of the best surfing destinations on this side of the world. It's a small town with a population of just over two thousand, and we happened to be there in the heart of the summer, so it was very nice. When we arrived on Monday night, [View Full Entry]

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December 30th It most definitely did not feel like Christmas here in Wellington. All of my life I have been used to the small town, snowy, cold Christmas. Here, it was almost the opposite. Aside from the small Christmas tree in the downstairs foyer, there were no decorations, no Christmas carols, and no presence of family and friends. Well, maybe there were friends, but not the familiar faces that I would normally see at the Christmas party back in Maine. Walking through a busy city on a warm and sunny Christmas day is not a typical Christmas for me. However, no [View Full Entry]

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November 10th Work has been going well. Paul and Liz are leaving, so I am going to be taking over Paul’s cooking shifts. That should be fun. I miss cooking. The bar has been going good. I love working the bar. It's so fun. Working is so fun when you work with all of your friends. Today is my day off so I am learning some new music, and just hanging around. November 25th I worked a split shift today cooking in the cafe. I hadn't been trained but the menu is simple enough to just know the meals well enough [View Full Entry]

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Arrival - September 29th It is a sigh of relief to be back here in Wellington. Traveling around for a while, and working at the Military Base was fun, but it is definitely good to be back here with my friends. I got back a few hours ago. Met up with Richard and Yash, saw some other friends, and made some dinner. I missed cooking so much. When I was traveling around I didn't cook that much. Before, when I was in Wellington, I was cooking all the time, so it was fun to get in the kitchen again. I made [View Full Entry]

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A - T - G - September 17th I am currently living on the Army Training Grounds in Wairouru, which is a bit north of Wellington. I have only been here for 4 days, and I am very unsure of what I think of it so far. Some aspects are good, and others I don't much care for. I was hired as a steward to help work in the main mess hall. The hall seats about 800 soldiers. I have yet to actually see that many dining at once, but from what I hear, it does happen. My job consists [View Full Entry]

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September 7th We took a bus to Christchurch from Wanaka. The ride passed by Lake Tekapo and Mt.Cook, so we had some great scenery along the way. It was the amazing. I really wish that we could have taken that trip with a car so we could stop and get some pictures, because they probably would have been the best scenic pictures taken. There were places where the lake water was a bright blue, with surrounding ice capped mountains. It would have been great photo opportunities. The bus ride was about 7 hours from Wanaka, and we got into a [View Full Entry]

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Dunedin to Wanaka - August 30th I had been looking around on the internet for work in the South Island. I found this Job Agency in Wanaka and e-mailed them. They mailed me back and said that finding work in Wanaka was a little easier this time of year. So we took care of some last minute stuff (sold the TV) rented a car and drove to Wanaka. The minimum rental time is 24 hours and it's relatively close to Dunedin, so it gave us some time in between driving to see some things we wanted to see on the [View Full Entry]

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August 24th Today was a day to remember. We woke up and it was extremely nice out, so we decided to use the opportunity of good weather to have a little tourism day. Considering the fact that we hadn't wandered far from the hostel since being in Dunedin, it was great to get out into the fresh air and experience the different aspects of the city that had since been unseen by us. Our afternoon started with a relaxing walk along St. Clair’s Beach, where there were many photo opportunities. Getting there was an easy 5-6 minute bus ride which [View Full Entry]

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August 9th Well, we made it. The trip down was fun. The scenery was nice and we took lots of pictures. Of course, ball-of-dirt is being silly right now so I'm not sure how long it will be before we can post them. Anyway, we checked into a hostel around the corner, and have pretty much just been walking around getting a feel for the city since we've been here. But I still Miss Wellington. I miss my friends, I miss the hostel, and I even miss my job believe it or not. I think it's just because of how new [View Full Entry]

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