Jobs and rainforest

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Hello all!

We haven't been up to much lately, which is why there hasn't been a blog for a while. The best piece of news that I have is that we both have jobs - yay! - Graeme starts on Tuesday as a planner with an engineering company and I'm temping for the moment. There's not any teaching work as it's the end of the school year, but I've landed on my feet with temping as I'm working in the Mayor's office at Auckland City Council and it's pretty interesting - I'm learning things about NZ! Graeme's job is a 6 month contract so we'll be here till April at least, so if any of you are going to be in the area, drop us a line :-)

Other news... Graeme has decided to enter the 100 Pints of Guiness challenge at our local Irish pub - you get your name on a lovely board if you drink 100 pints. Luckily you can take as long as you want, because he's managed 7 in 10 days and says he doesn't like the stuff much...!

Today we hired a car and drove out to the Waitakere Ranges, a National Park of hills and rainforest only half an hour's drive from Auckland. It was a pretty dull and miserable day (must be because it's a bank holiday weekend here), so the photos are a bit dull, but we had a good time exploring and it was nice to have the freedom of the car. We did a wee walk in the forest (being in the rainforest was really cool!) to a waterfall, scrambled over rocks and boulders and generally got wet and mucky. We drove to Piha on the west coast and watched people sand yachting and power kiting on the beach, but it wasn't really weather for hanging about. It would be lovely on a warm sunny day. On our return to Auckland we took advantage of the car and did a HUGE shop at Foodtown - exciting stuff!

We've both got tomorrow off (Monday) so we're planning a much lazier day than today - a lie in, possibly go out for lunch, who knows, maybe even some more Guinness!!

Bye for now,

Jo (and Graeme) x

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Photos

Maori statue in the Rainforest
We came upon this guy in the forest - he's there to protect it, which is a good idea as he's pretty scary - I wouldn't chop down any of his trees!

Silver fern
The silver fern is the symbol of NZ - we found this one on the ground by the path.

Jo in the picture
This natural masterpiece is looked after by Auckland Regional Council - not me you fools, the forest!!

Graeme on Piha beach
Graeme took his shoes and socks off to give me a piggyback across a stream on the beach. It was really nice of him, especially when I was happy to get wet too... He nearly obliged by picking me up and trying to throw me in...