To Wellington, and Beyond...

So, we drove from National Park to Wellington on Monday… taking in all the sights along the way. Which pretty much means that we stopped in a few towns for pit-stops and photo-ops. Highlights included: Ohakune “Where Adventures Begin” (Home of the giant carrot), Some place with a giant gumboot, and the town of Bulls. See, in Bulls, they like puns. So they have signs on every single business that they can figure out a way to add “ble/bull” to the end… so the police station says “Bulls Police – Con-sta-bulls” and the Public Restrooms say “Reliev-a-bull”, post office says “Post-a-bull” and you get the idea. Kind of cute, for a town with no other conceivable attractions…!

Tuesday morning I had my interview with the educational agency, got the job! That means I’ll be working on a day-to-day basis with kids aged 0-6. They’ll call me in the morning and tell me which early childcare centre has work for me, and then I do my best to navigate buses and whatnot. It’s actually not a bad way to get to know the city, and it’s not THAT big so it’s not terribly overwhelming. So on Wednesday morning I got a call to head out to work with infants. INFANTS! I forgot that they can’t talk! Eeps! I didn’t have to change any nappies, so that was good. Mostly I just cuddled them, talked to them and chased them around (the ones that could walk), and pushed them on the swing. Story time with babies is hilarious. Nobody listens. They all crawl around. Plus, I couldn’t understand a word the storytelling girl was saying so I couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention either! :o)

Thursday I didn’t get a phone call for work, so I did some grocery shopping (YAY) and met up with Emma my Swedish hiking companion from National Park for a day of fun. We went to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, which is free (YAY) and fun (YAY). Walked around there for a bit, saw some really cool kiwi art and a bit of history. We were both really sleepy so we went back to the hostel for a nap (YAY) and then a pre-dinner snack before trekking on to find the Wellington Cable Car which took us to the Botanical Gardens. Nerdy? Perhaps. The Cable Car was mildly entertaining, mostly because when it stops it sort of hangs there and bounces for a minute before you’re allowed to get off, meanwhile you entertain visions of stretched or fraying cables holding you up between life and death… The botanical gardens are HUGE, and mostly just forest from what I can tell. Finally Emma and I found some flowers, which smelled very nice.

(Photos of Botanical Gardens and so on)

Yesterday morning I was working with some toddlers. Only for 3 hours, which was too bad because I would have gladly stayed longer. I quite enjoyed myself. They can talk, sort of. They can mostly walk, sort of. And they’re pretty hilarious. One of the staff’s jobs this morning was to make a “messy activity”. So she pulls out a water table, fills it with flour, and pours a tub of coloured water into the flour. Have at it, kids! Before I can blink they are all covered head to toe in orange muck. Fun! Then we washed up and had morning tea (lunch) and put the kids to bed. Funny little kids, all sleeping with their bums up in the air. I rubbed backs, it was pretty sweet. Then it was time to go home. I hope I get to go back there, I like rubbing backs and reading stories to kids on my lap.

The last night I went to the flashiest bowling alley I have ever been to… and the secret of Movember was finally revealed to me. It all started with that massive L&P bottle with a big moustache, weeks ago, I stood there and wondered to myself, “But why a giant moustache? Sure, it’s funny, but why?” and only continued when I got here and tons of dudes on the street are growing these mo’s… some of them good, some of them bad! ANYWAY I guess that November has been renamed Movember here, in honour of the “Mo” and it’s to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer. Aaaaaahhhh (see, it’s all coming clear to me now!) Tui beer had a tent set up in the bowling alley and they were shaving for free, courtesy of girls in short orange shorts. Now I don’t know about you, but if I were in need of a shave, these girls probably wouldn’t be the first ones I would entrust with a razor on my face, but… Bart trusted his life to them and ended up with one of the worst shaves in his life. Onward, to the Mighty Mighty, home of the smallest beer glasses ever (see photographic evidence). And, uh, that’s all for now. I’m still homeless but at least I sort of have a job! Loads more exploring to do soon. ☺ xo