Hello Wellington!

One month I've been in Wellington and what a month it's been! 

Lots has happened, I've found a fantastic flat in Brooklyn, right on the top of the hill with view out over the city, my flatmates are awesome, 2 Americans (one guy, one girl) and a lovely German girl.  Actually it's not fair to call it a flat.  It's a house, like a really nice one!  High ceilings, wrap around porch, modern facilities...and every night we get a stunning sunset - love it!  Oh and we have a cat, sweet!

Jobwise I have just landed a job with Flight Centre.  I am thrilled about this role as it means I will have lots of opportunities to travel with huge discounts.  And best thing of all, any discounts I get, the person traveling with me also gets!  Friday I will be flown to either Auckland or Christchurch to start my training. 

I've started learning the guitar, all online, loving the website Chordie that's helping me learn.  At the moment I'm learning Karma Police by Radiohead and Citizen Erased by Muse (surprise surprise).  I'm not very good but can hear that I'm slowly improving.  Any day now I'll be as talented as Matthew Bellamy...dream on girl.

I've played one game of indoor netball, I almost died, I'm so unfit!  Hopefully I'll get a few more games as it's an awesome winter sport.

Still on the list is learning sign language, and I'd like to have some actual guitar lessons at some stage, I'm sure I'm doing all sorts of things wrong.  And I also want to take up Bikram Yoga, just waiting to have some $$ coming from the job before I commit to too much!  Thank goodness for Usana though, supporting me as I've settled into the new flat and life in lovely Wellington.

A very happy girl right now, life is GOOD!!

Back home but ready for a change

Gosh how long ago was my last post?   A few things have happened since then.

Summer in Banff was incredible, almost better than the winter if I hadn't been skiing.  Leaving sucked, I was so sad leaving my friends from all corners of the world.  That's my favourite part of travel - the cities and sites you see when you travel the world are incredible, but the friends you meet along with way?  Wow!  They're awesome.

So from Banff I jetted to Vancouver for a week.  What a vibrant city!  I had a wonderful time staying with a friend who had a downtown apartment.  One day she lent me her bike and I went for a ride around Stanley park and at one stage I stopped so fast that I almost went flying over the handle bars as I came face to face with 2 raccoons!  They are such cool animals, I wish we had more random animals like that in New Zealand.

In hindsight I kind of wish I'd move to Vancouver for the 3 months before Banff instead of Toronto as I found Van much more cultural, friendly and fun.  Having said that I met some amazing people and had some great times in Toronto so I'll never regret my decision to go there.

Next I flew to London for Joan and Harry's wedding.  The day was perfect, Joan looked absolutely stunning and Harry very smart, although this was largely thanks to a last minute dash with me to Marks and Spencers the morning of the wedding to get a bow tie, new pair of shoes, handkerchief and even carnations!!  Men crack me up!
It was so good to see all of my London friends again.  It was also strange to see how much people's situations had changed.  In a way it was kind of hard but I guess it's a good thing to see people moving forward with their lives rather than staying the same.

My plan had been to move back to London for a few months to live and work.  I was dossing with friends all over the place and the more I travelled around from friend to friend the more I realised that as much as I adored these people, I had outgrown London as a city.  For a visit it was still great fun, but the idea of trying to settle, find a flat and then a job was hugely unappealing.  It was very confusing and saddening as I didn't want to leave my friends again, but the pull back to New Zealand was so strong that I decided to listen to the longing of my body to return home, and 2 weeks later after 4 years of travelling around the world I was on a plane, heading home to New Zealand.

8 months later.  Here I am.  Back home.  Bored.  Struggling.  Missing travel like crazy!

Having said that, it has been beyond wonderful seeing my family again.  I have 4 neices and nephews ages 0, 2, 4, and 6.  My sister gave birth to a little girl Hayley in November and I was thrilled to be home to experience that, I had been travelling when she had her first little boy, Ryan.  The kids are the coolest little people and I just adore them.  I've spent quite a bit of time with them and getting to know them again has been amazing.

Sadly though, I have not managed to create a life back in New Zealand yet.  The plan had been to live at home with mum and dad for a while until I got my feet back on the ground, then move into downtown Auckland.  But a recent trip to visit friends in Wellington turned this plan on its head.  I love when you experience something in life and your body or mind clicks into place.  This very much happened almost as soon as I landed in Wellington.  It felt so good to be there.  I've lived there before and as I spent time wandering around the city, visiting Te Papa and catching up with friends I felt hugely connected with the city.

So again following my gut instinct.  I have decided to move down to Wellington.  I leave in 3 days and I absolutely can't wait.  I'm trying not to put too much hope and expectation into the move, but I can't help myself.  I am excited and very much hope that this move will bring about a sense of belonging.  I want to gel with the city and feel like I should be there, not something I've had in Auckland.  There are lots of things I want to do in Wellington too, like learning to play the guitar, learn sign language, join a Bikram yoga studio, and meet lots of new and fun people.

I'm going to start blogging more regularly so will keep updating how the move and new start goes!

It's Summer in Canada, now where are the grizzlies?

Summer in Banff. When winter ended and the ski field closed I had no enthusiasm about the concept of sun and heat, at least not in Banff. I'd had so much fun skiing in the trees and playing in the snow over winter, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with myself once that finished.

The last day of the ski season was crazy, the mountain hosted an event called Slush Cup. First off it's an excuse for everyone to try get the day off work and head up the mountain fully equipped with carefully concealed booze. Hundreds of people sit down a hill to watch costumed contestants hurl themselves down the hill on to a jump in an attempt to surf across a pool of ice cold water on their skis or snowboard. I'd say about 1% of people made it across, it was much funner watching the splash as they crashed into the water!

The following day I noticed the number of young people walking around the streets aimlessly looking sad and lost. No more skiing, what the hell were we supposed to do? I was one of these people for a couple of days until a friend of mine asked me to come canoeing with her.

It was a warm sunny day, we hired a canoe grabbed a 6 pack of beers and set off. Five minutes later I was over my depression. The water though freezing was crazy clear and the reflection of the trees and mountains on the water was stunning. The surrounding mountains despite the warmer weather were still snow capped and there were deer and various 'woodland creatures' (no idea what they were) along the river banks.

So that's the new hobby, either cruising down the river in a canoe or kyaak, or relaxing by the river with friends in the sun - beer always in hand of course!

Yesterday I hired a kyaak and the guy told me the previous 2 days a grizzly bear had been spotted along the shore with 2 cubs. I was so excited! I found out the route, and paddled like mad in search of my first bear sighting. Sadly, no luck.

When I'm walking through the bush with my fearless friend Paula, I generally tend to hyperventilate convinced I'm going to be attacked by either a bear or a cougar, but from the water or a car..different story, bring em on!!

All good things must come to and end though. I have just over a week left in Banff :- (

I'm heading to Vancouver for a week and then heading back to London for a few months. I'm really looking forward to being back in London but I'm also really sad to be leaving Banff. I've had so much fun here and made some awesome lifelong friends.

So - I have 2 weeks left in Canada. My next blog better have some darned photos of bears and a moose! Stay tuned...