Big Day Out

Amy, her brother, and I went to Big Day Out in Auckland on Jan 18. It's a huge annual festival series in NZ and Australia. We had a great time. Standout acts were Arcade Fire, Bjork, and Rage Against the Machine.

Things really do just seem to work out, somehow...

For the last couple weeks I've been stressed out about money and housing. My temp gigs weren't coming in like I had hoped, I was having a hard time finding a permanent job (I still am), and I was quickly running out of money. At the same time my flat mates and I were trying to figure out how to stay in the house we're in after the current lease holders move to the south island at the end of this week.

Things went from bad to worse, we were having trouble filling the extra rooms and the rest of us would have to foot the bill for the extra rent, as well as the extra bond. Meanwhile I'm still running out of money, and nobody knew what was going to happen.

Now we know, everybody is moving out. I'm going to Auckland this weekend for the Big Day Out concert and I'll have to move before Wednesday next week.

I'll move into a hostel for a few nights until I can move in here:


It's a historic building, fully furnished and maintained by the city. Amy's mother works for the department that doles out council flats and she arranged for it, thanks Jane! The best part about it is it's location, that big round building about 2 blocks to the north east, that's the beehive, New Zealand's Capital Building...


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I'll also be starting my new job next week! It's nothing permanent yet but my flatmate Liz really came through for me. Thanks Liz!

New Years!

For New Years Katie, Peter, Amy and I all went to Martinborough. It's a great little town in the wairarapa Valley near Wellington. This is the road we took to get over the mountain. It's about a 45 minute drive. These pictures were taken at the Summit Cafe at the highest point on the road.


This is the house we rented for the weekend, it was a beautiful place:

This should give you an idea of the size of the town... this is the police station:

Wellington's beaches

Amy and I went for a drive yesterday around some of the beachier suburbs of Wellington: Scorching Bay, Island Bay, Lyle Bay, etc... We saw the boat from King Kong rusting in the harbor near the airport and lots of beautiful blue water.

The island of Island Bay fame:This is right behind the airport, you can see a plane coming in for a landing:

This is Wellington as viewed from out past the airport:
Some cool swimming platforms for diving in the bay, we wished we had brought our "togs":