HopscotchonthRox

a wee little update

2010-08-10T01:16:00.000-07:00

Hello hello to all of my readers. I'm pretty sure that there are only about 5 of you that actually keep up with this and I'm writing just for you! There have been some new developments in my life like the fact that I moved, I met a celebrity, got a real makeup job, and went to a costume party!

So first thing. I moved! I believe that I mentioned that four American kids including Scott, Nicole's brother, moved here in February. Well Tim and Scott weren't really feeling like Wellington was there place right now so they went on home a couple of weeks ago and are doing great. But that left a room available in the kid's house...one of the room's has been rented by a cute local girl called Natalie. It kinda worked out for everyone since Nicole and Manuel actually get their house back, Scott didn't have to pay rent on two hemispheres and I don't have a ridiculous hill to climb up...the view just doesn't justify being that far away from everything as far as I'm concerned. Now I live right off of a frequently used road which means more buses come by and the bus stop is less than a block away. Golden!! I'll post pictures of my room soon and of Jackie, Shawn and Natalie.

Secondly. I met celebrity Jemaine Clement (the guy with the glasses) of the Flight of the Concords! This may or may not actually mean anything to you. But it was really cool. Flight of the Concords is a New Zealand comedic folk singing duo that had/have (waiting on season 3) a show on HBO. So I met him and had an actual conversation with him...he's pretty cool. We talked about the Double Rainbow video that has become a youtube sensation and sparked several remixes. So yeah. Also, I may have been the closest that I ever have been to Brad Pitt. He was rumored to be seen in Miramar which is only just down the road. Still hasn't been confirmed if he was or not but it made the newspapers.

A couple of weeks ago, I met a lady named Claire and she needed her makeup done for a photoshoot for her music so we worked together on that and now we've become buddies! I'm also working on a online portfolio so when that is ready to launch I'll be sure to post the link! I really want to pursue a freelance career and become more than a sales person at a makeup counter!

The costume party was 'G' themed so you had to go as something starting with the letter G. I went as Goldilocks and Wendy made me an entire dress in a day! It was incredible!!! I will post pictures soon!

I think that's about all the blogging I can do tonight. Have a touch of the flu and I'm not feeling the best but I haven't updated in a while!

Tramp tramping tramped

2010-07-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tramping is what the Kiwis refer to as hiking and it's a big thing to do around these here parts. So, back in February, Manuel sorted out this big walk for us around the Abel Tasman in four days on the South Island. Now, I would love to be able to say that this was a life changing trip and it felt so amazing to be out surrounded by nothing except the breathtaking scenery that God has created, that being away from all technology and visiting this beautiful place has made me want to embrace a more simple way of life....but I can't. At least not with a straight face. Poor Manuel had to put up with my complaining, and he probably has no idea of how much was not actually said out loud. I'm just glad he's still my friend and lets me live in his house...although, that's probably only because I pay him.

Manuel and his carry on baggage...just making sure that it will fit.

Nicole and Manuel about to get on the plane to head to the South Island.

This was baggage claim...not even kidding.
Packing our last minute things in front of the grocery store.
Nicole and I on the shuttle bus that takes you to the start of the track.
This burger stand in the middle of nowhere came highly recommended from the lady who drove the bus and let me tell you...they were fanfreakintastic.
Of course Edward came on this adventure, but don't worry, we didn't see that many people so it was ok for him to be out in the sun showing off his sparkley self.
This was the very beginning of the Abel Tasman. And yes, Manuel was a bit faster than us so he was ahead quite a bit.
And I was usually bringing up the rear.
Look! Nature!!!
Better pick it up, Nic, we're only two hours in.
We took a break, Manuel kept walking. We all would just meet up at the huts later...yes, I said huts.
Pretty water that was too cold for me to really enjoy even though it was hot. This trail was pretty neat because you walk along the beaches and the woods/jungle/set of LOST. But there were just so many hills...like big ones.
We had some cooking issues. Other campers were incredibly concerned since there was like a brush fire warning or something.
This was the view from one of the huts, the hut itself was not spectacular enough to warrant a photo.
Nicole all packed up and ready for the day to begin.
So there were specific times when you had to cross certain points otherwise they would be completely under water when the tide comes in. Hope no one needs those boats in an emergency situation.
yay for a photo using the self timer...wonder why I wasn't looking at the camera at all.
That's me on the bridge. I was expecting this to be some super terrifying swinging bridge and I was so looking forward to it but it wasn't scary at all and didn't move even when you jumped. Apparently they have a 'safety first' motto in the A.T.
Nicole fell down...like actually fell down. I almost peed on myself with laughter.

A bedroom in one of the huts that we got to share these massive bunkbeds with about 15 other people.
The highest quality bathroom with freezing cold running water!
Clearly, there wasn't a lot to do except entertain ourselves. We did learn a really cool dice game from this older couple who were doing the walk as well.

While Nicole was making blue hair with a pillow, I was busy making an animal friends out of the wax that her little cheese wheels were wrapped in. We left them on the window sill when we left, I kinda wonder what eventually happened to them.
Um. Excuse me. I was told that there would be a foot path. So this clearly doesn't look that hard to cross but it was sooo muddy and when you have that huge pack on your back, you don't have the greatest balance. I felt like I was on the high wire in the circus!
We sent Edward up this tree so that he could tell us how long we had to walk until we were at the next hut but something wonderful and amazing caught his eye...
...in the middle of nowhere, absolutely nowhere...
...A hotel appeared complete with a cafe, I'm not gonna lie, I was completely convinced that this was a mirage...
...but it wasn't and this, this was when I realized that Jesus really does love the little children of the world...
I'm pretty sure that I used all the cash that I had on me to buy this very expensive cake and coke...so worth every penny. I don't know if Nicole ever told Manuel about this little side trip to Heaven of ours.
So thanks to Edward, we arrived at this hut just a little happier as you can see from Nic's face.
Remember that whole tide time table I mentioned earlier, this was us cutting it close as the tide was coming in. If you miss the opening, you either have to wait hours and hours or walk around it which generally added a few hours to the tramp...not good.
These beds of shells that were everywhere and very uncomfortable to walk on contained mutant ninja crabs about the size of a dime that would pop out and chase us as we stomped through their lair. I was brave though.
Notice that I was in the front for this picture, as in ahead of everyone else.
Now this was a cool spot. A little cave-like alcove created by boulders and hanging branches and with a flooring of soft sand. We enjoyed a snack of granola here.
The last hut and probably the coolest simply because I like old things. There was only a few of us in the hut this night including our friends who taught us the dice game and an older Dutch lady who joined us for the last leg of the trip.
This little fantail bird also joined us! These birds are pretty curious little creatures and he fluttered from tree to tree for us for about an hour before he whistled us a tune to bid us farewell.

Just keep walking. Just keep walking. Just keep walking, walking, walking...that's what we do we walk! I pretty much repeated Dory's song in my head over and over.
Edward pretty much kept pace with Nicole and I so that we were never in any danger even though he could have hiked this whole thing in about 3 hours.

I'm pretty sure the camera was on zoom and you can clearly see how far ahead Manuel and the Dutch lady were. We were too busy taking pictures.
After four days of hiking, freezing cold showers and no makeup...this was my best angle. If you look closely, you can see Edward waving from his spot in my pack.
We're done!!!! Or are we???
Our last quest to complete before leaving the Abel Tasman and securing our place in civilization again was to defeat this dragon house! Bizarre huh?

Eventually we made it home and it was good to have a hot shower and a real bed to sleep in. I'll have all sorts of funny memories and stories, plus the scars from all the sand fly bites as a reminder of this trip of the beautiful Abel Tasman for the rest of my life, for that, I'm thankful. And when I say that the highlight of this experience was when I got stung by a bee, I'm only kidding.
....Sort of

click this....

2010-03-07T22:24:00.000-08:00

http://scottzealand.wordpress.com/

sort of an update....

2010-03-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

So remember how on my last blog post I promised an good update with lots of pictures. Well, I've found a way to cheat! Nicole's brother, Scott, has created a great blog with beautiful pictures...since he is a photographer and all. I hope that you all love his blog and you can continue to follow it if you like because it will most likely be more updated than mine! However, you will never find any pictures of Edward on there because Scott is not amused by him.... And even though it doesn't look like Nicole and I were at the soccer game, we were, we just got there later than everyone else due to work.
http://scottzealand.wordpress.com/

a little wee update.

2010-03-01T21:48:00.001-08:00

I'll go ahead and warn you that this post will have no pictures but since I haven't posted anything in like for-eh-ver I just wanted to give a little update. Good news, Wellington did not get hit by a tsunami. Even if we did, our house is on quite a hill so we would be ok. Nicole and I have been really busy helping Wendy get ready for her wedding that was just on Saturday. There are quite a few pictures that go with that whole event.
The other excitement has been that Nicole's brother, Scott, and three of his friends just moved here on the 25th!!! Shawn, Tim and Jackie are now part of the family, we're all crammed into our 3 bedroom/1 bath house...and it's awesome. No really. I'm loving it. They are looking for jobs right now and when those get all sorted out, we'll work on getting them a place of their own. But until then, we'll just be one big group.
I'm still having so much fun here but I miss everyone too!

For those about to rock (we salute you)

2010-02-11T10:56:00.001-08:00

I think the last time I updated this, Moby Dick was a minnow. It was about Christmas and now it's just about Valentines day...oops. Well, this post is about a concert that happened on January 31st so I'm not too far behind. Nothing too interesting happened during January so I didn't write about it. On to the fun things....

For those of you who don't know, AC/DC is an amazing band from Australia that's been around for forever. They sing such hits as TNT, Shook Me All Night Long and Back in Black just to name a few. This was really exciting for us!

I even had an AC/DC t-shirt for the occasion.
As usual, Nicole didn't feel well and got a headache. She ended up leaving me and Manuel at the front in order to go lay down in first aide for a while.
So then it was just the two of us while the first two bands were on.
But good news! Nicole actually pushed her way through the crowd in order to get allll the way to the front of the barricade which is where we were. This is not an easy task I can assure you.
I'm pretty proud of some of these pictures, we were really close and there was no one in front of us!
The camera was on zoom...we weren't this close.
This is Angus, he's insane on the guitar and he has so much energy for an old guy!
We're blue!!
This is with no zoom. We got there early...as you do for something you're excited about...and there was like no one there. These kiwis have no sense of urgency, they just showed up whenever. We were in a good spot though being right up front because we didn't get toooo squished in the mosh pit.
This was right before he left the stage so Angus could do his guitar solo.

This was like a 20 minute epic solo. His fingers moved so fast!
And he was sweaty.
Manuel was excited about his t-shirt that he bought, AC/DC is his favorite band of all time.
This is the mess of the stadium after the concert. I would sure hate to be the one to clean all of that up! Oh, and in case you are an Edward fan, he didn't come to the show because we didn't take any bags in and I was just too afraid of loosing him because that would have been tragic!

Sunny days, chasin those clouds away...

2010-01-10T05:11:00.000-08:00

The Cheeky Pipi is one of mine and Nicole's favorite little cafe's at the bottom of our hill, it's just so cute inside and the food is yummy. Here are a few pictures from right around our little part of Island Bay called The Parade taken on a really sunny day when neither one of us had to work!!

This is the inside of the Cheeky Pipi, right when you first walk in.
They have a little vineyard in the back room and it's our favorite place to sit...unless it's really sunny like it is because then you feel like your retinas are being burned as you eat.
This was the first time that we had gotten something other than breakfast here and this chicken sandwich that I got was massive!
Nicole got a coffee...even though every time we go there I remind her that she doesn't actually like their coffee. I did take a cool picture though.

This is some of The Parade, and by some, I really mean all. Things aren't really that fancy around here. In fact this road reminds me of an old western town...just really modernized with power lines and cars instead of horses. The brick building is Island Bay Butchery, they have the best sausages in town.
These pretty red flowery trees are Pohutukawa trees. They bloom every summer right around Christmas so they're sort of a New Zealand Christmas symbol. It's too bad that you can't see how vibrantly red these things can get and they are everywhere. The bad thing is, the flowers that are like soft pine needle balls have recently started to come off the trees so there's just masses of red-ish/pink straw all over but as Nicole said...'it's better than pollen!'

Merry Christmas....a few weeks late

2010-01-08T16:31:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas everybody! I realize that I have been a total slacker on this whole blogging thing and I am constantly reminded of that by my Daddy. So here's a new one for you all! All Christmas season, I was busy at the store...Farmers had some really late nights that I had the pleasure of working. It really wasn't so bad though because no one actually came in to shop so we kinda just stood around and stared at one another. Nicole was also busy at her store so we were a little late actually getting into the spirit of Christmas. Neil (from the horse race pics) and Manuel went out a few days before Christmas and brought this little 'gem' of a tree that was one step above Charlie Browns...notice the drooping branches.

This here is a picture of me and Julian decorating the tree. You remember Julian, one of our German backpackers that Nicole brought home, well he was passing through again and had the opportunity of decorating with us. It was actually really cute, he was very excited about doing this because he usually does it at home with his family but this year he's so far away. He and Manuel also had a good time making fun of our Christmas music. Apparently 'Dominic the Donkey' and 'I want a Hippopotamus' are not translated into German.
Nicole had the job of pulling out all the ornaments and Manuel was the photographer...which is why you won't see him in any of these pictures. (those cushions in the background are part of a project that is currently being worked on, pictures to come later!!!)
Our results are quite cheery. The little swaggy thing in the doorway was made by Nicole's grandmother and I just love it. Christmas morning was a little slow moving even though Manuel woke us up at like 6:30 am as if he was 5 years old and Santa had just come down the chimney. Really he wasn't excited about Santa because they don't have Santa in Germany but his family was calling on Skype so that they could all open the presents together on Christmas Eve... weird, I know but it's a German thing. Nicole's family called a little while later but I had already fallen back to sleep...6:30am, what was he thinking. And I even got to talk to my family on Christmas and that was really nice...thanks for calling Granddaddy!
Christmas night was more exciting but we didn't take any pictures at all. sorry!! The three of us went over to Neil and Vanessa's apartment for dinner and Neil's parents were in town as well. They are from the States but currently living in Nigeria...they've lived in all sorts of places. We just had fun talking to them and eating Vanessa's yummy food, seriously I thought Manuel was going to kill someone over the last pork rib.

A final word of advice...don't ever play Connect Four with Manuel. You will lose. repeatedly...

My first Red Carpet Premier - Monday, December 14th

2009-12-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

The other day while riding the bus Nicole and I noticed that there were flags up promoting The Lovely Bones premier right in the middle of Wellington so of course we wanted to go. The movie doesn't actually open here until January but we've both read the book and can't wait to see it. Monday morning, we actually got off to a bad start. We kinda forgot that it was the night of the premier until we were too far away from the house to go back...seriously when you leave the house you take a spare change of clothes and provisions for the day, you don't go back for anything. Luckily Manuel hadn't left for work so he saved the day by bringing the camera with him. He even brought Edward even though this was his first day at his new job and he could have been horribly made fun of for forever if Edward was discovered.This hotel is just right around the corner from where I work, all of these cars were waiting to take people to the event. The side of the car says 'The Lovely Bones' and it had an all access pass in the window. The coolest part though was that the drivers had really cool headsets.

This is Courtenay Place which is a pretty happening little spot in Wellington and there's normally tons of cars and buses on this street but tonight there was just a red carpet and lots of people. Straight ahead is the theater that the premier is being held in. That's me off to the right with the gianormous bulging backpack...I told you that you take lots of things with you!
This is a shot of the Red Carpet before all the action. This is looking towards the theater.
The other direction, around that corner a tent where everyone was coming from.
Self portrait of Nicole and I in our matching jackets and huge sunglasses.
The girl with the blonde hair and pretty dress is Saoirse Ronan. She plays Susie Salmon, the main girl in the film.
She was in the movie Atonement and was nominated for an Academy Award in 2008 at the age of 13! Unfortunately this was as close as we got to her. This guy getting his photo taken was really nice, they held out our little book for autographs!
The lady in the black dress is Susan Sarandon. The Susan Sarandon. She's been in excellent films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Banger Sisters, Stepmom, Thelma and Louise, Enchanted and many many more.
Like other Kiwis, she decided to walk around barefoot. These people are crazy by the way, as soon as the the sun comes out they're in sundresses and shorts but it's still cold!
It's a little blurry and we didn't get her autograph but she did come really close.
She seemed really cool for the 20 seconds that we saw her.
Edward got his picture with Rose McIver! She's a New Zealander who's done a lot of work here, she plays the other Salmon girl in The Lovely Bones. She also signed our book!!
Getting out of the car is Peter Jackson and his people. (!)
This was so exciting. For those of you who do not know, Peter Jackson is a pretty famous Kiwi in the film industry. He's written screenplays, produced and directed huge films such as Heavenly Creatures, the Lord of The Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Lovely Bones and next up is The Hobbit. So basically...he's awesome.
And we sort of met him! I guess you can't really say that you met someone when all they say is "you're welcome" when you say "thank you" because he signed your book.
This is Peter signing our book.
Edward tried his very hardest to get a picture with Peter. This was the best out of about 10 bad pictures.
The man used to be quite a fatty but he lost a lot of weight a few years back and now he looks great! He was so good to his fans, he really tried to see as many people as possible.
If my hand weren't there, it would look like Edward was on the red carpet. He's the same size as the other people!
It's hard to see in our pictures, but people were hanging out on roofs to get a good view of the festivities just like these kids. The funny thing was, no one cared. Even the cops are laid back here.

So our first real Red Carpet Premier was a success and lots of fun! There were a bunch of other people there that might have been famous but since we don't watch TV here, but we didn't really recognize many others. But it was so exciting and we can't wait for another one!!!

Christmas at the Races!

2009-12-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Christmas at the Races!! Horse racing is a huge thing around here so we thought it would be fun to go to one of the special events with Neil and Vanessa. Vanessa's father and family have been following racing for years so she knows all about these things. All I knew about horse racing is that you get to wear a big hat!
Neil and Manuel very excited to be up so early for a fun day.

Me and my headband on the train. (This was a very casual family day at the races so not really dressing up. Only a few people had hats...like the horse owners...most people were wearing a fascinator/headband of some sort.)
Vanessa on the train. It was only about a 30 minute train ride to get to the Trentham race track.
We got there a bit early so we could get a good spot to set up our 'camp.' We even had a little sun shade which came in handy since it was such a sunny day...and yes, I'm actually assisting Neil with the building!
Vanessa and I sitting in the sunshade waiting for a race to begin.
These colorful people came parading by...it was a little weird. Even Vanessa hadn't seen them before.
This is Nicole modeling her race book (it has all the races and horse stats in it) and first betting ticket.
Edward holding one of Neil's winners!!!
This is the Birdcage where you can scope out your horsey and make sure you picked a good one before they go out into the gates.
This is jockey Robert Hannam on Our Centrefold. I won about 2 dollars off of these two. woo hoo!
This is our little camp. Neil is teaching me how to read the race book correctly.
I forgot the official term for this person...but there was two of them. They basically lead the horses and riders on and off of the track. I think...
Annnnd they're off!I'm not sure which race this is, there were 10 that day. So exciting.
Neil and I displaying our winning tickets. It might have been Cracker Tee Pee or Tip The Wink, we won on both. I started out picking based on cool names but by the time it got to race 4 or 5, I was getting pretty good. Plus there were a few realllly good jockeys there.

I mentioned that Vanessa's family is really into racing and she wanted to say 'hi' to jockey Opie Bosson. She was very excited when he said 'hello' back. She bought her Dad a book for Christmas about famous jockeys and racing for Christmas that she brought to the race in case she was able to get anyone to sign it. So we set off jockey hunting.
And we found Opie Bosson!! (this was a huge deal for her...can you tell?) He signed dad's book.
Along with Michael Walker...at least I think that's him. Jockeys are soo short! Just like Vanessa, in fact her dad has always wanted her to be a jockey. (he's really into racing...)
Nicole and I were trying to get Edward set up so that he could get a picture with the horses running behind him when a girl was like 'oh my gosh, is that Edward Cullen?' She's obviously a Twilight fan.
'Hello from Trenthan Racing!' love, Edward.
Edward was a big fan of the races...even though it was sunny.
So sunny in fact that he didn't want to stand out so he hid behind Vanessa's leg.
We all had a great day at the races! It was a beautiful day out there and it was so relaxing and we had a great picnic thanks mostly to Nicole and Vanessa. Neil won the most out of all of us. I took twenty dollars out there and came back with $19, not too bad. I tend to just make safe bets. I think Vanessa is going to take Nicole and I to Ladies Day at the Races in March and that's where we actually get to wear a big hat!!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

2009-11-26T02:20:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Unfortunately I had to go into work for a few hours yesterday since Thanksgiving is not a holiday here and Farmers was having a huge one day sale. But I didn't have to work the whole day, just the busy lunch hours. YAY! Nicole walked down the hill with me in the morning because she had to go to the grocery store in preparation for our thanksgiving feast. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the cafe right by the bus stop, called Mint and we decided to take a quick picture. I should have taken more pictures of the Parade...the main street in Island Bay...but I didn't think about it until I could see the bus coming. I'm sorry!!!
I got out of work at 2:30 and had some time to kill before my bus arrived so I thought everyone at home might want to see where I spend my day. This is Farmers. On Lambton Quay, pronounced 'Key.'
I learned that my camera can do a panoramic shot. So here's the street. This is the downtown area, what you can't see is that farmers only occupies 3 small floors of the building, it's about 20 stories full of offices...at least that's what I'm told. I'll try to get a good picture of downtown sometime.
This is my bus stop across the street from work. And these are the bright yellow buses that we have here that look like bumblebees. There are a few old ones too but these are all the electric ones that are most common. I wonder if that lady knew I was taking her picture...
So, you've all heard about 'the Hill' even though I've yet to take pictures for you. Well, there is another way home..besides a taxi. There's a bus that goes to the very tip top of this mountain, the walk is longer to get home but it's easier. The problem is, it only runs about once an hour opposed to the every 10 minutes like the bottom of the hill one. And the last pick up for the day is around 7:21 and sometimes you're just not done in town by this time. This is a shot of the street where the bus drops us off.
Edward is showing you the other side of the street. Similar view from our house.
Mostly just a downhill walk, this is much better.
Until you get to that hill. That's our street that goes straight up.
Good old Hudson street.
This is our blue mailbox. And these are the stairs to get to the house. See where the railing hides behind the bushes...
it's more stairs!!!
I made it to the top! We have a little people gate and this is the house. At least part of it. That's the inside of the kitchen that you can see, if you look closely, you might see Nicole in there cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
Manuel invited his friend, Tony and his family over to have a traditional thanksgiving with us so we made all the favorites. And by we, I mean Nicole. I did however make biscuits from scratch with Edwards help.
And if you're wondering how they turned out, they were ok. I feel like there's a secret to it that I should probably find out. maybe I kneaded them too much? I would like to try making them again sometime because they actually don't have biscuits in New Zealand. Just scones. Not the same. At all.

New Moon Premier

2009-11-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Some of you might not be aware that I am a huge fan of the Twilight series of books, but that's ok because it's geared towards 'young adults', which I'm technically not even though I lie about my age regularly. Vampires and werewolves aside, it's a really cute love story with 4 books in the series. The second novel, New Moon, was just adapted into a film version so of course Nicole and I went to the premier...at midnight. With our friend Pip. (not pictured) Edward Cullen came too...since this is his movie.

Good news was that we didn't even have to wait in line, these Kiwi's are geniuses and we had assigned seats on our tickets! Don't worry, we bought our tickets waay in advance and were able to pick exactly where we wanted to be. However, even after grabbing a snack after we met Pip, we still had a bit of time to wander around and with no stores open at 11pm, we took pictures. Nicole and I wanted to be part of the 'Where The Wild Things Are' poster so we are.

The theater is upstairs in this kinda food court thing and there are a few stores in there as well, but it's mostly food. Well, there were all these silver Christmas trees all decorated in the room, pretty much one in front of each store/restaurant. They were all a little bit different from one another but all with the same decorations, like they were each given the decorations and asked to decorate themselves. Cool idea right??
Well apparently the kids working in the record store are the rebels of the group and didn't get too creative.
This is a blurry picture of me and Nicole in front of the GINORMOUS movie poster on the building outside of the theater. What you can't see, is that we're wearing our matching 'Twilight' shirts and Edward is there. I realize this seems a little extreme but people thought our shirts were cool. You get no cool movie merchandise here like you can find at Hot Topic. It's crazy!
Nicole and I in the theater with Edward. I think we blinded the people behind us. Oops.
Ok...this may be a little extreme but I'll tell you anyways. Nicole saw that Border's Bookstore was doing a New Moon launch party and trivia quiz so she signed us up, along with Pip. The girl in the photo with me is not Pip, she's Grace...who's dressed as a character from the book...she was one of the girls that ran the quiz. There were three teams and our team won! Grace said that she was glad that we won because we looked like we were having the most fun. Go figure.
They fed us yummy cake!! Our prizes were actually worth something, these are the movie companion guides to both of the films which tells all about the set design, costuming, makeup(!), production notes and all sorts of things that Nicole and I just love. And we also won a t-shirt!

Tara might be the only one to appreciate this.

2009-11-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

Whilst walking down one of the side streets in the city, Nicole and I came across this little pink camper van. We honestly didn't know what it was since we came across it from the back...and written in huge script was 'Princess Is Sleeping.' As we got closer, we saw that the door was open and there was a sign inviting us in, along with a teddy bear up of course. It was a little jewelry store!!

This little Asian girl had all sorts of random costume jewelry for sooo cheap in comparison to some of the stores here that sell girlie cute stuff. I bought a cute chunky charm bracelet and a big owl necklace for 15 dollars. I was stoked because I had seen the exact necklace at a store called 'Diva' for over 30 dollars. YAY!! This is the inside, how cute is this place? I mean really?? ps...if i ever need a camper van, it will most likely look like this.

Look, I have friends! This was taken the night of Nicole and Vanessa's birthday dinner. (Nicole, Jen, Me and Vanessa) Nicole works with Jen and Vanessa. There were more people there...but they weren't around when the camera was there. Except for Neil, but he's the photographer.

I found some more pictures!!!

2009-11-21T18:56:00.000-08:00

Most of the pictures on my blog have been either from Nicole's big fancy camera but I had some on my camera that I thought were cool from some of our past events. I won't write too much about them.For the Halloween party, Edward dressed up as a mummy...instead of the vampire that he actually is. This is him with our creepy bleeding candles. He perched here all night.

I surprised Nicole with this picture while we were doing all of the laundry that the German boys brought. I told y'all that the washer was small. (it's the one on the bottom)
These are some cool houses that I saw on our walk to Red Rocks that one day a few weeks ago. These were all facing the ocean because there is nothing on the other side of the street...except the sidewalk that I was walking on.
This weirdly shaped house is just one of those things that you want to go in to just to see what that triangle room really looks like. Is it a room? or a vaulted ceiling? Can you look out of the little porthole??
These people obviously missed the fact that you're supposed to look at boats from your balcony...not be in a boat on your balcony. Either way, I want a boat to be attached to my house someday.
Yes, this is a house. Possibly a 'Bach' which is like a summer beach house here. There's really like no room in this thing but it's awesome.
Hope you've enjoyed the new additions!!

Wanganui Road Trip

2009-11-12T12:00:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have written anything about Wendy on here yet, which is strange considering that she's the first person that I met when I moved here excluding Nicole, Manuel and the taxi driver. Wendy and her fiance, Steven, are good buddies with Nicole and Manuel so we see them often...especially because she's an amazing cook. Wendy's birthday was this past week so we went on a little trip to Wanganui which is about 2 hours outside of Wellington to her family's place for some fun outside of the city. Steven picked up me and Nicole eeeearly Saturday morning from the house and we ran back to pick up Wendy and then we were off to the train station!!! It's not that big or extravagant at all but I thought it was cool. Plus in the left corner there is a dry cleaners called 'Platform 9 3/4', just like in Harry Potter!! I still need to go to the real one but that requires going to London.
Wendy and me with our coffee...seriously, these people can drink a lot of coffee...and all of our bags of party food. mmm.
Apparently this is me trying to look cool on the train with my coffee and shades. This is the very front of the train and if you were to open that little door with the window, you would fall out...so don't do it. There's a little room on the right side that looks like it could be a bathroom, it's not, that's where the driver sits. Also...I'm modeling my new waterproof jacket that I had to get because as soon as it starts raining, which it does every other day, my pea coat weighs 30lbs.
So since this was the first time on the train, of course Edward had to come. Nicole and I had forgotten that Wendy hadn't actually met him, when he came out of my bag she almost spat out her coffee.
This is Wendy's face as she learned all about Edward and his adventures so far. As if she didn't think I was a bit weird already...
Edward rides the train!! Sitting at the front window, watching the other train come into the station.
The conductor came on board and he was a great sport! Seriously, he didn't question this or give me strange looks at all. I just asked if my little man could take a picture with him and he was like 'sure.'
And we're off to Wanganui in the countryside of New Zealand! What's funny, is that Nicole thought that this was my first time on a train because I was so excited and had even emailed her Dad to tell him this. Lies...all lies. Sorry Daddy Day, I have ridden our Amtrak system several times but never a little commuter train like this. It was kinda like that time when Nicole told me and Van that she had never been to Disney World, yet when we got there, she kept remembering things. Come to find out, she had been there twice....
Scenery from out the windows. We passed a marina with lots of boats.
And rolling hills.
And since we're on an island, of course we passed some water. That is not the South Island in the background...it's something that I can't remember.
This is the train station where we got off to meet Wendy's mum. Not quite in Wanganui yet.
The restrooms at the train station were out of order and we all thought we were going to die so we went to the shopping center across the street to find a toilet. These people were outside playing the violins. They were really good!
Waiting on the corner for Mum and her big blue truck.
Yellow tomatoes! What do you do with those??
Hey Daddy! Look, Jack Links! They only have the little packets and just these two flavors.
After the Grocery store, we picked up Wendy's Nana (not pictured). We were all so hungry so we cute through a 'mall' to get to this little cafe that Wendy suggested. So in this shopping center, there was a store called Garage Sale where there was a lot of weird stuff. Nana got really distracted, while Nicole and I found this awesome sweater. If they hadn't wanted 35$ for it, we would have bought it. But 35$...for a Humpty Dumpty/Potato Man sweater. Really??!
The yummy cafe where we dined for brunch.
I told you that they drink a lot of coffee here...they just make it so appealing, it's hard to say no. After brunch, we stopped at this awesome Trading Post. Nicole and I almost bought the entire store...not really, but we wanted too. It looks really small but it's HUGE!
Look Kathryn, this matches that bowl thing you gave Mom.
This fake old man...and woman next to him...scared Nicole because she came around a corner not paying attention and she thought they were real. It was hilarious.
More countryside in the big blue truck almost at Mum's house.
SHEEEPPS!!!! I was so excited about all the sheep that I kept seeing out of the windows, you know because sheep are a huge thing in New Zealand. Wendy's mum said that their neighbors had two little pet ones that they leave tied up outside all the time that we could go play with. Nicole was also excited because this was a first for her as well!
The little girl sheep was our favorite. She was so sweet and soft!
I would like a lamb please.
At this time, I was attempting to play with LambBoy but he was just interested in eating. That's really all they do. Eat grass. and poop.
Nicole with LambGirl.
I tried to put my glasses on LambGirl. She was pretty curious but didn't want them on her face. We forgot to take Edward to meet the sheeps because we were just too excited.
However, he did get to meet the chickens that Mum has at her house. Wendy's little sister had no problem handing over her job of feeding the chickens to me and Edward.
I have no pictures of the actually party, but we had lots of people there and we had a great time. And lots of great food! Happy Birthday Wendy!!!!!

I almost forgot about Edward!!

2009-11-01T15:00:00.001-08:00

Edward used power tools too to help with the chairs!!

Booo-gie Nights!!

2009-11-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloweeeen!! New Zealand is not big on Halloween at all (weird, I know) and it's one of my favorite holidays because you can dress up!!! It's also a favorite of Nicole's so we decided that we should have a party. Not as many people were able to come as we wanted but all of our favorites were there. I only have pictures of about 4 people on here...but there were more. Nicole is getting ready and making spider brownies. She and Manuel had to do all the cooking because I was at work.
Edward was there as a Mummy in the background.
Nicole drew all of these bats and I cut them out. I also put those curtains up...yay for thumbtacks and rubber bands! Martha Stewart's got nothing on us.
We collected all of these black candle holders from the salvation army stores and dripped red wax down these white candles so they looked like they were bleeding. Spoooky! Funny story about these. We put these up the night before Nicole brought home those German boys, you should have seen their eyes when they walked into the living room. We had to explain that this was not the normal decor!
New Zealand punkins are not at all like our punkins at home. They are short and squaty and Thick(!) and green. Theirs are more like a squash of some sort and they eat it throughout the year. These were an absolute pain to cut up. Nicole drew them out and Manuel battled them. We had to go basic due to time constraints and logistics. We have made way way cooler punkins in the past. I thought I would pay a little tribute to Orlando by being Minnie Mouse. I found this great dress and shoes at the salvation army...the shoes were a hideous beigey/brown color and I painted them! I didn't have ears either so I just made them with my hair.
Minnie Mouse and Wednesday Addams (aka Nessa from Kathmandu).

Nicole was one of those little parachute man toys. She had a giant rubber band around her and a stuffed trash bag. It was awesome!
Manuel was Wolverine. He hated growing his beard out for 2 weeks and kept complaining, but it turned out really well! Nicole made him claws too...but they aren't pictured. sorry. All in all we had a great night with great people!

"should we give the strangers sharp steak knives for their food or no?"

2009-11-01T13:54:00.001-08:00

Manuel and I are both home one day when the phone rings and Nicole says she met some Germans (Manuel is German) at work and she was bringing them home for a BBQ. Our reaction was something like "OooK". So when Nicole gets home, she explains a little more. She works at an outdoors shop called Kathmandu and these backpackers came in and they seemed really cool so she invited them over. See, I told you, people just let strangers in over here. It's awesome.
These are our Germans. Julian and Nico are behind the couch, David and Manuel on the couch. Manuel and Nicole helped them plan their trip to the south island since they've been there before. Julian and Nico were traveling together and they met David last week. Julian and Nico were a little more quiet than David, he was nonstop and said 'like' more times than me! We grilled out and had a great time with them, so good in fact that we invited them to spend the night here instead of in their van, do laundry and take showers. So fun.I thought I had some pictures of the 6 loads of laundry that we did...the washers are really small here so it was only about 2-3 real loads. All I could find was the one of Edward with his Twilight detergent.
The boys ended up leaving all of their things at our place for the day and then come back for their laundry at night. We made dinner again and they brought two more Germans with them! I honestly don't remember these girls names except maybe Maureen and MaryJam (i swear that's what they were calling her) By this night, Julian and Nico were much more open and so much fun. We spent the night playing games and they even met Edward!!!
Nico thought the idea of Edward was awesome and wanted to make sure that he got to be the one to hold him.
This was an exceptionally beautiful sunset that Manuel captured the night we grilled out with the boys.

'Michelle, do you wanna go on about a 2hour walk?'

2009-11-01T13:20:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, all three of us were off work and it was a beautiful day, so Manuel and Nicole asked me if I would like to go on about a walk. I asked the basics like where are we going? How long of a walk is it? Will I need provisions? I was told that it's only about 2 hours and it's a place called Red Rocks. Ok, sure. Sounds like fun. Nicole thought that we should stop and eat at this little family owned place called the Bach, said like 'batch', before our journey.
This was probably a good idea considering that our '2 hour walk' was really 6 hours. And that was only because Nicole and I hitch-hiked back. (don't worry, we were picked up by two older women, it's a very common thing to stop for strangers here.)
This whale was at the visitors center, the hike included the old rock quarry and there was some history of shipwrecks and other things in there. If you look closely, you can see Edward on the fin!!
This was a good distance into our walk. This part was easy because it was flat, there was some places that we had to walk through deeper sand and a whole area of small rocks that were kinda shifty. Plus it was really windy...but not cold.
Manuel and I way ahead of Nicole for some reason. Usually it was just Manuel waay ahead of us. This might have been when we had to chase Nic's sunglasses...they literally blew off of her face. Told you it was windy here.
Pretty.
This is me at Red Rocks. See, they're red. It's known because there are sooo many rocks and boulder things all around that are normal and then you turn around a corner and they're all red. Kiwi Kraziness.
Have I mentioned that Manuel likes to rock climb...even without gear.
King of the Mountain.
Nicole captured me looking like a silly as I was trying to figure out what that stuff was. It's some form of kelp that is really long and tangle-y. When it's out of water, it dries so when you stomp on it, it makes the loudest crunch ever! ah, the simple pleasures in life.
After Red Rocks is the seal colony! yay.
So we were only able to see about 4 but we were able to get really close to this guy.
We were on about a 5 foot tall rock and Manuel was on a rock a bit higher to get this picture. We couldn't get too close because apparently these things can get vicious. This was the end of seal season so we'll have to go again in the fall and hopefully we'll see a lot more!
The end.

Michelle + power tools = good idea???

2009-11-01T12:48:00.000-08:00

Hello! So yet again I will start another blog post by saying I'm sorry that I haven't written anything in over two weeks but I have several things to post. So this picture above was taken from our deck on one of the most gorgeous days that I've seen, Manuel even said that this might be the best view of the South Island that they've ever had. Pretty right?? Yeah...it's not always like this. You're probably wondering what I've been so busy with that I can't find time to sit down and update this thing, I started my new job and worked alllll week long. After having a month off, this was not fun. At all. The people see nice enough but it's just a pain to get all dressed up just to sell some perfume. I much more prefer doing something with my hands so, in our spare time, Nicole is teaching me how use some power tools!

She bought this outdoor furniture...that I don't have a picture of, sorry...on TradeMe, which is kinda like Craigslist/Ebay for New Zealand. It was in a sorry shape and she's refinished the table and sewn new covers for the chairs but hadn't gotten around to actually finishing the chairs. Here I am using the sander/buffer like a pro...please note my safety goggles and glasses.

Are you impressed?? I should have a picture of the finished products...I'll get one of those up for next time!

Fondue beim Schweizer Klub (fondue with the Swiss Club)

2009-10-22T18:41:00.000-07:00

Nicole, Manuel and I had the opportunity last Saturday night to join friends Andrea and Felix for traditional fondue dinner at the Wellington Swiss Club. It was such a great time! Nicole and me in front of the Swiss flag!This is all of us enjoying our yummy food! I should have gotten a picture to show you how many people were actually there because there were sooo many. It's all different ages too, elderly to infants. We noticed that some people had their entire families there. They have a house that they have these meetings and dinners in regularly.
This is me with Felix(left) and Manuel(right). We questioned Felix and Andrea about everything that we know of that's Swiss...we only came up with two things, the cheese and the army knives. Neither of which actually have the 'Swiss' in their title.
Andrea and Nicole waiting for dessert I think. The food was just so good!
Edward even showed up! We tried giving him this little piece of bread...But it was just go good that I guess he felt like he needed more. I'm not sure exactly why my face looks so weird but I think it's because I'm saying something like 'nicole, make sure I'm not in this...' Clearly she's a great listener.

We even got to meet with the President of the Swiss Club...not just Wellington's branch but all of New Zealand! He was even excited to meet Edward and asked if 'he was going to show up on the YouTube?'
Somehow we ended up singing Christmas songs, signed up to join the Swiss carol choir, ended the night by washing all the dishes and were the last to leave. So basically they love American girls now! We're now looking into joining more clubs for the food...and social activity. But really for the food.

I got a job!

2009-10-22T16:26:00.001-07:00

So one of the reasons that I decided to come to New Zealand was to hopefully get a job working in the film industry. Specifically on The Hobbit which is the next big thing happening here. However, this film has been pushed back until after Christmas maybe even until February. So I needed something to keep me busy and pay the bills, I was blessed enough to get a job at the first...and only place that I applied! I will be starting at Farmer's, New Zealand's number one department store that is just celebrating their 100th anniversary, on Wednesday in the Fine Fragrances department. It only took about 3 interviews, multiple phone calls and 2 paperwork stop-ins but I have a job and that's all that matters. I've had the chance to meet a few of the people and everyone seems very nice. Pictures to come soon!!!

The Kiwi Adventures of Edward Cullen

2009-10-22T15:50:00.000-07:00

This is Edward Cullen. He is an action figure from the Twilight series which mean that I am a huge dork.
Kinda like that Travelosity gnome that shows up in all those random places, he is in New Zealand with me and he goes everywhere. This is Edward and FERNando. I'm not quite sure if this plant will make it much longer. Nicole's previous flatmate, Pip, left it in our care and it's slowly dying. We've tried watering it, giving it more sunlight, less sunlight, naming it...and nothing is working.
Nicole and I were cooking dinner one night for friends Wendy and Steven and we caught Edward trying to help. Be on the lookout for all of his exciting adventures!!

I have pictures!

2009-10-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hello followers! I'm sorry for the delay in the posting, I'm sure some of you probably thought that I might have died on 'the Hill' but not yet. I was waiting to put something very interesting on here but then I just kept getting behind so this might be a big one...with pictures!!

This is a picture taken from our deck that overlooks Island Bay and look, we can see the ocean! In fact on a clear day, you can even see the South Island and the mountains. I zoomed in on these so you could see them. Pretty cool huh?

I have tried to get pictures of 'the Hill' but every time I try, it's either rainy or dark or I simply forget because I'm too busy trying to breathe. However, I did take pictures from the house so that you can get a general idea of this craziness. This picture is taken from the deck. There are stairs/ramp stairs from the house to get to the road which is Hudson Street (where we live). Then about an inch and a half from the top of the picture and an inch from the telephone pole, is the New World grocery store.
I zoomed in on New World so that you can maybe find it easier. It's the building at the very top. Now find the buildings right in front New World, that's where the bus stop is. I walk this 'hill' whenever I go somewhere. Y'all thought I was being a bit dramatic about this hill, didn't you? There are multiple paths and stairs that we take to get from house to bus, and I will bring you pictures of these later.
I was going to make this huge post about everything that I've done but I think I'll stop here and separate them a bit. :)

The Adventure Begins (que climactic music)

2009-10-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start this blog so that I could keep all of my loyal fans, subjects and family tuned into what it is I do. Especially now that I've actually done something interesting...that would be moving to the other side of the world. In case you missed it, I packed all of my belongings (those that would fit in 2 bags weighing 50lbs) on October 3rd and moved to Wellington, New Zealand. I think I drove my mom crazy packing, unpacking and repacking but I made it work all in one day...and I have a good amount of my makeup that weighed about 20lbs on it's own. I could probably use some more clothes but I have priorities people.

My trip was fairly uneventful and I'm ok with that. I made all of my planes, I got a little nervous on the Auckland to Wellington flight due to late departure out of L.A. (where I was bummed about not seeing anyone famous. no one.) then the line at customs was a bit long and I still had to take a nice walk to the domestic terminal in the drizzling rain. Basically when I arrived at the ticket counter, the very nice girl told me exactly where to go and to do it quickly as the plane would be boarding shortly. Then she told me that my carry-on baggage was too big and I no longer liked her. (it's just a joke, I know that she was just doing her job. but really...it would have fit)

I arrived in Wellington on Monday, October 5th. I lost an entire Sunday of my life...just skipped right over it, but it's ok because I'm in the future. Nicole was there to greet me where we squealed for a bit and caused a scene, it only could have been better if Tara and her infectious laugh were there as well...talk about a head turner. (love you) We made our way to the one and only baggage carousel which was now littered with the contents of my suitcase spilled about...no, no that did not happen. I have wonderful Travelpro Luggage that can withstand the likes of American Airlines, Qantas and Air New Zealand, all of my belongings were perfectly in-tact. Including my makeup, yes, I checked. We were doing awesome until Nicole mentioned something about a 'cold snap'....

A 'cold snap' is the term that these here Kiwis like to use to explain unseasonable weather. We're supposed to be going into Spring here and yet we're having Southerly winds. Now, I'm sure it's been a while since you've checked a globe but do you know what's Southern of New Zealand? Antarctica. ANTARCTICA! The first few days here were interesting with the winds and the rain, but it's gotten better and yesterday was really lovely.

Since I've been here:
I have eaten different foods
ridden a bus that was not operated by Walt Disney World
just about froze
had a job interview (updates later)
made some friends
felt an earthquake (4.8)
had my accent made fun of
fell in love with the electric blanket
cooked (I know!!)
learned to count money all over again
and have almost died several times on '*the hill'.

Hopefully my blog will bring you joy and deepened enlightenment...or just a good laugh. I will try my best to update on the happenings in my life here and also maybe have a few regular segments like "Has Michelle died on 'the Hill'?" and 'The Kiwi adventures of Edward Cullen'. Stay Tuned!!

* 'the hill' requires it's very own posting along with pictures.

2009-10-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

Good News! I've made it to Wellington, New Zealand!!!