Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Cadbury Factory

I just heard that I got a job that I interviewed for this morning at the Cadbury Factory. I'm going to be working mornings (8:00-1:00pm) at reception and it's supposed to go until December. This is really great news. Knowing that I'm done desperately looking for a job is a great feeling. So glad that I got in with Select Recruitment who got me the interview.

Also John and I went to Aramoana Beach again. We played frisbee and laid on our blanket in the sun. We ate some sandwiches that we brought with us and enjoyed the huge flat beach almost all to ourselves. We saw an awesome seal today and got to see it rolling in the sand on it's back rubbing it's belly with it's fins and watched it hop around the beach. So awesome.




Monday, March 14, 2011

Aramoana Beach

John and I had an anniversary this weekend and we went to a beach in an area called Aramoana. Just about 40 minutes from home. We decided to go there since it happened to be an extremely beautiful sunny day (unlike the many rainy days we were getting used to encountering) and we had seen this beach across the harbor from the Otago Peninsula a few weeks ago and thought it looked beautiful.






We got a private visit from a seal while we were walking far down the beach away from the people closer to the road. It was so great watching him jump around the waves.
We followed the seal as he swam along the shore and then out oft he water to hop around a rocky area. He went just out of sight behind a large rock and we decided to follow slowly just to see where he went. As we neared the point where we had seen him last we realized after hearing three loud barking sounds that there was a giant seal snuggled into the base of the big rock! We took some calm steps away from the huge I believe to be fur seal and watched it for a while. It was very big and lazy and we were very glad to have seen seals so close up and to have the experience all to ourselves.

John checking out the seal

The fur seal's head. Hard to see but he's there.


The wide open beach gave us lots of room to play some frisbee. It wasn't a busy beach at all and we may have found out why yesterday when John was telling his coworkers about it. Apparently they were surprised when he mentioned the beach we had gone to and they were reluctant to explain why. They then informed him that there was a shooting massacre in the Aramoana area where 13 people were killed by a crazed gunman with a semi automatic rifle in 1990. So I guess people don't go around there much anymore...

But really that happened over 20 years ago, the beach is amazing and we would go again any day.

Happy six crazy amazingly adventurous months John my Love.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

The Catlins

John and I drove to the Catlins last weekend which are about an hour and a half drive South of Dunedin. There was rain in the forecast but we decided to go anyway.

The Catlins are known for their water falls, their costal views and their dense rain forests. We visited Purakaunui Falls first.


Very beautiful, not as small as we hoped but we especially liked to walk through basically a rain forest. Very cool.


We also visited Matai Falls not too far away. And it was also a really nice walk. Very relaxing day.

On the way home we decided to stop by Nugget Point which is supposed to be a common place to see seals and penguins. We had no idea it was going to be such a beautiful view point of the coast. At first we saw that it was a 900 m walk and it felt like rain was coming. But we were so glad that we went. We did get to see seals but from very far away. We could see from the lighthouse a pool of them playing down among the rocks.




We still havn't seen penguins officially. We believe we saw one in the form of road kill while on the peninsula but we won't count that...

I'm off today (Friday). I finished my short 4 day work contract and now awaiting the call for a new job hopefully starting next week.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

1st Day of Work

I just finished chatting with a nice man who came into the office fixing the xerox machine. He recognized my accent and told me about how he had been to Canada many years ago. I mentioned that I am from Prince Edward Island and then found out that he had travelled to PEI by ferry during his trip(before the era of the confederation bridge). He met a nice older woman on the ferry and eventually her husband once they arrived who ended up showing them around the Island while they stayed with them for a week. Islanders are great.
This actually reminds me of when John and I were checking into our flights at the Vancouver airport. We somehow got talking about where we were coming from and the agent said that he only knew one person from PEI who owns a little cafe in Victoria. Knowing that there were only a select few cafes in Victoria by the Sea I knew it was the Landmark Cafe.
Out of all the desks we were called up to the one where the agent was a man who went to school with one of my dad's closest friends, Eugene Sauve, and who I've known for many years. I also worked for Eugene at his restaurant/cafe in last summer.

Such a small world.

As you can see I am very busy here at work. I'm working for NewlCast, Dunedin. Thay are doing a team building training thing for week so I am here in the office answering the phone, taking messages and greeting customers.

Will probably be taking my knitting tomorrow...

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Working

I (Katie) just got back from a consultation at a temp agency and now have at least a short term contract set up to work all next week as a receptionist. The woman I met with seemed very hopeful in finding me a longer contract perhaps working for the University of Otago so we'll see what happens. So John and I are both officially working, so far so good.

Found a video store just down the street that rents movies for $1. Danger.
Also found a Salvation army that has drawers and drawers of knitting needles and some well priced yarn.
Not so bad for a second choice city.

Pictures of our walk on the beach by our house...