Employment

Success! I am happy to report that I am now employed by the ACC – Accident Compensation Corporation, a “crown entity” (aka Government) that basically provides personal injury insurance to all New Zealanders. I’ve been hired for a 6-month contract with the Business Information group – I’ll be doing in-house analysis and reporting on the performance of providers that contract with ACC. This is their nice blue building, which is conveniently located three blocks from my flat!


ACC doesn’t really have a corollary back home – in addition to personal injury coverage, ACC will cover lost wages for workers hurt on the job. The team I'll be on consists of 8 people and is in a state of expansion and reorganization. It should be an interesting place to observe and be a part of. Supposedly I start on Wednesday, although this is, as of yet, unconfirmed.

P.S. A follow-up to all the comments on the box of Halloween costumes - I have not thoroughly searched it, but it includes: a Shrek mask, a police helmet, a dreadlocks wig, plus some fairy wings and assorted accessories.

43 Tinakori Rd.

This is my new flat!! Basically, I live in a 4-bedroom house. It's kinda reminiscent of a college property, to be honest. The way it works is that when you move out, you find a replacement - there are no time-based leases like back home. Hence, over the last two years, probably 10 different people have lived in the house. Former tenants often leave things when the move out - like furniture, kitchenware, and the box of Halloween costumes in the front closet. Currently the house contains myself, Andy - a self-employed Tiler, Kylie - an architecture design student, and a doctor who is never around and is moving out in june. The place has enormous rooms - even bigger because of super tall ceilings (see picture of my room - and check out my awesome pink bed I got on Trademe - the NZ version of Ebay). Also, Andy tells me we live next door to marines who work at the embassy (I have yet to confirm this - but they do have an American flag flying in their front window).


In addition to moving in, this past week I did some hiking along the ridge-line that surrounds Wellington, and is essentially in my cousin's backyard. It offered some amazing views of the city to the east and also of the surrounding mountains that go all the way to the western and southern coasts. The city picture doesn't show Wellington central because it is further down the hill... these are the western suburbs of Wellington (it looks very similar to the picture I posted earlier of Karori, just taken from a lot higher up).




I also went to Te Papa, the national museum of NZ, where I got a good dose of New Zealand history. My favorite part were the bits on Maori artifacts and history. The Maori were the original Polynesian setters of NZ, and are very much a part of today's NZ culture (the Haka is a Maori story-chant that precedes many NZ national sporting events - most notably the All Blacks rugby games). Note that cameras are allowed and encouraged at the museum, so I didn't break any rules photographing this canoe stern (the canoe was about 80 ft long - it was really impressive but hard to photograph).

Wellington

After my long train and ferry ride, I arrived in Wellington Harbor (I have no pictures from the actual arrival, because the camera battery was toast, but above is one from a few days later). My cousin Carsten met me at the ferry depot, and luckily we recognized each other right off the bat - I hadn't seen him in person (unlike my other NZ relatives) since I was 5 years old. Within about 20 minutes we had left the city and arrived the house Carsten and his girlfriend Sarah own in the Wellington suburb of Karori - mostly west and a little north of central Wellington. Karori contains a large park (shown below) surrounded by modest hills (this is the view from Carsten's porch).



Once in Wellington, I started looking for flats (I've got one now and will be moving in over the weekend - I'll likely make that the subject of my next post), and jobs (starting to send out resume and cover letters now). I've also had a great time with Carsten and Sarah - we've done some painting and other home improvement (mostly making holes in walls), some fishing, and spent some time tearing up the town. They also took me to my first professional rugby match, which was fantastic. With any luck, I'll be able to secure some All Blacks (the national team) tickets come June (test matches against France) and then in July / August as well for the Tri-Nations against Australia and South Africa.

Arrival

Hey kids - welcome to New Zealand!

Above, is the area around Christchurch, the biggest city on NZ's south island, and where my family used to live when I was 3. My dad's cousin Jorgen and his wife Mona still live there (they were the inspiration that brought us to NZ in the first place, and the picture is taken from the hill on which they live) and I spent my first week in New Zealand with them. After conquering my jet lag (directly proportional to the number of screaming children seated within two rows of me on my trans-pacific flight), I spent the week exploring Christchurch and relaxing. Sadly, my parent's old house has been bulldozed, but my kindergarten looks exactly the same. I had a wonderful visit with Jorgen and Mona, and with Jorgen's mom, Aunt Charlotte. They had great stories about my fam - my favorite is how my brother Jason picked all the lemon's off of Aunt Charlotte's lemon tree, killing it in the process. I spent several days wandering around downtown Christchruch and seeing the sights, mainly Cathedral Square and the botanical gardens.

On Wednesday the 25th I left Christchurch, via train and ferry to get to Wellington, where I would meet up with my cousin Carsten. The trip was beautiful - after spending the last 20 years on completely flat ground in the midwest, the scenery here is just incredible. Here are views from the TranzCostal Railway and the InterIsland ferry, respectively.