New Zealand- Week 1

Kia Ora!

That's means "Hello" in NZ.

Because Stefanie is the perfect sister she is and has blogged all of her travels, I am now expected to do the same. Just kidding. She's great though. This is my first blog ever, so I expect no judgement on how terrible it is.

I started off last week with a 4 hour flight to LA and then a 13 hour flight to Auckland. The 13 hour flight wasn't terrible seeing as I slept through most of it. They also had all of the Hobbit movies for free, so I watched the first two in preparation for Hobbiton, which I will be visiting in a couple of months. You can expect a full report on that journey as I am very excited about it :) I had two full days of orientation at the Jet Park Hotel, that consisted of Au Pair expectation, host family expectations, a first aid course and a driving briefing. In case anyone is unaware, they drive on the left side of the road here. It's crazy.

The weather is absolutely gorgeous. They're well into summer, so It's been 75 and sunny here. 25 in celsius, Im having to learn that. They don't have Air conditioning or Central Heating because they have mild weather all year round. Fun fact about New Zealand; they have absolutely no ozone layer above them, which means that the sun is brutal. I slathered myself with sunblock and still got burnt like a lobster at the beach. I need SPF 100 and a long shirt to save my skin. Bright side is, Ill come home super tan!

I've gotten quite the vocabulary lesson since I've been here. The list of new words I have learned is as follows:

1. Flip flops- Jandals
2. Swim Suits- Togs
3. Peppers(like green,red yellow)- Capsicum
4. They say eh, a lot when asking questions. This shirt looks good, eh?
5. Tank tops- Singlets
6. Tennis Shoes- Trainers
7. Parking lots- Car Parks
8. Fries- Chips
9. Gas Station- Petrol Station
10. Fast Food- Takeaways
11. Friends- Mates

I know there are more, but those are the words I can think of off the top of my head. Also, they pronounce their words differently. They use long vowels when sounding out words, so they sound all nice and proper, whereas we use wide vowels, so we sound Yankee. I don't think anyone finds my accent attractive. haha.

I've made some new friends, including the Au Pair who has been here for the last 10 months, her name is Meike and she's from Germany. She's been showing me around. We went to the Sky tower that overlooks Auckland. It was cool to see all of the places I'll become so familiar with over this next year. We went out to a club on Sunday night called bar 101 and danced for like 5 hours straight, my feet were killing me the next day.

I feel very comfortable and at home with my new family. My host parents are Melissa and Tony and they are super laid back and go with the flow. They have 3 kiddos, Cohen is 9, Hazel is 7, and Frances is 5. They are super sweet kids and I've grown very fond of them already. They have a black lab named Casper and a manx kitty named Lucy.

All in all, Im settling into my NZ life quite nicely. Im enjoying some peace and quiet in my own space and new country. lll try to keep everyone updated with all of my cool travels!