Unless you have friends with a spare beach house....

Three day weekend at the beach and my very own beach house...life is pretty rough!  One of the audiologist I work with is in the process of trying to sell one of his beach houses in Whangamata.  Since they were heading down for the long weekend they offered to give me a ride and a place all to myself.  It was a nice relaxing weekend, running along the beach every morning, hiking in the afternoons, and eating and drinking too much at dinner with many new friendly faces.  It was a wonderful weekend and I am very grateful to have such generous friends!

Wellington or bust!

Oticon, a Danish hearing aid manufacturer invited me to a training day at their New Zealand headquarters. This was my first business trip, and I think I can handle plenty more. I arrived at the airport Tuesday evening and walked right up to the Air New Zealand ticket counter. They ask my name, validated that I was flying to Wellington, and checked my bag and that was it. They never asked for my ID or a credit card or anything! I had a coffee and waited for my plane, I assumed it would be like the Pocatello ‘air terminal’ since the size looked comparable. I was actually a little nervous about going through security since I was wearing boots and I had a big zipper on my skirt. When they announced that my flight was border I promptly went to the only departure gate. I walked through a doorway, handed the flight attendant my ticket and that was it. Again, no one asked for ID, no one asked me to take my shoes off, no one made me take my laptop out of my bag, no one made me sure them my embarrassing collection of lip gloss and hand lotion….oddly enough, I still felt pretty safe. I literally could have shown up to the airport five minutes early and had time to read a few pages of the air New Zealand magazine before takeoff.


Other than all the sweet time I save, I not only got a cute little jello pudding snack container full of water, but I also got a cookie, a choice of tea or coffee, and piece of candy to suck on as we make our decent. I also waited less than five minutes for my luggage. America may want to consider these same flight modifications.

Although it was only 24 hours it was a great trip and wonderful opportunity to travel the country!

I sure love snacks!

Filling out the all important customer service survey!

Glad someone has a green thumb!

  Since we were given a beautiful sunny day in the midst of all the rain I took full advantage and ventured to the Hamilton Gardens. Since I am limited on transportation and convinced that I can walk any distance (as long as I don't have to carry anything heavy) I relied on my great sense of direction and my new ballet flats to get me there. I was told to follow the river, fortunately it was a beautiful walk along the river, and the only thing I was missing was a cute dog to walk.


  The Hamilton Gardens consist of a few large gardens (rose garden, rhododendron garden, native plant garden) and then some smaller more specifically themed gardens. For obvious reasons I was most excited to see the Japanese garden since the Cherry Blossoms are some of my favorites! The photos are below and although my amateur photography does the gardens no justice it was phenomenal!

  I purchased a pedometer so I could feel better about not have a gym membership. My boss likes it because I always offer to refill her office supplies to add a few extra steps to my day. But anyways, I did some research and 2000 steps is about a mile (I am convinced that since my legs are short it is probably less than 2000 steps though). When I crunched the numbers from my trip to the gardens, getting lost in the gardens, and then venturing home I had walked about 11 miles. Two things: My new adorable and comfortable ballet flats I despise and my legs were sore for three days.

  Well here are the photos for you, through all my pain and suffering ;)  Since I didn't label them well here is the Hamilton Gardens website as well:  http://www.hamiltongardens.co.nz/

Above:  The rose garden, not quite in season yet....

Above:  This is a commons area that split all the gardens

Above:  A pagoda....just like grandma's!

Above and below:  The Japanese Garden of Contemplation

Above:  English Flower Garden

Above:  Entrance to the Chinese garden

Above:  A canopy of bamboo at the Chinese Scholar's Garden

Above:  They called it a turtle but it seems a little like a dragon....

Above:  Indian Char Bagh Garden

Above:  Italian Renaissance Garden

Loud Shirt Day!

So every year New Zealand celebrates Loud Shirt Day.  Loud Shirt Day is the annual appeal of The Hearing House and the Southern Cochlear Implant Paediatric Programme, two charities who are dedicated to enabling deaf children with a cochlear implant to listen and speak like their hearing peers.   Organizations and schools participate and people make donations and then on the Friday of the week, you wear your loudest shirt.  Our clinic had a competition with the other clinics and Triton-Anglesea won!  So we got pizza on Friday and $20 itunes gift cards....so fitting for loud shirt day winners! Great way to meet my coworkers!

From Left:

Riette Bosman:  she is the clinic manager from South Africa.  I live with her partner's cousin.

Alana Roache:  She is a technician, and is my same age.  She is loads of fun, and continually teases me about 'my accent'.

Me...obviously you already know!

Everlyn Swayle:  She is a receptionist, she started a week after me.

John Ho:  He was the first Audiologist in New Zealand and keeps inviting me to enjoy his million dollar Raglen beach home...with views of the longest left breaking wave in the world!  He also has two cute yorkies so that is my main motivation for visiting him!

Stevie-lee Weinhem: She is also a receptionist.  She is a laugh. 

There are a few others that I work with, I am sure it is only a matter of time till you get to meet them too!

Tauranga

Last Wednesday my boss Brett had to go to Tauranga, which is located in the Bay of Plenty on the east coast of New Zealand, for a peer review.  Since I have never been there we made it a rode trip.  It was complete with a trip through Matamata, which is where they filmed the Hobbit village in Lord of the Rings.  It was beautiful!