World Cup!

As we count the days before Australia and home, we are working as much as we can and trying to keep expenses to a minimum. First of all, John was again able to score some work at Two Souls on a night he was not working at the White House. Here he is, LOVING it.



We stayed up late that night in a World Cup Fever, to watch the US beat Algeria in the final added on minutes of the game. It was an amazing game, but at the end of it, we were tired at four AM. The following night New Zealand was playing again, this time against Paraguay. We went out to a local pub for the late night game, and cheered on with other local kiwis. There were a couple of close calls, but ultimately, neither team scored a goal and New Zealand lost by points, and were out of the cup. So sad, but still fun to see the Underdogs go as far as they did! Here are some very dark pics of us at the pub.





We continued to work as usual through the weekend, meeting up with Lucy after work on Saturday night and helping her play a bongo.



We wanted to wake up at 6 AM for the next US game, but Marian started getting sick the night before and what became a reasonably impossible task, suddenly became actually impossible.

Te Papa Round 3, Dinner with Angie and Dave and World Cup Craziness

Yesterday morning we went to the Sunday market to get our fruits and veggies. While we were there we caught up with Conrad at the Espresso Rescue. Afterwards we stopped off at Te Papa to watch a demonstration on traditional Maori music. It was interesting to see all of the different flutes the presenter had collected.



That evening we met up with Angie and Dave for dinner at their place. They cooked us a delicious salmon and had potatoes with cream corn. It was followed with a yummy tiramisu. It was a fun time at their house.

Afterwards we joined Kat at her friend Tracey’s house to watch New Zealand play Italy. We were expecting to see New Zealand fall in a quick defeat but less than 10 minutes in:



NEW ZEALAND SCORED THE FIRST GOAL!!!! As you can see everyone was excited. We then nervously watched for the next 80 some minutes hoping New Zealand would hold out and not lose. In case you didn't find out the result - Italy did tie, but only after getting a cheap penalty kick from the whiney Italians who always fake injuries. We got home at 4 in the morning and had a great night.

Marian’s Hen’s Night, More Work and More Biscuits and Gravy

On Tuesday night Marian’s coworkers took her out on a ‘Hen’s Night’. Although some may say calling a bachelorette party a ‘Hen’s Night’ may be slightly degrading, she was thankful for the evening out. They had dinner at their restaurant (2 Souls Bistro) where they played some games and then went out for a drink. At the end of the night, everyone had a good time. Thanks girls for taking her out!



Not much else happened the next couple of days. John was lucky enough to work a 12 hour lunch and dinner shift on Friday. So nothing too interesting was happening. On Saturday, we cooked biscuits and gravy once again for Lucy, Kat, James and Jane. Everyone was interested in finding out what biscuits and gravy are. They may not have been the world’s best (I mean the country doesn’t get Jimmy Dean imported) but they weren’t bad.

Goodbye Phillipa!!!

The rest of the week was a typical week of work. On Sunday, Phillipa’s parents came down from Paraparaumu to a going away brunch. Yes, Phillipa is leaving us to go on a 5-week holiday through parts of Asia and Europe. We went to Lyall Bay to Maranui Surf life Saving Café. After the filling lunch we went home and relaxed for a while. Sunday night we went to A Taste of India for Philippa’s going away dinner which was suppose to be followed by Karaoke but since we did not find any open Karaoke bars Sing Star at home would have to do.

Monday we made Phillipa some good old fashion biscuits and gravy. That evening the entire flat went to a Netball (a local sport) fundraiser for Phillipa’s netball team. While our team may not have been the strongest, we made a good effort. We were a little frustrated with some of the ‘correct’ answers; which we had right according to Wikipedia. Such as the worlds tallest building is in Malaysia and the capital of the Netherlands is The Hague. But we needed a few more questions than these to place in the top 3 of the competition.

Wellington Zoo

Today John was called off of work due to not enough reservations. Since we had the time we went to the Wellington Zoo. It was a lot of fun and we FINALLY got to see a kiwi up close. It happened to be the first exhibit we walked to (although we did see some Gibbons along the way).

Once we got to the kiwi’s area the zookeepers were feeding and working behind the fence. The kiwis were running around in their pens. They were funny little things that made us laugh. We got a good view and they were close enough to touch, but we managed not to harass the animal. Here are some picture:



Afterwards we saw an Australian Pelican. The bird was a lot bigger than we expected. He did a little showing off by stretching his wings and going for a quick swim. Here is Marian with her new friend:



We then moved on to see the meerkats that were hiding next to the heat lamp under their rock. The lookout meerkat was shivering as he watched us. We then continued on our African safari and saw the gorillas, cheetahs, giraffes, and lions. The giraffe was impressive. We again got close enough to pet them and at that distance the size was much more impressive than either of us had remembered.

Here are the Meerkats:



We also saw some of the local Australasia animals too (dingos, kangaroos, wallabees, lizards, birds and so on). On the way out we stopped by the kiwis again but they were no where to be seen. Afterwards Marian went to work and John hung out with the flatties at home.

Te Papa Round 2 and a Romantic Evening of Work

Today we decided to go back to Te Papa and see some of the long term exhibits. So we checked out the ‘Awesome Forces’ exhibit and learned about earthquakes and the forces and recent history of earthquakes in the area. There was also a little section dedicated to the natural history where Marian hugged a moa:



We also went to ‘Blood, Earth and Fire’ exhibit to catch up on some New Zealand History. It was here we found the sheep camera site were you get a first hand view of a sheep (done by attaching a camera to one for a while and filming). The exhibit stood out in the area:



After Te Papa, we both walked to 2 Souls to drop Marian off at work. While dropping her off Chenelle (the manager) offered John a shift for the evening. Since John thought she was joking he left. 10 minutes later, John got a phone call saying the offer to work was real. So John went back and worked a shift with Marian and Chenelle. Overall, it was a fun night. Here we are eating our dinner afterwards:

A Night Out at the Whit House Restaurant

Today was a pretty relaxed day off. We rested for our big night out at the White House Restaurant. We wanted to try the menu degustation with wine matching. This is our ten-course meal with a matched wine to the flavor of the dish (I know everyone is shocked John is working at a nice place that doesn’t have wine on tap). The meal is some of if not the best food we have had. Here we are with our second main, the beef fillet with Worcestershire spatzli, young carrot and fried scampi (no scampi for Marian of course).



Here is our final dessert, a variation on a theme of chocolate:


We even had a conversation with the chef, Monty, that evening.



And it was all topped off by excellent service from a friendly waitress named Kat. At the end of the evening we went into the kitchen and Monty gave us a ride home.

More Work, New Flatmates and a Kiwi Roast

While it was a slow week of work for John Marian was plenty busy with her jobs. Work picked up for the weekend.

The flatmate hunting was not going too well for Matt’s replacement, but we did find replacements to take our portion of the lease. We found a nice Irish couple, Tony and Laura. Tony is an electrician and Laura is a nurse. They moved from Australia to New Zealand, and were here about a week before moving into the flat. Here they are:





We'll let you guess who is Tony and who is Laura.

Monday (6/7) was the Queen’s Birthday and a national holiday. We celebrated this and our new flatmates by having a Kiwi dinner. We invited Kat, James and Jane over as well. We had a lamb roast, coleslaw, Kat’s homemade bread, roasted kumara and potatoes and beans. For dessert we had kiwi and passion fruit pavlova, provided by Phillipa (note: store bought, not homemade) even though Jenny said she can’t eat any of the dinner. Here is everyone at the end of the night:

Living in Wellington: A Night Out, Some More Work and a Changing Flat

The day after we got back from our trip we took advantage of having a car for the day. We ran some errands around town before returning the car. At the end of the day we went out and saw Iron Man 2. It was a good enough movie according to the dork in the group. Marian liked it too. It was a different movie experience seeing as we had to be concerned about reserving a seat and having an assigned seat number for the show.

The rest of the next week was a normal week of work until the end of the week when our flatmate decided to inform us he was going to move out of the flat. This is despite the fact of a verbal agreement with the lease holders he would be there for one year. So that night we posted adds for new flatmates.