Learning to speak Kiwi!

I am slowly getting my head around the different New Zealand words for things so thought I’d share some with you. I have seemed pretty dim to most people here who are surprised I don’t know what these words mean, especially the children at school!

Kiwi - slang for New Zealander so refers to any thing/person from New Zealand. This is quite confusing as there is also a native flightless, nocturnal bird called a Kiwi and the fruit, which is never called a Kiwi but always a Kiwi FRUIT!

Eh – at the end of every sentence which means ‘don’t you think/agree’, e.g. it’s pretty cold, eh?

Sweet/sweet as – cool/very cool

Bro - mate

As – really, e.g. hot as=really hot, cheap as=really cheap!

Jandals – flip flops

Singlet – vest top

Ice block – ice lolly

(I thought my housemate was talking about a glacier when she first mentioned an ice block!)

Lollies - sweets

Twink – tippex

Vivid – permanent marker

Bach – holiday home

Dairy – corner shop

Football – rugby (confusing, eh?!)

Gum boots – wellies

Getting smart – teasing

Poking tongues – sticking out your tongue (odd as we only have one tongue!)

Tramp – bush walk/hike

There are probably loads more that I haven’t remembered but these are a few that have confused me!

Also, there are things I say which people don’t understand like brolly, poorly (they just say sick here for any illness), sweets (see above), mucky, wellies (see above ) etc.

Something else they do is to say dates as the number of the day, e.g. my birthday would be June twenty one instead of June twenty first – sounds odd to me!

Also, most people don’t say half past/quarter past when telling the time but always say in digital, i.e. 8.30, 2.45, etc.

And so concludes my NZ language lesson! ;)

Winter in NZ!

Winter is definitely here and it feels cold! So strange that it's June and I'm wearing hat and gloves-can't get my head around it! It doesn't get as cold in Auckland as it does in the UK supposedly but it feels colder because the houses are wooden and don't have central heating (radiators). My classroom is particularly cold and this week my heat pump was broken and was stuck on air conditioner instead which really helped matters!

Lately I've not been up to much...went to the Bay of Islands with Michelle at the end of Easter holidays-it was fun despite raining the whole time we were there! Apparently you can swim with dolphins and whale watch up there but the sea was just too rough to do anything and all boat tours were cancelled. It was Anzac Day while we were there which is when Australians and New Zealanders remember people that died during the wars. They chose that day because there was a huge loss of life around a beach in Turkey (I think) and they have poppies and lay wreaths just like we do on Remembrance Sunday. We met some of the NZ Navy who were at the Bay of Islands for a dawn parade.

On the way home from the Bay of Islands we stopped at 'the most photographed loo in NZ'! It was designed by an Austrian man who lived in this small village and there were so many people there to see it! It's an actual tourist attraction in the guide book but is just a very fancy, decorated toilet! It appeared to be made from ceramic, glass, clay and coloured bottles,etc. See the photos above.

I learnt more about the history of NZ when I went to the Auckland Museum last week. It's a really amazing museum with lots of Maori and Pacific culture and lots about NZ's unique environment including animals and plants that are only found here like Kiwi birds and the Moa (a huge, now extinct, bird that looks a bit like an emu). My favourite part was the Volcano exhibition. There are tonnes of volcanoes in and around NZ (some still active) and Auckland is built on around 50 volcanoes. There was this house you could go inside and they had a fake news report saying that volcanic activity had been seen around Rangitoto and then through the 'window' you could see it erupting it the sea and the house shook. It was really quite scary, especially as there is a chance it could actually happen!

Currently, looking forward to my parents and brother coming out to visit in 4 weeks time-will be really lovely to see them and will finally get a chance to explore the south island. It'll be even colder than here though so I'll need to pack some warm clothes!

The rest of Easter...

I've just realised that I actually only told you about half of my Easter holiday! So much more to tell...! Well, I went to the Auckland Luge which was a highlight. This is like go-karting but not quite as hi-tech and basically just a downhill course which you go down on little-more than a sit on skateboard with handlebars: the luge. Jennie and Sarita took me there and on the same day we went to some thermal pools not far from Auckland which was nice. I also went with them to 'The Chocolate Boutique' where we drank hot chocolate which is more like drinking a mug of pure melted chocolate - yum! :P

Long Awaited Post...

Sorry it's been such a long time since I posted any news...it's more that I haven't had much to report on rather than being too busy to blog sadly!

I've been working hard at school with Parent's Evening, Reading Assessments and Report Writing to look forward to in the coming weeks, I'm being kept very busy!

It was lovely to meet the families of the children I teach and was amazed at how many of them thanked me for teaching their children which was really special. It was a very positive experience and made me realise how settled I am here and how well I have gotten to know my wonderful class. I have a few new children and am constantly trying to do new things with them as I get used to the New Zealand system.

The weather is certainly getting colder (although it's been a warm 20 degrees this weekend which is not bad for winter!) and the rain seems endless. I see rainbows almost daily and although I was in awe and kept pointing them out to everyone at first, quickly realised how common they are and that the New Zealanders just thought I was a bit nuts going on about them!

Currently just curled up reading Marley and Me which I'm really enjoying so will get back to that and promise to blog when I have some interesting news to share!

Hope everyone is well and thank you for continuing to check my blog! :)

Happy Easter!!

Sorry I haven't written in ages but I've been so busy with preparing for Easter and the holidays. I've been very busy though so lots to share and many many photos... So Sohail's been here which has been lovely and he enjoyed coming into my school and meeting my class - they liked that Mr Khan was a decent bowler compared to Miss Hughes so we had a good game of cricket! We also went to the planetarium in Cornwall Park near One Tree Hill and learnt all about the sky here and constellations that can be seen at this time of year in New Zealand. The guy showed us how to find south using the Southern Cross (which Sohail and I managed to do in Rotorua) and told us all about the exploration of Mars which was really interesting. For Easter weekend we went down to a surf town called Raglan, stopping off on the way at the Botanical Gardens in Hamilton which were lovely. We went with my teacher friend Libby, who teaches at the same school as me, and her husband. Libby used to live in Raglan and so knows the area well so she was a great tour guide! We went to see the beaches there which are apparently world-famous for surfing. On Easter Sunday we did an Easter Egg Hunt at out hostel and then kayaked across the harbour to see Pancake Rocks. It was fairly calm on the way over but then the tide turned and the wind picked up so it was rather like a log flume, especially for me who was at the front of our double kayak! Safe to say we got absolutely soaked! On Monday we went down to Waitomo Caves and saw the glow worm caves. These are limestone caves where the environment is just right for glow worms which lie on the roof of the caves and emit light from their tails. They were beautiful and when we took the boat ride through the caves it was like looking up to a starry sky at night! (Didn't see the Southern Cross though!) We then went down to Taupo, which is on Lake Taupo and is very beautiful. The town itself isn't very exciting but there are some lovely views and we went out on another kayak to the Maori carvings which were really cool. The weather was gorgeous so we were really lucky. Oh and we also went to the thermal spa there which was very relaxing - the whole area is naturally heated by geothermal energy because of all the volcanic activity around so lots of thermal springs and pools to go and sit in! Mount Doom is also near Taupo (from Lord of the Rings) but we didn't really get close enough for a proper look - you can just about make it out on some of the photos amongst the clouds. Next we went up to Rotorua which is a real thermal hotspot and stinks of rotten eggs (sulphur) because of it! Seriously, the whole town smells but it is home to a Thermal Wonderland which we visited and was pretty cool. We also visited a Maori thermal village where they settled and built homes over the vents to heat their houses - very clever I thought! We saw a Maori performance of singing and dancing and they even did the Haka and got lots of the men and boys involved! Finally we went to the Mount (Mount Manganui) and went for a walk around the base track before heading home. On Friday we went out with Michelle and her friends in Auckland and played mini-golf yesterday which was fun! Overall an action packed week with still another week of holiday left!!

A Surprise Letter! :D

I was so excited to come home today to a surprise letter! I studied the handwriting but didn't recognise it, then looked at the post mark - Birmingham - and still didn't know who it was from and then when I opened it was so happy to see lovely Steph's beautiful handwriting! Thank you Steph! :D

It was so nice to hear your news and I'm so sorry you haven't been able to leave messages - I have no idea why as I haven't changed any of my settings and other people still seem to be able to...a very strange mystery it appears!

Steph told me that she too has seen Bjorn Again so I think they must be world-famous! They were really good and I hope to catch them again at some point. On Saturday night they were showing Mamma Mia at an outdoor cinema in the park on the North Shore but I didn't find anyone else who was quite as keen as me to go and see it - boo!

Thanks again Steph - I really loved hearing from you and it has cheered me up on a very dull Tuesday!

Matakana and Point Wells

Yesterday, Jennie took me on a little road trip north to visit a few nice places not far from Auckland.

First, we stopped off at a Honey Centre where you see all the bees on the honeycomb and could taste loads of different types of honey. I bought some local honey and some strawberry honey - yum! This guy who works there started chatting to us (he was VERY passionate about bees and told us that without them humans wouldn't exist!) and he gave us lots of information about the bees and pointed out the male bees and baby bees but we couldn't spot the queen. He asked where we were from and it turns out his wife is from Solihull and her parents still live on Rectory Road-what a small world!

Next we went to a village called Matakana where there are lots of nice shops and a market every Saturday selling delicious food. I bought a lentil and mushroom pie to eat for my dinner from a stall called 'I Love Pies' - all of the pies had a pastry heart on top! :)

After that, we drove a little bit further to Point Wells. We went to look for a bench which was put their in memory of Jennie's mum's cousin who died there in 1985 when she was travelling around New Zealand in her twenties. She was doing a cycling tour and was knocked off her bike on the Point Wells Road. Jennie's grandad had a bench put in the tiny village in her memory but after almost a year of looking, Jennie and her mum have never managed to find it so it was a bit of a mystery to solve.

We knew it was on Point Wells Reserve so walked along the riverside for a while, checking any benches we came across and speaking to a few locals but with no luck. Then we went to the store (the only shop in the village) but they knew nothing about a memorial bench so we wandered down to the community hall. Round the back of the hall there was some tennis courts and a small playground and from a distance we spotted a bench which happened to be it! It had a small plaque on it so we knew it was the one and Jennie was so pleased to have finally found it after all her searching.

Afterwards we decided to try the local library to see if we could find any records of the accident in the local newspaper (The Rodney Times) but they had already closed for the day so Jennie's going to try and look at the archives online. It felt as if we were on that 'Who Do You Think You Are' TV programme!

On our way home, we stopped off at a cheese factory (yes, the day was very food-orientated!) where we had lunch. We each had a cheese platter and I had a French one called 'Parlez Vous Francais?' so tried lots of brie and smelly blue cheeses! It was very tasty and I had to resist buying some to take home!

It was lovely getting out of the city for a day and the weather was beautiful for our adventure!

New address (again!)

Yes, I'm afraid I'm having to move out of my lovely home because Shaun and Richard want to travel to Europe and they're the lease holders so we're homeless!

Luckily, Sarita who I work with (she's on the Round the Bays photos) has a spare room at her house and although it's not in such a great location it's a bit cheaper and closer to school so should work out just fine!

Please don't continue using my old address as no-one will be living there anymore!

New address is 208A Penrose Rd, Mt Wellington, Auckland 1060 (If you type it into Google maps you can see my new road!)