Last day

Well today was my last full day at work. I will be in tomorrow morning but that's really a token gesture to hand in the computer and stuff. I was kept busy right to the end of the day but unfortunately we didn't quite make it to finish. The hot review that would have been the end of the process at this stage isn't until 4pm tomorrow so I will already be gone. That's a bit disappointing really because I feel that I didn't really finish the job. Still, I did as much as I could.
Tonight I have been washing and packing - my apartment now looks quite bare and impersonal, much more like the hotel room it really is. Tomorrow I board the plane to Christchurch where I will meet up with Jerry and start our holiday. He has come down from Singapore today.
I am unlikely to blog now for a few days at least as we will be touring the South Island. On 11 May we move on to Hong Kong and arrive back in UK on 15 May. If I don't get to blog between now and then I will complete this blog when I get home.

Prezzies

This morning they had morning tea at work in my honour. Morning tea is a custom here - novel experience, every one stops for a tea break! I shall miss it. Normally that is all it is - chat over tea or coffee and the 5 minute quiz from the Dominion Post but on special occasions we have sandwiches or some other snack too. Today it was my farewell - a few days early but most of the others are going to be away this week, and we had chocolate cake and raspberry & white chocolate muffins. They also had a huge card for me and some prezzies - a greenstone pendant (only ever to be given as a gift and not bought for oneself - various styles with different Maori meanings), a buzzy-bee key ring, Kiwi fruit pieces in chocolate and some NZ fudge (yummy). I was very surprised and touched by their thoughtfulness. Now I know that I will be missed.
I have still had to work hard again today - but only 2 more days to go!!

Thoughts on my time in New Zealand

I am just about to start my last week at work - well 3 days really - here in New Zealand and thought that this would be a good time to record my thoughts on how it has all been. When I came out here I didn't really know what to expect - the main task was to be audit of the Long Term Council Community Plans (LTCCP). This is described on the Audit New Zealand web site as 'auditing the future' and is a pretty fair description. This makes it quite different to anything we do at home and therefore quite a challenge. The councils have to write a plan for the next 10 years in which they forecast all of their financial information making all kinds of assumptions. They have to comply with all the usual legislation and some specific to LTCCPs, and get audit approval with enough time to have a month's consultation with residents and make any necessary amendments before a publication deadline of 30 June or they can't strike the rates! Consequently there is a very short time line for auditing and hence the need to bring us in as secondees to help, and also the reason why it has become very time pressured towards the end. So, that has been the work. Sometimes we have had to stay away to do the work as the clients are more widely dispersed than back home. Although I have not been away as much as some of the others. I have worked in the local office for much of the time and that has enabled me to get to know some of the staff better. I have always been made to feel welcome here and found the people very friendly, although it has taken until the last few weeks to feel that I belong.
In the time I have been here I have travelled to a lot of the usual tourist places of the North Island, although not as many as I had intended due to the broken arm. I have seen mountains, lakes, beaches, cities and everything in between. I have found it to be a beautiful and welcoming country with wide open spaces we only see in places like the peak district. Even the cities have lots of green space, trees and parks, and the people mostly live in detached bungalows not terraces and high rises. I think it has been a very long time since there has been that amount of personal space for the people in UK! I have played at being a tourist rather than treating it as my home although I know some of the others have joined activity groups where they have been so that it has been a more 'normal' life for them.
I have missed my family desperately but have kept in touch with everyone in their own way - some through emails and photos and some through Facebook. I will be really glad to be back home and to see everyone again but I will miss New Zealand too. In the meantime, my husband is on his way here - just arrived in Singapore, and I have 10 days to tour the South Island and 4 days in Hong Kong before I make it back to UK and normality. I have enjoyed my time here and am glad I came. I have always wanted to see Australia and New Zealand and now I have - maybe one day I will get to come back.

Anzac Day

Today is Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand - the day when they remember those who died in war so very much like our Rememberance Day. I got up early this morning to attend the dawn service in The Square - 6am start. I was totally amazed at the number of people there - many hundreds of all ages. I had been hoping to get some photos to post but I was too far back to get any photos of the memorial and wreath laying itself and those I took after, which I hoped would show the dawn breaking and give some idea of the numbers of people there, were out of focus! They have a second service at 9:30 when the Mayor of the city and a variety of other organisations lay wreaths but I'm afraid I didn't attend that one too. I did go back and take some photos of the cenotaph and the wreaths between the services and again after the second one. As you can see from the photos, the wreaths they lay are very different to ours - hardly any poppies although they do wear poppies, but only from the day before.

The rest of the day has been spent trying to prepare for the trip home. I have packed some of my stuff and prepared to take some to the charity shop. Will probably do the rest on Wednesday night now!

New hair

Yesterday I treated myself to a new hairdo - it was the longest, most expensive session I have ever had with a hair dresser but I am so pleased with it. I have tried to take photos of it but it's not easy to take photos of yourself so the one I am attaching is not the best but it is the best I can do at short notice. Will try to get a replacement tomorrow which might show it better.

You can't see it but there are at least 5 different colours in it!

This week has been quite quiet at work while we wait for a council to get its act together. I think it might change tomorrow as the replacement document is expected to arrive. Then only 3 working days to go. It occurred to me the other day that in all my ramblings I really haven't given my thoughts on New Zealand as a place to live and work - plan to remedy that at the weekend.

Sunday

Another weekend draws to a close only now there is just one more to go. Time to leave is racing closer. I have spent today trying to sort things out so that I can pack within my 25kg baggage allowance. I think the charity shops here are going to do alright out of me! I have also been transferring all my photos and video from the pc to cd so that I can take them home, although a lot of them are already on Flickr anyway. I did realise today that I hadn't uploaded any from my short sojourn into Napier so I have remedied that too. It is all surprisingly time consuming. I have been using my right hand as much as possible and the more I use it the easier it gets - I just wish the swelling would go down!

Happy birthday to me

Today is my birthday. I had a few cards from home and one from the staff at my apartment block - along with a bottle of fizz. I also had one yesterday from the people at work and a few birthday wishes by email and on facebook. I have spent the day doing not very much at all. This afternoon I had a pamper session at the beauty salon which I have been using here. They were all very nice and friendly, as they have been all the time. They even sang happy birthday to me! I will celebrate properly in a couple of weeks when Jerry comes to join me to tour the South Island.

Plastered no more!

At last the plaster has been removed! I thought that once it was off it would be fine but actually it still hurt like it was still broken. Apparently that is quite normal and that will ease off over the next few days. Trouble is they now tell me that it hasn't healed completely straight - 10 degree displacement still - which is at the limit of acceptability beyond which they have to break it and start again. I have also lost a millimetre of length, both of which can cause long term problems! So I have been given a wrist support which I have to wear during normal activity (take off in bed and in the shower) and some exercises to do to help regain movement. I will need to see my own GP when I get back for physio - these exercises are just to start it off as I will soon be leaving the country. Have to exercise to the point of moderate pain to have any real benefit though. Guess I still need shares in Nurofen!

Other than that this week has been pretty uneventful but fortunately short. I have put in some very long hours this week as we were pushing the limits of a deadline. At least now I should be able to have a more relaxed week next week as that will be mostly tidy up stuff which got pushed to one side while we dealt with the important stuff. Expect to have a pretty relaxed weekend too although I will have to make a start with preparations for leaving - only 12 days to go now.

Easter weekend

Friday morning I was up bright and early to catch the Overlander train to Auckland. It was scheduled to leave at 9:45am but you have to be there at least 20 minutes early to check in. Once at the station it was obvious that there was nowhere to check in but there were baggage labels with various destination stations on them so I selected the Auckland one and waited with quite a few other passengers for the train to arrive. Ten minutes before it was due they announced that it was 15 minutes late! Just like British Rail! However, once the train arrived the similarity ended. We checked in with train staff, had our luggage put in the baggage car and were allocated our seat. I was disappointed to find that I had an aisle seat - fortunately there was no passenger in the window seat so I moved over. The journey goes right up the North Island through the mountains of the National Park. We stopped at Okahune for a lunch stop of half an hour then a bit further up the line we met the southbound train, the crews swapped over and we continued on up to Auckland. By the time we got there it was 8pm and we were over half an hour late. It had been a very long day and I was tired and hungry. Fortunately it was only a 5 minute walk from the station to the hotel and I was soon ensconced in my 17th floor room.

On Saturday morning I walked down to the harbour looking for the information office and ended up taking a boat trip out into the harbour and to Waiheke Island. I had a coach tour round the island and walked some of it before returning to downtown Auckland. The island was very nice - part of the city but a whole world away. I also walked round some of downtown Auckland before returning to my room for tea etc.

Sunday morning I decided to do the Coast to Coast walk - 17kms walking from Waitemata Harbour on one side of the peninsula to Manukau Harbour on the other side. A lot of the walk was through city streets but there was also some very nice parks too and some very steep climbs - not least of which was up Mount Eden, the highest of 5 volcanic peaks which make up the city. Unfortunately the end point was in a less than pleasant area and was a disappointment after I had walked so far. Still, I found the bus station and made my way back downtown. Once there I did a quick visit to the Sky Tower - just in time to see someone do a jump from it - insane! and to another city park before it was time for tea again. This time I had to pack up my belongings again for the train journey home again today. I had to be up at 6am for the train back at 7:25am. Journey back was very pleasant though and we arrived on time too! So this evening I was back at 5:30pm and now it is time to prepare for work again!

Easter weekend

Here we are at the Easter weekend already. Where has the time gone? This week has been busy as usual - pressure is on as the councils have to get their LTCCPs out for consultation by the end of this month to be able to meet statutory adoption deadlines.

Tomorrow morning I will be taking the Overlander train to Auckland. The journey takes all day but goes through some beautiful parts of the country. I will then spend Saturday and Sunday in Auckland before taking the train back on Monday. This will be my last trip before I finish work here at the end of the month. The weather here is getting cold now and the South Island had the first serious snow of the season. I guess actually it will be much like Easter at home!

Hotel from the 1960's

Arrived in New Plymouth about 11pm on Friday and, after a half hour walk (because I started off in the wrong direction courtesy of the bus driver) arrived at my hotel. Unfortunately this time I had made a bad choice and this one looked as if it had come straight out of the 1960's. It had a very busy pattern carpet, a faded rose pattern bedspread and lots of hardboard panels hiding strip lights. It also had the scuzziest bathroom I have seen in a hotel for quite a long while! Cooking facilities left a lot to be desired too - not what I expected. I had paid a little less than usual but not much so I was very disappointed.

After all that though I did have a good weekend. The weather was good and, as usual, I walked my legs off. New Plymouth is only about 25km from Mount Taranaki and the Egmont National Park but without my own transport I couldn't get there in the time I had available. This was a bit of a disappointment as I believe there are a couple of nice waterfalls there - apart from very good walking. I did do the coastal walk, Pukakura Park and lots of other walking though. I also got my first New Zealand sunsets - New Plymouth is on the west coast.

I got back home at tea time last night but by the time I had done shopping and washing there wasn't a lot of time for anything else. Hope to post some photos to Flickr later though.

successful sale

Tonight I handed my car over to its new owner. After only 3 hours on Trademe I had my buyer and he confirmed on Monday so today, when I got back from Hawera, we completed the paperwork and he drove it away. Didn't quite get the asking price but near enough for me to be happy. Now I have cash for the holiday when I finish work.