Auckland

Another day, another stamp in my passport. Page 20 is now no longer empty; I have 11 and a half pages to fill and just under two years to do it!

So I've been in Auckland since Monday, and the one thing you notice so far is that it's quite cold. About October sort of cold. (round about 7 degrees is the average I've had). I don't know what I'm complaining about because I've lived in Flagstaff! Fortunately it is unusually cold for Auckland, even for winter, and it should be warming up even as soon as the World Cup.

To be honest, I haven't really done much since arriving, except for sleep quite a lot. The other day I slept for 15 hours straight! Other than that I've been to the cinema a couple of times, wandered around for quite a bit, drank a bit, and wandered some more.

Today I went for my IEP orientation thing, which is basically the company that will be looking after me while I am here. They've already sorted me out with a working holiday visa, and today was about getting a tax code and opening up a bank account. Weirdly, the guy who helped me up the bank account was having his last day at work - next week he's moving to Leicester!!! I love it when random shit like that happens!

The rest of the orientation was basically about how to get work, where to get it, where to stay, how much it will be etc. Then we had a huge enthusiastic introduction about New Zealand; and that familiar thing happened where the eyes glaze over and reality fades away - I want to do everything.

Of course that isn't entirely possible - I will do as much as I can, but first I will have to earn my way and get a job. I'll get on that very, very soon.

So anyway, here's my address for my time in New Zealand;

PO BOX 1786,
Shortland St,
Auckland,
New Zealand,
1140

It's IEP's post box, so just address it to me and they'll let me know when it's arrived. They will also forward it to me wherever I am in the country, which is great! So don't worry about wherever I might be, just send it!

Got a list of stuff I wanted to do today, so I'll stop writing now. Hope everyone is OK!