Silverchair & Powderfinger & Autozamm

On the 18th of October there were Silverchair and Powderfinger playing in the TSB Bank arena. Julia and I had been given free tickets from a friend who has got connections and due to the fact that we used to work there we knew how to sneak into the hall without standing in the endless queue in front of it. Though, we were a kind of unexpected fans. When I saw the door with a sign on it, saying “Dressing room – Autozamm” I did not hesitate; without thinking about it I just popped in there and had a brief chat with the band. Minutes later, we watched them playing on stage just a few meters away from us. And they were amazing!

Powderfinger was next and absolutely good.

And finally, Silverchair performed their show. And wow, I have to admit the singer is stunningly beautiful…

After the concert Julia and I were quite hopeful of meeting one of the bands and just an instant later our wish came true. Autozamm was coming towards us. At once, I asked them cheekily if they were going out…and yes. They even asked us if we wanted to come with them…

After a little while we sat all together in a bar on Cuba Street, drinking wine until late at night. And guess who we met outside, when we had to leave the bar! The singer of Powderfinger… Unfortunately, he ran away after I had taken a picture of him… SOWAS ABER AUCH tstststssss…

Seatoun to Lyallbay

Once, on an early Sunday morning I was woken up nicely by a phone call. After a wonderful talk to Andi I decided to use this perfect weather and go for a walk. First I took a bus to Seatoun a completely different part of Wellington. As the name already reveals, it is situated directly by the sea. And I was totally astonished. I did not know that Wellington can be so beautiful. Wow!!

I went all the way from Seatoun to Lyallbay. While taking photos it took me about 3 hours to get to the airport. Directly at the beginning I met a woman from the South Island (Invercagill)…after a little conversation addresses and phone numbers were exchanged. It’s unbelievable how fast you can get in contact with the people over here.

There is not so much to report about. You can not use words to describe how beautiful it was…but therefore I have taken all those pictures. I hope you can get an impression!

As usual I had problems with the wind…

…and after this walk I was just fed up with!!

My New Job - Early Childhood Care

Three pink chicks!!

At the end of September I got another job. Now, I am working in an Early Childhood Centre. It’s like a Kindergarten. I have to look after one to four year olds. Basically, I play with children all day long. It’s so much fun! Fatimai and me!

yummy delicious!

Staff Party

On the 6th of October, there was the staff party of the RA-Company. The motto was Rock Star. As real rock stars have tattoos, Julia and I drew our own ones…Faked tattoos. I wanted to have something unusual. Amongst others, I decided to have the writing ‘Deutsche Markenbutter’ on my forearm. Very original, isn’t it?!

The reactions were really funny, when the founder of the RA-Company, who is Austrian, and the chef, who’s German, read it. They started laughing and called us “CRAZY GERMAN GIRLS!!!”

After we had a few drinks and lots to eat the complete staff danced wildly down the street to the next bar and kept on celebrating all night long. I had a most enjoyable night!

Jaggedy Ann

At the beginning of September, there was a little rock concert at ‘Bodega’, a club just around the corner of our accommodation.

All together there were 6 different bands playing their songs. I was absolutely amazed by Jaggedy Ann and another group whose name I can’t remember. What a shame! Anyway, the band consisted of three boys and a female singer. Her booming singing voice reminded me of The Guano Apes. When you listen to this group for the first time you can’t really say if a man or a woman is singing. Here it was quite the same. Absolutely amazing!

Jaggedy Ann was the last group and it was the best. Four good looking girls rocking the house! They are big fans of AC/DC… you can hear it in their songs. If you want to listen to a few songs of them, have a look at their ‘my space page’. I can highly recommend it!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=2159344

JAGGEDY ANN

Volcano erupts

Actually I wanted to write this comment two weeks ago…but well, there was so much to do…But it’s never too late.

Two weeks ago, not far away from me, a natural disaster struck. Mount Ruapehu, situated in the middle of the North Island, suddenly erupted.

Uiuiui after a while it becomes a little uncomfortable here.

In the following article you can get more information about it.

NZealand volcano erupts, one hurt

Tue Sep 25, 5:38 PM ET

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Ski lodges were evacuated, highways briefly shut down and one man was hurt when a volcano in New Zealand erupted unexpectedly, spewing ash and rocks into the air, officials said Wednesday.

The eruption at Mount Ruapehu, located halfway between Wellington and Auckland on New Zealand's North Island, started at 8:20 pm Tuesday (0820 GMT) and lasted for seven minutes, GNS Science duty vulcanologist Craig Miller said.

"It was just straight out of the blue," Miller told Radio New Zealand.

No further activity was reported in the hours following the eruption but it remained unclear whether any further eruptions could occur, he added.

"It's certainly not escalating into anything bigger at this stage," he said.

A 22-year-old climber, who was not named, was hurt when rocks crashed through the roof of a mountainside hut where he was staying, pinning him to the floor. He was evacuated by helicopter early Wednesday, officials said.

The eruption also briefly forced the suspension of train service along the main line in the area and the evacuation of several ski lodges in the popular resort area.

Two trails of volcanic ash and water from Mount Ruapehu's crater lake flowed down the sides of the mountain, but no significant damage was reported.

Photos and text taken from:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070925/sc_afp/nzealandvolcano_070925213824

Crazy New Zealand chicks

In one of my comments I wrote that sometimes New Zealand people dress slightly crazy. A few weeks ago, I met 10 crazy Kiwi girls while I was shopping in a supermarket. I do not know if there was a special reason for their dressing up, but they told me that they did it regularly and went from one supermarket to the other. Just for fun!

It reminds me a little bit of the “Lumpenball” or “Nachthemdenball” in my home village, Kappeln. Gelle?

Wharariki Beach, Farewell Spit, Collingwood, Devil’s Boots, Nelson – back to Wellington

The next day was the most beautiful day of our trip. We moved to the west coast of the South island, to Wharariki Beach. It is an isolated beach. We had to walk 20 minutes from the car park over farmland to the beach. On our way, I saw this unbeatable strange combination of palms and sheep again…and this time I grasped the opportunity and took a photo…to show you how bizarre it looks.

Also have a look at the gnarled trees in the next picture. They also look pretty abnormal, as the wind had influenced the shape of the trees.

But not only the trees looked strange…When we reached the beach we noticed that it was covered by unusual and fantastic dune formations. I felt like destroying work of art by walking over it. The rough sea looked really dangerous and it surely was. You could here the booming sound of the sea with its breaking waves. I was deeply impressed. I loved it.

Unfortunately my camera memory card could not save any more pictures. And after I deleted a few pictures even my batteries ran down…so I could not take anymore pictures. Bad luck! That is the reason why all the following pictures are either taken by Susanne or Gregor.

picture taken by Gregor
picture taken by Gregor
picture taken by Susanne

Besides, on our way to the beach we passed a little creek, where around 6 seals were playing in the water. Watching them was highly entertaining.

When we went back to the car we made a short detour to a light house. From there we got a noramic view of the Farewell Spit. It is a 24 km beach. Can you see it on the picture?

picture taken by Gregor

Our next aim was Collingwood. All day we were looking forward to this town…because of chocolate. Unfortunately the Rosy Glow Chocolate House was closed and will not be reopened till 1^st October. My guide book says chocoholics would go nuts here, where handmade chocolates were lovingly produced. In my case however, I went nuts because it was closed. How could you do that to me?! That was evil!

picture taken by Gregor

Our next destination was Devil’s Boots – two huge stone formations which looked like shoes coming out of the ground.

picture taken by Gregor

picture taken by Gregor

The result!

Before we went back to Nelson we stopped at a long beach to take a few more pictures…Due to the fact that my camera’s batteries had gone dead, I started to collect shells instead…and I can tell you, I could not stop. I have no idea how to carry everything home to Germany.

picture taken by Gregor

Around seven o’clock in the evening we arrived in Nelson. There, I had to say goodbye to Gregor and Susanne… unfortunately. I had a great time with you guys!

I spend the following evening with my workmate Amy and her lovely family. We had a great dinner, watched a very old movie (TOM with Mel Gibson) and played a special game to enlarge my knowledge of vocabulary. Next day was Father’s Day. While Amy’s mother was in church we went for a bush walk up to the Centrum of New Zealand, where we had a wonderful view over Nelson.

Lonely Planet says that Nelson had got more sunshine than any other part of NZ. And I have to agree! Punctual to the beginning of spring it was sunny and hot. I had worn a T-shirt for the first time here in New Zealand.

Centrum of New Zealand

Afterwards we met up with her mother and had dinner in a restaurant.

Shortly before my departure back to Wellington I got along to the eye-popping World of WearableArt and Collectable cars museum. Some dresses or do I have to say costumes…were very funny and extravagant, but I expected more. There were only three rooms to visit.

At the moment there is the WOW Show in Wellington and I have been working there a few times …I could not see so much so far, but I think it is grossly overestimated.

New Hairstylepicture taken by Susanne

picture taken by Susanne