Dunedin: an update, including a trip to Stuart Island

For starters, for those that dont know, I lost my job at the council. The reason why is actually largely unknown. They said to me it was because I wasn't keeping up with the work, but this was a lie. I know this because I was only due to be there for 4 more weeks. They replaced me with an older woman whose temping contract was to be for 6 weeks. This 6 weeks was to line up with the guy who has been away on secondment (whoever came up with the pronunciation of this word as sa-com-bent should be slapped) who i was filling in for.
Anyway, the lady they trained up would NOT be learning everything I was taught. I was doing the jobs without anyone telling me that they had an issue with me, until this happened to me. I know for sure that I was dropped for another reason that wasn't anything to do with me. I actually suspect they dropped me because maybe the fee they were paying my temping agency rose once I hit my second year working with them. I have no evidence, but it lines up almost perfectly. Remember I only had 4 more weeks to work with them, and my replacement is working less than I did.

Anyway, on my last day I officially complained about my whole team to HR. I have no future trust with my old manager and refuse to use her as a reference. I wasnt going to but Laurel and Erica told me I should, because they are both fed up of working conditions and complained to HR too. In fact Laurel left because of the bad co-worker who my old manager cannot handle. I'm using her as a reference instead now.

In other news we had guests staying in our AirBnB for a weekend which worked out nicely. The weekend after that we had a house warming party, which felt more like a leaving party.

I made in instructional video which I uploaded to YouTube for the future owners of the house to watch. Its mainly about how to use the coal boiler.

Since then we have sold a few bits and pieces from around the house that we wont be shipping abroad. Talking of which its looking likely to be Belgium.

On the evening of the 21st October we went to see the Little Blue Penguins come in from the sea at Taiaroa Head. We saw 102 of the little guys come in just after the sun set. They arrived in groups of about 10 at a time, and some stayed around and waited for their mates to arrive before heading to their nests together. On the way back up the hill we could hear them all squawking to each other. It was a much better experience than how it was in 2009 when I saw them with my parents. The weather was perfect too. We decided to go on the spur of the moment after watching an advert on Facebook that morning; that had a video of what to expect, so it seemed like a good idea, and it was!

From the 26th - 28th Sabine and I visited Stuart Island.

26 Fri-
We woke up at 3.30am and left at 5am. We drove south to Bluff, narrowly avoiding entering Invercargill along the way. We parked the car at the ferry terminal and checked in. The lady recommended us the 'Lighthouse Cafe' just across the road, so we walked there and had a nice breakfast. The start of state highway 1 was a mile down the road, so we didn't bother because the car was already parked, but I did see the famous yellow AA signpost from the ferry boat a little later. The boat was an hour to Oban, Stuart Island.

Oban was more or less like the normal mainland, complete with cars and a Four Square newsagents. I guess I imagined it more like Miyajima Island (Japan) with even less going on. But it's full of houses and places to stay, which somehow surprised me. We were driven up to our lodge by a nice lady, and once here the housekeeper showed us around. Soon enough we were out to explore. I was just glad to breathe some fresh air and get rid of my seasickness. We walked south, up the hill and through the bush to Golden Bay. The bird life isn't so fantastic, unless you like Tui's because they are everywhere. Kaka are about too. We booked the water taxi to the bird island called Ulva Island for tomorrow. The roads here seem like from one side of town to the other would take only 5mins max. The gift shop was good. This evening we tried the pub for dinner. Thing is we checked online and its menu was different from what it was when we arrived. Oh well. I don't want to go there again tomorrow. Problem is though the lack of choice. Highlights of today were seeing a mumma ducky with 11 chicks, waddling around the road of our lodge. There were also Shell ducks with 7 chicks at the seafront. After dark we tried to find a kiwi by waiting in a forested area in the dark for sometime, but alas with no luck. Other tourists were attempting the same.

27 Sat-
I Woke up to a dawn chorus of birds.
The breakfast that is provided by the lodge is nice. They have really nice plumbs.
Today we went to the bird island at around 9:30. We were taken there by a 9 seater speed boat. Once there it became apparent that the New Zealand Robins were abundant. We spent many hours on the island, walking around. Among the more interesting birds, we saw red crested parakeets, a Saddleback, Yellow Heads, and two Weka on the beach, who were eyeing up Sabines blue bag. One cheeky Robin ate a bit of chicken that fell out of Sabines sandwich when we stopped for lunch!
We called the boat guy to ask if could be picked up earlier, around 2pm instead of 5pm. We got a few things for dinner from the Four Square. I had a ready meal Thai Green Curry.
At 7pm we went on a Kiwi tour that took us by boat to a beach far away somewhere south. Along the way, whilst waiting for the skies to get dark, the boat toured around to a Yellow Eyed Penguin colony, a salmon farm, where this hut was in the middle of a bay where this guy was waving at us. Apparently he works on weekly shifts, alone and isolated for a week at a time.
The Kiwi beach was, somewhere. I actually took a screenshot of the map on my phone using the GPS, so that can tell you where we were. But the walk was for about 2 hours walking in a forest just to get to this beach that supposedly has kiwi in the wild. We saw 2, maybe 3 kiwi, but only very briefly, from a distance, with a red light shining on them, and they were in tall grass. I guess this experience is good for those that have never seen a kiwi. I'm not one of them. Ive seen them up close and personal, even touched one.
All in all, about a few minutes total viewing time of partial Kiwi sightings. It was very late coming home.

Ulva Island

Kiwi beach

28 Sun-
After checking out we went to drop our bags off at the ferry terminal. Sabine didn't want to go for a walk, so we flitted around town, fell asleep in the pub, and eventually it got round to 3:30pm when the ferry left. Its a shame the only outgoing times are either 8am or 3:30pm. Shared the driving back to Dunedin.

On the 30th we had the real estate agent come over with a photographer. I was cleaning the house from 6am until they arrived around 12pm. I cleaned the windows from the outside, took out the cat room, cleaning everything as I went, moved the cat cage to the garage and put the cats in there, cleaned the bathroom completely, including the shower. Every single room had to be cleaned and prepared for the house sale photography. Kirsty from Nidd came over with the photographer at 12pm. I even managed to wash the floors in time, just. Kirsty was impressed with my work. She set up the cat room as a fourth bedroom. Oh, I forget to mention I also had to put the curtains back up in the cat room. They were both here for an hour and twenty minutes. After they left, I then proceeded to put everything back to how it was. Curtains back up in the cat room, carpets back, things out of draws. Unfortunately it was raining at the time, but the guy said he will come back with his gear on Thursday for the outside shot of the house and the vista from the balcony. weather permitting!

Dunedin: The last few weeks

Its spring! We went to the Botanical gardens a few times which was nice.

One evening Sabine and I went and saw Sirocco Kakapo at the ecosanctuary. They finally have him there! This was a birthday present from Dad, as the ticket prices were kinda expensive at $50 each. He's a big birdie parrot, about the size of a large cat, or two footballs.

On Wednesday 19th we visited Glenfalloch’s Night Garden. It was really magical with good weather. It was like walking around an Animal Crossing garden at night. The weather was perfect, the lights were spectacular and the artwork was incredibly unique. Even the creepy stuff had a place with its creepiness.

21 Fri-
Work 1st anniversary.
I had a meeting with my managers this morning. They told me that they will be ending my contract early. They don't think I'm good enough for LIMs training so they are bringing in a new temp to replace me. This new temp will be working for 6 weeks. 6 weeks. Matt, the guy whose job I'm filling in for, is coming back in 6 weeks. The kick in the teeth is that they want ME to train this new temp. They will ditch me once they feel the temp has been trained. This is utter utter bullshit. Evil. They said its nothing personal, but I don't believe them. After the meeting, they let me have a few hours walking around town and clearing my head. I phoned Sabine who calmed me down and also found out today that her manger and lab will close because he's decided to work in the UK. So Sabines job is absolutely ending in August. She's applying for jobs all over the world again. I went to Select but Liz was busy, but she phoned me as I was walking to Campus Temps. Liz calmed me down, but I still don't have any job prospects from her. Finding Campus Temps took me on a journey. I was going round and round from building to building. I even ended up in the main uni library which looked amazing. Sigh. If only jobs would turn up here. I found campus temps, though they only moved there last week, with no signage. No wonder I was bloody confused. They said to just email through my request. I ended up eating at Re:Burger, drowning my sorrows on loaded chips. Back at work I wasn't interested. I still did my work but used every opportunity to disappear for long periods. After work Sabine picked me up directly from work. The cats are in the cattery, and we are off to Christchurch for the weekend. We stopped off at Oamaru's McDonald's. I was impressed at their organised chaos, yet Sabines chicken burger looked flat.

22 Sat-
This morning we woke up to the birdsong of song thrushes. It's a sunny day! We drove to Akaroa, the very big mountain range just south of Christchurch. Not sure, but I don't think I've ever visited (yes i have!). The village of Akaroa is in the heart of the mountain range, which has a harbour. This area is known for having a french presence. We had a nice salmon and cream savory muffin type things, with flaky pastry. With had these with a hot chocolate, sitting outside in the sun. In fact it was so nice we ordered two more. So tasty and different! The village had many gift shops, all worthy of visiting. Sabine booked a boat trip for us to see the Hector's dolphins. This was a pretty awesome trip to me, even though she was kinda disappointed. The dolphins were shyer than the Duskys. I think we had the better deal just staying put on the boat. Everyone else was swimming with them. After that, we had Akaroa salmon for lunch. The waitress forgot about us, when returning she insisted on a free drink on the house. I ordered a wine. It was very nice. We sat outside near the waterfront. It was very relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable. On the way home we stopped off in a few places. One was an estuary with 9 heron's, next was an area with blossom trees around, and lastly was Lake Ellesmere, where we went for a walk and saw 11 Royal Spoonbills around. 11!! Walking back to the car we even saw a white heron. The insects were immense here. They were everywhere. Once back home we had to both phone our parents and tell them what's going on with our jobs. We were going to watch a DVD using the BD player we got from Smith City, but the disk isn't recognised. This means that the guy that was supposed to turn it into a multi region player didn't do so. Instead we watched Sky High which was on TV.

23 Sun-
Just before 6am we were awoken to a knocking at the door. A guy was there, asking if 'there were any available girls he could take for a job', with his wallet wide open. We managed to have him repeat what he said, but after he realised we have no idea what he's on about, he skedaddled back into a taxi. Is this some type of prostitution thing? We contacted the owners and they came over. They were a couple our age. They couldn't understand why something like this would happen. They showed us the history of the AirBNB to prove they don't have repeated bookings here, and were shocked at what happened to us. They let us use their driveway for the day, so just after they left, we packed the car and walked to town. It was a straight walk into the town centre. About a 45min walk to the botanical gardens. The scenery was a mix of the old and new buildings, with ruins in between. We had brunch at the botanics cafe, then looked in the tropical indoor plant house which opened at 10am. The outside gardens was just as boring as I last remembered them, but I'm pleased the trees were all still there none the less. The cathedral is almost completely dilapidated. There is a new shopping district, complete with a brand new H&M, one of the most basic of clothes store worldwide, and yet not in Dunedin. Its a very nice big store too. I joked with Sabine the other day saying that Christchurch could possibly have one. Dunedin is a shit city which is too isolated even for the most basic of clothes store such as H&M. We asked someone for a Vodaphone store, and a guy said we could check out a shopping mall down the road. Turns out NZ also has the system of topping up your phone from within a newsagents. We saw a Ramen restaurant and decided to give it a try. My god it was good. They had really good Takoyaki and Karaage. The Ramen was okay but at least better than Dunedins. After that we went back to the car and drove home. Sabine drove an hour,  I drove the next 2 or 3 hours until Oamaru, and then we swapped.