Quick Update on Work.

I signed the papers a few days ago, but I haven't made it official here yet. I've landed a full time job at IBM New Zealand as a Security Consultant. I start April 6th as a full time salaried employee with everything that implies.

I try to keep as much work content as possible off the internet. There are better and less google-able places to discuss work (my favorite is a pub, and second favorite is Skype calls) but I'm happy with this development. It's not quite what I was expecting when I got here, but it's a great way to move towards the next step of our immigration. I'm specifically looking forward to meeting people in my field, getting out of the house and generally re-integrating into the working world (I'll miss the afternoons off, but I definitely won't miss working on Saturdays).

The job will definitely be a challenge, but one I think I'm up for.

Coincidentally, the office is right close to a very nice beach :)

Our New Place.

Carly blogged previously about Island Bay, the little southern suburb she and I had grown rather fond of. We've been looking for a new place to live and I'm happy to say we got a place in Island Bay. I signed our lease yesterday. I figure it's probably safe to post a few pictures from the real-estate listing. hopefully once we move it there will be better photos.




There's another big piece of news to go with it. As it's a 3 bedroom place, we'll have a roommate for the next year: Wes. It's been decided it's in everyone's best interest to try this arrangement. Wes will get basically the bottom floor, Carly and I will get the main bedroom with ensuite and we'll share the lounge (what they call living room here) and probably the office.

Chasing Wind

One of the problems with wind based sports (Wind surfing, kite surfing, sailing, paragliding, hang gliding, base jumping, pinwheel spinning) is that you're pretty much completely dependent and at the mercy of the mother nature.

This has been the source of some frustration over the course of the last week.

Last Saturday, I happily loaded all of my gear into T's car (T and I are at roughly the same level, along with another newb named M) drove the 75km (roughly an hour) to Waikanae, parked and looked.

The ocean was beautifully calm, not a spec of wind blowing to bother us. We were not happy. We waited for an hour, drove on the beach and, finally, headed back home.

Fast forward to Monday this week (two days ago). Again, I'm watching with eager anticipation the various meteorological websites, the webcams at the various clubs near the beach I go to... I've got my gear packed and ready to go..

I get a phone call about 3:00 from M asking if we should brave the drive during rush hour to get out to the beach. I hum and haw, try to rope T into it, finally decide that it's time to drive out.

Driving through "rush hour" traffic to get to the burbs was surprisingly not as bad as I had expected, a good omen!I pull up to the parking lot to see a car filled with kite gear! hazzah! .. wait. Why isn't that gear on the water.

The two guys standing next to my inform me of my plight. Dead calm. AGAIN! In fact, so calm that the ocean is actually glassy in places. Damnit. At least the two other guys there are nice, so we all decide to get out our trainer kites and practice our kite control. They've never played with a 3m land kite like I have, so we rig up and I let them have some flight time. They get a real kick out of being pulled around the beach with the little kite. The wind is probably 4-5 knots at this point (minimum to fly my big kite is about 12)

Overly optimistic because of the successful 3m kite, i decide to get changed and rig up. As I'm inflating my kite, M shows up, and, despite all common sense, starts inflating her kite as well.

Just as we've finished putting the lines on, the sky opens up and we're rained on. and with the rain comes the dead calm of a nice shower. A few pathetic attempts at getting first my kite then hers up and it's clear there's no way we're getting any big kite time tonight. Defeated, saddened, we pack up the now very wet and sandy kites, go for a dip in the surprisingly warm water and call it a night.

I'll get on the water soon! I'll have photos and videos! really! believe me!

rental woes

So we received a call today; the property management company called and said "your lease is up March 5, what are your plans". Well our plans aren't terribly important because it seems as the only option they're willing to offer is a one-year lease.

many of our family and friends know we are getting tired of this place. its small, ridiculously loud when students move back (they're back btw, holidays are over), and well we want out of the city core.

it just seemed to creep up on us...have we really been here this long. it will be 5 months on February 11...holy crap!
so today Blaise and i called up our friends A. & R., R. works at a property management. we did a quick drive by one up on a hill that while awkward to move into, may be very nice. we have a viewing tomorrow.
we also hit up good old trademe.co.nz to checked out some other spots, found another possibility in a place called Kingston. Incidentally the names of streets in Kingston are as follows, Quebec, Halifax, Baffin, Montreal, Huron...ok that's just kind of strange. anyways we'll keep you all posted.

the first week of school

Just a quick note for those back home.

so the first three days of school went well. i've taught some lessons, met the kids, i have most of the names down though a couple are giving me issues.

this week i'll start my language lessons, i have a meet and greet the parents on thursday which i'm panicking about but R. says is no big deal. easy for him to say, he's been there years :P

there was a school picnic tonight, called off a wee bit early when it started to rain but i got to meet one or two parents, R.'s wife and general hang with the teachers in a social setting.

oh and as an added bonus i'm getting relief work. so last week berhampore (the school i work at) offered 4 days in february all at once, sadly i could only take 2 as i'm at camp for two of the days with my class kids. so this week i'm relieving in my own class for R. He had a good laugh at that one, easiest relief work ever. then today at lunch i got a call from Newtown (they are the other school who gave me tonnes of work last term) and i'm heading there this friday to do the latest batch of new entrants (the 5 year olds). about 4 hours after i said yes, berhampore called me again and asked me if wanted R.'s class again on friday...NUTS! well i can't complain about being booked for work full time.

Ki ora the people back home.

A Quick Update: The Kite.

I've talked a lot about the kite of late, but realized I hadn't shown the actual kite. When I say a 14sqMeter kite, that's the total surface area of the wing. Given that it's just under 2meters wide, I'd guess the kite is about 8 meters long (as it tapers at both ends, that would make sense) That means it's bigger then most cars. In fact, in the photo below, you can see a small part of the car it manages to fully obscure.



Click on the photo for a larger view.

This is about the biggest kite you can fly in Wellington. Typically you go bigger for lighter winds and smaller kites are better for stronger winds. As I'm just a beginner, it makes sense to have a fairly large kite. My weight (just over 90kg right now) makes it possible to keep a slightly larger kite under control in stronger winds.

Fear of Commitment?

I was sitting at Lyall Bay this morning thinking about the last 4 months while watching surfers do their thing on the 6-8 foot swells that are fairly typical when the Southerly winds kick into high gear and it got me thinking.

Commitment has been something I've avoided like the black plague throughout our immigration. I didn't want to ship all our stuff over so that we could have a simple backout plan if things went pear shaped. I don't have a cell phone because I don't want to be tied into a contract should we decide to leave. I was against buying new furniture at first for much the same reasons.... the list goes on and on.

Yet, 4 months and 3 weeks in, I've been changing my tune significantly. I'm sure Carly landing a 1 year contract has something to do with it, but it's more than that. I've got a good group of friends, very active hobbies and I feel at home in the city.

April 1st is an important date for us. My contract with my current employer ends leaving me unemployed but with some money in pocket. Our lease is up right before then. Been friends with a financial planner / mortgage broker, I've gotten a good understanding of what the local market is doing right now and for the first time I'm seriously considering the biggest of long term commitments to a country.

Part of it has to do with the cost of renting here and the size of our apartment. Part of it was the enjoyment I got out of home ownership (the ability to tinker, to improve etc) and having my own space. But deeper than that, I feel like there's definitely a future here for us.

Now granted, like I was told over the weekend when talking to a fellow immigrant, I'm still well into the "Honeymoon" phase of my immigration. Depending on how the job hunt goes, things may change...