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11/3/15
Marc and me are on our Intercity Link bus to Ohakune from Auckland ☺️ Exciting and nerve wracking.. Ohakune is where I got my job offer from St. John ambulance, so it's where we'll be living and I hope we like it x
We arrived in Auckland on the saturday pm, the 7/3/15. Sunday we walked around the harbour and the high street: our hostel is just off queen street, right in the city centre. We had breakfast at a cafe at the harbour, healthy smoothies and avocado �� Then we went to mission bay and St heliers and chilled on the beaches. Posted some pics for people back in the UK.
Monday we walked to a supermarket and it cost about the same! I was told food cost twice as much. Not so. We bought cocoa butter, hummus, loads of nuts, organic fruit and veg, loads of herbal tea, plenty of body stuff that we couldn't bring with us due to to luggage weight, other food for breakfast and lunches, and it was £40. We then had our Medicals and X-rays for our visa applications. Surprisingly it was half the price of the same medical in the UK saving us £350. And the results were given to us the next day, all the blood tests etc etc. (was 10 days minimum in the UK hence we had to get them here, my job offer came only 1 1/2 weeks before our flight left for New Zealand so then I needed to get Medicals etc for our working visas) x. That's one way of doing it! I was coming to NZ with our without a job offer and was going to knock on St. John ambulance's door! Everything sold back home.
We ate out at the Sky Tower restaurant on Monday night! Highest building in NZ with a beautiful restaurant at the top that rotates 360 degrees as you eat. Fantastic views, great food- I got a vegan meal, quite chuffed with that and it was fab so obviously the chef can really cook! Great test for a chef is can they cook a vegan meal, they've got to make a meal from scratch lol. Considering it's such an amazing venu with limited seats, it cost the same as an upmarket pub dinner back in the UK. So far were not really sure where the comments about NZ dining being so expensive have come from. Probably not from someone who has lived in the UK. Our hostel is so cheap for a private room and clothes shopping seems to be the same price too.
Tuesday I made us walk a lot, round Auckland and some parks, to the museum on the hill x Collected our medical results, did some clothes shopping.
And now today is Wednesday and were on a 6.5 hour bus ride down the North Island to ohakune. Fingers crossed we find a place to live ok and we like it x. Ohakune has a permanent population of only 1400 people, and is surrounded by national parks. The mountains around it are loved for skiing, the winter season brings the population up to 10,000. I've had a few phone calls from my future manager, who said he'll take us for a tour around the ambulance station and show us the ambulance.
Ambulance.. Just one lol. Xx
Oh I almost forgot- I got my contract emailed me to me, the salary is higher than I thought, so good news xx And the rota is so nice- four days off then four days on, two days then two nights. A working week is 42 hours. So that seems nice. My salary in the UK was lower and I was on a terrible relief rota, often on mostly nightshifts. Anyway enough of that or I'll moan about that all day!
Now to enjoy the views off the coach all day. We'll miss Auckland as its warmer than Ohakune, but hopefully back for a holiday sometime.
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