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It's been a while since we last updated our blog, We are looking at staying in Auckland a while so will only update the blog once a month or when we venture out and do an activity. When we arrived we checked in at Choice Plaza Backpackers, we went for the cheaper option and reserved a 10 bed dorm, but when we arrived only an 8 was available. It was expensive, we had to kiss goodbye to the cheap prices of South America. It was really early in the morning, so we headed straight to bed. Our dorm was full of students who had been living there for months as it was cheaper than rent. So as you can imagine the dorm was covered in their things, storage units, kitchen utensiles, food, clothes, the lock, stock and barrel. They very rarely left the room, and their laptops never left ther hands. We would wake up each morning to find them asleep with their laptops still on, in their hands, obviously wanting to use the laptop until their final blink. We wanted to hit the ground running, So on our first day we opened up our bank account went shopping to buy some smart clothes for job interviews (It is so expensive here) Stevie and I joined a few agencies and wandered around to get use to the area.
By the 3rd day, we had found an appartment just off of Hobson St in the CBD area. Stevie got a retail job and I managed to get an Insurance position. result all round. The flat we are renting is tiny, it is like a shoe box... But at least we dont have to share and some of the flats we viewed where either, overcrowded, smelly, or weird. One girl wanted us to agree to all her terms before signing a contract and another viewing was a small 2 bedroom flat that had 6 indian men living in there and they wanted to rent a room still, there was even a matress in the middle of the lounge floor. Don't get me wrong I like the odd Madras once a week but this was weird, they all too were on laptops. I felt like we had infiltrated an al-Qaeda cell. As our flat was unfurnished we had to kit it out and get food! The first week was busy, buying as much as our hands could carry at the end of each working day....
We managed to get all the necessities pretty much straight away from a cheap store called Warehouse.
The weather here has been pretty awful. It's rained most days. The rain here is heavy, but it gives us a chance to save I guess. We have decided to eat out once a week and go to the cinema at the weekends. Little things to keep us entertained. My dinners are better than Stevie's, which is a good thing because she finishes later than me.
We went for a meal down at the viaduct harbour. It's so nice there and the food is amazing. Looking forward to watching the sunset while having a beer there in the summer.
We went to Chris's housewarming party/ baby shower last week. It was really good, better than we expected. Although Chris did serve raw burgers and Stevie ate most of the food. We brought them baby soaps as a gift. Stevie's wrapping went down a treat. Although when Chris's wife opened our soaps I didn't know what to say other than 'keep that baby clean'. We met a nice couple from England there and hopefully will keep in contact and hopefully do some activities together.
Our friends Hannah and Jon are heading over from Australia next month so need to organise what we are going to do and where they will stay.
For now we have slipped into the usual 9-5, while we attempt to save for the summer and hopefuly the second half of our trip.
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