The Trip and the first Few Days

Hello all, Thank you for visiting my blog. I am writing this so that those of you who wish may keep up with my adventures down under, and also so that I will have something to always remember the trip by. If you enjoy the blog I ask that you please comment on it as it will only encourage me to continue to write more. Thanks for your interest.

I suppose I should also give a bit of a disclaimer as to what this blog if about. I have set off to Auckland NZ to be a male Au Pair. I am living with a vegetarian family who has one 15 year old son. Yannik (the son) is severely autistic, and epileptic. The family resides in a suburb known as Onehunga that is just south of One Tree Hill. This blog will hopefully tell of my adventures while I'm here. Please bear in mind that I was never much of a writer, nor skilled with words or grammar. So please if you wish take delight in my occasional stupidity, but please don’t let it frustrate you.


That being said, I suppose I should catch you all up. Today is my third day since arrival. I left the country from Dulles airport at 6:05pm on Monday evening. I arrived in Auckland at 7:35am on Wednesday morning, for a total of 21 and a half hours of travel time. However, though I doubt anyone has ever considered 18 hours in a plane as pleasurable, the trip was quite nice. Every airline should be like Quantas. Not to do a shameless plug or anything, but they are the only major airline that has never once had an accident since it started (something like 40 years ago). I also learned that they are owned by the government actually which surprised me because they were AWESOME. They had atleast 30 movies to choose from, along with nonstop TV if you preferred that. They not only provided two meals and a eye cover to help you sleep, but also a toothbrush, toothpaste, breathmints, a care bag, and a damp heated towel for you to wash your face with. As I said above, "AWESOME!!!!"

At any rate, I landed safely albeit with some bad BO. However I believe that came from the sweat I had pouring out of me when I had a canine sniffing me down in customs. Not to mention they quizzed me thoroughly about whether I had hiking boots with me. Of course I did, however I chose to call them "rain boots" on that day. Also don't tell the authorities but a couple of days before leaving I went hiking with my sister and brother-in-law. Apparently if I had not lied on my custom papers about going hiking in the last 30 days I would have been detained and given an acid bath or some sort. Now that I know I almost wish I had been honest if only for the experience.

Yet alas, I made it safely through customs and met Christoph (the father), at the first Kiwi restaurant there was outside of customs, which was of course McDonalds. Christoph instantly recognized me by the enormous snowboard bag I had on my back along with the other 180 pounds worth of luggage I had brought with me. Christoph took me to my new home where we chatted briefly. Soon however he had to get ready for work, and I unpacked my room and went for a stroll. The weather was lovely, maybe in the mid 50's however as soon as I started walking it started sprinkling. Luckily in NZ the weather changes every 5 minutes, so it soon stopped after that, only to later start again and so on. The village of Onehunga was nice, but I didn't get much of a chance to look around since soon my stomach ached, and I was forced to return to make a large helping of vegetarian scrambled eggs (not the same without some ham in them). I passed out afterwards and awoke that night to meet Leigh (the mother), and Yannik (the son and caree). I (the carer) greatly enjoyed the evening as we met and talked. It was so nice to finally put faces to names, and to actually see the type of things I would be dealing with for the next year. Lets just say it will truly be an adventure caring for Yannik.

The next day I went into City Central for the first time and walked around. It was awesome. There were big buildings everywhere. :-) I stuck my hand in the Pacific ocean, and ate some sushi on the beach. The weather was bright and sunny, of course then it got cold and rainy, but that was soon replaced again by sun. NZ's a funny country when weather is concerned. At any rate it was great to see downtown. There are sushi bars EVERYWHERE. Leigh then went to work after dropping me off at the foot of One Tree Hill.

One Tree Hill is the largest of the volcanic hills in the city of Auckland, it is also surrounded by Cornwall park which is gorgeous. It is also pretty neat because livestock simply roam around it freely, so as you walk along the path, cows, sheep, and hens move to make way for you. I even saw what I"m pretty sure was either a pheasant or a grouse wondering around. (I know those are pretty different, but I can't remember which is which.) Anyways, from the top of One Tree Hill you can see everything. Both oceans, and both harbors. It is truly incredible. From there I walked home (about 50 minute walk) and followed Christoph around the house trying to learn how he interacted with Yannik. I am still a little jet lagged, so last night I went to bed about 9:30.

Now today I will try and open a bank account and buy some meat at the grocery store. I'll tell you how it goes later.

I apologize for how long this post is. There is probably a lot of unneeded information in it. However its my first post, I"ll learn. Bear with me, and keep reading. Thanks.