Pics from Queenstown

Thought I'd make things easier and separate the pics into three separate posts, as there are so many.

Notice the bungy jumper in the top right corner of the pic taken from up on the gondola. Those top two pics are the view from our hostel.

First Xmas Down Under

Got back yesterday from our holiday down South. Despite the fact that I missed having a white Christmas, I gotta say that Christchurch and Queenstown were spectacular. Christchurch and Adelaide were planned by the same person, but Christchurch is much more pedestrian and tourist friendly, as well as asthetically pleasing. We actually went to midnight mass at Christchurch Cathedral just to make the holiday seem a bit more festive, as they had carols for about an hour before the service. I thought it was an interesting mix to have the city's Christmas tree right on the church grounds, and no nativity scene in sight. Go New Zealand! Steve had gone to Christchurch for work the week before and when I asked him about the Christmas decorations, he pretty much shrugged his shoulders. I was disappointedly thinking things would be as bleak as Auckland, but his lack of description was due to the fact that he wanted to surprise me;)

Queenstown, although having beautiful scenery, has unfortunately been spoiled by the saturation of tourism there. It is the only place in New Zealand where there is late night shopping and shops open on public holidays such as New Year's day. In my opinion, New Zealand as a country has absolutely prostituted itself for the sake of tourists, although I have to admit they have created quite a brand as the place for adventure tourism. Steve paid a ridiculous amount of mind to jump off a cliff, as do many of the younger tourists who go down to Queenstown (or Taupo, or Rotorua). It was wonderful, however, to benefit from the huge fireworks display New Year's Eve...although not so wonderful to find someone trapped under our car the next morning, still drunk, after falling backwards over the wall it was parked next to.

3rd try is a charm, or problems come in threes?

I seem to have become the queen of complaints. Mostly in regards to important things, but I feel lately I'm always trying to throw some muscle around to get things done, fairly. The subject line isn't quite right, as there are more then 3 things I'm trying to sort at the moment. First off, my employer is trying not to pay me for the New Year public holidays, stating some loophole in the Holiday Act which supposedly states that if I am on unpaid leave, I am not allowed to be paid for the bank holidays. Yes, I inadvertantly used up my holiday (vacation) time earlier than I should have, but this rule was never stated to me when I was told I would be paid for public holidays, nor have I seen anything while combing through the Holidays Act to indicate it is true. The Department of Labour advised me I should be paid, yet advised my employer they do not have to pay me, so I have sent in a complaint to the Labour Inspectorate. If the company is wrong, they could be heavily fined, which would serve them right, in my mind, for their pompous and inflexible attitude.

I've been going back and forth with our wedding planner, who decided to use our wedding photos on her websites without letting us know. Had she asked us ahead of time, and let us send her pics we would have been comfortable being displayed, we might have been willing (and may have given a positive recommendation as well as she's new to the business), but I had to find them by surprise, and after asking her to remove them (some of which she did), she's told me they are technically property of the photographer, who has given her permission to use them. Now, to my mind, that's just a bit callous, as this is something personal. I can't tell from the latest email if she is going to remove them all, or use some...we'll see. Legally, I think she can get away with it, as some don't have us in them and are photos of objects (such as our rings and jewelry), but as I said, it seems a bit cold to me.

I am at least making progress on getting us a refund for our very mediocre (to be kind) Christmas dinner (we're up to a voucher, which won't do us much good as the restaurant is in Christchurch), but no luck on Steve's airline miles with United from last March for our trip down here, which will be invalid in a little less than 2 months, and fingers crossed I will receive my absentee ballot on time after a follow up email.

I don't feel bad about complaining about any of these things, as they're all valid, but boy do I feel like all I am doing these days is pushing at people.

Modified to add: Ok, light at the end of the tunnel...we've received a full refund on our Xmas dinner, the wedding planner has agreed to remove our photos (and hopefully not replace them with any others of ours), and after 20 minutes on hold with United Airlines, I think we may actually get Steve's miles, 10 months later. Of course, those were the miles from the US to Australia...I still have to follow up on Australia to NZ, but I thought I shouldn't confuse them with more than one thing at a time!!

What's taking so long:(

We submitted my spousal visa six weeks ago tomorrow. Most people get their request to go for medicals within the first month, but I haven't heard anything yet. I'm hoping it's simply because it's close to Christmas, but boy is it a hard thing to wait on!

A weekend in Wellington

Another city with no Christmas decorations...boy I hope Adelaide does better than this! Anyhoo, Steve has been away for work on and off for the past three weeks, so I hopped down to Wellington last weekend to see him.

Happy un-Christmas

I bet you will find this same whinge on the blog of any North American who is spending their first Xmas Down Under. It's warm and sticky here in Auckland, with lots of rain and fog, but temps in the high 60s, and the occasional hot and sunny day, few and far in between. People here have mostly fake xmas trees, many of them being...white and pink!! That is when you actually see a tree, or outside lights on a house. And there certainly aren't any in the downtown...they don't even have a tree up! I am so making up for all this once Steve and I are back in our house in Adelaide.

Post happy Wednesday

Ok, 3rd post in one day. Has anyone watched, or even heard of, The Sarah Silverman Show? It's so crap it's hysterical. That's probably why New Zealand has imported it...it must be cheap. They seriously have some of the worst American television on their FIVE channels;) Anyhoo, despite it being crap, she did have a useful epiphany this episode, and developed a new word...Memosexual. After deciding she was a lesbian, then failing at it (just as she says she failed at being a heterosexual), she decided she needed to be a memosexual first. How true.

Now for something completely different, I totally did a stupid white person thing the other day, or perhaps just a stupid white American thing. I went out for Mexican food. Nah, that's not the stupid white person thing. There's a fairly decent Mexican take away near work, so I've been three times in the past week:) The first day I went there was this black guy behind the counter taking orders, and when I heard him talk, I was like..."Oh wow, a black African-American!" Now, this was simply because I've been living in what I feel is mega non-diverse land for over 9 months and although there are tons of Asians here, I miss the diversity of being back home. I miss black people, and I miss Mexican people, and Adelaide especially, where I'm going to end up, feels super white and like it's lacking something. But back to the Mexican restaurant...I think the "oh wow, a black African-American!" showed on my face because although the guy smiled when he asked me what I wanted, as soon as I spoke...he turned me over to someone else and stopped smiling:/ I could be totally over-reacting out of my white person guilt or whatever, but I felt like a total schmuck.

Another reason not to vote Hillary

Is she serious?

http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2007/12/hillary-as-kind.html

"It's one thing in politics to cite an opponent's record when criticizing him.
But it’s quite another to cite his Permanent Record—the legendary, indelible and largely mythical account of all that we do as schoolchildren.Yet that’s just what the campaign of Democratic presidential contender Sen. Hillary Clinton did Sunday, issuing a spitball of a news release that alluded scornfully to an essay that primary opponent Sen. Barack Obama wrote when he was in kindergarten.Referring to an old Associated Press story that quoted Obama’s former teacher, the release informed us that, “In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled ‘I Want to Become President.’"

By the way, I'm reading Barak's book, Dreams from My Father, which I'd highly recommend.

5 months in a hostel

Well, we've been living in a hostel now for about five months. It comes with it perks and drawbacks, but you can never call it uninteresting. There are always people around to chat with, have a drink with, etc, and they're from all over the globe. And there is always someone to wake you up in the middle of the night at least once a week, making tea or a phone call in the hallway at 2am. My biggest pet peeve is that for some reason, it is obviously not a universal assumption that bathroom door shut means bathroom occupied. Thank god I've learned how to properly do the lock. Last night I had an amusing incident while sitting on the porch, which reminded me how much fun hostelling can be, if only for the diverse persons aspect. It was a nice night, and we have a gorgeous view as the hostel is at the top of a hill, so I was sitting on the porch when I heard what sounded like a rustling noise. I thought perhaps someone was having a joke. It went on for a little longer then out of the darkness came an old man with a big ole walking stick and a small plastic bag of groceries, approaching the hostel very very slowly. When he eventually got to the front door, he said in a breathless voice: "That walk up the driveway is a killer, especially at night. It's kind of spooky in the dark." What's spooky? Just an example...it takes all types and you'd be amazed who stays in hostels.

Home Alone & Sexism Down Under

My sexy husband is away for work on and off for about three weeks. So far I have accidentally turned off my alarm clock and ended up over an hour late for work, discovered that steak pies taste cook spread on salt and vinegar potato chips...and been totally bored off my friekin arse. Perhaps it would be different if I wasn't living in a hostel, but I think I've forgotten how to live on my own;)

The Christmas season is gearing up here, and while someone mentioned to me yesterday that the day is in fact about three weeks away, I'm not feelin it. It's getting warmer here and the days are longer so I'm home well before dark and don't even notice any Christmas lights. Then again, I've had no sense of what time of year it is for about 9 months now. My workplace does now how to celebrate, and we had our Christmas party on a yacht last week! And...we can call it a Christmas party and put up trees in the office (I forgot about how everything changed from 'Christmas' to 'Holiday' in the US a few years ago). The one thing which the workplace is doing for the season I don't agree with. We all got an email last week with the subject "Ladies Christmas Shopping" saying something to the effect of:

"We're again giving all the ladies in the office half a day off to do their Christmas shopping. Please advise your manager when you will be taking your half day."

WTF?! I was told this is due to the fact that most of the 'ladies' are in lower level positions and the men get taken out for golf etc by their clients. Hmmm, how about re-working the hiring processes instead of a 'throw the dog a bone' half day off. And why do they think I need half a day to do my Christmas shopping, as opposed to something a bit more worthwhile??