In Sydney Now!

Hello all

This is just a quick note to say that im in Sydney at the moment and Staying at the flat in Castle hill. Today we had a bbq at uncle Michael's place in canoelands with his family, Mark and Helen and Sarah, and Ruth and Johns family (whose computer i am using).

It was a really great time to see everyone, it was 5 years ago since I had last seen all my cousins and most of them have grown up lots. I got a few photos of people, and we went for a bush walk around the property, down the the water hole and up to some rock overhangs, and I was told of my Dad's ambitions of being a hermit and living in a cave in the vicinity. The bush was lovely and the sandstone rocks everywhere were beautiful as well.

On the way back up to the house we spotted a small brown snake, which was a novelty ---> it brings the total snakes seen by me on this trip up to 2. We had a great meal and I got to catch up with everyone, Aunty Glennis is a good cook --> she made us some yummy pavalova for dessert.

The plan for tomorrow is to visit Oma and then jump on a train and head to Richmond station where I'll be picked up by Aunty Helen and then I'll spend the next two nights at her and Uncle Mark's place in the Blue Mountains... from what i've heard its really nice up there.

It was quite sad to say goodbye to everyone in Brisbane, but the consolation was that its not really that far away if i want to go back and visit in the future some time.

Well thats all the important stuff for now, It's sad to hear about Angie's car accident and I hope that she is OK....

Farewell for another post

Andy and Me at Wet n Wild sign.... can you tell it was 2 separate photos joined in the middle? no.... never.... 

Another day another dollar

Well its about time to keep everyone informed of whats happening over here in the big wide world of Australia. Lets see... in the last week what have I done, well it was a holiday on Monday for ANZAC day so myself and Andy went on a drive to Bribie Island --> about 1hours north of Brisbane. Twas quite a nice place, most of it is national park... and there are beaches all the way around.

Andy replaced the engine mount in the car that was worn, as well... so it runs a bit smoother now. We still havent got the air-conditioning working yet but its not that hot anymore so its not necessary. Only just over a week until I fly to Sydney, im quite excited about it as its going to be a good chance to see all the family there.

I've had work for the rest of this week... mostly 4-6 hours a day which is rather comfortable but doesnt really give me much chance to save a lot of money --> Andy usually clocks up about 7-9 hours per day at his surveying job, so he's getting lots more than me.... I dont mind though because I could have had the job if I had been willing to stay on a more permanent basis.

I havent had much chance to see many people from church or anything this week... apparently a lot of people were sick so there was nothing on. A group of us went around to a ladies house on Sunday afternoon and tidied up her garden because she really needed to sell the house but didnt have much time to do the gardening work. It was a good time of just helping out.

I think im in a routine now... get up at 6am drop Andy off at work, go to whatever job im doing that day... finish... go back here where im staying.... wait for Andy to txt me to ask for a pick up... pick him up.. and then spend the evening watchin tv or using the internet.. It will be good to have a change because im not the person who thrives on such a routine.

So yes this is just short update as there isnt really that much new news, but if anything does change you'll be sure to find it posted here..... eventually :).

More plans

Hello again

This is a post to let everyone know exactly what im up to now. I had a great time in the weekend, spent all day at the water theme park known as Wet n Wild on the Gold Coast.. it was really fun with lots of hydroslides and other such activities. Went to the usual church meeting on Sunday morning which was great... everyone there doesnt want me to come back to New Zealand... but i've already made up my mind which is the main point of this email.

I've booked my tickets home now :), so i am officially coming home on the 11th of May, and my plane arrives at Christchurch airport at 11:55pm that night. So all of you who are night owls are welcome to come and say hi if you feel like a trip to the airport late at night. I've also booked in my flight to Sydney on the 7th of May so im going to travel there first and spend 4 days saying hi to all the family in that area... and maybe doing a bit of shopping as well seeing as i havent really had much chance due to wanting to save and not knowing how much money i will need.

So yes I met up with an awesome Guy named Sam (Hi Sam if you are reading this) on Sunday and we went along to a great night service at a Lutheran church and heard a pastor tell his story of how he was clinically dead after the sinus node on his heart stopped working for 2 minutes and he had an amazing experience before they brought him back to life. For a downloadable recording of it you can check out this site.

So yes apart from this things are still ticking along quite nicely, ive got lots of work and most of the people im working for like me lots and want me to work more.... im just struggling to find time in my schedule to fit the demand :). Having a few car troubles... we managed to fry some of the electrics when we were adjusting the alternator (and accidentally left one of the charging leads resting on the chassis as we started the car and blew an 80amp fuse.... twice) so some of the electrics arent going too well including the cooling fan... so our radiator seems to be overheating a bit... hopefully Andy will be able to fix it though, i think he seems confident he can set a some sort of switch so we can turn the cooling fan on via the dashboard.

Well im really looking forward to coming home now that everything is booked... time seems to be going so slowly though, hopefully it will speed up because then i'll get back quicker. Its strange I really like it over here, but now that i've actually settled a bit I feel like its time to get back because otherwise I might be tempted to stay for too long. Also i miss having friends to go visit and all the other lovely things about home.

So yes that is the news as it stands for Monday the 18th of April 2005, I hope all is well back home and until next time... you are all awesome

- Farewell
- Dan

Only a few weeks left!

Hello everyone again

This is another update in the world of me, things are going along quite nicely now, I have pretty much guaranteed 5days a week work for the next three weeks before I go to Sydney or home, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Nursery and Tuesdays helping a couple do some home renovations, and Thurday doing some gardening for a lady. So I may actually end up with a bit of money after all which is better than nothing.

The weather has been rather interesting here, lots of cloudy days with showers of rain but still really warm.... Im sure its a lot nicer that the cloudy rainy days that have been happening in New Zealand.

Went out to town on Saturday night to see what the Brisbane night life was all about, it was a rather interesting experience, not much different to what is in Christchurch, but I got to talk to a few random people... a couple of girls from Sydney decided that they really hated Brisbane and all they wanted to do was be back in Sydney, so they were amusing to talk to for a while.

Im getting a good grasp of the area now, from driving around different places, I even managed to find the city at night which was a pretty good effort seeing as we live quite a way out. We went to church again on Sunday morning (after 4 hours sleep) it was good, I like all the people there, especially some of the youth group, they are already saying that I have to come back here and I havent even left yet!

I havent quite fully decided my plans as to when or if ill come back, but I do really like it (as i've been telling everyone) over here so who knows. I sent an email to uncle Mark yesterday to see what he thought about me visiting Sydney so im waiting for a reply from him so I can decide on definite dates for flights and things.

The time has gone so fast over here... although it seems to be slowing down now that i've got a tentative date to come home... i think its because im looking forward to getting back which makes the days pass by slower.

Anyways i cant think of anything else overly important to tell everyone, but if anything exciting does happen you can be sure that ill post a report on this blog :).

I managed to get some spare time to explore the city of Brisbane, here is a photo with me and some big buildings in the background 

Yay :) more work (hopefullly)

Well this is the post everyone has been waiting for..... It seems that I have decided to return to New Zealand in about a month definitely. I'm not sure exactly why i've decided this, i think its mainly because i've fulfilled all that I want to do here (apart from saving money) and I'm missing certain persons and yeah it just feels right in my heart go come home.

But on the up side, I just received a phone call from a guy called Shane and he seems pretty keen to get me around to help him do up one if his houses for selling --> this is good because It will most probably fill in all the rest of the days in the week thus allowing me to earn more money and perhaps even save some.

I still owe Andy about 100$ on the car, but i should be able to pay that off in the next little while if all the jobs go ahead. Andy had is first day today as a surveyors assistant and ended up working about 11hours, so he'll be making a bit of money too which is good. Had a really fun Sunday, church in the morning and then we went down to a local swimming hole and it was lovely --> there was rope swings and trees to jump out of and rocks under the water to stand on... it was really great, i felt for the first time that I had friends --> cause we went with some of the people from church.

I've organised to go and see great uncle Trevor tomorrow for a few hours.. for lunch, im looking forward to it as i've heard lots of stories about him from some of the people at church and he sounds like a real character :), hopefully ill be able to glean some good stories from him to tell everyone else.

I've been stressing lots this week trying to work out how to budget what money im earning with petrol and paying andy back.. and everything but I really believe that God is on my side financially now seeing as with this other job ill actually be able to have some to spare.

I actually really like it here, maybe its a genetic thing but i really enjoy the bush around the area, I still havent seen any decent sized snakes, but theres lots of cool looking spiders and other bugs including the shiny/shimmery rainbow worm which is like a holograph sticker in different lights. Im missing the freezing cold though, its weird just getting up and not even thinking because its going to be a warm day fullstop, so shorts and t-shirts are always the go.

Our car is running pretty well so far... no great issues apart from the wiring of the CD player and Air conditioning... which i think we fried when we were attaching and removing the alternator... but hopefully Andy can fix it. Im feeling good about things at the moment because i think everything is finally falling into place.

Im trying to think if theres any other pressing information that I need to update everyone with but I guess im not really sure what everyone doesnt know already. The nursery people have been really good to me, i mentioned today that I was only going to be here another month and they said along the lines of "we'll have to give you more work then" which was surprising because i thought they'd want to phase me out and get someone else in, ironically enough they are coming over to Christchurch in July i think so im going to give them my details and NZ address so they can see where im from and meet family etc. if the opportunity arises.

I did my first day on the organic vegetable farm on Friday, they were really nice to me as well seeing as I told them i wasnt going to be around for long, they said "well thanks for your honesty, we'll still keep you one day a week on fridays" so that was good too. It a totally different crowd of people there though, more of the hippy types, which is interesting but they are really nice.

Anyways I think thats all, goodbye once again and keep posting comments if you can i like to see what people have to say :)