Just a quick blog to let you know I have a job!!!! and yes, it's actually an admin role and one I am really excited about =) It's at the head office of Jennian Homes so we deal with all the franchises nationwide, sounds like it will be varied and challenging. I start on 16 March so am looking forward to the fortnight ahead, guilt-free relaxing, and finally can look at flat hunting and wedding stuff!
Jan & Feb at a glance
Niki started his flying course on 9 Jan and has been loving it. His medical certificate took its time issuing so it was a bit frustrating but since coming through 2 weeks ago he has done lots of solo flying including a couple of 3 hour cross country flights. He has done 4 exams since getting back and has passed all of them well. The workload is different every week and often he can just go in whenever he has a flight booked, and other times he is studying morning, noon and night.
I have been spending alot of time at home just hanging out, basically trying not to spend money! The first few weeks back were awesome but as friends started to go back to work and I started looking for a job things weren't quite so much fun! I registered with recruitment agents and have spent a lot of time up the road at the Riddingtons using their computer and browsing their Bay of Plenty Times job sections! I have been receiving the unemployment benefit too, I'm entitled to a half share of a married couple allowance, which equals $150 a week, so not enough to live on at all but I totally am just stoked that we can at least buy groceries and petrol and not have to waste all our savings. As you can guess we are still staying with Niki's Mum in Ohauiti, but that is all working out well although we are looking forward to unpacking all our stuff finally when we get a place of our own.
Social Life
Early Jan we farewelled Donna for her move to Switzerland. In Jan I spent a night in Pukekohe, Auckland with my sister and cute nephew. My first ever Blues Brews and BBQs was a crack-up. Anniversary weekend we went up to Niki's Dad's place in Rawene (Hokianga) and had a fab time there just chilling in the house bus and doing some exploring, on one of our walks we were fortunate enough to see a pod of orcas which was absolutely stunning. Waitangi weekend we went camping at Athenree (Waihi) for two nights with a bunch of pals - Fantastic weather and good times had by all. Lovely Briar's Baby shower. Stefanie (Amercian friend we met in Edinburgh) was over with her boyfriend recently so was wicked to see them. We've been to countless BBQ's and drinking sessions, even trying town 3x (and disappointed all times!), walked around the Mount, copenhagen cones, hotpools...you know the drill, I love this city!
I have been spending alot of time at home just hanging out, basically trying not to spend money! The first few weeks back were awesome but as friends started to go back to work and I started looking for a job things weren't quite so much fun! I registered with recruitment agents and have spent a lot of time up the road at the Riddingtons using their computer and browsing their Bay of Plenty Times job sections! I have been receiving the unemployment benefit too, I'm entitled to a half share of a married couple allowance, which equals $150 a week, so not enough to live on at all but I totally am just stoked that we can at least buy groceries and petrol and not have to waste all our savings. As you can guess we are still staying with Niki's Mum in Ohauiti, but that is all working out well although we are looking forward to unpacking all our stuff finally when we get a place of our own.
Social Life
Early Jan we farewelled Donna for her move to Switzerland. In Jan I spent a night in Pukekohe, Auckland with my sister and cute nephew. My first ever Blues Brews and BBQs was a crack-up. Anniversary weekend we went up to Niki's Dad's place in Rawene (Hokianga) and had a fab time there just chilling in the house bus and doing some exploring, on one of our walks we were fortunate enough to see a pod of orcas which was absolutely stunning. Waitangi weekend we went camping at Athenree (Waihi) for two nights with a bunch of pals - Fantastic weather and good times had by all. Lovely Briar's Baby shower. Stefanie (Amercian friend we met in Edinburgh) was over with her boyfriend recently so was wicked to see them. We've been to countless BBQ's and drinking sessions, even trying town 3x (and disappointed all times!), walked around the Mount, copenhagen cones, hotpools...you know the drill, I love this city!
Personal achievements, or lack there of:
Trying to exercise a couple of times a week and failing miserably even though I am unemployed! Getting my confidence up and learning to drive - I am actually getting quite good, even did a solo drive over the kaimais to Cambridge! So am absolutely stoked, just need to work on tricky parking and reversing lol. Got a temp job for a few days last week at Pinto factory, awful mind numbing work but it was amazing what it did for my morale just getting out of the house and knowing I was earning some money.
Homecoming King & Queen
Arriving into Auckland airport was obviously very exciting, we were buzzing about every kiwi we thing we heard or saw. Niki's Mum and Brother were there to meet us and drove us back to Tauranga where we saw Kayley, Niki's gorgeous wee niece who was born in July. We spent the next few days catching up on sleep and seeing all of our grandparents and friends and doing some christmas shopping, Niki even glazed a ham. We had a lovely, relaxed Christmas day at Jared and Shelley's.
For New Years I went down to Wellington with Debra and Justine for a 5 day stay. Needless to say we had lots of fun, so so great to see those gals. New Years Eve we had a party in the penthouse suite of a flash hotel. It was absolutely brilliant. The other days were filled with sangria, watching dvds, shopping, visiting Te Papa, eating, drinking and being merry!
Niki went camping with a group of his friends and enjoyed some water sports and copius amounts of beer drinking.Last Chance BKK
From Krabi we caught the “VIP” overnight bus to Bangkok. Now this bus wasn’t so much VIP but the seats did recline a little and they provided a wee blanket and luckily we were able to sit together and because it was really cheap it was all worth it. After a long night of little or no sleep we arrived into Bangkok at 6am and were in a familiar area a 5 min walk from Koh San Road. Some of the restaurants were already open so we sat in them buying a drink, using the lavs, and reading for a bit and moving on to the next for something to eat and hanging for another hour there. Once the shops started opening around 10am Niki went for a thai massage while I got a manicure done with amazing hand-painted wee flowers on each nail. You can’t leave Thialand without buying a bunch of dvds and t-shirts so we did that and then grabbed a taxi to HBK so I could do some last minute shopping. I got a few cool things but totally wish I’d gotten more handbags, damn luggage allowance. There were shops laden with handbags for 199B each (£4, NZ$10) Hayley’s paradise! By this stage we hadn’t slept for 30 hours so we were soon over shopping and lugging our gear around (Niki ended up just babysitting gear whilst I shopped!). We spent a bit of time trying to find the airport bus but in the end just grabbed a taxi and got out to the airport by 5pm, well in time for our 8pm flight. Pleased to report our luggage left in storage was all there and we didn’t even go over our luggage limits.
Phuket – Ko Phi Phi
Thursday we flew from Chiang Mai to Phuket, arriving at 2pm. We had pre-booked a hotel in Patong Beach but stupidly took the mini bus which ended up taking hours. We were rather frustrated and eager to get on the beach by the time we had checked in. Patong beach is 
extremely touristy and it wasn’t very nice at all. You could definitely tell that the tourist season had been affected by the airport closure though as the majority of the deck chairs were empty. That night we went out to explore the nightlife which was very tacky and seedy, think neon lights and drunken people everywhere. You’ll be disappointed to know that we didn’t go to ping pong show…the people on the street try and get you into their bars saying free entry, but your first drink cost you mega bucks. Although that's not what put me off, it’s the list that they show you with all the things you will see in a ping pong show… and I can tell you “ping pong” is very tame compared to what was on that list!
extremely touristy and it wasn’t very nice at all. You could definitely tell that the tourist season had been affected by the airport closure though as the majority of the deck chairs were empty. That night we went out to explore the nightlife which was very tacky and seedy, think neon lights and drunken people everywhere. You’ll be disappointed to know that we didn’t go to ping pong show…the people on the street try and get you into their bars saying free entry, but your first drink cost you mega bucks. Although that's not what put me off, it’s the list that they show you with all the things you will see in a ping pong show… and I can tell you “ping pong” is very tame compared to what was on that list! 
Friday morning we took a 1.5 hour ferry ride over to Ko Phi Phi which we’d heard was gorgeous and we weren’t disappointed. There are no cars on the island and to get to the lovely outlying beaches with all your gear you need to pay for a boat ride. We’d been recommended to stay at Viking Resort by some people we’d met on the overnight train so headed there straight away and were lucky to secure accommodation. We stayed in an awesome bamboo hut with ensuite (cold shower) for the first two nights, and then moved to another hut without ensuite and closer to the beach for three nights. The people were really good and gave us a great discount plus let us use snorkelling gear etc for free. We spent the next few days laxing on the small secluded beach right in front of our resort. We ate out for every meal (all resorts have own restaurants), explored the shops on the island, Niki had another massage or two and I got a pedicure. From our beach to the main island bit was about 20 min walk over a steep-ish track but it was generally ok until one of the last nights we came back late
in the dark over the rocks and I somehow fell into the water, with our camera in my bag! It’s buggered, we are so gutted, but luckily our memory card is ok.
Sunday we had a 7am start (ouch!) to go out on a dive boat for Niki to do two fun dives and I did some snorkeling while the divers were down. Niki found the dives pretty good, much more to see than in Egypt, but he did have some trouble equalizing on the second dive and unfortunately his particular group of four missed out on seeing a tortoise and shark which would’ve been brilliant. The snorkelling was fantastic though, there were so many amazing colours of fish and coral and I really started to relax more even over the very deep water. I didn’t enjoy the sea lice though, you keep feeling pin pricks all over your body, but nothing comes of it.
On the Monday we spent most the day just laxing on our wee beach again and did some snorkelling in our bay which was really cool although I did have a jellyfish brush past my face eww! At 5pm, once it was getting slightly cooler, we headed up to Ko Phi Phi viewpoint which is a definite puff factor walk up many many stairs. Once at the top though you are rewarded with the most stunning views. That night we had some western food for dinner (which wasn’t half as good as the thai food) and then headed to Hippies Bar for a “vodka bucket” and some cool live entertainment including a crazy fire show.
Tuesday we had breakfast on the main island and arrange to go on an afternoon snorkel tour. This departed at 2:30pm and was on quite a large boat but luckily it wasn’t full so there were about 25 of us. We anchored and we swam (or kayaked) to shore at monkey island, which really was monkey island with the little critters running around and grabbing their treats from us tourists…so cute! We sailed past Viking Bay and did some more snorkelling and kayaking but unfortunately the water was quite rough, plus I had a leaky snorkel so it wasn’t the funnest. We m
oved on from that spot pretty quickly and tried some more snorkelling elsewhere, the staff threw handfuls of rice in the water and next thing we were absolutely surrounded and covered in amazing colourful hungry fish. It was freaky! Next stop was Maya Bay which is the island where the movie “The Beach” was filmed. Needless to say there were tourist boats aplenty here. It was amazing though, so so beautiful. The sand was so fine and pure, kind of felt like flour! We then headed back to the big boat and watched the lovely sunset while eating dinner. Was a neat afternoon with great staff. We had brought a disposable camera so have thankfully got a few hard-copy pics of our day.
oved on from that spot pretty quickly and tried some more snorkelling elsewhere, the staff threw handfuls of rice in the water and next thing we were absolutely surrounded and covered in amazing colourful hungry fish. It was freaky! Next stop was Maya Bay which is the island where the movie “The Beach” was filmed. Needless to say there were tourist boats aplenty here. It was amazing though, so so beautiful. The sand was so fine and pure, kind of felt like flour! We then headed back to the big boat and watched the lovely sunset while eating dinner. Was a neat afternoon with great staff. We had brought a disposable camera so have thankfully got a few hard-copy pics of our day. Wednesday was our last day on the island so we sunbathed and swam for a couple of hours before sadly heading to the pier to catch our ferry to Krabi at 1:30pm.
We have since heard of much lovelier, more authentic, quieter (and way way cheaper) islands to go to but I think for first timers having a bit of civilisation and party atmosphere was all good.
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