Lovely day today, so we thought we’d have an outing on the bike up to Otaki – just about 30 mins away.

A lovely trip up the coast and 25 mins later we stopped for a coffee at a mobile coffee wagon that didn’t seem very mobile at all – it was plumbed in to the local services for water, electricity and gas! There was a family resting up that came over on the ferry from South Island today – they had a “bit” of bad weather on the way. They also bought some food which smelt gorgeous – however, steak for tea so we were very good and stuck with a coffee and a free marshmallow!

We were going to just go back down the coast, but as we left Otaki I thought I’d see what was up towards the Tararua range. Apart from the Otaki racecourse, the answer is …. nothing. The road just ended at a farm. I thought it would, but no harm in chacking!

I rode back through Otaki and thought I’d have a look at the Otaki Gorge on the south side. As expected, the road changed into an unsealed (for unsealed, read gravel) one and as I’d only just started back on the bike I decided not to throw caution to the wind just yet and we turned around after a short trek. The gorge looked lovely on the way up and we will be going back to go up further to the Otaki Fords – I’m pretty sure the hobbits were filmed up there making their way out of Hobbiton and the Shire!

The first picture below is from Google, and you can just about see the gravel track winding away into the distance above the river on the right hand side of the river. The picture is taken from the suspension bridge across the river, which we went over after turning back from the gravel track.

We did go across the bridge (yes, it is a single lane bridge!) to the other side of the river but quickly ran into a christian retreat come adventure park – adventure seemed to be restricted to “walking by the river”, “chasing the unsaddled horse in the paddock” and that all-time favourite “find the longest blade of grass”! So the 2nd picture is from the christian “retreat” side of the bridge looking over to the gravel track disappearing off to the left.

We gave up exploring for the afternoon/evening and headed back for Paraparam for a well-earned drinkie-poohs and a couple of tuna sandwiches out on the veranda. Which is great now that I’ve followed Phil Buller’s example in Australia and sprayed the patio door area with Mortein – a sort of armageddon/ragnarok for flying beasties that hangs around on surfaces and in crevasses convincing said flying beasties to either stay away, or die if they stay too long!

For those of you that are sharp-eyed and wondering what happened to the promised steak – we couldn’t be bothered, even to cook a steak, we were tired, so we left it in the fridge and had some tuna with salad sandwiches instead.

All togged up and ready to go this morning. I drove the car in, so that once we pick up the bike Louise can drive the car back.

We did have to go change the car first though. We thought it would be a good idea to keep the hire going for a while longer as sometimes (thinking about any possible interviews here) its more handy to have a car. However, the car we had ran out of car tax and Warranty of Fitness (like an MOT) in February, so we had to get another one. As neither of us were too bothered, this time we said we didn’t mind an automatic if it made life easier. Looking back now, perhaps I should have asked for a diesel if they had one! A litre of diesel is only $1.10 (about  both 50p)! Hmmm, I can feel an issue coming along already with this one…..

Anyway, we got to the rental agency and after a quick inspection of the incoming car (I’d cleaned it out yesterday afternoon in between writing out job applications) we were off. I was trying to give Louise some “training” in using an automatic as she’d never driven one. We decided we’d just head back slow and take our time.

Typically of course, it was raining pretty heavily even before we’d left the car rental agency! However, I had all my wets with me so it wouldn’t be too bad. We knew we couldn’t trust the weather in Wellington!

Picked up the bike with no worries, and we got bach home easily too. Sweet as!

The weather was good again by the time I got to P-town (Porirua), but I just kept going. Louise did well in her first trip on an automatic too – we stayed pretty slow most of the way too, so I didn’t lose her lol.

Now officially back on 2 wheels!!

Bad news this morning. The guy from Equinox phoned to say that the company had decided to pitch their hopes and future on a spotty, pimple headed, rushing around like a bull in a china shop, head full of theory with no practical skills youngster straight out of university. Obviously, I’m not at all bitter and wish them well…..

Spent most of the day filling out application forms again from jobs I’d found yesterday and today. It’s only been 2 months, NZ still thinks its in a recession despite what the government is trying to voice and the unemployment rate is the highest its been for about 3 decades. However, I’ll get there!! Chin up old bean, plenty of fish in the sea and all that……..

Out again this evening to the cashpoint for the last installment for the bike tomorrow. It’ll be nice to be back on two wheels again. It still seems to make more sense to buy one and take the risk of having to sell it at a slight loss than to hire one – the lowest price I’ve seen for bike hire here (and there isn’t anywhere in Wellington, you’d have to go to Nelson, Christchurch or Auckland) is $150 a day. So a quick calculation for the run of the visa would be a cost of about $40,000 or £18,000!! It’s not even worth thinking about!!! Compared to the £7.20 a day for the car, it’s an absolute rip-off!! Mind you, we did do well in finding such a good rental cost for the car….

On the way back from Wellington yesterday I picked up 2 NZ driving licence forms. We’d decided to get them done, so I thought I’d find out if we could do it locally. Yep! We can! It looks like its only about £20 and there’s no exam or anything (well, maybe an eye-test!).

Played RPG with the guys back in Bridgend over Skype again – brilliant fun! The random dice generator seems to roll as many bad dice as I do normally! No change there then….

I completed the driving license forms in the early afternoon (getting Louise to just sign hers LOL) and we popped down to the AA office in Paraparam. The lady behind the counter groaned a little when she realised that there two “foreign conversions” to do, but put a brave face on things and ignored the queue building up behind us. Nearly all the Kiwis behind us could see we were going to take awhile and popped into the other queue, but one stayed. She did look a bit frazzled and on edge though.

I’d worn my contacts as it was a bright sunny day (again….) and had no problem with the eye test – there was a machine on the counter and she even stopped me reading out the lines because I could see too well!). The only downside for me is that it will stste on my license that I HAVE to be wearing corrective lenses (contacts or glasses) when I’m driving. No real problem there though as I can’t see otherwise! The police would take a dim view of me if I was found not to be wearing them though, and kindly help me lighten the load on my wallet by the removal of several $20 notes!!

Louise had no problems either, although she had to move away from the machine a bit while checking her peripheral vision – she was hugged up too close to the machine!

All in all a nice friendly experience. Nothing like the hassle I’m sure most Kiwis could look forward to if they were doing the same thing in the UK!

Back home for a cheap rump steak and salad again. We would have got chicken of course, but the price of “chooks” makes it a non-starter. Its cheaper to go to KFC for a chook-fix!

Got a phone call from Equinox first thing this morning. Can I come into Wellington for a face-to-face interview over a coffee? “Well” I said, “it’s an awful long way to come….” and “I’ll be there at 2pm!”

Also got a phone call shortly after from an Agency I’ve applied for jobs to in the past, but only to get my details and decide to pass onto the Permanent role recruitment bod. Ah well…….

Left home in plenty of time for the interview and parked up by the Southern Cross Apartments again as they were the easiest parking space to find (with a coupon anyway).

I’d forgotten how steep some of the hills in Wellington are! That’ll be blisters for me by the end of the day. That’s what dressing in a suit does for you!

Finally found both the building and the guy – he was actually on a different floor to the one he’d told me he was on…… and we popped next door to a restaurant for a coffee. I did think to say from the start that he really should know that he’s on the 10th floor, and that the building only has 15 floors – so telling me he was on the 16th floor wasn’t a good advertisement. Luckily, I decided that probably wasn’t a good way to introduce myself!

The interview seemed to go ok, although it was strange because he didn’t seem to be interviewing me for the advertised systems admin job, but rather as a possible project manager – weird! It’s very hard to answer questions in a set direction if you’re unaware of where the direction is going!!

He left me with a promise that I’d get another phone call tomorrow from someone else in the company to talk techie.

Managed to get out of Wellington before rush hour and headed home.

Popped out about 8pm to the cashpoint to get some more bike money out ready for the weekend.

Had a long working night again last night, not sure how many more of those I can cope with……….. Caught up on sleep though as I knew we didn’t have to get in to Wellington until early afternoon.

Joe, from Wellington Motorcycles, phoned to say that the weather was pretty atrocious this afternoon in Wellington. He also mentioned that someone else had test ridden the Suzuki DL1000 this morning because it had been ready earlier than originally thought. Now, I’m aware of the little sales techniques used and this didn’t affect my decision to go into Wellington despite the rain at all. After all, Joe is of American descent too, surely the most trustworthy “salt of the earth” nation in existence. It’s not like he’s a secondhand car salesman or anything……. Ah, good point, yes he is, sort of!

We took the wets in to Wellington with us, but in the end the rain had eased off nicely. We had a 30 min test ride out to the airport and back around Oriental Bay. Decided to go for it! Just have to visit the hole-in-the-wall a couple of times….. Pleasant surprise with being able to get £300 in any 24 hr period – won’t take too long LOL! The exchange rate at the moment is pretty bad, so still not worth bringing over any large amounts!

Went off to Wellington motorcycles today to have a look at a Suzuki VSTROM DL1000 due in at lunchtime – looked promising, we’re going back tomorrow for a test ride, if the weather holds off (there’s a nasty band of rain sent over by Australia coming up over South Island this evening!).

Popped in to see Graham and Jayne on the way home from Wellington. Lovely to see them and catch up, if only for a few minutes – didn’t want to stay too long as they were getting tea ready!

We came back home via Battle Hill which is a shortcut through the mountains from Pauatahanui to Paekakariki – what a lovely biking road, if a little worrying at times! Gorgeous view at the top looking down over the Kapiti Coast, we’ll have to go back when the sun is shining! Our house is in the 2nd township on the left, obviously you can’t see us – we’re using the camera!

Nearly finished off cover letter for NZDF now……………ish……………….. 5 pages and counting

Tried to do more puzzle this morning, hard-going……….. We gave up eventually and had a lazy day reading.

Went to the cinema tonight to see “Lovely Bones” – voucher for reel club feature movie @ $9 each – bargain! The film didn’t end quite as well as we’d liked, but pretty good all the same, for the genre.

Spoke to Margaret & John on Skype

Another page for the NZDF cover letter.

Looks like the New Zealand Defence Force cover letter for their job positions just hit 2 pages!

Started a new puzzle this evening – “Angel of Darkness”. Angel in the middle went together not too badly, however the edges are a right pain.

Played Lord Of The Rings online for the first time in AGES tonight in bed as Louise couldn’t get to sleep. Spent 30 mins trying to do a pub crawl around the Shire – hilarious – the screen got all colourless and fuzzy, my character wouldn’t respond to the directions properly and kept blowing bubbles everywhere!!

Got up this morning to a phone call from a company in Wellington called Equinox. I’d sent an e-mail to them last Wed to “cold call” them if any interesting jobs came up. Read up on Equinox and found two jobs for New Zealand Defence Force. Equinox did say they’d phone back to arrange a chat over a coffee next week – didn’t get a return call today though…………

We had a fair few drinks out on the deck, got slightly sunburnt (Louise anyway) and had a lovely afternoon!

We decided to have a break from steak tonight and I popped out to Dominos for a pizza after ordering it online. It would have been nice to get it delivered, but evidently they don’t deliver to Rosetta Rd as Renown Rd (the next road inland from ours) is the furthest they go. RATS!