What's Hott in New Zealand

What's Hott

In New Zealand

So I have decided to let you all on the World of Popular music and movies in New Zealand. This will be the first installment and I will try and update it every week around the same time. Within this section you will be able to find the top 15 songs of the week, the top 5 albums, top 5 movies in theatre, to buy and rent and I will also like to have a link to something New Zealand. I.E. Music Video, Movie Clip, etc.

Top 15 Singles

1. With You - Chris Brown
2. Low - Flo Rida Feat. T-Pain
3. YAHHH! - Soulja Boy
4. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
5. Love Like This - Natasha Bedingfield Feat. Sean Kingston
6. No Air - Jordin Sparks Feat. Chris Brown
7. Love in the Club - Usher Feat. Young Jeezy
8. Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna
9. Love Song - Sara Bareilles
10. Scream - Timbaland Feat. Keri Hilson and Nicole Scherzinger
11. One Day - Opshop (Song Below)
12. Sensual Seduction Snoop Dogg
13. Piece of Me - Piece of Shit aka Britney Spears
14. Wanna be Startin' Somethin' 2008 - Michael Jackson Feat. Akon
15. Feels Like Magic - Horsemen Family Feat. Sweet and Irie

Top 5 Albums

1. Back to Black: Deluxe Edition - Amy Winehouse
2. Unbreakable: 2008 NZ Tour Edition - Westlife
3. Exclusive - Chris Brown
4. Sleep Through the Static - Jack Johnson
5. Dig!! Lazarus Dig!! - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Top 5 Movies in Threatre

1. Rambo
2. STEP UP 2: The Streets
3. The Eye
4. 3:10 to Yuma
5. 2 Days in Paris

Top 5 Videos to Buy

1. Outrageous Fortune Season 3
2. Flight of the Conchords Season 1
3. Ratatouille
4. Transformers 2007
5. Outrageous Fortune Season 2

Top 5 Movies to Rent

1. Eastern Promises
2. The Assassination of Jesse James
3. Heartbreak Kid
4. This is England
5. Gabriel

Devonport Weekend

This has been a weekend that has been marked by

Beauty, Consfusion, and Excellence

Beauty

For those of you who have never been to Devonport, New Zealand (which is all of you whom are reading my blog) it is a place of BEAUTY. Devonport is a seaside town that overlooks Auckland City. Devonport was a major player in some navy battler, and has two memorial hillsides that pay homage to those battles. The photo above is take from Mount Victoria and the other memorial is North Head. Both hillside memorials contain old artifacts and tunnels that were burrowed into the hillside. This is all to commemorate those in the battles.

The town is a one street town. One Street in and One Street out. It has a similar vibe to that of Greenport, NY minus the Harley Bikers and the Stuck up Rich Snobs. The town is welcoming with many mum and pop shops, sidewalk cafes and seaside boardwalk. Parking is a premium and fought over. We have to park around the corner on a side road. We walk the town going in and out of everyshop in just over two hours. We then head to Mount Victoria located at the top of Main Street Devonport. Whinding our way to the top on this clear day to gather in the views that it has to offer us. The memorial is very basic an old underground missile and some of the air shafts for the burrowed tunnels. The cool thing about the air shafts is that they are painted like mushrooms to disguise them in a way. After Victoria we returned to our car to head over to explore North Head.

North Head is a larger version of Victoria. It contains more missiles and more tunnles. The tunnels here are capable of being explored, as long as you have some sort of torch, otherwise you will be found in complete darkness. Luckily for us our cell phones have built in flash lights. Pretty handy feature! We walk the tunnels and take in the Beautiful views that North Head offers. We drove to the top and we walk around the hill on its convuluted paths.

All in all we take in Devonport in just under 5 hours. On our way out we stop at one of those sidewalk cafes I spoke of earlier. It is a hip joint that is full with teens and young adults. All the sidewalk tables are taken and the inside couches are full as well. We opt to take our food to the alley way tables. The cool alley way offers us a selection of several tables and the fresh air that is welcomed after being stuffed in the cafe ordering your food. After we eat we head back home...

We took this trip to check out the sights and also because the next day is a road race that I will be doing. I had to pick up my number and my timing chip. Instead of just traveling there to get it and return we make a day of it. Plus North Head and Devonport are on the list of 101 things to do in New Zealand. I can say I have done close to 30 of those things. only 71 more to go!

Consfusion

A weekend that is marked with confusion is misleading. The whole weekend was not confusing, but Sunday morning was. We start with setting the clocks back 1 hour. On the eve of a race these means that I have to recalculate bed time, wake up time and departure time. I decided to get into bed around 10pm and wake up at 545 am. I need to wake up three hours before my race this way I can get a full meal in my tummy.

So after the confusion of the time situation we ge to the race and that confusion. They tell us that they will stagger the starts of the 5k and 10k with the 10k being first. The part that confuses me is how they do this. They line us all up and shoot of the 10k and then wait a few minutes and send of the 5k. I cannot work out how it happened but I managed to be started at the back of the pack. Whatever, I get started and get to the front of the 5k, and then I run into the back of the slow ass 10k runners. The course eventually goes onto the beach, not only that but it is high tide so there is only soft sand to be run in. We are on the beach for 300 meters, I have the duty of weaving in and out of the slower runners. After we get off the beach the 10k and 5k continue along the same path until there is a turn off. At this turn off I am supposed to pick up a cyclist to lead the way for me. And you guessed it, he is not there. I am left to tackle the course following signs and the slacking volunteers.

I am told different things from different volunteers..."Stay Left!" "Stay Right!" "Get in the Road!" "Stay on the Footpath!" I criss cross back and forth over the road and the foot path. I eventually get to the main road where I know how to go until the fork. I get to the fork and there is supposed to be a volunteer there to tell me which way to go. Of course he is SLACKING! sitting down reading a book, i go the wrong way until he yells at me to turn around and go the opposite way. As I ran back I jokingly called him a slacker, and got a good chuckle out of the crowd. Finally on the right path and all that is left is the steep uphill on the grass to the finish.

Excellence

As I run up the hill, that bike rider finally catches up to me. He apparently was riding next to the second place guy. I was 3 minutes ahead of him at this point. I run up to the hill, the crowd cheering on my excellence and victory. I cross the finishline, no clue what my time is, no clue if I ran the complete course. All I know is that it is over and as of right now I am the winner. The winner at this event receives a 250 dollar gift voucher for a free pair of shoes. I have to sit around to receive my excellent prize. (Shoes here are 2.5 times the price of shoes in America)((So shoes that are 90 dollars in America are 245 dollars in New Zealand)) A prize that will come in handy for a runner. They call the awards and I go up and recieve my award. They never announce my time. They never make note of it. It is not posted anywhere. The old course record was 1730 and I wanted that. I was not sure tho. Between the Beach, the Hills, going the wrong way and the Killer Finish it is hard to guess my time. I later find out that I ran 1640. I am the Most Excellent Runner (MER) to tackle the 5k course! Below is a photo of me with my Most Excellent Prize (MEP)

They also gave us a bag of protein bars, protein potato crisps and Knee Joint Relaxer?!?! Dont ask me what I am going to do with the relaxer.

This concludes my weekend of Beauty, Confusion and Excellence.

April 3rd We Try Again...

Before I get started it has been brought to my attention that I made a mistake in yesterdays Blog post. I incorrectly stated that the Joy's property is 9 acres when in fact it is actually 10 acres. My apologizes for the mistake and now I can start my tale.

I woke up this mourning and decided that I would once again try and explore the property. So i got up and had some Breakie. Cereal of course, after that I marched upstairs to my room and got ready for my morning exploration. I put on my jeans and a t-shirt got a bag ready with a jacket, water and a snack (food of course). Then I marched back downstairs to the back porch where I would be leaving for my exploration. I put on my Gum Boots and was ready to head off.

As I stated yesterday the goal it to reach the Peak of Dairy Flat hills at the edge of the property.

I head of down past the trampoline to the right. I have my jacket on, backpack on my back and my camera and tripod in my left hand. I get to the gate that allows me out of the backyard and enter the sheep padock. There are no sheep insight, so i proceed with reckless abandonment. Down the hill into the valley that lies between the backyard and the peak of the Dairy Flat Hills. I trek through the grass which is knee deep. The Sheep need to relocate and start to eat this down. I then come upon the forest that leads up the hill. Not many humans have scaled through this part of the property so there are no trials. However there is sheep trails and i follow those for a while.

The Sheep trails lead me to a steep uphill, and the trails seem to disappear. I have made it so far. I turn around and notice the Joy house off in the distance. I am not turning back the weather is beautiful and I am determined to reach the peak. I pack up my camera and tripod and shove those into my bag. I then begin to scale the steep uphill in a crawling like manner. After approximately 9 minutes of this crawling method my back is screaming in pain and I have reached the top. And what do I see at the top?

The top leads me to views of more hills. Uninterupted views of miles and miles of hilly landscape. I am unsure what to call these hills because they seem to span for miles past the boundaries of Dairy Flat. Maybe I will refer to them as Boundary Hills. With the name established I turn around and can see the Joy house through the forest that is at the peak of their property.

Now I have decision to make, do I go left along the fence or do I go right. I go left and walk for a bit. On the other side of the fence looks to be a grassy roadway, I stay on my side of the fence.I come upon a gate which I hop over I am now on someone esle property and can see a home through some trees. Looks like there is nothing much further. So I turn around and head the opposite way. I get to the cross in the road where I decided to go left, now I decide to continue along the fence. I stumble upon some cows, a bathtub used for water, and then another fence.

I decide to hop the fence onto the grassy roadway. What started out as an exploration has turned into Mike trying to be an artistic photographer. I take several photos of the bathtub that is used for storing water for the sheep, I take photos of myself, and of the landscape.

I walk along the grassy roadway for a bit and take in the sights and sounds of nature. This is something that you rarely get in Suburban America. It seems like a good place to come and clear ones head. Since my head needs no clearing I continue to March on. I decided that I will not go back the way I came, but create a route home that suits me. Along the roadway is an Olive Farm. I know this because next to the Joy's house there is a big sign that tells me so. It has a long roadway that leads down the hill into the valley where the olives grow. I am on the peak that is behind the olive farm. Off in the distance I can see the Joy house.

I decide to cut through the olive farm to get to the roadway that leads up to the Joy House. I can see the road, but have no clue if I can walk around to it, or should hop another fence and cut through the olive farm. And I mean literally cut through, inbetween the bushes of olives and everything. So I hop onto a post and climb over. This is also another prime spot for some artistic photographs.
As I trek through the olive trees I can see the road and I am not too far from it. I continue on and jump on the road and walk along it. I am taking it all in. I get to a double gate and hop both of those and continue on the road. I get to a point where the road begins to go on a steep uphill. Now I know I am getting close, the Joy house is just on the other end of that steep uphill. However I am distracted by a little pond that is on my right hand side. And of course do not pass up the opprotunity to take some photos.

I trek up the hill and arrive at that big sign I was telling you all about. Which means I am at the entrance way to the Joy's house. After all that adventure I am finally back to where I started. I take some more photos, because I am an artistic photographer......then head inside for a much deserved lunch.

April 2nd Washed Indoors...

Today turned into a complete wash. I had planned to explore Leo's 9 acres of property. So I get up and have breakfast then get dressed to go out and explore. My plan was to take my camera and take photos of the landscape and the Dairy Flat hills. I managed a few photos. I was no more than 5 minutes into my exploration when the skies opened up and started to rain. This is a shot i got at the start of my exploring. it has the forest that is on Leo's property in the background. I would like to get to the top of the hills. that lies amongst the trees that are the tallest at the top of the picture. Not short after this picture was taken the skies opened up. I was forced to take cover. This is the next picture that I took, it started to rain hard so i jumped under some heavy pine tree cover. Sat on the roots and waited for the rain lightened up a bit. I was under here for approximately 12 minutes. After the rain lightened up to a mist i jumped out and headed back for the house.

This is the last photo I took in the mist, I was checking out the scenery. The vision is rather blury and the picture that I took did not come out. On a nice day i will take the photo of the landscape and post it. I will do this trip again in the near future and will have better shots of the property and Dairy Flat hills.

A little note about the Dairy Flat Hills: I do not know if that is their real name. Leo is unsure what they are called and her parents have the same answer. So I am labeling them the Dairy Flat Hills. The property that the Joy's house and the neighboring houses is located on used to be the village center. Back in the 1920s and 1930s Burne Road led into Dairy Flat Village. It was a tent village, no permanent structures were built. After awhile the tent village went down hill and it was closed up. Once that happened people bought up the land and put structures of the property. With very little changing till today Dairy Flat is left without a village center. Dairy Flat is more known for being outside of Albany and Silverdale (Nearby towns that have town centre). Once and awhile when digging on the property Mr. Joy has come upon silverware and other artifacts that show a tent village used to be here.

Alright enough of the history, what have i been up to the past few days. Yesterday I went on my job interview with the New Zealand Post. It seemed to go well, keep your fingers crossed. The interview was very similar to that of one i had with the United States Postal Service. I had to describe my duties and the USPS and what have you. We had some good laughs comparing the two different postal systems. Many differences but also many similarities. All in All the interview took approximately 44 minutes. I also received a tour of the warehouse. Today I received a call telling me that they are going ahead and contacting my References. Which i am guessing is a good sign, but keep your fingers crossed.

What are my plans for the next few days? Well i have signed up to run a local road race. It is a big nearby town event. This is on sunday. It is the Devonport 5k/10k Run/Walk. I am running the 5k and Mrs. Joy is walking the 5k, Leo is coming along as a supportor. On saturday we need to got to Devonport to pick up our race packets and instructions for the race day. So we are going to make a day out of it. Devonport is a beach village with main street passing along the water front. So that should be nice. Next time you guys see my post hopefully i will have a job and will have the results of the 5k race.

Here is the Link to the Race Website: http://devonportclassic.co.nz/

Hope everyone is doing well, I send my regards to All

-Mike

The 31st of March, 4 weeks...

Picture: Dairy Flat Hills from the Joy's Deck

So it is Monday here and Sunday by you guys. I hope that Avry's Christening went well today. Leo and I send the best wishes. Nothing really exciting going on today. Just doing some things around the house. I did the laundry today, and cleaned some dishes. Cleaned up our room which was getting a little messy. Just waiting for Leo, we are going down to her brothers place (Nat) to pick up a mountain bike. So we can have it around to ride. Other than that Monday has been real boring.

Yesterday was Sunday. Went to NZ National Track Champs, got to see Nick Willis win the 1500 meters with ease. Nick Willis is a World Class Runner that happens to be white. So he is someone that is of great influence on younger athletes in New Zealand.

After track champs we went out to this Genghis Khan restaurant. It is Mongolian food, where they have a food bar of raw food. you select what you want and then they stir fry it in front of you. For instance last night i had Lamb with shredded carrots, cabbage, celery, pineapple, noodles and a Mongolian BBQ sauce. It was delicious. They also a had a food bar of prepared foods, soups and salads that you can eat. Then every ones favorite dessert. it was a small dessert bar but it was a good one. They can make you up a pancake where you can put ice cream on and then add your on toppings. I had a Pancake with Cookie and Cream Ice Cream, Carmel and Peanut Butter Sauce and nut toppings.

That was the end of our Sunday.

On Saturday we went to the shops to pick up a few things that were needed and then we went to Nat's field hockey game.It was the first time I have every watched a field hockey game. It was good fun, they lost but they were playing a the best team in the League and a team that has several of the NZ National Hockey Team on it. It was a hard fought game. It was difficult to follow the rules and why things happened the way they did. I will learn and slowly pick it up.

After the Hockey game, we went home and cooked up dinner. That's not the exciting part. The exciting part is for dessert we made smoothies. I know big deal, but these smoothies were made with the Magic Bullet! I know you have all seen the infomercial and are ubber jealous of me. For the record the Magic Bullet is as fun as it looks in the infomercial. For that I attached a photo.

Some of you have emailed me some questions and I will take this time to answer those questions. If anyone has any questions feel free to comment the question or send it to me via the NZ Blog email that I send out.

Question: Is this job full time?

Answer: Yes the postie position will be a full time job. However it is six days a week from 7am to 230 pm. Also if you happened to finish your route early you are free to go home and get paid for the rest of the day. So if you finish at 100pm you can go home and get paid the last hour and thirty minutes. It also means that if you work past 230pm that you will be paid overtime.

Question: What is Leo doing that you are without her during the day?

Answer: Leo is at work. She is working in a factory, helping put together orders to ship out to the retailers.

I hope that helped some of you who had questions. I got a boring week ahead with a big interview on Wednesday. Wish me luck I will be back on to let you know how it goes. Best Wishes Mike

Chillaxin' Saturday

Photo: Sky Tower from the Motorway

Hey everyone, this week has been a week of no excitement. I last wrote to you about the Easter Weekend. Tuesday was my first day without Leo and I told you all about that. On wednesday I was looking for jobs. I applied for another Post Office job. this one is located in Albany, which is real close to where i am staying. about an hour after I applied online, i got a phone call from the Auckland Region headquaters. they wanted a phone interview. I did that, then they asked me if i could go down on thursday to headquarters for a two hour assessment. Well i figured that was a good sign that they were calling so quickly.

Thursday i went to the assessment. What an experience, we first had to take a four minute adress test. They gave you two address and you had to tell them wether they were the same or different. In four minutes i got 30 done and all 30 were right. the next assessment was speed sorting. they gave you 2 minutes to put as many letters in order. the letter were labled a,b,c,d,e,f, in the two minutes i got 77 letters out of hundred sorted. they were pleased with that mark, but i need to get up to 85. and then the Bike test. the mailmen (aka Posties) deliver mail via a bicycle. so i had to have a bicycle test. which include turns, stoping, delivering, and a few other skills. i scored a 25 out of 25 on that portion. after all that they told us that they would contact us on monday or tuesday if we get a face to face interview with a supervisor.

On Friday I received a call seeing if i want to come in for a face to face interview on wednesday with the Supervisor at the branch in Albany. I take this as another good sign. Also on friday i did some work around the house with Mr. Joy. we were leveling off a piece of land to put a firewood shed on. I was incharge of working the heavy machinery. I was using a motorized digger that ate away at the dirt. Which was like clay and extremely hard. Mr. Joy worked the rake leveling off the ground. this project took us a good chunk of the day. but we got it done(Now today I am sore all over and have sunburn on my shoulders.)

Today is Saturday, i dont have to fight for myself today, Leo is around give ideas on what to do. We are going to the shops for a few things, then we are going to watch a field hockey game at 3. Sunday is a big day, Leo has National Champs. which will be fun. That is all i have for you today nothing too exciting i am sorry, but maybe in the next few days something will happen that i will write all about.

Hope all is well- Mike

Easter Weekend Over

Hey Everyone, it is Tuesday here in New Zealand and the Easter holiday is now over. It has been a fun filled holiday. I mentioned alot of what i have done to you already, but now i have the photos to go along with it. We made chocolate Easter Eggs on Friday. so here is my step by step photo illustration on how that is done. In case you guys were starting to doubt that Leo still actually existed I included a photo of her above. Saturday I told you all about already.

Easter Sunday started with the Easter Bunny leaving Leo and I a treat outside the bedroom door. Marshmellow filled Chocolate Easter Eggs. Leo and I went down to Gulf Harbour which is a little town that is set on the waterfront. It is real nice and real expensive, it is a posh place to live. I have a photo of Leo and I at the end of the harbour where the town contre is.
After Gulf Harbour, we went off to Shakespeare Regional Park. It is a large park that has everything you need. It has beaches, camping, hiking, fields for sports, and animals. The park has terrific views of the waters and the coast. They even have life size photo frames set up with scenery in the background. Dont worry i will attach a photo of that as well. went to the park and walked a little bit on the trails, and took some photos. after the park we headed home for easter dinner.

For dinner we had ham, with pineapple and a rice salad. the salad was deliciouse, it was rice mixed with all different veggies and had a lemon dressing. after dinner we chilled in the backyard and that was it. easter was pretty basic, nothing too exciting. it was different experience as i am used to 25 people at every holiday. it almost seemed like there was no holiday. but i know there was.

That brings me to easter monday. a national holiday here, where everyone gets off of work and the mall has huge sales. all weekend there has been this Easter Show going on. Leo wants to take me, so i am up for it. it is great, we there and it is all different things, its like a carnival with rides and food, and then it has stages and tents for shows, it has a market place for people to shop the crafts and they have a huge petting farm for the kids. they also have art on display as there is a big contest for drawing, painting, photography and many other competitions. then there is also animal contests, best in show for example. We wonder the park heaps, we watched three shows. two of which were danger shows and another was lumberjack competition. The danger shows were cool there was juggling fire, balancing on chairs stakced ontop of one another, balancing a kayak on a chin and even swallowing a sword. it was crazy. i took tons of photos and video. I have video of eating the sword and photos of everything else. I will attach the kayak photos that i took as that was really impressive. we spent a total of 5 hours at the show it was great fun. the show was generally geared for kids but there was plenty of adult like things that made it fun.

Like i stated earlier it is tuesday, i am stranded alone as leo had to go back to work. so i am stuck to make my own fun. typing this blog takes heaps of time so that will cut a hunk out, i also have things to do. i need to apply for jobs and get an IRD number(it is like a SSN). once i have those things set i will be able to work and earn money. Well other than that i think i have rambled enough and given you plenty to look at. enjoy everything and i hope all is safe and well. -Mike