Friday, September 02, 2005

Auckland Calling

Don't worry, Molly hasn't fallen off the planet! Just moved to the other side - yes, we completed the New Zealand residency application, sent it off, got approved, I quit my job - YES! YES! YES! - we travelled the Far East for 3 weeks and arrived in Auckland almost a month ago! Phew!

So far, my life is on its way to being healthier and is more organic in some ways and less in others. Let me explain, if you will...... 3 weeks of travelling with the darling BF means a lot of walking! Wandering around new places, preferably with a huge backpack on seems to be one of his hobbies which I've resigned myself to! No, really I love it.

We decided beforehand not to rough it too much and booked a couple hotels. We've always been anti large luxurious hotels when there's a perfectly respectable hostel or smaller hotel in the neighbourhood, and not just for financial reasons. I hate the idea of putting more money into the pockets of those who already have too much especially when this is at the expense of those who have much less (ie locals not me & BF!). I find that grand hotels can also be a distraction from the place you're visiting, which kind of defies the object of travelling. Hmmmmm....

So, despite good intentions and having done the backpacking thing together before, BF & I felt our relationship deserved a bit more luxury this time round - ie we couldn't face another holiday of desperately trying to find somewhere decent with minimal insect company and maximum hygiene; BF trying to persuade me (with pmt, dehydration and a migraine coming on) that this latest in a long line of beach huts with it's delightful hole-in-the-ground toilet, sans lightbulb and only one or two cockroaches was fine.

nice hotel pool

So we stayed in realatively cheap (in UK prices anyway) but lovely and well equipped hotels in Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore and with friends in their gorgeous Bangkok apartment, only roughing it on Penang island for 5 days.

gorgeous bangkok apartment living


Walking the long dusty border path from Vietnam to Cambodia (with backpacks & handpacks) in sweltering heat!

Having arrived in Auckland, we stayed with friends for 2 weeks whilst looking for our own apartment. They live outside of central Auckland, so there were copious trips into town by bus, wandering around the city's suburbs trying to suss out the best area to live in. Despite BF's amazing navigation skills, this inevitably involved a little getting lost and we must have pounded a marathon's worth of pavement in a week! Add to this the fact that Auckland is built on volcanic earth with roads constantly going up and down fairly steep slopes and my sedentary lifestyle has certainly taken a hammering!

We moved into our city centre apartment 3 weeks ago. It's a nice "old" building situated on a steep incline - hoorah! - and we're 3 flights up, so that's a lot more walking for me! And you know what; lately, I've been using the stairs instead of the lift and, get this, I actually did some yoga this morning! Wow, now if only I could give up the evil smoking (I have cut down to a pack a week) I'd be practically healthy!

My life has taken a more organic spin in that I have stopped looking for part-time office work for now and have given myself a month to just concentrate on my painting and design work - this is such a joy and I feel extremely privileged. More of this another time.

Organic food has been a bit more difficult as there doesn't seem to be much in the supermarkets over here. Even though they're becoming evil in taking over the supermarket market and begin responsible for smaller suppliers being forced to close, I do miss Tesco a little. As for Able & Cole, delectable supplier of our organic fruit & veg box each week - I think of them often :(
There are organic delivery companies here but we haven't been able to try any yet as deliveries seem to be a problem in apartment buildings. Hopefully, when we move out of the centre a little and buy a regular house, this won't be a problem.

So that's it so far - life is going well over here. Oh, and incase you're wondering, about the so called job I had in the UK and the appalling Huge National Children's Charity I slaved for: My ex-colleague recently informed me that the project is being closed down and they're all being made redundant in December! What a surprise!! It seems crazy now that I stuck it out for so long though I made some good friends and learnt a lot from them but I'm soooo glad to be out of there!

.......and so on and so on

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