Reflecting on 2014

Looking back on the year of 2014, I have had some pretty amazing adventures,  of course it had all started, when I started getting in contact with different families through au pair link in New Zealand and also the agency in Germany, so the first family that I came in contact with lived in a place called Karlsruhe, then it took a little bit longer, for a wait but after a few weeks ended up with 3 families getting in contact with me at once, which was  pretty amazing, one of the families in Koln

and then of course the family I picked lived in the capital city of Berlin,  which was where I would have loved to go the most, so the start of this adventure began with my flight journey, leaving Christchurch for Singapore, Singapore I must say has an amazing airport, was quite nice to look around, then from Singapore to Doha ( Qatar), another place that I have never been to before, but it seemed quite nice, then of course my last flight was Doha to Berlin, I had to keep looking out the window all the way, was lovely flying over different parts of the world.

And flying into Berlin was just amazing, I can safely say, that before I had even landed I fell in love with the city :),

so even though I never got to stay in either Berlin or Germany for the one year that I had wanted I am so pleased that I experienced so much of that amazing and wonderful place, I saw so much, and learnt a lot as well, went to a pretty fantastic german school where I got to learn the wonderful language and also made a wonderful bunch of friends from my experience.

It was sad that my au pair experience there ended so horribly but I can say that there are sometime where I do miss little Rosa that I had formed a bond with in those 3 months, she was a pretty wonderful child to work with.

I have also learnt not to trust those agencies anymore because of all that happened after my contract got terminated where I was not offered very much help at all, it is also sad that England didn't quite work out because of misinformation but that is ok, that is still a dream to come true later on :).

My flight back to NZ was pretty amazing as well with flying from Berlin to London ( Heathrow) from there to Dubai, then a long flight all the way to Sydney, then of course back to Christchurch,


So later after not having to much luck looking for jobs, I decided that I would try my au pair experience again, so I re opened my account on Au Pair world, which I had found to be just amazing, I heard from families very quickly, from  a lot of different places in Australia and other areas of the world

So after a decision Darwin became my choice of my next adventure, which I  can say has just been amazing, I have been with that family for 4 months and I am loving it, so much I have no idea if I ever want to leave, the family is just wonderful I
love looking after little Jonathan, made amazing friends in Darwin as well.


Looking forward to my next adventure next year in Townsville




Wish everyone a Happy New Year, and a Fantastic 2015

Cairns Part 2

So this will be my second to last post of this year of 2014

so this week I have done a couple of different things, firstly on Monday I went along to another movie, this time  I went to see Water Diviner which is directed by Russell Crowe it is such a brilliant and fantastic movie, I enjoyed it a lot , I thought that it was done just perfectly ::).

On Tuesday, I went along to the Cairns Tropical Zoo for a few hours, that was pretty good, I had went last time that I was in cairns, but for some reason my photos had all disappeared, there were lots of interesting animals there, I watched the flight show  as soon as I got there, there were a few birds that were apart of the show like the magpie, kite, Barking owl and my favourite the wedge tail eagle, such amazing birds. Also saw a snake show, and learnt a little bit about Koalas and Wombats and how they are related to each other, I stayed until I had seen all the animals there and feed some Kangaroos :).   I love Zoos :) ,

there are still a few more  things I would love to do in Cairns before I head to Townsville

Christmas , boxing day and the weekend :)

So Christmas was a little bit of an interesting day, ended up being awake pretty early, so while waiting for others to get up, a little bit after Christmas we opened up presents, I got a few things, like a manicure set, hand cream, a dress, country music cd, diary, and a few other things as well.

After lunch we went to a lovely place called Etty Bay, which was a lovely little area with a great beach, which is almost secluded from everywhere, the sea was nice and warm, there was even a Cassowary wandering around the place, it was nice to just sit and relax at the beach for a few hours,  later on in the day, more people showed up for a dinner, where there was a lot of salad, got to talk to my mum, grandparents and siblings.
 
Boxing Day, on this day we ( Dad, his gf and I) headed off to Herberton to visit my grandad and nanna, it was a pretty good drive, we stopped in Milla Milla for a little bit as a pit stop then continued the rest of the way, was a good thing that it doesn't take too long to get to Herberton, because I was getting a tad car sick, was great to see grandad and nanna Debbie when we arrived, we had some lunch and relaxed, I also talked to Debbie for quite awhile which was nice, played a game of pool aswell, later got to talk to my aunty who lives in England.

The Saturday, spent most of the day looking around the lovely little historical village that is there, which I must say is just fantastic to have a look at, I really enjoyed it, also had a lovely country style pot pie  for lunch.

on sunday we just drove back to cairns, first we stopped and looked at the Milaa Milaa falls, and also looked at a look out that looked over the table lands

Cairns Part 1

So Have officially started my lovely holiday break in the wonderful city of Cairns, arrived in Cairns at 2300 hours on thursday the 18th, was a bit of a boring flight, but was good anyhow, there was what felt like at that time of the night, the most longest walk ever from getting off the aeroplane and, heading inside the terminal.

The next day, since dad was going to work i just relaxed  around the house for a little bit,

on saturday i went into the city with my dad and his girlfriend, stopped at the cairns central shopping centre,  did a little bit of shopping for myself, then i decided while i was waiting to be picked up that i would head for a wee walk into the city, along the esplanade a little bit, doing a little bit of sight seeing even though i have seen most of the stuff before :)

the next day on sunday went for a nice small trip to Palm Cove, it was a lovely day there and we walked along the beach and Jetty/Wharf for a little bit, then got some ice cream and walked along the beach which was very nice, later on in the day we went out for dinner to a place called La Porchetta, which was a nice place to eat, then after dinner we went to several houses and looked at Christmas lights.

Yesterday i went into the city and went on a bus tour just around seeing different places of cairns which was pretty interesting.

So with today being Christmas Eve, i am now currently in a little town just outside of innisfail to spend christmas day with my dad's girlfriend's family, and on boxing day we are heading up to Herberton to see and visit my grandad and nanna, can't wait.


I wish everyone  a very wonderful Christmas Day :)

finished in Darwin

Today i am now in Cairns for a few weeks holiday, before i go back to the family once they are all settled into a place in Townsville,

i arrived in Cairns last night at 11pm, and my dad was there to meet me once i got off the plane. So today all i have done is relax, listening to music and reading.

my last week in Darwin had been pretty busy, with watching after Jonathan, while the house was getting cleaned, we had also stayed in an apartment for a few days, since the house was getting packed up and cleaned. The apartment was pretty awesome, very large and had an awesome view of the sea looking over the esplanade


Did get to catch up with my great friend Dilan before i left as well, which was just great.


on tuesday for my day off i went for a bit of a walk up to Cullen Bay, and then afterwards headed to the Cinema to watch a movie,  I watched Exodus it was a pretty good movie really enjoyed it.

I will miss Darwin, and the friends that i made there as well, but can't wait for Townsville :)

Update some more during the week

Just 1 week Left

I now officially be leaving Darwin, and will actually sitting on a plane heading for Cairns for a few weeks, to spend christmas with my dad i am so looking forward to it, then of course heading off to Townsville to begin another awesome adventure in a new place that i have never actually been before :).

Managed to get Christmas  presents sent of back to New Zealand,  have also been helping out with cleaning up the house over the last few days, since on Monday we will be at a hotel for a few days before i catch my plane on thursday night, and also the host family will be driving down to Townsville on the friday.

the monday just gone i went and got my hair cut and coloured, i love it, looks totally awesome now :), my host mum liked it, she could not stop saying how lovely it looked.

So before i leave for Cairns i am hoping to catch up with my great friend Dilan :)

i will miss Darwin, but so looking forward to Townsville.

Art work from miss rosa

Art from Rosa, the wee girl i looked after in Berlin

Three Months ♡♥♡♥♡♥♡

This will be a bit of short post but im so hqppy that ihave been with this same pretty awesome family now for three months it has been great, also experincing so many different parts of Darwin, and also making such wonderful friends as well and experincing many different things, must say i am goimg to miss darwin just a little bit, even though the wet season has started up now :)

Looking forward to Townsville seeing what townsville has to offer when we all move there.

Also lookimg forward to Cairns over christmas .

Part Three

So for this one lets talk about my completly awesome birthday surprise that ,my host mum had brought for me and also a friend to come along with, me aswell which was pretty awesome so on the 15th Nov with my friend Dilan at 1.30pm we went to the transit centre to wait for our bus, although it took awhile to find the place, not the best directioms to find it though, went on a half day tour with aat kings,

This tour took us down to Adelaide River and wemt on a Cruise called Spectaular jumping Crocidiles, that was pretty awesome, saw a lot of crocodiles, and also got ro see them being feed, that was a nice time out on the river nice and peaceful minus the fact that there was crocodiles :), after that we went to the windows over the wetlands, that was pretty awesome gave you a lovely view of the whole area, and after that we headed to Fogg dam which was very lovely looking with to drive along a look out the window at.

So it was a pretty fun day.

Next adventure was last weekend 21-23  with 3 other Au Pairs went out to  Kakadu National park for the weekend which was a pretty awesome, fun, excitimg and also exhausting weekend but other than that was a great place to go,
On the friday we headed down to Cooinda where we were staying in the lodge there, first we stopped at the supermarket at palmerston to grab food for the weekend, then we headed off on our Journey,

We arrived at our accomadation at about 6ish and checked in plus also buying a park pass as well
Hotel was quite nice, after we got all our gear from the car and sorted it all out in our room, we had then got ready to jump in the pool, and after spending a couple of hours there we had ourselves some dinner and sat outside chatting whilst planning the next day.

So on the saturday we woke up ealrly and left cooinda at around  7ish and headed on our way towards Gunlom,, drove along a very lovely red dirt road, where we tolk a few photos , along the road towards Gunlom, a big buffalo stood in the middle of the road for a bit,  bit once a road train came barrelling past and the the buffalo ran away,

Was a good thing too we were pretty much in 4wd because the road got very 4wd car worthy.
At Gunlom there of us walked up the top of the track, with a lovely view of the area looking from thetop of the Gunlom falls, we walked down a bit further where there were a few pools and went swimming in them, was very lovely

After gulom falls we headed back to the lodge and 8relaxed for a bit whilst we waited a bit longer to head to our next activity,
Next we headed to an area where you could see crcodiles roaming around in the river, as will as a lovely little bush walk, where a lot of bats were hanging around in the tress,  afterwards we  headed to a place called Ubirr, saw lots of fantastic and wonderful rock art, which was just amazing, then we climbed up a pretty big rock that gave a massive, and speechless view of Kakadu it was just amazing, also watched the sunset from there as well,

Afthe night we headed back to the lodge and had dinner and played a game of Ino.

Sunday
On sunday morning we got up extra early because we were heading on a cruise along the Yellow river, it was a wetlands cruise it was pretty amazing, lots of different birds, millions ( of crocidiles, it was a lovely early morning  cruise
After the cruise we got a free breakfast back at the lodge which was free, was sooo much food there.

Once we checked out of the accomadation we checked out the cultural centre, that talked about many different aboriginal traditioms,.
Then we went for a walk up  a steep hill to a lookout called Mirrai lookout, with a lovely 360 view, after that we headed to another place, where we saw more rock art

Then we headed into Jabiru, where we relaxed and had some lunch before heading back into Darwin


That weeked was pretry wonderful, enjoyed it soo much. ♡♡♡♡♡♥♥♥♥♥

Check out my other blog for extra details and pictures

Part Two

So time to explain a few many exciting adventures that i have been on :)

So firstly on the 12th November with my host mum we decided to have a full day of sightseeing around Darwin, so after we dropped little J off at day care and got all ready to head out after making a mapped plan of all the places that we would like to get done,

We headed off to our first stop which was done at Lee Point, along the Casurina Reserve, walked along the beach for a little bit, and searched for crabs and also little the beach was huge, went on for ages, and looked out towards the Arafura sea, was a lovely start to the day, afterwards we headed in the car to another part of the Casurina Coastal Reserve, to have another look.


By then it was lunch time so we went and stopped at the Coolspot in Fannie Bay, for lunch, the meals were huge, i had a very delicious Chicken Schnitzel, it was soo good,.
After lunch we headed across the road to the Fannie Bay Gaol, and we looked around there for about an hour, it was very interesting to look around,, the day was starting to get pretty hot by the time we headed to the car.
After the Gaol we headed to Myilly Point Heritage Precint, to look at the oldest remaiming houses in Darwin, that was pretty cool, those houses have managed to survive the Darwin bombings as well as Cyclone Tracy, even though the Burnett house was closed it was still nice to see them :), next we went to check out Lyons cottage which was used as a british telegraph office, was a lovely looking building, sadly it was closed though, but that was ok, next we checked out the Chinese Temple that was in Darwin, it was very lovely, we lit some inscense and placed them in certian areas within the temple,
It was a lovely looking temple, the man that was very friendly and happilly talked about the temple which .

Lastly after getting some ice cream from kaccas, we headed to our last stop  the Australian Aviation Centre
Now i had been looking forward to going to this place for ages so was happy when we got there, we so mqny fantastic looking planes, incluing some wreckages from the Darwin bombings, japanese planes as well,

The biggest plane that they had there was a B-52 Stratofortress, it was so huge you couldnt take a photo of the whole plane just the length, .


That was such an awesome and busy day but quite a lot of fun :) ♡♡♥♡

New Update part one

So it has now been nearly 3 months since i have been with this pretty awesome family :)

what an exciting month November has been so far :),
I have hung out with a few more Au Pairs again, meet a new au pair called Sandra who is from Germany, we went to the water front for lunch, had a pretty large burger that ended up being just far to much to eat, afterwards we walked a little bit along the waterfront checking out the fridge festival that was going on, which was pretty interesting,

the fridge festival was just pretty much, art work done with fridges that no one uses anymore, which was pretty cool, there was a doctor who one of the police box.

After looking at the fridge festival, we walked along the esplanade for a little bit, chatting away, afterwards headed back home.

over the next few days i spent studying and looking after Jonathan,  i also managed to sit my exams as well, so now i have officially finished studying for the year which is just great, so now i can do more sightseeing around Darwin and also read a few more books :).

I have also caught with my friend from Italy Vale, we went to Crocudylus park, which was pretty good, tried crocodile meat for the first time, it really only tasted like fish, but it was yummy, also had the chance to hold a baby crocodile,
there were so many other animals there as well which was great, there were some lovely White lions, dingo puppies as well as beautiful Timor ponies :)

The next day i went and hung out with my other great friend Dilan at the Palmerston shopping centre, we first had coffee and chatted, looked around then ended up having lunch, that was a lot of fun :)

that is the end for part one at the moment, part two is full of Adventure

Two Months :)

So it has now been some two happy months i am so loving it here, still wishing on at least some rain to show up in Darwin, although the sun is great :)

i think this year has gone pretty fast, it was like 4 months since i left Berlin, where a part of my heart still is.
But Darwin is just great, especially since i have such a good host family that i am with and also a good group of friends that i have made since i have been here.

it is also hard to believe that it is the last day of October now and in just over 15 days it will be my birthday and a couple of months with my host family to Townsville which will be so great, because i could go and visit my dad, but also one of my best friends live there and we haven't seen each other in years so it will be just amazing.   although we could possibly be heading to Canberra uncertain at the moment.

for a few days last week the host family went off to Melbourne so i was home alone all by myself, it was quite fun, too quiet though, although it did give me plenty of time to do some studying, as well as some relaxing.

on the weekend i also hang out with a couple of Au Pairs, one of them from Italy, she is actually pretty cool, we went down to the waterfront and had lunch, some very  yum, Mexican Nachos which were pretty good, although the dish was huge, after lunch we also drove around to the Stokes Hill Wharf and walked along there and sat and chatted at the end of the wharf, which was lovely with the sea breeze as well as the sun, we also went and got some ice cream, such a bad idea because it just melted so quickly, so because i had a mint chocolate chip ice cream, my hands turned green.

the next day i meet with a new Au Pair, another one from Germany from Köln, she is a pretty awesome person, we went down to the last sunday of the Mindal beach markets, we looked around the stalls, and then grabbed ourselves  some dinner, before heading to sit on the beach and watch the pretty amazing sunset that happens there at the beach,  that was a pretty fun night.

the week after the weekend i spent a couple of days working and looking after little Jonathan which was just lovely we went to the park, feed the ducks and also went swimming in the pool, i also got given a lot of lovely cuddles from Jonathan.

Last night went out again to the last market day of Mindal beach, meet up with a few other Au Pairs, actually ended up being the only kiwi amongst germans, but is was great, love listening to the german      language :), and that is why i just want to keep learning it.

So it was pretty neat sitting on the beach chatting away with a great bunch of girls and watching the fireworks go off in celebration of the end of the markets. '
 today was a pretty awesome day as well i got to go along with my host mum, to watch my host dad in an army parade of his squadron, this was actually pretty cool, i enjoyed watching it.

i shall update in the soon to be month of November :)

Hello

So since my last post,

Jonathan had his first birthday which was just great, his grandma (esmee's mum) and come all the way from melbroune although she was only just back from the states, on the day after she had arrived we went out for lunch at Findlay's store, i had a very tasty pasta dish that actually ended up being far too big for me to even eat :). over the next few days we set up decorations for the party, and also one of Jonathan's Aunties came for his party as well, so there was a pretty full house.

The party was pretty good as well, although not very many did show up, the party was great anyhow, the day of the party though i did end up with getting a cold which ended up being stuck with me for over  a week which was just not fun at all, for a few days all i had wanted to do was sleep, the cold had just made me sleepy as :)

So over the week, whilst i hadn't done all that much other than doing some work and also studying as well,

although because it was a free entry day, i did go along with the Family to the territory wildlife park which was pretty cool, it was a hot day, and also very busy, didn't see to many animals, but will be going back again another day to have a look around at other animals.

so i now have a few days to yourself, going to get a lot of study done and also catch up with a few friends which i am looking forward too :)



PS i must so it is just amazing watching a child develop and being there during their milestones, especially with Jonathan who when i started was just crawling at moving around objects, and now he is full on walking, and slowly beginning to talk which is just fantastic

Check out my other Blog :) :)

https://sarahsamazingplaces.blogspot.com

Just a few random old posts

Im adding a few old post to this blog from my old one :)


Music and Movement

I love Music anfd movement although i must say that im totally missing it now even though i did it every monday over this year during the school terms, the monday just gone was the last one it was an awesome christmas one, it was such alot of fun dreesing all christmas like, and singing chirstmas songs with a great group of people as well as children it has been great, i have learnt like 100s of childrens songs as well as being a watcher of on of the people who are in charge, wee boy Reaghan who is just adorable, he started going the same day as me, first when he had started crawling and now he is walking and 1 although it more seems that he is running he moves do fast, and wants to touch everything that is reach and then put it in his mouth lol :) it was such a fun year even if it was only 1 day a week for a couple of hours







Au Pair Part 1 2013

So over a month ago i started applying to be an Au Pair, to be a nanny for children, so i had to decide between two different countries that i would not only want to visit but to also work in so i picked between Germany and England, so after having a wee short time to think it over and i mean it was a very short time i picked Germany, for so many reasons, and the best part is that i actually do know some Basic German which is tottaly great I got all of my application completed so im now in the next process stage On monday i will be having my interview with someone from Au Pair through skype i must say that im totally nervous :) im so exicted that i totally hope that i will get a family :) I shall post again after my lovely interview on Monday








So my christmas was such an fantastic fun filled daymwith many of my family down at the wonderful resolution bay cabins in the marlbrough sounds itnwas an epic few days there l it more or less started on the 23rd when everyojoje pretty much started headingnd down, 24th even tho6gh the weather was a bit yucky we played a fewm games had a lot of nice fresh fish and scallops, even went oj a tree hunting trip. Chirstmas day was such a wonderful day weather wise as well nice and sunny I was up at 5.30 and watched the sun come up some of my cousins went for an early morning water ski run, we had a big massive breakfast up in the cook house, followed then by dojng some presents and then later everyone pretty much hit the water, or sunbathed ther boat was busy doing many activities there was swiming jumping off the jetty and even kayaking M6ch later we had lunch which ended up being lunch and dinner, thst wss an epicmkeal the little children got to have a weem treasure hunt for some other presen4s. Then lste at night we finished the dsy off by having fireworks on the jetty The next day we had family photos 2013








So ever since christmas I have pretty much being living up in blenheim now will at least in picton for awhile at first, also whilek I was there I havd been on several walks with my dog harry beore molly got up to picton from dunedin, I have also been to the picton maritime festival which was such a fun day toped off eith great entertainment, raft races and many more and the night was topped off with an epic fiirework display, another awesome part of that day was that the edwin fox was opening up to go around for free that was totally great :). I have fone a lot of catching upmwith three of mh ciusins as well as th7r children ad well I have also for experince had a few dayst a pre school in picton then akso got offered a job as a relief at another pr3school in picton which was great, enjoyed that heaps, with an awesome bunch of children So far yhis year I have brought 5 different books the only one I have read is about the kkings speech its such a great story :) With my mumn0, brother and sister we went for a trip to Nelon for the day it was a pretty fun day, we did alot of shopping had a yummy lunch meal and we also went for a swim in the sea. I have even been in christchurch for a few days to to take my sister to the airport as she was headimg over to Cairns Ee did a bit of shopping drove around the city, wrnt out towards new brightion went around Orana park got to see baby cheetahs boo and lion I went by myself to the airforce Museum which is just such a great place :)






2014 So pretty much ever since I have been living with my cousin sophie her partner and hernt Two children I have pretty much been in a way a live in nanny as I help her out with Izzy and Avia duringnthe duringnthe nday wh7ch has actually been alot of fun and had given me lots of experince :)










I must say that I trust the au pair world site so much more than going through the agencies that I had went through, when I was in Germany, because of the fact that after my contract was over I had no help and was left to do every thing for my self which just wasn't all that fair.

the funny thing as well with signing up with au pair world I had more families contact me , I Germany than I did when I went through the agency I had contact with nearly 20 families within the two weeks, and with the new Zealand and combined german agency I had 4 families within a month,

such a difference and that is why I am no longer going through those to agencies any longer



World Cup .So it is pretty fantastic that Germany won the world cup today, was such a great game, very nail biting, even though it was only 1 goal it was terrific,
Germany differently desevered winning they played all their games just amazingly, from the group stage all the way into the final, such a good team, a lot of team work]

was very happy to have supported the team the whole way through




Penpals. So over the years I have been getting back into writing hand written letters to people all over the world it has been a whole lot of fun, I have
penpals from
Germany
Switzerland
Finland
Ireland
Sri Lanka
Australia
Poland
England
Netherlands
Austria
Indonesia
Georgia
India

its great and im hoping to build it up a lot more :)

An Update :)

I am just loving my time in Darwin :)

I have also made so many different friends too whilst i have been here which has just great, a lot of Au Pairs from Germany but many other countries as well, i have made a few good friends with one from South Korea, a few from Germany,  one from the Uk, as well as the US and Italy.

It is just great being able to make friends from different places around the world, especially through being Au pairs, because then you can also explore the country you are in as well, with a great group of people :).

This is one great thing about being an au pair other than working with great children and also meeting great people along the way.

the other day i went on a pretty good tour around the city of darwin, of course it is nothing like the walking tours in Berlin. but it was a good tour all the same it went for either an hour or 90 mins, and you were on a bus, the best thing about the tour was the fact that you could get a ticket for 24 hours or 48 hours which is pretty good which meant you could get on or off at the stops that the bus made and get back on it, using the same ticket.

also checked out the darwin military museum which was just fantastic :)

A month

Will on Friday i will have officially been in Darwin for a month, and i must say that everything is going just great so far :), going to get out and about soon and go and explore more of darwin and hopefully catch up with more people that live in the area as well.

In just under a few weeks it will be Jonathan's first birthday pretty exciting, especially now that he is starting walking :)

Two weeks

So now that i have been here for going on nearing three weeks, the weeks and days so far have just been great

My two days of the first aid course on 3 and 4th of september went pretty will, so i am w certified first aider, although the person that as taking the course wasnt that great.
After i completed the first aid course on the thursday, with Esmee and Jonathan to the Mindall Bay markets, which are pretty cool with stalls, not just food ones as well, we walked around the them for a while and got some food as well, some chinese honey chicken, while we watched the sunset go down on the beach for a while, pretty much everyone at the markets were on the beach watching the sunset..
Had some fruit as well as a crepé with mixed berries and maple and served with cream it was just yummy :).

On the weekend i went along to Jonathan's swimming lesson, which was fun , and then we went and had breakfast at a place called finlays which also had pretty neat garden there that we walked around after breakfast, i had American Pancakes from there with a Cappicino,
Over the last few days i have been doing some study, to keep at the top of it,
On the wednesday i went into the city, to the Darwin waterfront to meet up with another Au Pair for lunch which was pretty cool, before we meet up i went to check out the WWII oil tunnels which were just awesome :), although it does get stuffy inside them,
At lunch with the other Au Pair Georgina we went to il lido, this time i had a steak, cheese and carmelised onion panini which was good but also very filling, afterwards we walked along the waterfront a little bit,and also chatted and then walked into the city and sat in the mall for a bit, got to catc the bus on the way back.
On the thursday was my first official day of looking Jonathan on my own which was good, we went for a trip to the park for a wee bit, and played with bubbles, there was also a big power cut around Darwin as well, that carried on durimg the night, for friday, i just had to take Jonathan to day care, then as i was sitting down and doing some study, Katie the cat came back to the house, and had to take her to the vet because she had been atracked by a dog and had a nasty wound on her back .

Today i will be writing in my other blog and watching Jonathan for the afternoon

A week

So my  first week of being in the lovely city of Darwin has gone just great it has been hot around 32 degrees but has not been to unbearable.
Havent been doing too much just slowly gettimg to know the routine and gettimg used amd havimg "Little Bug" gettimg used to me which is goimg pretty good, i have being getting a lot of cuddles from him, and enjoying playing lots of games and having fun with touchable bubbles outside which just sat on the lawn or in the trees for ages which was pretty funny .
I even had a go and babysiting him for a night whilst E &S went out for a date night, that was quite alright since "Little Bug" was put down to bed before they had left so i had to just listen out for him, he only woke uo once and so i settled him down and put him down to sleep again which went alright

Watched the new Doctor Who that night as well.
 Even had a look around the area that i live in that has a lovely wee walk to go on.

Yesterday went on a wee trip into town with E and we went to an area first called Cullen Bay and then went to an area called East point which was pretty interesting had a lot of interesting WWII fortifications in the area bonus in my book :), then we went out to where a big gun turret is, awesome :) :), and afterwards we stopped at Fannie Bay Coolspot and had an iced chocolate with a blueberry chessecake and then went to pick up "Little Bug" from daycare.

Today i spent the day running through "Little Bug" s routine from giving him breakfast, bottles, putting him to bed at separate times in the day, spending time playing with him, making lunch and dinner for him and also bath time this was to just get us both used to each other while doing the routine as well, which just went great :)

Over next couple of days i will be doing my first aid course :)

Day 1

So today was just a slow sort of day had a pretty good sleep after my long flight, after getting ready for the day i went along with Esmee to take Johnathan to daycare for the day, so that i would know what to do when i take him along for 2 days a week.

afterwards just sat around the house for a wee bit, then headed down into the city for some lunch, first we had to make a couple of stops, before we went down to the waterfront, we went to a great little restaurant called il lido it was a nice little place situated by the made up beach, that is made so that it is safe to swim in from the crocodiles, jellyfish and also sharks.

Had a Steak and Mushroom pie which was fantastic very good, served with chips and salad.

then just drove around for a bit and also got myself a sim card. later went and picked Johnathan back up and just potted around the house again before dinner :)

Hello Darwin

Finally after what felt to be a slightly long flight i have, although not as long as when i headed to Berlin,

at 6am i flew from Christchurch to Sydney, it took almost forever to get through the check in at the christchurch airport.

the flight to Sydney was good, i was in the middle seat so i didn't see much out of the window, i got free entertainment so i watched a movie, the movie that i watched was Planet of the Apes (2001) it was a good movie.
also had breakfast which was pretty average breakfast, eggs, baked beans, sausages and fruit but with a good cup of tea to go with it :).
once we landed in Sydney it was a nice day but cold and wet, didn't end up taking all that long to go through customs and get my bag before i headed off to find the train to be able to head to the domestic terminal that i needed to get too, after that i got myself all checked in quickly ffor my last flight then i just pretty much relaxed and waited before i could go, had a wee snack and checked out the Qantas heritage centre which was pretty cool to learn about the long history of the airline.

The flight out of sydney which left there at 12pm, was very bumpy as it was very cloudily and happily i got the window seat i watched a movie called Captain America: The WinterSolider which was actually pretty good to watch, i had also watched a little bit of Call the midwife, sherlock, Big Bang Theory and listened to a bit of Johnny Cash as the plane was coming into land

Had such a yummy lunch on the plane it was just great Roasted pumpkin pasta, with creamy spinach sauce it was just great mmmm

its so cool flying over the length of Australia because the landscape changes a lot  and it looks just great

flying into Darwin was ok expect when we went to land think that the pilot went a bit fast as we skidded hard the the plane went sideways.

Esmee and wee Johnathan was there waiting for me which was great, didn't feel the heat either for awhile once i arrived, i was pretty exhausted by the time i got there, we went to have a coffee and a yummy carrot cake, then headed back to their very lovely house and just relaxed for a bit. :)

Two Weeks

In exactly 2 weeks I will be on my way to Darwin, I can't wait :), I have my tickets all sorted for my flight, at least I have enough time to figure out how to get from the international terminal to the domestic one.

only thing really left to do is pack my bag, at least I still have all my summer clothes which is just great :)

before I do leave I will be visting with my grandma in Kaikoura for a bit as well as catching up with as many friends as I can in Dunedin :).

Im excited and I must say I feel so much more relaxed this time

Woop

Im booked and im now heading off on a new adventure, heading off to Darwin on the 26th cant wait :) :)

So there was a family in Sydney that I was really enjoying talking to and I had decided that I would like to go with them this decision made was done last week and I haven't heard anything new from them, other than asking for my CV, that is a little bit strange.

so I have still been talking with other people, all over Australia, Germany and also the UK,

I well be talking with at least two more families tonight I will be talking to a family that live in Darwin they seem like a pretty neat wee family, and Darwin is quite a nice little place I had been there once visiting my dad when he lived there,

another family that I may be living with are part german as well, that would almost be nice I could get to learn some more exciting german . ;)

More updates

I have now had 200 profile views, that is pretty amazing, I have also had a few family applications, a couple from Australia, 1 from Germany and also 2 more from the UK some very great stuff
..............................................................................................................................................................................................................
I have currently emailed with 3 more families
and last night I spoke to another family, this family lives just about an hour outside of Sydney and they live on a small farm land so lots of space to hang out and play, this family has 5 children but if I went with them I would only be looking after the youngest two who are 4mths old and 1.5 years old, so it wouldn't be too much of a work load to handle,
 the host mum of the family seemed really awesome and totally friendly, I am almost tempted to go with that family,

but I am waiting on at least two families who said that they would like to have a Skype chat with me, on family is from gordonvale, near cairns so  I would almost get to go and visit my dad every now and then, so I am waiting to hear from them, and the other family said that they would contact me sometime this week.

I am currently contacting the other few families that have contacted me to find out more about them, and perhaps Skype chat too

another epic update

so I have now 154 profile views since I opened up my profile last week, so therefore it has been a week which is just fantastic,
I have heard from so many families already, had applications from Australia, Austria and also United Kingdom

and I have sent a few out to many families all over Australia and also New Zealand as well
heard back from so many families that it is just over whelming :)

I have been Skype interviews all sorted out and lined up as well, Booking myself :)


So far I have had 1 Skype talk with a family, today who lives just a little bit outside of Sydney, the family seemed really nice and friendly, the mum was Australian and the father is American, they have two cats. and only one child who is 12 weeks old if I went with this family she would be close to 6 months old for when the mum is planning on heading to work

she is a very adorable baby, called Maddie, now just to wait and see what the family decide

so now wait and keep chatting with others :)

*fingers crossed* at this rate I could be going to Australia soon

Another update

So I have had contact with around 9 families most from Australia, one from New Zealand 1 from Austria and a few from the UK
So far I will be talking with one family on Saturday and possibly  phone call at some time with another family, both from Australia

I have had a few negative replies but that is ok, because they have all had a lot of people contacting them, so they would have had to say no to others as well so I am good with that.

My Profile on the other hand has had now 105 views since I put it back up last Saturday, that is just amazing :),

Au Pair World is that much better than the agencies you get more contact with more families, and get to pick more than just one country to get them from :)

So....

So I have decided to re open my profile back up on Au Pair world, to search for another and helpfully more successful adventure,
so I opened it back up yesterday and already had about 13 people review my profile when I got up this morning with also an application from one family in Australia,

so im searching for families in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Germany, Netherlands

 I did think of looking into a few other different countries but for now I will stick with these countries for a bit,

I have now had 17 profile views :)

BAck in New Zeland

so  sadly I had to come back to New Zealand but I did get to spend another few days in berlin stayed at a few different hotels before my flight home, I went to 3 more museums, the DDR museum as well as the Deutches Histroices Museum and also the Anti Kriegs museums they were all pretty great and fantastic

I also saw a mini effiel tower at one of the hotels I had stayed at which was pretty neat and great, got to pretend that I was sitting in paris without actualy having to be :)

and I also went on one more tour this time I went on the Postdam tour with the Sandemans group again, because I just enjoy going along on their tours as they are just fantastic the Potsdam tour was just great so many amazing things we such such great palaces as well with so much history,, I actually had the same tour guide that I had on the red berlin tour

Sacsenhausen tour Picturees Part 2

Sachsenhausen tour Pictures Part 1

the pictures of the tour that I went on off the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp