Our Lives as Kiwis: Frisbees Can Make Friends!

Sunday afternoon, the 5 roomies and I headed to the park to play some frisbee, and to see if our flyers worked. Everyone was very skeptical, but I wasn't too surprised to see 2 guys waiting for us at the park. They were 2 guys, about our age, from Finland. Markus and Jonas were a great asset to the teams, and had really great attitudes. They are doing basically the same thing as we are doing except they are currently staying in a hostel, so tonight we invited them over to hang out and maybe play some poker. Viola! Frisbee + Optimism = New Friends!! Hopefully even more people will show up next week.

More great news! I currently have 3 jobs, and it may sounds awful, but it is great news to me. Through the temp agency I signed up with, I will be working 14 hours at the airport cafe this week. I also will be doing weekend catering like I mentioned before, but I also got the job at the Grand Mercure, which is this beautiful holiday hotel of sorts. It reminds me of a beautiful, sophisticated, Disney resort. I will be cleaning rooms 3 days a week at $13.50 an hour, from 9-3. Its basically working for minimum wage, but its the right amount of hours for me, and they are good hours. It's like a small weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Now I just have to find a car. There is one I really want, so cross your fingers it's still available (the first one I made appt to look at was sold like an hour after I called).

Jeff also had some luck today! He called a few orchards in the area, and oddly enough each orchard basically said "we don't have work now but here's a number to try", and it led him to an interview. It too provides him with a decent schedule, decent pay, and is only temporary. The best part of these jobs is that they let us make a bit of cash then head down the coast after Christmas to find another place to live and explore.

So I guess its back to the birds... We left off at the Pigeons, next are two of the coolest birds I have seen so far, and both pictures are pretty good. First is the black swan. They are so beautiful and plentiful in Rotorua. The second is the Pukeko, equally as beautiful, and unlike anything i've ever seen before. He was also the easiest to identify.

These birds are in no way in the order that I saw them. That would probably have been a good idea, but I am too impatient, and was way too excited about getting a picture of the Tui to not put it up right away. The next two birds are found in the U.S. in great numbers, so they weren't a super exciting find, but its nice to think that maybe they are related to the House Sparrows and Black Backed Gulls at home.

This next one was pretty difficult to identify, mostly because the picture was initially from really far away. After doing some zooming, I was able to most accurately identify it as a the New Zealand native, the Little Shag. There were other shags in my book, but this appeared to be the only one that had a yellow beak.

The most uncommon bird (what the book identifies as the most uncommon) I have come across so far was a bird that Jeff and I stumbled upon while taking a walk on the beach Monday night. The two Variable Oystercatchers, listed as "uncommon endemic", would not let me get too close to them, but I'm pretty positive I figured them out. I decided it was the Variable Oystercatcher rather than the Pied or Chatam Island Oystercatcher because it was the only species that appeared to have an entirely black phase. (Note: This picture was digitally enhanced to better see the colors and size).

Jeff and I saw this next one on our hike to "The Center of New Zealand" yesterday, and it was a chase, and somewhat of a failure, but after consulting the hand guide, I have it narrowed down to the only two Raptors in the Nelson area. It only really looks like one of them from the bottom, so I am going with the Australasian Harrier for this next photo. He was amazing, gliding all around the mountainside. (I am also posting our hike picture on Flickr today too, great views of Nelson!)