Yesterday was the day for organising my uni stuff, and the campus was MANIC! Apparently I'd managed to choose the day that ALL undergraduate and taught postgraduates have to register. I will never make that mistake again. Luckily, the Graduate Centre was dead, so I was feeling pretty smug until I got told that I would have to visit the International Student Office where the queues were that long they had decided to work on a ticket system! I also got told I would have to wait 5-10 working days for my student card, I still don't quite understand why.

My supervisor is really relaxed and chilled. He told me not to rush myself, and just wait until I'm settled and then get started - see you in 6 months then! My office is really cool, I get my own phone, desk and computer, and amazing view of Auckland from the 7th floor (yes that's right I have a WINDOW). 

The highlight of my day however was opening a bank account and receiving a pretty cool money box to hold my travel fund. I never got anything when I opened my account with HSBC!

Tomorrow will be a day of flat hunting and attempting to persuade the university to pay me a wage, and refund the thousands of pounds spent getting here.... or I could just go to the beach and sunbathe.

So, I arrived off the plane after a 26 hour flight at around 7.15am and although pretty tired, decided to get stuck in immediately. Had to nip home and freshen up first though as trousers and a woolly coat do not suit 22 degree heat! Lesley and David (the lovely people that I am staying with at the moment) took me to the Sky Tower for brunch. I had a delicious seafood risotto, better than the Playwright (sorry Andrew and Helen), all washed down with a glass of wine. The floor revolves, so you have to be careful where you leave your bag, and also every few minutes make a conscious note of where the toilets are! You get stunning 360 degree views over Auckland and it takes around an hour for one complete circle. MUM DO NOT READ THE NEXT SENTENCE Apparently you can bungee jump off the tower for around £50.... maybe something for the future....

I was then whisked away to Piha Beach, with its excellent surfing waves. I heard that a lot of people get into trouble here due to the tides and currents, not an area I particularly want to swim in then! By this point the sun had gone in, but there were still hundreds of people packing the beach, and I needed a large scoop of banana ice cream to cool me down.

Then it was off home to feed the two cats and two chickens (yes there were still two of each on our return). I had a quick power nap and was woken by Lesley with a large gin an tonic (the room service here is excellent!) David cooked a lovely spicy Malaysian dish called a Laksa and then it was off to bed in an attempt to overcome the jet lag.

Blog Finally up and Running

Ok, so I finally got the blog up and running. I expect what will happen is that I'll be really good at keeping up with it the first couple of weeks and then the posts will slowly tail off! I hope you all enjoy reading about my exploits, it's a really good way of letting you know what I've been up to without having to e-mail everyone individually. Feel free to comment on anything, and I'm missing you all loads already.