First Week in Timaru

So I realise I haven't written a post in a while... I've been super busy starting my new job as an Au Pair and settling in to life in Timaru. I'll do a couple of catch up posts and then do my best to do a fortnightly or weekly up date depending on what I've been doing! I'll keep to doing one on Mondays or Fridays for as much as I can though! Also, due to privacy reasons, I won't be writing in detail or putting up any photos of the children I work with.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday 24th March - Friday 31st March 2017
So after meeting Mary at the airport and having the long 2 hour drive from Christchurch to Timaru, I finally arrived! It was dark by the time I got here so I couldn't see much, but Mary gave me a little tour around in the car and we stopped off by the port as there are penguins nesting there! We just missed seeing them but we could hear them in their nest. Then we went back and I met Wade, as well as his sister and brother in law.

The folllowing weekend, I met the boys and spent the weekend getting my bearings around Timaru. We're relatively near to Caroline bay, so it's nice being close to a beach!. There are a few shops and a couple of pubs and bars as well as kids of restaurants, so there's plenty to do.

My first week working as an Au Pair went pretty well. My main job is obviously looking after the two boys, but I also do some cooking and cleaning as well, so basically I'm like an extra set of hands to help around the house. I get all my food and accommodation included and also get a weekly wage, so it works or as a pretty decent job when it comes to saving and getting a taste of kiwi life! We did a few different things this week, mostly involving fort building and playing with lego... I'm sure I'll be doing lots of that over the next 5 months! One of my favourite things we did was go on a walk and collected 'treasure'. One of the boys picked up a load of twigs and when we got back we made a stick man! 

There's a pretty decent library in Timaru, and I've been itching to read from an actual book and not off an app on my phone so I went there on one of my first days. I'm really appreciating the small luxuries in life at the moment, mostly having my own room and being able to hang up my clothes! I did have to go shopping for a few jumpers and trousers as I mainly have summer clothes and is already starting to get pretty cold down here! I've also been bonding with Billy, the family cat!

On the Friday evening, I went out with Mary and a few of her friends to a catwalk and cocktails night at a department store. I definitely got my money's worth with cocktails and food! The catwalk was alright, it got kinda boring after a while... I snuck a few drinks and some popcorn downstairs and I feel like if they kept the food and drinks coming it would have helped! But all in all a great night and topped off an awesome first week in Timaru!