The Whole Story

Well I just thought it would be nice to tell the whole story of us being here from day one, although some people already know the story... expect this to be a long post :)

So we arrived last Friday, which was Thursday for all of you. We got a cab ride to our hotel which was very expensive and took almost all of our NZ money, and we arrived at about 8 or 9am at our hotel. We quickly found out that places here do not take travellers cheques, which was all we had after the cab ride. We found a bank over in the states that we thought would work over here, and we found out when we got here that it actually doesnt, so in the realms of money, we were striking out. We were so stressed out about this, but luckily we had a friend who came over here about a week before we did, so she was able to point us in the right direction of where to bank, and where to get cheap cell phones, so we are so thankful that she came here before we did and was able to help us out so much.

We had a very rough first couple days because of all the above stated, and then we got into our hotel, which we heard was going to be small, but we really overestimited the place and the size. We had four large suitcases, plus two pretty stuffed backpacks that we had to fit in this place that was hardly bigger than a closet! It was very very small! We had two twin beds (the hotel misplaced our reservation) and so they pushed the beds together (called a double bed over here- actually quite common), and this seemed to make the place even smaller! The bathroom, lovely as it was, was literally a closet, and the shower was not separated from the toilet, so when the floor got wet from the shower, the toilet got wet, which was fun for getting ready and trying to use the toilet later in the day; we always had to pull our pants up so they didnt get soaked. Needless to say, we were very ready to get out of there. We also had pretty bad jet lag the first couple of days; we kept feeling like we were in motion-very wierd!

We found out that things are not only different from the states, they are VERY different! Everything here is very expensive, and nothing seems to be the same. Food is very different, and even the American-seeming things are not American at all. We ate at Subway the second night, which was not good at all. They do not have yellow mustard here, just honey mustard, so my sandwich had honey mustard on it! Not a fan of that! They also do not have Ketchup (sorry Steph and Gina), its called Tomato Sauce, and it is similar to Ketchup, but definitely not the same. I also ordered fries one night (called Frites) and asked for Ranch, and the person looked at me like I was absolutely insane! So basically, all the condiments that I am used to, they do not have. Wow, this is going to take some getting used to!

Also, as pictured below, book covers and DVD covers are different here. This is Harry Potter. It looks nothing like the ones we have at home. I also mentioned that everything is expensive here... example... this Harry Potter book was I believe $45 NZ dollars, which is about $35 dollars in US, so it still doesnt compare! Crazy! I saw a collection of all the Harry Potter books in hard back for... get this... $604 NZ dollars! Wow right!!! It really takes some getting used to over here.


Here is what the police cars look like (well motorcycle) but they all look like this. All blue, yellow and green, and they all wear those bright yellow vests, and really funny looking hats. Also, if you can tell, he is driving on the opposite side of the road. I still have not gotten used to that yet. When we were in the cab to the hotel, I kept freaking out that we were going to get hit, and we are always getting confused on which side to look first when crossing the streets. We were walking around one day and Matt said, "Man why is that driver not paying attention to the road?" when we realized that it wasnt the driver, but the passenger. I wonder how long it will take us to get used to that. :)

They do have Starbucks here, as you can see, but it is also very different than ours. We get up the counter and they ask what we want, and we got a hot chocolate, a mocha, a cinnamon roll and a chocolate croissant (very healthy I know lol), and they asked us if we wanted it to "have in" or to "take away", so we said to have in, and they gave it to us in these mugs (we never get that option at home), but it also cost almost $20. Starbucks is always expensive, but we got tall drinks, so it was REALLY expensive. It is just crazy over here. It will definitely take some getting used to, especially the prices of things.

So, anyway, on with the story...

We finally got some of the logistics worked out, and Sunday, we spent the day at Mission Beach (see previous post) and it reminded us how great it is going to be to live here. Matt started his job on Monday, and he had a great day. On Tuesday, he got assigned some shots that he will be working on and he really had a great day; he had a lot of fun working on those, and he did such a great job on one of his shots, that he got assigned 3 extra shots on top of the 5 he already had. It doesnt seem like a lot, but to those of you who have been around Matt long enough, know that that is a lot, and it accumulated to about a minute of work in a full episode of 11 minutes, so that is a HUGE contribution to the episode! I am so proud of him! This also helps me know that this is one reason that we are here. Matt is really meant to be working at this studio. He is going to do so great!

Here is Matty in front of his work on his first day! Isnt he so cute!?!


Tuesday night we moved into our apartment, which those pictures are below. It is still tiny, but much bigger than our hotel was, so we are very happy with it. This place is actually a hotel as well, but they are trying to move away from having hotel guests I believe and they are renting them out, so we were fortunate enough to stay here. It is very expensive (as is everything), but it was a furnished apartment, which means that we just had to buy bedding, towels and some small appliances, rather than having to buy everything, so we were pretty happy about that. We did have some hiccups with getting into the apartment, but for the most part, everything is good. We bought some picture frames and put in some pictures of family to make it feel more like an apartment than a hotel, but that also made us a bit home sick. We really miss our families, but we know that we are here for a reason. So here we are on Thursday at 3:30 and I am just waiting for Matt to get off work. He has been working long hours, about 9-10 hour days, but I know there is a lot to do at work. I just keep thinking that there is only two more days then I get him all to myself this weekend. I cant wait.


There really are some great wonders here though, and we do keep trying to look at the beauty of this place. This below is a Bird of Paradise (for you mom), which they are by Albert Park, which is just across from our apartment. Very pretty. I know we have them back home, but these are huge and just beautiful.

I know we posted earlier about the big cruise ship that we saw, but we went back down to the harbor a few days later, and saw this ship that was even bigger! Pictures just dont do it justice, but here is a picture of it. I absolutely love ships, and I love the water, so this is pretty fun for me. We ate at this restaurant one night that was right on the water and looked out on the water, and it was so pretty. I had seafood chowder, which was so amazing. It was in a bread bowl and had clams, muscles, crab, shrimp, and even had baby octipus. It was so amazingly good, and it was so comforting, that even though things are so different here, they can still be very good.

Steph, we saw this sticker in the window of a store. Im not sure what type of store it is, but we had to show you this, especially because it was right around halloween and it really reminded us of you! :)

We love you all and we miss you all very much. We are so happy to be here, but I thought I would share with you all that we have been going through. Please feel free to comment on our blog but if you cant or you just want to talk to us through email please do

Matt: matt.walker@charter.net

Carla: c.wheeler13@gmail.com

Love you guys!

Carla and Matty