Easter bunnies

Easter weekend has come and gone too quickly, but no worries, next week I've got some time off again! My parents have arrived in NZ yesterday, and I'm really excited about that! Only one more week to go before I meet with them!

I have heard about another NZ tradition last week, namely the Easter Bunny Hunt. I'll have to disappoint those of you who are thinking about some kind of treasure hunt for the Easter Bunny. It's less fun than that (for the bunny anyway). During Easter weekend kiwi-men (and probably also kiwi-women) set out to hunt and kill bunnies and compete for the most killed bunnies. Some of you are no doubt appalled by this (I know at least one person who must have stopped breathing for a second when reading this... Bart, stop teasing her!), but here in NZ bunnies are a pest (as are all rodents) ruining crops and fragile vegetation. After Easter weekend one of my colleagues told me her husband and his "team" (12 people in total) had shot 1300 bunnies. The winners had shot down 1600! Gives you an idea of how many bunnies there are...

On another note, I have received a letter on Monday informing me of the fact that my application for a residence visa has been approved! This calls for another celebration! All I need now is the stamp in my passport to prove that I am officially a NZ permanent resident!

And now for the real update...

It's been a while since I updated my blog, so it might become a very long post. We'll see what happens. I probably forgot a lot of what happened the past months already, so I'll give you a "summary".

My stuff has arrived safely, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that everything was still in one piece and that nothing was missing. I had unpacked almost everything the first week, just because it was so much fun to rediscover all my stuff. It was as if I was unpacking a lot of presents. Like Evi told me: "It's a huge present that you sent to yourself!"

Luna is still as crazy as ever, though I have luckily found a way of keeping the computer plug save! I had a cat door installed a couple of weeks ago, and she's loving that! I don't understand though why she can't play with dried up leaves and pieces of wet newspaper outside, and instead drags it all inside. She's giving me things to clean up alright!

When Ann and Kristel were visiting I had a reason to get out of Invercargill for some day trips. I've found some people with whom I might do that now too. We already went to Riverton (+/- 30 mins drive from here) for lunch one lovely Sunday afternoon. And ofcourse, it isn't long anymore before my parents come to visit. They're leaving next Sunday, and I will meet them in Queenstown on April 25th, ANZAC Day (a statutory holiday to commemorate Australian and NZ troops who fought in WWI). I have taken the two days after that off, so I can visit Te Anau with my parents. More on their visit after they've been!

I'm not gonna talk much about work. I've learnt a lot since I've been here (I guess that doesn't apply for work only), and I enjoy the work that I do.

I've just had 5 days off work for Easter weekend, and it's amazing how fast that has flown by. Oh well, some more holiday's coming up soon for me.