We're back! The last month was so focused on the job hunt, that we decided to put the blog on the back burner, but the search has been fruitful. I (Myrjam) have a job! It is a relief to not have to live off of our savings any more, and this gives Stijn a bit more time to find a job himself, so that is great! For now, I'll be a human resource and admin manager (according to my contract) in a growing cleaning company. That means in the first instance I'll be supporting the owner and the account managers, and after a while taking on the entire human resources of the company, as for now they have no one on human resources. It's clearly a function in development, so the exact tasks will probably develop while working, which makes it extra exciting.
So what have we been up to, except looking for a job? We've been making a game, for example. There's this worldwide event, called the Global Game Jam, where people get together for a weekend to make a game. We had 48h to make something based on the prompt "waves". It was lots of fun for both of us, as we hadn't worked on a game before, and we met a ton of like-minded people, all making games together. We paired up with two other programmers, and we set out making KlimtWave! For being our first Global Game Jam, we did good. We finished something, which isn't self-evident, and people seemed to really like it. If you want to play it, you can have a look here. We're looking to make some tweaks, so also feel free to give us feedback! The way of playing is that you move your mouse up and down, to control the height wave (not the cat!). Can you help the cat catch fishes? But beware of the red ones, they are poisonous...
And right after that, we left for a multi-day, 71km long hike on the south island for my birthday. It was fantastic, and a much needed break from sitting in our apartment staring at job vacancies. Plus, it was my first summer birthday ever, and my first birthday without exams for either me or Stijn in 10 years! So we went swimming, ate ice creams, and it was glorious. We took the night boat from Wellington to Picton, arrived at Picton at 6am, took another boat at 8:30, and from there on we were in the middle of the nature on the Queen Charlotte Track. It's a very nice hike following a sound, so we had sea and hills on every step of the way. We had a little bit of a hiccup at the beginning, as that night there had been a storm, and so a part of the road was blocked by a huge tree that had come down, but other than that, the way was very well kept and well marked.
There supposedly was a path somewhere in there (picture above).
Here's the culprit, which we found 20m higher up, while trying to go around (picture below).
Expect for the beautiful views of sea and hills, the Queen Charlotte Track is also known for its wildlife. We saw grasshoppers, cicada shells, sea stars, lamas, a snag, but most of all, we saw wekas. Wekas are wingless birds, similar to kiwis, and they are not shy. They come up to you, steal your food (or in our case, a whole pack of tissues I accidentally dropped and wasn't quick enough to pick up). And worst of all, they get into your tent, into your backpack, open a pack of crackers, eat two, and then leave the remains shattered all over the tent.
In the end, our trip was mainly beautiful sights over the sea.
One of the gift I got for my birthday was a GoPro, so we had a bit of fun making time lapses as well, which resulted in a short video of our get away as well.
So what's up now? I start at my new job on the 6th of March (tomorrow!), so last week we booked a last minute trip through the North Island. We went to Hobbiton (finally!), Rotorua, and Taupo, which was great, so expect the pictures some time soon, and now it's time for me to jump on the working train.