Happy Monday! A day of sunshine here in the fair city, fetching a mere 23 degrees today. Yesterday was even a nicer one, although the evenings are starting to cool off. I'm actually wearing pants for the first time (excluding work clothes) since I arrived. It's rough, but I'll deal. How bout you guys up there in the North Pole?

I really never intended to be a gloater, it's just that it gives me such immense pleasure I can't seem to control it.

I'm back at the BNZ this week, going full steam ahead with the data entry and telephone answering... I've realized that I'm the perfect candidate for assembly line work. When I have a pile of things to do, I have to do all step 1, then all step 2, etc so that I finish everything at once, rather than segments. I'm not sure if there's a car manufacturer down here, but I think I'll check into it. Maybe I could spend mornings on the line (as the insiders call it) then file in the afternoons.

Never thought I could discover so much about my career aspirations in such a short time.

So other than mind-numbing tasks, I have been having fun. This weekend was the Devonport Wine Festival. Devonport is just on the other side of the harbour, facing the city centre and only takes a 10 min ferry ride to reach. It's a really pretty town with much Victorian-style architecture. It's based around Mt Victoria, another one of those inactive volcanoes all the kids are talking about. Whoopdy ding, been there, done that. Our plan was to head to Devonport late afternoon, wander around a bit, then to the Wine Festival for the early evening. This plan was cut short when we wandered into the tourist information office at 4:15 and learned the festival ended at 5. Taking a moment to consider our options (pay $20 for 45 mins to drink cheap wine or go for a nice stroll on a beautiful day in a scenic town), we bolted across to the admissions gate. Luckily the entry was half price at that point, plus you get a free wine glass, confirming the right decision had been made.

I, quite naively, thought that at a wine festival you would learn about wine. You would leave having only sipped a few different sorts but having an in-depth understanding of wine. Possibly even taking a wine personality test, learning which wine best suits you? A reading of your taste buds to discover which you will get the greatest pleasure from? Yeah no. A wine festival is a time to go in and get glasses of good wine cheap. Having to see the highlights in a 45 minute period, we did this well. We had red, white, rose, reislings and chardonnay, pinot noir and cabernet... I can say that I have now tried a wide selection of New Zealand wines. Unfortunately, in efforts to maximize the time, these glasses came perhaps a little too close together, leaving a rather confused pallet. Although all vendors were to close at 5, for the better part of the next hour we were able to find vendors desperate for someone help them finish the bottle. We did it for the wine - it was my glass or the ground, and I just couldn't let such a thing happen. I'm a giver.

On the way into the festival you could pay another $2 for a glass holder - a plastic cone that goes around the stem of the glass and has a string on it so that you can - you guessed it - wear the glass around your neck. I saw this as a way to rob me of the money destined for these destitute vineyards, and chose not to purchase one. Sherilyn was smarter, and upon seeing hers, I grew jealous as I thought of the souvenir value of such an item. I now had a mission. Well 2: 1. keep glass full and 2. get a neck/glass holder thing. Victorious! In the process of scoping abandoned tables, we realized it would be nice to also get another glass each so we had a set. Did we accomplish this? Being the determined girls we are, we exceeded our own goals and claimed not 1 but 2 more neck things (a black and a white one) and ... thankfully Sherilyn had a backpack... a final tally of 10 wine glasses, all with Devonport Wine Festival marked on them. These glasses had been thrown away, cast aside by the people who had relied on them all day. We couldn't bear the inhumanity of it all and chose to give them a proper home. All 10.

So, after consuming our share of the festival, literally, we set out on a brief tour of Devonport. It's a town. On the waterfront. With old houses. And a volcano. But really what town doesn't have a volcano these days? It's becoming so passe. So we took the ferry back and started the hunt for supper - kebabs. mmmmmmmmmmmm, kebabs. One the way we passes the Asian food court and ended up buying socks. Needless to say, when we arrived home at 7:30 (in time for NZ idol) with kebabs, socks, glasses and well, we had been inspired to pick up another bottle of wine to show our support for those destitute vineyards, we were less than well received....