tails from the southland

Hello all, well not knowing exactly when i last wrote anything, lets just say that beverly and i have been having a ball now that we have moved from the rainy north island to beautiful Golden Bay on the north end of the south island. Beverly and i have spend a week right on the bay spending time with a family who bought 100 acres off of the Tui hippie commune five years ago. They have built what has been recognised as the most sustainable house in all of NZ. They also have the original hippie house which is a wierd house that is built on levels with no 90 degree corners, lets just say that i did my share of walking into walls and missing steps on the bizarre staircase.
We were asked if we could come back and spend the whole month of Feburary with them, which is the best time of the year-cant wait!
Next we came to the sunny Motueka Valley staying with a very nice family. Hear Beverly has learned how to butcher a goose. After deciding that we did not want to spend 60 dollars on a 12lb turkey an option to kill and butcher one of the pet geese was given, Beverly jumping at the thought of learning something "new." So after it was killed beverly helped with the plucking and gutting while i hid in the kitchen washing dishes. Beverly is glad that she learned how to do it, now she can do it in the future after the apocolypse.
Well hope all is good, have a happy turkey day-we'll be eating goose!

Mt. Doom

So, I realize that is has been almost a month since our last post. We are still in Erua and are having to pay for internet. Right now I am at the library in a nearby town. Jesse and I are in town getting the remaining fixings for the lasagna that i am making for us all tonight. Pretty much the entire time that I haven't written we have been under heavy cloud cover and it has been raining non-stop. Today is the first time in a while that we've seen the sun. Tomorrow is also supposed to be nice. We are planning on hiking the Tongariro Crossing tomorrow, which is a 17 Kilomoter hike up a mountain and through a valley. It is supposed to take about 8 hours. We will see!! There is another American couple help X-ing at the lodge and also a Japanese male. Compared to our first lodge experience I would have to say that I would like to leave. Jesse wants to stick around until we find a job. Due to the unseasonably cold weather and heavy rainfall finding a job in an orchard or vineyard may be troublesome.
Well, as it has been many times before, my time online is now up. Hope that you all are well and I will write again (sooner than last time=:) )

Leaving =:(

This morning we are leaving Ngaruawahia. That means that we are leaving Chance, Dallas and Martin. Very cute and well behaved kids for being 3, 4 & 5. Actually they are probably better behaved than most kids twice their size. I am going to post a video of Martin and Chance singing a New Zealand song on my facebook. It is soooo....cute. Tear jerker this morning, Dallas asked me if we could bake tonight and I had to tell her that we were leaving. I think that she was okay with it, at least more than I was. I did have both her and Martin help me pat the cookies in their hands when I made the peanut butter ones.
Yesterday Jeff, Jesse, Rebecca ( an English woman that just came to the Derecourts) and I went to thermal hotpools in Waingaro. They were nice and warm and it was fun to sit in the rain in a large spa. They didn't smell to badly of sulfur either. Actually you couldn't even notice the smell, which was great. We then went into Hamilton and ate lunch at a noodle house. Today is the third day of rain and it is starting to get on my nerves. It goes back in forth between a downpour and a heavy rain. Good thing I woke up early and got the car ready to go.
We are heading south a few hours to Erua Lodge. We are going to be helping there in exchange for accomodation and food (same thing we've been up to so far). We looked the place up last night and it looks really interesting. The scenery is supposed to change drastically, which is a wonderful thing as we've felt like it all looks the same so far. All the way from Cape Rienga to Ngaruawahia the scenery is the same. The lodge that we are headed to is advertised as the foremost location to learn backcountry skills on the North island. Should be interesting. Of course, for those of you who don't think that is enough, there is something else. A little thing that some nerds like to call Mt. Doom. Just kidding about the nerds thing I liked The Lord of the Rings trilogy enough. But seriously we are heading to Mt. Doom. I just hope it doesn't live up to its name.
On the way the plan is to stop and visit a Kiwi (bird) sanctuary. Although it is the official bird of NZ we have yet to see one. We've been told that unless we see it dead on the side of the road we probably won't see one. Sounds like we better head to the sanctuary.
Arivaderchi (imagine I am saying it like Brad Pitt in the Inglorious Basterds movie).

In Ngaruawahia Now

Well, we are currently in Ngaruawahia. I learned an acronym trick that helps me to remember how to spell it, otherwise I would have to look each time. It is: Nine Guys Are Resting Under A Wharf And Here I Am. Not the most cleaver but it works. It is pronounced Near-Ah-Wa-He-A. We arrived here on Friday afternoon. They are a couple in their fifties who have adopted 3 young kids after raising 4 of their biological children. They are aged 3, 4 and 5. I could do the work that they are asking us to do all day, not that they ask us to work more than a few hours a day. The thing that really tires me out is: "read me a story, jump on the trampoline with me, build me a fire engine house out of lego's, etc...." They are really well mannered kids but just so high strung. Of course they are as they are 3, 4 and 5!
I planted some strawberries, did some vacuuming and hemmed a curtain yesterday. Jesse and Jeff dug out a garden so that it can be planted soon. Don and Davina are a really nice couple who are laid back and very down to earth. Like me she has a ton of projects that she has started and will finish some other time. They have 3 cats: Pepper, Safron and Cinnamon and two dogs:Reisha and Zola. Jesse is really taken with Zola. She is a four year old Italian sheep protector of the breed Maremma. She doesn't smell like a dog and if she gets dirty (she is white) her hair falls off. She has a very nice temperment=:) They also have chickens (plenty of eggs to eat!) and roosters that cocka-doodle-do at all hours of the night. They had them at our last place, Solscape, but it is better here as we are in a cement basement as opposed to a thin tent.
We will be here in Ngaruawahia until Friday morning. At that point we are heading south to a lodge (Erau?) where we will be setting up for a concert/rave. I think that we will be staying there for at least a week and a half or two weeks. Jesse and I are going to start trying to find jobs soon after that. Wish us luck!!

Chillin' In Raglan

Well, I am at the library in Raglan. I decided to walk to town and it took about an hour twenty. Nice walk that took me through a jungle and then a desert. We've decided to spend another 2 nights at Solscape and that means that we don't have to pack up our tents and carry on to another location today. The place we are staying at is very eco friendly and they have taken old train cars and converted them into sleeping quarters. We've decided to camp because it is cheaper and we have all the equipment that we need. It is a beautiful day today and the ocean is very soothing. I am getting a little nervous about where we are going after our next helpx experience but I am sure something will turn up. Jesse and I had the conversation yesterday about how we came to NZ to be nomads and so we shouldn't really stress about it because this is exactly what we wanted!! AND IT IS!! I am so relaxed and he has been reading a lot. You would think that spending every single minute together would not be a good thing for a newlywed couple, but it seems to be the oposite for us. We are doing great=;) Gonna go and check out a cool jewelry shop. My time on the computer is done but I will post more when we get a chance at our next helpx site. -Beverly

On the Move

Jesse and I are currently in Raglan with Jeff. We left Warkworth on Monday morning at 6am and have been on the move ever since. We met up with Alicia and her mom yesterday (Jeff met them online) in Hamilton and they took us on a nice tour of the city. We saw some awesome ornamental gardens that were really cool. After that we came to Raglan and camped near the beach. The sand is black and we went polar bear swimming this morning. Well two of us did, Jesse didn't want to. It was more like polar bear plunging. A quick in and then jumped out. We are staying at a place caled Solscape tonight in raglan and then will have to find accomodation for two more nights as we are expected on Friday to our next helper place.
Just ate a burger at an organic burger place. It was alright: again with the beets on a burger?! Gotta go! Beverly

Made the Best of It

Well, Jesse and I are back in Warkworth. We left on Tuesday to go up to Liz & Geoff's vacation home (bach) in Rawene. Rawene is a small town on the north west coast that was actually the 3rd European establishment. We stopped and picked up the keys and made a copy because our plan was to drive back a different way. A cut key cost 8 dollars here. We had to make 2 of them. We arrived in Rawene in the late afternoon and had a bit of trouble finding the house. When we got there and made our way down to the bach it was suddenly apparent that we would not be staying there as it literally smelled like poo. Long story short, a pipe had somehow ruptured and the place has actually been put on a condemed list (that happened yesterday). We left and found an I site (information) and got some info on a mobile park.
We ended up staying at the Rawene motor park in a cabin that night. Jesse and I played caps and had a nice time drinking a bit of wine and watching the beautiful sun set over the bay and the mountains. There were an older couple there that were kiwi's traveling around for a few weeks and they were really nice.
We went to the Four Square (grocery store) and on the way we passed a group of teenager toughs and they yelled at us and called us 'White People'. We didn't feel really comfortable being in town after that. I mean, for the first time in our lives we were on the receiving end of the slur. Weird.
All in all though we had a fun time in our cabin and we got up early and got the hell out of Rawene! Took the ferry across and discovered that Jesse is a bit closterphobic and was worried about the ferry going down and us being trapped in the car unable to get out. We arrived on the other side 20 minutes later unscathed. There was a huge ferry in Tonga that sank and nearly everyone on board died. That was a few weeks ago and I think he may have been thinking about that.
Made our way up to 90 mile beach and actually drove the car onto the beach and sat there for a while. I snapped a photo and was ready to get the heck of the beach. Didn't feel natural to be able to drive a car on the sand. The sand was as stiff as concrete. People actually drive their vehicles all the way up the beach. I prefer the road!!
We made it to Cape Reinga, which is the northermost part of NZ that you can drive to. As we didn't bring any of our camping gear with us we couldn't really do any tenting or anything. Lesson learned, next time we leave for any reason we bring all of our tenting gear with. The Cape is cool. You can actually see the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea meeting. They come together and there are really cool waves and the color is a spectacular bluish green that really is choice. There is a lighthouse there and I was expecting it to be huge and of course it wasn't. Jesse, the voice of reality, said that it was smaller than the ones in New England because it was much newer and the technology had gotten better. Makes sense. I am proud to have such a smart ass for a husband! No, but seriously...sometimes he reminds me of a Skip junior!!
We saw some awesome sand dunes that we had to run around on near the cape as well. We played in the sand and then ate our lunch. As we were sitting there eating our lunch a huge tour bus came flying down the road and drove straight onto the water and crossed it and continued driving down the beach. There were quite a few of tour buses at the cape but besides that we haven't really noticed tourism too much yet. I think that is because it is still only Spring.
We spent the second night in Paihia. It is a tourist town on the bay in The Bay of Islands. Slept at a hostel and treated ourselves to pizza. The next morning we went out and tried to kayak in the ocean. It was a really cloudy day and the waves were really big. The kayaks were more like a lake kayak than an ocean one. They were short and stubby and they had holes in the seats and so you were destined to get wet no matter what. We were out for maybe15 minutes and then we gave up soaking wet and cold. We will try again with proper equipment=:)
After the kayaking adventure we drove back to Kerikeri and met up with the couple that had been working at the lodge when we first arrived. They were working at another hotel and it was a really swanky place. It was very nice to go somewhere and know someone. They (Rob and Dallas) are really nice people and it was a fun visit.
Today we went to the bank and opened our first joint checking account as a married couple. That was exciting!! We have exactly 0.00 dollars in it. Not so exciting any more is it? Is it?? Just kidding, it's still exciting.
All is well here. We will update prior to leaving Warkworth, which is happening on Monday morning. We are going to pick up our friend Jeff from the airport. Excited to see him!
Beverly

What a Weekend!!

Wow! We've just worked through the busiest weekend the lodge has seen since we've been here. In fact, quite possibly the busiest weekend the lodge has seen since last high season. There are 10 units at the lodge and they were all rented out each night for a total of three nights. Let's just say that Jesse and I have had to work our fannies off and our hosts liz and geoff have enjoyed our strong midwest work ethic. We've just finished for the day and that means that we are done now until next Saturday. That's right! We have 4 days off now to run and explore the north coast of the north island.
We've decided to leave in the morning and head out to liz and geoff's bach (holiday home) on the northwest coast. I am not sure what kind of place we will find when we get there, as they haven't been there themselves in over a year. On the map it looks really close, but in fact the roads are very curvy and steep and so it will take probably 4 hours to get there from where we are. Of course, I could be entirely wrong, but it took 1.5 hours for us to get from Warkworth to Whangarei (pronounced Fan-ga-ray as the WH here produce an F sound).
Our Toyota Sceptor, which we've nicknamed Yota, has been getting us from point A to point B very nicely. We are crossing our fingers that she holds up the entire year, but at this point don't see any reason why she wouldn't.
The days are getting warmer here with each new dawn and I feel like jesse is going to be dragging me into the ocean for some swimming very soon. He's already gone into the pool at the lodge that isn't heated. Not to be outdone by a boy I of course had to also jump in. It wasn't so much the cold that made me flail around and exit as quickly as I could while screaming. I blame it on the salt water.
Gotta go and get our room organized so that we can leave at a decent time in the morning.-Beverly

Spoke to Soon

So, I think I may have spoken too soon. Jesse and I are in charge of the lodge this weekend as our hosts usually have the weekend off to themselves. The normal couple who works weekends have gone off to do something else for a month and that means that they have put Jesse and I in charge. It has been really slow around here with one or two, sometimes three units being rented out at a time. I thought that it would be okay to work this weekend as we will get four days during the week off. I left for about half an hour tonight and upon returning Jesse just looked at me and shook his head. While I was out every single room in the place was booked. That means that Jesse and I have to single handedly clean 10 rooms tomorrow, as they are all being turned around for other guests who have booked Saturday through Monday. Send us your thoughts and well wishes, as we will definitely need some encouragement tomorow.
Our hosts have offered us their 'bach' (vacation home) up north and so we will be going there on Tuesday morning. We will stay until Friday and return back to Warkworth on Friday night. We will again work the weekend and will then be off to pick up Jeff from the Auckland airport on Monday morning at 6:30 pm. We've then got plans to meet up with a woman from NZ for a few days and we will then be going to another helper site near Raglan. Time to eat...more later.

First Day of Spring!!

Yesterday was the first day of spring! It is still getting dark at around 6:10 pm but the weather should be warming up a little more each and every day. Jesse and I are spending about 2 more weeks in Warkworth and then will be off to our next location. We are traveling again to Whangarei (I think I spelt that wrong) to clean a home that our host had rented out. We leave tomorrow and I think that it will be an all day affair. It is a 4.5 hour round trip drive and so I am wondering if it is even worth us coming back the same day.
Last thursday night we had lamb for the first time. It was very tender and delicious with a pepermint sauce. For desert we have Pavolova, which reminded me of an angel food cake but not so spongy. Okay, so it mostly reminded me of the really crunchy part of the angel food cake that melts in your mouth. I think it must be an aquired taste and I don't think that I will pick that one up while I am here.
Gotta go and get back to my tasks. Today I am doing book keeping and budget maintenence and Jesse has left with Geoff to take the rubbish to the dump. Of course they call it something much cooler than the dump, but I can't remember. -Beverly

Tawharanui

Hello all, today was sonnie's 1st birthday party, he is liz and geoffs babe-what a cutie. the day before a few friends from the lodge and i(jesse) went to Tawharanui-pronouced tafra-newie. it is a national reserve on the east coast about 25minutes from where we are staying. it was amazing we hiked down to the edge of the penisula and climbed a near vertical spine to the beach, it was crazy how the terrain of the beach changed from large ballast stones to smaller stones to salt and pepper colored sand then to pink sand it was really neat. we saw dolphins and even a whale. when we walked back to the beginning the tide and gone out so we were able to explore the vast array of connecting sea caves. i think it was the nicest beach i have seen so far.
besides that beverly and i and another friend from the lodge went to the old cement works factory on the edge of town. it was built in the late 1870s as the first hydralic limestone fluid factory as well as a cement factory, it was the first one in the southern hemisphere. it closed in 1924 and off the to the near side is a 90ft deep quarry lake that has crystal clear water, supposedly they were working deep in the quarry and a natural spring broke open and filled the huge hole so fast that several workers where killed. kinda spooky when you look at the whole thing late at nite.

Missing my hat

Jesse and I went to Whangarei yesterday for a drive and had a lot of fun along the way. We stoped in Waipu cove at the beach and had a great time walking up and down the beach. There were so many sea shells that were in tact it was nuts. I felt like we were on a desserted island and that we had our pick of any of the shells that we wanted. Jesse even found a conch shell that was quite big. He picked it up and the creature inside spit at him. It was funny. He put it back and we walked away. The road was really curvy and narrow pretty much the entire time. It wasn't as bad as when we went to goat island last weekend. We both felt carsick last weekend but fine this weekend. We ended up being gone for about 6 hours.
When we got to Whangarei we went to a park that we found called Mair park. We ate an organge and then went for a walk. I had strapped my hat onto my pack. The sign said 40 m and so we figured it was 40 meters. Turns out it was 40 minutes to the summit. When we got to the top there was a huge group of people with their dogs and their children. We didn't stay long as it was crowded and the view wasn't really worth looking at. We started down and about 10 minutes into it I realized that my hat wasn't hooked onto my bag anymore. Jesse went up to find it and I asked people who passed me going down if they had found it. They all said that they had seen it at the top. Jesse came back empty handed. I really loved that hat. Jesse got it for me in Boston for Christmas a few years ago. It went everywhere with me: Hawaii, Washington DC, Mexico, New Zealand, Omaha, Maine (you get the point).
Back to work tomorrow. Liz said that her dad is taking his boat somewhere down the coast and has room to bring a few of us. Jesse and I might get to go for a boat ride=:)
We have the kilo conversion to pounds down. Now I have to master the kj to calorie ratio. We went to Subway yesterday=:) It was very tasty. Their daily specials are 3.90 for a 6 inch.
Cheers,
Beverly

Driving

We bought the car. It's a 1993 Toyota Sceptor. AKA Camry back home. It is a nicer car than a pair of backpackers need, but it has been really taken care of. It would have been stupid to let it pass. Our host Jeff knew the owner and it's clear that the car has been taken care of. The first thing that needs to be done when one gets a new car is to come up with a name. We have named it Yota. It is a four door sedan with fold down back seats. If worse comes to worse Jesse can sleep in the front and I can sleep in the back. It has a ton of extra feautures such as push button traction control, electronic fold in mirrors and electric seats. It's an automatic. I think we would have been fine with a manual but having an auto just makes it that much easier.
Dinner is on the table. Better go and eat before its all gone.

Differences

Alright, so there are a few things that I've noticed. Nothing major but tiny differences that seemed like a big deal at the time. Liz (one of our hosts) was talking with me about Capsicums today and so I asked her what they were because they were on the pizza that we got last week and I didn't really notice what they were. Turns out that they are bell peppers. Figured it out when she said that they come in green, yellow and red. Another small item: courgettes. Any one know what they are? We call them zuccini back home. Our hosts have a baby who is almost one year old. His birthday is the 28th of this month. He loves to eat Sultanas. I like to eat them too. Especially when they are covered with dark chocolate. Any guesses? Raisins. Now for the mind blower. Jesse and I couldn't get over this yesterday. We finally got over it a day later. Everyone in the house, including the kiwis, the canadian and the english folks all say 'Zed' for Z. So, I was trying to really listen today to everyone talking when I was about and for sure, they do say Zed in place of the Z. I guess in Australia they really pronounce the H and it sounds more like "h-a-ch"? Hm....
We got to talking about Cuba a few nights ago and no one believed us when we said that we are forbidden to go there. If you think about it that seems very bazaar. Especially when you have to explain why to someone from another country who is allowed to travel there.
Figi is in the middle of a coo and so tickets are really cheap to go there right now. Too bad its the rainy season.

New car, maybe?

This is my first post as Beverly is probably sick of hearing me complain that i dont know how to post, so now i do. We looked at the toyota again today and was very excited to see in Garths garage a v-12 allison engine out of a kittyhawk airplane. it was beautiful sitting there with its 4000 ft lbs of tork and some 3500 horsepower. he also had a boat with a 350 chevy engine in it that could top 100 mph on water! what a site. he said that the allison was worth about 200,000 bucks and that he had 3 of them awesome. well this is all for now. Beverly and i will hopefully have a car soon. as we need to do some wheeler dealers on him. later-jesse andbeverly

Long Week=:)

The week is over and the fun begins! I think that we are going to the markets again in the morning (Matakana, which are world famous here in New Zealand). It is a farmers market that is okay. Lots of stuff that we don't really need. Speaking of stuff we don't need we drank an entire bottle of wine tonight. It is made out of a fruit that I have never heard of before called Feijoa's and it is delicous. I can't wait to try an actual piece of the fruit. I think the growing season is in May, so I've got a while to wait.
Jesse made his chili for supper tonight and it was a hit with everyone. It was actually pretty awesome and a much welcomed departure from the food that we have been eating. Not that it has been bad, as it hasn't, but food that makes you think of home is a great thing. Weirdest thing. Our host hadn't heard of tomato sauce as we described it. The tomato sauce that she has in her cubard is pretty much what we would call ketchup. It was interesting trying to find the ingredients to make the chili as the basic necessities like the sauce were hard to find, disguised as other things. Speaking of calling something by a different name, we are discovering these things daily as there is a couple here from england and a girl from canada. In england, as well as in new zealand, they call a period a 'full stop'.
Hmmmm....The obvious question then is, 'do you call it a full stop com?' Turns out they call it a dot com, same as us.
I think we are going to have a look at that car again tomorow. See if we can get him to lower the price. Jesse has watched a lifetime of 'Wheeler Dealer' and so he should be able to put his skills to use. The weather here today was crappy and it is supposed to be even worse tomorrow. Solid rain. Most of it fell at an angle as it was coming down so hard. I guess it could be worse. Could be snow!!

So much to say...

Well, I can't believe that we have been in Warkworth for a week and two days already!! The days are just floating by and melting into each other. Jesse continues to scrape and paint while I spent time cleaning rooms and sewing and washing. Warkworth is a fairly small town and so when we get off work things are mostly closed. It is hard to explore a sleeping town. JT and I went out for pizza on Monday night. No, there was no marmite on it. I did end up trying vegimite yesterday. Actually, it wasn't vegimite but a new kind that is creamier and less salty. I don't really get what it is and I've tried it. It is a salty spread that they put on toast? It has a ton of B vitamins in it. Very healthy that way. The new kind has a cheesy taste to it. Picture spreading something brown on your toast and having it taste like salty cheese. The pizza was good. We went because there was a 2 for 1 special.
Jesse and I sat in the hot tub last night and that was nice. They have both a pool and a spa on the property here. The pool is saltwater but always too damn cold to go into. I have to keep reminding myself that it is winter here now, even though there is no snow and everything is bright green. Another girl came to stay and work and she is from Canada. She has been trying to find employment in town but it looks like a dead end.
We test drove a Toyota Sceptor yesterday. Basically it is a corolla. Getting to see the islands and actually explore new zealand, I think that we will need to get a car. The test drive was a bit hairy. I made Jesse drive first and he drove us out of town. He is a lot better at the right hand drive than I am. Lots of the roads are really narrow and if there is a bridge it is more than likely a one lane bridge. They have a wierd intersection that they call a spaghetti intersection right on the corner by the lodge. It is kind of a roundabout, but not really. So that was nerve racking.
I am not sure if we have anything exciting planned for the weekend, as we were going to go jetskiing last weekend, but with the water warnings we cancelled. The weather was also pretty windy. There have been dogs dying and dead dolphins and penguins washing up on the beach, not to mention loads of dead fish. They think its an algae, but who knows. So lets just say we haven't ventured downt o the beach just yet!!
Jesse is getting into rugby but I find that there are just to many variations. There are something like 3 different classes of play and they have similar but different rules. Such a vicious sport. I will take my chances with ice hockey any day!
Jesse wanted rice crispy bars last night and so we went to the store and all they had was a mix of pink and white marshmallows. They sell them as a novelty here and not a baking suply. Needless to say the bag of mallows cost almost 5 dollars!! Luckily the pink ones were normal flavor. The other colored ones all had their own flavors. Mostly raspberry. Hmmm.

Livin it up in Warkworth

Hello! So today will be our third day of work in Warkworth. The owners of the lodge are very nice. Jesse has spent the past two days scraping old paint off a large window payne to get it to the point where it can be primed and repainted. I must say that he has gotten the short end of the stick, as he has been on a ladder for most of the day and I at least have both feet on the ground! The first day I ironed sheets for almost all of the six hours and yesterday I handwashed sheer curtains. It is kind of a cool feeling to wake up in the morning and know that you have to work in order to eat (they feed us three times a day) and have a bed for the night. I guess its the same back home, but this is more immediate. Obviously if we were to become lazy and not work then we would have to leave.
The town of Warkworth is pretty small. All of the shops close up at5 or 5:30. It gets dark here at 6 now and that makes the nights seem pretty long. Jesse has taught me to play chess and so we have enjoyed some pretty spirited games. Jesse has agreed to make his famous chili next week for one of our supers and we are all looking forward to that. I think that I might make a nice tatertot hotdish sometime too. It got down to 8 last night and so that is about 46 degees farenheit.
There was a rugby match on the television last night. I am not sure which leauge it was, as there are numerous different ones. All I know is that jesse is starting to understand the rules and follow the game and I am as lost as if watching an american football game. There is a student staying at the lodge who used to play rugby and so jesse was talking him up last night asking about the rules and what certain calls mean.
I have been told that we are going to a large farmers market on Saturday in a neighbooring town. That should be a fun time.

Leaving Auckland Tomorrow

Okay, so yesterday was pretty cool. We ferried out to an island that was created by a volcano 600 years ago. It is called Ragitoto (like the dog on the Wizard of Oz). We walked and walked and then walked some more. I think we probably walked close to 10 miles. We walked, we cried and then we walked some more. The ground was really hard, as you can imagine it would be considering it was a volcano!! Just kidding about the crying. At the summit we saw breathtaking views of downtown aucklund, including the sky tower. It was a really fun day. We were there for about 6 hours. There is nothing on the island, in terms of commerce, so no water or food or people, besides those the ferry brought over. It was peaceful. I think I will have to buy new hiking boots, though, as I had a total of 4 blisters. You should have seen us, we were so prepared for a crappy rainy day and it was a beautiful sunny day. Better to be prepared than freeze to death (that's the boy scouts motto).
A few days ago we went to see Public Enemy. They actually mention Fargo, ND in the movie. That was wierd. Good movie though. Jesse is in love with the oranges here. He claims they are the best he's ever had. I think they are delicious. We picked up a present for Alex for his birthday today. Knowing us we probably will mail it in a week or so!!
We are leaving for Warkworth tomorrow afternoon. We are going to work at a hotel in exchange for room and board. It will be good to get out of the city. The only thing left to do here is to go to the planetarium and we may do that tonight.
Two days ago we thought we would catch a rugby match. After all it was free to the public to get in. Well, on the way there the weather was fairly nice and we decided to walk. It was about an hour walk. We found the location (Eden Hill) and then decided that to kill a few hours before the game we should find a pub. Hm....small problem. We walked and walked and could not find one. In NZ it is perfectly legal to drink in public, as long as you are not in the Central Business District (which is where we are staying). Years and years of upbringing in the states has taught me that being drunk in public is wrong and drinking in public is much worse. Jesse finally convinced me that we should just go into a liquor store and then drink on the way back to the rugby match. I finally relented and we had just gotten the booze and turned back to Eden Hill when it began to downpour. I mean the sky opened up and it was all directed onto us. We ran into a bus stop and sat on the bench. Our parents would be so proud!! Here we were, 2 unemployed and homeless people drinking in a bus stop in broad day light. It was a moment.

Bummin' Around Auckland

Okay, so the museum was amazing! Jesse was really excited to actually find the Zero that was on display from WW2. We had read about it in books but to actually see that in fact they had one of the rare aircraft was pretty cool. That was Wednesday. We spend around 6 hours at the museum and about 2 walking there. We experienced a bit of what the concierge at our hotel explained by saying " in New Zealand we experience all four seasons in one day". Um, yah. We got rained on and sunshined on and then poured on and misted on all in a 2 hour walk. It was definitely worth it though. We caught a bus back to the hotel and then went out that night to a pub down the street called amios(?). They had a Catcha Cray machine, much like the ones back home where you try to get a stuffed animal and they crane never goes around anything. We watched a few guys playing the machine and they actually caught 2 cray's! The workers brought them plastic bags and they just carried these cray around in plastic bags. Pubs are open here until 4 or later and so those poor cray! Yesterday we walked to the harbor and checked out sky city. We also enjoyed a bit of our after noon in a beautiful park with awesome old trees. The roots of the trees are hollow and you can climb down inside of them!! I've got pictures. Love you all, gotta go=:) We are gonna check on bus tickets to Warkworth today. We have a few days left in Auckland to enjoy.

We've Arrived

Hello All! Jesse and I are safely in New Zealand. Actually I am having a really hard time keeping track of the time difference and even the local time. The flight from LA was pretty uneventful. Jesse was really impressed with the service and I would have to agree with him. We were served both dinner and breakfast with each being very delicious and not at all resembling airline food. We were able to have a seat in between us and so the flight was fairly comfortable. We really did not sleep at all, so instead we watched movies and tv shows. We got to watch the new Wolverine movie, the new Star Trek movie and then I watched My Life in Ruins.
Once we landed the fun started right away. We went through and explained our business in the country and showed our visas and passports and then went to collect our bags. As we were waiting for the bags they came around with dogs that are trained to smell things such as fruit and vegetables, probably drugs and most likely BEEF JERKEY. That's right Mama Taylor. I almost peed my pants when the dog made a beline for my bag and started going crazy. This of course was after Jesse refused to cary it, because after all he hadn't packed it. The lady was really nice thought and just explained that since it wasn't commercially sealed she would have to confiscate it. Alright. The scent was so powerful though that the dog kept coming back. She would say, "no mate, we've already checked that bag". The dog was a beagle.
After collecting our bags we went through x-ray machines and since Jesse had been honest about having a knife in his bag we were screened as having to talk with a customs agent. We were taken behind a screen into a room where folks had all of their possesions laid out on the tables in front of them and were told to go down to the very end of the row. Fortunately the man was very nice and there had been a misunderstanding. When Jesse said that he had a flick knife they had assumed that it was a butterfly or switch blade knife. The gentleman asked what our business was and escorted us out of security. I then found a currency changing stand and was able to exchange 15 Canadian dollars for 17.90 New Zealand.
Once in the airport we were able to walk straight outside and find the bus that would take us to our hostel. The driver asked where we were staying and took us as close as he could. We arrived at our hotel on Tuesday morning at 7:30 AM. We were told that we could check in immediately for 50 New Zealand dollars. We agreed. Took a nap and then woke up around noon and walked to a supermarket (New World Market) and bought a few staples. Our hotel is in a lovely location. Very close to the skytower and downtown Auckland. Jetlag is really hanging on to us, though. After the grocery visit yesterday we came back to the room and slept from 3 in the afternoon until 6am on Wednesday morning. It is almost 8am here now and we are planning a full day with a museum visit. Oh, yesterday on the walk Jesse pointed out a Nissan Skyline car and said that we didn't need to get a picture or anything, but that it was illegal in the states.
The weather is cooler here than we expected. Excuse me for being an American, but I am having a hard time adjusting to the temperature being in Celcuis ( I probably can't even spell it!). When we got into our room yesterday it was very cold, as they don't heat spaces that aren't occupied. We have a heater in our room that we need to keep running so that we can stay warm. In order to have the lights, tv, heater, etc. on in our room, we must leave a room key in a box near the door. I had read about this and was prepared for it. It is kind of nice how they conserve energy. We are adjusting.
The people we have meet here are very nice and we feel comfortable here in Auckland.

Holey Moley!!

Wow! Jesse and I leave for New Zealand in like 2 days. We are literally so excited that we can't help ourselves. We've started packing and stuffing our packs full of stuff that we think we need. Don't get me wrong, we are being very minimalistic in what we take. I think jesse is only bringing 6 shirts. For a year and six shirts!! Wow, I love this guy. Then he told me that I am only allowed 5 pairs of my travel underwear. Well, I guess that we all need to make sacrifices! For those of you who don't know we think we've found work. Probably shouldn't call it work as much as helping. We will be staying with a couple who run a resort. In exchange for 4 or so hours of work each a day we will be given a room and food. We also will get to use their pool, spa and internet. They sound like really nice people=:) We will be there for about a month or so. After which we will be joined by our friend Jeff and we will be helping at a surf school in exchange for room, board and use of their fun toys! Jesse is really excited to try surfing as he thinks that he could be a surfer. I personally think that between Jesse and Jeff both thinking they are Keanu Reeves in Point Break someone is bound to get hurt. I'd rather go bungy jumping.

We Purchased NZ Tickets!!

Well, it's official! Airfare to New Zealand has been purchased and we will be off to a far away land on July27. They are round trip tickets and so if we absolutely can't stand it there (yah, right!) we are able to come back in late February of 2010. Jesse is more concerned than ever about finding employment in New Zealand. I have been more focused on our wedding plans and making sure that goes smoothly. Next step...airfare from Fargo to Las Angeles.
Stay tuned for further updates. I should really figure out how to add photos to this thing.

Getting Ready to Purchase Airline Tix's

For the last, I don't know how many months, we have been searching websites and scouring the best prices on different travel sites for airfare. We found a pretty decent deal tonight and we are hopeful that it will either hold steady for the next few days or that it will actually decrease in price. Speaking of price: we would like to send a huge THANK YOU for all of the Christmas gifts that we got that are geared for NZ=:) We are still thinking that we will leave sometime during the end of July.