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.