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.