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