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
Monday, September 14, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
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
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
Sunday, September 6, 2009
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
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
Friday, September 4, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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
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
Sunday, August 30, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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
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
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