And whiskers on kittens!!

Today has been awesome.

My sweet friend Heather posted us in her Gratitude blog. For those of you visiting from her site, I promise that the lack of pictures is unusual for me. And should be solved shortly! Welcome. Come back every now and again! The lack of pictures is from the fact that the last two weeks in New Zealand I lived in a van and had serious lack of wireless. And now Sydney seems to have the same problem! In fact, I am in a mall right now. But this shall be remedied. So come back!! Leave comments, post questions, I love it.

Number two awesome. We just got done seeing Iron Man 2 on the largest IMAX screen in the world. Robert Downey Junior at seven stories tall, is fantabulous.

Three. My mommy comes tomorrow! We are touring Australia for two weeks with her. Sydney (been here a few days already), Melbourne, Adelaide, Ayres Rock, and Cairns. We are spending some extra days there, and then back to Sydney in a couple of weeks. Its going to be amazing.

The weather was gorgeous yesterday. We did a touristy bus tour and sat on the top deck. This also included Bondi Beach for the best smoothee of your ENTIRE life.

Speaking of food, we have had the same exact meal for the past two nights, and plan on having it again tonight. Chicken Tikki something or other with some bread and a huge tasty salad. I must learn to make indian food. MUST. Iowa severely lacks this.

GLEE AIRED LAST NIGHT!!!!! Most shows here are a full season behind. NOT GLEE! The second season opener was bright and shining at 8pm. LOVE.

Ok. Today is happy.

April 13: Kiwi Cars and Mount Mordor.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Te Puke, NZ
- We had been seeing all the super cute kiwi bird traffic signs, like The Faster You go, the Bigger the Mess. With a cartoon kiwi.
-Kiwi 360 Tour. We waited and waited and finally our guide, Simon, came out chugging coffee and said we could pick any car. Private tour on the Kiwi Cars! The pack house, one of the coolest parts of the tour. We went up and watched all the rows of workers, having kiwis dropped to them from a constantly moving conveyor belt. The belt had a computer that weight each individual kiwi, and knew which line to drop it down based on its size. It was pretty insane, and all of the workers packing the boxes of them and sending them down. There were HUGE Kiwis, and we learned that the reason we never see them is because Asia is willing to pay for the bigger ones and they get them first. The pack house was really fascinating to see.
-We also learned that in New Zealand, in order to collect unemployment, you must work during fruit season. You cant claim there is no work during packing season, because there always is, so much that they bring people in for it.
-There are three kinds of kiwis, baby kiwis are more unique, while Golden kiws are newer, but common here. Those are sweeter in taste with smoother skin, and of course the green kiwi.
-Matamata, the homeplace of all the LOTR phenomena is overrated. The tours end up being $65 a piece, 2.5 hours long, and all you saw was the scenic background of the movie. There are no hobbit holes or anything left. So we decided that was a total bust and just took a picture at the Hobbiton sign.
- We circled town a few times for various reasons, the last few being that we thought we should hit Subway in order to not have another day of no eating til night time. Same bread choices, the white cheese is cheddar or swiss, and we have no idea what the yellow cheese is. If you want it left untoasted, then you want your sandwich “fresh.” And the bread was so delicious, even the Subway bread is awesome!
-Honey Hive. They had two indoor hives, a kids section, beauty section, sample section, cooking section, ice cream setup, fudge setup, tables, information and books. It was large. We looked at the bees, and moved on to the samples. We sampled three different honey wines, “mead.” And I liked them so much, we actually ended up buying two bottles. Tim also tried the honey whiskey. We learned that its called a honey moon because the entire month after a wedding, the men would drink only mead in order to produce male offspring.
-Taupo. We didn’t have time to go to the actual Thermal Park, but the National sites were still open. Most were a bust, but Huka Falls was a rushing river that came out into a mini waterfall, and that was actually really pretty. The water was ultra blue, just like it all seems to be here.
-Traveled around and down Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand.
-Whakapapa village road, leads to Mordor Mount. We kept driving and driving, it was no dark, and we were totally in the middle of nowhere. There were kiwi signs though! So we kept looking for them. Still headed down this dark long straight road, nothing, no lights in sight, and then BAM! We see this huge chalet all lit up. It was so weird and jarring.
-The higher we climbed, the foggier it got. Slowly, and it was really really eery. But very cool. We were enveloped in the mist, wth only darkness next to us. And fthe temperature had dropped dramatically, therewas even snow on the ground. Finally it got so thick with fog that Tim couldn’t really even see where he was going, so we turned around and went back down, the but slow eery drive through the mountain fog was fun enough for me.
-Stayed in Palmerston North at a glorious Bella Vista.

Sydney.

We should have moved to Sydney.

I wish I had a million dollars for clothes.

Everything here is adorable.

No wireless in the hotel, and expensive on kiosk. More to come.

Promise.

My mommy is here on Saturday!!!!

Suckface.

We have another reason to hate HATE HATE Spaceships.

I won't go into details.

But its miserable.

Although thanks to the brilliance of one Sydney pharmacist, we avoided a $200 copay.

April 12: Kiwis and Cathedral Coves

Ok editing my own journal entries is far too time consuming. So now, we are going to bullet point it, then maybe we might catch up. If you have questions about any of it, leave a comment! Please! I like comments! Even the silliest questions or comments are loved ☺

Monday, April 12, 2010
-I learned my Grandmother got facebook. This is hilarious and awesome. Wrapped up in glory.
-Gas is $NZ 1.81 per litre. In American terms, we pay $US 4.88 a gallon. That is sick.
-Kiwi birds lay HUGE eggs, we learned and saw one at the Kiwi House and Museum, a very cute and worth it museum.
-Above museum had cows. Tim had to go and have a chat with them.
-Weather was perfect, sunny, slight breeze, warm!
-We saw crap loads of sheep and cows. I mean THOUSANDS. In one day.
-The town of Waipu was disappointing, not much to it
-We stopped in the parking lot of Sheep World, decided not to go in
-We got to Thames. In order to get there, you go through a very strange landscape. Its super flat and there isn’t really anything but field grass, and there is nothing for miles and miles. No houses, no signs, no fences, no signs of life. Just flat. And then you see the Mountains near Thames pop up. Its not gradual, hills then Mountains. Its flat, flat, flat, really high mountain.
-Thames was on the closer side of the mountain, and clearly was an industrial mining town. Small, kinda grungy, didn’t really have any frills or lace, just the places needed to live and work in the mining/industrial industry.
-We were the only ones on our mine tour. The guide was nice at first, and led us into the mines with his limp. He did a bit of talking first, and as soon as he could tell that we were actually interested and going to ask questions, he sprung into uber high gear and had a great enthusiasm about it. It was clear that he really liked doing this. I had felt bad about making a gimp man drag us through the mine right at closing, so that made me feel better.
-It was a small mine, but the second most rich on the island. He said that back in the heyday, it pulled 3million (I think) but some totally absurd about of money out in gold. We did the mine tour first, and it had these mannequins in it, and the first one we came to scared me, but then they were almost cute. 70s porn star look. After the mine he brought us over to show us how the jaw crusher worked, the pounding sticks, and then how the mechanical sifter worked, and he turned it on. Which was really cool, I had seen the super old wooden ones somewhat work before, but never a mechanical, more productive one in full swing.
-Next stop was Cathedral Cove: We hit the parking lot a little after 5, the sign said it was a 45 minute walk, and we pretended to ourselves that that meant 45 minutes there and back. Knowing full well that that wasn’t the case. It was a LONG walk, made longer by the fact that the trails weren’t too even, with holes and roots and things. And they were constantly going up and down, super steep in both directions. Mom could never have done it. Straigh up and straight down at times. And it didn’t help that you were almost always surrounded by trees and brush, so you felt like you were constantly walking away from the water. Finally we could hear water, and then went down several sets of steep stairs, and bam, there you are. It was a lot bigger than I had expected, and a lot less commercialized. There were only a handful of people still down there (we passed by maybe 10 people on our way out) and the whole thing was just perfectly serene. No gift shop, no signs, no food stand. 100% nature except one small roped off section because of falling rocks. It was beautiful.
-Tim took his shoes off and played in the water, of course getting more wet than he wanted We got back to the car just in time though, 5 minutes later, and we wouldn’t have been able to see our hands in front of our faces.
-Tim ended up using a water bottle to keep the brights propped on.
-Dinner was a fish and chips place, I had to scrape off some garlic aoli, beetroot, carrot, and onion off my burger. Who puts that stuff on a burger?
-We had a super hard time finding a hotel, but finally we settled on a sketchville place in Mount Maunganui. I nearly froze to death.

April 11: We gained a car.

Sunday, April 11, 2010
We watched this little kids show about Rugby for awhile, and then SkyNews was really the best option. Tim left to go get the car while I sat in the room (though I was willing to go down to the lobby to make it easier) with all of the luggage. We had some trouble figuring out how to get the luggage in the car since there was some weird sloping in the trunk. We ended up with two in the trunk and two in the back seat with one of the blue back packs, the orange bag, and the information bag. The city was so weird sitting on the left hand side of the car and not driving. It wasn’t the left line driving, or the driver on the right, it was that I was NOT the one driving on the left.
Auckland doesn’t seem to have suburbs to the north. It was city, and then country. A lot of fruit and bread stands everywhere. It was only 15 minutes to the Bee Center, the GPS was by far one of our best purchases for the trip. Took us right there. The store was really just a corner of the café, but we looked at it a bit, sampled a tiny bit of honey, and then wandered through the café until we found the menu outside. We had planned on eating breakfast there, but there was no breakfast food. Which was weird. How are you a Honey place that doesn’t feature honey at your café? No breakfast or honey foods.
On our way up to Waitangi, it took us through the side roads, so it was pretty solidly country. The country side was absolutely crazy. It had flat fields like Iowa, but huge rolling hills and mountains like Colorado, but then lots of trees and ferns and palm-ish trees, so it felt like we were in a jungle at times. I watched the roads for quite awhile, trying to help Tim with some of the iffy parts. But the terrain was just so weird, you could never put your finger on what it was like. To one side would be mountain, and the other side a flat plain. And then every once in awhile was ocean, BRIGHT blue or aquamarine ocean. So awesome. One can only take so many pictures of the country side, so after I awile I just had to stop.
After awhile, the GPS started us down a gravel road. LONG LONG story short, we now have to check the GPS anywhere we go. We probably added over an hour to our drive towards Waitangi. It was beyond ridiculous. The gravel roads were well done, but they wove up and down the mountainside and probably turned all the way the other direction every 50 feet or so, and it was constant side to side jerking, plus the vibration of the gravel, and Tim’s need to constantly shift between gears up and down the mountain, I was getting seriously ill. I couldn’t do anthing besides focus on my stomach not churning. Up and down and up and down and back and forth. It was miserable. And the gravel never ended. We lost a lot of time having to go 15mph. Especially since the lanes were only really big enough for a car and a half. And to one side was always a drop off. It was constant need to watch and be aware of coming cars. And there were none. For an hour. It was ridiculous. The amount of time we were wasting on a miserable road, Tim was beyond pissed. AND she did the exact same thing, trying to take us on a gravel road, for 12 miles. We stupidly listened, took half an hour, and now we shall never do that again.
We finally got to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and almost knew instantly that it was a mistake. We both thought that this was the biggest Maori attraction and that this would be where we got all our Maori experience in. Clearly not. We even debated whether or not we should pay the $40 to go in. Up past the giant flag pole where the Treaty was actually signed, and into the Treaty House. We weren’t really sure what the house was for. Like, that was where the meeting was and things, but the overall presentation of the house was super scattered and not very well done. But really, it seems to be that the Kiwis act the same about the Treaty as we do about Thanksgiving. We celebrate it full tilt, but in reality, it is us stealing an entire culture away from the Native People. We finished up the Treaty house and then wandered over to the Maori house of sorts, just a really big room with ornate carvings on both the walls and ceilings. Pretty cool, we had to take our shoes off before we entered. That was really the only worthwhile part of the Treaty Grounds. Still having not eaten an actual meal of the day by 6pm, we inhaled a good portion of pretzels that we still had.
We got as far as Whangarei and it was almost too dark to go, but we had seen signs for Whangarei Falls which is the most photographed waterfall in all of New Zealand. We had to search a little bit to find it, but we did, so we made the trek down. By the time we got down there, it was pretty dark, but we could still see it. Didn’t spend too much time down there, there were some locals and we got the impression that it was a place that high school kids and locals went and got drunk. Back in the town, for the most part, the town was completely dark. No signs were lit, no street lights, very few house lights. It was really eery. Almost like there was no one there and the town had literally been abandoned. We found the Bella Vista, with free internet, and got a room. It was absolutely fantastic. It was brand new and super super clean. Small, but who cares? It had a fridge and a microwave and a pretty bathroom. It was a bit cold, but the heater helped. We even got a baby carton of trim milk for our coffee in the morning. AND prepackaged cookies in the room. Two little packets of two baby cookies. But they were delicious considering how starving we were. We debated on delivery from Hell Pizza versus Takeout for way longer than we should have. They were small-ish, 4 small pieces each, and yet, I ate the whole thing, and could have eaten more. It wasn’t really anything special, we were just so hungry that anything would have been delicious.

Day 3: Devonport (Stars Hollow of New Zealand)

Saturday, April 10, 2010.
Nine hours of sleep later, 9:15 to 6:15, I have some time to kill. We decided on Devonport today, mainly because we aren’t exactly sure how we could get around Waiheke, or even what there is to do close to the pier. But in our book, Devonport has a three-hour walk mapped out for us, so we figured why not? My calves are dying though, it’s for sure. All of these hills, been wearing my blue shoes, I don’t know how these women do it in their 5 inch heels. Like seriously. I struggle in flats.
Tim was somewhat forced awake around 8, by my moving around and making coffee and such. We got out of the hotel around 8:45 and walked down Hobsen Street instead of our normal route towards the Pier. On the way, we saw an Irish Pub that we decided that we were going to have dinner at. Tim bought a Feijoa (later we learned, pineapple guava) and apple juice at the Ferry terminal. Tart, but tasty. The ride only did take 15 minutes, but it was so beautiful and gorgeous, I wish it had lasted longer. We got off the ferry and started walking down the street in hopes of finding a café, and found a Esquires coffee, went in and got Americanos (had trouble with the milk and sweetener part, but they were super nice and got us our trim milk).
It was a really nice route, perfect sunny day. We saw this awesome dog playing in the water, it almost refused to get out when called. On the way to the mount, we found this super cute grey kitty that came straight to me and wanted cuddles. It was awesome. But then it was starting the trek up to North Head. It was absolutely breath taking the view up there. It was a super steep hill (go figure, in New Zealand, no way!) but we made it to the top. We sat on the hill for a while and never wanted to leave. There were some things up there still from the military fort that we explored. The sight of the city and the ocean all at once was just ridiculous. I could be there all day. It took us a little longer to get to the base of the next Mount. Mount Victoria. It was a lot higher than the other one and our feet were starting to hurt a bit, so we skipped it and headed back down Church Street to Victoria Street where the shops were. Little further down the street was a bunch of cute cafes, so we picked one, Sierra Coffee. Tim had a pesto, egg, cheese, and bacon Panini that was to die for. The sauce and the bread were delicious, while we stopped in a pet shop too that had little kittens for sale. All pets look so happy here, it’s nice to see. Devonport was just a happy chill place. Everyone was leisurely and happy and relaxed and nice. It’s so strange that you can see Auckland across the water and yet they were too completely different in style.
After our sandwiches we headed towards the Navy Museum, but we saw a supermarket on the way! It was the most exciting thing. We went in, and found that the produce didn’t even look very good. I thought it was super expensive at first, but we ended up getting 3 braeburn apples for approx 80us cents. Good enough for me! But we did end up buying American oranges, because the others just looked bleh. So we got that fruit, zip lock baggies, sugar free jelly!!! And then a box of Milo duo and some other fig cereal. I need to make a calorie chart because this whole kJ thing is messing with my head big time and its super annoying. That, and all of the measurements are in grams. Also obnoxious.
By the time we made it out of the grocery store we had 10 minutes to haul it back to the dock to make the 2:15 ferry. There was another at 2:45, but I didn’t really want to sit for half an hour if we could help it. We jogged as fast as we could with the amount of people on the sidewalks and our bags, I didn’t think we would make it. We didn’t launch off until probably 2:25 or so, so we lucked out. Back to the hotel we went, with our load of awesome groceries. We put out all of the travel brochures that we had acquired, and the travel book that I had circled things in, and split things up between the north island and the south island and decided to conquer all of the things we wanted to do in the north island so we could get a better idea of what to do with our three days with the car outside of Auckland. It took us a really long time, especially since Tim hadn’t really done much research of touristy stuff, so he had to learn what all the stuff was first.
Got to the muddy Farmer (Irish place) and we walked in and it was pretty bare. But the décor was awesome, the music was sweet, we were instantly at ease with it. But we didn’t know if we sit on our own or get seated. So we just stood there like idiots for quite a few minutes. The bar girl totally ignored us. I tried to catch eye contact, and nothing. It was really quite annoying. Finally I went up and asked a different new bar girl, we were to sit anywhere, asked if we wanted menus, and then said we go up to the bar to order. Weird. We headed to a Starbucks like coffee shop (Esquires) for a dessert beverage while we made use of their free hour wireless. While we were there, an American family came in, and was just so stupid and ignorant. I really hope that we don’t act that way. They were also loud. They kept complaining that the internet wouldn’t load and kept asking us if ours worked and were just super rude. While Tim was looking at his email, I went over and looked over the juices and found a fizzy lemonade that was 40 calories (thank god for real labeling) so I bought it and when I was paying, the nice Asian worker asked how our internet was and said that he had checked the back and he had no idea why theirs wasn’t working. I told him ours was fine. The fizzy lemon drink was FANTASTIC. It was like a bubbly version of a melted lemon icy. Totally dug it. We finished up the rest of the 60 minutes, and headed back to the hotel. Our first goal was to get a load of laundry started. Seeing as though the hotel had washers/dryers for 3bucks, while the place half a block down was 6bucks a load, AND we didn’t know the next time we could so easily access them, we washed everything we had that had been worn. One of the eight channels on our tv seems to show all American movies, so we had Night at the Museum on in the background as we reorganized our suitcases for more convenient travel. Tim’s took awhile too, but he had his own system of packing. I turned on Rugby to wait to journal, and within minutes I knew I would never make it, so I just went to sleep. But it was later, much later than any other, at 11:15pm. We win!

Day 2: Auckland

Friday, April 9, 2010.
Slept for a solid 11 hours. It was amazing. We both woke up at 7:30 refreshed and feeling good. I was happy about this because I think that means that we are going to be pretty settled in time wise from here on out. 7 hours time difference, handled! It took us forever to figure out the lights the night before, because you have to put your key in a slot next to the door in order for your lights to turn on, and to use the switches, you have to flick a switch next to the plug in. Very interesting, and hopefully we get it figured out easier eventually. We left the room around 9, and found the War Museum that was Tim’s number one on the list.

We kept walking and walking and walking, we weren’t lost, but there were plenty of points where we had no idea where we were headed, but we finally got to where there were signs and we made it to the park. Up the longest, and steepest hill ever. Longer and just as steep as the one to our hotel yesterday. But the path was absolutely gorgeous, lined with super unique trees and green grass. Beautiful. Top of the hill, and across a park was the great big war memorial. Very picturesque. Lots of Maori things, pretty much the entire history of everything New Zealand. Tim really liked the World War II exhibits. And penguins.

We headed back down the pretty hill and started walking towards the bank for our 2:30 meeting since it seemed like a long ways away. We had gotten the GPS working by then, so we at least had that to tell us how to get there. We arrived around 1, so we had a lot of time to kill we had planned on wandering the area while we waited, but there was really nothing there, so we went in and asked if we could have our meeting early. The bank lady came, we signed the forms, picked our account, and got our cards. After 45 minutes of slow itouch internet at the attached cafe, we started walking towards the transit place to see if we could use a payphone to order the haunted walk tickets. No luck, but we found a bunch of transit maps and decided that tomorrow we had nothing to do and we really wanted to get out of Auckland. Not that there is anything wrong with Auckland, we were both just bored of it already to be honest. It sounds awful, but there really isn’t that much to do here. Museum wise or other wise. And walking anywhere takes a really long time and is a hassle. So we were both excited at our decision not to live here.

We saw this awesome gelateria and just couldn’t pass it up since it had been a few hours since our light brunch. We shared a double scoop of Italian cookies and cream, which was awesome, and the NZ favorite, Hokey Pokey, which became our favorite too. They also had mango and grapefruit, which would have been awesome. We walked back up Queen Street to double check the Aotea place and the Victoria Market. We even bought a loaf of gorgeous ciabatta from the place we saw last night for dinner tonight. Aotea still was nowhere to be found, and then we walked a long, long LONG way to the Victoria Market, finally found it, and it was a huge huge piece of trash. It was old creepy people selling their crap. But there was a really pretty park across the way that was having some sort of production going on, so Tim looked for grocery stores on the GPS while I watched the shoot from a bench over looking the big soccer field. There were no grocery stores in under a mile away, and our feet were hurting already. We looked in every convenience store between Victoria Park and the hotel. All of them were small, gross, and Asian. Most had gross looking produce. After many failed mini marts and the nasty smelling Asian super store, we went up to the hotel. We had picked up a brochure at the airport and found two decent looking restaurants close by the hotel.

One was Elliot Stables, which was very cool. It’s a U shape of very small food stalls, but the stalls were big enough to have a few tables in chairs in them, with menus at the door, and then tables inside the U. So you picked a table, and then went to the different stalls to order. After much debate, we picked DeNiro, and yes, it had his face on it. I picked the DeNiro salad. Tim got the white wine risotto. The waitress kept asking what we wanted to drink, so finally Tim got wine. After a very disappointing meal, we went a few doors down and ate at a Creperie with this super charming French man as our waiter. He convinced me to add ice cream to my caramelized apple and cinnamon crepe, and Tim got the honey, banana, and almonds crepe. They were delicious. A perfect end to the lack of a meal. And the charm of the guy was adorable. One thing we have learned at all the restaurants though, they don’t come back and check you after you got your food, until you are done, and they ask if you want dessert, and if you say no, they walk away and never come back. You have to ASK them for the check. Which is really weird and annoying, but I guess we will just have to get used to it.

When three become one....

Ok, so, I feel like my lack of internet has totally made this suffer. So I thought maybe I would give you some abbreivated journals. This first one will be the longest (I swear) since it really encompasses three days....

Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, April 6/7/8, 2010.
Somehow I managed to drag myself out of bed at 6:45 in order to get a five-mile run and a shower in this morning before we left. I thought it would make me feel better in the long run, and I think that it probably did. Left after a hard goodbye to the cats, we were lucky that they were their normal morning selves and not extra snuggly, as that would have ended in me crying a lot harder. I figured the drive would be the worst part of the trip, but between the four of us and the conversation, it wasn’t actually too bad. Pulled into Minneapolis and ended up eating at Don Pablo’s, Tim had made a comment about the lack of Mexican food in New Zealand, so it was figured that we should have Mexican food.
Finally we headed to the airport. We got checked in (they needed our visas, which was obnoxious, because regular tourists didn’t need them) and waited outside security for a bit. Mom took pictures, the inevitable was avoided. But finally we hugged our good byes. Somehow the “See you next week” helped. Mom managed to not cry until we were in line for security. We walked around the shopping center portion of the airport for a while, just trying to kill time, but with the weight and bulk of our giant backpacking backpacks and drawstring bags, we couldn’t meander too much. Got to the gate, and the fact that we had a solid 24 hours of travel ahead of us finally hit. The misery that was to be experienced was just like, uh… what? It’s clearly not hit either one of us yet. We have no idea what we are doing and what compelled us to do so. Everyone else seems more excited for us than we are (minus Dad). But I think the misery of the travel is weighing heavier on us right now than the idea of being in New Zealand. The first half hour, at least of the flight was super rough. Uncomfortably so. Our seatmate started to get chatty, then calmed down until landing. It was turbulent various times, but never as bad as that first part.
Landed. Got slightly confused and frustrated when trying to find the proper terminal for our big flight. Found our gate, disappointed that there was no real food or shopping here since we had three hours til take off, which means at least two til boarding. We got changed into comfy flywear soon after our $8 Starbucks snack and got ready to board the plane. Walking onto the flight was ridiculous, mood lighting, all of the staff was super cute and peppy. The in flight entertainment started as soon as safety instructions were over, which was so nice and different than other flights. Over 50 movies to choose from, 50+shows, music, games, interseat chatting. I want to fly V Australia everywhere. Each seat had a blanket, pillow, eye mask, earplugs, and headphones, and they later passed out water bottles that could be refilled at filling stations on the plane. There was also a snack bar further back. Tim and I picked Avatar to watch first (despite my huge battle to never see it). They turned the lights down from the calm sunset lighting to the nighttime blue lighting. It was super uncomfortable and restless for the first 2.5 hours, but then the teenager said he was moving to the back of the plane, so Tim moved to the window and I got to lay out and sleep on two seats for three hours. Right before breakfast, the mood lighting came back up to sunrise esque.
Landing was pretty sweet, getting to see Australia for the first time. We didn’t think we had to go through security again though, so when we learned we did, we got a little more worried with the time crunch that we already had. And annoyed since we had to chuck a full bottle of purchased water. Sydney airport was super hot and humid. We finally got in line to board and when we got up there I got through, but Tim got pulled aside .It turned out that Tim’s visa application had the wrong birth date so something got weird and it just needed to be fixed. We got it straighted out and got onto our Emirates flight. The double decker plane. Definitely a different vibe in this plane. Quite older and more ghetto. Also, having come from Dubai, it definitely had a different culture. There were the women not just in the burkas, but totally veiled, which is very strange to me. All of the plane instructions were in Arabic first, as well as the reading materials. Just got a strange vibe overall. We didn’t take off until 45 minutes after scheduled take off time due to a long wait on the tarmac, but it seemed to be ok, because there was the individual entertainment again. Including movies not yet released in the US. An interesting feature is the three different camera views that you can watch as you fly. Underneath the plane, pilot view, and from the tail. Overall, the flight was the smoothest of them all, despite being a double decker plane. So after 35 hours of travel, we were finally in New Zealand. Even from out the windows it was clear that it just looked different, you couldn’t pin point it very well, but there was something about it.
We got to customs, up to the first checkpoint, and there again, because of the weird birthday, there was trouble. It was hard to hear her, but finally we figured out what she was saying and we had to go sit and wait on a bench while they double-checked and we were okayed. Made it through customs and found the bus relatively easy. The driver was a maniac, and super fast, I thought we were going to have made it 25 hours of travel, ad then die on the bus ride to the hotel. The bus finally got to the CBD, which was a lot like Boston’s Financial District, and Tim picked one of two spots that we could get off. Only, once we got off and started in the direction, it was up the longest, most steep hill I have ever seen. I need to remember to get a picture of it, because hauling 70 pounds of luggage, or giant packbacks and then our mini packs up it, not really knowing how far we had left was miserable. But finally we turned at the top of the hill and went straight for another few blocks and made it to the hotel, and was very pleased. Queen bed, TV, couch, mini kitchenette with sink, stove top, mini fridge, toaster, and microwave. Good enough!
We wandered the direction of town, after we had gone back up to the room for our jackets (once the incredibly intense sun goes down, it gets chilly quick). We went into a mall-ish area and found this AMAZING store. Everyone here dresses exactly how we would want to dress if we could find the clothes. This store was like hitting the jackpot. Same with shoes. Everyone’s shoes here are phenomenal. Girls, boys, its sweet. We both have a feeling we are going to end up buying way more clothes than we should here, and shoes. Moving along, we found a store exactly like Foster’s in Philly, so that was cool. Saw a LOT of Subways. AND a Pita Pit, which was almost disturbing. Wandered around looking at different stores. It seems that it is all little food kiosks, fashion stores, and weird convenience stores with a few businesses and banks intermixed.
It was only 5:30, but we were starving. The place we picked was called Invito. The service was interesting. They just didn’t seem to pay attention, like we were supposed to ask for everything. We were seated outside, and there were heaters, it was fine at first, but near the end of the meal I was getting really cold in my jacket and jeans, despite having worn the same thing only hours before and been sweltering. I ordered the Greek Lamb Salad, and almost instantly regretted it when Tim ordered Lamb pizza, because I had wanted pizza, but wanted to stay healthier. We waited for quite awhile before our food came. But when it did, it was delicious, my salad was really good, including the lamb, and I snagged a bit of Tim’s equally as delicious pizza. But waiting for the bill, we waited and waited, and waited. Finally we asked for it and she seemed surprised. Our goal was to stay up til 10, but we could see that that was unlikely. My body was still hungry, and at home it was around 2 in the morning, so I think it was just super confused. Back up the hill, made it to the hotel and switched on the TV. About 10 channels. None of them interesting most of the time, but because a few were New Zealand based, we were enthralled for a while before Tim started falling asleep. Although, New Zealand commercials are quite fantastic. So we said forget the organizing and picking the next days events, we just went to sleep. At 8:30. Assuming we would be up at an ungodly hour and could do all those things then. The bed was soft, and I am pretty sure I was asleep in less than 60 seconds.

My bed glows blue.

Ok, so I meant to post a decent post tonight, since we are about to embark on a two week, sleep in a van, eat in a van, breathe van, adventure. I am sure we will get internet at some point, but don't know for how long or actually when the next post will be able to be. Thus the desire for a glorious post tonight, but that didn't happen, and I blame the hotel. It is amazing. Beyond amazing. Our room has free wireless, its like a spaceship, the bathroom is an opaque pod, and you can shower in 5 different colors of lights, there is a wall remote for the 10+ light features, the bottom of the bed glows blue...AND THERE IS A GYM. Not just any gym, but a huge glorious gym and sauna. Needless to say, thats where I spent my evening as Tim did laundry in the hotel sweet laundry room that even provided the soap!

But today was pretty different than the other days so far. We were up at 5:45 in order to make it to our 8am ferry across the sound from the North Island to the South Island, and then 5.5 hours on the ghetto train to Christchurch where we pick up our van tomorrow. I totally dig Christchurch though. Its what i thought Wellington was going to be. Love it. Boston, Denver, and a little bit of something new all rolled into one. Hint of Amsterdam. We ate at Poppy Thai for dinner. I could have eaten that dinner all week. I cleaned my plate, and for those that know me...thats unheard of, unless its dessert....it was awesome. And then top that of with a great hour and a half in the gym. Dig. Now its 2:10am and I hope I can drag my butt back down there before we take off tomorrow.


These pictures were take two days ago (I think two...) at Castlepoint Lighthouse. An hour totally in the wrong direction, but when you see the other pictures, you will understand that it was totally the right move.

Now for some trivia of the day:

You don't say red pepper or green pepper here. Its all called Capsicum.

Maori pronounce "wh" like an f.

Kiwi plants can grow 6 inches on a hot day.

Kiwi plants are either male or female.

Breakfast Marmelade is lemony orange jelly.

Filtered coffee, = real coffee.

Fresh = not toasted sandwich (mainly from Subway on our budget)

Cathedral Coves

A few days ago, we arrived really late, but were of the last few to make the trek down to Cathedral Coves for the day.
By the time we got back to the car after hiking in the bush, it was pitch black, but as you might be able to tell, it was worth it.....

Flying Away on the Spaceship!!

Change of original plan. I shall be sleeping this for the next two weeks:

Hello back pain and cold sandwiches!!! Click the link to actually see the company, its actually a really sweet deal and will probably save us several hundred, if not more than that, dollars.

We are going to the Weta Workshop (click link to see) and I am pretty excited about that. And the zoo, and the Te Papa (YAY for being open til 9 on Thursdays!!)

Ask away!

As I am totally exhausted and cannot form proper sentences, I propose this to you, ask us anything about our trip so far, or anything related, New Zealand, why we are crazily doing this, anything!

Proper posts to come when I have slept and have better internet.

Randoms:

-Hotels here give you a milk carton when you check in. For your coffee in the morning. The U.S. should adopt this.

-Hotels also seem to be closed by 9pm. The U.S. should NOT adopt that part.

-Mead is honey wine. The term "honeymoon" comes from men drinking mead for the first month of marriage to promote male offspring. Bet you didn't know that!

Bits and pieces.

(Us on North Head)

Things we have learned so far:

-You have to ask for your check at meals, or you will sit there for hours.

-Feijoa is pineapple guava.

-Hokey Pokey is delicious. So is lamb pizza.

-Apparently we have an affinity to eating at Irish Pubs in foreign countries.

-Kiwis treat the Treaty of Waitangi like we treat Thanksgiving. It was an awful thing we did to the native culture, but we celebrate it anyway.

-Pita Pit is everywhere. And Subways are like Starbucks in the US. There is one on every corner.

-Milo is the best cereal on the face of the planet.

-The sun here is far more intense than anwhere in the states.

-Barefoot in gas stations = totally normal.

-North Head is the most beautiful mount I have ever seen.

-20 celsius is about 68 fahrenheit. Aka awesome.

-Grocery stores in the Auckland CBD are non-existant.

-I was born in the wrong country fashion wise. It brings out a creepy shoe desire in me.

The Maori part of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. And us being giant goofballs.

That's all I have for now. I have a million pictures and a million things to say, but this is my first online-ing ability and its 1am. So when its regular, I promise there shall be more!

there. here. both.

Alive in Auckland. 35 hours of travel BLOWS.

36 hours.

24 hours later...my suitcase situation has barely changed. I just can't bring myself to put the stuff in it. I have the list. I have stuff gathered. Just go in! However, this whole shoe saga....I need a suitcase for shoes. (Never thought I would be one to say that)

I am the ultimate list maker. And including my wedding, I have never loathed looking at list more than I do right now....


Edit: Packing is a nightmare. My suitcases weigh 84. I have to cut down to 70. And that's just GOING. Coming back after a few months....screwed.

FYI.

PS. If you haven't picked up on it yet. Here's the quick synopsis.

-We are moving to New Zealand on Tuesday.
-We have no jobs.
-We have no place to live.
-We have holiday working visas.
-This means we can be there for 12 months.
-Here is where you can catch up on our lovely antics and photos.

Questions?

T Minus the weekend...

We leave in four days. I have a list of things to do for every day taped to the wall. And at the end of every day as I cross off the day, and add all of the undone things to the next day.

Needless to say, the stress is building up. The nerves are too. Somewhat. It's like I am super excited to be there, I am not nervous at all about being in New Zealand, without a job, without a place to live, not knowing what the next day brings. I have zero problem with this. What does worry me, is that I won't be here at the same time. I can't take care of my house, I cant hang out with my family, and especially, the loves of my life, the kitties. Myla has been acting weird since we got back from spring break, and I have no idea how this will affect her. They have each other, and Chris will be here.

Thats another thing, who knows how long that will last. He is a homebody, and even if this is his home, I worry about how much time he will spend here, and how well he will actually take care of it. I will come back and find 3 month old dishes, the bathroom hasnt been cleaned once, and the sheets are beyond repair. Or he will leave a door or a window open and Olivia the Escapist is gone. Or that he will leave something out and they will get sick. See? This is why I can handle the unknown country of kiwis, but the fear of leaving here is MUCH worse.

I won't even get into the sheer terror of watching my bank account drop this low...thats a heart attack waiting to happen!

But anyways, I have a list to get to, and things to fret, but sometime soon, more excitement will kick in. I am sure of it!