~New Zealand~
Trip Start
Aug 25, 2008
1
4
Trip End
Ongoing
Napier,
North Island,
New Zealand
Friday, September 12, 2008
What a beautiful country!! From the moment we touched down in Auckland, I have seen beautiful scenery everywhere and met some amazing people. The views from our 7 hour bus trip from Auckland to Napier were breath taking and many seemed right out of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The forests especially are straight out of the movies. The mountains/hills are really lush and green considering it's winter here but are small and rolling and are covered with with sheep, cows or reindeer. The sky hadn't had a cloud in it since we arrived and is like looking at a reflection on the ocean, crystal clear and a bluey-green.
Our first full day in Napier, Jen and I were up relatively early considering we had been travelling for a day and a half ( Jen without sleeping!). After clearing the cobwebs out and glancing through the NZ books we brought, we walked from our suburb (Onekawa) to the main city center of Napier. It only took about a half hour and the city is so cute. It is famous for it's Art Deco style and it defenitely lives up to its fame. We also ventured out to the ocean and took some pictures of the rolling waves and the Napia statue. The water is clear and a little rough right now but it's blue colour stands out because the beach is a stone beach, no sand!
After spending 3 hours wandering the town and eating our first NZ meal (fish and chips) we headed back to our house to play with our puppy and go grocery shopping. Our puppy is a 9 month old pittbull named Sandy and she is adorable and loves to cuddle. Now those who don't know, New Zealand cars are opposite from those in North America, the roads are opposite as well. This means that you drive on the right side of the car and you drive on the left side of the streets...on our way to get groceries, we had to drive the car...and it was so weird! I drove while Jen navigated, which is funny considering I almost crashed into a shuttle bus in Hawaii while driving a vespa! But it wasn't really that bad just different and I dont expect it to take long for the two of us to get accustomed to the roads here.
At the house where we are housesitting, we are not alone! We have a roommate named Vicki who is a 25 year old Chinese woman who has been in Napier for 7 years. She was going to school here and she now works at a local sushi shop. When she got home from work and after we walked Sandy, the three of us made a very interesting dinner. We had sushi, a kimchi fritter, kimchi and pasta with meat sauce. Those of you who know me know that I really do not like kimchi but I have to admit that it wasn't that bad, the homemade version was better than the Korean I had.
The rest of the night was spent watching american tv until we all fell asleep...
pebble Beach
it was a good first day!New Zealand ~ September 4
up early and on our way to gisborne, like driving from vernon to vanc...except that the road was built along the most hilly place in NZ! Not only hilly but it twists all over the place, in and out of the coast and back into sheep infested hills. it was beautiful and we saw a ton of different animals along the way. just a little bit out of town we had the chance to stop at a hot spring and we took it. it was unreal and so nice after a weary treck. then it was off again to Gisborne...this time jen tries driving and did a great job. in gisborne we grabbed a bite at captain morgans burger joint and that was pretty good and then we walked along the beach to find some statues. the first being that of Nick Young, the cabin boy who first saw nz on captian cooks ship. the second was that of captain cook on a globe with a list of all of his voyages around the world. the final statue that we went to find took us up a cliff ( by car) to a statue of cpt cook that is in the wrong clothing and wrong naval markings. at the bottom of the cliff was a maori meeting house that jen and i were lucky enough to get a private tour of. the structure was amazing and the carvings were extraordionary. we headed toward town to wander around for a couple of hours and then we headed out on the road again toward home. seeing that the trip to Gisborne was "not great" in the morning light, we thought that night driving would be trouble so we headed out and about half way home, the weather turned and it began to rain - then the fuel light went on...it was one of those nights where you can't wait to get into a warm blanket with a hot cup of milo - so thats just what we did - as we watched Family Guy ( jen is now addicted - hahaha)
New Zealand ~ September 6
Jen and I started off kinda later in the day. After walking Sandy by the ocean and having breakfast, we lounged for a bit - kinda cloudy again today. then off we went to the cenntenial gardens. it is about a 5 minutes drive from our house and it is entirely man-made. it is beautiful and it has the most amazing waterfall at the back of the garden. we read about this weird hostel in town and seeing that is was across the road from the gardens, we just had to check it out! What was once a prison here in Napier and is now a backpackers. It also has a tour that you can do - so we did! The prison was in use up until 1993 and was over 100 years old before going out of commission. It was Napiers first and onldest prison and it is still in pretty good condition today. Jen and I took the tour at 3pm today (instead of the night tour) and we had a great time. The tour guide was very good and all the stories and events that she told us about were from former employees, priosonners or family members of either. The prison is extrememly small and still has many of the original gadgets and rooms, such as "the hole" ( small cut-out inside the wall of the prison, no bigger than a modern wahing machine. They still have the hanging yard, rope and gallery in a courtyard beside the "cemetry". The entire tour was great and was realy creepy from the stories that we were told...one of the couples in our group had booked the prison to stay in and by the end of the tour it wasn't looking to good for them - she was terrified and I think that the local comfort inn might have served them better for the night.
Instead of heading back home, we decided that we should do the art-deco walk that is in the Lonely Planet. It took about 40 minutes and it was really stunning to see all the art work and all the restoration that has kept them all looking to great. Feeling a little hungry, we stopped in at the Hog's Breath diner and had appy's before heading back to the house.
Returning from our prison adventure, our garden tour and our walk, we watched the wonderful "Who framed Roger Rabbit?"...what a classic - Jen fell asleep at the end ( she hasn't stayed awake to the end of any of the movies so far). I wasn't exactly ready to hit the hey just yet so I dragged Jen off the recliner and we headed into town to see the art-deco at night...not all that exciting i have to admit...nobody was around, i mean nobody, on a saturday night...weird. Back to the house and into bed to catch some zzz's
September 10~
Our most adventure in New Zealand was by far one of those days that years from now we'll look back on and think that "it wasn't soo bad" or "that's a lot funnier now". It all started with an early morning on the beach which went as usual. Then we were off to town for Jen's first interview of the day, at a bookstore. Hopes were high, attitudes were positive and then the interview - what a sham!! One of the ladies didn't bother to read the resume and the other shut down the interview after tell Jen that the position would be longer than Jen would be here. This is by no means a bad reason, however, they never asked when Jen stopped off the resume, when they called to confirm an interview or even hinted that there would be a time contidition on the position. Needless to say that Jen was not happy about this and so the next hour (at 9:40am) we watched Family Guy and ate chocolate cake.
Happily we headed out for the next interview of the day, once again for Jen. This one was at the YMCA in Hastings, the same position that I had interviewed for and got. As we are heading out in our lovely POS car, I start to realize that the car isnt exactly puttin along at high-speeds....300yards from Hastings our car runs out of fuel. Now i know what you are all thinking and yes we did out gas in it and yes we know how to read a gas gage...the problem is that the gas gage doesnt work and constantly shows empty. So here we are stading on the side of the highway with 10 minutes until Jen's interview. At this point in time, Jen turns to me and with a big cheesy grin says "I'm gonna hitch, I'm gonna try to hitchhike." I instantly begin my protest to this as a couple of cars pass us. Then it happens...we hear a car pullin behind us...and there in a rangerover sits a 40+ yrs man willing to give us a ride to the next gas station. Not only that but he also drives us back to the car, fills the tank and makes sure that we get it started! Nathan the Maori painter is the coolest person in NZ!
I have to say that from there everything started to line up and things finally fell in place. The rest of the day was great, Jen got the position at the YMCA with young kids and we celebrated with burgers at Rosie O'Grady's.
It was one of those days...and it had to happen!.
Jen's Navigating again
