Town Names

We have been here for a little while now, and I have been struggling with one thing more than anything else.... how to pronounce names of towns. The towns are often named by the native Maori people which leaves the NZ newcomer confused. The town we are moving to is in a district called Whangaparaoa. The town Brandon has been working on is Aotea and Porirua. On our drive to Auckland we passed Paekakariki, Pouwhakaura, and Waiouru. Brandon has to be able to refrence these towns in his job and is constantly corrected. I was trying to pronounce different places that we were looking for houses, and Brandon just looked at me and said "ok Nell"... haha! There is also the record for one of the longest city name in the world that is held by NZ. It is... "Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu", which translates roughly as The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the climber of mountains, the land-swallower who travelled about, played his nose flute to his loved one. It is 85 letters long!! So needless to say, we are working on that!
There are more signs for road safety here than in the states. There are campagnes to slow down, be safe in intersections, and be cautious when passing. The speed limit never goes above 100 km/hr, which is roughly 65 mph. There are also electronic ticketing systems that take the license plate number and send you a ticket for speeding. The picture I posted is of the intersection safety ad. It has a wheel on it with "near miss", "miricle", and "death" writen on it and the sign says spin. don't spin. The tv version is the scary part though. There is a creepy looking guy that waits for someone to pull out in an intersection while a car is coming, then spins the wheel. There are several versions, but they show someone getting hit then the wheel stopping at death... it does make you think twice before pulling out though.

The spelling has also been an issue. There is different spellings for a ton of stuff. Tires = Tyres, Center = Centre, Color = Colour, and Curb = Kurb. And yes they do pronounce the "h" in herb. It makes me think of the tomato/potato song.

That is all for today! We are moving into our new place tomorrow, so I will have to wait to get internet hooked up there before the next posting...
Love you guys!

House & Jeep

So we went to find a car and house up in Auckland, and we did! The car is a white jeep wrangler. I love driving it :) It is a manual so I am shifting with my left hand. Definitely a change, but so much fun. The picture was taken at the beach that is close to the house we are going to rent. There are two beaches in walking distance. One on each side. Views of both of them from the house too. It has a yard for the puppies and a place to garden. It is beautiful. Some interesting things about the house is that it is 3 bedroom and 1.5 baths. It is an older home that was renovated. It has a tank for water that is collected rain. The entire house uses it... showers, drinking, toilet, and laundry. Many places in NZ are like that. But, check it out in the pictures. The first is of the back of the house. The next is of the view from the back yard. Then the front house is in the third, and the last is of the view from the front. We should be able to move in this weekend or next.

We were also able to catch a movie this last weekend. They are slightly cheaper to go to and the snacks are not marked up like they are in the states. The most interesting thing was that the seats were assigned. You go to a stand that you reserve your ticket and then choose your seat like on an air plane. You can upgrade your seat to a gold seat which is a lazy boy recliner and you get served drinks or dinner from waiters. Maybe we will try that sometime. That is it for today :) Missing everyone...Love you guys!

Turkey?

We have been trying several different places for lunch. We have had sushi that is incredible, Turkish food, and cafe style food with little sandwiches. The American restaurants have been pretty similar to those actually in the states, but I tried turkey for the first time here. I don't know if it was just a the subway, but it was like bologna. It looked like several bits of meat mashed together... and it was mushy.. overall not good. I have an overall distaste for fountain drinks here, too. They all taste off... like bad old tea grounds are soaking with the soda and they lowered the carbonation. But with all of that said... the salads here are incredible. If you order anything it is the freshest version of whatever it is.

We are going back to Auckland this weekend. I am meeting with someone about a car, and we are viewing a few homes. We have narrowed down the area we are looking to live. Hopefully we can get a place to call home here. The dark picture is of the sky tower in downtown Auckland. That was right outside of our hotel room. It contains a rotating restaurant at the top. It is also known for people that bungy jump off of it. People are really into finding extreme sports here. We probably won't be doing any of that any time soon, but we hope to take advantage of the camping, trekking, and water sports. Skiing is big right now since it is winter... maybe we will do more of that next year. For winter, it is not all that cold here right now. It is good to have a light jacket, but that is really it. I am hoping the summer is nice. That way we can have christmas on the beach. I know I will be making the turkey at home :)

Funny

On our road trip we saw a giant can on the side of the road. It was like a big soda can that said Kiwi Loo on the side, just a big port-a-potty on the side of the road. We also saw llamas, sheep, and cows. The sheep were funny looking... some fluffy, some shaved, and some little lambs. There were these huge deer too. In fact, everything is very large... weeds on the side of the road the snow capped mountain.

I was also able to drive on this trip. It is difficult to know if you are going the wrong way or not because the center strip is not always yellow. Many times it is a dashed white line, so it is an uneasy feeling when you first turn on a road. Especially since the signage for turning is different.

We met some nice people while we were looking for houses. Hopefully we will make it there this weekend and be able to settle on an area. Wish us luck! Love you guys!

Trip to Auckland

We went to Auckland this weekend. We made the drive which was just beautiful. Mountains meeting the sea with sheep farms... just way too good. We worked on our sheep impressions:) We drove through a town called Bulls where they had fun signs on every store front like avali-bull, eata-bull, unbelevi-bull... all sorts of things. Then we went up into the mountains where there was a ski town that was very neat. We noticed when we stopped for gas that you do not need to pay for it before pumping. We walked around downtown Auckland tofind some food, and there was a lot of people out even though it was late. The next day we started our home search. They rent the homes by the week. You still pay by the month but prices are quoted by the week. We have also been looking for vehicles. There are a good deal of cars that run off of deisel here.

The pictures are from trip. The first two are in neighborhoods we looked at... little too nice for us, but fun too look ;) The last picture is just a good one from the drive. We liked how the water met the sky. More to come! Miss you guys!

Dinner, Drinks, and Video

So last night we went out with a couple of Brandon's co-workers. We had drinks at a place called C3 then had dinner at Lagertown. We drank very good wine and had mussels. The mussels were really something to see, they were huge and had a green trim on the outer shell... looked different, but so good. We really got into great conversations about differences in accents, traveling, places to visit in New Zealand, where to live, and what to drive... Just a great night. After dinner the couple from Wellington showed us this hidden bar that was down some street in a sushi place that was really neat. Trying the video thing... I hope this works :) If it does there will be more to come.

Driving

So we went driving yesterday! We took out the rental car to a beach somewhere north of the city. It was very scary... we had so much adrenaline pumping. Brandon drove the car out of the city on highway 1 and 2. I sat in the passenger seat and I felt like I should not be taking my eyes off the road since I thought I should be driving. I tried to drive after we got in a neighborhood, but I only went a few blocks and made 3 turns and I felt I had to stop. The signs and lines are different so I think it will just take a little bit to get used to. Brandon did a really good job with it... I probably just made him more nervous screaming "keep left" after every turn :)
We also set up bank accounts yesterday. We got to talking with the woman setting our accounts and she was saying that there are also more cows than people here and a study showed that the cows farting caused more damage to the environment than the cars driven by people. Kinda funny! That is all for today :) Love you guys!

Botanic Gardens, Car shopping, and Loads of Walking

So, we started off our day going into Starbucks. The menu is different, but everything we had was good. We noticed the American chains are done differently here. For example, Burger King is like a 50's themed diner. Same food for the most part though. So then we went up an elevator (a lift here) in some back alley to get to a street behind the buildings. In America I would never do that, but there is this air of safety here considering the lack of crime. After following the terrace road, we made it to the top of the hill that supports most of Wellington.
We tried to follow this trail that is called the City to Sea Walkway, which literally goes from Wellington to the sea if you follow it the entire distance. We got lost a couple times and had to re-trace our steps, but it was fun :)

We finally started to make it to the gardens. It seemed like a lot of the plant life was huge. The pictures at the end really show what I mean. We saw the Australian Garden, the Succulent Garden, the Rock Garden, the Fragrant Garden, the Herb Garden, and the Rose Garden. My favorite was the Fragrant. The smells were just awesome. The next picture is of the view at the top with the circular rose gardens and the mountain views.

So then we started walking back into the city. We went along the harbor and passed through a farmers market that was just closing down for the day. That made us really hungry, so we found a burger fuel and got a late lunch. The food was so good. I had a chicken sandwich with avocado, jalapeno sauce, and tomato that I was not expecting to be good, but it was great :)

We thought since we were already on the far side of town we should look at the car dealerships there. It was Sunday after all, so most of them should be empty. We learned that Scottish people make terrible car salesmen to an American couple, and new cars cost double of what a used car costs. We kept trying to sit in the drivers side and then realizing it was on the other side of the car. The Scottish salesman was trying to sell us a car and it left us with blank stares as we tried to understand what the heck he was saying! We caught something about corollas being nothing special, but having plenty of room in the boot. So, we checked out everything then gave up and started heading home.

We stopped by the big grocery store on our way back. They have a few differences. They have a bar to let you in the front of the store, but you have to travel through the store to exit. (Like a turn-style). Then the prices are in NZ$'s with tax included in them (that is how everything is priced... even cars) and the weights are in grams for pricing. Seafood and some veggies are cheaper, but the imported spices and brand names cost more. They also charge to use a plastic bag, so we got some reusable ones and the give you a discount for bringing your own bags.

I will leave you with a few more pictures.. love you all!
Brandon in a Tree (literally a cylinder tree that you can climb on the inside)
Us in front of the flame of peace and a waterfall ( the flame was not lit?)
Me being a tree hugger to show the scale of the trees there.
There was a meditation lawn in front of an amphitheater.
Then the last two show the rock garden and the pre-historic look of a lot of the plants.

Phones, Walking, and Gift

These are pictures from our trip on the trolley up to the Wellington Botanic Gardens. We walked for awhile then turned around. Then we realized that we turned around just before reaching the actual gardens. So we are going back today to see the rose gardens and whatever else we reach. The picture with the stones is a clock. You stand at the date with your hands up and it says what time it is by your shadow. There are lots of different types of plants and bushes and flowers that we saw. There were a few birds, and they were very loud. There were loads of people there taking in the views, running, and a group of students gathered in a circle passing a guitar around and playing.

For breakfast yesterday we went to a cafe where we split an order of french toast. It was a work of art with layers of french toast, oranges, bacon, and a drizzle of fresh blueberries mashed into a syrup. I had a hot chocolate that was really good, too. For dinner we ate at the hotel restaurant. I had salmon over a tomato and mozzarella salad. Brandon had the Rib-eye.

We also were able to get phones. They are really great, too. They have video chatting... it is like skype on your phone. I did not even know that existed. We were able to keep numbers close to our ones in the states.

A big thank you the Willo, Mike, Lenox, and Lily for our kiwi package. Thought you might want to see how pretty the packaging was. We are going to have the wine tonight, but we already dug into the snacks!

Missing everyone :) Love you guys and thanks for reading!

Night out

Hey! Went out on our first Friday night here. They were having drink specials at the Loaded Hog :P Two for one Sol beers (like corona) and two for one bubbles (Champagne... took Brandon asking 4 times what the bartender was saying to figure that one out with the NZ accent meets NC accent) They played a lot of 80's and 90's pop hits including achy breaky heart, which everyone in the bar got excited when it came on. We ordered "hot" wings when we first got there for dinner. They give you the entire wing when you order wings and they were not hot at all... they were sweet, but still tasted good.

Brandon got me the flowers that are pictured. I was missing the states a little yesterday, and he wanted to cheer me up :) Today we are going to take a trolley up the mountain and hike around a bit. I will get some pictures and video of our trip to see something other than the city.

Skype works great out here. I am glad because I get to still see my family. So far I have skyped with Mom, Cliff, Willo, Keegan, and lets not forget Lenox and Lily! I hope to get Dad on today or tomorrow :)

That's it folks! Catch y'all tomorrow! Love you and miss you!

Day out in Welli

Today I went out walking around downtown Wellington. They walk on the other side of the side walk, too. I guess it makes sense, just a little different. I had a sandwich that had beets on it (that is common to have beets instead of pickles... not very tasty). I met Brandon for lunch down the street then made an appointment to open a bank account on Monday. We are trying to sort out cell phones. They are very difficult to sort out.

The picture is from our hotel room. It is of the harbor with the New Zealand flag. We walked around the harbor last night. It was very windy, but very beautiful. We had fish and chips with some local brew. It was very good. I have been watching some local television while Brandon has been working. I watched the news for 2 hours and there were no reports of any types of violence or any deaths in New Zealand. Only the report of a shooting in the states. This place is so peaceful. The news is like good morning america with less new to report and no morals ;) They are very openly spoken... hehe!

Much more to do! Missing everyone <3

Jet Lag and Groceries

We went grocery shopping for our kitchenette yesterday. The English muffins are the best I have every had (maybe due to the number of actual English people here). The Diet Coke is produced here and has a different label, but it tastes the same. Things seem to taste more like what is in them. Brandon had a chicken pie (like a pot pie) and the vegetables in it were really fresh. They drink L&P's and these lime/limon/orange mineral waters that are very refreshing.

In Wellington

We made it to our hotel room in Wellington. The flight from LAX to AKL was long, but we watched 3 movies together and ate dinner then breakfast on the plane. It was 5:45 am on Tuesday the 4th when we landed (we get to see the day before anyone else) and then went through customs. Everything checked out fine and we checked into our flight to Wellington, and then we ate at a sandwich shop. We have pesto pasta and a chicken/tomato/brie "rocket" which is a sub and a diet coke. The packaging was different, but it tasted the same. They advertise in the nuitrition section... "this irrisistable bottle contains...." :)

Once we arrived in Wellington we took a taxi to the hotel. I rode in the front, but since they drive on the other side I was where the driver normally sits. That was very strange! I felt like I should be breaking or dodging cars. The tax is included for all prices and people to not tip for anything here. So the price on the meter was the price we paid. It was also quoted in $/km. Lots of things to learn!

The use of terms like "good on ya mate" and words like "rubbish" on the trash cans will take some getting accustomed to, but everyone is very polite and laid back that we have met. On our way to get some food for our kitchenette. I will post pictures of the view from our room and the set up later. Missing everyone back home ;)

Leaving

We are flying out today at 10:30 from LAX. We are staying at Malia and Thad's house out here. A week ago we had our feet in the Atlantic Ocean and today we will have them in the Pacific Ocean. The weather has been perfect during our trip. It was so great to see family before we left. We ate awesome food every place we went.
Friday we were in Charlotte saying goodbye to Mom, Cliff, and Keegan and we played monopoly. Then left Saturday for OBX, where we saw Willo and Mike Dinner at the new restaurant was really great and ate a great homemade brunch before leaving for Virgina. For dinner we ate grilled fish at Mike and Pam's and were able to say goodbye to them and Matt. That night we made it up to Baltimore (after sitting in traffic that doubled our trip time). Monday morning we ate at a diner with Barbra and Ken. For lunch we went to Pat's house were she had made a pasta and salad meal with homemade meatballs. We then made the 12 hour drive to Chicago. Tuesday morning we went to Sue and Al's house. Colleen and Patty and their kids Megan, Tommy, and Paige were all there, too. We drove that night to rapid city (another 13 hours) to Cherries house. Cherrie had a dinner for us on Wednesday night and we were able to see Grandma and Grandpa, Shana, Niel, Meadow, Bruce, Joan, Jennie, Mike, Nick, Heather and the boys. Thursday morning we drove through wyoming to salt lake city. We made it to Vegas on Friday. We saw as many places as we could in 24 hours, but Vegas is very big... we still had a ton of fun. Yesterday we got in to California, and today we leave.
We will land in Auckland then catch a flight to Wellington.
Missing everyone already! Now I am off to play with Miller :)