Jeni Elise
23rd September 2007, 09:50 AM
We are doing great. Our hotel room is about 10'x10' total. That includes bathroom, closet, mini fridge, bed and tv with 5 channels. My hair dryer is running like crazy even on a low setting because of the high voltage. I think it's going to snap. The hotel is right downtown so we don't have to walk very far for anything. The harbor is just a few blocks away, there is a little Asian market a few doors down where we get fruit/vegetables, and a bakery right next to it where we can get bread. It's also right across from the Arena where we think the All Blacks rugby team plays.
Everyone here is friendly. When we left SLC up till we left LA every attendant and cashier was crabby and mean. Once we landed in New Zealand everyone is really nice and fun to talk to. The cab driver (prepaid when we got the hotel online) even gave us a quick little tour to the summit of Mount Eden, and pointed out some good places to eat. Funny thing, on the plane Jake fell asleep for about six hours and didn't realize it. He was surprised when he found out he had only a few hours left on the flight.
The weather has been very nice. It's cool in the morning, but mostly sunny, and warm when the sun shines on us. I heard someone say the first day we were here was a good day, but Jake heard the weather hasn't been very good the last few days. So we still don't know what it's going to be like. Because we moved to a low elevation our red blood cell count is high. We can run all the way up really long stairs, like the 60 ft climb next to our hotel, and not be even close to being out of breath. In a bit we will acclimate and, like Jake says, our super powers will disappear. We are trying to get out to rock climbing country to take advantage of this. We are finding that the best climbing is in the South Island about 8 hours drive. We might go there because we will already plan on driving to a climbing area about 5 hours in that direction.
Speaking of driving, we bought an 88 Nissan Vanette for $1900 NZD. There was a car fair yesterday where prices were very good. It's not what you would expect us to get, but it will help us get around with all the luggage we have as well as find out where we want to settle in for a bit. In other words, we'll be sleeping in the back of it. It's a pretty common thing here (at least for tourists I guess). It's diesel so we will be on the lookout for biofuel. There seem to be no emission standards here so it will be likely that we don't find any. The roads smell like horrible exhaust. It's really unfortunate. I'm sure that once we get out of the big city the smell will go away. Gas is also horrible. It's about $1.19 per liter of Diesel, so we figure it's about $3.50 USD per gallon. However, yesterday we drove to a few different bays, through a neighborhood, and around town and the mileage seems reasonable. Driving on the left side is a bit tricky - sort of like learning to drive for the first time. Even walking through intersections is difficult because it's hard to know which way to look. We will get it eventually.
Jake is working on getting all of the photos we've taken uploaded onto his website, www.jacobedwardshirley.com.
Our plan is to drive North a bit to visit some hot pools and anything else interesting we can find. Then we'll pop back into Auckland on our way to find some rock climbing areas a little further south. Eventually we hope to do even more climbing on the south island, so we'll head that way sometime in the next couple of weeks, after we pick up our scooter from the shipping company. Hopefully we'll be able to find jobs and get settled somewhere.
Everyone here is friendly. When we left SLC up till we left LA every attendant and cashier was crabby and mean. Once we landed in New Zealand everyone is really nice and fun to talk to. The cab driver (prepaid when we got the hotel online) even gave us a quick little tour to the summit of Mount Eden, and pointed out some good places to eat. Funny thing, on the plane Jake fell asleep for about six hours and didn't realize it. He was surprised when he found out he had only a few hours left on the flight.
The weather has been very nice. It's cool in the morning, but mostly sunny, and warm when the sun shines on us. I heard someone say the first day we were here was a good day, but Jake heard the weather hasn't been very good the last few days. So we still don't know what it's going to be like. Because we moved to a low elevation our red blood cell count is high. We can run all the way up really long stairs, like the 60 ft climb next to our hotel, and not be even close to being out of breath. In a bit we will acclimate and, like Jake says, our super powers will disappear. We are trying to get out to rock climbing country to take advantage of this. We are finding that the best climbing is in the South Island about 8 hours drive. We might go there because we will already plan on driving to a climbing area about 5 hours in that direction.
Speaking of driving, we bought an 88 Nissan Vanette for $1900 NZD. There was a car fair yesterday where prices were very good. It's not what you would expect us to get, but it will help us get around with all the luggage we have as well as find out where we want to settle in for a bit. In other words, we'll be sleeping in the back of it. It's a pretty common thing here (at least for tourists I guess). It's diesel so we will be on the lookout for biofuel. There seem to be no emission standards here so it will be likely that we don't find any. The roads smell like horrible exhaust. It's really unfortunate. I'm sure that once we get out of the big city the smell will go away. Gas is also horrible. It's about $1.19 per liter of Diesel, so we figure it's about $3.50 USD per gallon. However, yesterday we drove to a few different bays, through a neighborhood, and around town and the mileage seems reasonable. Driving on the left side is a bit tricky - sort of like learning to drive for the first time. Even walking through intersections is difficult because it's hard to know which way to look. We will get it eventually.
Jake is working on getting all of the photos we've taken uploaded onto his website, www.jacobedwardshirley.com.
Our plan is to drive North a bit to visit some hot pools and anything else interesting we can find. Then we'll pop back into Auckland on our way to find some rock climbing areas a little further south. Eventually we hope to do even more climbing on the south island, so we'll head that way sometime in the next couple of weeks, after we pick up our scooter from the shipping company. Hopefully we'll be able to find jobs and get settled somewhere.