New Zealand makes me smile
After a 10 day vacation in Fiji (photos to come as soon as we upload them) we arrived into Auckland a couple of days ago, a little later in the day as expected, and stayed in a motel pretty close to the airport. The innkeeper made us feel welcome by calling us ABOTs (Another Bloody Overseas Tourist) and then giving us a small carton of milk as a welcome gift, which after asking him why he was giving us such a unique gift he replied “don’t you have milk in the United States?” This made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We all took turns washing off the sweat and grime we had acquired in Fiji and then watched movies and ate Pizza Hut (yes our first meal in New Zealand was from Pizza Hut) into the wee hours before finally crashing.
Day 2 . . . we rented a car first thing and headed straight to Turner’s Car Auction. There were over 200 cars being sold and after registering we could take any car out for a test drive in their “race course.” I’ve never been to an auction before and overall it just made me nervous. BJ handled the bidding and I just stood by his side, heart racing for some silly reason, and kept asking him if he was ready to bid. We ended up “winning” a Holden Vectra . . . basically a dark blue station wagon. No stereo but it seems to run well.
While we were busy buying a car, Brad and Gretchen were busy running around town with our rental looking for camper vans. They have a month in New Zealand and plan to live out of their car while they visit the country. We, on the other hand, plan to head to the south island and actually rent a room somewhere . . . possibly in Wanaka, just outside of Queenstown. We would love to explore the north island but are feeling the need and urge to “settle down” on the south island. Unless B and G want to head south immediately we will probably part ways until late December.
We are currently staying at a recently renovated hostel in the Mt. Eden area of Auckland. The older houses, huge trees, posh shops and yummy cafes remind me of Berkeley, but we took a short walk to the top of Mt. Eden last night to overlook the city and all that came to mind was how similar the area is to Seattle. It’s definitely a large and bustling city but because it has so many smaller neighborhoods, the city feels welcoming and quaint.
Assuming Brad and Gretchen buy a van today or early tomorrow, we hope to head south tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day in the US). We haven’t figured out how or if we will celebrate the holiday but we may try to give the day a Maori (the native Kiwis) twist. Although I’m not really sure what that means.
I’ll leave you with a Kiwi saying I learned yesterday . . . Sweet As. No, I’m not saying “nice bum.” A young woman said this to me yesterday after I thanked her for giving me directions. It probably means something like “no problem.”