Sorry for the lag, there hasn't been too much excitement lately. I do have some fun stuff to share though!
Rugby! We went to the USA vs. Australia Rugby Match here in Wellington a week ago. For those of you that don't know much about Rugby (like us), there are 20 teams in this World Cup Tournament. Australia is ranked 2nd, USA is ranked 17th. In other words, we were well aware that our team would most likely get slaughtered on the field. Elliot and I geared up with our USA flags and headed down to the waterfront to grab a beer before the match. We figured there would be a good crowd of USA fans, but we TOTALLY underestimated. We forgot to figure in the big rivalry between New Zealand (#1) and Australia (#2). Any kiwi All Blacks fan wanted Austraila to go down. They had lost in a big upset to Ireland, so another upset losing to us would have prevented them from going on to the next round. So, one of the few teams New Zealand doesn't want to meet in the finals was going up against the USA. If you haven't figured it out by now, pretty much all the kiwis were USA fans for a day! It was crazy! People were so dressed up, and in very elaborate ways. We saw grown men in American Flag spandex suits. It was awesome. We headed over to Chicago, which is one of the few American bars in Wellington. We expected a crowd, but we did not expect what we found. The place was decked out in USA decorations including giant flags hanging outside and red, white, and blue Christmas lights strung everywhere. You could barely move, let alone get to the bar to order a drink. We took in the scene, snapped a few pictures, then headed out to a less crowded joint (The Bull & Bear) for some food and beers (still met an American there though, which was cool). See some of the pictures from Chicago by clicking on this link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667368815/
The stadium is right on the Waterfront in Wellington, so we were pretty close. We started to make our way to the stadium and ran into even more crazy USA fans. Some of them were actually American, but the large majority were kiwis. As were were walking into the stadium we heard a group of people chanting. Once we got closer we realized what they were saying and joined in...
Leader: AMERICA!
Crowd: Fuck Yeah!
For anyone who hasn't seen the movie Team America (by the South Park guys), as long as you aren't easily offended, you really need to watch it. Not only will the above make sense, but it is a really hilarious movie.
The match went better than expected. Don't get me wrong, we lost, but it wasn't a blowout and we even scored some points! There were lots of USA chants going on, which was cool. We took a video of it so everyone could hear. It ended up that the people sitting next to us were Americans visiting New Zealand on their honeymoon. They were really cool and also knew nothing about rugby. They, like us, just got tickets because they figured why not, if we're there anyway we might as well go! They were from Portland, but originally from Alaska. We had a great time hanging out with them and even hit up a bar together afterwards. It was great to hang out with some more Americans, but unfortunately that was their last night before leaving. Hopefully we at least helped them enjoy it! On a side note, we met a couple of communists while at that bar. It was weird. Elliot was talking to this older guy, and so I started talking to his female friend. After a few minutes she began to elude to the fact that she didn't like that New Zealand gave us Visas to work in the country, and that we shouldn't be there. I was shocked. That was the first time anyone had been anything but accepting. I found out from Elliot later that he started having a political debate with the guy, and based on everything the guy was saying he was a Marxist. I didn't expect to find many communists in New Zealand. Weird but funny! Elliot couldn't resist a political debate with a Marxist, when would he have that opportunity again? The links below will take you to some pictures of the match, our friends for the night, and a video so you can hear all the USA chants :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627667374337/
http://www.youtube.com/user/EandLeeNZ?feature=mhee
Friday, September 30, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Lee Gets A Job!
I now have a job again. It was a nice little month and half of being unemployed, but I knew it couldn't last forever. My new job is probably as far from my previous analyst job as I could have gotten. I will be working in Front Of House of a brand new Cafe/Bar down the street from our apartment. The place is named Gasworks (it has to do with a historical power plant that used to be in Miramar). Basically, it's going to be a Cafe in the morning and afternoon, and then around dinner and after dinner it will serve more as a local pub/bar. I say "will" because it's not open yet. It opens next week. It's pretty cool getting in at the start of a new place. Everyone is training together, so no one looks like a dumbass when we don't know what to do! It's a pretty young group of people running it. I would say the owners and managers are between 30 and 40 years old. The other staff I am being trained with are pretty young as well. I would say I am on the older side of other employees. There are two other Americans too. The Americans are two guys from Florida who just graduated college and are also on working holiday visas. Most of the people seem pretty cool so far, so I am looking forward to hopefully making some friends. Last night we were trained on the FISH! philosophy and we had a beer training. Apparently Heineken is a premium beer here and it's poured differently then other beers. We had to learn a 7 step process to pouring and presenting the perfect glass. Tomorrow we will be trained on some of the Front Of House operations, complaint resolution, dress code and other small things like that, and at the end a wine training. It should be cool. The fun thing about this job is that none of us know who will be waiting tables, who will be seating people, who will be tending bar, or who will be doing anything else. We are all being trained to do it all, so hopefully that means they will switch it up every now and then!
Well, its a beautiful sunny day here, we just got back from walking the dog along the coast and enjoying some of the beaches. Not a bad gig I must say! Now we are going to make some burritos and Sangria and settle in. Hope everyone is having a great week!
Well, its a beautiful sunny day here, we just got back from walking the dog along the coast and enjoying some of the beaches. Not a bad gig I must say! Now we are going to make some burritos and Sangria and settle in. Hope everyone is having a great week!
Monday, September 12, 2011
Random Facts We've Learned
1. New Zealand has no major predators. No bears, no big cars, no snakes... nada. The worst thing you have to watch out for when camping are possums (see #2) and the very rare bush hog.
2. There is a big difference between a possum back home and a New Zealand possum. They are both pests, but they are much cuter in New Zealand (don't try to cuddle one, they are mean just like ours!)
USA vs. NZ Possum
3. There are very few poisonous spiders in New Zealand. Many say the "White Tailed" is the one to watch out for, but everything I've looked up shows them as harmless. The only 2 we have to watch out for are the Katipo and the Redback, which are from the same genus as the Black Widow. Bites are so rare that all the people I asked the other night about poisonous spiders to watch out for didn't even mention them!
4. Enough about nasty creatures. Here is another weird fact. In New Zealand, unlike anywhere else in the world, the person crossing traffic has the right of way to someone turning on the same side. Let me put this in US terms. You are at a light (pretend you are not allowed to turn on red, because you can't turn on red here), and you are waiting to turn right. The person coming the other way is waiting to turn left on to the same street as you. Instead of them having to wait until the traffic clears through, you, the person turning right, have to let them go first. It's really weird, because if you are going straight you don't wait for them to turn first, only if you are turning the same place as them. It certainly confused the heck out of us at first!!
5. Many of the products here are the same as the ones back home but just have a different name. We know they are the same because the packaging and commercials are identical, with only the name changed. For example, Aquafresh Toothpaste = Macleans Toothpaste, Febreeze=Ambi-Pure, Honey Nut Cheerios=Uncle Tobys Cheerios, etc. You get the point. They also use the same commercials, only they do voice overs so the people in the commercials have New Zealand accents. Imagine watching the Mucinex Mucas Man being kicked out of his house in the host lungs... only he now has a New Zealand accent. It's so funny
I'm sure there are a lot more, but I'm drawing a blank now. Anyway, will be back on later to show you some pictures of the awesome new walking trail we found less than a mile from our apartment!
2. There is a big difference between a possum back home and a New Zealand possum. They are both pests, but they are much cuter in New Zealand (don't try to cuddle one, they are mean just like ours!)
USA vs. NZ Possum
3. There are very few poisonous spiders in New Zealand. Many say the "White Tailed" is the one to watch out for, but everything I've looked up shows them as harmless. The only 2 we have to watch out for are the Katipo and the Redback, which are from the same genus as the Black Widow. Bites are so rare that all the people I asked the other night about poisonous spiders to watch out for didn't even mention them!
5. Many of the products here are the same as the ones back home but just have a different name. We know they are the same because the packaging and commercials are identical, with only the name changed. For example, Aquafresh Toothpaste = Macleans Toothpaste, Febreeze=Ambi-Pure, Honey Nut Cheerios=Uncle Tobys Cheerios, etc. You get the point. They also use the same commercials, only they do voice overs so the people in the commercials have New Zealand accents. Imagine watching the Mucinex Mucas Man being kicked out of his house in the host lungs... only he now has a New Zealand accent. It's so funny
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Road Trip!!!
DAY ONE - Wellington To Lake Taupo
Our destination was Rotorua, but we left with the intention of stopping somewhere along the way. We decided to pick this somewhere based on what peaked our interest on the way. The weird but awesome thing about this country is that it has pretty much every landscape in one compact area. As we drove we passed through mountains, forest, more mountains, farm lands (sheep mostly, along with cows and some horses), rolling green hills (filled with even more sheep), more mountains, and even a desert! The desert really threw us off because we didn't expect it. There were rolling green hills and mountains and then out of nowhere the landscape completely changed. Not a sheep in sight! We made a few road side stops to take pictures and stretch our legs. Of course there was a very old, very high, very scary looking train bridge, so we had to stop and take pictures of that. Anyone who knows the Koop boys knows you pay attention to things train related. Here is a link to some of the pictures we took along the way. Nothing too exciting, but we did get some sheep for you!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596325578/
When we arrived at Lake Taupo we were drawn to the water. The time of day and the clouds were just right to make it look almost like a mirror. It was very pretty. That was all we needed to see and we decided to find a motel. There was no shortage of choices, there was a whole street of them right by the lake. The problem here we had one thing that makes people with empty motels still turn us away...
Needless to say not everyone is a dog lover... or a lover of cleaning a motel room where a dog has stayed. The first place we stopped was called the Executive Motel (sounds fancy, but trust me, it wasn't). The nice German gentleman named Wolfgang immediately said No Dogs Allowed. Luckily he knew which motel along the strip did allow small dogs and sent us down the road to the Lake Front Motor Lodge. It ended up working out great too, because they were very dog friendly. Not only did we have our own enclosed "hot tub" room connected to our motel room, but it had a door leading to a little outside area that they had fenced in for dogs! It was great. The Mineral Water Hot Tub was a nice perk for sure. It even had a shower head so you could use it for a shower if you wanted. Here are a couple of pictures of the lake and our mineral bath (don't worry, you won't see me in a swimsuit... this picture is before we got in)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596309726/
DAY TWO - Lake Taupo to Rotorua
As we started our drive we found ourselves easily distracted. We would see a sign along the highway talking about a sight or attraction and turn off the path to go see it. It was nice to not have a plan or a schedule because it allowed us to stumble upon some great sites! First we followed signs leading us to a waterfall. Once we got there we got out and walked around, and it was beautiful. The water was high, and the rapids were rushing. It was very pretty and very loud. We found a bridge over the main part of the water just before the falls and stopped to take some pictures. If you stared at the water well below you for too long it kind of made you dizzy. Here are a few of the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471923453/
Then, after leaving the falls, we got enticed once again by a sign for a Geothermal park. This part of the country is ripe with geothermal activity, which is pretty cool. Basically, this is where the earth is hotter than the surrounding areas due to the presence of hot rock or magma near the surface. This heats the ground water and you find hot springs, geysers, and boiling mud pits. It's pretty cool. So, we followed some signs to a geothermal area and found "Craters of the Moon". It's a park where they have built paths around and between many craters that release steam, have boiling water spots, or a boiling mud pit. It was really cool because they created the paths so you could get as close as was safe. It takes about 1.5 hours to walk through. Here are some pictures we took
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596191890/
After a very long detour, we got back in the car and headed up to Rotorua. One important note about Rotorua is that it is nicknamed "Sulpher City". Basically, there is a side effect that comes with a city full of beautiful spas, mineral bathes, and geothermal activity... it smells like eggs. Certain spots were worse than others, but the smell lingered in the air no matter where you went. I can't imagine living somewhere that smells like sulpher all the time. Regardless, it is still one of the most highly touristed places in New Zealand, so we were ready to find out what the buzz was about. Once again we were faced with the motel situation. Luckily, I had found a place online before we left that said "Small Pets Considered". They allowed us to have Belle and then pointed out some cool stuff to do in the area. We planned on staying 2 nights, so we actually got to see more while we were there. Once we got all our stuff unloaded into the motel room we headed off to "The Redwoods Whakarewa Forest" (say that three times fast) for a walk through the giant redwood forest with the dog. This forest is known for it's towering Californian Coastal Redwoods with lots of hiking paths to suit all types of people. 170 tree species from all over the world were also planted in this forest, starting in 1899, which made it the first exotic forest in New Zealand. We picked one of the shorter walks and got the dog a little exercise. The water in some of the streams was very strange. Everything under water was the same color as the water. There was obviously some algae or something that stained anything under water, because if there was a branch partially in the water, the section under the water was stained the same color and the section out of the water retained it's normal color. One of the ponds we saw turned everything a gray-blue, and another section appeared more like a mud red. Here are some pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596318630/
After that we headed back to the motel room and freshened up we headed off to dinner. We tried to go to a place we had read about in the Lonely Planet book we have, but once we got there we saw how formal it appeared and felt entirely under dressed in our jeans and jackets. So we turned around and went to a place called "Breakers". We had some food and a bottle of wine and then went back to the motel for some much needed rest because we had some sightseeing plans for the next day!
DAY THREE - Still in Rotorua
On the advice of the Motel Desk clerk, we decided it was high time we saw a Kiwi Bird! Now, the problem is Kiwis are not only a small population in the wild, but also nocturnal. This means you pretty much have to go to a wildlife reserve if you ever want a chance to see one. We headed off to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park. In addition to the Kiwi, there were also lots of other animals including native birds, reptiles, and fish. One of our favorite birds was a kea named Jenny. She was a total ham. When you walked up to her cage she would show off with squaking, wing flapping, and funny movements. Then, as you tried to walk away she would jump down and follow you all the way down the fence and stare at you "crying" in a way as you left. It was so cute. Now, since Kiwis are nocturnal there were two parts of this experience. We saw the Kiwis in the nocturnal room, but they are behind glass. The other part of the experience includes returning at night where they allow you to go into the enclosure and the only thing separating you from the birds is a shin high wooden fence. Obviously we couldn't take any pictures, you had to be quiet and move slow to even get them to come out of hiding. One of them came all the way up to the fence and stuck his long beak out checking us out. It was pretty cool. So here are a few photos from the reserve where we were allowed to take pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471921157/
The other activity of the day was a trip to the "World Top 10 Spa" up the street. The "Polynesian Spa" had anything and everything you could want in a spa... for a price. And because of that price we stuck to a hot mineral bath. We did spend a little extra to get the Deluxe Private Pools that offered panoramic views of the Lake and had its own shower and heated changing room. It was really nice. We were dumb and forgot to take the camera, so I am just pasting a picture below from the website. It is as pretty as it looks too!
To round out the day (after the nocturnal visit to the Kiwis) we picked up a pizza and curled up in the motel room to cuddle with the dog and rest up for a long day of driving the next day.
DAY FOUR - Rotorua to Napier
We knew we wanted to stop somewhere between Rotorua and Wellington, but we weren't sure where. As we were checking out we asked the desk clerk if she knew of anywhere worth going on the way back to Wellington. She suggest Napier. Napier is a town on the coast with wonderful vineyards and great scenery. On the way to Rotorua we passed a sign for the "Rainforest Highway" that peaked our interest. We decided we would check that out first then head to Napier. Technically, according to the map, we could travel down that way instead of the main highway and still get to Napier. As we headed down the "Rainforest Highway" we we passed a sign warning of "95km of Winding Unsealed Road". We figured it would just be another part of the adventure. Boy were we right. First, I'm not sure what justified that as a rainforest, it just seemed like a regular forest on a mountain, but who knows. Next, by unsealed they mean winding, mountainous, sometimes gravel, hard to drive on road. If a sign warns of winding roads in New Zealand... where most the roads are super winding compared to anything I'd ever driven on, believe it. Their "winding roads" are our "if you don't have an SUV please skip this area" type of roads. We drove for about 2 hours and decided to stop for a leg stretch. According to the map, we were close to half way down the road. Oh, were we wrong. We decided to put Napier in the GPS and see how much longer it would take. The GPS kept telling us to "turn around" and backtrack the whole winding 2 hour drive. It would take us 5 hours to get to Napier that way. We decided to put in the name of the city at the end of the road on the map to see how much longer until we would be off those roads... The GPS estimated 6 hours!! To go 50km!! We knew that could only mean one thing, the road ahead of us would be far worse than what we had already traveled. Unfortunately, that meant we had to go back 2 hours on those crazy roads. After this grueling day of driving, we did finally make it to Napier, where we ran into the same motel issue we've had the rest of the way. After finding a "pet friendly" Motel we tucked in for the night. We were exhausted!
DAY SIX - Napier to Wellington
We woke up in the morning expecting to just get on the road... then we walked out to our car. We had a flat tire! That bumpy, windy, gravel road did more than just delay our drive getting here, it cause what we later found out was not just a nail in one part of the tire, but an actual hole in the side of the tire! In other words, we couldn't get it repaired, we had to buy a whole new one. It sucked. The good news is, as always, it lead us to something fun before we left. Elliot put on the dinky little spare tire and we headed off to find a tire place
When we got to the tire place he asked us to give him an hour. Luckily, there was a little farmers market going on right next to the place in their park. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we leashed up the dog, took her for a walk around the park, and then hit up the farmers market. The torturous thing about going to a farmer's market with fresh meat and seafood is that when you have a 5 hour drive ahead of you, you can't buy any! It was hard to resist. In the end we bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from a local vineyard that had a stand and 6 fresh chicken eggs. I've never bought eggs from a farmers market. It said no egg was older than 7 days, and they looked like Easter eggs. With no dyes or bleaches to make them look alike, it was cool to have a blue-green egg, a pink egg, a white egg, and a brownish egg all in the same package! Can you tell that I am easily amused. So, with our fresh eggs in tow, a new tire, and pretty day for driving, we headed home to Wellington!
Now, it's time to get a job.
Our destination was Rotorua, but we left with the intention of stopping somewhere along the way. We decided to pick this somewhere based on what peaked our interest on the way. The weird but awesome thing about this country is that it has pretty much every landscape in one compact area. As we drove we passed through mountains, forest, more mountains, farm lands (sheep mostly, along with cows and some horses), rolling green hills (filled with even more sheep), more mountains, and even a desert! The desert really threw us off because we didn't expect it. There were rolling green hills and mountains and then out of nowhere the landscape completely changed. Not a sheep in sight! We made a few road side stops to take pictures and stretch our legs. Of course there was a very old, very high, very scary looking train bridge, so we had to stop and take pictures of that. Anyone who knows the Koop boys knows you pay attention to things train related. Here is a link to some of the pictures we took along the way. Nothing too exciting, but we did get some sheep for you!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596325578/
When we arrived at Lake Taupo we were drawn to the water. The time of day and the clouds were just right to make it look almost like a mirror. It was very pretty. That was all we needed to see and we decided to find a motel. There was no shortage of choices, there was a whole street of them right by the lake. The problem here we had one thing that makes people with empty motels still turn us away...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596309726/
DAY TWO - Lake Taupo to Rotorua
As we started our drive we found ourselves easily distracted. We would see a sign along the highway talking about a sight or attraction and turn off the path to go see it. It was nice to not have a plan or a schedule because it allowed us to stumble upon some great sites! First we followed signs leading us to a waterfall. Once we got there we got out and walked around, and it was beautiful. The water was high, and the rapids were rushing. It was very pretty and very loud. We found a bridge over the main part of the water just before the falls and stopped to take some pictures. If you stared at the water well below you for too long it kind of made you dizzy. Here are a few of the photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471923453/
Then, after leaving the falls, we got enticed once again by a sign for a Geothermal park. This part of the country is ripe with geothermal activity, which is pretty cool. Basically, this is where the earth is hotter than the surrounding areas due to the presence of hot rock or magma near the surface. This heats the ground water and you find hot springs, geysers, and boiling mud pits. It's pretty cool. So, we followed some signs to a geothermal area and found "Craters of the Moon". It's a park where they have built paths around and between many craters that release steam, have boiling water spots, or a boiling mud pit. It was really cool because they created the paths so you could get as close as was safe. It takes about 1.5 hours to walk through. Here are some pictures we took
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596191890/
After a very long detour, we got back in the car and headed up to Rotorua. One important note about Rotorua is that it is nicknamed "Sulpher City". Basically, there is a side effect that comes with a city full of beautiful spas, mineral bathes, and geothermal activity... it smells like eggs. Certain spots were worse than others, but the smell lingered in the air no matter where you went. I can't imagine living somewhere that smells like sulpher all the time. Regardless, it is still one of the most highly touristed places in New Zealand, so we were ready to find out what the buzz was about. Once again we were faced with the motel situation. Luckily, I had found a place online before we left that said "Small Pets Considered". They allowed us to have Belle and then pointed out some cool stuff to do in the area. We planned on staying 2 nights, so we actually got to see more while we were there. Once we got all our stuff unloaded into the motel room we headed off to "The Redwoods Whakarewa Forest" (say that three times fast) for a walk through the giant redwood forest with the dog. This forest is known for it's towering Californian Coastal Redwoods with lots of hiking paths to suit all types of people. 170 tree species from all over the world were also planted in this forest, starting in 1899, which made it the first exotic forest in New Zealand. We picked one of the shorter walks and got the dog a little exercise. The water in some of the streams was very strange. Everything under water was the same color as the water. There was obviously some algae or something that stained anything under water, because if there was a branch partially in the water, the section under the water was stained the same color and the section out of the water retained it's normal color. One of the ponds we saw turned everything a gray-blue, and another section appeared more like a mud red. Here are some pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627596318630/
After that we headed back to the motel room and freshened up we headed off to dinner. We tried to go to a place we had read about in the Lonely Planet book we have, but once we got there we saw how formal it appeared and felt entirely under dressed in our jeans and jackets. So we turned around and went to a place called "Breakers". We had some food and a bottle of wine and then went back to the motel for some much needed rest because we had some sightseeing plans for the next day!
DAY THREE - Still in Rotorua
On the advice of the Motel Desk clerk, we decided it was high time we saw a Kiwi Bird! Now, the problem is Kiwis are not only a small population in the wild, but also nocturnal. This means you pretty much have to go to a wildlife reserve if you ever want a chance to see one. We headed off to the Rainbow Springs Kiwi Wildlife Park. In addition to the Kiwi, there were also lots of other animals including native birds, reptiles, and fish. One of our favorite birds was a kea named Jenny. She was a total ham. When you walked up to her cage she would show off with squaking, wing flapping, and funny movements. Then, as you tried to walk away she would jump down and follow you all the way down the fence and stare at you "crying" in a way as you left. It was so cute. Now, since Kiwis are nocturnal there were two parts of this experience. We saw the Kiwis in the nocturnal room, but they are behind glass. The other part of the experience includes returning at night where they allow you to go into the enclosure and the only thing separating you from the birds is a shin high wooden fence. Obviously we couldn't take any pictures, you had to be quiet and move slow to even get them to come out of hiding. One of them came all the way up to the fence and stuck his long beak out checking us out. It was pretty cool. So here are a few photos from the reserve where we were allowed to take pictures
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eandleenz/sets/72157627471921157/
The other activity of the day was a trip to the "World Top 10 Spa" up the street. The "Polynesian Spa" had anything and everything you could want in a spa... for a price. And because of that price we stuck to a hot mineral bath. We did spend a little extra to get the Deluxe Private Pools that offered panoramic views of the Lake and had its own shower and heated changing room. It was really nice. We were dumb and forgot to take the camera, so I am just pasting a picture below from the website. It is as pretty as it looks too!
DAY FOUR - Rotorua to Napier
We knew we wanted to stop somewhere between Rotorua and Wellington, but we weren't sure where. As we were checking out we asked the desk clerk if she knew of anywhere worth going on the way back to Wellington. She suggest Napier. Napier is a town on the coast with wonderful vineyards and great scenery. On the way to Rotorua we passed a sign for the "Rainforest Highway" that peaked our interest. We decided we would check that out first then head to Napier. Technically, according to the map, we could travel down that way instead of the main highway and still get to Napier. As we headed down the "Rainforest Highway" we we passed a sign warning of "95km of Winding Unsealed Road". We figured it would just be another part of the adventure. Boy were we right. First, I'm not sure what justified that as a rainforest, it just seemed like a regular forest on a mountain, but who knows. Next, by unsealed they mean winding, mountainous, sometimes gravel, hard to drive on road. If a sign warns of winding roads in New Zealand... where most the roads are super winding compared to anything I'd ever driven on, believe it. Their "winding roads" are our "if you don't have an SUV please skip this area" type of roads. We drove for about 2 hours and decided to stop for a leg stretch. According to the map, we were close to half way down the road. Oh, were we wrong. We decided to put Napier in the GPS and see how much longer it would take. The GPS kept telling us to "turn around" and backtrack the whole winding 2 hour drive. It would take us 5 hours to get to Napier that way. We decided to put in the name of the city at the end of the road on the map to see how much longer until we would be off those roads... The GPS estimated 6 hours!! To go 50km!! We knew that could only mean one thing, the road ahead of us would be far worse than what we had already traveled. Unfortunately, that meant we had to go back 2 hours on those crazy roads. After this grueling day of driving, we did finally make it to Napier, where we ran into the same motel issue we've had the rest of the way. After finding a "pet friendly" Motel we tucked in for the night. We were exhausted!
DAY SIX - Napier to Wellington
We woke up in the morning expecting to just get on the road... then we walked out to our car. We had a flat tire! That bumpy, windy, gravel road did more than just delay our drive getting here, it cause what we later found out was not just a nail in one part of the tire, but an actual hole in the side of the tire! In other words, we couldn't get it repaired, we had to buy a whole new one. It sucked. The good news is, as always, it lead us to something fun before we left. Elliot put on the dinky little spare tire and we headed off to find a tire place
When we got to the tire place he asked us to give him an hour. Luckily, there was a little farmers market going on right next to the place in their park. It was a beautiful sunny day, so we leashed up the dog, took her for a walk around the park, and then hit up the farmers market. The torturous thing about going to a farmer's market with fresh meat and seafood is that when you have a 5 hour drive ahead of you, you can't buy any! It was hard to resist. In the end we bought a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from a local vineyard that had a stand and 6 fresh chicken eggs. I've never bought eggs from a farmers market. It said no egg was older than 7 days, and they looked like Easter eggs. With no dyes or bleaches to make them look alike, it was cool to have a blue-green egg, a pink egg, a white egg, and a brownish egg all in the same package! Can you tell that I am easily amused. So, with our fresh eggs in tow, a new tire, and pretty day for driving, we headed home to Wellington!
Now, it's time to get a job.
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