Our car - why is the steering wheel over here?
A shopping cart escalator? Who knew?
View From Apartment
Can you tell which way the water swirls? Us neither.
Travis in front of Russell
Waiting for Lunch
The dock at Russell (dinner here Sunday night)
New Years Greetings All!
This is going to be a quick update.
The flight over to New Zealand was alright. There's nothing like Business Class!! We both got some good sleep with a little help from modern medicine (Ambien), so when we arrived in Auckland we weren't all that worn out yet.
We got the rental car and like typical Americans, we went shopping! Actually we needed a SIM card for the cellphone (so we can make calls around here at a semi-affordable price) and a cooler and some basic groceries. We picked up everything we needed and started on our 4+ hour drive north to the Bay of Islands. Traffic was horrible!
Our first day here we unpacked and explored town.
Our second day we decided to take a trip to one of the forests on the west coast (Tasman Sea side) and check out some very old and very big trees and get in some beach time. We didn't get back to the Bay of Islands until fairly late. Unfortunately we ended up crashing before the midnight fireworks (we're claiming jetlag!), so we hope everyone had a more exciting time welcoming in the new year.
Sunday we took a boat trip, in a 1600 hp Fastboat, to take a look at the Hole in the Rock and get in some more beach time.
We took the ferry over across the bay to the town of Russell for dinner.
Unusual/unexpected things over the past three days:
* A Duck Crossing Sign
* A horse wearing what appeared to be an overcoat!
* As much road-kill as you'd see on a typical Texas highway
* Paying for ketchup
The weather here has been great. A little bit of cloudiness, but in all, pretty terrific. We're paying $1.35NZ/liter for gasoline (and for the non-metric non-New Zealand currency converters, that's $3.44/gallon.) Food is expensive, even with the favorable currency exchange rate.
In all, we would say this has been a pretty great trip so far. Check back in a few days for our next update.
This is going to be a quick update.
The flight over to New Zealand was alright. There's nothing like Business Class!! We both got some good sleep with a little help from modern medicine (Ambien), so when we arrived in Auckland we weren't all that worn out yet.
We got the rental car and like typical Americans, we went shopping! Actually we needed a SIM card for the cellphone (so we can make calls around here at a semi-affordable price) and a cooler and some basic groceries. We picked up everything we needed and started on our 4+ hour drive north to the Bay of Islands. Traffic was horrible!
Our first day here we unpacked and explored town.
Our second day we decided to take a trip to one of the forests on the west coast (Tasman Sea side) and check out some very old and very big trees and get in some beach time. We didn't get back to the Bay of Islands until fairly late. Unfortunately we ended up crashing before the midnight fireworks (we're claiming jetlag!), so we hope everyone had a more exciting time welcoming in the new year.
Sunday we took a boat trip, in a 1600 hp Fastboat, to take a look at the Hole in the Rock and get in some more beach time.
We took the ferry over across the bay to the town of Russell for dinner.
Unusual/unexpected things over the past three days:
* A Duck Crossing Sign
* A horse wearing what appeared to be an overcoat!
* As much road-kill as you'd see on a typical Texas highway
* Paying for ketchup
The weather here has been great. A little bit of cloudiness, but in all, pretty terrific. We're paying $1.35NZ/liter for gasoline (and for the non-metric non-New Zealand currency converters, that's $3.44/gallon.) Food is expensive, even with the favorable currency exchange rate.
In all, we would say this has been a pretty great trip so far. Check back in a few days for our next update.
Sand dunes on the way to the big trees.
New Year's Eve beach time at Baylys Beach (after looking at the big trees)
Travis at the big tree.
Doug at the big tree.
Fashion God (suited up for the Fastboat trip)
The Fastboat!
Bay of Island Panoramic
Panoramic of Baylys Beach. What did you do for New Year's?
Sunday beach time at Otehei Bay.
Fastboat tour to the Hole in the Rock.