I'm sorry everyone

I haven't been updating this blog like I wanted to. I really wanted to be able to share all my experiences in New Zealand, but because it was Winter there wasn't a lot that I have done. So since it is Spring and going to Summer, eventually the blog posts will pick back up, I promise. I know I will have a lot of photos and experiences to share as I plan to hit the beach every weekend, and hopefully a different one each time!

Piha

So yesterday I got my wish and we FINALLY went to Piha! It is about a 45 minute drive or so from where we live, and after helping Sam and Natalia move in the morning, we took off to Piha with Royce and Laura because it was SUCH a beautiful day!

It was so beautiful there, lots of waves and mist form the waves crashing and big rocks... the biggest is "lion rock" which is called that because it looks like a Lion at rest.

We climbed over some rocks to get to the "lagoon", which usually has water in it but we were there at low tide. But I got to see some very pretty wave action crashing against the rocks, and we even went into a cave that goes out the other side to the sea. In the summer we are definitely going back and I can't wait!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: PARTNER It means: Girl/boyfriend. Kinda confused me for a bit lol

Fondue Night!

So this post was supposed to go on last night, but we got home late... so bear that in mind. Oh, and Kim... if you are reading this, yes... I am going to talk bout food. Again. LOL

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!

So tonight we went to Kiwi's parents house to celebrate Kate's birthday, and of course it had a theme. :) FONDUE NIGHT! Everyone brought a different fondue dish, and we all sat around a big coffee table on pillows and dug in! Kiwi's parents even had their original fondue set from the 70's complete with awesome retro colors, and mushrooms, flowers and everything. It was pretty sweet.

We had a realllly yummy bread dip that Martin and Sharelle brought, and then we had cheese fondue (a la Kate and Adam) and beef stock and sherry (care of Kiwi's parents). We had so many different things to dip... slice beef, lamb, veggies, bread, cocktail sausages... we were so stuffed.

After "dinner" we played Cranium... girls vs. boys. Hmm... I wonder who won... ;) GIRLS :D

After the game we had the dessert... chocolate fondue (care of Kiwi and I). We brought strawberries, pineapple, kiwifruit, fingerling bananas and croissants (thanks to Kiwi's dad for the mini croissants!). It was a free-for-all with the chocolate, not a drop left! SO good.

In one month, we will be hosting a theme night at our new place, so we have to think of a good theme! Suggestions are encouraged!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: PASH It means: to kiss

Fast Food in New Zealand

So apparently having a normal Monday-Friday office job is not conducive to writing on my blog! So I have decided to try and write on every Sunday (Saturday for you folks back in Canada). Hopefully this will keep me accountable to writing in my blog, and then everyone knows when there will be a new post!

So obviously this is Thursday, not Sunday but I decided if I am going to post my idea of a once-a-week blog, then why not continue on? So here's my topic: Fast Food in NZ.

MCDONALD'S

So as shown in the photo above, I thought it was quite cute that the McDonald's logo has a Kiwi underneath it... much like how in Canada there is a Maple Leaf there. McDonald's in NZ is quite like it is in North America, although they have a wonderful creation that is the Deluxe Cheeseburger. Instead of mustard (ewwwwwwwwwwww) they have Mayo and lettuce. AND it's cheaper than the regular version! As well, they do "Family packs" which make me giggle. Finally, they have a limited burger I haven't seen yet called the "Kiwi Burger" which has a slice of beet in it and a fried egg. I will definitely be writing about this one when they offer it!

KFC

Okay... so think of what Tim Horton's is like in Canada... that's KFC here. During dinnertime, the drivethru is PACKED all the way through the parking lot and out to the road! It's seriously popular. The downside to KFC here is that it is VERY greasy, totally tastes different than back home. And the french fries are different too, not as crispy and they are coated in "chicken salt". Apparently that's a popular thing.

BURGERFUEL

This word is synonymous to HEAVEN. It is seriously the best burger I have put in my mouth since the Kobe beef mini sliders at the Wynn when I was in Vegas with my big brother. And we're talking a seriously massive burger! Most of them have aioli, avocado, bacon... and other things. You have to put your burger in what is called a "doofer", which is a cardboard holder for your burger because it is so massive! Their fries are to DIE for ... I crave them sometimes. AND this may shock a few of you, but I don't eat them with ketchup... no at Burgerfuel you eat them with aioli. Mmmm....

WENDY'S

Nothing really to report here, tastes the same, same fries, same burgers... only difference is that the Frosty I got was vanilla, not malt. :(

So, suffice to say that although I have experienced the fast food here when we arrived, it's only on occasion now. Since we just moved out and are paying rent and all that good adult stuff, obviously it is not a luxury we can afford... as well as we are trying to eat food we make at home. Burgerfuel ends up costing almost $40 for 2 burgers, 2 spud fries, 2 aiolis and 2 drinks :P

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BUZZY It means: Cool, but interesting (freaky) at the same time

Auckland and Rainbows

So for all of you out there who LOVE it when the sun breaks through the clouds after a rainstorm has ended, and a beautiful rainbow appears... you would LOVE Auckland!
Literally, there is at least 1 rainbow a day right now... probably because it is Winter and is always rainy but sunny too!

I took this picture of the Auckland skyline... the rainbow is faint and it was taken with my iPhone, but if you look real hard it's there!

My desk is at a window so it's lovely to look out at the nice weather *lucky me to get a window!*

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: HUNGUS It means: Hungry As F*ck :P

LONNNNNNNNNNNNG overdue!

Wow, I am sorry everyone... life has been so hectic lately that I have had absolutely no time to update my blog! So I guess I need to update everyone on how life is going in New Zealand!

- I am currently still working at Telstraclear at reception, and will be moving into a data entry/administration role starting next week. It is GREAT money, less customer focused but the people that I will be working with are a lot of fun! This role is a fixed-term contract, which works out for me as far as my Visa goes so far, but hopefully can turn into something else permanent soon!

- I have been coming along swimmingly with learning to drive a manual car on the other side... I basically have my own car which is our cute little VW Polo "Heidi". I should be driving myself to work possibly starting this week!

- Kiwi and I adopted a kitten from the SPCA. For those of you who do not have Facebook, here is the story:

Kiwi and I were driving home one night and saw a little kitten on the side of the road. We turned around to save him from the busy street and he immediately took to us. He was a very happy and love-y kitten, purring and meowing and happy as a clam. We bathed him and fed him and when we realized we would not be able to take care of him at the moment, we took him into an overnight Vet to take him in so the SPCA could take him in the morning. We were instantly attached to him and even called him "Tuck". We checked on him at the SPCA, knowing how cute he was he would get adopted out soon after... and then Kiwi's parents told us that we would be able to adopt him. We were so excited, and even went to the SPCA to visit him, he looked happy and purred when he saw us, and we only had to wait 3 days to get him! With 1 day left, and everything bought for him to be ready when we took him home the next day, the unthinkable happened. The SPCA called me while I was at work to inform me that Tuck was too sick to be re-homed and would have to be put down. I was absolutely crushed, and called Kiwi to tell him. Kiwi was crushed too, and we didn't even know what to think.
Later on in the afternoon, with only 20 minutes to closing time to spare, we went to the SPCA. We wandered around the cats and kittens waiting for one to really catch our eye, when this little marbled white-tabby sat up and waved at Kiwi. They say when you go to the SPCA they pick you, and she definitely picked us. The SPCA, knowing that we were the ones that were supposed to have Tuck, stayed open extra just to make sure we were able to adopt her.

So to sum up, we are now the happy and proud owners of "Leeloo Dallas Multipass" (or Leeloo for short). She is snuggly and happy, purrs ALL the time with the loudest purr you've heard come from an 11 week old kitten and is the cutest thing ever.

- We are house-hunting for somewhere to rent, hopefully to get our own place in the next few weeks. We went shopping and I even got the duvet set that I wanted!!! (And for 50% of the original price!) Woot!

- We are almost at 6 months together and I couldn't be happier. Kiwi is the best man I have ever met and he makes me the happiest I have been in my life. Took going halfway around the world but it was worth it to be with him.

So that about gets everyone up to speed.
I will try to make more of an effort now that things are about to settle down into a better routine. :)

Kiwi word of the day: GUTTED. It means: crushed, heartbroken, REAL sad.

For my Uncle

This post is to remember my Uncle Lyle, who passed away on Friday in Canada.

My Uncle Lyle is someone in my family who I wish I could have gotten to know better through the years, but circumstances stood in the way of this. I always remembered being younger and getting the odd phonecall for my Dad from Uncle Lyle, he would ask how I was doing and chat it up before I passed the phone on.

During recent years, I got to see Uncle Lyle more, although his health wasn't doing so well. Sometimes he was working with Dad and I even remember him helping Dad put together the custom computer desk at my place.

I have this jewelry box at home that he made for me, and Alisha has a matching one. I would never get rid of it, it's a beautiful box, and it means so much more to me since he made it.

My last memory of Uncle Lyle is that of my going-away to NZ party... the first of my favorite moments of the night was Kiwi making "mini Guiness" shots and him, me, Dad and Uncle Lyle all had one together. The picture is quite funny as Uncle Lyle is almost sipping it, Dad's already downed the whole thing. I think Kiwi was right on his heels, and I'm doing what Uncle Lyle is doing.

But my most favorite memory of that night was the fireworks. I got called outside by my Dad and Kiwi and Uncle Lyle had a surprise for me. He had gotten some fireworks... roman candles, sparkly things and the like and set them off for me for my going-away. It was so cool at the time, and now that I think about it, a really great memory to have. He was smiling like a little kid and I am so happy for that memory.

In closing, although I do not wish to publicize the situation surrounding his passing, I do wish to tell everyone that you all need to hold family dear. This is the first time this has happened to me, and it is extremely hard to deal with. Although I have experienced death in my family before, nothing like this and no one as close as my Uncle.

I hope you have found your peace, Uncle Lyle. We all love and miss you very much.

Worky time!

So for all of you who do not have me on Facebook, I now have a job. Albeit, a temporary one... it's a reception job for the nation's second-largest telecom, called Telstraclear. I am currently the frontdesk receptionist. So basically, I get to come to work dressed up and in heels, answer phones, check in visitors for meetings with all sorts of higher-ups, help out with some computer stuff and sit on Facebook and Yahoo news, etc. all day long. My days are 9.5 hours long, and it is a beautiful building with a huge atrium and a fountain... nice.

As far as interacting wtih the visitors/employees... I have had many different occasions in which I have been asked where I am from, and that I have a "beautiful accent". LOL. I have been asked multiple times where my accent is from and its such a trip being from Canada/North America that we are not used to being asked that! There is a guy here from Texas, although his Texan accent has a Kiwi drawl to it now... and he is really nice. We are "team North America" and we get along quite well. He even said how awesome Canada did for ice hockey in the Olympics, even though he's bitter about the USA losing. *hahaha*

And today I got told I'm an awesome receptionist and they never woulda guessed that I am only a temp... that they thought I would have been here for months. Aww... made me feel good!

So other than sitting all day kinda hurts the bum.. it's been good. Can't complain, its good money. (Although I am driving FAR to get here!)

Hmm... Kiwi isn't here so how about I will put a Kiwi word of the day I hear here ALL the time: CHEERS. I'm starting to use it now. Someone's going native. ;)

New Zealand sure has interesting signs!

This sign is on most garbage cans near beaches. I saw my first one in Kawakawa bay, but this one was on Eastern Beach.

I think basically it proves that New Zealand doesn't subscribe to the North American "PC" culture. And it's funny!

A lot of TV commercials are like that, as well as news reports and print ads. One news report that I was shocked at was a description of a criminal as "fat build". LOL... in Canada it wouldn't be like that!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: MACCA'S. It means: McDonalds. :P (It's even used in actual McDonald's ads!

Bug Blog #2!

Didn't think I would get another chance for a while to blog about another bug until this one literally dropped in!

I was Skyping with my sister and heard a rustling noise coming from the window... I looked over to see a green sticky thing crawling through the blinds. I realized what it was and told Kiwi to come see.

My very first Praying Mantis in New Zealand... in my room!

She is quite pregnant and seems to be ready to lay her eggs... Kiwi picked her up with a piece of paper and put her out the window, and she was clinging to a leaf all safe and sound. She was pretty cool to see when you have never seen one before, her little feelers all moving and she was looking at me.

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: "SHE'LL BE RIGHT". It means: "everything's ok".

Fun in New Zealand!

So I decided it would be fun to take pictures when I can of interesting things that come up during my normal daily routine in New Zealand. And everytime I have passed this sign it makes me giggle a little... it may be partly because we don't have signs like this in Canada, but I mean who wouldn't laugh just a little when they see an "aged persons crossing" sign when they are not from the country?

So here is the first in hopefully many pics that I can show everyone of some of the interesting and different things that New Zealand has to offer!

Kiwi is not here (at work) once again to give his word of the day... so I will have to come up with one again:

WINGE. It means: to whine

Sorry for being boring right now guys!

Hey all who follow my blog!!

I haven't lost interest in blogging at all, I have just been so boring lately there hasn't been much at all to blog about! So instead of boring everyone I figured I would wait to post about something interesting!

The job search is going okay, I finally got my first call today and there is an interview on Tuesday! I will keep everyone updated on how that goes!

Other than that, that's about it. My days are pretty boring now that Kiwi is back to work... I wake up late and sometimes they aren't boring when I go out with Kiwi's mom shopping or something... but mostly spent on my laptop job searching.

And Kiwi isn't home to give me a word of the day!

How about... "Dear" (I dunno if that's how it's spelled...) it means "expensive". :)

Kawakawa Bay on Anzac Day

So today was Anzac day, which is the New Zealand and Australian Remembrance Day. (ANZAC is "Australia New Zealand Army Corps) (I think haha)... I wanted to get up in the morning and go to the Dawn ceremony but apparently it's literally at dawn, so we would have to been up at 4am and heading out... suffice to say we slept until 9:30am. :(

Later on in the day, Kiwi's dad Rod was going kayak fishing out in the bay so he said we could come and sit on the beach and stuff so since it was 21 degrees today... why not?!

We headed out to Kawakawa bay and after he got going out into the water, we drove out to a point and climbed down the cliffs (there was a small path) to the water and chilled out for a bit. The scenery was beautiful in the area and I am proud to say these pics were taken by my trusty Canon Rebel Xsi digital SLR... my baby. LOL. I haven't gotten to use her yet so I was happy to get out and get some shots!

After the climbing round, we went and got some ice cream (hokey pokey for me of course) and we laid on our towels and chilled and waited for Rod to finish up fishing. He came back with 2 Snapper which is being cooked for our dinner as I type! (YUM!)

It was a really nice day out and got to see another part of New Zealand I haven't been to yet! On the way back we saw Water Buffalo (too far off to take pics though) that are raised for their milk for mozzarella and yogurt.

What a great day!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TOGS. It means: Bathing suit/trunks (is unisex).

Auckland Museum

So I was tired of the last couple days being cooped up in our room recuperating from my whole tooth ordeal... so after watching "Band of Brothers" and then watching "Saving Private Ryan" we decided to go to the Auckland museum to check it out. They have a nice War memorial museum part to it... so we wanted to go.

We wandered around the other parts for a little while, then made our way up to the War memorial. It was really cool, and sometimes made you a little quiet to see some of the stuff. For example, underneath a very large (real) Nazi flag was a collection of about 4 shelves FULL of Nazi pins. It was quite sobering! (And there was what seemed to be a "Hitler Youth" knife which was kinda scary....)

Some of the items in the museum were spattered with blood which made them kinda creepy, but there were some really cool items on display. And if you have watched any form of WW2 movies or shows you recognize them right away... like if you watched Band of Brothers it was cool to see the German Luger.

Auckland museum boasts not 1 but 2 WW2 airplanes... the Spitfire was cool but the Japanese Zero was cooler, especially with the story about the pilot and all his belongings that he donated, as well as on the wall there is a map of New Zealand... in Japanese. The Zero had actually been in combat whereas the Spitfire seemed it wasn't. As well, the Zero was being equipped to be a Kamikaze plane when the ground crew delayed repairs because they knew it would save the pilot's life... and it did because when they delayed, the war ended. Good on them! (Also because it saved other lives as well.)

So all in all it was a pretty good trip.. I love History stuff, especially WW2 history. :)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BRILLIANT. It means: Excellent ... (I hear his mom say it all the time!)

Don't like dentists? Don't read on...

So I went to the dentist today (oral surgeon to be precise) for a consult... and he was like "so, I can do this now". I was TOTALLY not in my "I wanna have a tooth yanked" mindset... but decided wtf. So I go in sit in his chair and he comes back with a needle for a sedative and proceeds to tell me "my you have nice veins, do you do sports?" and I replied yes... I guess my veins are so nice that I didn't feel the needle but the sedative hit me fast and the lights started looking funny. He then brought my favorite *sarcasm* freezing needles and started to freeze my face. I will spare everyone the details because I simply don't remember them clearly because of the sedative but I did remember however unfreezing during one part and had to get more needles because I felt it and boy it wasn't nice. After, his assistant or wife or whatever took me to a bed and put me under a blanket and I waited for Kiwi to come get me.
I just woke up after sleeping for a bit, we watched a couple of episodes of "Band of Brothers" (which oddly I have never seen and I LOVE World War 2 stuff), and I fell asleep for a while. Just woke up and I can feel everything and I only get to eat liquid or soft food so I am eating Miso soup right now and get to have potatoes for dinner. :P

Kiwi doesn't have a word of the day. :P

Japanese Night! :)

So we had our Japanese themed night last night, and it was a lot of fun! We dressed up and each cooked (or rolled) our own dishes... Kate and Adam did vege tempura (tempura broccoli is YUM) and a chicken dish, Rod and Deb did sushi and Kiwi and I did "Fat Elvis" which if you have been to The Eatery in Vancouver... it is heaven! It is deep fried tempura avocado with unagi sauce and japanese mayonnaise on it. It was a great hit, the plate was cleared!

We had birthday cake after for Rod, Kiwi's dad and I iced it as a Snapper, because he loves to go out and fish for them :)

After which we played some Speed Scrabble and then poker. In the end, Kiwi was the winner with a full house, Aces over Kings... it was a hand to be reckoned with for sure...

It was a really fun night and I'm looking forward to the next night... Canadian night!!!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BONNET. It means: Car hood

Bad day :(

I didn't wanna blog about it, but being as I can barely talk right now, I think typing is the only thing I can do.

I woke up earrrly this morning in pain, one of my crowns had been giving me a small amount of discomfort and seemed to be loose the other day... but this morning my face and gums were swollen and it was definite tooth pain. Kiwi called his dentist right away and they had a space for me 30 mins from when he called so we went in. After a small exam he prescribed me some antibiotics and gave e some options... and the option I am going to take as soon as the infection subsides (yes, ANOTHER kind of infection!) is to get the thing yanked out of my face. Obviously the root canal has failed... and I am not spending thousands more on it for it to fail again and be back at square one... plus its gold! (I have a pirate tooth lol)

So I am currently lying here in bed, waiting for some painkillers to kick in and just scarfed a couple cupcakes because my one antibiotic requires food (and not allowed to have booze! Lamesauce.) and although sweets don't seem like a good idea right now, they damn well taste good, and I don't care. :P

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: CAPSICUM. It means: Peppers (as in green peppers, yellow peppers, red...etc.)

My new toy

Oh right, I almost forgot to show everyone my new toy, in which all of my blogging is done on. :)

Road Trip to Rotorua!

So I have figured out a WAY better way to share my pics of my comings and goings in New Zealand! I am still working out the bugs but a slideshow is a much better way to go!

So we got back yesterday from Rotorua, we had a nice relaxing time and although we couldn't do what we wanted to do originally, we are going to go back soon!

We went to the Polynesian Spa and enjoyed relaxing in the acidic pools and alkaline pools... the hot pools are amazing! Then we had our own dinner we made in our hotel room (Kiwi did it up!) and left the next morning.

All in all, it was a nice time :)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: PAKARU. It means: Something that is broken.

Good day today!

Well, I'm sitting here typing my first blog on my brand new MacBook, in my hotel room in Rotarua in which we just drove in our new (to us) 2002 VW Golf Polo. We also got a phone (finally!!!) and as much as I wanted a Blackberry, it's not smart in New Zealand. (Too expensive and slower service... so I got an iPhone 3Gs.

We had a shower and are waiting to go to dinner in about 30 mins.

It's been quite the week dealing with my bank about my money... turns out the teller in Canada stupidly put the same account number in the sending and receiving banks so it was messed up from the get-go.

So I got woken up by Kiwi this morning telling me we were going shopping... I thought I was dreaming.

So if you have an iPhone, I have MSN on it as well as ping! lite app so I can keep in contact with anyone in Canada those two ways.

MSN- twistxofxfate@hotmail.com

ping! lite- twistxofxfate

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BUGGER. It means: Shit! (LOL)

Thai Night! (Ok a few days late...)

I just realized I forgot to post about our Thai night that we attended!
Fortnightly (hehe) there is a themed dinner night, held at a different couple's house, so on Monday we went to Martin and Sharelle's and had THAI NIGHT! Everyone made a dish and brought it over. For myself and Kiwi, we picked a salad, and Kiwi made it (he was so proud of it!).

Kate and Adam made a (from scratch!) beef curry, Martin and Sharelle made a chicken and vege curry, and Kiwi's mom and dad made peanut chicken satays. We also had some little appies as well. It was quite a great spread and everyone did a great job!

We also got to wear ties! it was Martin's great idea... he brought down some ties for all of us to wear on our "thai/tie" night.

Afterwards we played a game called "Quiddler" which was a ton of fun. Pretty close game up until the end when I beat Kiwi for the win ;)

(You can't beat the word "mountainous" when it uses all your cards, is the longest and well, thanks to Kate for the help. )

Looking forward to the next theme night, which is JAPANESE!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: Going for a BLAT. It means: take a little drive

Yummy dinner!

Last night I had the privilege of having a wonderful dinner cooked by Kiwi's dad, Rod. He went out on his kayak earlier in the day and caught some Snapper, so for dinner we had super fresh crumbed snapper with salad. I am pretty picky when it comes to fish and this was very very yummy! Thanks again Rod :D
Today being Easter Monday we are all chilling, not sure of what we will do today, and we are still waiting for our wire transfer. :( My bank back home was awesome up until now...
We are doing our road trip up to Rotorua hopefully this week when the money shows up!!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: SWEET AS. It means: An exclamation or confirmation, kind of as a positive affirmation.

Bug Blog!

So today has been pretty chill, what with a nasty sunburn and not being able to be out in the sun with it. So I've had a nap, checked out some sites and then we got called downstairs to see:

A Weta! Apparently these guys can get pretty massive but this was just a smaller one... didn't move while we examined it (yes and I was a little apprehensive too). Just to show you the size, here is the Weta by Kiwi's dad's finger:

After that, apparently there was yet another insect to discover... a Stick bug! I think it's obvious how he gets his name...

Aaah bugs. Woo. HAHA... well they are interesting only because they are not anything like I have ever seen before. I still stood a good distance away just in case they jumped. Apparently the Weta will bite... I don't need that one!

Off for a walk on the beach!

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: BOLLOCKS (I'm pretty sure I don't need to translate it, but just wanted to point out it was used in the paper.. on a headline. Apparently it's not really a swear anymore according to a poll. LOL)

SUN! SAND! SURF! SWIMMING! SALTY! :P

So on Saturday we woke up earlyish and drove out to Nik and Lynn's to meet up with them and head out to Goat Island. We stopped on the way in Matakana for a Farmer's Market, and then just before Goat island for some Fish and Chips. (We had to pay $1 for each portion of Ketchup! Boo-urns!)

So after lunch we headed down to Goat Island. (No there are no Goats on it, it's just a name. I think there was a Chicken Island too around that area... there are a lot of little islands.)

So we found a good spot to chill and jumped in and went swimming! It was a tad cold at first, apparently during the real summer it is warmer but being it is fall now, you have to get used to the cold. Nik did that easy for me by splashing me... :P So Nik, Kiwi and I swam and Lynn chilled on the beach taking lotsa pics for us and taking in some sun.

We also went searching on the beach for things, found some awesome shells, sea glass and played with little starfish. It was a seriously fun day, and I had a great time with Nik and Lynn. we were totally all exhausted and sunburnt by the end, but fun times were had by all. I can't wait to go again! :)

Housesitting and weekend plans!

So we are housesitting for some awesome peeps-Martin and Sharelle. We have to feed their cats (who are black and white and quite meowy lol) and we can watch movies on their awesome projector TV (which we did with the lovely Kate and Adam and a tad grumpy Regan) and we watched a movie and had a couple drinks. Their house is quite beautiful and we are very priveleged to get to spend a little time in it. Kate made us an awesome dip that I don't really know what its made of but is apparently "very Kiwi".
Tomorrow we have plans with Nik, Lynn, Sam and Natalia to go to a Farmers Market and then to Goat Island for some snorkeling. I'm pretty excited, hoping for some decent weather!

Bedtime... but as per a request and because I always do it now...

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: JUDDER BAR. It means: speed bump. LOL yeah that was an interesting one, there are signs for them too! :P

Adjusting!

Managed to stay up until 1am last night! Funny though, still waking up around 8am... poop.
Today is a beautiful day, April 1st! (Happy Birthday Carol-Anne in New Zealand!)
Plans for today are mayyybe to organize our room (haha) and later on off to Nik's for dinner with Kiwi's friends he has not seen in a while.

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TEA. It means: Dinner. (It had me confused for a while lol)

Quiet day today...

Had a nice quiet day today, had a much needed nap which has been helping with staying up later. I was having a hard time making it past 8pm without zonking out, but here it is, 9pm and I'm not tired. My appetite is still a bit wonky, I'm hungrier mid-day or afternoon but by dinnertime I don't eat a lot because my body thinks its 10pm or later. :P
We went down to the beach today and took a walk all the way down, looking for "sea glass". If you don't know what this is... it's pieces of broken glass, bottles etc. that have been pushed by the waves along the sand, naturally sandblasting them. They come in all sorts of shapes sizes and colors (mostly clear, green and brown so far) and are fun to look for. You can make many different things out of them... not sure what I feel like doing with mine just yet, but my mom wants some for sure. :)

Time to settle down for a movie... hoping our money transfer comes through by tomorrow, we're running a tad tight and I want my macbook ;)

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: LOLLIES. It means: Candies ;) (so cute)

Fush and chups!

Went for my first New Zealand "fush and chups" today LOL ok ok fish and chips ;) And I definitely could not eat it without my Ketchup. That's right, no "tomato sauce" for this girl ;)

We had crumbed snapper... it was delightful! Not heavy like beer battered and the snapper was quite tasty. We walked around while waiting for them and while we were in a store we were looking at something and talking, and a little girl stopped and stared at me. Apparently I sound funny. LOL

Trip to the zoo! (a day late yes... was tired)

So we had an awesome trip to the Auckland Zoo! Kiwi, Kate, Adam, Regan and I packed a picnic lunch and headed to the Zoo. The weather was beautiful and turned out to be 28 degrees!

We sat in some shade and had a picnic, I had a Ginger Beer (yum!) and we had some sandwiches and chips.

We walked around the park and as much as I wish I had a picture to show of a real Kiwi... (other than my boyfriend har har) they are in a nocturnal exhibit so you can't take pictures. BUT I can say that I saw two of them and they are cute!

There were lions and tigers and... no, no bears :P But they had Meerkats! There were random chickens and roosters wandering around too lol... maybe they're food?

After the zoo, we went back home for a wonderful dinner of roast beef, yorkshire puddings, roasted potatoes, beans and peas (ew... I tried one because apparently they are these minted baby peas but alas my hate for peas transcends NZ peas. Sorry!) I was exhausted and had a small nap before dinner, and watched Kiwi inhale somewhere around 12-15 yorkshire puddings. I had 5 :D Yummy!

It was an awesome day and oh so tiring... but the company was wonderful even though I was a tad anti-social at times because I was so tired. I'm hoping to not be so tired soon so today is a rest day where we are just going to organzie our room and chill.

Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: JANDALS. It means: sandals. It makes me giggle every time. :P

PS- photo uploading being a pain, will put more later

Day 3, zoo trip!

We are off to the Zoo today! I am very excited for that, so of course there will be lots of pictures! (Yes mom, I am wearing a hat and sunscreen!)
Last night we slept pretty well but woke up early.
I forgot to mention the Cicadas! So on the first day I heard this buzzing non-stop wherever we went. So I asked Kiwi and Kate about it and they didn't notice at first, then realized that it was the Cicadas...
They buzz during the day, mostly just in summertime but at night they sound very pretty, like crickets but better. Apparently they make the noise by rubbing their wings together. One just started up making noise right now! LOL

So, off to the Zoo. Kiwi will have his Kiwi word of the day when we get back. :)

Day 2, continued... back from the beach!

Back from our excursion today, wow is it ever a beautiful day! It started out kinda cloudy but really cleared right up.
So we went out and picked up Nik, and headed down to Muriwai beach. It was quite windy, so any pics definitely show that. It was just breathtaking! The water was tepid so it was nice to walk in, and the waves were beautiful! We walked around and got some nice pics...



It was an awesome time and so beautiful, but the sun started to burn away the clouds and in New Zealand you can burn in mere minutes. If you know me all that well, we know how well I fare in the sun. ;)
So we headed for some grub, and I got my first taste of Burger Fuel. It was om nom-tastic!

Its HUGE! I could not finish it... it was called a "Ford Freakout"... it had lettuce, tomato, burger, bacon, avocado and aioli sauce. YUM! Even the fries ("chips") are yummy.
We headed out back towards home and stopped at a dairy to get some ice cream... and I had it! Yeah, that's right, Hokey Pokey ice cream! It was amazing, and was a testament to how hot the NZ sun is! It was melting faster than I could eat it! BUT SO GOOD!

We walked along the beach eating our ice cream cones (Kiwi taught me a good method to eat it so it didn't get all over me). The sun was beating down on us so he ordered us inside for the rest of the day because I will crisp.
Was an awesome day... time for some relaxing.

Another one of Kiwi's Kiwi word of the day: TRUNDLER.
It means: shopping cart (lol)