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Published: November 25th 2010
View of Auckland
On top of old Volcano in the Town of Devonport.I am not feeling like a Turkey because it is 75 degrees out, everything is green and we just went to the beach and a hot spring. I know, I know life is tough.
We are not having turkey because they cost about $90nz (multiply by .8 to get US $) for a little weenie one about the size of the chickens in the US. So why you are all eating turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, corn, pie, cranberry sauce 😊, we will probably have the NZ national dish - SAUSAGES, YEA! Only kidding, we will manage something good.
We have been out and about seeing some great places. NZ has more beautiful places than you can shake a sausage at. Some of the places we have seen:
Auckland Zoo: Great little zoo with Tigers, Cheetahs (they even brush them), Kiwi birds (as Chris says, they have really big peckers, and he was right). Perfect afternoon walk.
Piha Beach: One of the most beautiful beaches we have been to. Climbed Piha Rock in the middle and got an awesome views. And it is only about 45 minutes from Auckland.
Karekare beach: Just down the road from Piha.
Highway
Just like home but everything is on the wrong side. Windy and seemed to go on forever.
Devonport: Great town across from Auckland. Has two old volcano cones on it that were forts during the 1800's to protect the harbor from the Russians. Great views and great vibe.
Auckland: Great city with a small town feel. Easy to get around, beautiful waterfront and great parks.
We have a grand South Island trip planned for Nov 29 to Dec 31. We are going to the following locations (just in case you want to get out a map):
Wellington
Picton
Pohara Beach
Hanmer Springs
Christchurch
Dunedin
Invercargill
Milford Sound
Queenstown
Wanaka
Franz Josef Glacier
Hokitika
Nelson
Wellington
Not trying to rub it in, just want to take you all on a trip with us.
Saskia and Eli are meeting us in Wellington. They went ahead by train to look for jobs. We then have to take the ferry 2 1/2 hours to the south island. We are getting Chris in Christchurch since he does not get the time off.
Everyone keeps telling us "wait till you see the South Island". So we are taking them up on it.
Eli crying
Nicole scalping him We tried to do two other things that we have always wanted to:
www.wwoof.co.nz/
www.couchsurfing.org/
The first one is Willing Workers of Organic Farms. It is farms (and just large gardens) where you can stay and get fed for free if you work 3-5 hours per day. It is all over the world and has 1,000's of great people involved. Thought we had it lined up for all of us for 4 days, but it fell through.
The second one is an organization where people let you stay in there house for free, just to meet other people. We had friends (2 girls) that traveled through Morocco for over a month using this method and had an awesome time. We thought we had it arranged for Waiheke Island off of Auckland this week, but it fell through also.
You need to have more time to arrange these things since during busy times or for desirable areas they get a lot of requests. We will definitely give a go later as it sounds like fun.
So I hope everyone remembers to give thanks for all the great things and people in our lives. That is
what this day is all about, sometimes we just need to be reminded of it.
We miss and love you all.
Bruce, Dianne, Saskia, Nicole, Chris and Eli
On a sad note, it seems the 29 trapped miners will not be found alive here in NZ. Everyone here has been hoping for the best, but it seems after the second explosion, it will not have the ending everyone wished for.
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Rock Fiore
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Thanks for the update Bruce. Keep going, I'm having fun living vicariously through your adventure in NZ. I can't wait to hear about your trip to the South Island so I can relive our trip there in 1997. Happy Thanksgiving to you all (Bruce, Dianne, Saskia, Nicole, Chris and Eli) Rock & Rita