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Published: March 21st 2015
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It's been a whirlwind week. Three days of work, six days of traveling to New Zealand, and then another three days of work. It's hard to believe I was on the other side of the world a couple days ago. The purpose of the trip was to scope out the area and decide on the location of where we want to live. Thankfully we also made some time for fun as well.
Paul was in NZ for two weeks so I went to visit in the middle of his work trip. My trip started with driving to O'Hare, then a 4.5 hr flight to LAX, and finally followed by a 13 hr flight to Auckland. Unfortunately I didn't sleep much on the flight to Auckland, on the plus side the food, wine, and the three movies I watched were good. It felt like I was developing a pressure ulcer or deep tissue injury, but thankfully my attempts at repositioning q 2 hours maintained my skin integrity. (Oops, already starting to look like my nursing notes).
After landing in NZ, Paul picked me up from the airport and we headed to the Auckland Domain. Apparently, the Domain was created by
Auckland Domain
Panoramic view of Wintergarden an explosion of the Pukekawa volcano. It was a beautiful sunny 80 degree weather day. The perfect way to stretch out after the long flight. At the Domain, the main park in Auckland, there were a ton of kids playing Cricket. One of the "new" (non-traditional American) sports I'll have to learn about.
As we walked around the Domain, we found the Wintergarden, a botanical garden. It was beautiful. We didn't make it into the War Memorial Museum that day, but we'll put it on our future list of things to see. Since we were on a botanical outdoors kick, we continued onto the Auckland Botanic Gardens. It was free admission to the Botanic Gardens and it was a really nice walk with beautiful flowers (surprise). After the Botanic Garden, Paul and I met up with Julie, a woman I was introduced through my Aunt in Florida. Short story is it's a small world. Julie is a Nurse in New Zealand. Her and her husband welcomed us into their house and took us out to lunch even though they'd never met us before. They were so kind. I had read that Kiwis are very friendly and I witnessed it
firsthand. We had lunch at an Irish pub. I ordered a burger which came with beetroot. This was one of the first things I noticed was different than in the US. Beets are commonly on burgers. It tasted really good, though. Also, there aren't screens on any windows in buildings or personal homes. I hope that is a sign the mosquitoes aren't as bad there as in WI summers! Obviously the biggest difference in culture is that they drive on the left side of the road. I'm so glad Paul is a great driver and was my chauffeur for the trip. It'll be interesting when I move there and have to drive myself around. Thankfully the traffic is minimal, especially when compared to here. It's weird to actively think about something so simple as to which way to look first when crossing a road.
After lunch we started the hour drive to our hotel in Hamilton. By that time I needed to sleep so I took a nap for a couple hours. For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant in Cambridge. There was a nice outdoor area where we ate. What a simple pleasure it is to eat
outdoors, granted it is Fall in NZ now. The weather on the North Island remains pretty temperate year round, though. No snow! I can't complain about that!
On Saturday morning, Paul and I participated in a 5k in Cambridge. The weather was nice, 70's and mostly sunny. The run itself was a little difficult after sitting on a plane for so long the previous day. It didn't help that I haven't run much this Winter, either. I'm glad we did it, though. There wasn't any tshirt or finishing medals, but I was lucky enough to win a random spot prize. I won a decorative ceramic piece that is cream colored with a top that comes off. Not quite sure what it's purpose is for besides decoration. Not complaining, but just commenting that it's definitely different from anything I've seen at races here. haha. So I had to pack this in my suitcase to bring back to WI, just to bring it back in a couple months.
The rest of the trip consisted of driving around the towns of Cambridge, Te Awamutu, and Otorohanga. We wanted to get a feel for what the towns were like to see where
we want to live. We met with some realtors about house rentals, but they said it's too early to look now because rentals have high turn-around and they rent weekly in NZ. We are still going back and forth between living in Cambridge or Te Awamutu. They're both safe, clean towns and have a pool. They're 20 minutes apart, separate by farmland of cows, sheep, and horses. Te Awamutu takes half the time for Paul to get to work, so that is a plus. Cambridge has this neat Te Koutu Lake Reserve in the middle of the city. It has a lower elevation that the surrounding roads, so it feels very secluded and quiet. The lake is full of lilypads and ducks so it's not good for swimming and it's not big enough for kayaking, but the path around is great for walking. I really like the idea of just being able to walk there so that's a plus for Cambridge. Cambridge has a lawn bowling green and Te Awamutu has netball courts. Two more sports for me to learn about. Netball was on the TV a lot during our trip. It's interesting, but I don't see us being big
netball fans. It's like a less aggressive women's basketball mixed with ultimate frisbee (no dribbling, all passing, and defenders must be 3 ft away from offender) and the basket doesn't have a backboard. Also, the women's jersey is like a dress.
For my last night in Hamilton (Monday), Paul and I had dinner at Speight's Ale House in NZ. Apparently Speight is a NZ Brewery. When there we saw they have trivia on Tuesday nights. We have to add this on our list of things to do when we move back. I mean, there has to be a decent amount of American pop culture questions so we're banking on being pretty awesome. Perhaps it'll be a good way for us to meet people, they'll all want us on their team! haha. Another way I plan on meeting people is by finding a Masters swim club. I'll miss the Elmbrook Masters swim club here, so hopefully Hamilton or Te Awamutu's Masters groups can at least come close. That'll be tough, though.
Now I survived the flight back home and slept during most of it. I didn't think the jet lag would be that bad, but it's taken its toll.
hopefully i'll get back on central time this weekend. Paul finally gets back tonight. We are still unsure of the timeline of when we're officially moving. Paul might be May. The earliest I'll leave is mid-June. I have to stay around for Carrie's wedding, of course!!! We have a ton of packing up to do, though, so that time will come fast. So until the move, we'll be focused getting everything organized here and starting my NZ Nursing license paperwork. That'll probably take the whole time, too. Also, we will be trying to see and hang out with people since it'll be awhile before we make it back home. I'll keep this travel blog going, hopefully, in order to track everything we do. Two years is long, but short enough that we'll have to stay busy to see and do as much as we can. Also, this way future visitors can read about what's available and what sounds like stuff they'd like to do when they visit. Unfortunately, I am not very good at taking pictures. I wish I could hire extraordinary photographer, Tracey Reinke, for an extended project to travel with us. 😉
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