Day Twenty Three

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We are in Waihi!!! It was really strange to pack up at the house in Auckland since we stayed there so long. They were good to us! The road trip was easy, only two and a half hours, and we got here right at noon ready to go.

So this is it! We have arrived to our home for the next two months. We are all moved in and caught up with Christoffel and Alison. They trained us in on the giant fancy coffee machine, so Jack and I now know how to make all the drinks on the menu! Maybe not very well, but in time. We learned more about coffee today than I ever thought there was to know. Chris and Alison are all about quality with everything they make and serve, and hopefully the creatures of habit in this town figure that out. Even a tall black (black coffee) here tastes a million times better than Starbucks. They go the extra kilometer.

We asked Christoffel and Alison how they felt about the gun comment from last week. They laughed and said it was fine, then Chris bent down and picked up a little toy gun that just happened to be on the floor right where we were all standing! Ironic? It was hysterical.

The guests staying here now are three hitch-hikers from Chile and Argentina (that came out wrong, we are on an island). They are traveling around and working in NZ for a while. They work at the Big Sky ski resort in Montana, so they had a lot to talk about with Jack. They didn't even want to talk to me in Spanish, but skis are cool too. Speaking of NZ being an island, Jack and I met a guy at a laundromat in Auckland that must not have realized this and thought we drove here in our green van from Minnesota! Jack says we must have one helluva van. The guy was in awe, asking us how long it took and if we would drive back.

Yesterday we went for a drive down to Karekare, the beach next to Piha. We didn't bring the camera (shame on us), and it was even more breathtaking than the first beach. There was not a soul in sight the whole time we were there, and the waves were just massive. You could see the riptides and the water spouting up over the rocks in the water. Jack climbed out onto a rock cliff and wouldn't come back for 20 minutes because the view was too amazing. Piha and Karekare are the two most dangerous beaches in NZ because of how powerful the waters are in that area of the west coast. We have to go back and get pictures, if not only to just see it again. The cliffs on the shore were bigger than the ones at Piha, and around the bend from where we were there are caves that belong to the Mauri (natives). It is all so overwhelming to look at. We will go back on our way out.

I will see what I can do about pictures tomorrow. Jack and I are spoiled and will have free internet from here on, so no more scrambling to get everything done online in a half hour. Enjoy your day, we are going to bed soon!

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Comments

[Connie]

[e-mail]
Glad to hear you are settled in. Lindsay, are they sure they want you to make the coffee? Have you told them you are basically banned from making coffee in our house? Also, just for future reference... I would rather hear about the beautiful sights without the knowledge of how dangerous they are. Your killing me Nancy! Love ya, M

[Katie Thrasher]

Just wanted to say hi :) Mostly my life is work, summer classes, and hanging out. That's probably how majority of the summer will go. Celebrated the bday with friends and fam this week. Life away from nwc has been great even though I was actually there today to help my sister register for her freshman year. WOW next week it'll have been a month since you two have been married!!!

[tiff]

corny girl
hey. i am so glad you gus are having a good time... yeah, i can't believe you are making coffee. you can make me some when you get back. if you can stand to go the extra kilometer here...(you are so cheesey.)