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Published: December 10th 2009
Brace Yourselves...
So before I go any further, we have some exciting and unexpected news. And it doesn't involve cars.
I know what you're thinking. I can see the wheels in your mind spinning and the look of shock and surprise on your faces.
And yes, it is true. Our family is growing! It certainly wasn't planned. But poor Hungry has been so lonely lately, so miserable stuffed inside a dark purse all day...we decided it was time. Time to get him some friends. So without any further ado, I would like to introduce you to the newest members of the Rogers clan...Rebel the black sheep, and Haka, the kiwi bird!
(Come on, admit it...we got you!) 😱
Our final day in Auckland was spent touring the national museum (right down the street from our guesthouse). I awoke not only congested but raging with a fever (which I never get), but I sucked it up and headed out anyway into the perfectly sunny day (not that I had much of a choice, since we had to check out at 10am and our flight wasn't until 8pm that evening). It's a great museum - first floor is all
about the native Maori people, their culture and customs. Second floor is a proper science museum (complete with stuffed albatrosses - did you know they have an ELEVEN FOOT wing span?? You could throw a saddle on these birds! They're prehistoric!), third floor is NZ history (mostly WWI and WWII). They even had a special exhibit about Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mt. Everest (a native New Zealander), and had his pick-axe on display that he'd carried to the top! It was a great museum...wish I was feeling a little better so I could have truly enjoyed it. We did watch a Maori cultural performance, though, which was quite fascinating!! Similar to other Polynesian cultures (think luau-type singing and dancing), but also fierce war chants (known as "Haka"), weapons demonstrations, and plenty of men with bulging eyes sticking their tongues out and wagging them at the crowd (a sign of defiance). Very intimidating but cool. Interesting culture!!
I was fading fast so we headed back to our guesthouse (even though we didn't have a room), and we both proceeded to sleep on the couches in the common room for most of the afternoon. Pathetic, I know.
For some reason, we are having the hardest time adjusting to the time difference here! We're six hours ahead of southeast Asia now (and a total of eighteen hours ahead of you guys back home - right now it's 1am Thursday morning, but you guys on the east coast are only at 7am WEDNESDAY morning!)...we've been up all night and sleeping 'til mid-afternoon, if we can help it. Today we forced ourselves to get up at 8, after forcing ourselves to go to bed by midnight last night...so it's getting better.
I woke up around 5:30pm and felt much less feverish...and starving! Left Jeremy sleeping away and headed up the big hill into Parnell and to the most amazing fish-n-chip shop ever. London and the UK can step aside...New Zealand has the world's best fish-n-chips, hands-down! No contest. Fresh snapper lightly battered in the fluffiest batter imaginable and fried to ungreasy, tender, melt-in-your-mouth perfection. Big, thick steak fries (chips) that were crunchy on the ends, soft and moist in the middle. I also tried their version of a fritter (which puts ours to shame)...a MASSIVE pancake overstuffed with corn and baby shrimp, served with sweet chili sauce. I wish
I had two stomachs because it was all so darn good, but I just didn't have room for even half of it!
We headed for the airport and onto what will hopefully be our last flight for a while (this was #9 in 8 weeks - enough is enough!)...a smooth one-hour flight to Christchurch. Emerged into a chilly 50 degrees (this is the beginning of summer, mind you), and a large sign that read: "Welcome to Christchurch, Gateway to the Antarctic!" Attached to the airport is the "Antarctic Center," where you can play with penguins and even experience a simulated blizzard (no thanks!). It occurred to me as I slid into the shuttle..."What in the WORLD am I doing here?!?!"...especially considering we're planning to go even further south, where it will only get colder and more rugged...sigh. We wanted a change, well...we certainly got one!! Only a hundred miles south of here are colonies of penguins and albatrosses. It's not quite the end of the earth, but as the old saying goes...you can see it from here. Literally!
What a great country, though. The people continue to be almost ridiculously nice. It's almost scary. Even the public buses,
instead of flashing "Out of Service" across their signs, will flash "Sorry" instead, as if apologizing profusely for the inconvenience. We can't escape a convenience store, bank, or cafe' without chatting for at least fifteen minutes with the staff. At least ten people now have personally whipped out maps to show us their favorite spots or given out phone numbers of friends they have in such-a-such a place who will show us around or help us find a car to buy. The owner of our guesthouse, for example, has a friend coming by tomorrow to show us a Toyota he has for sale...he saw how much we're struggling to locate a decent vehicle and started calling around for us! Everyone literally will bend over backwards to help you out and expect nothing in return except a smile and thank you (or "Cheers," as they prefer).
Speaking of cars, here we are going on three days in Christchurch, still no vehicle in sight. We spent the better part of two days at the highly recommended Backpacker's Car Market, a merry-go-round of vehicles coming and going and being bought and sold in a matter of minutes. Buying a car is super-simple
here. Insurance is totally optional (and totally cheap - $1 million coverage for an entire year is less than $200). And that's third-party insurance, by the way. You yourself are automatically covered medically in any accident. No insurance required. Licensing and registration is one easy step. You need only a get a "WOF" (warrant of fitness), a basic inspection every six months to make sure your car is in working order. That's it. Lots of people come here and buy a car for a month or two of sightseeing, then resell it for virtually the same price...which beats the heck out of renting a car for hundreds a week!
Anyway. We picked out a Subaru Legacy - little gray 4-door 4-wheel drive right in our budget. Upon mechanical inspection, we found that it was overheating slightly, so the mechanic worked on it overnight in hopes it would be something small. Today we took it for a test drive (an adventure in itself, driving on the wrong side of the road...I haven't tried it yet...even the turning signal and windshield wipers are reversed!), and all was well until we got up to the top of a large hill and the
temperature spiked. Smoke started pouring out of the engine, and we were crushed. We thought we had it. Waited on the side of the road for fifteen minutes for the engine to cool (while pulling out, Jeremy accidentally scraped the back of the truck in front of us, as it was on the left front side and he was sitting behind the steering wheel on the right front side, and couldn't yet properly judge the distance - whoops!). Made it back into town and were hoping to look at a nice station wagon (very popular here) someone had just brought in...but we were too late. Someone else had already started paperwork on it. Everything else on the lot was either out of our budget or falling apart (or really scary Austin Powers type hippie vans), so we dejectedly shuffled home after what felt like a totally wasted 48 hours.
It wasn't really though. We mailed off our Tax ID information (kind of like social security numbers)...the last step before we can legally begin working here. We bought some much-needed new shoes (you should see what Asia does to your shoes - ha!) and, of course, Rebel and Haka!! We
also bought two basic prepaid cell phones (with more features and gadgets than most of our fancy phones back home), and signed up for wireless broadband internet, so we no longer have to hunt down wi-fi cafes or worry about finding accommodation that provides internet! The only thing left to do is open a local bank account, but we can't do that until we have proof of an address, which we won't have until we get our Tax ID Numbers back in 8-10 days...aye aye aye!! Starting to get terribly complicated, but it's exciting at the same time. We bought Starbucks Chai Latte's to warm ourselves against the chill and walked around downtown and were like, "Wow, we actually LIVE here. We're not going home in a few days." It's starting to sink in, and once we have a car I think it will really hit us that we're here for quite a while!!
So tomorrow the car-hunt continues...basically, we're staying in Christchurch until we get a car...it's the only "big" city on the island (and it ain't that big), so it's the most logical place to hang. It's great here...feels very much like Scotland (even the accents are
heavier with a Scottish twinge). The food is fantastic...aside from all the gluten-free cafe's and bakeries (Jeremy is SO happy), we have all the comforts of home like Starbucks, McD's, KFC, Domino's, etc...plus loads of Italian, Greek, Turkish, Asian, and even Mexican! We dipped into a hoppin' cantina tonight for dinner and were served by a guy from Seattle here on the same type of working-holiday visa we have! Chowed down on some real, authentic, actual Mexican (no Doritos and Hormel here ha!)...polenta-crusted chicken tacos and spicy beef taquitos, chips n salsa, bean and rice...we almost cried, it was so good. So here we shall be, for another day or two (hopefully no longer!) until we have a set of wheels and can drive off into the sunset...on the wrong side of the car...on the wrong side of the road...on the wrong side of the planet...
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Jeana and Mark
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I literally scream in excitement for you only to realize a sentence later that yeah, you had me totally fooled. Hungry must be so happy! We have truely loved every posting. It really is like reading a book about travel and we just can't put it down. Keep them coming!