More Adventure!

Been adventuring too much and haven't even had time to make an update!

First here is a blog post my friend Lisa did about a road trip to Coromandel we did a few months ago. I wrote a bit about it here, but her's is worth reading too!

http://lisafindley.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/take-the-wrong-turn-for-the-right-weekend-in-the-coromandel/

Almost a month ago now Greenpeace's boat the Rainbow Warrior came to Auckland harbour and we went on a tour of it. 

One of the things they were really big on during the presentation was anti-nuclear power. NZ is a completely nuclear-free country. They've banned it everywhere, not even US boats which are nuclear powered are allowed to enter the waters here. And when you talk to Kiwis about it, it seems to be a major part of their national pride. It really confused me though, after seeing so many coal power plants on the train trip, why they choose to have no nuclear power, when what they use instead is in my opinion WAY worse for the environment. The Greenpeace presentation seemed to focus on the fact that they are kind of waiting for a better alternative, and some Kiwis I talked to later said NZ is such a small economy (land size and population really similar to Oregon - imagine Oregon as it's own country!) that it wouldn't make sense to have a nuclear plant anyway. There isn't enough power use to pay back the cost of building one in any reasonable time. And it's also politics like anywhere else, there are tons of people with jobs in coal, cutting it out would make any politician pretty un-popular. 

If you read my last post you probably saw our eviction notice for our roommate Amy. Having her move out was pretty sad, but before she left we dyed her hair pink and orange, then of course I couldn't help myself and I had to put some orange in my hair too - Oops! She also made us a pair of friendship headbands! Now she is off to the Bay of Islands working for accomidation and free diving at a dive shop there, and rumor has it she's off to work for free surfing soon too :D

We also dyed Dar's beard pink. Double oops!

About a week before we left Auckland, we got really tired of being poor, and said 'Screw it! We're going on a weekend trip!' So we used basically the last of our money and took a weekend trip up to Bay of Islands, about 2 hours north of Auckland. We got a night on a boat/hostel that sailed around the Bay.

While we waited for our boat I hung out at a boat gas station.

We went snorkeling! The first time I got to really use my Chirstmas present from Dar :D Gotta see all the fishies! I even saw a Goby! 

Dar didn't last long in the cold water snorkeling.... 

We also got to go sea kayaking! 

I don't have any pictures, but in the ocean around the area we were in, there is this crazy bacteria in the water that glows when you agitate it, really cool to see in the water at night.

We climbed to the top of a big hill on an island as the last stop on our trip. Beautiful views!

Not sure why I'm grabbing Dar's tummy in this picture....

On the way back we opened up some of the weird starfish-related sea life we caught while snorkeling.

Here's me with a very friendly bird.

After we got back on shore after our boat trip we went up to a high point and looked out around the bay. 

Dar was overcome by the beauty.

And took this picture on the ride home, if you look really close you can see a little baby cow that's escaped from it's fenced area. I tried to go make friends but it was too scared.

On the way home we also stopped in a small town which is actually famous for their public toilets. The Hundertwasser Toilets. They were designed by a famous artist. Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser. What a name!

So that was our Bay of Islands trip, after that I worked my last few days at Buenos Aires, which was a bit sad, but I'll head back before we leave :) 

 I've been trying to remember to think less about what I'm leaving behind when I move away to something new and focus on the new adventure that lies before me. I finally had some friends when we left Auckland, and it was really sad to leave them behind after I'd spent so much time starting to create a friend base there. But now I think of all the amazing people I've met and experiences I've had here, and of course I'm so glad I didn't stay in Auckland! Same with all the friends and family I left in Eugene. 

One of the things I was really proud of when I left Auckland was finally getting decent at the espresso machine at work before I left. There was an espresso machine with a milk foamer in the neuroscience lab I worked in right before I left the states but I never figured out what to do with it even after having it explained to me. And then here, Kiwis are really obsessed with good espresso. Particularly the 'flat white' which is basically a cappuccino without the chocolate powder. Ever restaurant has an espresso machine. You couldn't really get away with having a restaurant that just had drip coffee I don't think. Even at Starbucks in the take away cups they do coffee art. And all the McDonalds have McCafe, which has full blown fancy Italian coffe machines in it. (My Italian friend Giulia sayas their cappuccinos are some of the better ones in NZ) So anyway learning how to use the espresso machine (particularly foaming milk properly) was a part of my job. And by the end I made coffees that looked like this! No art yet but I'll get there!

So we spent an arm and a leg shipping a big box back to the US (half of it stuff we shipped to ourselves here and barely used which was kind of a bummer but I think we learned a lot, and I'm happy to be living life as a backpacker again - it's a lot more fun! ) and we headed off down to Hastings/Napier where we heard there were apple picking jobs. It was me, Dar, 2 full backpacks, and a side bag all on our little 250cc adventure bike. We got about 15 kilometers down the motorway, and Dar pulled over because it was WAY too dangerous. So, we moved some stuff around, I found myself a cardboard sign, wrote "Hamilton or South" on it, stuck my thumb out and waited for a ride. I'd heard over and over from people that they'd had nothing but positive experiences hitchhiking, and now I"m one of them. I waited no more than 30 minutes, it took me 3 rides to get down to Hamilton from Auckland, and after spending the night there in a hostel with Dar, I waited only 20 minutes or so and my frist ride out of Hamilton was all the way to Hastings :D Really cool and interested people you meet hitchhiking. It's nice too here that it's perfectly legal too.

We spent way more time than we expected in Hastings looking for work, apple picking had been delayed quite a bit. So we went to the beach and had some fun here.

Then we got a call from the hostel owner one day (she helps people staying at t hostel find work)  And she had a job on a vineyard for us! We clipped up netting to keep birds out of the grapes. I don't think I have ever or will ever handle so many bread clips in the rest of my life as I did that week and a half!

 A really beautiful place to work!

Did I mention there is a huge hole in the ozone layer that moves over NZ sometimes? Its a serious problem here. NZ is the number one place for skin cancer, you can burn in seriously 5 minutes. It's crazy. I've gotten burned SO many times here. Even the bird nets for the grapes were specially made for the UV here.

We worked our awesome vineyard job for a week and a half, so we finally have a bit of money now! Woo hoo! We  even got to live in the guest house of the vineyard for awhile, which was really nice. I crashed the quad bike from the vineyard into a row at about 30mph, and am a bit bruised up, but all good, And Dar did his interview for the masters program on Friday so we are crossing our fingers on that one!

Today we moved into a new house, with the lady who owns it, her boyfriend and 10 year old son. There are chickens, a big fat cat, a dog, and a giant talking cockatoo of which videos will surely be posted. Tomorrow we start apple picking!

And today we didn't have work so we tried on some hats. And dar bought a rainbow luggage lock which he is wearing as a belt.

 

 

Bonus picture! The phone plugs here are super weird. They look exactly like the connectors for the Lab Pros for data collection we used in the Physics labs at UO

And now for a special edition of being close to Asia so there are tons of things with really funny English on them.

Make up your dreams! Intellectual Development! Superior materials. More new items available. To rank first among similar products.

USA Royal dollar playing cards.

NEW!

The fArm Exploiter!

With Authentic Working Functions!

Not sure what Sodor Fuel is...

This is the picture from a connect 4 box.

OWNING it is you Best Choice!!

This showed up on reddit a couple weeks ago.

Motor looks handsome.

New Home! And New Directions!

Finished the move to our new apartment. It's so awesome! It was kind of fun, playing it all by ear. Couchsurfing hosts here are a lot less likely to get back to you here it seems, so after spending a week and a half waiting for people to get back to us, we found ourselves 2 days before our lease ran out with no idea where we were going to live.

Lucky for us, our roommate Amy knew some friends who had an extra bedroom in their house and needed someone, so we ended up in this amazing house (a real house!) With a garden and a kitty, in Mt Eden, a really nice area of Auckland. It's really nice being out of the city proper, more trees, less dirty, the pigeons don't have messed up feet, etc. The rent is HALF of what we were paying before, and our roommates are quiet and keep to themselves a bit, but they are good people for sure.

Last week, I found out I didn't even get an interview for the science roadshow job I'd been obsessing about. It was really a let down for me.

Except it really made me re-think what I'm doing here. Even with the new house with less rent, we're not really saving much if anything after buying groceries, which is going to make traveling anywhere on the way home impossible. But most importantly, we aren't even adventuring here. We're living in the same place doing the same things every day. I work 5 days a week, which leaves no time for trips more than a couple days, plus we don't even have the money to travel if we could. It really bothered me when we moved, I realized that even in 3 months, we'd really started to accumulate stuff. Like 3 bags more than we had when we moved in. Here we are tied down not only by lack of money but again by being owned by our possessions.

And the whole situation is making both of us depressed.

One of the best rules for live I've ever heard is: If you don't like your life, change it.

I put in my two weeks at work last Wednesday, and in 11 days (can't believe it's that soon!) we're getting rid of everything that we can't fit with both of us on the bike (this is less than we came here with), going camping on Rangatoto with Amy for a few days, then heading down to Nelson - the very top of the south island - to become fruit pickers.

I've heard it's hard. I've heard it's not too bad.
I've heard it's good money. I've heard it's very little money.
I've heard it's fun. I've heard it's awful.

I've definitely got to find out.

So, that's whats on the plate next. Before we leave here I'll try to get a picture of our kitty who I'm trying to help get used to humans. She is the cutest.

Today Dar and I went to the park where they had what are apparently called 'Zorb Balls' - Just watch the video and I think you'll get the idea....You'll see I was really good at getting stuck on my head XD

Hi again!

Whats new? Well, after a heart to heart with our awesome roomy Amy, we finally have come to the conclusion that we kind of hate Auckland. It's making both of us severely depressed. Maybe it's our situation where our apartment is so crazy expensive that we've been dumpster diving for food (don't worry, we're both totally fine, we aren't even loosing weight - it was an adventure and an experience for sure, and we're back to buying food at the grocery store now!) But I really think part of it is this city. It's a business city, so many people here are into the Gucci, Prada stores on Queen street, the fancy yachts, and business suits, and I crave the pierced and tattooed, crazy haired funky with purple motorcycle people of Cuba Street in Wellington. We need more funk in our lives! And it doesn't help that the economy for any jobs science related (a job for Dar) is just dead, and dead how we are feeling! This life of monotony is making me un-inspired, un-alive, un-adventure-full. And that's NOT what I want from our time here.

So, we're going to mix it back up. While I'm waiting on hearing back from the Science Roadshow Presenter job, and Dar continues his job search (in Wellington now :D), we are saying bye to our 15th floor apartment in CBD, getting rid of anything that doesn't fit in our backpacks, except my adventure hat, which I'm putting back on my head, and we're gonna see what adventure we can find. We don't have anything else lined up yet, we'll probably couchsurf when we can find hosts, and stay in hostels the rest of the time. Hostels are actually significantly cheaper than rent here!

We, as the official slouch managers, made an eviction notice for Amy...

And while life in Auckland hasn't been super fun in general, on the bright side I had a really good birthday! I woke up to a scavenger hunt made for me by Amy :D 

I got to open my present from Rob & Sharon that had been sitting on the table for a week - a beautiful purple shirt! And later, Dar and I went out on the bike and had ramen for dinner. And we saw Wreck it Ralph in 3d, which I've wanted to see since forever!

Dar has been baking bread like mad - loves of whole grain, chocolate, plain, and they are getting better every time. There is nothing like fresh baked bread with a little butter and salt. Yum yum! Today we're trying to get rid of everything in our kitchen before we move, so he's making a loaf with the green food dye I bought for his bday cake :D

And here are your bonus pictures for today!

I didn't know NZ was so ahead of the US for women's suffrage. Like 20 years ahead.

And an Emperor Penguin (actual size - makes me REALLY want to go to Antartica)

And this one is for Alee XD There is an entire gallery of these guys here - a bunch of them life-size!

A New Year!

Happy New Year!

About 48 hours ago, I was among the first in the world to ring in 2013. With Dar, our friend Giulia, and some couchsurfers, we had a 'barbie' (BBQ) watched the fireworks from the Skytower, and popped a bottle of champagne :)

The last few months in Auckland have been pretty cool. These are some of the highlights!

We're still in our house on Saint Paul Street in CBD, and we have a roommate! Her name is Amy. She's originally from Colorado, and has spent time living in Australia and taught English for a year in Thailand. It's been really fun having her around. She started out as our couchsurfer, and we decided to keep her around! We've been learning a lot from each other, sharing stories, yummy recipes, and enjoying Auckland together. We have another couchsurfer coming tomorrow from Chile!

We'll also be moving in a couple weeks. Not sure where yet, but the high price of our downtown apartment, the lack of need to be super central in Auckland, and the nasty mold problem here, is getting us excited about finding something new. We've been checking out some housesitting websites too, so we might just find somewhere for a couple weeks to housesit for before we settle down again.

A couple weeks ago we did a short road trip up to the Coromandel peninsula. It was really beautiful, and I drove a car on the left side for the first time! We made a stop at Hot Water Beach, where there is a natural hot spring right next to the ocean, so at low tide you can dig into the sand to make a hot pool, then you let the ocean water come into your pool until you have the right temp.



We had a really great Christmas. We missed family of couse, but I surprised Dar with my first ever homemade ice cream cake (I even made the ice cream myself!), and we rented a car with our friends Lars and Giulia, and drove around Northland trying to find the sun. That hurricane/cyclone that hit Fiji a couple weeks ago made its way down to NZ as nasty weather over Xmas, making the normally beautiful Bay of Islands a rainy mess! But on Christmas Day, for Dar's birthday, we headed to Piha, a beautiful beach near Auckland, and we got the sunny, beachy Christmas we'd been looking forward to!

Happy Beach Birthday to Dar!

Dar liked his cake :D

That's not to say we didn't have fun during the rainy part. We went to this place called Mermaid Pools, climbed this muddy hill and swam in the ocean in our underwear, got soaked to the bone, and wore our metaphorical adventure hats!



Our Christmas was that much more special when we got cards and gifts in the mail :) Among my favorite was a Eugene Weekly and a Daily Emerald from Whitney :) Some hand-made stockings made by Dar's Aunt, and the sweetest care package from Rob & Sharon!



Here's a picture of our Christmas setup!




Dar surprised me a few days before Xmas, taking me to the museum, which was all lit up! Extra special because they don't really do Christmas Lights here on houes, and I this year I really missed going with Espie on our yearly Christmas Lights tour.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum

I was really happy to Skype with Whitney, Gustav, and Whitney the other night! Miss you all terribly!

Friendship!

Well I'm working as a waitress now, at an Argentinian Restaurant. The staff is all super relaxed, I get to practice my Spanish (and a little Japanese!), and the food super yumm! And Dar got a job interview today, at a computer recycling company. *fingers crossed*

And for those of you in Eugene, look out for Dar's return in June! He applied for the Physics Master's program at UO, so hopefully he'll be headed back to Eugene then! I may come back then too, or I may stay until October, depending on how things unfold out here....

I saw a just-born butterfly the other day! These guys are all over here!

And here's your bonus picture!

A funny ad running in Auckland

That's all for now! Maybe if I keep these short I'll do them more often!