Better grab a cuppa, there's lots to catch up on!
On Monday we got out on the road around 3pm. For our flight to LA we were lucky enough to have the exit row - I could nearly stretch my legs out completely! We shared the row with a racquetball referee heading to Korea for the world championships with Team Canada. After arriving to a cool evening in LA we had a bite to eat at a Mexican place. It was great because we didn't have to check our bags back in, they were transferred for us. Huge bonus because we have 3 large bags and a surfboard and when you have to walk to another terminal at LAX, it's a long way. At first when we checked in for the Qantas flight we weren't sitting together but after asking at the gate, we eventually got seats together.
The flight was around 3 hours long and the seating was fairly cramped. If we were any taller it would be really uncomfortable. Both flights I was sitting beside large men and I don't know how they manage because even though I didn't even try to use the armrest they didn't have enough room to sit comfortably. We kept entertained with all the movies, tv shows and documentaries to watch. We did each manage to sleep a bit. Which was much-needed sleep because after landing in Auckland we still had a bus ride ahead. They have very strict quarantine rules here since they are so isolated from other places. They even have to take a look at the bottoms of our hiking boots to check for dirt or insects. Luckily I remembered that so I had scrubbed them before we left. Our tent had to be taken to the bio security lab for examination. It was clear but we did have to pack it back up in the terminal because they had to take it apart to test it.
We had a couple hours before our bus left. We first had to take a city bus to the coach stop. That stop was across from a mall so we took the city bus early and had lunch before the coach left. The bus ride was about 6 hours but there were a few stops along the way. I like traveling on the ground because you can actually look at the scenery. We hadn't been through this part of the country before and its beauty didn't disappoint. But of course I was taking pictures through the bus window so I'm not sure if they'll do it justice.
We arrived in New Plymouth at about 6:30pm Wednesday night. We got in touch with our couchsurfing hosts and called a taxi to take us to their house. We arrived to a wonderful meal of pad thai! We only stayed up a couple hours longer before heading to bed.
As our hosts had to work, we spent the day Thursday walking and walking and walking. They lived about a 30 minute walk from town so we ventured in to explore. It was an overcast day but not too chilly. It's winter here but I think it's the latter half of the season so it's not super cold. Certainly under 10 degrees though probably. We sort of just wanted to see what was around the city and we got ourselves a mobile phone. We popped into a few realty offices as most people do their rentals through property management agencies. We went to see 3 places because we already liked the feel of the city. One was unfurnished (which here also means there's no fridge!) and two were furnished. They ranged from $220-280 per week - they do rent by the week here. The New Zealand dollar is worth around 75 cents Canadian so our dollar stretches further here.
Thursday night we visited with our hosts. Jenn had plans with some girlfriends so she invited me along. They have a supper club and take turns cooking for each other every couple of weeks. So I got to meet 4 of her friends and again had delicious food and homemade ginger beer! (Which is like ginger ale but a lot stronger flavoured, it's popular here but it's not actually beer.) Dustin went with Damian to meet some buddies at a pub where they have bingo on Thursdays. Dustin won a beer! We played some Wii after we got back to their place.
On Friday we found out that the place we liked most was going to be ours and we could move in at 3pm. So we walked back to the city to look into getting internet - the mobile broadband is probably what we're looking at but we're just deciding if we want it or not. We won't be able to get a landline in our place because they all work on contract and the minimum is 12 months with a $200 cancellation fee if you leave early. But the mobile ones are much slower. We would be able to travel the country with it though. We might try to find someone selling a used modem first. We headed over to this op shop (thrift store) because I needed a hairdryer. Didn't bring one because they are a bit risky to use even with a converter and I didn't want to blow any fuses or anything. We also found this great road atlas! But our best find occurred when a woman in the store approached us and said that she had won some tickets to a concert that was happening that night and she had no interest and thought that selling them was bad karma so she offered them to us! The show is part of the G-Taranaki guitar festival that started on the 11th and runs to the 15th. Slash is the biggest name playing the festival but he's on the bill tonight so we didn't catch him. So the was a great stroke of luck!
We got back to our hosts' house only to find they were both sleeping - both of them had bad colds and were home sick - so we had to wake them up to let us in unfortunately. We packed up our stuff and got a taxi down to our new home. We filled our some paperwork and we are the happy residents in a 2 bedroom place with a sunroom about a ten minute walk to town. The apartment building has 8 units and we are on the ground floor. The landlord is easygoing and we've signed up to stay until mid-December but she said if we want to leave earlier we can work something out. The place is fully furnished, even down to dishes, towels and linens because it is their summer place. There's even cable and board games!
We unpacked a little and then went into town for dinner and then walked up to the stadium for the concert. Silly us thought a camera would be allowed (I mean, what if Slash was there watching right beside us?) but it's the only thing they were super strict about not letting in. We were nearly turned away and they asked us to have someone pick it up or for us to take it home - both really not attractive options, especially since we had walked in the rain up there! Eventually they let me in with a strict warning that if we took any photos we would be asked to leave. We were happy to abide as long as it meant being able to go! The concert started around 5:30pm and we got there around 7pm so missed the first couple acts. There were 4 or 5 through the night. We saw Deisree Bassett, Oli Brown and then the California Trio. Oli Brown is young a blues guitarist from the UK and he was super entertaining and even covered "Fever" (my friend Krisytl's karaoke mainstay) and "No Diggity" by Blackstreet. We didn't stay for the last act (which would include a guitarist from The Scorpions) because we were both tired and I was coming down with something of a cold so felt pretty crummy.
This morning we walked up to do our first grocery shop. I have to say I love foreign grocery shopping! Speaking of which I think I'm going to make some grilled cheese for lunch - man the cheeses here are amazing. Hopefully this afternoon we'll sort the rest of the unpacking out and I can post some photos of our place!
On Monday we got out on the road around 3pm. For our flight to LA we were lucky enough to have the exit row - I could nearly stretch my legs out completely! We shared the row with a racquetball referee heading to Korea for the world championships with Team Canada. After arriving to a cool evening in LA we had a bite to eat at a Mexican place. It was great because we didn't have to check our bags back in, they were transferred for us. Huge bonus because we have 3 large bags and a surfboard and when you have to walk to another terminal at LAX, it's a long way. At first when we checked in for the Qantas flight we weren't sitting together but after asking at the gate, we eventually got seats together.
The flight was around 3 hours long and the seating was fairly cramped. If we were any taller it would be really uncomfortable. Both flights I was sitting beside large men and I don't know how they manage because even though I didn't even try to use the armrest they didn't have enough room to sit comfortably. We kept entertained with all the movies, tv shows and documentaries to watch. We did each manage to sleep a bit. Which was much-needed sleep because after landing in Auckland we still had a bus ride ahead. They have very strict quarantine rules here since they are so isolated from other places. They even have to take a look at the bottoms of our hiking boots to check for dirt or insects. Luckily I remembered that so I had scrubbed them before we left. Our tent had to be taken to the bio security lab for examination. It was clear but we did have to pack it back up in the terminal because they had to take it apart to test it.
We had a couple hours before our bus left. We first had to take a city bus to the coach stop. That stop was across from a mall so we took the city bus early and had lunch before the coach left. The bus ride was about 6 hours but there were a few stops along the way. I like traveling on the ground because you can actually look at the scenery. We hadn't been through this part of the country before and its beauty didn't disappoint. But of course I was taking pictures through the bus window so I'm not sure if they'll do it justice.
We arrived in New Plymouth at about 6:30pm Wednesday night. We got in touch with our couchsurfing hosts and called a taxi to take us to their house. We arrived to a wonderful meal of pad thai! We only stayed up a couple hours longer before heading to bed.
As our hosts had to work, we spent the day Thursday walking and walking and walking. They lived about a 30 minute walk from town so we ventured in to explore. It was an overcast day but not too chilly. It's winter here but I think it's the latter half of the season so it's not super cold. Certainly under 10 degrees though probably. We sort of just wanted to see what was around the city and we got ourselves a mobile phone. We popped into a few realty offices as most people do their rentals through property management agencies. We went to see 3 places because we already liked the feel of the city. One was unfurnished (which here also means there's no fridge!) and two were furnished. They ranged from $220-280 per week - they do rent by the week here. The New Zealand dollar is worth around 75 cents Canadian so our dollar stretches further here.
Thursday night we visited with our hosts. Jenn had plans with some girlfriends so she invited me along. They have a supper club and take turns cooking for each other every couple of weeks. So I got to meet 4 of her friends and again had delicious food and homemade ginger beer! (Which is like ginger ale but a lot stronger flavoured, it's popular here but it's not actually beer.) Dustin went with Damian to meet some buddies at a pub where they have bingo on Thursdays. Dustin won a beer! We played some Wii after we got back to their place.
On Friday we found out that the place we liked most was going to be ours and we could move in at 3pm. So we walked back to the city to look into getting internet - the mobile broadband is probably what we're looking at but we're just deciding if we want it or not. We won't be able to get a landline in our place because they all work on contract and the minimum is 12 months with a $200 cancellation fee if you leave early. But the mobile ones are much slower. We would be able to travel the country with it though. We might try to find someone selling a used modem first. We headed over to this op shop (thrift store) because I needed a hairdryer. Didn't bring one because they are a bit risky to use even with a converter and I didn't want to blow any fuses or anything. We also found this great road atlas! But our best find occurred when a woman in the store approached us and said that she had won some tickets to a concert that was happening that night and she had no interest and thought that selling them was bad karma so she offered them to us! The show is part of the G-Taranaki guitar festival that started on the 11th and runs to the 15th. Slash is the biggest name playing the festival but he's on the bill tonight so we didn't catch him. So the was a great stroke of luck!
We got back to our hosts' house only to find they were both sleeping - both of them had bad colds and were home sick - so we had to wake them up to let us in unfortunately. We packed up our stuff and got a taxi down to our new home. We filled our some paperwork and we are the happy residents in a 2 bedroom place with a sunroom about a ten minute walk to town. The apartment building has 8 units and we are on the ground floor. The landlord is easygoing and we've signed up to stay until mid-December but she said if we want to leave earlier we can work something out. The place is fully furnished, even down to dishes, towels and linens because it is their summer place. There's even cable and board games!
We unpacked a little and then went into town for dinner and then walked up to the stadium for the concert. Silly us thought a camera would be allowed (I mean, what if Slash was there watching right beside us?) but it's the only thing they were super strict about not letting in. We were nearly turned away and they asked us to have someone pick it up or for us to take it home - both really not attractive options, especially since we had walked in the rain up there! Eventually they let me in with a strict warning that if we took any photos we would be asked to leave. We were happy to abide as long as it meant being able to go! The concert started around 5:30pm and we got there around 7pm so missed the first couple acts. There were 4 or 5 through the night. We saw Deisree Bassett, Oli Brown and then the California Trio. Oli Brown is young a blues guitarist from the UK and he was super entertaining and even covered "Fever" (my friend Krisytl's karaoke mainstay) and "No Diggity" by Blackstreet. We didn't stay for the last act (which would include a guitarist from The Scorpions) because we were both tired and I was coming down with something of a cold so felt pretty crummy.
This morning we walked up to do our first grocery shop. I have to say I love foreign grocery shopping! Speaking of which I think I'm going to make some grilled cheese for lunch - man the cheeses here are amazing. Hopefully this afternoon we'll sort the rest of the unpacking out and I can post some photos of our place!
Sounds like it is going great so far! Can't wait to see pics!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you found a place so fast and the fact that it's furnished so well is a bonus too.
ReplyDeleteWow, already got a place to live and got free tickets to a concert!! That's awesome!
ReplyDeleteGlad you two made it there safe!!
ReplyDeleteAnd it sounds like a great start =) Post pics soon!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=52498070&l=8571f00c31&id=48918622
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you guys made it safely!
ReplyDelete