Nov 2
8pm
The plans for camping last weekend were quashed when I came down with a cold after my shift on Wednesday. So I had to give up my shifts on Thursday and Friday to stay on the couch and drink juice and watch terrible movies. (ie. Wedding Daze - a wholly unfunny romp starring Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher - I think? - and Carrie. I was trying to get into the Halloween mood but couldn't stand more than 15 minutes of this movie it was so bad.)
Since we weren't heading out of town Dustin worked on Saturday while I still felt worse than I had the day before. When Dustin got home he wanted to go for a surf so I dragged myself outside to get some sunshine. The swell was the smallest it had been since we've been here I reckon. We had to head to the spot that is always bigger than all the others just to get a 2 foot high wave. I sat on the beach and Dustin got out in the water! The last couple weeks have been warm here and when there is no shade the sun is intense. I took refuge in the shade of the camp chair by laying on a precisely-placed towel.
On Sunday we got outside some more and I was starting to feel a bit better. We went down to the farmers market and got some lemons before heading over to have a coffee and read the Sunday paper. There is a zoo in town that I have been wanting to go to for a while so we went to check it out. It's free and it kept us entertained for quite a while. They have monkeys and lemurs along with a great aviary with colourful birds. We also ended up going up to Pukekura Park which is this massive, beautiful park in the city - and the zoo is on one edge of the park. There is an amphitheatre there which will be hosting Jack Johnson later this month. After seeing the venue I'm almost tempted to spend the $94 to go - the setting is so green and there's even a little moat in front of the stage area! They have also advertised that Tegan and Sara are opening the show! So I'm even more tempted to go. Hopefully we can work something out.
After a lovely walk in the park we went down to the Waiwhakaiho River with the fishing rod. We pulled up to the shoreline and climbed down the rocks to cast. It was another gloriously sunny day so I just enjoyed the sun while Dustin worked at the fishing. After a little bit we had a bite! Then we had a fish! It was a little guy but it's still the start of fun fishing! We think it was a kahawai. We brought it home to have with dinner and baked it to have a try. It's a mild white fleshed fish. They are popular in the area although they are more often used for baiting bigger fish! haha. We stuck around longer but didn't have more luck there.
Back when I was looking for a job I had posted some ads on the bulletin boards in the supermarkets for organizing and a few weeks ago I had a call about it. So yesterday was the first day I went to organize for a family with four kids. They live about 20 minutes inland and she had me come out for 3 hours. Unfortunately, her budget is a major factor which means that the amount of time I need to do the job right may not be possible for her to pay. I'm not even charging much and she's a haggler. Since I already had the day off I figured any money is better than no money. So it's about what I'm making at the low-paid retirement home - just under $15/hr. I worked through a few cupboards in her kitchen and made some space that will hopefully be enough for her cookbooks which are everywhere. It was interesting to go out on my own and do that because I'm not used to it. I think every client would be so different that it's hard to decide if I'd like to start organizing as a business or not. Based on this client, not. haha. She wants me to come out a bunch more before we leave here but I said we should just take it a week at a time so I might go again later this week. The trouble is that she's diverting grocery money to pay me and she doesn't want to tell her husband she's hired me so all in all it's not the best scenario. Plus, when I ask her how she uses things she just says she wants my opinion on how to organize them but when I've done it she then moves things or asks if I really think that's the best idea. So I have to explain that I asked how she uses it so that I could make it make sense for her. A bit of back and forth, back and forth that day.
They have a requirement for cars here that every 6 months you take it for a Warrant of Fitness. They check through several aspects of the car's function and safety and let you know if anything needs to be repaired. Our car failed its test last week on four accounts. Only one was as easy as replacing a light bulb. So I have to take the car in on Thursday for a new tie rod to the wheel, new door hinges and checking up on a leaking steering box. I agree with the point of the testing but find it's a bit picky. The door hinges seem fine to us and we've had no issue with the doors but the mechanic opened them and then lifted the door (which is not even what they are meant to do!) and there was play in the hinge so that's why they are deemed to be fixed. Oh well. We have to do it to keep driving it and even if we had decided to get rid of it, it's akin to selling a car that failed Air Care. Hopefully the steering box just needs a new seal because that's the one I'm concerned about.
Yesterday after Dustin got back from work and we had dinner, we went fishing again! There's this spot we'd been told about that's down near Paritutu Rock which we hiked up last month. You have to go down this overgrown trail off the car park and walk along a fence bordering some industrial place. Then the trail gets rather steep before coming out to a section of rocks and the ocean. So you kind of feel like you know a secret as you head there but it's clear that it's popular with fishing because all of these rod holders had been made into the rocks there. There are a couple rocky points that shoot out so you have to climb around to get to them. There were only a couple other guys out and there were on the other point so we had one to ourselves. Ourselves and a seal. The rocks are home to many seals after dusk but one had come in early and I think he was spooked by us climbing past him. We stayed out until sunset and had success again! This time we mistakenly thought the fish was the same one that we had caught before but it wasn't. The regulations here are specific for about 20 species and then anything else has no minimum size and a limit of 20 or something that's far more than we'd be able to eat anyways! For the most part we were feeding the fish after Dustin found a hot spot for casting. We must have rebaited 5 times and every time it was eaten but we weren't able to set the hook! So it was great when Dustin got the one because we had been feeling the bites all night. As we were standing on the edge of the rocky point trying to free a snag, a larger seal popped up and did a couple jumps out of the water! He must have been training for Sea World. It absolutely freaked Dustin out because he was maybe 10 feet from the seal and it was really quiet there so this loud seal bark paired with a large dark spot coming out of the water was nuts! It was really pretty amazing. It got cold right after the sun went down so I made us leave. We had to climb back up the trail to the car (much tougher in that direction, especially recovering from a cold) and then we came home! Phew!
Dustin is back there right now with a guy from work. He came home from work, didn't even have dinner and went back to the fishing spot and it's nearly 9 pm and he's not back! I opted out because the hike was a bit much to do again today, I wanted to eat dinner and I wanted to be home to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Yep I'm caught on this show. I hadn't seen it at home before but he's gone into the schools in West Virginia (I think) and he's trying to get healthy food into the schools. So it's super interesting and also rather depressing how difficult it is for him to get any changes in place. It's really unbelievable how some people are so against anything new simply because it's new or it's different. And it's sick what schools pass off as healthy food for children. I saw it in high school where 80% of the kids had fries for lunch. It makes so much sense just not to offer such junk at all.
Today was the Melbourne Cup race and it was fun to watch! Heaps of past winners have been NZ bred so the race is nearly as popular here as it is in Australia. I remember having the day off in Melbourne because it was a public holiday there! At Dustin's work they had a sweepstakes but the horse he drew didn't do anything. It reminded me that we have to get out to the racetrack here sometime soon!
There were all these ads for fireworks that came in the mail and I had wrongly assumed they were Halloween related. But Halloween is a non-event here and Guy Fawkes day is coming up! So fireworks are on sale Tues-Fri and then I guess everyone goes nuts with them on Friday and Saturday. I have to check the paper tomorrow to see where we can go to the public fireworks displays. I think I heard they have one up at the amphitheatre in the park but I'm not sure. The sun has been going down around 8pm so hopefully they wouldn't be too late since I work early on Saturday.
One more day of work then two off before I work this weekend. I think we're going to have to sit down and decide when we want to leave so that we can arrange with our landlord and all that. So I'd like to try to sort that out this weekend. Getting back on the road is exciting and daunting all at once. Soon we'll be able to start making plans!
8pm
The plans for camping last weekend were quashed when I came down with a cold after my shift on Wednesday. So I had to give up my shifts on Thursday and Friday to stay on the couch and drink juice and watch terrible movies. (ie. Wedding Daze - a wholly unfunny romp starring Jason Biggs and Isla Fisher - I think? - and Carrie. I was trying to get into the Halloween mood but couldn't stand more than 15 minutes of this movie it was so bad.)
Since we weren't heading out of town Dustin worked on Saturday while I still felt worse than I had the day before. When Dustin got home he wanted to go for a surf so I dragged myself outside to get some sunshine. The swell was the smallest it had been since we've been here I reckon. We had to head to the spot that is always bigger than all the others just to get a 2 foot high wave. I sat on the beach and Dustin got out in the water! The last couple weeks have been warm here and when there is no shade the sun is intense. I took refuge in the shade of the camp chair by laying on a precisely-placed towel.
On Sunday we got outside some more and I was starting to feel a bit better. We went down to the farmers market and got some lemons before heading over to have a coffee and read the Sunday paper. There is a zoo in town that I have been wanting to go to for a while so we went to check it out. It's free and it kept us entertained for quite a while. They have monkeys and lemurs along with a great aviary with colourful birds. We also ended up going up to Pukekura Park which is this massive, beautiful park in the city - and the zoo is on one edge of the park. There is an amphitheatre there which will be hosting Jack Johnson later this month. After seeing the venue I'm almost tempted to spend the $94 to go - the setting is so green and there's even a little moat in front of the stage area! They have also advertised that Tegan and Sara are opening the show! So I'm even more tempted to go. Hopefully we can work something out.
After a lovely walk in the park we went down to the Waiwhakaiho River with the fishing rod. We pulled up to the shoreline and climbed down the rocks to cast. It was another gloriously sunny day so I just enjoyed the sun while Dustin worked at the fishing. After a little bit we had a bite! Then we had a fish! It was a little guy but it's still the start of fun fishing! We think it was a kahawai. We brought it home to have with dinner and baked it to have a try. It's a mild white fleshed fish. They are popular in the area although they are more often used for baiting bigger fish! haha. We stuck around longer but didn't have more luck there.
Back when I was looking for a job I had posted some ads on the bulletin boards in the supermarkets for organizing and a few weeks ago I had a call about it. So yesterday was the first day I went to organize for a family with four kids. They live about 20 minutes inland and she had me come out for 3 hours. Unfortunately, her budget is a major factor which means that the amount of time I need to do the job right may not be possible for her to pay. I'm not even charging much and she's a haggler. Since I already had the day off I figured any money is better than no money. So it's about what I'm making at the low-paid retirement home - just under $15/hr. I worked through a few cupboards in her kitchen and made some space that will hopefully be enough for her cookbooks which are everywhere. It was interesting to go out on my own and do that because I'm not used to it. I think every client would be so different that it's hard to decide if I'd like to start organizing as a business or not. Based on this client, not. haha. She wants me to come out a bunch more before we leave here but I said we should just take it a week at a time so I might go again later this week. The trouble is that she's diverting grocery money to pay me and she doesn't want to tell her husband she's hired me so all in all it's not the best scenario. Plus, when I ask her how she uses things she just says she wants my opinion on how to organize them but when I've done it she then moves things or asks if I really think that's the best idea. So I have to explain that I asked how she uses it so that I could make it make sense for her. A bit of back and forth, back and forth that day.
They have a requirement for cars here that every 6 months you take it for a Warrant of Fitness. They check through several aspects of the car's function and safety and let you know if anything needs to be repaired. Our car failed its test last week on four accounts. Only one was as easy as replacing a light bulb. So I have to take the car in on Thursday for a new tie rod to the wheel, new door hinges and checking up on a leaking steering box. I agree with the point of the testing but find it's a bit picky. The door hinges seem fine to us and we've had no issue with the doors but the mechanic opened them and then lifted the door (which is not even what they are meant to do!) and there was play in the hinge so that's why they are deemed to be fixed. Oh well. We have to do it to keep driving it and even if we had decided to get rid of it, it's akin to selling a car that failed Air Care. Hopefully the steering box just needs a new seal because that's the one I'm concerned about.
Yesterday after Dustin got back from work and we had dinner, we went fishing again! There's this spot we'd been told about that's down near Paritutu Rock which we hiked up last month. You have to go down this overgrown trail off the car park and walk along a fence bordering some industrial place. Then the trail gets rather steep before coming out to a section of rocks and the ocean. So you kind of feel like you know a secret as you head there but it's clear that it's popular with fishing because all of these rod holders had been made into the rocks there. There are a couple rocky points that shoot out so you have to climb around to get to them. There were only a couple other guys out and there were on the other point so we had one to ourselves. Ourselves and a seal. The rocks are home to many seals after dusk but one had come in early and I think he was spooked by us climbing past him. We stayed out until sunset and had success again! This time we mistakenly thought the fish was the same one that we had caught before but it wasn't. The regulations here are specific for about 20 species and then anything else has no minimum size and a limit of 20 or something that's far more than we'd be able to eat anyways! For the most part we were feeding the fish after Dustin found a hot spot for casting. We must have rebaited 5 times and every time it was eaten but we weren't able to set the hook! So it was great when Dustin got the one because we had been feeling the bites all night. As we were standing on the edge of the rocky point trying to free a snag, a larger seal popped up and did a couple jumps out of the water! He must have been training for Sea World. It absolutely freaked Dustin out because he was maybe 10 feet from the seal and it was really quiet there so this loud seal bark paired with a large dark spot coming out of the water was nuts! It was really pretty amazing. It got cold right after the sun went down so I made us leave. We had to climb back up the trail to the car (much tougher in that direction, especially recovering from a cold) and then we came home! Phew!
Dustin is back there right now with a guy from work. He came home from work, didn't even have dinner and went back to the fishing spot and it's nearly 9 pm and he's not back! I opted out because the hike was a bit much to do again today, I wanted to eat dinner and I wanted to be home to watch Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. Yep I'm caught on this show. I hadn't seen it at home before but he's gone into the schools in West Virginia (I think) and he's trying to get healthy food into the schools. So it's super interesting and also rather depressing how difficult it is for him to get any changes in place. It's really unbelievable how some people are so against anything new simply because it's new or it's different. And it's sick what schools pass off as healthy food for children. I saw it in high school where 80% of the kids had fries for lunch. It makes so much sense just not to offer such junk at all.
Today was the Melbourne Cup race and it was fun to watch! Heaps of past winners have been NZ bred so the race is nearly as popular here as it is in Australia. I remember having the day off in Melbourne because it was a public holiday there! At Dustin's work they had a sweepstakes but the horse he drew didn't do anything. It reminded me that we have to get out to the racetrack here sometime soon!
There were all these ads for fireworks that came in the mail and I had wrongly assumed they were Halloween related. But Halloween is a non-event here and Guy Fawkes day is coming up! So fireworks are on sale Tues-Fri and then I guess everyone goes nuts with them on Friday and Saturday. I have to check the paper tomorrow to see where we can go to the public fireworks displays. I think I heard they have one up at the amphitheatre in the park but I'm not sure. The sun has been going down around 8pm so hopefully they wouldn't be too late since I work early on Saturday.
One more day of work then two off before I work this weekend. I think we're going to have to sit down and decide when we want to leave so that we can arrange with our landlord and all that. So I'd like to try to sort that out this weekend. Getting back on the road is exciting and daunting all at once. Soon we'll be able to start making plans!
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