We're Here!

Wed Sept, 15,2010
Wow! It will only have been 1 week that we have been in New Zealand and so much has happened.
Firstly it's very weird that I'm not preparing lessons and teaching at Sigurbjorg Stefansson.
Now some updates:
We flew Wpg to Denver to LA. The 5 hour wait in LA was a bit tedious and smelly.

 Boarded Qantas at midnight and it was great. Quiet, roomy and each seat had it's own video so one could watch 50 different things. I dozed until supper which was at 1:30 am and then donned the eye coverings, pulled on the blanket, took a little blue pill, and viola! Woke up in Auckland at 8am!
Auckland airport is quite nice and airy. But look out! If you mention that you have hiking boots and tents and stuff you are hauled to the side and frisked by a team wearing plastic gloves. They are very concerned that mud and seeds are not brought into the country. They are also anal about food being brought in. The sniffer dogs found Baba's egg sandwiches (sorry Baba). When we were one check stop away from clearing customs they asked me, " Now, Do you have any more food?"
I said , "Well I have some gluten free buns but they are vacuumed packed and we are going camping right away and I'll need them." He said alright. "Now do you have any more food? You can be fined $400 if you are caught with some.
"No", I said. "That should be about it"
Well unpacking later I found a bag of Pistachio seeds, dried cranberries and cheese buns! Sorry NZ!

Well now on to getting the rental car and manouvering across Auckland so Cary can attend the final  interview.
A nice white Toyota Camry. We packed and unpacked the car 3 times(6 bags and 3 backpacks).
Simon front left was going to be driving coach. Cary, front right, driver, and me in the back was the navigator (and at every round-about I would yell out Keep Left! which was not appreciated by the driver)

Cary drove around the rental parking lot 2 times at a turtle pace with me praying to the drive-safe gods and Simon was rolling his eyes.
The first round-about was painful, the second was kind of fun and the third Cary was being down right confident- until we got lost.
The navigator actually got it right in the end and we arrived 10 min early for the appointment.
For the whole 45 min drive Cary constantly moved the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal, but it worked out because it was raining the whole time!
We stayed at Auckland City Oakes on Hobson, and I would recommend it because it was spacious, clean, central and reasonable. 107 dollars with parking and breakfast! That's NZ dollars. The conversion is 1.00NZ=0.75 CA
We walked down to the harbour and went to the information centre also known as the i-site. There will be a trend starting here because at the end of a 5 day road trip Cary was compulsive about visiting i-sites and he filled a backpack full of pamphlets. Can't have too much info!

Anyway-no joke the fellow in the first i-site asked if we were from Canada. Yes. Would you be from Gimli, MB? Cary shot around thinking he was being punked! This guy wanted to know if we knew Marie Markusson. He had been conversing with her for several years because they share common interests(?!)
It is truly a small world.
Well the next day we were off to see the Northland. Up the east coast , over the top, and down the west coast to New Plymouth where we dropped off the car. Spectacular! Everything is giant here. Giant ferns, giant trees, giant sand dunes, giant waves!

Well, we are now in Hawera, in our house, we're driving a black Honda Jazz, we're hooked up to a phone and internet and we have bank accounts. On Monday, Cary starts his job and Simon and I will start to look for work.
Everyone is very helpful and kind. Everything is new to us. We now know how to use a pay phone. Each plug has to be switched on.There are a lot of vowels in their words, there are no long vowels, and they say every one of them!
 There is so much more to say, but I will add more news soon. It gets dark here early-6:30pm and since it's coming up to 9pm it has been our bedtime.