post #3

so did you see my movie?  and my haiku?  and all those new photos?  fun stuff, isn't it!

i am still in tauranga, at the backpackers.  i finally got some work doing summer pruning in kiwifruit orchards.  it's easy work, i mean, how hard can pruning be?  but i have to look up the whole time, and by the end of the day my neck hurts.  i've been told that after a couple of days you don't notice it, and it did hurt less the second day.  the job is supposed to last until around christmas, which is perfect.  that's about how long i wanted to work until.  fantastic!  i haven't done an awful lot of new stuff since my last post, i haven't been back to mt. maunganui.  it's hard to get around here without a car, just to get to the pak n save it takes about 45 minutes each way.  that's a long walk for groceries! 

one of my co-workers/fellow backpacker's resident is an american named jessica.  yesterday when we were almost finished working i mentioned how i REALLY wanted some pizza SO we walked to pizza hut yesterday evening to get some pizza.  but then it started to rain.  we decided to eat our pizza on the sidewalk in front of the store, and the delivery guy saw us and gave us a ride back.  he wanted to show us some kiwi hospitality!

i have been reading a lot lately.  rebecca  by daphne du maurier, the life and times of the thunderbolt kid by bill bryson (i literally lol'd, and quite often) and ask the posts of the house by witi ihimaera.  all good stuff.

a couple photos of tauranga:

a view of mt. maunganui from my room, and

big gulp!  i found it in a shop here in tauranga, all the way from spirit lake, iowa!

haiku!

okay, so i know these aren't quite as good as the infamous "beer" haiku, but i was bored and also i thought i needed to write more in my "gournal".  because i have had it since i went to alaska and i haven't filled even half of it, and it's just a composition book.  you would think i would have more to say!

it's a series.

the city i am
in is called tauranga, in
the bay of plenty.

the place in which i
reside is a backpackers
called just the ducks nuts.

the view from my room
is of mount maunganui across
tauranga harbor.

when i want to go
anywhere, including the
store, i have to walk

because i don't have
a car.  i don't even know
how to drive one here.

they drive on the left
and have strange rules regarding
who has right of way.

hahei sunrise movie

here is my video, that i have been working on for two weeks now!  sorry about that, i just find so many other intersting things to do on a regular basis and it's hard to keep up with my photos.  anyway, here it is!  (sorry it's sort of long, i took 30+ photos.)

who gets a bad cold in the summer?

that would be me, of course!  and it's not even cold, like in alaska.  it's beautiful and sunny and i am surrounded by green grass and turqouise water and white beaches.  ugh. 

i am in tauranga, i got here on monday.  i have been looking for work, but not very hard.  i got on a list for work in a fish factory (the irony is killing me!) but i haven't heard anything yet.  i got here right in the in-between time for the seasonal fruit work, so fantastic.  i don't know what to do.  at the very least it's almost christmas/holiday (as in vacation) time, so perhaps i can find something along one of those lines for awhile.

but not too long, because i have grown to like leah's idea of going to fiji for a week around christmas. 

i'm sure i have so many things i could talk about, like the name of the backpackers i am living in (just the ducks nuts) or how i ran into the finnish guy we met in auckland or how i took the "very steep" track (trail--these words confuse me sometimes) up mt. maunganui yesterday but it was still better than deer mt.

but this cold is giving me a headache and i feel like i am in a fog. 
(happy thanksgiving to everyone back home, i had hoped the day would pass and i wouldn't notice, but it was not to be!)

nz pronunciation guide: "wh" pronounced "f"

wow!  i have internet!  granted, i am paying $10 USD for 24 hours of wireless access which is completely ridiculous, but leah and vicky can use it too, so it's not completely selfish. 

i finally put up my auckland photos, as you can see.  i haven't even been there since tuesday and it is now...friday, so it took me long enough.  i have been here in hahei just doing very little.  it's been sweet as, really.  tuesday evening leah and vicky met me in whitianga where we ate dinner, and then took the ferry crossing.  drove here to tatahi lodge which is this fantastic little backpackers that i especially love after being in the 500 bed base hostel in auckland.  wednesday i read on the beach and walked to cathedral cove with vicky and admired the wonderful views, then yesterday morning we woke up really early to go to the cathedral cove carpark to watch the sunrise.  i'm going to try to make a slideshow/video of my photos...it's a project i thought of that will be really cool if i can get it to work.  i went to te pare point (an old maori fortified village at the south end of hahei beach) early in the afternoon, and then as i was walking back along the beach i ran into the gals as they were going out for a dive (they are taking a dive course this week).  i went along and sat in the boat while they were doing that, and then after they were finished we drove to hot water beach and sat in a little pool in the sand.  and when they say hot, it's HOT!  the sand under my feet kept burning them! 

today has been gray and dreary so i haven't done much, but vicky and leah's dive got postponed until tomorrow, so i think we are going to go to a vineyard and maybe whiti, and have some dinner later on.  tomorrow i am supposed to leave the backpacker's and i think i am going to call about a farmstay here in hahei i saw a sign for last evening.  maybe i can stay here another week doing that, i am really unsure of where to go next.  perhaps i will try to head south to tauranga or whakatane.  i really want to be on the east coast, i really want to find a way to go around the east cape on my way down to gisborne.  i think that whole area is really the main part of new zealand that i want to see, that area (or perhaps between gisborne and napier?) is where whale rider was filmed, and what i think of when i think of new zealand.  either way, it'll be beautiful i am sure as this whole country seems to be!

well, auckland was okay, but this is definitely more of the "real" new zealand.  although i really did love waiheke island and the jazz festival, sitting on a hill drinking wine and listening to music in the sun.  a fantastic sunday afternoon!

here is a little video i made of dinner the other night.  while on their dive, their instructor caught a crayfish and leah fixed it for dinner.  i ate a bite but didn't care for it, but it was as a whole a fun meal.

edit: i can't tell if the video thing embedded...can someone please tell me so i can try to fix it if it's not working?

kia ora!

well, here i am, still in auckland!  but not for long, i am leaving tomorrow to take a bus to whitianga on the coromandel peninsula.  there, i will meet leah and i will go stay at a hostel with her and presumably some other people for awhile.  i am not even sure of the town i will be in, but it's near cathedral cove she says.  which is supposed to be beautiful.  and hopefully, i won't be so busy and i can just sort of finish editing my photos to put online.  i started and i was going to put some online tonight for you to see, but apparantly i chose a computer with a bad usb port because i can't get it to recognise anything.

sigh!

i also have a phone now through vodafone.  it's a pay-as-you-go thing, which is ridiculous in price as everything is here, but calls to the u.s. are the same as in new zealand.  also, texting is even cheaper so i will probably start sending some of those.  lastly, i checked how much it would be to ship presents home, and it is far too much for it to happen.  no way.  sorry guys, you'll all get letters and absolutely nothing else.  i'm not going to spend $100 buying gifts just so i can spend the same amount mailing them home.

i promise, the next time i post: photos of gorgeous new zealand!  (you know, people really aren't kidding to say that!)

beautiful new zealand!

well, i have been in new zealand now for a few days.  it's going pretty well, i am still getting over the jet lag.  i am staying in a hostel in downtown auckland with some other people in the iep program, which is pretty cool because we are all in the same boat together.  we've been doing some sightseeing, yesterday afternoon we went on the ferry to devonport, this cute little victorian style town on a peninsula up there.  (you'll have to look at a map i guess.)  climbed up mt. victoria and we could see auckland city across the water, and we took a lot of photos.  i've been to the art museums and stuff, the fish market (which was disapointing, unlike pike market in seattle) and today we're going to go to the domain and the new zealand museum.  or whatever it's called.

for as much as i look at my lonely planet guide, i really can't remember the names of things!  i'm going to blame it on the jet lag, heh!

i've been taking photos, but wireless is more expesive here and stuff, and i haven't edited them yet.  i really want to do that before i put them online because i am like that.  but here is one from my flight's approach into auckland airport just before 5am.  yeah, that was a really fun time!  what a great day that was, lol!

also stuff is insanely expensive here.  sunscreen is like $5-$13 NZD for a little bottle (and you  need it, the sun is pretty bad here, at least i have a bottle right now).  books are ridiculous too, the lonely planet australia is selling for $65 NZD new, which is about $50 USD.  so i might break down and beg someone to send it to me because even with mail, it has to be cheaper than that.  right?  and film.  i haven't checked but i bet it's ridiculous.  i have to get used to it, and i have to stop trying to convert everything to american dollars.  i mean, i have to buy shampoo at some point no matter what it costs!

anyway, i am off to enjoy the beautiful sun and the santa claus the bookstore down the street put up.  ah, auckland!

on to the southern hemisphere!

my next post will be from new zealand...EEK!

(i am still not packed yet, but at least i have the pile narrowed down quite a bit!)

mini-reunion

today i went to clarion and had a mini-reunion with some friends from high school.  we just hung out, went for a walk, ate some chinese.  going back to clarion is always a little strange because things have changed but it's still so familiar and comfortable.

from top left: the gang's all here! (missy, mandy, me, sarah, amber & larry, alicia), larry, my teapot at sam's chinese kitchen, and amber with larry

the fed-ex man must hate us.

he's been to our house four times in the last three days, and our american apparel delivery is supposed to come tomorrow.  sucks to be him!

i made a new album, just for fun.  probably not as funny as i think it is, but i did eat a lot of leftover halloween candy today (we had one trick-or-treater).

our house last night.