Our first guests!
Well, our first guests to New Zealand have arrived. Runi and Walter flew in early Wednesday morning around 4-5 AM. They handled the jet lag pretty well and managed to stay up till 7:30 their first night and maybe 10:30 second night.
Our first day was spent relaxing around Auckland. We walked up to a vegetarian cafe at the top of our hill and got a little exercise and showed them our neighborhood a bit. We then went over to Parnell Village which is basically the next area over at the top of the hill from us. I work here from the Starbucks once in a while and we also use the butcher and baker up their. They are the only area to offer free internet that I can find. The community offers the internet free as a perk to its visitors and residents on its main street which is very nice for me. I work at home most of the time so it gets a bit boring and a change of pace is nice to focus my consulting work.
While in Parnell I worked for a few hours and they walked around with Jen and then we met up in Newmarket which is the other big shopping area near us. Walter got a haircut and we had Sushi for lunch (don't worry I ate in Parnell before coming over at a great place called Pan Asia which has $8-9 lunch specials and very fresh and healthy asian foods).
We got some groceries at Foodtown next, then walked to the Warehouse to get some extra bedding since our stuff has STILL not arrived from the states. Its been 2-3 months now. It is due I think in the next due weeks, or at least that is the latest estimates. It should have been here weeks ago.
At night we had a bit of dinner and just rested around the house and watched a little Outrageous Fortune which is an interesting New Zealand show.
Thursday we got up bright and early, packed and got a cab to the airport area where we rented a camper van. The orientation on the camper van and getting out of the airport seemed to take 2-3 hours, but finally we hit the road south and saw some awesome and very beautiful countryside. We drove most of the day and took the More scenic route 2 instead of route 5. We ended up at lake Rotorua in the evening at our bed and breakfast which is called Clover Downs (www.cloverdowns.co.nz). This is a working farm and B&B and is quite quaint. We had dinner at the top of a nearby mountain after taking a gondola ride up. It was an all you can eat buffet and man did we eat. I think Walter went for at least 7-8 platefuls of dinner and deserts and the rest of us packed it in as well. Next back to the room where we watched a VHS version of Intolerable Cruelty, then off to sleep. This morning we have breakfast and a farm tour ahead of us. They actually have deer and ostrich's right outside our window! Runi's friend is thinking of buying this place, so we wanted to check it out.
The rest of the week we will probably sleep in the camper van and we plan on heading south to Lake Tapoa then on to the wine regions of Napier and finally to Wellington and Lower Hutt to take in the big city and see some of the Lord of the Rings filming locations. We are going to drive back up the west coast to Auckland next week and then hang in Auckland and do day trips for a few days. Then it is off to Sydney (Jen has to stay back for school sadly) to visit Ed and Steve and see the wonders of Australia!
Pictures coming soon!
Cheers,
Matthew
Our first day was spent relaxing around Auckland. We walked up to a vegetarian cafe at the top of our hill and got a little exercise and showed them our neighborhood a bit. We then went over to Parnell Village which is basically the next area over at the top of the hill from us. I work here from the Starbucks once in a while and we also use the butcher and baker up their. They are the only area to offer free internet that I can find. The community offers the internet free as a perk to its visitors and residents on its main street which is very nice for me. I work at home most of the time so it gets a bit boring and a change of pace is nice to focus my consulting work.
While in Parnell I worked for a few hours and they walked around with Jen and then we met up in Newmarket which is the other big shopping area near us. Walter got a haircut and we had Sushi for lunch (don't worry I ate in Parnell before coming over at a great place called Pan Asia which has $8-9 lunch specials and very fresh and healthy asian foods).
We got some groceries at Foodtown next, then walked to the Warehouse to get some extra bedding since our stuff has STILL not arrived from the states. Its been 2-3 months now. It is due I think in the next due weeks, or at least that is the latest estimates. It should have been here weeks ago.
At night we had a bit of dinner and just rested around the house and watched a little Outrageous Fortune which is an interesting New Zealand show.
Thursday we got up bright and early, packed and got a cab to the airport area where we rented a camper van. The orientation on the camper van and getting out of the airport seemed to take 2-3 hours, but finally we hit the road south and saw some awesome and very beautiful countryside. We drove most of the day and took the More scenic route 2 instead of route 5. We ended up at lake Rotorua in the evening at our bed and breakfast which is called Clover Downs (www.cloverdowns.co.nz). This is a working farm and B&B and is quite quaint. We had dinner at the top of a nearby mountain after taking a gondola ride up. It was an all you can eat buffet and man did we eat. I think Walter went for at least 7-8 platefuls of dinner and deserts and the rest of us packed it in as well. Next back to the room where we watched a VHS version of Intolerable Cruelty, then off to sleep. This morning we have breakfast and a farm tour ahead of us. They actually have deer and ostrich's right outside our window! Runi's friend is thinking of buying this place, so we wanted to check it out.
The rest of the week we will probably sleep in the camper van and we plan on heading south to Lake Tapoa then on to the wine regions of Napier and finally to Wellington and Lower Hutt to take in the big city and see some of the Lord of the Rings filming locations. We are going to drive back up the west coast to Auckland next week and then hang in Auckland and do day trips for a few days. Then it is off to Sydney (Jen has to stay back for school sadly) to visit Ed and Steve and see the wonders of Australia!
Pictures coming soon!
Cheers,
Matthew
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