It's going to be a BBQ Christmas

Well its that time of year again. Everyone is ditching work, sloshing through the sleet and snow and shopping like mad. We're drinking egg nog, spiked egg nog, cruelty free/egg free nog and even fat free egg nog. Every where you go there's
xmas music on the radio and lots of overweight guys in red suits ringing bells on every street corner. Well in Auckland, it's summer and people are gearing up for BBQs, picnics and weekends at the beach. It's a weird time warp to be sure, but after living in San Francisco for 5 years I am kind of used to seasons playing tricks on me.

Jen is off in Tubuia (sp?) French Polynesia doing some field work for a month and I am all alone. I stocked up on some old xmas DVD favorites. Yesterday I bought about 6 DVDs and the clerk got a good laugh, it was like "The Holiday, 50 First Dates, 13 Going on 30, etc..." and then Army of Darkness. He thought the "chick" flicks were for my wife or something but I told him those were mine and the others were more for Jen :)

Well I haven't written in a while and the last big post about our move here is one about Food. I feel we have settled in here really well and it almost seems like Canada or America now in most ways. The food is still throwing me for a loop. There are no traditional restaurants, no diners, no family restaurants, no waffle huts, breakfast restaurants, etc... It's mostly either lunch bars and cafes. The cafes serve breakfast and lunch usually and the lunch bars serve things like fish and chips and pies. There are a few fancy restaurants that serve dinner, but most are expensive Italian or Spanish or whatever. Most people here each lunch at the food courts of malls which actually have better quality food than I am used to. The saving grace is Indian. Almost every mall has amazing Indian takeaway (think Naan and Curry but actually good). For about $7.50 US you can get a really great curry, rice and naan. It is really well made too and isn't super oily or greasy. There are a lot of dinner Indian restaurants as well that are about $20-$30 NZD.

It's weird not having places to go for breakfast where you can get a ton of pancakes, eggs and bacon. You can sometimes piece together a meal out of sides, but it costs like $25 to do so. They have more of a British/Irish focus on breakfast like eggs/toast or bacon/french toast (kiwi) or eggs, tomato, mushrooms, sausage, etc.. Lots of weird stuff mixed together.

My big staple in SF was burritos, Thai and Burgers. The burgers here are OK, but no one has Ketchup usually and Tomato sauce (the replacement) is gross. This is great as I have stopped eating hamburgers and actually lost some weight. I attribute this not to the burgers themselves, but to the high fructose corn syrup in the Ketchup. They do have Ketchup here but it is made in Australia (still by Heinz) but with Sugar instead of corn syrup. I feel a lot better after eating it than I used to after eating the corn syrup version. In America corn syrup is in everything and I think we are all allergic to it and becoming fat from it.

For lunches here I need to find new staples. I found a great/healthy/affordable pan Asian place that does all kinds of good dishes for about $9 nzd. I also found a burrito place, but it costs $16 nzd for a burrito at one and $13.50 for a really small one at the other. Then Indian or pies are other options, but I avoid the pies since they are very fattening. It's hard for me to pick up other staples as when I look at menus I just don't see any "real" food on them. They are filled with weird dishes that are overcomplicated and flashy.

One big thing I noted about food/restaurants is that they are trying too hard to be super cool. I heard all the "restaurants" closed like 10 years ago because no one went and everything left is super fancy versions of pub food. So you might get bangers and mash, but it would be a huge pile on the plate with all kinds of garnishes and sauces and little drizzles on the side. Not quite what you want from a pub. To give perspective you can't get a cup of coffee at a gas station but you CAN get any espresso beverage. It is this rampant desire to be fancy and show off. Every cafe has a top chef it seems trying to make things super fancy. I guess I am looking for "basics" and there seems to be a big gap between the lunch bars of pre-made sandwiches and the hyper stylized dinner options.

To fill in the gap, Jen and I eat at home a lot with fresh foods from the local butcher, baker and grocery stores. We can usually whip up a great meal for very little money that tastes better than going out. Auckland is a major city centre though and does have almost all forms of cuisine, its just hard to find the middle range of food options that are pretty much De facto in America and that I surprisingly miss for some reason.

One thing I have learned in the end is that every city or place has its own great restaurants and food and you have to not try to force an old favorite onto a new city as you may not find a good place. For instance San Francisco has good Ethiopian, but instead of trying to find it here were it just isn't, I am better off focusing on something they locally do good.

Mmmm... Beer.....

Well you knew it would happen eventually. A post specifically about the beer here. Overall, I would have to say I am "pleased" with a bit of longing. Most of the people here have a liking for simpler and less complex beers. They like the lager category of beers and drink pale yellow watery drinks. In my quest for some good ales, I have been all over town and have only found one IPA anywhere. Here's the run down on the major brands, bars and the future.

There are 4 major breweries around here from the looks of it. Lion Red is the BUD style brewery and is very popular. There are 3 others, Monteiths, Speights (Duneden), and Mac's. Monteiths is kind of your run of the mill brew pub style beer. Picture some random brew pub that makes 6 of their own beers. Most of the flavors are good ranging from an Original Ale, to a stout like dark beer and a few others in between. Although they are tasty, they are a bit uninspired and lack crispness and deeper flavors. Also there are very few hops to be found.

Speights is the big south island brewer from what I can tell. They also have a small line of several beers and I would just label them as almost identical in quality and flavor as Monteiths. They do have one brew called Distinction Ale which is quite tasty.

Macs is the crazy micro brew style company here and have outlandish advertising, and their own line of brew pubs around town with cheap (think $5-7) beers on tap. Some of their notable beers are Sassy Red (a beautiful bitter), Mac's Gold, a decent lager that is very popular and the daring Hoprocker which is a super hoppy Pilsner! Mac's is definitely my favorite beer line so far and is available at just about any store and on many taps around the city. Most pubs so far seem to have one of these three lines in them and that's about it. Sometimes they will have Guinness or some other beer to augment it.

As far as places to drink, there are a ton and I have only been to a few so far. Most cafes and restaurants are "licensed" to sell beer and some have BYO. Of note so far is the Belgian Beer Cafe - http://www.belgian-beer-cafe.co.nz/ This place has all the favorites from tons of Leffe on tap to Hoegarden, Stella, Chimay, Delerium, Duvel, Kwak, etc... They don't have an exhaustive list, but rather about 6-10 brewers featured only. They also have very few bottles beyond this. A place like this I would expect to have 100 different bottled beers for what they can't keep on tap, but alas, they don't. Still, it is a great place with good food. Some of the beer is pricey, but if you pick and choose what is on special or less expensive, you won't break the bank. They also have decent food and good atmosphere (at the Ponsonby location at least).

I have also gone to a place called the Cock and Bull. It is styled after a British pub and they had their own line of 5-6 beers. Most of them ranged from a lager draught to a nice wheat beer called Busty Blonde. The real gems were a Belgian style named Monk's Habit which has won local awards. This was $7 for a small snifter but was worth it. The pricey Mayhem was the only IPA I can find on tap just about anywhere unless you count Touys (which tastes like piss and has no hops). $10 bought me a pint of this since it was 6%. The barkeep was super friendly and told me about the local beer scene and let me try everything for free. They were out of Epic Pale Ale which is one of the best beers around here and very hoppy in character. Tastes more like an IPA. I got a six pack on the way home and tried it last night with Jen.

We also found a bar called Shakespeare's which has a custom line of beers from various places. They have about 12 taps and most of their stuff was VERY fruity. Think lambic almost. The stuff was almost sickeningly sweet, so I wasn't overly impressed. The beer did have a lot of character and flavor though and most of the percentages were 6-12%! Most of the beer you buy at the store here is 4% sometimes.
I would go back and try a few more beers here, but if you don't like sweet, stay away.

Jen and I tried out The Bog a few weeks ago which was a local Irish Bar. It was nice enough and is in our neighborhood but only had 1-2 beers from each of the above companies and Guinness. We did see a nice Aussie Rugby match on the tellie though.

None of the beers in Auckland, New Zealand are crazy flavorful, but many are a nice treat for a cold day and there are a lot of middle of the road staples. So instead of seeing a lot of crap on one end and a few good beers at the other end of the spectrum, everything is clustered firmly in the good/competent category with a few exceptions. It's nice to know we won't want for a good a brew when we are in the mood, but I still have cravings for a few brands back in the United States. I think the future for NZ is a slow move to more and more flavorful beers. Over the last few years the trend is starting to show that more people like Ales and more hoppy flavors or bitter flavors. This will hopefully lead to more and more companies like Mac's and Epic being able to take chances on more and more flavorful styles. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Cheers,

Matthew

The high price of cutlery

Greetings all,

Well it has been a whirlwind few days and I haven't had a chance to post much. We viewed a small house in Remuera last Wednesday night and another group was also viewing the house just after us. They wanted it and were even willing to pay more than us, but I guess the landlords thought we would be a better fit for the place so they gave us a shot at it. We had to decide under pressure wether to get it or not. Jen was kind of opposed due to the cost and the pressure and I was a tiny bit leery of the location being down a 4 block hill from the main road and having spotty bus service. The neighborhood is beautiful though and we have a park across the street, a Kwik-e-mart (not the real name) around the corner and a bus stop 1 block away (although it runs rarely and doesn't go directly where we want). If we walk the half mile hill we are about another half mile from New Market which is a HUGE shopping district and if we go the other direction we get to Parnell which is a ritzy boutique style area with cafes and restaurants.

At the last minute we decided to go for it since the place is just gorgeous and deceptively close to everything.

I will post some pictures shortly and address information. We have spent the last few days shopping to get the essentials for the place. Everything is VERY expensive here. For instance we went into a discount plastics store and the cheapest garbage pale was $30. They go up to $100+ We also found a small plastic chest of bins (think Target for $20 to put your kids toys in).....$399. We went to a fancier home store and found cutlery sets for $1000.00+, A $69 can opener (cheapest was $20) and many other things to blow your fiscal mind. For reference the US dollar is only about 21% ahead of the NZD so 21% off $1000 worth of spoons is still $790 USD. Also I am not picking the most expensive things we found at really expensive shops. Everything is this price. For instance a trip to Alaska at one of their discount travel places was quoted at something like $18,000. I am sure it included lodging but still... wow!

If you are moving to New Zealand keep in mind that things are quite expensive here, especially manufactured stuff and electronics. TVs go for $1500 +, nice furniture is about $1000+ per piece and simpl things like a set of measuring spoons can run $20-80. I recommend filling box after box of EVERYTHING you think you might use here. Shipping a few large boxes of small stuff might cost around $300 vs. buying that stuff for $3,000-10,000.

We have found that almost everyone has specials and sales constantly and if you shop around you can find these deals. For instance groceries and meat seem to be affordable and even though cafes are expensive, there is often a special on the menu that is about 1/2 price. Things like paperback books might run $15-30 a piece but you can get DVDs for around $20 I think. We packed all our DVDs in a case logic case and left the boxes in storage and we converted all our music to MP3 and will probably just I-tunes anything new we want. There is a company called www.Fatso.co.nz that we were going to check out and it is like a www.Netflix.com service. We need to get a TV still and a Multi-Zone? (Region Free) DVD player that will play our US DVDs as well as the ones here. We found a used TV/DVD combo for $200 which is amazingly cheap, so we might grab that.

For everything else we have been using www.trademe.co.nz (think www.Ebay.com) and have gotten a nice futon to sleep on until our bed arrives. The futon will double as our guest bed after that. We also are looking for a desk and won some nice kitchen stuff. It is expensive to pick this stuff up without a car and taxi's don't like to lug a bunch of stuff around. We found a company called www.taxitrucks.co.nz that will rent you a burly man and a truck at $60 an hour + $30 call out fee. This is nice for our refrigerator that we need to get still. Also another company is www.moveit.co.nz with cheaper rates but less flexibility.

Our place doesn't have a fridge and although it has 3 bedrooms and a parlour, doesn't have a dining room and the kitchen only has space for stools at the counter breakfast bar. We plan to eat at the counter and get a nice table for our deck to eat outside when the weather is nice. Weather is similar to San Francisco in the winter, so you can still go outside, although this week was really wet and cold and our place was freezing. No central heat here, so we had to go buy our own. We bought 2 oil electric 5 blade heaters which don't do much at all. One is in the hallway and one in the living room. We have our own fireplace though and have been running it a lot. We actually burned a bag of coal yesterday. I feel so old school all of a sudden. We also do not have a dryer, but do have a washer. People hang their clothes out to dry here almost exclusively and we have some lines on the porch for this. It took my clothes over a day to sort of dry in this weather though, so you have to plan ahead and make sure the stuff is out in time for the sun in the afternoon.

Well definitely some stuff to get used to, but some simple shifts are enough to enjoy the lack of glutenous comfort we were used to. Everything here is very conservation based. All the outlets even have on/off switches which people actually use. The toilets have 2 flush modes, half/full. People just generally try to use less, plan out exactly what they need and buy that and schedule things more. We are used to doing anything we want exactly when we want. Need a taxi, there it is, need a bus, one will be by every 3 minutes, need an ATM or a Starbucks, no problem, 2 on every corner. I think in the long run I will appreciate the fact that things are a tiny bit more spread out here and you have to think about what you want to do more and pay for what you use.

Till next time,

Matthew

Our first impressions

Wow am I jet lagged. I think my eyes are bleeding. Hopefully not. Anyways, Jen and I made it to New Zealand safe and sound. We got about 4-6 hours sleep on the slightly shorter than expected 12 and 1/2 hour flight.The flight was fairly enjoyable, slightly less cramped than a regular coach flight, but still kind of tight. I had someone who reclined 100% of the way into my lap and I couldn't do much of anything the whole trip. Jen had a much better seat with no one in front of her. The guy in our isle seat slept the whole way making it problematic to ask to go to the bathroom so I think we got up once the entire flight.

Some cool things about the flight was that they show you on your own personal video screen where you are at all the time and how much time is remaining in the flight. Being a control freak and slightly anxious I appreciated the constant feedback. Also your personal monitor and free headphones work with your own remote control in your armrest which gives you access to a TON of music, movies, games and information. I played a game called Caveman (think Pengo) for a while and Tetris for a bit. I watched Bridge to Tabathia as well and Jen watched that recent Ed Norton period movie. She also watched Becomming Jane. I was impressed with the selection of movies. They even had movies that weren't out in the theateres here in New Zealand yet. They also had a huge "classics" section which included such favorites as Ferris Buellers Day Off, Galaxy Quest and a ton of other great movies from every genre. They even had all 3 Lord of the Rings movies and just about enough flight time to watch them all! Maybe next time.

After landing, we breezed through the airport stopping to take a photo of the "Please do not spit in trash bins" signs. We had a slightly cranky immigration officer, but got through with just a few cursory questions. The baggage claim was filled with people, but they were all surprisingly staying behind this yellow line a foot away from the conveyor belt. In America people would be pushing and pulling and knocking people onto the belt and here, everyone was chill and just waiting there turn.... Most people were even at the"end" of the belt area instead of crammed at the entrance. A cute begal and her handler were sniffing all the bags looking for agricultural violations (bringing in food or plant matter) and not drugs (although maybe that too). We got a free coffee from the Welcome to New Zealand booth and breezed through customs in about 15 seconds with a single question to verify our answers. We had our bags X-Rayed and Jen was challenged to open one for about 30 seconds. I think they saw our teddy bears and smiled and closed it up again.

So far so good, but after getting out to the pick up area, our driver that was supposed to have our name on one of those cards was no where to be found. We wanted a picture as this would probably be the only time anyone would be meeting us at the airport with our own name card and private car. Turns out he was late and we finally found his contact information and found him. It was more of a shared shuttle service with a private van and we had to wait about an hour to round up everyone. We met a nice girl from New York that was on the same flight and going to the University as well. We also had a chance to try some more coffee and to get on a free wireless network (most aren't free and I think we found an exception). I made my first international Skype call to my Dad and it worked perfectly without a hitch. Also we sent out a few emails and Jen called her parents.

After that a long ride to the Youth Hostel with the AWESOME and very friendly driver giving us informationand tips, we finally arrived. We were travelling with a girl from Norway and another student. A quick check in at the Hostel came next and we had to store our bags till 2pm while waiting to get a room. My headache wasn't getting any better, so Jen and I went out for a short walk to check out some cafe's. This city seems really beatiful so far and we are at a small cafe where I am writing this. It reminds me of a mix of Seattle and Van Couver so far. The only weird things that seem like culture shock so far are the driving on the opposite side of the road and getting in the opposite side of the car, compared to what we are used to. Most of the signage looks American and we have seen a Starbucks, a Subway, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, etc... There are a few local chains and brands we are starting to notice. The metric system is going to kick our butt soon though. That would probably be the other hard thing to adapt to. Also crossing streets is challenging as you don't know where someone is going to come at you from.

One more big shocker before we sign off for a while. Prices are very expensive. We just paid $32 NZD for breakfast at a run of the mill cafe. It was 2 eggs, toast and bacon for me and Jen had some sort of Potato pancake and egg dish + 2 coffee drinks. Mine was $11.50 for 2 eggs, toast and bacon which would probably run about $4-7 in the US. We get about 25% off from the exchange rate, so the whole meal is about $24 which is on the high end of brunch in San Francisco for this kind of place. Seems like every price we see is way more than we expected including rents which look to be $300-600 per WEEK for the kind of place we want to get.

Well more later and we will start adding pictures to the blog soon. So far New Zealand is great and we are excited to check out the University next.

Matthew

Visiting friends and family in Chicago and Minnesota

Now that the time to travel is getting closer, we finally got our tickets to visit friends and family in the states and also our one way! tickets to New Zealand. We probably over paid a tiny bit from the NZ tickets, at about $1550 for two 1-way tickets. We were just so excited about finally setting a date in stone and also the prices seemed to be slowly creeping up. Our travel date is Saturday July 7th at night and we get to Auckland on Monday morning I think. It is only a 13-14 hour flight supposedly from San Francisco, CA but with time differences we lose a day or two.

We also got some tickets to visit the family. June 21st - July 1st we are going to be in Chicago and Minnesotta. We fly into Midway from Oakland and spend a few days in Chicago with family and friends, then have a one way rental up to MN, for a few days. Our sister-in-law is having a baby at the end of June, so we hope the timing is perfect. We also get to visit our friends Rob and Karin (who is also expecting soon) on the way to the Minneapolis airport on Sunday the 1st. After that we are back for a few days to visit friends in SF and sell off/give away that last few things we own and then off to New Zealand.

Matthew

Day 1, Our journey begins

Wow, so Jen just got accepted to the masters program at University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Jen and I (Matthew) have been living in San Francisco for about 5 years now in a cool loft with our roomies David and Jen (Hi) and have had a blast, but it is time to move on. With the acceptance letter in hand, this opens the next chapter of our life and starts in motion a ton of things.

The first thing to do is research, research, research. We are looking into what it takes to bring our cat Lucy over with us and this seems to be the first place to start. There are actually about 6 months of things that need to be done for Lucy to come over on the same schedule as us and we are already a few weeks behind this schedule. Jen is taking care of researching this and we have a huge schedule of vet appointments we need to schedule for Lucy. Basically she needs a 6 month shot or test and then most of the other stuff is 3 months or less. As time goes on we will be going back to the vet a bunch for tests and various shots. In the last 2-3 weeks this gets to the point of going a few times a week, then she will need to stay in San Francisco in our place until the end of July (We are scheduled to go to New Zealand on July 7th). Good thing our lease ends at the end of July. Maybe we can get the cat to pay for it :)

Further research indicates that Lucy's tickets and special carriers will run more than our tickets to NZ. Who would have thought that pet shippers would cost more than people flights. We need to get a special container for her, aptly named the Sky Kennel, and she will need to be quaranteened for 30 days in Auckland. We can visit her there at least, so that will make the transition a bit easier. Lucy is very "needy" and hates to be alone. We call her our special needs cat. She basically sits on Jen's head all day long and when Jen leaves for a trip, she finds me and insists on walking on my keyboard or poking her head under my book while reading. When I leave, she finds Jen or David and pesters them to death. Hopefully she will handle the transition phase of many weeks where she may be mostly alone or stuck in a small cage. She throws up a lot, but not hairballs or food mostly, and we think this is stress and attention related, so maybe this trip will break that habit of throwing up for attention.

More soon,

Matthew + Jen