Guinness!

Dinner was great! We went to a 'club', something like the Kiwanis Club, sort of... Anyway, we had delicious food, and yummy Guinness beers, even with the clover on top!

Today, Birgit and I are doing some much needed high speed internet work at a little computer store in 'downtown' Tokoroa. They call it an internet cafe, but they are just a computer store where you can go in the back shop, where they fix computers, to get your own free coffee. Super. The guy behind the counter has quite the sense of humour and has had both myself and Birgit and the other customers in stitches. I'm getting hungry after all this work, so I'll finish off the blog for today and await the next high speed internet cafe!

Happy travels - we get to wash and start the Nissan van tomorrow... and then off to Rotoroa to smell the stinky sulpher and see the volcanoes. Mmmmm-mmm! The sulpher can't be much worse than the manure they spread in smelly Chilliwack. I'll do a comparison and let you know.

Am I in Germany or New Zealand?

It feels as though I've been warped from NZ all the way to Germany because my travelling companion is German with a heavy German accent, and we are now staying at Hansi's haus in Tokoroa. Hansi is this big, strong, compassionate, humourous and lovable German who has taken us in, allowed us to do laundry and internet, fed us good food and plenty of beer, driven us to some amazing hotsprings, and is about to take us out for dinner. He's a wonderful man, and his dogs are well trained, and his neighbour, Elaine, is a real sweetheart. She often says, "Golly, golly, gosh, I say!!" and calls me and Birgit her "lovely, darling, beautiful travellers". Hansi is trying to get me in shape. I've got my own stool to raise me up off the floor so I can reach the bar on the ceiling to do curl ups. He's got those crazy grip strentheners like my grandpa had as well. I'm working on my strength, but his biceps are still three times the size of mine... The van we are going to borrow looks great. It's a 1986 Nissan van with a weird stick shift and plenty of room in the back for us to sleep if we need it. Hooray for free vehicles!! As I mentioned before, we went to a hotsprings today with Hansi and Elaine. Here are a few pics from the hour-long road trip.

Soaking in the HOT hot springs... 'twas nice.... and free.

After the dip in the pools, we ate potato wedges with delicious sauces of sour cream, salsa, and sweet sauce. The potato wedges came with spirals of radishes.

Dee follows by example:

I became the designated driver, while Birgit and Hans downed beer. Hans can drink one bottle in about two gulps. He's my hero.

I took a small walk up to the actual hot springs and got some great photos.

So, I drove on the left side of the road for the first time, and I have to say, it was easier than I thought. I only put the windshield wipers on as a left turn indicator once, and it got a big laugh from everyone in the car. It is not strange to drive on the left side of the road, but it is strange to be sitting on the right side of the car in the driver's seat. We are off to go for dinner in the 'big' town of Tokoroa (smaller than Banff!). Good eatings and CHEERS!

The first journey..

My first sushi lunch in NZ was kinda gross because the tuna was like a tuna sandwich, but the cool part was the 'fish' container for the soya sauce. See the fish thing at the bottom of the photo.

After lunch, Birgit and I hopped on the bus tickets to Tokoroa from Auckland for $40 NZ. The bus was this huge double decker, but not red and old like the ones in England. We sat on the top floor taking random pictures of things whizzing by (the speed limit in NZ is 100 kph unless otherwise stated, which almost never happens). Here's a few photos of the road trip to get an idea of what the country side on the North Island looks like. The first photo is classic!

At a corner store in Tokoroa, across the street from the high school, I purchased a "Large Lunch Pack" consisting of some interesting treats. I passed on ingesting the 'cheesey balls'.

After my snack, Birgit and I wandered around town waiting for her friend, Hans, to return to his house so we could meet him. We walked and walked, finally discovering that the town essentially closes down on Sundays. After walking back to the haus of Hans (and he was home!), all I wanted to do was sit down, drop my bag, and give my feet a rest. Whew!

Beer

Well, yesterday was quite the day! After doing some shopping down town, Birgit and I took the city bus to a place outside of the downtown core to watch a handball tournament. Handball looks like fun, but with some heavy duty body contact! I watched a few games, then went outside for some air and found the coolest flowers. Birgit and me and four handball players squeeeeeezed into a small truck and went downtown for my first New Zealand beer called Tui. It was good, except the bar we were in was playing crazy eighties music like "Footloose", Bryan Adams, and even - oh dear god - Neil Diamond! Can't get away from North American music. The view from outside the bar...

Where did time go? Especially November 23rd!

Last I recall, I was skiing like crazy in Banff and Lake Louise...Playing Siedler...Taking Suzi for walks... Playing with my new gator mitts... And then WHAM-BAM! I was on the plane to L.A. and took a photo of the sunset, and the pre-landing.I did some yoga in an inconspicuous space in the LA airport, and then I treated myself to some FREE wine with my dinner on the Air New Zealand flight. I forgot how hard it is to get sleep when you're stuck in a small seat that doesn't really recline much at all. The seats should be called 'leaners' and not recliners. Anyway, I arrived at the airport in New Zealand and had to explain what the word 'Kinesiology' means to the customs officer. I passed through customs okay and hopped on the bus to the hostel in Mt. Eden. On the bus, I met a lady from Germany, Birgit. She's in the same hostel as me, and we've walked down town together twice now. We have bought bus tickets to Tokoroa, near Rotorua, to pick up a van that her German uncle's friend is lending to Birgit for the next two months (mm-hmm, quite a link, hey?). Free wheels. Sweet. We plan to hike around the volcanoes in the area once we get the van, and then Birgit has to be in Wellington by Dec 5. I don't know what or where I will be at that point, but if it works out for me to go to, that would be just super!

Here's a photo of the sky tower in Auckland. We watched people sky dive off the top. It looked like fun, but not for me... today at least. Here's irony for you: I'm in Auckland, sitting in a cafe that sells Seattle coffee. An old dude sitting next to me was wearing a sweatshirt with Seattle written on it, but after questioning the guy of his home, he and his wife are from England, not Seattle. But, they love Seattle, and they added, "Oh, and Vancouver too" at the last second. Here's Birgit at the Seattle cafe. Too weird. Weirdest things about being here: 1) The traffic on the opposite side of the street. 2) New Zealanders are SUPER FRIENDLY, but they don't stop for pedestrians - it actually seems like they are attempting to run you over... 3) The smells of spring are in the air and the birds are singing with the coming of summer. 4) The light switches turn on by ficking them down and not up. Well, my internet time is about to run out, so I'll add some pictures and some more stories after I get to Tokoroa tomorrow night.

On the search for bandannas

I walked down through the rather scary area of East and West Hastings Street in Vancouver to drop into the Army and Navy store on my search for some bandannas, an item I think may be useful on my trip as a head-protector/non-fashionable hat, a reusable Kleenex, a towel, a classic eighties sweatband, or an all-purpose rag of sorts. It is quite possible that if I wear a bandanna around my neck, I think I could look as cute as this pooch. After buying two bandannas at $1.99 each, I felt like I had achieved my intended goal and was ready to leave Army and Navy and wander around the rest of down town to see what there was to see. After meandering along the streets people watching and getting hungry looking in the windows of all the pizza restaurants, I spent about half an hour in the Pacific Centre looking for more bandannas, and trying on jeans. Shopping for jeans is probably my least favourite thing to do since they never fit, but I found myself scoping out different stores in hopes that someone out there has designed a pair of jeans just for me!.... No such luck. And, to make matters worse, I left my Army and Navy shopping bag in one of the changing rooms, and when I went back to the stores, it was gone. So, I've returned to my brother's place empty handed, thirsty, famished, and am in need of a big, cozy couch to lounge on and put my feet up. Now I remember why I don't like shopping.

Johnny needs a place to rest

My car, oh my lovely car. His name is Johnny. He's a two-tone brown Pontiac Grande Lemans I bought six years ago, with the original owner being my Grandpa (also a John). Johnny and I have been to a lot of places together, and I just can't quite seem to give him up, even though he has less than optimal gas consumption, the interior ceiling fabric is falling closer to the top of my head every day, and his front left shock is making a new squeak. To put it plainly, he's awesome, don't you think?Anyway, the reason I am bringing up Johnny here is because I need to find a place to park him for the ten months that I will be away. I hope to find him a good home. It doesn't have to be covered; he's a tough boy with plenty of sun damage to his paint job already. Either I park him, or let someone else drive him around until I get back. Any takers? He's great for having hood picnics and taking hood naps...

'Apple' won't work

Apparently, the word 'apple' is too common (e.g., Apple computers) so my attempt at testing out a search word (see "What the heck" blog entry below) was foiled, but I like the photo of the apple I picked (pun intended), so I'll leave that blog entry for now. While I have been messing about on the internet during the past hour, the folks at Immigration New Zealand have been hard at work analyzing and reviewing applications. They sent me an email minutes ago stating that.... I've been accepted!!! WOOOO-HOO! I'm just as excited as this little kid!! Now if I can get my brother's printer to stop eating paper, things will be perfectly peachy.

What the heck?

I'm really new to the whole blog thing, as this one is my first, but I have to say, I'm hooked. What better way to keep friends and family in the loop, and even meet brand spanking new people who happen to fall upon my blog. That one I'm trying to understand a bit more. How do people stumble upon my blog? Search words, I suppose, or total randomness when people go from blog to blog to blog to blog. Suppose I put the word 'apple' in my blog a bunch of times, and then if you typed the word 'apple' into a blog search, perhaps my blog would come up? Let's see..... apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple apple.... You know when you are trying to remember a phone number or a name of a business and you repeat it over and over in your head and then after the sixth or maybe 56th repetition, it all blends into one mish-mash of sound and loses all meaning and then you forget what the original piece of information was? No? Well, you're missin' out. It's frustrating as heck when the information is important. In case you were wondering, it happens when you type 'apple' over and over too. While on the search for a photo of an apple, I came across this lovely hand drawn picture of a monkey. I like it. I don't know how this relates to images of apples, but I like it. Oddly enough, the artist's name is Natalie Dee. She is fantastic. I like Stop Looking, and I am the soda, and Hamster Butt, and Missing, and The Winner, and this one is for my dad: Ice Cream Dog. I should really start playing with crayons again.

Passport is here!

Well, after waiting ten business days, I have my new passport in my hot little hands. Woo-hoo! There were a lot of people at the Passport Office in downtown Vancouver this morning, but I was lucky enough to skip past them all venturing down the speed-demon lane allowing me to pick up my document in record time and get back on the sky train long before my ticket expired. Sweet. Now that I have my passport, I finally completed the remaining items online for my NZ Working Holiday Visa, paid the $120.00 fee, and am now waiting patiently by my email screen to hear of my approval or.... I don't even want to think about the alternative. Eeek!