Today was quite an uneventful day, for me at least. We had our usual Honey Puffs for breakfast and lounged around for a little while.
I decided it was time to start working since I could use our landlords internet. I remoted into my computer in Washington while Dave made some phone calls for car insurance. I hadn’t been receiving too many emails at work, so that was nice. Not too much to have to sort through or urgent projects to attend to.
At noon we had the rest of the left over stir fry and some random food from the kitchen. Once we finished lunch, I worked on the inventory while Dave plucked away at the car insurance. A little while later Dave went into town and I went over the inventory with Aaron. He worked on fixing a few things around the apartment while I did some work on the computer. I have one important project for work that I’m not very motivated to do. So today I worked on that for a little while but worked on a lot of other files in between.
Dave was able to set up our car insurance and for a reasonable price. He also set up our modem for the internet and put 10 Euros worth on our Skype account. What would I do without him? In town he dropped off a few of his resumes (or CV’s as they call them down here) and found that there is an opening at the Medlab in town. Hopefully something will come up soon.
Tonight we had these fried triangle things with veggies inside. They were quite tasty. I cooked them up in oil while Dave finished setting up Skype. We ate dinner and watched the rest of Edward Scissorhands.
One more thing, Dave mentioned something tonight that I hadn’t even thought of. I never left the apartment today. I didn’t even go outside. I never got fresh air. Wow, I hope it’s not always like that. I need to get a life.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Day 6
This morning we had cereal for breakfast. It was a so slow, lazy morning. I checked the mail to see if our modem had come yet for internet, but nope, nothing.
We drove into town around 10:30am to look for car insurance and start up a bank account. We first stopped at a bank called Westpac and they had a lot to offer. They also told us that no bank in NZ would let us get a credit card because we weren’t NZ residents. That’s ok because they have a debit-type card that we could get for free. But we didn’t have our passports so she couldn’t start up and account for us or look up car insurance quotes. So we drove back to our apartment and grabbed those, as well as our papers that said we were residents in Tauranga.
Setting up the account didn’t take too long, but just wanting to get a car insurance quote took forever. She had to log us into the system in order to do that which required a lot of information and even a survey. We were there for hours. And then even after we had to do all that waiting around, our attempt to get a car quote was denied. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, but we still had some things to do.
Dave dropped me off at the Cyber Zone to check my email while we went looking around for car insurance. I checked my email, facebook, etc. and saw that Sarah Postma had emailed me saying our wedding pictures were online. I checked those out for a while and then Dave came. (www.sarahpostmaphotography.com/tara&dave)
He did a little emailing as well and had heard back from the place where he had sent in his resume. They will probably get back to him within a week or so. We looked at a few more of the pictures and then headed home for lunch.
It was about 3 by the time we had lunch. We heated up some leftover stir fry. As we were making lunch Aaron, our landlord came down to see if we could come up and finish up some paperwork when we were finished with lunch.
We went upstairs and got everything sorted out. I started showing Deb our wedding pictures while Dave and Aaron brought the small desk into our flat for me to use. After that Aaron and Dave had a beer that Aaron had brewed himself and we all sat around and talked. Deb asked us if we’d like to stay for tea and Dave was like, “Sure I’ll have a cup if you’re making some.” Apparently tea down here means dinner/supper. We stayed and had dinner with them. It was delicious. Deb made a mango chicken, rice, leeks (which is a lot like spring onions and are very yummy), silver beets (a lot like spinach) and a mix of vegetables.
After “tea” we sat around and talked some more. Aaron was talking about how his company didn’t have a graphic designer and asked if I wanted to do any free lance work for them. He showed me a couple of their products and asked what I would do differently for the packaging and such. I voiced a few of my opinions. He also gave me some files to manipulate for him to share with his company and see what they thought. He said it would be nice to have input from someone of the US because they mainly sell to the US. I showed them some of the tins from work and then we were off to bed.
We drove into town around 10:30am to look for car insurance and start up a bank account. We first stopped at a bank called Westpac and they had a lot to offer. They also told us that no bank in NZ would let us get a credit card because we weren’t NZ residents. That’s ok because they have a debit-type card that we could get for free. But we didn’t have our passports so she couldn’t start up and account for us or look up car insurance quotes. So we drove back to our apartment and grabbed those, as well as our papers that said we were residents in Tauranga.
Setting up the account didn’t take too long, but just wanting to get a car insurance quote took forever. She had to log us into the system in order to do that which required a lot of information and even a survey. We were there for hours. And then even after we had to do all that waiting around, our attempt to get a car quote was denied. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet, but we still had some things to do.
Dave dropped me off at the Cyber Zone to check my email while we went looking around for car insurance. I checked my email, facebook, etc. and saw that Sarah Postma had emailed me saying our wedding pictures were online. I checked those out for a while and then Dave came. (www.sarahpostmaphotography.com/tara&dave)
He did a little emailing as well and had heard back from the place where he had sent in his resume. They will probably get back to him within a week or so. We looked at a few more of the pictures and then headed home for lunch.
It was about 3 by the time we had lunch. We heated up some leftover stir fry. As we were making lunch Aaron, our landlord came down to see if we could come up and finish up some paperwork when we were finished with lunch.
We went upstairs and got everything sorted out. I started showing Deb our wedding pictures while Dave and Aaron brought the small desk into our flat for me to use. After that Aaron and Dave had a beer that Aaron had brewed himself and we all sat around and talked. Deb asked us if we’d like to stay for tea and Dave was like, “Sure I’ll have a cup if you’re making some.” Apparently tea down here means dinner/supper. We stayed and had dinner with them. It was delicious. Deb made a mango chicken, rice, leeks (which is a lot like spring onions and are very yummy), silver beets (a lot like spinach) and a mix of vegetables.
After “tea” we sat around and talked some more. Aaron was talking about how his company didn’t have a graphic designer and asked if I wanted to do any free lance work for them. He showed me a couple of their products and asked what I would do differently for the packaging and such. I voiced a few of my opinions. He also gave me some files to manipulate for him to share with his company and see what they thought. He said it would be nice to have input from someone of the US because they mainly sell to the US. I showed them some of the tins from work and then we were off to bed.
Day 5
To start the day off right we had scrambled eggs and toast. After breakfast we went into town where Dave dropped me off at Cyber Zone to do some more emailing. Dave ran a few errands while I did that. He put some more gas in the car, bought some groceries and went to Telecom to see if our telephone would be up and running soon.
That afternoon we grabbed whatever we could find for lunch. Around three or so we decided to drive down to Rotorua and see the geothermal areas. It took about an hour to get there. We went to a park on the main street that looked like it had some thermal areas.
We first saw a couple steaming pools and thought that was pretty cool. Then we went a little further and saw a muddy pond that was bubbling quite high. There were a bunch of other steaming ponds and whatnot. The best part was towards the end when we came to this bigger lake area that was steaming like crazy. At the top you can walk on a bridge across the water. It was so cool. Sometimes the steam would be so much that you couldn’t see anything and then the wind would come a sweep it away. I was wearing my glasses so they kept fogging up. We tried to check out some geyser down there but it was fenced in and cost $50 to get in. We’ll pass on that.
When we got home we made beef stir fry and watched part of Edward Scissorhands. Dave got really tired about half way through and wanted to go to bed. We can’t seem to stay up past 9 o’clock.
That afternoon we grabbed whatever we could find for lunch. Around three or so we decided to drive down to Rotorua and see the geothermal areas. It took about an hour to get there. We went to a park on the main street that looked like it had some thermal areas.
We first saw a couple steaming pools and thought that was pretty cool. Then we went a little further and saw a muddy pond that was bubbling quite high. There were a bunch of other steaming ponds and whatnot. The best part was towards the end when we came to this bigger lake area that was steaming like crazy. At the top you can walk on a bridge across the water. It was so cool. Sometimes the steam would be so much that you couldn’t see anything and then the wind would come a sweep it away. I was wearing my glasses so they kept fogging up. We tried to check out some geyser down there but it was fenced in and cost $50 to get in. We’ll pass on that.
When we got home we made beef stir fry and watched part of Edward Scissorhands. Dave got really tired about half way through and wanted to go to bed. We can’t seem to stay up past 9 o’clock.
Day 4
It was our first night sleeping in our new apartment. The bed was amazingly soft and warm. We slept great.
That morning we went to a small shopping area in Welcome Bay and bought this pot pie type pastry filled with bacon and eggs. It was delicious. We looked at a couple shops such as the video store, stationary and general store.
We drove to the Tauranga city center to check our email. Dave checked his email while I walked around town. I found a fun restaurant with some type of Asian food that I made a note to try out some time. There was also a cinema with about eight old movies playing. I went back and sent a couple emails to family.
From there we stopped at a pet store. They didn’t have very much, just a couple dogs, turtles and fish. Then we went to the Salvation Army to look for hangers. I found about 15 free ones. Sweet. We then headed home.
I hung up the rest of my clothes and Dave had himself a sandwich. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had a couple Swedish fish and Good n Plentys. Our fuse went out that morning so we didn’t have the television to watch so we played a couple games of Settlers. After Dave won one and I won one, Dave went to the Welcome Bay shopping center to pick up a paper. I cleanup the dishes and started watching tv when Dave came home. The greatest boyband/girlband countdown was on again, so I couldn’t resist watching that again. Dave read the paper. We made spaghetti that night and watched the rest of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
That morning we went to a small shopping area in Welcome Bay and bought this pot pie type pastry filled with bacon and eggs. It was delicious. We looked at a couple shops such as the video store, stationary and general store.
We drove to the Tauranga city center to check our email. Dave checked his email while I walked around town. I found a fun restaurant with some type of Asian food that I made a note to try out some time. There was also a cinema with about eight old movies playing. I went back and sent a couple emails to family.
From there we stopped at a pet store. They didn’t have very much, just a couple dogs, turtles and fish. Then we went to the Salvation Army to look for hangers. I found about 15 free ones. Sweet. We then headed home.
I hung up the rest of my clothes and Dave had himself a sandwich. I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had a couple Swedish fish and Good n Plentys. Our fuse went out that morning so we didn’t have the television to watch so we played a couple games of Settlers. After Dave won one and I won one, Dave went to the Welcome Bay shopping center to pick up a paper. I cleanup the dishes and started watching tv when Dave came home. The greatest boyband/girlband countdown was on again, so I couldn’t resist watching that again. Dave read the paper. We made spaghetti that night and watched the rest of “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Day 3
We woke up around quarter to six in order to get ready and return the rental car on time. We arrived about fifteen minutes early and didn’t quite know exactly where to return the car. I parked at an empty budget parking lot while Dave went into the airport and called Budget inside. They told us we could just leave the car there and they would take care of it. How nice.
We got back to the hotel and packed everything up to move to our new apartment. When we arrived at 71 Forrester Dr. the previous tenants were still cleaning and packing up the last of their things so we went for a little drive. I was incredibly tired, so while I slept, Dave bought breakfast, salt and vinegar chips and some raspberry, coconut cake thing. He’s so sweet.
The apartment was empty when we came back. We unloaded all our belongings and checked out our surroundings. After unpacking a little bit we went into town and Mt. Maunganui. It was a really nice day, a little cold, but sunny. We walked along the beach and found a few sea shells. The beach was so nice. White sand, flat and no rocks. There was a path around the base of the Mount that we walked along. It took us about an hour to walk around the Mount. We stopped at an ice cream parlor on our way back to the car. Three big scoops in a waffle cone and we were on our way. The whip cream on top was pretty gross. It’s not as sweet as our whip cream in the US. The ice cream was good though, Berry Sorbet, Boisen Berry and Cookies and Cream.
After the Mount we went to Pak n’ Save to buy groceries. It was crazy. There were tons of people. It was really hard shopping because we didn’t know where anything was and we didn’t know any of the brands. Eventually we got everything that we wanted and checked out.
When we got home we put the groceries away and started cooking dinner, tater tot casserole. Once dinner was ready, we set the table, which was actually the coffee table and popped in “Little Shop of Horrors.” We got about half way through the movie and our portable DVD player started acting up. It was about 8:30pm and we were tired, so we decided to just go to bed.
Day 2
Since we had only been in New Zealand for only one day and were staying at a temporary residence, we weren’t able to buy our own food yet. When we checked into our hotel, however, for some reason we were giving a small bottle of milk. Odd. We had a couple cookies left that I had packed for our flight out here, so for breakfast we resorted to milk and cookies in bed.
We decided to check out telecom about their phone and internet options before our car auction at 3pm. After going back and forth from the car in the parking lot to the store and back again, we finally signed up for internet at our new apartment and planned to wait on the cell phones.
From there we went to an internet café called Cyber Zone. I was able to plug in my laptop and get a little bit of emailing done. An hour later we left for lunch because we were starving. I had noticed a Mongolia grill by the Telecom store and suggested we go there for lunch. It was pretty much like Hu Hot. Although it was a flat rate of $10 for one bowl, rice, a drink and ice cream. We crammed as much food as we could into the small bowls and chowed down.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped at The Warehouse which is supposedly like a Wal-Mart and bought a blow dryer for myself. At the hotel we took a half hour break before heading to the auction. I watched “Monster-in-Law” on TV while Dave looked through papers and read about the auction.
At the auction we found quite a few cars that seemed like possibilities. We looked through the whole lot and noted which ones seemed good to us. Then Dave asked if we could test drive a couple of the cars. The first car was terrible. It’s starting price was at $100 and we could see why. It didn’t drive well and had no warranties on it. The second car was a white BMW and we really liked it. It drove well and started at $800. The third car was suggested by the worker there. It was a Toyota something and drove nice, so we kept it on our radar.
The auction began and it seemed like we would be there for hours. The two main cars that we wanted to bid on were in the middle and at the end. Thankfully the auction moved along and our first car drove up for bidding. The bidding started at $1400 and it seemed as though no one wanted it, so Dave gave a little wave of his hand. We won the bid but didn’t meet the reserve, so we would have to talk to them about what we would be willing to pay. We wanted to bid on the BMW so we decided to wait to do any negotiating until after we bid on our last car. The BMW drove up and got a few bids right away. It was at around $1500 and started to slow down, so Dave gave another wave of the hand. A couple more bids were thrown out there, but we were able to win the car at $1650 (plus a $200 charge because it was sold for under $2000). What a steal.
That night we drove off with our new car. Back at the hotel I started watching “The Family Stone” and journaling about the day while Dave was outside checking out our new purchase. After that we went to McDonalds for a healthy dinner - burgers and french fries. Ok, so we ordered this “meal for 2”. What a bunch of false advertising. The picture showed this huge double layered burger, gigantic drink, large fries, another cheeseburger and ice cream. We get our meal and it was tiny! I could have eaten the whole thing myself. I guess that’s McDonalds for you.
We go back to our hotel for one last night of sleeping. I started flipping through the channels and come across a channel called C4 which was having this greatest boyband/girlband countdown. I was very excited to say the least. It had “bands” like Spice Girls, Nsync, Backstreet Boys, Five, Westlife, Blink 182, Hanson, New Kids on the Block, All Saints, S Club 7, Tatu, Bewitched and others. Here’s what the top five were:
5. Blink 182 – All The Small Things
4. Wham!– Wake Me Up Before You Go Go
3. Backstreet Boys – I Want it That Way
2. Westlife – Flying Without Wings
1. Nsync – Bye Bye Bye
I was getting a tiny bit worried that they would have some no name New Zealand group be number one, but luckily I was not disappointed and saw that my favorite boyband was number one. While watching New Zealand television it got me very confused. It had commercials about new music and whatnot, but then sometimes it had random ones with Mr. T. I can’t tell if they’re actually behind in the times or just prefer different things than the US.
Day 1
We picked up our rental car at the airport and were helped out with very friendly kiwis. Dave had printed out a Google map to help us get from Auckland to Tauranga, but it was completely useless. We couldn’t find road signs and didn’t know which way to turn. Luckily we had grabbed a couple maps from the airport and were able to figure it out from that. We made it to Tauranga in about 5 hours, only 3 hours later than we had thought which was ok because we couldn’t check into our hotel until noon anyways.
The hotel was a lot different than what I had thought and by different I mean crummy and crappy. Ok, it wasn’t that bad. We had ordered a king size bed but found a queen size canopy in our room. The shower had a metal-type floor and no shelves for shampoo or soap. We were told the room had free internet, but the lady at the front office had no clue about anything. But it was a place to stay and that's all that mattered.
After dropping off all our belongings, literally, we set off in our rental car to find a car to buy. We stopped at one dealer who was nice enough to call to another dealer and see if they had any cards under $2000, but no luck. We tried another dealer but nothing there. Then we stopped at a Toyota dealer where they told Dave about an auto auction that would be help the next day. We drove out to the auction site and found a couple cars that we liked. On the way home we stopped at one last car dealership and found nothing.
At the hotel we looked through a couple newspapers to find cars or an apartment but found nothing there as well. We started to get discouraged about everything. It seemed like we had so much to do and nothing to work with. Yes, it was the first day; I guess we just weren’t expecting all the troubles. I prayed hoping everything would turn out ok in the end.
We had found at least one apartment in the newspaper that could be a possibility so I told Dave we should go to the front desk and call. The apartment wasn’t furnished but was reasonably priced. Dave called but it didn’t sound right for us. There had also been an ad for a waterfront apartment, but we thought it would be way too expensive but decided to call anyways. This place wall fully furnished, by the water and $220 a week. It sounded great. We asked if we could come see it and they said we could come that night. Dave told me that he had quite the adrenaline rush while on the phone with the renter.
The apartment is a little outside of the Tauranga city center in Welcome Bay. It took about five minutes to get there. The apartment was amazing. There was a separate room for the dining room table, a TV, couches, fridge, microwave, dishes, etc. The bedroom was a separate room and had a queen size bed with pillows, sheets, and a dresser. There was also a little laundry room and bathroom. It was everything and seemed too good to be true. We signed the papers that night. It was a complete answer to our prayers.
That night we went back to our hotel with a huge burden off of our shoulders. The major obstacle was over, now we just had a couple minor ones to overcome and we’d be golden. We figured we would be able to find a car at the auction, eventually get connected to the internet and find phones.
The hotel was a lot different than what I had thought and by different I mean crummy and crappy. Ok, it wasn’t that bad. We had ordered a king size bed but found a queen size canopy in our room. The shower had a metal-type floor and no shelves for shampoo or soap. We were told the room had free internet, but the lady at the front office had no clue about anything. But it was a place to stay and that's all that mattered.
After dropping off all our belongings, literally, we set off in our rental car to find a car to buy. We stopped at one dealer who was nice enough to call to another dealer and see if they had any cards under $2000, but no luck. We tried another dealer but nothing there. Then we stopped at a Toyota dealer where they told Dave about an auto auction that would be help the next day. We drove out to the auction site and found a couple cars that we liked. On the way home we stopped at one last car dealership and found nothing.
At the hotel we looked through a couple newspapers to find cars or an apartment but found nothing there as well. We started to get discouraged about everything. It seemed like we had so much to do and nothing to work with. Yes, it was the first day; I guess we just weren’t expecting all the troubles. I prayed hoping everything would turn out ok in the end.
We had found at least one apartment in the newspaper that could be a possibility so I told Dave we should go to the front desk and call. The apartment wasn’t furnished but was reasonably priced. Dave called but it didn’t sound right for us. There had also been an ad for a waterfront apartment, but we thought it would be way too expensive but decided to call anyways. This place wall fully furnished, by the water and $220 a week. It sounded great. We asked if we could come see it and they said we could come that night. Dave told me that he had quite the adrenaline rush while on the phone with the renter.
The apartment is a little outside of the Tauranga city center in Welcome Bay. It took about five minutes to get there. The apartment was amazing. There was a separate room for the dining room table, a TV, couches, fridge, microwave, dishes, etc. The bedroom was a separate room and had a queen size bed with pillows, sheets, and a dresser. There was also a little laundry room and bathroom. It was everything and seemed too good to be true. We signed the papers that night. It was a complete answer to our prayers.
That night we went back to our hotel with a huge burden off of our shoulders. The major obstacle was over, now we just had a couple minor ones to overcome and we’d be golden. We figured we would be able to find a car at the auction, eventually get connected to the internet and find phones.
The Flight
After we finish packing, which took a lot of time and pulling of zippers, we were on our way to the SEA-TAC airport. We left around 10am; about a half hour earlier than we had planned. We were ready and figured it might be good to have the extra time. We stopped at Walgreens to check that hopefully my prescriptions had come in early. Good news, the pills came early. Bad news, the insurance wouldn’t release it. Long story short, I was on the phone for a half hour waiting to get my pills and eventually got them. We were on our way at last.
I don’t know if the traffic was bad since I was asleep most of the way to the airport, but we made it in plenty of time. Dave unloaded the bags from the car and we said our good-byes to my mom. She drove around the terminal curve and was gone. Dragging our luggage into the airport was quite the hassle, but Dave is a strong man. Checking in didn’t take too long after they figured out that we were moving to New Zealand for a year and had valid visas. Oh but the luggage, we were 4 pounds over on one pieces, so we did a little swapping of clothes and were able to fix the problem. We made it so that three of our bags weighed exactly 50.0 lbs. Beating the system.
We grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King and munched on our whoppers and fries while a long line accumulated at the front desk. I thought it was for another flight but soon realized it was for the flight to LA. Apparently the flight was overbooked and there were many people on standby and they needed people to volunteer their seats. The thought of giving up our seats crossesd my mind but having to wait longer for our inevitably long flight didn’t seem fun.
One episode of The OC and a little dilly dallying and we were at LAX. The plane landed on one side of the airport, but our next flight was on the other side of the airport so we had to physically walk across the airport roads to terminal two. Our flight was delayed an hour, which gave us time to buy a pizza and chicken caesar salad, which by the way, was really good.
Air New Zealand. A 747. It was great. Large, spacious, and equipped with movies and games. Once we were in the air I started up a Sudoku game and won, of course. It was even on medium. A meal was served and even though Dave and I had just eaten dinner, we gave in to the free food. I had the chicken. Dave had the beef. It was all very delicious. They were even serving free wine. Dave had a glass and wanted me to get a glass as well so he could have it. He said it would help him sleep better on the flight. It was true. After dinner we went to sleep and he started twitching in no time. We had three seats between the two of us on one side of the plane. It was a little uncomfortable sleeping. We switched positions often and at one point had Dave sleeping on the floor.
Amazingly the flight didn’t seem that long. I watched “Music and Lyrics” and then we had started our decent into Auckland. We left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived on Friday morning. We are now in the future.
I don’t know if the traffic was bad since I was asleep most of the way to the airport, but we made it in plenty of time. Dave unloaded the bags from the car and we said our good-byes to my mom. She drove around the terminal curve and was gone. Dragging our luggage into the airport was quite the hassle, but Dave is a strong man. Checking in didn’t take too long after they figured out that we were moving to New Zealand for a year and had valid visas. Oh but the luggage, we were 4 pounds over on one pieces, so we did a little swapping of clothes and were able to fix the problem. We made it so that three of our bags weighed exactly 50.0 lbs. Beating the system.
We grabbed a bite to eat at Burger King and munched on our whoppers and fries while a long line accumulated at the front desk. I thought it was for another flight but soon realized it was for the flight to LA. Apparently the flight was overbooked and there were many people on standby and they needed people to volunteer their seats. The thought of giving up our seats crossesd my mind but having to wait longer for our inevitably long flight didn’t seem fun.
One episode of The OC and a little dilly dallying and we were at LAX. The plane landed on one side of the airport, but our next flight was on the other side of the airport so we had to physically walk across the airport roads to terminal two. Our flight was delayed an hour, which gave us time to buy a pizza and chicken caesar salad, which by the way, was really good.
Air New Zealand. A 747. It was great. Large, spacious, and equipped with movies and games. Once we were in the air I started up a Sudoku game and won, of course. It was even on medium. A meal was served and even though Dave and I had just eaten dinner, we gave in to the free food. I had the chicken. Dave had the beef. It was all very delicious. They were even serving free wine. Dave had a glass and wanted me to get a glass as well so he could have it. He said it would help him sleep better on the flight. It was true. After dinner we went to sleep and he started twitching in no time. We had three seats between the two of us on one side of the plane. It was a little uncomfortable sleeping. We switched positions often and at one point had Dave sleeping on the floor.
Amazingly the flight didn’t seem that long. I watched “Music and Lyrics” and then we had started our decent into Auckland. We left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived on Friday morning. We are now in the future.
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