Friday was a busy day for Paul and I. We started our morning like every other morning with a trip to Esquire coffee house. To get Paul's Americano (so american!) and my cup to tea and get two free hours of internet. Esquires coffee is very clean and nice, the lady at the counter even gave us a punch card today since she remembered the "Americano". They keep the front door's open no matter what the weather. Little birds fly in and beg like dogs for scraps! They are so cute. The birds do not jump on the tables or fly around your head, they just hop around looking for crumbs. Once the are done the fly out the door until the next person comes in that might order a muff! I'm sure these birds profile everyone!
We skyped Shari and confirmed that the Wells Fargo wire came through! With this exciting news we set off to see if our van was still at Backpackers Buybacks. Our van was still there! We took it for a test drive (we did not drive but one of the sales people) she ran nice. We decided to pull the trigger. Walking up the street to our bank we went to withdrawal the funds. The money was in our savings account and the teller is not able to take money out of our savings account. So we ran back down the street to an internet cafe quickly moved the money to our checking account. Ran back up the street to the bank and withdrew the $NZ, then off to buybacks. We paid for our van! We were so excited to have wheels and get out of the city. I was at the counter getting insurance, roadside assistance, and a ferry pass. The total was more than the extra cash we had on hand (Ferry pass was $200 for one time use!). They said we could pay the rest when we picked up the van when the oil was done being changed. That sounded great until she asked to hold my passport until we paid! I said "I don't think so!" So Paul had to run up the road to the bank again so we could pay the rest, and I stayed and kept an eye on my passport! When Paul came back we talked to two nice gals from Finland and Slovenia. They were looking to buy a car and be traveling for 5-6months. They spoke great english and we visited with them for a bit, Paul and I hope to meet them again on the road. Then the sort of bad news came, our van was across the street at a mechanic shop getting the oil changed and a new WOF (warrant of fitness) when Atish the mechanic said in order for the van to pass the WOF he need to change some part, which he had to order! The sellers have to pay for the part and WOF, our van won't be ready till Monday or Tuesday! Stuck in Auckland :(
After so much activity we decided to go out to dinner. We walked down the harbor in a stiff chilly wind, and checked all the restaurants specials. Some places posted alligator, ostrich, and Kangaroo! I want to try exotic meats while we are here, but I was not ready to eat a cute Kangaroo! Instead we went to Neptune's Cafe and settled for fish and chips! We ordered some green lipped muscles for an appetizer. I was really excited to eat them since I had read about them before hand. They are much bigger than the muscles we are used to eating and much prettier. They were delicious! Our catch of the day fish and chips were very good. We enjoyed the view with Willie Nelson playing in the background. In every restaurant they have been playing american music.
Saturday.
Since we are stuck in Auckland until tuesday we are trying to find things to do that don't cost a lot of money, and will keep us out of the rain. We decided to go to the Auckland museum! As we set off on our walk we realized how hilly the city is! Walking up to Albert park (the top of the hill) the sun broke out. It was beautiful with great views of the city and harbor. The park was great and it sits on one side of the university of Auckland. Walking to the museum walks us through another park, the Auckland Domain. We ate our lunch by a duck pond and observed the many different trees that are in the park. Some palm trees and others that I have never seen before. We need Paul's uncle Mark and aunt Carol there to help us sort them out!
The museum was great. We learned a lot about the Mauri (indigenous NZlanders) as well as many other islanders that are in the surrounding area. There were more Islands and people than Paul and I were aware of. The Mauri make these amazing carvings on their weapons, houses, canoes, and just about everything they used. We went to a show that had young Mauri's doing dances and songs. It was really fun. The kids were goofy and having a good time. We saw dances they would do when preparing for battle. Let me tell you it would be very intimidating to see such big people with face tattoos yelling in a language you don't understand, stomping and slapping their chest, arms, and thighs, while sticking out their tongue (an act of defiance), and opening their eyes wide!
We really enjoyed the museum and our afternoon in the park. We found out that Sunday we change our clocks, spring forward baby!
Sunday 9-26-10 A beautiful sunny day trip to Rangitoto Island!
It has been the best day since our arrival. Clear sky's sunshine and no rain all day! We really wanted to get out of the city, so we hopped on a ferry that took us out to a dormant volcano that is only 600 yr. old. It was a short ferry ride (about 30min) from Auckland to Rangitoto (Rang-e-toe-toe) The landscape was beautiful and the path was well kept. The summit provided great views of Auckland. We were the only one's wearing athletic gear. It was amazing the people we passed in tight skinny jeans with converse on, or some sort of fancy boot. They tougher than us because I would never hike in non-breathable materials! I guess we are gear snobs! I'm pretty sure everyone thought we looked badass in our gear! On our decent we took a detour to the lava caves. We were not sure what to expect as we did not bring our head lamps, although the said we would need a "torch". We found a cave to walk through. In the pictures it looks lit, but in reality we were laughing the whole way through because we could not see a darn thing! I could not get over how blue the water is and how tropical the Island felt. There were these large fern trees (that's what I call them) that were so cool looking. Enjoy the pic's
Side note. The Tonga rugby team is staying at our hotel. It makes it hard to walk down a hall that they are in since their shoulders about touch wall to wall. And with thighs the size of tanker trucks it is hard not to stare at how big they are!
