We arrived in Auckland fairly early in the day, and just like the way Jutta had come to pick us up on our first day in New Zealand, she was waiting there for us again. We drove back to their house and within no time we were getting tips here and there for how to do things while the pair were gone.
There were the orange and grapefruit trees, which we could pick, but only if we twisted them the right way and didn't pick too many.
There were the chickens, who we had to let out for a couple of hours each day at 3pm, but we had to make sure they knew how to work their new food contraption and chase them back to the backyard when they ventured to the front.
There was the wood-burning fireplace that could be used to take the edge off of the cold, but it shouldn't be lit like this, it should be lit like that.
There were the kitty-cats and their 1/4 cup of food in the morning and 1/4 cup at night. Mr. No Name (yes, we actually called him this, unfortunately) also got an extra morning meal of meat with a little bit of steroid powder mixed in for his FIV (feline HIV), but with a smidge of boiling water, followed by a smidge of cold water BEFORE putting the powder in.
There was the dishwasher that needed loaded just so, otherwise the door to the soap wouldn't open all the way and heaven forbid there would be soap residue on the inside and it would have to be run again!
There were the bikes that we could use (yay!) but the locks needed to be used all the time.
There was the yard, which needed mowed with precise timing, and leave the front long so the tulips can bloom. This just meant that it looked unkempt, with a few differently colored green leaves poking through.
There was the glass stove-top, which needed to be free of sugar or oil, and needed to be scrubbed down with a special chemical, and then buffed to a shine with another chemical, plus have any crunchy spots taken off with a straight razor.
There was the shower, which needed closed really, really hard because otherwise it drips.
There was the cat litter, which needed checked every day and the solids removed and the door left open in case they needed it in the night.
Okay, I'm being overdramatic (me? never!). But even the ever-positive Joe was like, have a nice time! out loud but, phew thank goodness they're gone! on the inside. I like them, but it was really nice to be alone in the house and not have to share a space with them that was just a bit too small.
Our time in Auckland was amazing, let me say that. The first weekend, we had Constantin, our German friend who lived in our living room in Tekapo for a short time, come and stay with us. He was flying in from Queenstown and would fly home to Germany in a few short days.
We booked a bus to Matamata (NakedbBus with a sweet discount I found just by searching for promo codes in google) and a tour of Hobbiton. We had been indecisive about going to Hobbiton until then because of the expense. Now that we have done it, I would say it was worth it, but probably more so because we were so hesitant due to the money.
I was really struggling with this money issue for most of our time in New Zealand because we want to travel many places and that takes money. But I realized sometime during our South Island tour that I was getting TOO stressed about money--it had become like an obsession that I couldn't shake. I asked Joe to help me and he talked me down from the obsessive control ledge and I'm so glad he did. I started to relax and he reminded me that the reason we stuck out Tekapo like we did was so we had enough to make traveling enjoyable and possible and this was our chance. Seeing all of the great parts of the South Island reminded me that spending money can be good, and it is not worth having a few more dollars in the bank if it means we have to live like hermits and misers.
Living in Auckland was very pleasant for our wallets. We had free housing and in the course of the five weeks we lived at Jutta and Rudi's, we learned to shop cheaply, make our own food for almost every meal, and do some of the more free things around town. It was marvelous.
Anyway, I had let go of the obsession and thankfully that allowed me to really enjoy Hobbiton as well.
The morning of our tour, all three of us got up at stupid o'clock and started walking to where we would catch a bus. Right out on the intersection only yards away from our house, we heard screeching and crying and as we came around the bend to it, we saw a car with another car smashed into the back. There were a few people standing around and there were flames coming out of the engine and licking the sides of the minivan whose engine was crumpled. There was also an agonizing scream, which we never found out why. Perhaps someone was stuck inside and dead. Or maybe they were just frustrated by getting their car totaled.
The whole thing shook us up. We felt bad about just walking past, but there were already police on the way and a number of people their to help out, plus we were late for our bus.
We made it to the bus stop in time to catch the bus from Papatoetoe (pronounced pah-pah-TOY-toy) to Manukau (pronounced mah-noo-COW). Here we caught the NakedBus to Matamata.
In Matamata we found out we could move our tour a little later if we wanted so we could get lunch first and then not have to wait around quite so long afterwords to get the bus back to Manukau. We took that option and walked around until we found a mom-and-pop chip shop with all kinds of comfort foods on the menu. I got a Hawaiian burger (an Emily favorite) and fries and it... was... heaven.
We took a bus from the information center in Matamata to the gift shop, where we perused while waiting for yet another bus. When we arrived at the base of the Hobbiton "campus," what had been pissing rain now was mud and clear skies. We thanked New Zealand for its moments of good weather recently.
The hobbit holes were all different sizes so that film makers could play with perspective, making some of the characters look larger and some look smaller than others. They had all the little details in various sizes--vegetables, shovels, breads, wagons, etc.
I would have enjoyed a smaller tour because as it was, it was hard to get photos without feeling like an idiot around other people and it held everyone up. The only real solution was to wait until the whole group moved on and then take hurried photos while missing the next things the tour guide was saying.
But it was a beautiful couple of hours out in the sun amongst the hobbit homes. They even finished off the tour with a free drink in the Green Lantern Inn, which was honestly a really nice touch. Constantin took the mug that his drink came in home for a souvenir, though that wasn't standard or approved. :)
We spent the last couple of Constantin's days in New Zealand hanging out with him. The kid is only like 19 years old, so he still has the stamina to listen to house music at high decibels late into the night and has ambitions to do many things during the day. I felt so old because we went to bed earlier than him and couldn't be bothered to do much other than sit by the wood-burning fireplace. Haha. We felt bad that we weren't more ambitious and lively for him.
It was really very lovely that he came to stay with us. And it was fun to be his last contact before going home. Our goodbye was a very sweet one. We think a stop in Germany is in order in the future.
We had a list of things we wanted to get done in the month in Auckland and we did pretty well. We got our teeth cleaned by a man and wife from Iraq who operated the local dentist. Aaaaand as I have seen elsewhere, sometimes going with the cheapest dentist is not ideal. They did fine and probably no harm was done, but during their cleaning of plaque on both of us, they hit a nerve or something and made us cringe and jump. They were very nice though. We realized we needed to be a little more routine and serious about taking care of our teeth and have been flossing and brushing rather religiously since then.
We got the car sold to one of our flatmates. This happened before we left Tekapo, but we hadn't transferred ownership until we were in Auckland.
Unfortunately, we found out that we don't think we get any money back from the government. We had been hearing mixed rumors that tourists got all their taxes back or tourists didn't get any taxes back. We still have no idea, but when we tried to apply for the first fiscal year, it said we couldn't get any back. And we can't apply for the second fiscal year taxes until the year ends in March 2015. So who knows.
The first weekend after Constantin left, we grabbed cheap tickets to get down to Christchurch, where we found a relocation camper to drive back up. We did this because I knew it was important to Joe to see the Abel Tasman National Park, since we hadn't had enough time to see it on our whirlwind tour.
The campervan was cool--we'd never done it before and we felt totally spoiled, but it ended up costing us a bit more than planned originally. But we got it done and had a great time. Plus, I had found free places to park that saved money on accommodation. The first night we stayed there, we had a view over a muddy river, but with the sunrise behind it. Sometime in the night a camperbus had joined us and we noticed we were enjoying the sunrise in company of the camperbus's cat, who sat primly to the side watching the morning mist.
Early on, I spotted (after we had declined insurance covering the windshield and tires, which would have cost an arm and a leg MORE than we were already paying) a nice little crack in the windshield in the black part just behind the rearview mirror. Awesome. It was so well hidden that I am sure now that it must have already been there. I stressed about it a while, but didn't tell Joe so that he wouldn't worry about it.
The Abel Tasman was beautiful. We woke up early to head to the base of the track, which started with mud flats with tall grasses on a series of bridges and boardwalks. It headed up into the rain forest and away from the boardwalk. The path was dirt with some light pebbling, but looked like it could pass for a cow trail.
The hike went through rain forest and along beaches whose sand was reddish-orange and stretched smoothly to the turquoise water. Where there had been some snotty weather on either side of our trip, the oceans and the trails and the beaches were clear and sunny. Another thank you to NZ weather.
We hiked as long as we could, but didn't feel like it was enough. Perhaps the Abel Tasman is something we will visit again later in life when we're wealthy beyond our wildest dreams.
We spent the night again in the free spot after returning from the track. Two spaces away was the camperbus with the cat. Camping for free can sometimes feel vulnerable, just in case police or criminals stop by, so there is strength in numbers and the drive-by engine roaring by a guy who had tried to flag us down for some reason when we came back to our spot, that felt threatening alone, felt much more manageable with the camperbus.
We started the drive the next morning to Picton, where we would catch the ferry. We only had to pay for one person, as the relocation vehicle had included the camper and one person, but it was still a little expensive for comfort.
Fortunately, Joe discovered a deep affinity for ferry rides. The dude couldn't sit still. The weather, while cold, was otherwise perfect for us.
We kept driving and drove well into the night, as the rental had to be returned the next morning. We stayed in the parking lot of a sporting complex and were up again in the morning ready to roll.
We had enough time to go shopping for groceries and then drop myself and the groceries at home. Joe dropped the camper off to get the inspection done and turn the vehicle in. He had his business pants on. The inherited crack hiding in the windshield went unnoticed, thankfully.
This trip, while expensive, had effectively crossed our biggest to-do items in New Zealand off our list. Everything else was icing.
We hoped to make it to the Coromandel Peninsula before leaving, but we eventually ran out of time. Plus, we felt so accomplished finishing everything else off that it didn't really bother us to miss that one thing.
We were hoping to make it up to Dargaville to visit Peter and Colleen one last time, but our available time to do so was complicated by the fact that it relied on the availability of other people to watch after the cats when we were gone.
Half way through our month, we got a call from Jutta and Rudi's friends who wanted to stay at the house. The call irked me at first because she worded it, "we've decided we'd really like to stay at Jutta and Rudi's," as if the fact that they knew them meant that they could impose on us, the people actually living there at the time. I soon realized, however, that it was actually beneficial to us, even though it was a little presumptuous on their part.
We bought tickets and headed up to see Peter and Colleen. It was great to see them and within no time, I remembered how frustrated I could be with Peter's genial sexism banter. But it was really nice to see them nonetheless.
They were out at their "bach" again for a few weeks, so we stayed out there with them. We helped them on the mail run, went to see Grant (who was super surprised and happy to see us), and herded a few cows. It was low-key, but really nice.
The first night their daughter and her husband and kids came out to eat dinner. The kids were really cute and really, really hyper. The family seemed so happy. Seeing Peter and Colleen's granddaughter made me think of the time Colleen had baked a cake for Martina and invited her family out to meet us.
Peter made sure to get a few good "experiences" in for us while we were there. His brother Clive let us see the calves that had been born in the last few days. One lot had even just been born the day before and were still crunchy with dried mom juices. They let me go into the pen with the calves that had been born a day before, and they all were latching on to anything they could. If I wasn't careful, they would start sucking on my pants (loaner rag ones from Colleen, who knew the visit would be bad for my clothing), my shoes, and my fingers. They didn't bite, so it was fun to let them suck on my fingers, but their spit got a little gross. They were very sweet and it was very fun.
He also took us to his neighbor's place. His neighbor was an older man (80s?) and his wife, who ran a little farm. They had a small herd of sheep and they were getting ready to castrate and crop the tails of the new lambs.
This was interesting, but a little gross and sad at first. If the lamb was a male, a tight rubber band would be stretched around the testicles, and then a second stretched around most of the tail. They were then given shots. A female would have the same procedure, minus the testicles part, obviously. My parents used to fix our male cats with similar bands and plier things.
I was just going to let Joe do the whole thing, especially considering the shots, but eventually I bucked up and had a go. I turned out to be pretty good at it, but had to turn my head away for the shot.
The poor lambs were leaving very confused about the pain the rubber bands were causing. There were only 10 or 15 lambs that we did this to, and they were walking around the pasture, turning in circles, and then laying down queasily. They would get up, walk around a little bit, and then lie down again. The farmer said they only felt the pain for the first ten minutes and then the numbness replaced the pain, but quite frankly there were little sheep still queasy an hour later when we left, so I don't buy it.
The last night in Dargaville (well, Bayly's Beach anyhow) we went to Debbie and Grant's house to see the All Blacks play Australia. It was fun, especially a little bit intoxicated! The All Blacks are usually champions of the world.
When Peter and Colleen took us to catch the bus, they stood and waited with us. We got a couple of last photos, Colleen chided us for our tiny tent again, and we moved pebbles around with our feet to distract ourselves from the goodbyes. The bus finally came and we got on it. We waved to mum and dad and they waved to us until they could no longer see us.
The next morning we started early to Waiheke Island. This involved taking the train downtown early enough in the morning that we wouldn't be hitting rush hour with our bikes. We caught the ferry, stashed our bikes on the bike hangers, and went to the top deck, but we came down from the top deck rather quickly due to cold.
Waiheke was great, except that we worked far harder with the bikes than we should have. I made a mistake early on of seizing the day and taking the road less traveled. We steered the bikes up and up and up and the higher we went, the less we wanted to turn back. Until of course we were at what felt like the top of the whole freaking island, which is to say, far away from anything worth seeing. We rode around for a while in the wrong directions and then finally found our way back to civilization.
We stopped in to an art gallery that was open. The exhibit was fascinating--it was large photos of all different shapes, sizes, and colors of women, along with their story written out to the side. At first it was inspiring--wow! all these women have done such great things! Then it started to get depressing. It was the same effect Facebook has on me. When the highlights reel is the only thing I ever see, I find myself unable to convince myself that there are mids and lows in there as well. I find myself wondering who I have mids and lows when other people don't seem to. Realistically, I know my life is great, but the repeated exposure to evidence of everyone else's highs get to my head.
Silly, certainly. It was a beautiful exhibit though. Joe admired it, but also felt the same comparison issues.
We did some reading on the beach and then went to find some sea shells. They had some really cool ones--like the regular crimpy shell, but all the way flat instead of concave. We picked many different colors and sizes and later got to send some of them to some of Joe's nieces and nephews.
We were going to give ourselves a nice meal out during the day, but found we couldn't pass up a deal on Thai food. When Joe and I set our minds to spend money on a nice dinner, we rarely can step back far enough to make a decision not based on price. :P
All in all, a very nice day. We biked a loooooong way out to the other ferry and then back. Joe intended to swim, but it was too cold. We rode around a nice path around a rocky jutting, stopped to read here and there, and then started to head back to our ferry.
The ride down the hill was amazing, but I realized by the traffic that the ferry must have just gotten in, and since they have a very fast turnaround, probably was almost gone again. We rode out onto the dock just as the ramps were pulled up. We had to wait. It was a matter of 30 seconds. Oh well, we sat and read some more and watched the sun set.
On the ride back home, there was an amazing view off the side of the boat. I got a pretty good photo, but I told Joe that he should take one as well. Before even thinking about it, Joe leaned out to take a photo and off flew his University of Idaho hat and his sunglasses! We thought they both went straight in the wake behind the boat, but I found the sunglasses on the deck below. The hat, sadly, was gone.
That night since we hadn't really done very well at splurging for lunch, we decided to buy some good groceries and make something good. We took our bikes on the train again and went to the stop after ours to hit the grocery store.
When we got to our regular stop, two loud young women got on and the attitude of the whole car changed. They were drunk and obnoxious, and I could smell the alcohol from eight feet away.
When the train car started slowing down, a Sikh man wearing a turban stood by the door waiting for the stop. One of the girls started what looked at first like chatting him up. She was asking him if he lived in Papatoetoe, but then she made a slur. She asked him what he was doing that night and he responded, "what does it matter to you?" She said, "Yeah, this is Turban City."
Everyone on the train let them get out first because no one wanted to be associated with them. They continued being obnoxious. We followed them up the ramp and down again on the other side, until they started approaching another group of Sikhs, one of whom was a young women. The two stupid women pushed her from behind and they made more racial slurs and continued pushing the whole group. They were actually hitting the woman and pushing their way through even the large men.
At the crosswalk the men huddled around the young woman while the drunk girls continued across the street, walking arm-in-arm and talking about the "f*-ing turban heads."
During this whole thing, Joe had been watching and anxiously trying to figure out how to stop these women from what they were doing. Being a woman myself, and a rather wimpy one at that, my training in situations like this, especially when a person is drunk and unreasonable, is to mitigate risk, hold back, and try to not get involved. I would have loved to yell mean things right in their bitchy faces, but maybe I know too well that I would lose in a fight.
So I had been trying to hold Joe back out of fear that we would be hurt, but once they started pushing the poor young woman around, he had had enough. When the group huddled before the crosswalk, he circled around on his bike to put himself between them and the drunks, who were acting as though their behaviour was quite normal for a Monday evening.
Joe apologized to the group, probably because if the Sikhs were one group and the non-Sikhs were another, we would be associated with the jackasses that had treated them so poorly. I regretted not doing anything for them, but was proud Joe had showed support.
The poor woman looked traumatized, and as we watched the couple walk down the street, his arm around her hunched shoulders, we watched as they carefully crossed the street behind the women so as to remain on the other side of the street. We were so angry that someone would treat strangers like that. It was so undeserved and the Sikhs looked kind and afraid for their safety.
We turned down the side passage to the grocery store and found we were accidentally following the scumbags. We went in the store and started to talk a little about what had happened and figured we had lost them somewhere. When we got to the alcohol aisle, however, there they were.
I told Joe, "oh boy, now they're going to steal." And they did. One was already headed out of the door, but I watched the other grab a bottle of something and stick it under her oversize jacket. One of the store workers stopped her on the other side of the cash registers, making to confront her about the obvious thing she was doing. She sort of pulled her cap down, circled him, and bolted.
The man who tried to stop her took off after her and Joe decided he was going to help, but part way out of the store, another larger man came from the deli behind me and sprinted out. There wasn't much Joe could do at that point, but he went outside and watched the commotion. He talked to one of the cashiers who said it had been happening a lot lately, and especially by groups of women. She also told Joe that one of the men who had run after the two had this responsibility as part of the job, which is really tough. She said the week before he had come back from a chase with a cut on the face from one of the runners.
We had known that the grocery store was in an iffy place. It had that vibe about it from the start. We knew Papatoetoe had some crime, but this was the second shoplifting I had witnessed in a week (I happened to be standing by a fire exit in a store a few days before when someone bolted out, jumped in a truck, and sped off), and between that, the fiery car wreck, and the murder that had happened within a few days of us having the house to ourselves, we were amazed, and not in a good way.
The whole thing was so frustrating. It felt like we could have stopped it, like if I hadn't held Joe back, or if I had called the police as soon as we sensed trouble, we could have prevented the violence, the slurs, and the shoplifting.
But hindsight, eh?
Needless to say, our evening was effectively ruined. We were home late, hungry, and then eating late, on top of the fact that we were disgusted with human beings like those two shitheads.
We went to the Auckland War Memorial museum a couple of times during the month. We had to go back more than once because we would get so enthralled and not finish even like a fraction. We were especially captivated by an exhibit on seismic activity. We probably only completed about a third of the museum and the rest we never saw. Can I just say, New Zealand does a hell of a job with museums.
We also visited the maritime museum, where we learned a lot about boats, and watched a fascinating documentary about New Zealand's catamaran that made it around the world in less than 80 days. It was really cool. We probably missed a half or more of that museum as well. We like to read about things.
We were very fortunate with these museums because if you can prove you are an Auckland resident, it is free. Otherwise each is around $20 per head! We received mail regarding our car registration at Jutta and Rudi's house, so we got in for free!
The bikes were wonderful to have. We would have done much less with our five weeks if we had to do all our shopping and sight-seeing by foot. With bikes, it was a 5-10 minuted ride to a nice size grocery store and a 3 minute ride to the train. Everything would be much more difficult without the bikes.
Back on our south island tour, there was a man who picked us up when we thought we were going to have to pitch a tent on the side of the road. His name was John and he was the Irishman with the car that had a broken heater. We had really enjoyed riding with him and getting to know him there between Twizel and Cromwell where he dropped us off, and he left us with his business card. He was going to be in Auckland while we were there to take some training for work.
I felt really bad that it took me so long to actually contact him. I was worried the course had been short and we would have missed him. Thankfully, he answered our texts and was still around.
We met with him several times and really enjoyed it. The first night he came to hang out with us at home just as Jutta and Rudi's friends were coming to stay. I was worried that would be a boring crowd, but the family was actually pretty nice to talk to and John seemed to really enjoy himself.
He came over next when we had the house to ourselves and we made a feast and he brought wine and cake and we had lots of fun. Well into the night, Joe decided we had to watch a movie, even though John had hinted that he would like to sleep. Haha. Joe likes to keep a good thing going, sometimes longer than everyone wants. Eventually I nudged Joe away from the living room so John could sleep. He had decided to stay the night, since he had alcohol in him. I was really happy he stayed because it felt like he was comfortable with us. He got a duvet to sleep on the couch.
The next morning, he hung out for a long time. It was very sweet because it was one of those times where I was self-conscious about being the hosts because the person could easily start being uncomfortable and a little cold, but John didn't. He stuck around, even the next morning. He was so friendly about it all.
We hung out one more time, going to dinner at the same Korean barbecue place we ate with Constantin. We had sake and ate Korean pancakes. Afterward, we went to an Irish bar down the street, and John almost won a raffle drawing (they drew his number, but he chose a non-winning card in the stack). He took us home and we got some movies from him and said goodbye. The whole friendship was just so nice.
On our last days in Auckland, we spent lots of time fixing the house and yard up. Since Jutta and Rudi were so nit picky before they left, we wanted to make sure they couldn't catch us on anything. And for the couple of hours that they were back and we hadn't left, there wasn't much they could complain about.
Of course Rudi made sure to make a phone call to the internet company while we were still there so we knew his dissatisfaction at how much we had used. (Internet here is sold in GB, instead of speed.) We had tried to clarify all month if we could buy more because we were going to be talking to family on Skype and all, but Rudi was just like, no, just use it, I doubt you'll go over the limit. We would have preferred to pay for it so we didn't have to feel guilty, but he didn't want to back when we were addressing the problem ahead of time. So instead he sounded agitated on the phone where we could hear him, but then wouldn't let us fix it with giving him money after the fact. It was highly unfair to make use feel guilty. Bah.
All in all, Auckland was amazing. We spent hours writing, reading, and relaxing. It was five weeks of cuddles and cooking and lovely food and alone time. After a month of non-stop work in Tekapo, it was an overdue rest. And it was such a great way to prepare for Australia.
It was fun to be driven to the airport by the two of them, especially because they had been our first encounter of New Zealand. Eight months before, we had watched for Jutta and a grey Nissan Cube, and now here we were in the grey Nissan Cube being dropped off to leave New Zealand. We said our goodbyes on the curb.
We stepped into the airport, checked our bags in (mine weighing in at 19.8 kg, when 20 kg is the limit), and rounded together the last of our New Zealand change to buy a small sushi dinner. We found our gate and waited to hear the announcement for the flight while we watched a two year old go up the stairs and down the escalator again and again with her dad. We put together our carry-ons and boarded the flight.
New Zealand was amazing. We had some tough times, most notably the frustrating months in MacKenzie's bar and grill, but it had still been our home. We met some not-so-nice people, but we also made a lot of friends--Peter and Colleen, Derek and Martina, Tom and Karen, John, mustache Joe, French Sarah, chef Jason, etc.
We also saw some of the best sights of our lives. Where European countries are rich in culture and history, New Zealand was rich in nature and people.
Australia will be a whole different ball game, or perhaps a very similar ball game, who knows?
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