Photos!

My apologies for being lazy, but I don't feel like writing right now. Corina took us to the beach this weekend, here are some photos from the adventure. And photos of Rambo. Enjoy!

I wear my Soft Star Shoes everywhere!

Yes Rambo has her own shoe as a chew toy.

Settling in

Local beer

Lauryn and I at the top of the Sky Tower

By now Lauryn and I feel like we've been here a lot longer than a week. It's weird to think that just 7 days ago we landed in Auckland. We've spent most of our days applying for jobs and exploring the city. Lauryn and I feel pretty comfortable about the main neighbors thanks to our awesome tour guide Corina. Corina's place is centrally located, so we can walk no more than 5 blocks in any direction and come across a cool neighborhood, parks, or even Mount Eden.

I'm starting to get used to everything being more expensive here. If I go out for breakfast or lunch, I expect to pay at least $15 (which is why we hardly do go out!). Lauryn and I discovered this really great asian market on K road that is cheap and has great, affordable produce. That is one nice thing about it being summer here, all the summer produce! We also found a cheap sushi restaurant that has daily sushi deals for just $4.90! But it seems kind of sketch. I got a sample platter that included one with like a tuna fish sandwich in the role....Yeah...

Corina and Lee have been working very hard, but Lee was nice enough to take Lauryn and I to the grocery store this morning even though it was one of the few mornings a week that he gets off. I discovered that cheese and meat are about the same price (not in a good way) and I fully expect to give up meat for cheese if I have to. The cheese names here are strange, they aren't called cheddar, instead they are called "Tasty" and other weird names. And all of the packaging looks the same! So it's basically impossible to pick out cheese.

Our daily routine usually includes taking Rambo to the park, which is close enough to be Corina's backyard. Like the title says, we are settling in here in Auckland. We are meeting a lot of new, friendly people and I even figured out how to flush the toilet properly yesterday. Who knew that the two buttons meant different things? It's not like Kiwis talk about it.

Anyways, Lauryn and I are also looking at taking a bus tour in the South Island so that's pretty exciting. Not much else is new here.

Yesterday we explored the Auckland Domain, which is the Auckland's version of Central Park, and the Auckland War Museum, located in the Domain. All of this was walking distance from Corina's and Lee's.

Yes, that's a taxidermy elephant

Rambo

Week 1

I don't really know where to start...Lauryn and I arrived at Auckland at 5am on Tuesday. The flight was very long and uncomfortable. This larger lady who sat next to me took up about a quarter on my seat throughout the flight, but I couldn't stay mad because she was very sweet. We also had personal TV's, which made things better. After they served us dinner I passed out. After sleeping for what felt like forever, I woke up only to discover that we had 5 hours left. So the plane ride felt like forever.

By the time we landed Lauryn and I had managed to get enough sleep to function for the day. Corina and Rambo picked us up and gave us an itinerary with a map and directions and plan for the day. It was seriously amazing. It probably would have taken Lauryn and I an entire day to put this all together. The itinerary included setting up a bank account (it was so easy!), getting a prepaid cell phone and filling out forms to get a number that is comparable to a social security number. She also had a voucher for a discount for pizza and coffee. All of this is located on a street nearby Corina's place called Ponsonby, which has lots of shops and bars so it was nice to explore that area with Lauryn.
See the pictures below...

Sky Tower

Corina's office building (above)
So Corina's perfect itinerary led us to her office where she met up with her.
On our second day we finished up with errands and applied to jobs. Corina took us to the grocery store for the first time. I was surprised how many recognizable brands they had here because Corina made it sound like they weren't any. Everything is as expensive as I expected, but the American dollar goes farther and their minimum wage is higher so it's not terrible. Friday night we made tacos and watched True Blood until I fell asleep around 10 (still jet lagged).

Saturday was a lot of fun! Corina drove us around to a few different places in the city, including their version of central park, which is super close to where she lives. Then Corina had her dress appointment. Lee's mom came with us. Corina tried on the dress and it is 10 times more beautiful than the crappy cell phone picture Corina sent me from Seattle. It's just perfect for her. She decided not to buy it then because she wants to wait until she gets a date in case it's two years away. I tried on a few bridesmaids dresses, which was cool. I loved basically every dress though so I wasn't very helpful.

After dress shopping we went to the shopping center of Auckland called Newmarket. It turns out they do have their own Forever 21-like stores. Except their idea of cheap is a little more than it is in the states. I managed to use as much self control as possible not to buy anything.

Saturday night we went out to this restaurant and then went to an event at this bar called Sales Street. We met a lot of nice people and had a lot of free drinks. Since they don't tip here it seems like bartenders don't have motivation to get your drinks out fast, which is annoying. Our bartender was pretty slow and would go talk to a co-worker for a few before coming back to work on our drinks. It was kind of annoying and now makes me more thankful of good service.
Corina's friends are really nice and a lot of them are closer to my age.

Pictures from Saturday night...



Sunday we went to a Piha beach, which is 45 minutes outside of Auckland. It's also a black sand beach. It was sooo beautiful!!









After the beach, we went to Lee's cricket game where Corina introduced me to someone who works at an IT company and needs an assistant. I got her email and sent her my resume last night. I really hope it works out!!!!

Overall NZ is beautiful! Auckland has a lot of parks and people outside being active all the time. It's really windy and the water is so blue. The city is clean and there are like no homeless people. Everyone is really friendly.