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