We Have Car!!

Okay so wrote this post a long time ago but never published as we had no pics, so for all you who are dieing to check out our new ride, here it is...

For all you Steve Martin fans out there... WE HAVE CAR!!

That's right, we have been busy looking at Japanese imports and finally decided on one thursday. This is the big thing here, people import used cars with low kms and then fix them up and sell them. So we hope ours was fixed up properly and as we have been told. We did our research and think we got a pretty good deal. Should do the trick for the rest of our travels, as long as it lasts through so we can sell it. Actually, the road rules over here are quite strict, as every car has to have a warrant of fitness (like an inspection) and pass every 6 months. Our little has just that, and the guy did a few extras too. Although they are strict with that, insurance is not mandatory, go figure.

It is a 1998 Toyota Starlet Reflet F limited edition. Man! And just think, we had to translate all that from Japanese!! Just kidding but the car manual is Japanese and there are random stickers and things in/on the car written in Japanese. Pretty funny.

Here she be!!!

A day in the life of...

Since we havn't done anything too exciting lately, and are kinda just living day to day life here (working all the time, blah), thought y'all might enjoy a little piece of that. Basically there aren't really any other pictures to post, and we have to keep you coming back for something! It kinda looks like an ad to rent our apartment. Anytakers? So here it all is, laugh if you must...


The Flag



The Uniforms



The Tag



The Hospital
(3 buildings at the top of the photo)



The Hospital Sign




The Inside Hospital Sign



The Flat

Piha Beach

Its just a short (30 min) drive away from Auckland to this awesome beach which is very popular with locals. You can't tell from the pictures but the black sand just sparkled like diamonds under the sun. There is actually a TV show called Piha Rescue about the lifeguards and all the crazy stuff that happens there in the summer when it is packed with people. We were lucky to see it with very few people there.

















The Ducks...

We had lunch just off the beach along side the fresh water stream running into Piha. Thats where we met the crazy ducks, the most fearless ducks we have ever encountered. Or maybe just really really hungry.

Auckland Domain

So we decided we needed a little culture outside the shopping centers. We found this at the Auckland War Memorial Muesum. The Muesum is located on top of the hill within Auckland Domain, a huge city park where they often hold open air concerts. Here we saw a cultural performance and then the rest of the muesum which was surprisingly, one of the best we have have ever seen. The displays include a virtual experience of what it would be like to be in a house in Auckland when one of the areas many volcanoes inevitably erupts. The house went black, shook, had deafening noises as well as large screen imagery of the ash coming through the fake window. So realistic in fact, that Jodi screamed and ran out of the room. Awww.







The Haka (on a small scale) Very powerful, but more so with a larger group (and larger men) more specifically the All Blacks rugby team, most of whom are easy on the eyes as well.




Linda and Jodi's escorts


Inside a Maori carved meeting house (whare whakairo)



















Above: Linda and Jodi being statues, awww a Kiwi! A giant Moa bird which used to roam NZ and is now extinct

Below: Hey, that's not the musuem, oh ya, its all the shoes we bought!! Divided by 3 of us, its not so bad...