a day in the life...

So the past couple days have been really fun - getting in our fair share of New Zealand sites and sounds, but still easing our way into this life we're looking to start here... We've been in Howick (east of Auckland) for the past couple days - staying with Josh's old DTS buddies - but have ventured out into different parts of the city to get a better understanding of the area. 

Let's see - I'll recap our past few days... after we got the car (and lived), we made it to Howick. Thursday was a day of errands (mainly trying to find me a coat - it is freaking freezing here!), lunch at Cafe Paris - tomato soup and paninis for us, then a walk along Mellons Bay Beach... we finished the afternoon watching the Olympics and hanging out. It was a wonderfully relaxing day. Yesterday (Friday) we ventured off to the zoo to get a thank you present for our hosts (they have the 2 kids with cute accents that would sound so cute saying "Look at the monkey mum" :)) and took a walk through the nearby park area.

New Zealand has a ton of parks - everywhere - it's wonderful. It adds a brilliant green to the city and also brings life... mainly birds. Now, many of you know that I have a little phobia of birds... and well, New Zealand doesn't necessarily have many animals running around, but they do have a TON of birds. For example... while walking through the park by the zoo, there were geese, swans, native birds, pigeons, seagulls, chickens, and roosters (I kid you not!)... all just running around free!! Tons of them! There was one point yesterday where we were walking up this hill and as soon as we could see the top of the hill we see, literally, about 20 or so geese and probably 30-40 chickens/roosters all, in unison, turn their heads toward us, assume we have bread to throw at them, and begin, I kid you not, to RUN in our direction... RUN. About 50 or so BIRDS running at us -- I used Josh as a shield and started to make my peace. It was horrific.

Well, we lived... and then made our way to Ponsonby. Which I LOVED. Cute boutiques. Adorable cafes. Old town feel, but urban vibe. It was so great. We picked up "pudding" (Kiwispeak for dessert) from this adorable cafe, Rocket Kitchen, to bring home and then made our way around the streets of Ponsonby before heading home. Adorable. I've heard the little nook of Parnell is similar, so I'll have to check that one out...

Currently, it's Saturday and we did our first visit to One Tree Hill... no, not the TV show set, but the actual OTH. It's so gorgeous and has a view of the ENTIRE Auckland region. Driving up to the summit you see tons of sheep and cows... just roaming the park... you know, with bikers and runners and people on picnics... so bizarre. We then made our way to Victoria Market which is apparently where the locals go to buy nic-nacks and souvenirs... or so our Howick friends said. Now, we're at Carey Park Christian Camp == we know someone from our Mount Hermon days that now lives/works here and he's putting us up for the night... perhaps longer... we shall see.

We're starting to realize - man, we gotta get jobs!! So we're trying to figure out whether we want to pick the location and then look for the job or try to find the job which will help pick the location... hmmm... lots to think about at this time, but not tonight - it's getting late. Night!