What I Know So Far.....by mama bear

Well we are settling in and are no longer jet lagged. We had a double dose - we thought it would be perfect to stay 2 nights in Australia to sort of ease our way into it but then had another 3 hours slapped on from our flight from Brisbane to Auckland. How can you loose 3 more hours covering just under 1,000 miles?!

Once in Auckland we were the proud renters of our own car! Tim likes to come check on me when he goes to get in the car.....by that I mean he likes to come over to the "driver's side", which is where I sit, open the door to say "hi" then walk back over to where the real driver's side is. Another fun game "we" have is to count how often he drifts into the shoulder (or other lane) on the left side - I like it when we are on a road with the grooves so that I have proof that he has done it. He was denying it a lot the first 30 minutes as I felt like he was trying to get rid of me! I think we are at 18 proven times now. We have also backed into another car which had parked next to us at such an angle that the back end was directly behind our car. Fortunately there wasn't much damage to her car (I think ours has some new scratches and dings) and hers was already banged up.....hmmm I wonder why?! As we were trying to figure out just what to do she came out of the restaurant, jumped in her car and left so I guess that took care of that?!

Oh, and if you are ever getting a rental car and they tell you it will fit 3 large bags and 2 small ones it will actually fit 4 large bags, 1 medium bag and several small. And 2 chilly bins! Does anyone out there know what a chilly bin is? We picked up 2 - Tim and an Auckland salesgirl had a fun time trying to figure out what the other was meaning. He may have offended her right off the bat.....

Let's see, what else have I learned? Auckland is loud and not so great but the rest of the country is wonderful. Grocery stores are not at all like what we have back home. There is hardly any diet related anything - you have to eat "real" food. There is no asparagus to be found and I'm too scared to try the stuff in a can. They don't sell canned pumpkin. Oh yeah, and everything costs a bloody fortune! A sit down meal out runs 100-125 easy which is $80-$100 US. Lunch runs about $35 US. I can understand why Erin and Matt are shopping non-stop while they are visiting Judy!!!

We are having such memorable experiences already. I'm sure the "build your own hot tub" will be something the kids remember forever! It was so neat - when the tide is low (about 4 hours total) you can dig a hole out on the beach. There is a limited area where the hot spring seeps up so everyone packs in and claims their spot. By the end we had made many new friends and may even be visiting one of the families on our visit to the South Island next month. Duanne has offered to take Tim fishing so we know what that means! Speaking of fishing, Tim saw the biggest trout he has ever seen in the stream here on the farm where we are staying. The trout are so huge he thinks that if he were even able to get one on (which he says is next to impossible) there is no way he could get it in without breaking the line.

I guess that's about it for now. I'm off to bed to dream about the sushi in Australia!!!!