Rocky Roads and Sunny Horizons
Well..... it began with a 5am arrival into this foreign land. After convincing the government that carrying mace in my bag did not mean I was a terrorist, we boarded the "skybus" to take us into the town where we were hoping to find some neat, new, quaint, coffee shop that would quickly bring us into the reality of being in a foreign land. However, we were forced to sit and sip macchiatos in well... Elisabeth won't let me say the name of the horrendous trendy chain of coffee shops located on every street corner in america. We then waited there, until we could phone and meet up with the people who would prove to be our angels of mercy... brad brown and sarah rowan. As we stumbled around in a heinous bubble of jet-lag and cold medicine, brad and sarah took care of our every needs and helped us purchase a car. Yes, we found a car within 12 hours of landing... however, it required a bit of wheeling and dealing and a cash transfer in the back of an empty rental agency.
Day 2: (after one night of pitiful sleep)... we awoke to meet the wonderful mother of Sarah, Ms. Sally Rowan who is now our best friend in the world and our third angel in the country. She gave us directions to a beautiful view (or so she described) just a few miles down the road. Now keep in mind... one of the handful of differences between new zealand and america is the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong side of the car. So Elisabeth courageously takes the wheel only to blow out the front (new) tire on the granite curbs that line the streets. So a new tire and rim are replaced and we are good to go.
Day 3 (decent nights rest): we took the car to a garage to be inspected only to find we really did find a good beater... so peace of mind only set us back about 100 dollars (1/10 of the price of the car... oops). we set off and saw a bit of the beaches of auckland and then settled down to another glorious supper with the rowans.
Day 4: one small detail we have left out of this looong description of our arrival is the fact that our first farm (robert and marijke) backed out on us and 8 more refused to take us.. so day 3 also consisted of stressing about where we were to go next.. until miss angel herself, Sally, called a friend of hers who hosts Whoofers, Marion, and she has graciously opened her home to us... so today we depart this city in our 1986 Toyota XL and venture south towards the Corramandel and will take a few days to see the country on our way down to the Hawke's Bay region about 8 hrs. south of here. It may have been a bumpy three days, but adventures it did not lack and we are excited to embrace more.
I have uploaded the few pictures I have taken to a Yahoo account.. link below
Pictures
Day 2: (after one night of pitiful sleep)... we awoke to meet the wonderful mother of Sarah, Ms. Sally Rowan who is now our best friend in the world and our third angel in the country. She gave us directions to a beautiful view (or so she described) just a few miles down the road. Now keep in mind... one of the handful of differences between new zealand and america is the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road, in the wrong side of the car. So Elisabeth courageously takes the wheel only to blow out the front (new) tire on the granite curbs that line the streets. So a new tire and rim are replaced and we are good to go.
Day 3 (decent nights rest): we took the car to a garage to be inspected only to find we really did find a good beater... so peace of mind only set us back about 100 dollars (1/10 of the price of the car... oops). we set off and saw a bit of the beaches of auckland and then settled down to another glorious supper with the rowans.
Day 4: one small detail we have left out of this looong description of our arrival is the fact that our first farm (robert and marijke) backed out on us and 8 more refused to take us.. so day 3 also consisted of stressing about where we were to go next.. until miss angel herself, Sally, called a friend of hers who hosts Whoofers, Marion, and she has graciously opened her home to us... so today we depart this city in our 1986 Toyota XL and venture south towards the Corramandel and will take a few days to see the country on our way down to the Hawke's Bay region about 8 hrs. south of here. It may have been a bumpy three days, but adventures it did not lack and we are excited to embrace more.
I have uploaded the few pictures I have taken to a Yahoo account.. link below
Pictures
posted by Mattie Ruth | 5:13 PM
1 Comments:
Hello Princesses!
First, Elisabeth, your hair looks cute. Second, I want you to know that your blog is pretty much my every day site and I'm so glad to hear about the adventures, however traumatic they might have been thus far. Today I saw a gunshot wound and a really skinny hooker. Come visit New Orleans when you get back! But enough of getting back. Ramble on...
Love,
Lillian
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