We are no longer homeless and we now have a bed! :)

First let me fill you in on yesterday. Yesterday we tried to tackle the transportation issue (our new abode to campus) and answer the burning question train or bus? We found the answer to be BUS. While we found the train to be slightly cheaper and run slightly longer than the bus, we also discovered that we are roughly 1.5 miles from the nearest accessible train station. We also found that we are about 3 miles from the nearest mall. We found this out by taking the train and then walking to the mall, about 5 miles of walking all together. Needless to say, we slept quite well last night. The other unfortunate discovery of yesterday was a terrible town between our new house and the mall called Avondale, where they are very keen on giant spiders! :( Jen was not pleased.



Today was Moving Day Part I. We arose early to a windy, rainy (but warm) Saturday morning and ate meat pies for breakfast at Starbucks before picking up a rental car. Once firmly in the mindset of KEEP LEFT, we headed out to the Warehouse which is a very Walmart type store with some less expensive things and many cheap things. We ended up purchasing $750 worth of stuff for the new house including a computer chair for Scott's new office, a microwave, towels, sheets, mini bookcases, laundry baskets, silverware, and just STUFF! It is amazing how much stuff you need for a house.
Anyways, then we headed back into the city to eat lunch and pick up the key to our new home. Then back to the house to drop the stuff off. Then it was off to the New Lynn Mall down the road to buy a vacuum cleaner, dishes, and we had planned on buying bedding at a department store called Farmers who were having a big sale. Vacuum, half price, yes! Dishes, buy one get one free, yes! Bedding...grumble, that was a bit more dodgy. There were apparently 2 sales going on, one was for 30% off and one was buy one get one free. Since we had 3 items to get, a duvet (comforter), nice set of sheets, and a mattress pad, we figured that 30% off was a better deal than buy one get one free. Unfortunately it was very unclear which products were attached to which sales and the 30% off was only if you bought 2 items??? We are going to go back tomorrow to have someone talk us through it, but for the moment we had to rush back to the house to be there for the delivery of our Italian style queen-size bed and mattress.
We made it back in time to try to assemble the vacuum and do some cleaning, but DRAT we need tools in order to assemble it! So instead, Scott busied himself with trying to assemble his computer chair and I checked out the mini-bookcases, which also required tools. The bed people arrived and assembled the bed for us in about ten minutes. The bed is quite...um...firm, yes firm, definitely firm...and pretty. I will let you know how else I feel about it after our first night's sleep on it. Then it was a quick trip back to the Warehouse with a brief detour to a Salvation Army type store and an Office Max type store where we found a nice big computer desk for Scott's office on sale for $200 ($100 off!). We had a bit of trouble fitting it into the rental car, but prevailed in the end. Back at the Warehouse we bought tools, a step stool, cups, cleaning supplies, and garbage cans, but we were too hungry to do anything but drop stuff off and head back into the city for dinner.
Tomorrow will be equally busy as we have to get the car out of the parking structure by 8am and back to the rental agency by 4:30pm. In between that we have to buy a refrigerator, buy some more furniture, buy some bedding, buy some kitty litter (so we can haul it in the car), and do any number of other little tasks. The biggest obstacle that we have found so far is finding a washer and dryer combo. So far we have only found one that did both washing and drying in one compartment. That has been quite frustrating.
Anyways, perusing the pictures of our new home, you may notice a bit of a problem with the windows. They are in fact screen-less and therefore cat unfriendly. We are thinking about purchasing some netting for when the kitties arrive. Also noteworthy are the peach tree and apple tree in the backyard. In the picture with Scott in the window, keep in mind that they are planning on knocking out the wall to the right of him and putting in French doors and a deck. Also keep in mind that the featured fireplace is NOT decorative, but in fact our only source of heat in the winter. We are also lacking in the way of a dishwasher or garbage disposal, so that should be interesting. Another interesting touch is the cabinet in the kitchen with a vent to the outside, which was an early type of “cool-box”. That should give you a rough idea of the age of the house! :)




































Now I must bid you adieu and apologize in advance for what may be a quite long gap in posts as we are not sure when we will have access to internet again for a while. So until then...

Cheers,
Jen and Scott

Beer and the Places That Sell It

As promised, here is a quick round up of the beer situation in Auckland, as experienced by us in the last week (egads! We've been here a week already? How did that happen?).

For the record, this post is fueled by a Hite (a Korean beer we had with dinner) and a Monteith's Black.

Where to start ... how about with the beer itself:

We had most of the beers that we have found when we were here in 2007, but we have now expanded our horizons with a couple rounds of Tuis (a Tui is a native bird here in NZ and a local brewery). It was surprisingly dark, but had very light flavor. Not "bad beer" flavor, just not much of any kind.


Also, Jen and I went to a Korean place for dinner tonight and had a Korean beer (Hite). The label on the bottle said "Clean, Crisp, and Refreshing". It was all of the above, but one would be hard pressed to describe the flavor as "beer-like" in any way. Again, it did not have a bad flavor, just not much of one at all.

We have managed to find several stores that sell a good selection of Monteith's, so we are quite content on that front.

On to the "Places That Sell It" portion of the post:

We have been to three pubs and one dance club (ironically, the night we went to the dance club was U of A's International Student Pub Night). Most have had a decent selection of local and import brews, though very few, if any, American beers.

U of A is pretty cool, in that it has a student bar in the commons called Shadows. It is a fairly large place, with a small stage where local bands occasionally play, a pool table, and lots of oddly shaped tables for students to hang out and carouse. They have a somewhat unique approach to serving beer at Shadows: the personal pitcher. It is a small pitcher, by pitcher standards, but holds a little more than 2 pints, so it will set you up quite nicely for an evening. Also, the personal pitchers are dirt cheap at $7.50 kiwi. They feature a lot of Mac's beer (a kiwi brewery), which are pretty good, but all rather heavy on the hops. Except the Sassy Red, which was very smooth.

Right down the road from campus is a little place called Ford's Bar and Museum. We're not sure what the "Museum" part was about, but it was a very cozy little place that looked more like a local watering hole than a student hang out. They had a rather limited beer selection, but looked like more of a wine place. Amusingly, they had a poker table where a spontaneous game of poker (for real money) broke out while we were there (neither of us participated, though).

Closer to the Queen Street strip is a unique place called Fiddler's Irish Pub. It is unique because of their interpretation of "pub". It is a tiny place, just room for a couple of tables, but they had several big screen plasma TVs showing bicycle racing (which was on the local sports channel) and were blaring modern hip-hop. When someone says "Irish Pub", many things come to mind. Plasma TVs and hip-hop music are not high on that list. However, we did meet a genuine Irishman there and had an amusing time hanging out with him and his kiwi friends.

Also just off of Queen is Globe, the location of U of A's official International Student Pub Night. The Globe made no pretenses at being a pub: they had a very limited food menu (frozen meat pies for $6!), a sizable dance floor, and a sound system turned up to 11. We still had fun, and learned quite a bit about pub etiquette from our new English and Welsh friends. We both felt quite old the next day, though, as we turned in early and were quite sore from the moderate amount of dancing in which we participated.

Thus ends the "Beer Post". We will be sure to update you all if we manage to find any new and/or interesting beers.

Cheers!

We Will No Longer be Homeless (as of March 1)

That's right, we signed a lease yesterday!

It is for a little 3 bedroom job about 20 minutes by bus from the university in Waterview:


View Larger Map

We didn't bring the camera when we looked at the place, so no pictures until next week.

Now we get to try to find furniture and appliances.

Interesting things about looking for housing in New Zealand:

1. "Unfurnished" may mean "no appliances", which is why we have to find a refrigerator and a washer/dryer combo.
2. Houses in the Auckland area typically do not have central heating or central air conditioning. We have a fire place that we will be using to heat the place come winter (and the cats)
Off to lunch now. This afternoon/evening we'll try to get a post up regarding the various pubs we have visited and the beer that was consumed there (by request!).

Cheers

What's That Bright Orb in the Sky?...Ahhhh, it burns us!

So, it has been quite the whirlwind past few days with my orientation and Scott's fervent housing search. The housing issue is mainly that cats are not allowed within the city centre or in any apartments really, so we have been banished to houses in the suburbs around 20 minutes away by bus. We think that we have found a house to rent that is doable, but we are waiting to hear back on some concerns. Pictures will follow shortly as soon as we find a place.

Today's title is inspired by the fact that I think that I've sunburned my eyes. They are very red and painful and tearful and occasionally mucus-filled. I actually went to the Student Health Center to be told that it was likely due to my contacts that I wore for 5 hours the previous night...hmmmm. They did give me antibiotic drops, but no anti-inflammatory, so still very painful. I am also sunburned badly on my face and peeling everywhere. I have purchased strong facial sunscreen now.

In other news, we have gotten a lot of questions regarding the layover in Tahiti (French Polynesia). The island from the sky was beautiful and the airport was actually very quaint and complete with natives handing out little, white, fragrant flowers and playing traditional instruments as we entered. It was stifling hot and humid and we only spent about 30 or 40 minutes inside before replaning. I almost purchased a sarong, but didn't want to have to exchange money.




Now on to orientation and the University of Auckland (U of A). Briefly, the campus is pretty tiny in comparison to U of M or MSU, but has a mixture of new, shiny and old, beautiful buildings. There are several hundred international students and 50,000 students total. During orientation I spent a lot of time standing and walking around in the sun, as the weather has been mainly gorgeous. We have met a ton of other international students through various activities, but if you would care to take a guess which country is overrepresented, I bet you would be wrong (Answer to follow). I met one of my professors and found out that there are 20 students in my program, and that we don't yet have a room designated for our classes, but he promised to e-mail me when we do.



Everyone has been very nice and very helpful and I am not the only older student by a long shot, so I don't feel like an outcast. I have had a lot of fun with student activities like a Treasure Hunt around the city (lots of walking on a very hot, sunny day) capped off with a trip to Shadows, the campus pub, and Quiz Night capped off with a trip to another local pub. But tomorrow night is actually pub night, and I hope to win a prize for most creative USA costume by dressing up like Elly May Clampet from the Beverly Hillbillies.

OK, so has everyone formulated their guesses as to which nationality is overrepresented at the U of A? Germany. And here's why. Apparently Germany and NZ have some special deal, where it is quite cheap and easy for German students to study here. Here is a quick illustration: Germans met so far = Sarah, Iris, Alena, Julia, Pia, Stephan, Christoph, Marcus, Sven, Bea, Ina, Sonja ; China = David and Chrissy ; USA = Cassie, Katie, Tony, Lizzie ; England/Wales/etc. = Chris, Jenny ; France = Melanie and Geranette ; Malaysia = Darny and Loh ; Canada = Carrie ; Ghana = Noble.



Time for eye drops,
Cheers

Well, that explains it.

Apparently all of Auckland hates our furry little friends. No apartments in the city will allow pets because it is against city code.

Jerks.

I'm looking out in the suburbs now, and finding some places that allow pets.

Yay progress.

Time to Hit the Streets

One unforeseen problem that we have had in finding an apartment is that nothing is open on the weekends here. So we've had about a day and a half of sitting around, not really able to get started on an apartment hunt.

Tragically, it appears that the internet has failed us in this respect. Most of the postings for apartments we have found specify "No Pets", which is a bit of a deal breaker for us, as I don't think we could convince them that the cats are our orange, furry, and quadrupedal children. One listing I saw said "No Pets, Smokers welcome".

So today, I get to hit the phone and pound the pavement while Jen is off at orientation.

Hopefully I'll have a bit of luck or perhaps find someone who can point me in the right direction.

Day One: Our First Full Day in New Zealand

Well, when we woke up this am in our surprisingly comfortable YHA Youth Hostel Auckland City bed, it finally hit us that we have actually moved to New Zealand. First, I must apologize to everyone whom we promised to contact as soon as we reached New Zealand. We are unable to set up our Vonage phone yet, as we only have access to wireless internet right now (and it only works with cable internet), and time on the internet was greatly hindered by the fact that we had little battery life on our laptops and had not had a chance to purchase power converters yet.
Yesterday was a lot of stumbling around in the pouring rain trying to accomplish things while too jet lagged to think properly (not a terribly productive or pleasant day). We did learn some valuable lessons though, like Auckland, although a big city, does NOT have a 24/7 mentality, and when they say that reception is open 24/7 they mean that if you go there at 3am it will be gated and dark, but if you call, there is a crazy, scary man who may or may not answer the phone and sell you canned spaghetti.



But after a good night's sleep, we are back on track. We are well settled into our hostel, which is quite nice and actually pretty quiet. Here are some pictures for those of you who haven't gotten a chance to check out the hostel's website on your own.































After a bit more hiking today, we now have a wicked awesome surge protector power converter that basically has conversion plugs for any country and only cost us $18 NZD.



We also bought some food, so as not to have to buy expensive canned spaghetti from the front desk in the middle of the night, got NZ cellular phones, visited the U of A campus, and made baby steps in the apartment hunt. It helped that it has been mainly sunny and gorgeous today! ;) Since we accomplished so much today, we are planning on celebrating with dinner out and a couple of Monteith's beers which we have so missed these past two years.

Cheers!

P.S. Here is the chart that I promised some of you!

Calling to and from New Zealand Time Chart


(bolded times are good times to call)

From To
USA-EST (Michigan) New Zealand (*the next day)
12:00 AM 06:00 PM
01:00 AM 07:00 PM
02:00 AM 08:00 PM
03:00 AM 09:00 PM
04:00 AM 10:00 PM
05:00 AM 11:00 PM
06:00 AM 12:00 AM
07:00 AM 01:00 AM
08:00 AM 02:00 AM
09:00 AM 03:00 AM
10:00 AM 04:00 AM
11:00 AM 05:00 AM
12:00 PM 06:00 AM
01:00 PM 07:00 AM
02:00 PM 08:00 AM
03:00 PM 09:00 AM
04:00 PM 10:00 AM
05:00 PM 11:00 AM
06:00 PM 12:00 PM
07:00 PM 01:00 PM
08:00 PM 02:00 PM
09:00 PM 03:00 PM
10:00 PM 04:00 PM
11:00 PM 05:00 PM

New Zealand USA-EST
12:00 AM 06:00 AM
01:00 AM 07:00 AM
02:00 AM 08:00 AM
03:00 AM 09:00 AM
04:00 AM 10:00 AM
05:00 AM 11:00 AM
06:00 AM 12:00 PM
07:00 AM 01:00 PM
08:00 AM 02:00 PM
09:00 AM 03:00 PM
10:00 AM 04:00 PM
11:00 AM 05:00 PM
12:00 PM 06:00 PM
01:00 PM 07:00 PM
02:00 PM 08:00 PM
03:00 PM 09:00 PM
04:00 PM 10:00 PM
05:00 PM 11:00 PM
06:00 PM 12:00 AM
07:00 PM 01:00 AM
08:00 PM 02:00 AM
09:00 PM 03:00 AM
10:00 PM 04:00 AM
11:00 PM 05:00 AM