I will start with more Kiwi-isms again, so get your pencils ready!
- Kumara - Sweet Potato, so you would order Kumara fries here instead of sweet potato fries. Also, they love to put Kumara into Hummus.
- Capsicum - Bell Pepper
- Courgette - Zucchini
A word on Hummus in NZ, Unless you bought it at a farmer's market, it will be horrible.
This week has been an eye opening experience for me in regards to money and how I have been thinking about it, or rather not thinking about it in the default world. In the States, if I want something at a grocery store I buy it, if I want to go out for dinner even though I have food at home, I go. If I want to have 3 drinks at a bar, I don't give it another thought. All of that has changed here. I hav become much more aware of brand names, in season produce, sales, specials and how expensive some of our habits are.
It seems to me now, that Mike and I have been burning through money in the States for stupid reasons. It's not as though we weren't saving, we were, but we could have done much more. It might also be that everything is more expensive here. The spending we are going to really cut out is the alcohol. I'm not talking about having drinks in a bar - that can't happen outside of special occasions, I'm talking about buying alcohol in a store. Here, Jack Daniel's whiskey (1.75 L) is $89 on sale, the same bottle at Binny's is $39.
Very quickly, it seems that we are becming a different type of shopper, a smarter type of shopper. We never throw out our food anymore, because we only buy what we need. I could not figure out how to to that at home. We would end up throwing out leftovers, and spoiled veggies all the time. Here, we don't even have a refrigerator until we stop at a camping spot, and we don't have that problem. It's amazing what a little shift in perspective can do for you.
I know that it's not as simple in the States, because I have an unlimited amount of time to spend on shopping and food prep here, but it's still a chore and it does detract from the other things we are doing. I am really hoping this change in attitude will stick. It would allow us to save at a much greater rate, or do more expensive fun things periodically. I know, that as the parents are reading this, a lone fat tear of joy is slowly gliding down their cheek.
Now on with the actual happenings in the last week or so. We spent New Year's in Auckland. There was a party that Olichka and Steve were invited to and they were kind enough to bring us along. The party started off as a pool party at noon, so by the time we got there (around 7) we had a lot of catching up to do. The party was full of characters, and this time I had no problem socializing (I think because most people were around my age). Here is a list of characters that I had met:
- A man I will call "Blond Sklya" - This guy really looked like Sklya and every time I looked at him I was surprised he was blond, and not Russian. He spent all night walking around in very short and tight shorts, and nothing else :). His hair was straight and even cut in the same style as Sklya, it was uncanny, but the resemblance ended there. He came over, and told Mike and I a really long story about buying a $10,000 dollar watch, assuming it was waterproof and destroying it in less than a year
- A girl with the last name Maloney - She was really drunk and kept speaking in a fake Irish accent. She is Kiwi, but told us that everyone assumes she is from Ireland, and she has decided to just go with it. She was totally hilarious, I hope I run into her again. Picture the heaviest Irish accent that you can. Now try to imagine someone completely plastered, but so commited to the performance that they continue to speak in this accent all night long. "Helloo, me name is Maaalooooney, I'm from ire-laand." It was amazing!
- A 19 YO kid who was completely and utterly wasted and looked like he just stumbled around from place to place. "Blond Sklya" told me a story about why he was there, something about his dad, but I forgot what it was.
- An Australian couple who is travelling through - The girl in particular was very interested in us taking the year off and travelling. She said that she and her man travelled through Cali for a little while, and also Mexico. She told me about all of the places I should go, but I promptly forgot them. Her hair was the most peroxide blond that I have ever seen, and she was very very tan. I assume that she fit in to most of the Cali look without a problem.
I have to say that the fireworks display in Auckland was very tame. It had nothing on even the suburban 4th of July displays that I have seen in Chicago. A little disappointing, but in the grand scheme of things, the party was very fun. The view from the deck was of the Auckland Skyline along with the marina. It was worth the hangover of the following morning!
We left for Rotorua on Jan 2nd and it was basically a road day where not much has happened. Something I feel like I still needed after the party :) Rotorua is awesome! One of the days we were here, we went to the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, and that name does not lie! Check it out: here. It was like visiting another planet! So far, I think it's my favorite place in NZ.
We have also been training for our multi-day hikes and hiking with and without packs. I am going to brag and say that we hiked, not walked, 25 kilometers in 5 hours and 20 minutes. (15.6 miles of a hike up and down hills) We did not have packs, and we did stop for an hour to have lunch, but that distance is waaaaay more than we are expecting to hike on any day of the multi-day hikes, so I'm pretty happy - although very sore.
We are now done with Rotorua and will just drive until the mood strikes us to stop. We booked a 4 day hike Jan 12-15th s we will definitely be off the grid on those days. More soon, I promise :)
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