The Farm

Hi everybody! I am staying on a farm in northern Auckland right now. We have only been here for about a week and a half, but it seems like it's been much longer. It feels like we've been in New Zealand for a long time as well. Things are going pretty well here on the farm. It has been a lot of work - something that I am not used to, at least not this kind. There were a few days where we were pulling weeds for six hours a day. After a couple of hours on the first day, I was pretty much over it. I was trying to get over my attitudes and gain some sort of patience. I attempted to come to terms with the fact that I didn't always have to have some sort of meaning in what I was doing. But, after about 3 days of pulling weeds, I didn't care anymore; I just wanted to not have to do it. Since then I have had a few odd jobs around the house, including cleaning the gutters from the roof. Yesterday, I worked at Glenys and Brent's flower shop in Westgate for the day. It was pretty cool. It's a small shop and everything was pretty easy to pick up. I even made a bouquet to sell. I think that it has given me a new appreciation for the art of arranging flowers, which is pretty cool because I see them at weddings all the time.
On Sunday we purchased a car!! It is so nice to know that we have some freedom now! We have been sort of stuck on this farm and haven't been able to do much exploring. Exploring is sort of the reason that we are here, so it's good that we'll be able to get out. They do drive on the left side of the road here, so I was a little nervous about that at first, but we seem to be handling it pretty well. It is actually kind of fun! We help each other out too by letting each other know if we are drifting too much (or driving on the wrong side of the road!) ;)

Besides the work, the farm is pretty awesome. The people that own it are really nice and it is good to get to know some Kiwis. They have a bunch of animals: about 20 sheep, 2 dogs, 1 cat, a bunch of roosters, a pig, and they had 5 cows, but they sold them a couple days ago. Tommy lamb is the cutest little lamb that sleeps on their front porch. He comes around every night for a bottle and they are pretty sure that he thinks he is a dog. He is really cute - I want a pet lamb!

We are probably going to leave here soon because we have a lot more to see. Now that we have that car, we can get going when ever we want. I think the plan is to go back into the city of Auckland and use some resources: IEP - International Exchange Program, free internet, phone, etc. and decide where we want to go next. Katie wants to work to make some money, so her finding a job will probably help determine where we will go. I don't really care - I don't really want to work, I just want to go see the rest of New Zealand!

From what we have experienced so far, the people have been absolutely lovely. They are really travel friendly and helpful. We can understand them very well and they can understand us (neither of our accents are super strong and the way we use English is similar). They seem to have a similar sense of humor as us as well.

The city of Auckland seems like a very safe, clean place. There is tons to do during the day and at night. We are never too far away from a beautiful beach! Well, I guess that's about it for now. It is Tuesday here and I am working on my final paper because I still have not finished up that class. I am really close to being done now though. We are thinking we will leave on Sunday or around there, but that may change...

I'm so far away from you all! I hope you are all doing well and that you had a good Thanksgiving! :)(We had a little Thanksgiving here too. It was fun. We just ate a lot and watched a movie. The farmers were happy to indulge us!)

Mark's Magical Mystery Tour

I am trying to post as much as I can before I go to some farm in the middle of no where and don't have wireless anymore. These are from the day we went on Mark's Magical Tour ;) (Mark is Katie's my space friend - nice guy!) . He took us all around the west coast of Auckland, through the mountains and rain forests to these beaches. It was amazing! Photo credit for this first photo goes to Katie - the rest are mine. It is so beautiful here - the weather and the people are awesome! Love you all!

Davenport

Here are some pictures from our trip to Devonport and back:



After we climbed up Mount Victoria:


The view from up there:





The ferry ride home:

Arriving in Auckland

The rest of my Oxford trip went great! I wanted to blog more and put some pictures up, but I wasn't able to get online very much. Plus, I was pretty busy with the wedding, which was wonderful by the way. The day flowed very well and I think everyone had a great time. I loved shooting it! The church was small and super old, with gravestones all over the grounds. It was perfect! The reception was at a pub and they had great food. It was so neat to be there talking and getting to know all of those English people. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The day after the wedding, Alycia, Jon and I went to Oxford to take some photos. We rushed around Oxford before the sun went down, them dressed in their wedding outfits and me with my camera. The day before I left, Heather and I met Lottie at Windsor and I was able to explore the castle. That was really the only touristy thing I did on this trip, which worked well for me because I had already done a lot of that tourist stuff when I studied there. Anyway, the trip was really amazing and I'm glad that I had the opportunity to do that. I will hopefully some day have wireless and be able to post some pictures for you all. I think Jen might put some on the Serendipity blog, so you all should check that out too (www.serendipityphoto.com).

Anyway, I am now in Auckland, New Zealand!!! We left on Tuesday and arrived on Thursday. Today is Friday here and Thursday in the states. It doesn't make too much sense to me yet, but I'm sure it will sink in at some point. Yesterday, we were super tired and confused all day. It felt more like a weird dream than anything else. We tried to stay up as long as we could, but ended up taking a nap. It was fine though because we were still able to sleep last night. We are staying in a hostel, which is an adjustment for the three of us. There are two other people staying in our room and we have to share a bathroom and shower with the rest of the floor. We are just not used to that, but I feel better about it today than I did yesterday when I just wanted to sleep. It was pretty cold and windy yesterday too, which didn't help. It is a lot nicer out today and I think we will do some more exploring. It doesn't seem like we will stay in Auckland for too long, but who knows. We are going to have our orientation today, so that will give us some more information on living and working here. Bunac seems like a good resource and a great place to hang out and figure some of the details of living here out. Everything is still very much so up in the air. I hope you all are well and I will try to keep you updated as much as I can! Love you all!