So Long Kiwis Hello Roos

Our two day hike through Abel Tasman Park was full of lush forest, white sandy beaches and beautiful blue waters; quite a contrast to the rest of New Zealand's scenery. The tramp itself was hilly and exhausting, but definitely worthwhile. Norch reeled in his first New Zealand fish and we learned that crabs live inside of mussels which grossed out our German neighbors.

Afterwards we navigated our way back to Auckland to celebrate Thanksgiving. Unbeknownst to us, our arrival coincided with the U2 & Jay-Z concert practically locking down the city; however we managed to find ourselves a hostel worthy of celebrating our favorite holiday. We briefly flirted with the idea of hunting a wild turkey since the nearby stores only offered a very expensive frozen option, but a) neither of us could kill one and b) when we asked some locals they looked at us like we were crazy, exclaiming that wild turkeys carry all kinds of diseases. So we settled for option B, a chicken, and bought all of the usual fixings after questioning every grocery store employee as to where we could find the cranberry sauce (so essential!). While sitting down to enjoy our feast at the hostel, we were approached by a friendly kiwi couple asking if we were Americans celebrating Thanksgiving. Touched by their friendliness and knowledge of our holiday we shared our meal and hung out with them. Later they admitted they had googled our odd assortment of food on their iPhone and put two and two together. Thanksgiving this year wasn't the same as being home with friends and family or watching the Lions loose...I mean play, but it was still a great experience.

Post Turkey Day we spent our last week winding down in the small beach town of Port Waikato with a Swedish couple, a Kiwi (the owner), a Frenchie and a few stray kittens. Dean, the Kiwi, is in his early forties, an avid surfer, prison guard, former race car driver, world traveler, a bit of a hoarder (that is a bit of an understatement) and an all around cool guy. Tomas, the Swedish guy was a very very lazy surfer with a culinary knack that lead to us eating some of the most amazing dishes. Minna, Tomas' girlfriend, in contrast was a very hard worker, constantly cleaning and in her free time enjoying Sweet Valley High books. The Frenchie, Laura, a very sweet girl with minimal English arrived a few days before we headed out. Apparently Dean had told Laura that his house was full, but something was lost in translation and she showed up anyways.

Despite being in a small town (I'm talking one convenience store and no stop light small) we had a good week chalk full of activities from flounder fishing to watching a race car event from the corporate box (VIP baby!). Unfortunately the flounder fishing only netted one medium sized crab, which was similar to our crayfish excursion, but we had fun. Mid-week the guys did some deep sea fishing in a boat which looked deflated when they returned due to a slow leak. Norch, not having the best sea legs, chummed the water with vomit and was coincidentally the only one to catch a fish.

Norch's race car

While in Waikato we successfully sold our car to two redneck kiwi girls, which thankfully was a really smooth process. The second they stepped out of the car Dean announced that we couldn't have found more perfect buyers and declared the car would be sold in 5 minutes time if Norch turned on the charm. And just like that Norch put his shirt back on and we watched Ewik (our car) head off into the sunset. One of the more entertaining moments of the week was when Dean decided to pinch the neighbor's rain water tank by rigging up a long plastic hose and sticking one end in the neighbors tank (after Norch climbed it and pried the lid off), then began syphoning the other end and plopping it into his tank. He said that the neighbors were friends and they hardly ever came down to the beach so they definitely didn't need all that water. We decided not to question his ethics and had a good laugh when he accidentally took a little more than intended leaving them with about 1/10 of what they originally had... hopefully it rains soon!

Overall we had a great time in New Zealand and met some really interesting folks. We're both excited to get to Australia for the warm weather, kangaroos and beaches. (Norch is already working on the next blog on Oz).

Happy Holidays everyone!