The sunset last night was pretty amazing. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

As I mentioned earlier today, it was smoking hot. We went to a farmers market today to get some produce and to see some more of the area. It was a gorgeous location. Ringed with trees, there was plenty of shade. There were some performers who had beautiful voices. There was lots of nice looking produce, meat, coffee, and ice creams too. It was fun to poke around, sample some of the wares, take some pictures, and people watch.

In the back there was a pond, and Elliot and I checked it out. There were lots of kids there looking in. It took me a few minutes to figure out what they were looking at. Eels. The pond had eels, and as we learned later, the rivers have eels in them too.

After the market we came home and had some lunch. We were still trying to get to Waipatiki beach, but decided to do something closer. Waipatiki had really hot sand last time they went, but this time it was hotter. We didn’t really want to chance it. While Amy napped I stayed at the house and the rest of the gang drove to Ahuriri beach again (I think).

Apparently my visit to the video store last night was a typical kiwi experience.

I borrowed the membership card to the video place and went to grab a movie. I made my selection then headed to the counter. I handed over the movie, and the card, and started getting some money out.

The clerk slid across a pin pad which I thought was odd. Then he looked at me and asked me to enter the pin. This was a bit of information that I didn’t know.

I told him I was borrowing the card. He asked me for the address, so I gave it. It was not the address that was used when the account was created (Sue’s family here has moved once). He then asked for the phone number. Didn’t know that. He then asked for Sue’s brother in law’s birthdate. Still stumped.

At this point I was getting prepared to hear him say he wouldn’t/couldn’t rent to me. Back home they wouldn’t have tried this hard at all. Don’t know the pin, too bad. He was poking around in the computer, then looks up at me and says, “I’ll enter the pin for you this time.”

I thanked him, handed over the cash, retrieved the movie and headed back to the place. He totally bent over backwards to help me rent the movie.

The movie was Hancock, and it was just so-so.

The other evening Sox and I went for an evening stroll. We walked around the neighbourhood, and ended up at the estuary. There is a nice boardwalk there with a few totem poles that were decorated which I was not able to get a good picture of. The sunset colors looked like they were really going to take off, then they stalled and fizzled. Too bad.

Just before I left, one of my coworkers warned me that the coffee here in New Zealand was pretty bad. She mentioned that it was pretty much all instant coffee.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that in recent years Kiwi’s have embraced coffee. In fact, most coffee you order is an espresso drink. The lingo is a lot different than home though.

I first noticed coffee at the Auckland airport. In the domestic terminal there were three places that served coffee (one a Dunkin Donuts cart), and all of them were espresso. I was stymied by the drink menu, so I ordered a plain espresso since I recognized what the name was. It was delicious.

At the place we are staying, the coffee they buy is amazing. So rich and flavourful. I may bring some home with me.

I’ve had coffee out a couple times and have learned that what I need to order is a long black. This is essentially an Americano. Sometimes it is just an espresso in a big cup with a side of hot water so you can dilute it to your taste.

Another drink that is very common is the flat white. This is coffee with a lot of milk. It sounds similar to a latte, but isn’t, since that is also usually on the menu.

Point is, New Zealand coffee rocks!

It is almost too hot to think today. When we left the house it was 30°. That was at 10am. When we got back, it was 35° or 36°. Yowza. Beach trip canceled due to high likelihood of scorching hot sand. The wind is also pretty fierce. The cousins were able to fly kites today … inside the house.

Yesterday we got out for a tour of the Pernel Fruit World, a fruit orchard here in New Zealand. We got a sampling of fruit before embarking on a journey through the orchard. The fruit was amazing. Plum, apple, Coconut Ice peach, and white flesh nectarine. The tour guide was hilarious and only took us down one dead end.

Halfway through the tour we stopped and fed some animals, and got to play on the tractor that was pulling our wagon.

This one orchard had a huge variety of fruit. Plums, pears, apricots, peaches, nectarines, kiwi fruit, and several varieties of apple.

Like most places, there was a gift shop. We also stopped to buy some fresh fruit, and to have an ice cream cone. Perfect for the 25° weather.

Wednesday (Jan 28 here), we headed out to Te Mata peak. It was an interesting drive, mainly on highway’s, but the last little bit was up a steep, narrow, windy road. I was glad I’d had some time behind the wheel before tackling that road. Still, I was nervous on the descent. Then we met another car at a very narrow spot and he refused to yield ( apparently I had the right of way). Once the other car inched past me, the rest was easy.

However, at the top was a pretty amazing view.

I can now cross off another item on my life’s to do list. I have driven on the left hand side of the road now. It was a little odd at first, but having other traffic around actually helps sort things out.

I haven’t found it difficult yet, but we haven’t driven far. I really just have to concentrate and think far in advance on what I have to do.

Local driving rules are slightly different than home. It is just little things like when making a left turn onto a road (like a right turn by North American standards), you have to wait for oncoming traffic that is turning right and crossing a lane of traffic.

Also, one thing that has really gotten me more than a few times is that the turn signal level is on the right side of the wheel. I keep turning on the wipers instead of the turn signal.

Thankfully everything here is totally laid back. Cruising along at 40 KM/h in our rented Toyota Estima is not seen as slow.