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.