More first impressions
We have been lucky to encounter what Nigel says is a 'north westerly' during our first two days here, so the weather has been unseasonably mild with temperatures in the 70's. However, it has dipped into the 30's at night, and our motel suite is typical of NZ homes--it has no central heating! We have to keep warm by running an electric heater in the living/dining room area, but with the bedroom doors closed it gets a bit chilly! Fortunately, the bathroom has its own heater, and a towel rack that heats the towels.
Our motel is right next to Hagely Park so we did a little exploring yesterday, wandering through part of the park and botanical gardens to burn off a little of the jet lag in the morning. Today we wandered a bit further, heading into the city proper and Cathedral Square to do a little sight-seeing and set up a bank account. True to what I had been told, the bank had a bin of toys to keep the boys occupied while Debi and I set up our accounts. On the advice of the customer service rep who help us, the boys, too, opened bank accounts to get free little toy helicopters!
We also made our first visit to Farmer's, which has nothing to do with farms, farming, or farm products. It's a department store, and I discovered the truth of something else I had been told: things are expensive in New Zealand. A pair of Transformers (the toys, not the electrical device) and a plug adapter (yes, the electrical device) cost me $70NZ ... as the Kiwis would say, most things are rather 'dear.' (But, hey, if I wanted a surfeit of cheap plastic crap from China, I wouldn't have travelled 10,000 kilometers from the nearest Wal-Mart!)
I also made a visit to the Pak'n'Save, which is one of NZ's grocery chains. Their gimmick is that you bag your own groceries, and it has all the charm and interior design of a BJ's club. Again, as I expected, some stuff was more expensive (shampoo, mustard, lunch meat) and other stuff was cheaper (bread, butter, milk, produce, and NZ wine). The bottle of VO-5 cost me $2.79NZD, but the 10 pack of golden kiwi fruit set me back a measly $1.49! Even more remarkable, though, was that it took me about 5 seconds to find a loaf of whole grain bread without any added sugar (or corn syrup, honey, or molasses). Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of junk food, but I didn't need to head to a specialty shop or the 'health food' section to find stuff that wasn't processed and filled with crap.
I've walked quite a few miles in the past 2 days and the only thing I've found that I don't like about NZ is that being a pedestrian means taking your life into your hands. Of course, a Kiwi who I've met on-line tells me that it really is only a problem in the part of the city where we are right now. Go a kilometer or two out of the city center and there aren't any cars, he tells me, and when you ride your bike outside of the city, you have the roads to yourself. However, that doesn't help me right now as I try to figure out which direction the cars are even coming from!
We've been walking because, frankly, I'm scared to death of driving--driving on the other side of the road. I've been sleeping on the other side of the bed, washing from the bottom up, and writing with my right hand to get myself prepared. Maybe this weekend I'll get myself a rental, aim it toward the country side, and have at it. I'll post pictures of the wreck.
Our motel is right next to Hagely Park so we did a little exploring yesterday, wandering through part of the park and botanical gardens to burn off a little of the jet lag in the morning. Today we wandered a bit further, heading into the city proper and Cathedral Square to do a little sight-seeing and set up a bank account. True to what I had been told, the bank had a bin of toys to keep the boys occupied while Debi and I set up our accounts. On the advice of the customer service rep who help us, the boys, too, opened bank accounts to get free little toy helicopters!
We also made our first visit to Farmer's, which has nothing to do with farms, farming, or farm products. It's a department store, and I discovered the truth of something else I had been told: things are expensive in New Zealand. A pair of Transformers (the toys, not the electrical device) and a plug adapter (yes, the electrical device) cost me $70NZ ... as the Kiwis would say, most things are rather 'dear.' (But, hey, if I wanted a surfeit of cheap plastic crap from China, I wouldn't have travelled 10,000 kilometers from the nearest Wal-Mart!)
I also made a visit to the Pak'n'Save, which is one of NZ's grocery chains. Their gimmick is that you bag your own groceries, and it has all the charm and interior design of a BJ's club. Again, as I expected, some stuff was more expensive (shampoo, mustard, lunch meat) and other stuff was cheaper (bread, butter, milk, produce, and NZ wine). The bottle of VO-5 cost me $2.79NZD, but the 10 pack of golden kiwi fruit set me back a measly $1.49! Even more remarkable, though, was that it took me about 5 seconds to find a loaf of whole grain bread without any added sugar (or corn syrup, honey, or molasses). Don't get me wrong--there's plenty of junk food, but I didn't need to head to a specialty shop or the 'health food' section to find stuff that wasn't processed and filled with crap.
I've walked quite a few miles in the past 2 days and the only thing I've found that I don't like about NZ is that being a pedestrian means taking your life into your hands. Of course, a Kiwi who I've met on-line tells me that it really is only a problem in the part of the city where we are right now. Go a kilometer or two out of the city center and there aren't any cars, he tells me, and when you ride your bike outside of the city, you have the roads to yourself. However, that doesn't help me right now as I try to figure out which direction the cars are even coming from!
We've been walking because, frankly, I'm scared to death of driving--driving on the other side of the road. I've been sleeping on the other side of the bed, washing from the bottom up, and writing with my right hand to get myself prepared. Maybe this weekend I'll get myself a rental, aim it toward the country side, and have at it. I'll post pictures of the wreck.
posted by Jon A at
5:23 PM
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