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| First Week in New Zealand (Nov/03) |
Editor: Mary Drader
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Terry and Mary Drader send greetings from New Zealand
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| Hi all, Just thought we'd give you all an update on our first week in Kiwi Land. We spent the first two days in Auckland with rainy, cool weather and drove around a lot to see the immediate sites while trying to get over our bit of jet lag. Not too bad though. Auckland is huge and the traffic is dense at all times of the day. Their motorway system in almost as bad as Edmonton's, but not quite. We then headed up north and spent a lovely day sight-seeing, visiting wineries and taking pictures until we arrived at Matauri Bay. The parents of our friends Harold and Raina Conrod live there and they welcomed us into their hearts and homes and we have been there ever since! They've been great at taking us to various ports of interest. They live in a Mauri settlement and we've been learning lots about the Mauri heritage and language! It's been fabulous. Today we're in the small town of Keri Keri and tomorrow we are going to see the ancient Kauri forest. The weather is great - 20 degrees celcius and the food is plentiful and very good. We had the best fish and chips in the world the other day. Fresh caught fish! We'll spend a few days at Raina's sister's beach house in Taupo Bay and then we'll head down toward the middle of the island for a bit. We bought a book that shows the touring spots for the Lord of the Rings filming points. They are spread out throughout the islands, so we'll try to see as much as we can. We're still getting used to driving on the left! I even drove the car once. It wasn't too bad, but we really have to pay attention. The roads are narrow and very windy and twisty with lots of "roundabouts" aka traffice circles! Can be quite harrowing. We keep looking left for traffic when we should be looking right!!! :) Take care and keep warm! We love you all. Mary and Terry |
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