Orewa Beach

on monday, we went to orewa (or/ree/wa) to look around. it's the area that has shakespear park that we visited with church back in january. turns out the town doesn't have much other than a nice beach. there's lots of it though. we had a nice picnic lunch with leslie and corin, then took a walk along the beach. not far north of this, there is a really cool thermal park of pools. i think i might have gone there when i was 14. i need to find my itinerary from then to look it up. :-) Click here to read about it.

jeremy checking out the beach

reflection

in the top 10 holiday parks

smell my shoes...no smell my shoes

sunscreen hair!

Silly Boys

so, jeremy decided we needed something to put out on our balcony.  then it came to him....his hammock. so, now we have a hammock attached on the balcony.  he then proceeded to set up his new tent out there with the sleeping bags in it and the rain cover off so he could watch the stars at night and not get eaten.  so last night we laid in there and talked a while. he enjoyed it alot. of course he didn't watch to put undue wear on it or put on the rain cover, so the tent came inside after we were done so it wouldn't be all wet today. so, now our nice spacious bedroom has a set up tent in it.  still room to walk around, but still funny. good thing i don't need to get our book shelves!

also, we were looking at backgrounds and i decided it'd be fun to change mine. what do you think?

Feijoa

So, my favorite fruit is the feijoa. It's very common here.  According to wikipedia, it has been seen to grow in a few places in the states, but I know I'd never heard of it there. Anyway, we luckily have the most amazing tree of them!  So, we will be having plenty of them this year.  I also read that they can be frozen for up to a year. Hopefully, we will freeze many to make it until next year so that I am not without too long. :-) This makes me very happy. Also, this way, when friends come visit, we can let them sample it. You can read a little about it from Wikipedia here. It says it's a sweet fruit. I would call it more tangy than sweet. Leslie is really enjoying them too! They just started falling from the tree this week, so we'll see how long it keeps up. I remember eating them on visits here in May and June, but I'm not sure if our tree will make it that long. But it has hundreds, so we'll see. We're so excited!! Here is a link to the nutritional value of them, if you're interested. So, happy am I!

Cheap tickets to NZ

Click here for flight info

If you look at this link. there is discounted tickets to here starting in May until late Sept, but you have to buy them by the 17th. The tickets are only $800!!  That's crazy cheap. I know Brook will be interested if you haven't already bought tickets.

Library

Leslie and I went to the library today, and I got a card. Yea! It was good. The branch we went to is in the local community center right now until their new building is built. Their last one was condemned (sound familiar to any of you?). I knew the libraries here charge for items, but was pleasantly surprised that it isn't for everything. Here's a list of what they have and charge for. I'm coping it straight from the cool little book they give you of their services and policies:

Books-Free 4 weeks

Large Print-Free 4 weeks

Audio books-Free 4 weeks

Non-fiction CD-Roms-Free 4 weeks

Magazines (general)-Free 2 weeks

Music CDs-$1 1 week

Bestseller magazines-$2 1 week

Bestseller books-$5 1 week

DVDs-Free or $2 1 week

I'm guessing the DVDs depend on their age? They also list their library use only items and fees. It's a cool little book. Ok, I might be weird to think this booklet is cool, but you know...that's ok. I'm sure there are at least 2 other readers of this blog who would think so too. you know who you are. I'm tempted to mail it to you...but then I wouldn't have one. 

edit: it costs $1 to reserve something. interesting, eh?

Visas

Our visa's went through!!!!! 

We are now legal to work here for the next year!!!

Time change

So, you all changed your time today. We don't change ours until the first Sunday in April. So, for the next 4 weeks, subtract 6 hours and add a day. After that, subtract 7 hours and add a day.  Ours will change before yours later in the year. :-) Now you've learned something new!