My address for the next 2-3 weeks (takes about a week for mail to get here).
1A Sherrybrooke Place, Sunnyvale
Waitakere
Auckland Region
NZ


On Monday we bought a car off Trademe, which is the equivalent of ebay here. It's a red Mitsubishi station wagon, although it looks more like a mini van to me. We went on a short road trip after we bought it to the Coromandel Pennisula. We bought a tent and camped out for 2 nights to explore the area. On Tuesday we went to Cathedral Cove, a short touristy hike, and to Hot Water Beach. At the beach we rented a spade from a nearby store and at low tide dug a large hole in the sand. I'm not sure how the geology works, but at this specific site and time the water becomes incredibly hot (boiling actually) and can be too hot to stand in. Our first attempt was futile as we dug too far from the ocean, but we did eventually create our own private hot tub in the middle of the beach!

We arrived at Fruit Vans on Wednesday and it's definitely been a different experience from Mark & Colleen's. We live with 12-14 people (keeps changing) and I share a room with 3 other girls. We all eat together for dinner but breakfast and lunch is usually on your own. I have really enjoyed getting to know everyone, as they come from all over the world and almost everyone in their twenties. I actually haven't met many New Zealanders at all. The food is wonderful here and all the people seem to be natural chefs. We trade off making meals, and my shift is on Saturday with a Brazilian guy named Carlos. I'm actually a little apprehensive about making food for this many people. Hopefully all goes well (any suggestions would be appreciated).

Today we went out for our first day selling fruit (out of the van of course). We work Friday-Monday from 10-6 and then have the rest of the week off. We sell kiwi's, asparagus, oranges, and avocados and can eat all that we desire! I've never eaten so many avocados in a day as I have here. It's wonderful! Tomorrow we go out by ourselves so I will probably be doing more reading, writing, yoga? mediatation?

interesting food we've had:
1) pumpkin and califlower curry
2) chicken and leek pie
3) hokey pokey ice cream (hokey pokey=caramel & choc; kind of)
4) spinach and feta muffins--delicious