Auckland

We made it to Auckland safe & sound. We arrived about 1am in the morning, and crashed. It's now about 9am here, and a few of us are up & milling about.

Yesterday was AWESOME! As I mentioned, we went souvenier shopping and finished up in Tauranga. After lunch at a cool little place called Zambezi's, we hopped in the car for our drive to Hamilton where we were to dine at Jules' and John's (family friends) & meet up with Nardine's mum.

When we arrived Jules' and John's, we were ecstatic to see that they had both cows and sheep. Josh has been dying to catch a sheep since we got here, and I've been wanting to pet a cow. John let Kate & I help him round the cows into a different pen and remove a fence. We couldn't really understand him - he was yelling at us from across the field, not only mumbling but with the thickest accent we had heard yet. Kate & I sat there dumbfounded and giggling screaming "What?!?" in our green, American accents. We were yelling across the field, asking how to get into the pen, and he was answering... but there was definitely a communication breakdown. Then, their dog came over to us, excitedly wagging his tail. I said "Kate, the dog will tell us how to get to the field!" Ummm, yeah, it didn't. We realized we had definitely had a blonde moment when the dog just wanted to walk around in circles. We found this bench up against the side of the fence, so we hopped on the bench, straddled the fence and went to meet John out in "the field". We helped him move an electric fence. In our flip flops, capris, cameras slung over our shoulders and otherwise Midwestern costumes. I caught a glimpse of Lynette (Nardine's mom) and Jules laughing their arses off on the other side of the window. We must have looked very un-farm like.

When the guys arrived, Nadine talked John into letting Josh finally catch that sheep. The sheep were grazing a ways back on the property, so we took a jaunt out there to get them (dodging cow patties and sheep poo along the way). Once the sheep saw us coming, they started running in the opposite direction. John lined a few of us up one way, and a few others another so we could corral them. Josh & John finally got the sheep going in the right direction and the rest of us ran alongside.

Once the sheep were where they needed to be, John needed to put them in an even smaller pen so he could shear them. When they started running away again, John told us to put our hands out on either side, and that would signal them to stop. It worked! Everyone held their hands out, and the sheep came to a dead stop, no questions asked.

After our "herding" experience, we pet a few of them and asked a lot of questions about sheep raising. Finally, Lynette (Nadine's mom) had to come out and get us because she wanted to "feed" before the big game!

Jules & Lynette had prepared a great feast of chicken, ham, roast beef, potatoes, taboouleh, celery salad and slaw. Lynette had made meringue with fresh berries for dessert. During dinner, we were quite entertained by John's stories. He was SUCH a character.

After dinner, John & Jules agreed to drive us to the rugby game so that we wouldn't have to find parking, etc. We watched the Crusaders vs. the Chiefs.... and cheered for the CHIEFS. We were told that we would be taking our lives into our own hands, should we choose to cheer for anyone other than the Chiefs. Despite our ruthless cheering, the Crusaders beat our guys 25 to 19. Kate & I were lucky enough to sit next to a very cute NZ'er who was more than willing to share the rules of the game. If only his girlfriend hadn't been on the other side of him....

Rugby was AMAZINGLY FUN to watch. It was so physical, and we got to see a lot of the action from our 5th row seat on the 22 meter line!!!! Those guys are in amazing shape - they only have (4) subs for 14 guys, limited time-outs and 40 minute periods. It is insane how much they run around. We were tired just watching them.

After the game, we were able to walk across the field and grab a few pics of the Dave & Josh wrestling each other to the ground while Lynette gave instructions. Then, it was back to Jules' and John's who had prepared for us some apple fritter, tea and coffee for the road. We piled back into the car, a very tired and happy bunch and ended up at Lynette's about an 1.5 hours later.

Today, the guys are going shopping in Auckland and we girls are off to hike to a waterfall in the Waitakeri ranges. Tonight, we are dressing up to eat dinner at the Skytower downtown, courtesy of Mr. John Richardson. Tomorrow morning, we'll go blackwater rafting in the Waitomo caves, church and sadly on our flight at 11:30pm Sunday evening (which will be 5:30am Sunday morning your time).

we'll talk more later,
kendra & co.