This is an update for Herrera

Hi again. We haven't updated in a while. The highlights of the last two weeks can be summarized like this:

Jon and I took tuesday of last week off, thus giving us a three day weekend to travel around north island. We traveled to Rotorua, Tauranga, Hamilton, and Waitomo. To put this into perspective, Rotorua is about 3 hours away from where we are staying, and each of these towns is equally spread around the country. Needless to say, we did a lot of driving. But all in all it was an excellent adventure. I put pictures up on facebook, for those of you who want a visual tour. Rotorua is the cultural epicenter and biggest tourist attraction of New Zealand, from what I can tell so far. We walked around a Maori town (of which there are many), saw Kiwis at an animal park, stayed at a hostel, smelled the sulphury gas escaping from the ground all around us, etc. It was a great time! I really like rotorua. It has a very cute town center, and lots of beautiful nature surrounding it. (That goes for all of New Zealand, except for the drive to my workplace). The map shows the amount of driving that we did. We started at the southernmost green dot and made a big circle. Tauranga turned out to be a very modern ocean city. It reminded us of San Diego, with its art galleries and expensive shops on the waterfront. That was something I was not expecting in New Zealand, and it was also not that interesting, so we just had some fish and chips there and moved on to Hamilton. Hamilton reminds me of home as well. Somewhat suburban, has a mall and a city center with nightlife (I assume. We didn't see anyone making use of the bars.) Hamilton confused us because there were so many cars and roundabouts. We even got lost, and had a scare when the police sounded its sirens behind us. (Turns out they just wanted to pass us...) We slept in our car that night, which is cheaper than staying in a hostel, and perfectly doable in Gertrude, since you can lower the back seat to make a flat surface. On day three, we drove to Otorohanga, the town closest to the Waitomo caves that we would go caving in. This is also where we saw the Angora bunnies that get shaved. Take a look at my pictures for a description of that experience!

We had a great time throughout the trip, and it gave us confidence that we will be able to travel to south island in our car when we are done working here. We will have to work on our spending habits, especially on food. We spent more in three days than I make in one week. But we will figure it out in a week, when we get on the road!

On another note, Jon drove the car into a parked truck the other day. He had an adventure trying to replace the passenger side window that broke in the process. Apparently you have to fix glass related things at a place that specializes in glass. They, in turn told him that he needed to fix his door frame before they could replace the glass. They recommended a junkyard, which Jon deemed "really sketchy." It was literally a junkyard, complete with blind dog, scary guys with dreadlocks and tattoos all over, and little kids running around. As it turned out, they had an entire door, complete with window, that they sold to us for $200. So Gertrude, who is light blue, now has a dark blue side-panel on one side. She is just developing even more of a personality. BUT they did give Jon a stick shift lever too! So we can officially shift without problems now!

Also, we booked a flight from Christchurch to Auckland a few days before we are scheduled to fly home. That way we just have to drive south, and we don't have to worry about driving all the way back up for hours on end. I have a friend who offered to take us around Auckland in those days, so hopefully we will have a good time exploring that place as well.

And while we are talking about getting back to reality: I finally got in touch with that recruiter from "Athletes To Business" who wanted to find me a job after I graduated. He says he will be trying to get me interviews, so that by the time I get back, I will be able to start going to them. What a champ. I wish people were always there to help me find a job. What will I ever do when I have to do things on my own. (Yeah, Tanaka, be jealous.)

Ok guys, that's it for now! See you all soon!
Jalissa