Driving on the left side of the road

I wanted to title this blog post "driving on the wrong side of the road," but I'm working on not saying that anymore; just because it's the opposite from the way we do things at home doesn't make it the wrong way. But I should call it "Brian driving on the left side of the road," because I haven't done any driving yet and if I had my way, I never would. ;) We got our car!

Here he is, my handsome chauffeur, in front of our handsome car. I own a Subaru, you guys! We got it yesterday and Brian has been driving us all over the city, getting us lost and therefor helping us get our bearings of Auckland. I really am falling in love with this city and it makes me wonder if we might just end up back here to live eventually, although first I think we'll give the rest of the country a chance. Brian is already getting comfortable driving on the left side, and I just silently have a heart attack in the passenger's seat and try to support him as he does a good job. I "intend to practice driving" once we are out of the city...

Today we had a lot of business to attend to, like getting a cell phone, buying a bunch of stuff that we already had at home but didn't want to pack, and applying for a tax ID number that will allow us to work. Running errands gave us plenty more time to experience and gush over the friendliness of strangers in New Zealand. At the post office the workers seemed to have all the time in the world to attend to our every need, flipping through every page in the notebook full of postage stamps she had so I could find just the right ones to send home for a souvenir (to a certain Circa regular). After I picked out 5 different stamps, the post office lady fashioned my receipt into an envelope and tucked the stamps neatly inside, then found a tiny ziplock bag to enclose them in before handing them to me. Why did she do this? Because customer servicepeople here LOVE their jobs!! No, Kiwis are just friendly; they go the extra mile. Small things like that make all the difference. We have multiple experiences like that per day here. I'm getting so spoiled here, I may never come home! :)

A couple of days ago we took a ferry to Devonport, another Auckland "suburb" which reminds me a bit of West Seattle, but with even better views. Maybe throw a little Seaside, OR beachtown-vibe in there as well. Anyway, the ferry ride was less than 10 min and when we docked at Devonport the railing along the boardwalk was covered in knitting of all different colors and patterns. So cute and artsy. We had the sweetest picnic basket with us that our host lent us, and were headed toward the most beautiful, romantic picnic destination I could imagine- Mt. Victoria. It's one of two extinct volcanoes in Devonport and looks like more of a giant hill than anything else. It only took a few minutes to walk up to top and the view was breathtaking. 360 degrees of water fading from turquoise to almost plum, the edge of the city, and all the surrounding mountains/volcanoes. On the top of Mt. Victoria we opened our picnic basket, clinked our plastic goblets together and worked on our sunburns. After lunch, we did a walk around the town as mapped out by Lonely Planet, which took us up another "mountain" (hill) with more spectacular views complete with hang gliders. It was such a nice day and after adequate sunburns we came back to Ponsonby and went to our local pub to watch the All Blacks defeat Argentina. It was a perfect day.

on the ferry, aka West Seattle water taxi

view of Auckland city

on the dock at Devonport

with our charming picnic basket

the greens are so green here...