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So, here we are, another trip and another
journal. Not sure what kind of satisfaction you, the reader,
will take away from filling your mind with my thoughts, but it
serves me well to carry a kind of keepsake for future
reference. After all, this is a major event in my life and it
will be interesting to look back on it and see how it compares
to what I’ll have experienced by that time. Anyways, enough
of the sentimental introduction, onto the good stuff…
It’s really quite relaxing here. Of
course, it’s easy to say that once you’ve established a
job, car, home, and insurance. I can’t imagine attempting to
look for work right now on top of everything else. Jeannine
and I were very fortunate to have found some jobs beforehand
through the Net. Now, with everything else out of the way, we
can simply stretch out till work begins on Monday. Of course,
it all wasn’t a piece of cake.
For one thing, rent housing is pretty
touch and go. You can find a nice place, but you have to be
aggressive and an early riser. We hadn’t found anything by
last Friday and that was after seeing close to seven places.
Everything was either a set piece from “That 70s Show”,
close to falling down, or sold an hour earlier. By the time we
stumbled onto our new home at 9 in the morning on Saturday it
was like the light of God was shining down. Jeannine later
told me she thought the landlady looked terrified by my
exclamations of joy and my insistence that she take our down
payment immediately. I was not to be denied and was sick of
living out of the Owen’s Hotel on George Street. Ahhh,
there’s no place like home.
Buy a car was too easy. No DMV, no
registration, no ordering of new plates, and NO sales tax. In
fact, they have no sales tax on any products. I guess we’ll
get hit in our paychecks or something. Anyways, all used cars
in NZ are amazingly….good. Not a spot of rust and everything
is checked and fixed upon importation (generally, Japan.). In
the end, we settled on a used ’91 Honda Integra with only
48k miles on it. Makes you wonder what the hell the former
owners did with it. I mean, c’mon, 4k a year? Oh well, our
gain. Nice car for less than $2700 US.
Dunedin is a unique city unto itself.
With a student population of 20,000 it’s not surprising that
it’s the arts capital of New Zealand. It’s also a melting
pot of diversity with every culture having representation in
some kind of restaurant or shop. The city itself is modeled
after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. And I mean exactly.
Almost every street and suburb is named after every street
and suburb in Edinburgh. Find your way around Dunedin and
you’ll never get lost in Edinburgh
The sushi kicks ass here. And so far,
we’ve only eaten at fast-food sushi places. Can’t
wait to get to the authentic establishments.
Supermarkets, as mentioned in our First
Impressions, are pretty interesting. In my opinion, you can
never find exactly what you’re looking for. If you do find
it, it’s likely to be pretty expensive. The currency is so
poor here (think Canada) that some prices on food are rather
amazing. $3.65 for ketchup, $5 for Spaghetti sauce, $9 for
fruit. The best part about shopping is that you get a free
lotto ticket upon checkout. Ummm..neat.
Anyways, we’re having a great time so
far. Everyone here has been amazingly helpful and we’re
getting by with the limited amount of warm clothing that we
brought with us. Hopefully, Spring will hurry up and get here.
We’re off to Wanakah in central Otago tomorrow and will be
sure to post some more photos for those who care to check them
out. Take care.
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