Top Ten Things I Have Noticed So Far...

10) It is acceptable to walk bare foot around public places. Mall, Market, Etc.
9) Mohawk with Mullet is the hair style of the teen boys.
8) They Drive on the other sde of the car and the other side of the road.
7) They also have a lot of Asian people.
6) Their motorway(highway) is only two lanes.
5) Half gallon of ice cream comes with four flavors in it. And GoodyGoody Guimdrop is the best.
4) They have breakfast pies.
3) Toyota Yaris and Ford Focus are the cool hatchback cars down here.
2) Some choose to wear dress socks with sneakers or sandals and shorts.
1) All gas stations have the same price of gas regardless. it is by the liter and it is a $1.74 at the moment.

South Island Madness

Hey All, (sorry no photo this entry)
Well i am in the south island with Leo's sister and her family. it real quite down here. she lives in a town called Ross and has a population of 300 people. Adam (leo's brother in law) is the police officer for the town. so we are staying in the police house. which is real nice. the office and jail is just off to the side of the house. no one is in the jail. it is not violent down here at all. most of the calls are more of complaints than of violence.
Yesterday we went to see Fox Glacier which it one of the 100 things to do in NZ, so i can check that off my list. I will publish photos when i have my laptop connected to the internet.
Coming down to the south island we took a 1hr20min flight to Christchurch and then a 35 min flight on a 18 seater airplane to Hokitoka which is 20 min outside of Ross. other than the glacier nothing else to exciting has gone on and we have only been here one full today.
Today we are going to cruise the town of hokitoka and then tomorrow we are going to wild foods festival, which has exotic foods to try. Leo sends all her regards. As do i. miss everyone, hope all is well.
Mike

Arrival 3/3/08

The plane landed at 6:20 am after 19 hours of flight. I arrived got off the plane and directly onto a long ass line to wait to go through customs. after 45 minutes there i then i had to go and wait for my baggage, which did not arrive after watching the same bag pass 6 times. so i went over and waited on the lost baggage line which was not long to my suprise and that went quickly. after that i finished through customs and went out to leo. who was waiting for me at the terminal. it was now 750 am and 70 degrees out.

We went for a quick breakfast, and the we went and saw some tourist things. we went to one tree hill and this is the view of Auckland city from the hill. One tree hill is a hill that used to have one tree on it but the Maori's cut that down and it is now a historic site. after that we went to the local beach and then to lunch with Nat, Leo's brother went to the Pita Pit which is pretty much subway, but with Pitas. After that we went back to he house which is off in the country and it is quit beautiful. We had a BBQ of lamb and mutton(aged lamb) with scallops and mussels with salads. and that was pretty much the day, just launged around for the evening and went to bed around 9.

Woke up this morning to some rain. ahh thats alright it is still in the 70's. today just sorting some things out, my bags have just been located and are being shipped out to me. thats good because tomorrow i leave on a trip to the south island to visit Leo's sister and nieces. also got a cell phone and am getting that up and running. thats all for now. Miss Everyone and Leo and I send regards that all are doing well.