Gisborne, the first city to see the new day

We are in Gisborne. Gisborne I can confidently say stands for: "go away from here if you want to work." I am a bit astounded that nobody is hiring in this town, there are 40K people here that seem to be in some perfectly balanced system of commerce. There are what seems to be zero employment holes. Every place in town has given us one of three excuses

Excuse 1: No we are full up

Excuse 2: Economic turn down, go away

Excuse 3: Come back in the new year...

Now this last one gives me the shits. Here we are less than one month to go until Christmas and businesses keep telling us to come back in the new year. What the hell does that mean? How do you not want extra employees for the busiest season of the year??? Is there some sort of giant Kiwi shopping extravaganza leading up to Valentines Day? I don't get it. It is so bloody belittling to have to fill out a application form for a shoe store.

Andrea: Hi, I was curious if you guys were looking for any staff.

Shoe Store: Here is an application form, do you have your resume with you, do you have experiance?

Andrea... Ughhh...OK...right...

I mean seriously is there some sort of shoe polytech school that you need to graduate from in order to be qualified to grab shoes from a shelf in a back room. I mean personally I would like to think I would know how to handle the situation if a customer was to ask for a size 8.5 in red. That said I have never had to obtain a set of red pumps sized 8.5, so I guess I am unqualified. I guess I am a bit jilted that nobody seems to be hiring.

Perhaps a guy gets used to seeing help wanted signs in the window of every store in town for three years and figures it is the same way world around. We have humbly found out that Gisborne is not the same as Calgary. It gets frustrating after a while, I was close to blowing a fuse yesterday when I went to the NZ Wal-Mart equilivant and they asked me fill out an application, again what can I write on a piece of paper that will qualify me to open a box of Gillete razors and put them on a shelf?

So now that we have spent 4 days straight looking for work we did what any unemployed person would do. We went to the brewery in town, got a free tour and got drunk. When that was over we headed down the road to the Cider factory and scored more free booze, it was the best we could do to try and take our minds of not working.

Morale has been low, I can tell you that it is not all fun and games.

Photos of things like a really big tree

This is Andrea. This photo was takin at the luge run in Rotorua, in the interior of the north island. A lot of people will tell you that when you visit Rotorua you should see the large amount geothermal activity that occurs in the area. This is wrong. Upon arrival in Rotorua, you shall proceed directley to the luge track , pay your money and instantely the fun will begin. I can honestly say that I would fly around the world, to do this (this is my actual reason for returning to NZ after a six year hiatus). It is the best thing EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In fact I will come back ina month when a new track opens up. That is correct Scuba, A NEW TRACK! Look closley at the glee on Andis face, you should be able to see it.

Dion doing his best to look cool...


Once you make it all the way to the bottom you ride a chairlift back up, th eluge carts are hanging from the bottom of the chairlift. I reckon COP could make a go of this and make a mint of money as well.

This is what happens when you park your car on 90 mile beach and let the tide come in. I guess this dude got caught in deep dry sand. He was stuck and it was only a matter of time before the tide came in an ran a clinic in car ruining.

Artsy Raglan shot...

A Photo of the Raglan point break doing what it does, breaking at a point. There was a lot of water moving around that day, a bit messy. I mostly watched.

This is my girlfriend, can you see why I date her? Beaut isn't she?

This is Dion at Raglan. This was approximatly 30 mins prior to his 15 minute paddle that saw him, rip a fin out if his surf board and punch a plug through the top deck. That is tech talk for Dion f*&%ked up his board. Oh yah, I am growing my moustache out for MOVEMBER. Google it when you should be working to find out what it is all about. This is week two, Gordy you should be impressed that your son at the age of 30 can now pump out a moustache in 2 weeks.

Meet PY, our car, its a 4WD. It is red and awesome. Did I mention it is 4WD? This is PY at the Raglan Point, Manu Bay.

Here is the really Big Tree, in fact its the biggest tree in NZ. It is called a Kauri and before the greenies got ahold of the idea of chopping them down they yielded the most merchanable timber per tree in the world. Its a big tree...

Just an Update

We bought a car. Yep a 1991 Toyota Carolla Wagon, and it is 4WD! It is red and awesome. I'd have photos for you if Andi didn't take the car and camera off to work with her today. Oh yeah we have jobs too. Well had jobs, I did my last shift yesterday and Andi is quitting today. I worked a total of 9 hrs and she has held on for 24 hrs. It is tough to work really, i find it so boring and degrading performing a sandwich making service for money.

Actually we are just helping out a small cafe in town for a few days so the owners can take a breather. I make sandwiches for the school kids across the street and Andi makes coffees for the walk ups. SUPER easy work, i reckon one person could handle the entire operation but there are four of us there to make sure it all goes to spek.

We are in a town in the far north called ahipara (http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?hl=en&q=ahipara%20NZ&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=il) in the far north of NZ. We took a trip up the cape to the end of NZ, Cape Reinga. On this trip there was sandboarding, picture taking, big trees, old big trees in swamps, a giant chainsaw and a drive along a big ass beach in a bus. It was good, photos to come in another post. I think we will be heading south from here tomorrow and go back to Whangerie for one night at Bob and Elen's house (Andi's grandfathers brother) before we head even further south to maybe Raglan. I bought a wetsuit and there is nothing stopping me from surfing now...except the presence of waves.

More later, stay tuned.

Got a phone number

Hey kids,

you can reach me at 021 176 8055. This is my cell number. I am not sure of the country code in order to get through to me though. I think it is 011 64... then my number. I could be wrong. That said I have send out a couple of txt messages back to a couple of people, maybe they can jot down the full code in the comments needed to get through to me or to send a text message.

EDIT: Yes you need to dial 011 64 21 176 8055. If you send a text message try either the number i just listed or +6421 176 8055. That should get your message onwards to me.