Out of the city

So we've made it out of Auckland and are now at our first llama farm, Rangemore Llama Farm (www.llamas.co.nz). It's actually owned by the president of the New Zealand Llama Association -- the one who put us in their newsletter.

We had a good time exploring Auckland (riding buses all over the city, walking the busy streets and eating lots of tasty ethnic food). I even managed to get a long run in. Above is a photo of us outside our hostel, an old house in an upscale part of the city known as Parnell. Below is a photo of Amber and Ediza in a park next to the hostel.

A big part of our exploring the city involved searching for a car to buy. We bought one yesterday at the backpackers car market, which is a place where travelers buy and sell cars and vans. We bought our car -- a 1996 white Toyota sedan -- from a Swiss guy, Mathias, who is flying back home today. He was very friendly and helped me get the hang of this whole driving on the opposite side of the road thing.

When driving, everything is opposite: the steering wheel is on the other side, the lights, the windshield wipers, everything is reverse. Combine that with driving in a hectic city and through these wild roundabouts and I think I did pretty well (even though I kept turning on the wipers instead of my blinkers).

We left Auckland later than planned because we had a mechanic do some work on the car. The drive to the farm was about four hours to the north. Kerikeri (the town) is at the northern end of the Bay of Islands and reminds us of Hawaii and other tropic locales. It is raining a lot here, although it's quite warm.

The farm we're staying at is very green and lush. It's surrounded by a river and there's plenty of outdoor activities nearby. They have about 50 llamas, a dog named Tess, some peacocks and a bunch of other animals, including a funny cockatoo that says things like, "hello darling."

Today is the birthday of Julie, the lady who owns the farm. Happy Birthday, Julie!