Devonport

Hello my people.

Betsy and I are now the proud owners of a bank account at the Bank of New Zealand, or BNZ. I am quite pleased about this development, as it means I no longer have large amounts of cash to watch over. A nice young gentleman named Declan opened the account for us. Having worked at a bank for a while, I know how these things typically go; Declan was a delight. A sweet, genuine young guy, he walked us through our options quite cleanly, never attempting to… steal our money. He alerted us to common theft methods in NZ, such as devices placed over ATM card slots to record card data, and how to avoid them; make sure you see a green light just below the slot. Experience number 1 at a NZ bank: a success. Good work Declan.

We saw Gran Torrino. It was typical Eastwood (in my opinion), crisp and clean, no unnecessary characters, good dialogue, no fairy tale ending, beauty and pain, smart, well written, plenty of heart. Seeing it in NZ was interesting. Seating was “allocated” (assigned). As a result, the mostly empty theatre was home to a bunch of strangers, bunched together. Also of note was the absence of pre-show theatrics, if you will. No commercials, no ads, only 3 previews.

Betsy and I also now have IRD numbers. IRD = Internal Revenue Department. You want to work? You need an IRD number.

A ten-minute ferry ride across the bay, and we were out of the city. Thank goodness. I’m not a huge fan of big cities, even in NZ. Devonport was a delight. It was a cute little town with houses you dream of living in, and gardens Betsy dreams of tending. One such house/garden had a pretty sweet tree house in the front yard. A tree house in the front yard? Only in NZ. I took a picture of it for Blake (my nephew) Devonport is small, but not tiny. I could live in a town like this… if I could find one in the U.S. (breathe easy Court). It was fantastic. In the middle of town is a gigantic hill that offers 360-degree views of the Auckland area. We scaled the hill, and feasted our eyes on the gorgeousness. Wow.

Oh yeah, and we went to the beach. Our first beach outing went with the slow, systematic approach to entering what I consider to be cold water. Today, I went with the kamikaze approach. In both cases I was very cold, and immediately retreated to the beach. As I told Betsy, I’m working up to it.