Mexican food in NZ

We decided to make our wonderful hosts some delicious Mexican food for dinner. So we ventured out to the grocery store and lo and behold New Zealand does not know what Mexican food is! We found "the Mexican food aisle", which consisted of an assortment of Mexican meals in a box, mild salsa, two kinds of tortillas, and refried beans. Plan A: Enchiladas. We couldn't find any enchilada sauce or anything remotely close. Plan B: My yummy green chili. No canned or fresh green chilies. Plan C: Fajitas. Beef fajitas are clearly more tasty, but we had to settle for chicken. Unfortunately chicken is "out of season" so says Jilling, so that was quite pricey. Luckily they have cheese and sour cream to add to the top. It will be a tasty meal anyway. Here is a funny thing.... When we were leaving the grocery store we saw a sign that said: Please do not take the trolleys from the car park. :)

New Plymouth

On Sunday (9-6) we went to Pukekura Park with Jilling, Jack, and Jill. This is one of the top parks in New Zealand. Inside of the park they have a small zoo with a handful of animals. The kids got to play at the park and look at the animals. In the afternoon Janine took us to the Mt. Egmont (also known as Mt. Taranaki) visitors center. Mount Egmont is a very large volcano that can be seen from their house. Scientists find this volcano especially interesting because it is due for a major eruption. In the visitors center they were saying an eruption would be bigger than Mt. St. Helens.

Yesterday (9-8) we climbed Partutu. This is a very old volcanic mountain a few hundred feet high. It was a very steep climb, but well worth the ocean and Mt. Egmont views.

After our hike we ventured down to the shore to walk along the beach. All of the sand is black because of the volcanic activity. We watched the sun start to set out over the water.

This is a photo of Partutu from the beach. (the tall pointy one)

Angela has been practicing her driving on the left side of the road with our manual van (Black Betty). You have to shift with your left hand and keep it on the left side of the road! It's a bit weird but we are managing just fine. She stalled the van and flooded the engine only once:)

New Plymouth is a very beautiful little town along the Western coast of New Zealand. It attracts surfers and skiers alike. It is quite hilly because it was formed from the volcano's past eruptions.

Black Betty got her name from the German couple that we bought her from. She has Betty Boop stickers all over her. Jack thinks it's fun to pick them off:)

This is a 10 day old lamb at a friends house. He feels like carpet!