The tree that tried to eat me

Today we were supposed to fly to Sydney--did you notice the word supposed?  The ash cloud caused our flight to be cancelled so we are here in Auckland, again.  We are supposedly scheduled for a flight tomorrow at 6--my fingers are crossed, I’m touching wood, etc.  We called the Auckland AYH from our EcoHostel (actually a hippie dump) and they assured us that they had a room for 5 available.  We walked down to the beach by our hostel--evidently a world-known surfer area--which was very pretty--black sand, but shells everywhere since the tide had just gone out.  It was about an hour--easy there, but uphill the whole way back!  Then to the hostel in Auckland.  They did not have a five-bed room--only three rooms could handle a roll-away cot and they were all filled.  So, they offered us 5 spaces in other rooms--2 and 3, which would probably be shared with others.  We asked the price of private rooms with 2 and 3 and she gave them to us for much less than they usually go for.  So we have a “boys” room and a “girls room” with a parent in each room.  OK, but not ideal.  Then out for lunch at a local cafe, groceries for dinner, then the children stayed at the hostel (Annie online and Joshua and Shelby playing board games in the lounge) and Randy and I went for a walk to the Albert Park and around the Auckland University.  At the park was the tree that tried to eat me!  Like the tree that tried to eat Pippin and Merry in “The Two Towers” from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.  If you only watched the movie (instead of reading the books--shame, shame), it is only in the extended version.  That tree must be related to the one in the Albert Park here in Alberta.  It looked like I slipped on wet leaves and mud (it was sprinkling out), but it was actually the tree.  Anyway, those pants and sweatshirt are in the washing machine as I type this!  I barely escaped with my poor American life!  There was a statue of Queen Victoria in the park celebrating 60 years of her reign.  I remember in London the Victoria and Albert museum.  I can’t remember if they were married or had some other connection; but there is another connection in the park here in Auckland.  

The money here is odd.   They use New Zealand dollars (being in New Zealand, that makes sense).  The bills: 5, 10, 20, 50 (that is as high as we have had) have two little areas “cut out” and covered with a special see through paper with the number of the amount as a holograph in one; the other is the leaf that is their national symbol.   Then the coins--10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2.  Most countries we’ve been to have their currency--dollars, kroner, pounds, etc. in one and two increments in coinage--not bills as we have.  Our country keeps trying to introduce one dollar coins, but people collect them as oddities and put them in boxes and prefer to use bills.  The treasury says that they could save a lot of money by having the coins and not needing to print the bills, but if given a choice, people will stick with what they are familiar with--in the this case using dollar bills over the coins.  I think we need to not give them the choice--just print the coins, and either stop printing the bills or collect bills from the banks and give them coins instead.  Then people would be forced to change and after a year or so they would be used to it (even the older folks).   I also know that our treasury said that it is expensive to continue printing pennies.  Partially because, again, people don’t spend them.  They put them in a jar until they have enough to take to the bank.  They aren’t worth much.  The way that New Zealand has solved that problem is, the smallest coin is 10¢.  At stores and businesses, they round the price to the nearest 10--either up or down and either you take the loss or they do and it evens out in the end.  It makes sense and saves a lot  of money in printing coins (ie:  pennies, nickels) that aren’t used often.  Just another way of doing things.  Not better or worse, just different.  

Randy keeps checking the Qantas website to find out the latest and we are hoping that tomorrow night we will be in Sydney.  We have an apartment booked there.  At this hostel we don’t have an en suite bathroom so we have  to go down the hall to the toilets and showers.  Oh well.  I keep telling myself I can’t do anything about it, to just take it as it comes.  Hoping the next blog is from Sydney!