McCrain's
in Middle Earth
A travel dialogue of our adventures
in New Zealand
In February 2004, Jim and Kathy McCrain began a five month oddessy in New Zealand. Kathy was transferred to Auckland for a temporary work assignment, and Jim followed her for moral support. (Isn't he just the greatest husband?)
What follows is Jim's account of this adventure.
March 17: Domestic Life
I thought you might like to see our new
"home." It is adequately sized, since there are only the two
of us here, and we didn't bring much "stuff" with us. I didn't
even bring a guitar! (Although a new Kiwi friend of mine is going to
loan one to me for the duration of my stay. Thanks, Alan!)
The
first thing you see upon entering the "apartment" is the kitchen.
Actually, you might NOT see the kitchen, as it is very small and the
front door leads directly into it. It is "wide" when compared
to the 
rest of the apartment, but only because it is very open! The
kitchen, or as I have named it "Kathy's Easy Bake Oven," has
a cute little stove with a cute little refrigerator. The stove has TWO
burners on it and an oven big enough to cook a small squab. The refrigerator
is also small and cute, and will hold about three
days worth of food. (Providing, of course, that you don't plan to eat
much during those three days!)
The kitchen is fully furnished with four
plates, four glasses (very small ones!), two coffee cups, and four sets
of cutlery. All of this will fit into the very small dishwasher, that
only washes a little bit at a time. (It doesn't work, so we hand-wash
all the dishes every night. It doesn't take too long!) There is also
a small washer and dryer attached to the kitchen in the "wash room
area." This is actually just a very small closet behind the main
door and next to the 
stove area. As you can see by these pictures, it
is a "quaint" little kitchen. But hey, it serves our purposes,
it 
is clean, and we are pretty busy anyway.
The living room is directly adjacent to the kitchen, and includes a breakfast nook (a small table with two small chairs), a "sitting area" (small couch with two more small, almost comfortable chairs), and an office. This is a small table that has an internet connection nearby, a power outlet, and a TV. (By the way, New Zealand TV is not quite as good as it is reported to be. However, they ARE showing Survivor, even though they are about four weeks behind! I should start betting on the outcome!)
The bedroom comes off the "living
room" between the desk and the breakfast nook. It has a large bed
(No Kidding! It actually is BIG!) and a tremendous view of
Auckland City. The closet space is almost non-existent, but we are making
do. 
In fact, I am letting Kathy have all of the closet for her clothes,
and I will be living out of a duffel bag! Why Not? All I brought was
shorts and t-shirts anyway! (Oh yeah, I brought some underwear, too,
but you should have guessed that part!)
Probably the best part of the entire apartment, other than being able to share it with Kathy, is the view. We have a very large window in the bedroom and another large window in the living room. At night, the lights of the city glow down below us, and during the day, we can watch the city-life wandering around at our feet. It is quite spectacular!
Of course, the quest for good coffee continues, but more on that subject in the future.
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