Inking the deal. JB, Matina (vendor) and Hilary (negotiator). 

It's Ours!

The time has come the walrus said
To talk of many
things:
Of boats and rats and tickle sticks, of
motorbikes and
bees...

Our offer for the purchase of Sierra Cafe has been accepted! We will take possession on 1 February and open for business around the middle of March. Of course we have lots to do between now and then, but that's the fun part of this adventure. Interestingly, it turns out that the other offer ahead of us was also a Mexican restaurant.

This part of the episode was slightly unnerving because we were in a new country where business is done differently. We had to rely heavily on the wonderful people we have met to help steer us through the gates. However, once we were inside the restaurant we were in familiar territory. JB is so excited he actually feels like working again, which is amazing. We have posted a slideshow called Sierra on the right so you can get a feeling for what the space looks like.

We probably won't be posting much until after the first of the year. Happy holidays everyone - to friends both old and new.

Kia Ora.

Kiwis push the envelope in their advertising. Here's one of our favorites. There are more to come! 

Beach flowers from Mangawhai Heads (1.5 hours north of Auckland) 

Moving Right Along

We have been busy the past few days getting all of our business affairs in order, Kiwi style. They do things a bit differently here, so we have engaged the services of a very fine attorney (recommended by our new Kiwi friend Ken, who was referred by our old Bend friend Hawk), a restaurant consultant who sees our vision and has tons of experience opening new eateries in Auckland, and a rather goofy banker recommended by the NZ restaurant association. He had trouble spelling Oregon and Buell (even when our passports were sitting in front of him), so that is the one relationship we may need to reconsider.

Some advantages to doing business here include the fact that there is NO capital gains tax and our US dollar buys about 1.50 NZ dollars. However, the US$ is on the slide and we are worried that by the time we set up shop we will have even less buying power. Word around here is that the Euro is becoming the safe haven of choice. Savvy financial managers have always looked to the US$ as a solid place to weather a global downturn. With our mounting deficits and lackluster economy, they are beginning to buy Euros. That could weaken the dollar even more over the next year or so. (Notice that I am not pointing fingers or making any political statements here.)

We have made our offer for the waterfront cafe space. It's a backup, and the vendor (that's what they call the seller here) is interested in talking to us because we have no contingency on financing. We will be meeting with the landlord on Monday, he has the final say in who will be able to take the space. Luckily, our Bend friends Phil & Carole Frazier have introduced us to the US Ambassador to New Zealand and he has offered to smooth any wrinkles we may find along the way. John is pacing like a caged animal, he can't stand the suspense. We are convinced this is the perfect space for Mexicali Fresh.

We will post the results of our meeting on Monday - stay tuned!

This is it. The Hilton is to the right down the wharf. 36 cruise ships dock here during the summer. To the left is another huge hotel and Price Waterhouse office building. Recent market studies show that there are 5000 local residents within 2.5K. I think they were all down here celebrating on Guy Fawkes Day! 

So tired, tired of waiting . . .  

Guy Fawkes Day 

Guy Fawkes Day

Friday night the explosions began. We didn't know what to think . . . there were fireworks everywhere! It looked just like the 4th of July, and from our vantage point at Prince's Wharf we could see north to Takapuna Beach, west down the wharf to the Viaduct and up on the hill to Ponsonby. Kids were screaming and carrying on in the bars, everyone was out and about.

Now we know what all the fuss was about. November 5 is known as Guy Fawkes Day and is celebrated in all of the commonwealth countries throughout the world. It commemorates the foiling of a plot - known as the Gunpowder Plot - to blow up the House of Lords in 1603 while the king, James I was opening the new session of Parliament. Guy Fawkes was one of the conspirators, the one caught red-handed. The 5th November was established as a day of thanksgiving that the plot didn't work. Today they have bonfires and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, let off fireworks, and eat toffee. I might also add that an ample amount of alcohol is consumed, gauging from the trucks on the wharf the next morning stocking the bars!

Formosa Auckland Country Club 

Apologies to our friends and family who may be offended by this image, but we had to share the feelings we are getting from the Kiwis and Brits in this part of the world. 

It's Just the Two of Us

Tyler and Conor left last night and we spent the evening in slack-jawed disbelief at the outcome of the election. John says that his record has held up well - he has still never voted for anyone who has ever won an election! I had my glory days in the 90s, so I can't complain. I guess every cloud has a silver lining because our stock market portfolio looks a bit better today than it did yesterday. Let's hope the dollar gets stronger as well!

We spent this morning looking at a few more restaurant locations. They do things a bit differently down here so we are learning as we go along. Often, you pick a spot you want and your agent just contacts the owner and negotiates a deal for you to take over. We are waiting to see about the cafe pictured in the October 31 posting - we should know on Friday.

It's quiet without the boys, but it's a gorgeous sunny day and we are sitting on the deck watching the sailboats float by. Life is good.

Future Home of Mexicali Fresh? 

When is a Quesadilla an Enchilada?

While we were in Paihia we ran across a cafe with quesadilla and nachos on the menu. Aha! we said. Let's see what Kiwis think of these. We ordered one of each and were pretty surprised. The nachos were a heap of bagged chips like Doritos, covered with sour cream, chili beans and sliced avocado. The quesadilla was a flour tortilla rolled with chili beans, topped with sour cream. I don't think they know that "queso" means cheese. Everything tasted great, just not what we expected.

We have to wait until Friday to submit an offer on the space we have chosen. The owners have an offer right now which will expire then. Things work a little differently here, and we are relying on our realtor team to guide us along.

We have posted more photos of the west coast of the North Island with beautiful black sand beaches. T&C were looking for waves, but were a little disappointed.