Many things have happen since the last post, We had our makshift easter celebration, booked some Thailand stuff, the Royal Wedding crazyness, I drove for the first time on the left side of the road, and we spent the weekend out at Cape Palliser which is one of the most beautiful places I have seen.
Easter in New Zealand is HUGE. Not necessarily the religious aspect of it, but the idea of eating candy and having it be a public holiday. We got a 4 day weekend because good friday is a public holiday, and then it was ANZAC day (like a memorial day) on Monday. Instead of there being tons of Easter bunnies and premade Easter baskets, there are just TONS of giant and small Easter eggs, all types you could think of. The whole notion of being politically correct and not talking about a religious holiday doesn't apply here, we had an Easter brunch at work, and I got lots of Easter eggs from people at work.
We went to an STA travel night and continued to book our adventures in Thailand! We booked our three day trek in Chang Mai which is going to be amazing! We also got free beer and wine, food, a free Thailand lonley planet book ($70NZ dollars) and 50.00 towards more! All and all it was pretty sweet, which made me start to think about our next adventure... and I am thinking South Africa, a 10 day tour through the country and then a few extra days in Capetown... Don't you worry everybody... IT WILL HAPPEN, though I have no idea how I will make money when I get back to the USA, I will get to South Africa, and many other places around the world! :)
The Royal Wedding happened, and man oh man was it a HUGE event! I spent alot of time at work talking about what Kate would wear, how it would be hard to be her, and anything else. Everyone had wedding parties with high tea (Fancy tea party with the party stacked platters and each one has sweeter treats) Or there were themed parties, or dress up ones for charity which mimicked the wedding events. it was crazy! I also bought the souvenir edition of the newspaper here! :)
On Friday night we met up with Caro, our friend from Belgium and had dinner, she made us an amazing dinner! The weirdest thing about it is that she had a girl staying with her... and she was from Olympia! how crazy! She was super nice, yet if you wanted to describe anyone as an Evergreener she would be it! (and she is trying to go to school there too!) But really it was fun to talk about all the signature Olympia stuff and think about how I can't wait to get back and eat Old School and Meconies!
One cool thing we learned from Felix (girl from Olympia) is how to make an amazing desert! chocolate coconut balls... it was just avocado, sugar and coco whipped together and then rolled in coconut. oh man it was amazing! I recommend trying it! and you can add macadam nuts. YUMMY!
Anyways, this weekend we went out to Cape Palliser, its the southernmost part of the north island. Its on the east coast and there is a 150 year old light house that you can climb up the 250 steps to. so we rented a car and were on our way! I got in the drivers seat we headed out of the parking lot. I immediately turned on the windshield whippers... as they are switched, and got flustered. It took some getting used to but by the time we returned the car on Sunday I felt better. Although driving on the left side is odd.. I felt like the part of the car between the two windows (front and side) was so hard to see around! Only once, and it was in a parking lot, did I accidentally go on the right side of the road.
So we got out to Cape Palliser and it was amazing! It also known to have a lot of seals, which we saw! They were sleeping all over the place, like a foot from the road (which wasn't really a road, more like gravel) we got out and took pictures and then climbed up a huge cliff area to take more. We figured we were safely away from the seals as we were up very high and Colin told me to go down a step for a cool photo. I started to walk around and almost got there, when all of a sudden this seal started hissing at me! (and for those who didn't know they are actually really dangerous and can slither around really fast and then your done for...) I screamed and ran back up.. so basically Colin was trying to get me killed! although really it was hidden behind a rock...
The scenery in this area was crazy. We were right on the coast but then there were these huge green mountains so close to the water. The waves were giant and came crashing down onto the seals, and big rocks. They would of easily engulfed a car and taken it out to sea. Then looking out there was a soft mist from the water which made it look almost unreal. I know it doesn't do it justice, but it was beautiful.
So we climbed to the top of the light house and then headed to a small town (the first colonized NZ town) called Greytown. We stayed in a cute little hotel and had an amazing dinner at the White Swan... It was very good, although we didn't have much of a choice since the ENTIRE town was basically already closed and the whole town was only main street.
We made it home, and spent today going to the market and catching up on things, it was actually a beautiful weekend and day in Wellington with no wind, so we got to air out our shitty house and didn't have to hang out in our sleeping bags (which is becoming quite popular as our house is usually so cold you can see your breath.. cool....) That is one thing I will NOT miss about NZ! un heated/insulated houses..
Fringe = bangs
Servett = napkins
Brain Wave = ex; I need a brain wave, or i just had a brain wave, like an awha moment, or the light bulb came on.
Different places throughout Cape Palliser! Enjoy!
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