Hurricanes! v. 2.0
After last night's fiasco of writing a novel length entry only to have a web crash of unknown origins cause me to lose the entire thing, I have finally regained my calm long enough to make a second attempt.
I haven't written much lately, mainly because I seemed to have settled in. It's funny how much a blog cools off when the things you do start to feel too normal to write about.
In truth, however, I have been up to many great adventures with Ryan and many of my other friends here in NZ. I laugh when I read about scrimping and saving. Since I wrote that my spending has gone from bad to worse. But it's all for things I need to experience or have wanted to do. For example, I bought theatre tickets for Ryan and I to go and see Fiddler On The Roof. For some of you, this is not all that exciting, but to me, it is something that thrills me to no end! When I saw the advertisement for it, it reminded me of my childhood when I used to go to the community theatre with my mom and sisters and sometimes my dad. Fiddler on the roof was one of my all time favs. The mother of one of my childhood friends played the matchmaker and it was a brilliant show. The man playing the main male character in this version is the same guy that starred in the movie, about 30 years ago!! So brilliant! He's still going and he's still gettin rave reviews!
In addition to my spending I have also been getting out and seeing more of wellington. I have experienced some DELICIOUS food festivals, though we missed a few as well. We arrived at the Indian Festival just as they were folding up the tables and taking the garbage out.... oops, guess we should have done a little more research! hehe.
Another great way for me to get to know Wellington and the surrounding areas has been MORE GEOCACHING!!! We recently did a nighttime geocache in which we used a flashlight (here, they call it a torch) to follow a path of firedots through a park. Firedots are tiny reflective dots that are about one cm in diameter, but are HIGHLY reflective. They are stashed amongst the trees and you can only find them if you stand next to the last dot you've found. It was kind of creepy at times, but still superbly brilliant.
Just last weekend, Ryan and I sailed the seas with a bunch of drunken pirates. ok, ok, so we were on a boat with a bunch of people who were dressed like pirates for a going away party. We cruised around the harbour and around the peninsula for about three hours in a NZ Herald cruiser boat. It seats about 25 inside and has a jukebox and a bar! :D Nick and Ang are heading off to the UK for a year or two and wanted to go out with a bang and what a great time it was! I didn't really know them all too well, but they were good friends of Ryan's and I felt very lucky to have been included in the experience!
Speaking of getting included in the experience, two of our friends here are getting married here in a month!! And lucky me, I get to go because of Ryan. But I have spent quite a bit of time with the couple am thrilled to get to go! It might ease a bit of the anguish I feel over missing the wedding of two beloved friends back home.
It seems I'm going to stick out the full year here in Aotearoa. I plan to see some of the pacific islands and bits of australia over the winter, then I'll finish off my tour of NZ in November before I come back home. Stretching my visa to the limit, for sure. I realize that this plan will mean I get two winters in a row and I will miss out on some pretty milestone moments in a lot of my friends lives. At least two weddings, graduations, UBC starters and finishers.... The world is going to change so much without me around to watch and celebrate it. But this is something I gotta do. So far, it has been the most uplifting and eye opening experience of my life. I have met amazing people and learned an unquantifiable amount of knowledge about the world and the people in it, including myself.
Friday night, I got to experience my first NZ Rugby match! I live 20 minutes away from the stadium and it took me two months to get there! It was brilliant!! I went with my English friend Anthony, and Ryan. The game was full of everything it needed to be a really great game to witness, including break aways, minor misses, arguably poor reffing, huge plays and huge screw ups. My eyes were shining with excitement by the time is all wound down, despite the fact that it was freezing out. Good thing we knew the stadium was outdoors, so Ryan and I layered up with polypro, sweaters, jackets, toques, scarves and gloves. Despite our efforts however, by the end of the game we were still FRRREEEZING!! We warmed up over chocolate cake and hot drinks.
Yesterday, Ryan and I met up with Sashe and Griet (the couple getting married) and had lunch at our favourite spot, The Market. It is an old building down near the waterfront with a little foodcoart inside. It is more like some kind of ethnic fair though, with each stall containing food from different areas of the world, from chinese and japanese to Mexican and lebanese. I had sushi :) YUM!! Not quite Kotos from back home in Campbell River, but still pretty damn tasty. After, we went ring shopping at a jewelry store where a replica of "the ONE RING" is kept safely behind glass. So cool. It fit Ryan perfectly :) Not that we were trying on rings or anything too..
We rounded off the near perfect day by celebrating Ryan's one year in Wellington with a pot luck. I keep taking for granted the fact that despite the similarities, New Zealand and Canada still differ culturally. Not to mention, England, Germany, Norway, Brazil and Belgium differ as well, all in the same way..... We had to tell everybody invited what a pot luck actually was!! haha! It made for an interesting text to Anthony because I accidentally sent him the message " a pot luck is when everybody brings their favourite fish to share with the group." Ooops. Still getting used to the predictive text. Who would have thought that the sentence would still make sense. He didn't bring fish after all the jibing for my misspelling, but it was still highly amusing.
The night was a pure success. Everybody brought excellent food, everybody drank too much wine and everybody had a wonderful time!!!
Today, Ryan and I and two of his roommates and a coworker/friend and one of his roommate's dad all went out Mt. Biking in the Rimutakas, a mountain range where the old railroad used to travel through. We rode along where the old track used to lay, so the grade was slowly rising, but never steep, and the path was wide and flat. IT was PERFECT!!! It was an absolutely gorgeous day and on the way back it was like one endless downhill!!! There were some other highlights, but they are best described with pictures, so that update is to come.
Phew! What an update. Thanks for reading! Needless to say, I'm doing well!
I haven't written much lately, mainly because I seemed to have settled in. It's funny how much a blog cools off when the things you do start to feel too normal to write about.
In truth, however, I have been up to many great adventures with Ryan and many of my other friends here in NZ. I laugh when I read about scrimping and saving. Since I wrote that my spending has gone from bad to worse. But it's all for things I need to experience or have wanted to do. For example, I bought theatre tickets for Ryan and I to go and see Fiddler On The Roof. For some of you, this is not all that exciting, but to me, it is something that thrills me to no end! When I saw the advertisement for it, it reminded me of my childhood when I used to go to the community theatre with my mom and sisters and sometimes my dad. Fiddler on the roof was one of my all time favs. The mother of one of my childhood friends played the matchmaker and it was a brilliant show. The man playing the main male character in this version is the same guy that starred in the movie, about 30 years ago!! So brilliant! He's still going and he's still gettin rave reviews!
In addition to my spending I have also been getting out and seeing more of wellington. I have experienced some DELICIOUS food festivals, though we missed a few as well. We arrived at the Indian Festival just as they were folding up the tables and taking the garbage out.... oops, guess we should have done a little more research! hehe.
Another great way for me to get to know Wellington and the surrounding areas has been MORE GEOCACHING!!! We recently did a nighttime geocache in which we used a flashlight (here, they call it a torch) to follow a path of firedots through a park. Firedots are tiny reflective dots that are about one cm in diameter, but are HIGHLY reflective. They are stashed amongst the trees and you can only find them if you stand next to the last dot you've found. It was kind of creepy at times, but still superbly brilliant.
Just last weekend, Ryan and I sailed the seas with a bunch of drunken pirates. ok, ok, so we were on a boat with a bunch of people who were dressed like pirates for a going away party. We cruised around the harbour and around the peninsula for about three hours in a NZ Herald cruiser boat. It seats about 25 inside and has a jukebox and a bar! :D Nick and Ang are heading off to the UK for a year or two and wanted to go out with a bang and what a great time it was! I didn't really know them all too well, but they were good friends of Ryan's and I felt very lucky to have been included in the experience!
Speaking of getting included in the experience, two of our friends here are getting married here in a month!! And lucky me, I get to go because of Ryan. But I have spent quite a bit of time with the couple am thrilled to get to go! It might ease a bit of the anguish I feel over missing the wedding of two beloved friends back home.
It seems I'm going to stick out the full year here in Aotearoa. I plan to see some of the pacific islands and bits of australia over the winter, then I'll finish off my tour of NZ in November before I come back home. Stretching my visa to the limit, for sure. I realize that this plan will mean I get two winters in a row and I will miss out on some pretty milestone moments in a lot of my friends lives. At least two weddings, graduations, UBC starters and finishers.... The world is going to change so much without me around to watch and celebrate it. But this is something I gotta do. So far, it has been the most uplifting and eye opening experience of my life. I have met amazing people and learned an unquantifiable amount of knowledge about the world and the people in it, including myself.
Friday night, I got to experience my first NZ Rugby match! I live 20 minutes away from the stadium and it took me two months to get there! It was brilliant!! I went with my English friend Anthony, and Ryan. The game was full of everything it needed to be a really great game to witness, including break aways, minor misses, arguably poor reffing, huge plays and huge screw ups. My eyes were shining with excitement by the time is all wound down, despite the fact that it was freezing out. Good thing we knew the stadium was outdoors, so Ryan and I layered up with polypro, sweaters, jackets, toques, scarves and gloves. Despite our efforts however, by the end of the game we were still FRRREEEZING!! We warmed up over chocolate cake and hot drinks.
Yesterday, Ryan and I met up with Sashe and Griet (the couple getting married) and had lunch at our favourite spot, The Market. It is an old building down near the waterfront with a little foodcoart inside. It is more like some kind of ethnic fair though, with each stall containing food from different areas of the world, from chinese and japanese to Mexican and lebanese. I had sushi :) YUM!! Not quite Kotos from back home in Campbell River, but still pretty damn tasty. After, we went ring shopping at a jewelry store where a replica of "the ONE RING" is kept safely behind glass. So cool. It fit Ryan perfectly :) Not that we were trying on rings or anything too..
We rounded off the near perfect day by celebrating Ryan's one year in Wellington with a pot luck. I keep taking for granted the fact that despite the similarities, New Zealand and Canada still differ culturally. Not to mention, England, Germany, Norway, Brazil and Belgium differ as well, all in the same way..... We had to tell everybody invited what a pot luck actually was!! haha! It made for an interesting text to Anthony because I accidentally sent him the message " a pot luck is when everybody brings their favourite fish to share with the group." Ooops. Still getting used to the predictive text. Who would have thought that the sentence would still make sense. He didn't bring fish after all the jibing for my misspelling, but it was still highly amusing.
The night was a pure success. Everybody brought excellent food, everybody drank too much wine and everybody had a wonderful time!!!
Today, Ryan and I and two of his roommates and a coworker/friend and one of his roommate's dad all went out Mt. Biking in the Rimutakas, a mountain range where the old railroad used to travel through. We rode along where the old track used to lay, so the grade was slowly rising, but never steep, and the path was wide and flat. IT was PERFECT!!! It was an absolutely gorgeous day and on the way back it was like one endless downhill!!! There were some other highlights, but they are best described with pictures, so that update is to come.
Phew! What an update. Thanks for reading! Needless to say, I'm doing well!
so said Crys at 8:04 PM
:
awww yay!! i love hearing from you. good to know things are going well. I leave in 22 days for Paris and the rest of France and bit of Spain. SO EXCITED! It's no year long trip but it'll be amazing.
Wonder when I'll see YOU next...hmmm...well as long as I hear your tales and adventures I am not far away. Love you!!
tuck-tuck
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