Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 30, 2010
April 28th: Hello Sydney!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Our first day in Sydney. Busy busy day.
I learned that putting orajel on bug bites at 2am….doesn’t do jack.
We didn’t actually leave the hotel until 8:50, walking through Hyde Park and another park to get to the wharf. The parks were gorgeous. Very Boston Gardens. Big fountains though, as well as the big ANZAC memorial. And then all of a sudden we rounded the curve, and BAM. There was the Sydney Opera house. It was really really weird. Just right there in front of me, something more iconic than the Eiffel Tower even. Its like, it hasn’t hit us that we are in Sydney. Australia.
We took some pictures of the bridge an the Opera house as the ferry passed right by them, but the half hour ferry ride seemed to take forever before we arrived in Manly.
There was some “Do we or don’t we” drama about the Q Station, but it was resolved, and we wandered downtown Manly to kill some time. We happened to pass an amazing looking deli that had rolls in the front window that Tim couldn’t pass up. We got one shell roll to share, and it was ooey and gooey and perfect. Something about Southern Hemisphere bread. Can’t be beat.
We picked up another man along the way on the shuttle, and the Santalike driver and him had a more personal conversation, including the statement, “A fine filly suggested we have lunch….of course it will be dutch.” It was beyond adorable.
We were a full hour early, so we walked down the dock outside, saw lots of schools of fish swimming totally erratically, it was quite strange. We were the only ones on the tour, and our guide seemed very scattered. She told us all about the healing powers of the Quarantine Station, and that was really the only time she was very animated. It was weird though, it was a government facility, used all the way through 1984, and yet, they keep saying they know very little about it. Like where certain buildings were, and other pieces of information that should have been well documented since it was a government institution. It was just very strange. There were buildings and rooms that she said were still in the exact condition that they were left in, and yet, she didn’t have a key and couldn’t show us on the tour? It was just odd. Its like the concentration is solely on the Ghost Tours and Spa Hotel services (90% of the buildings had been turned into resorts and spas and such buildings) and not at all on people that want the actual history of the place. We did get to go into the shower rooms, where they showered in a carcogenic material, the hospital (part of which had been rebuilt since it burned down earlier this decade), saw where the tram up the hill was, the boiler and generator room has been turned into a bar. She was clearly into the sacred grounds of it, a decent enough guide, just a bit looney. We walked all the way down the Corso and got to the Manly Beach at the end. Beautiful beach, long too.
It was relaxing to watch the ocean and the beach, there were a ton of people still out on the beach considering it was the middle of a work day too. On the way back through, we stopped in all of the clothing shops, which I don’t know if it was a good idea or not. We both could have spent thousands of dollars. Roxy, Billabong, Element….all were absolutely fantastic and I wanted everything. Tim wanted everything. But everything was so expensive. Like, more expensive than the States, which makes no sense since this is the country of origin! It was just obnoxious to try on the sweaters or a jacket or shirt and then have it be over $100. Because this is the clothing that we will never see anywhere near us in the states. Ever. Because its too much out of the Midwest fashion schema
Bought our dinner (our first night of the ever famous Chicken Tikka Masala) and back to the ferry to take us back to Sydney. I could have easily fallen asleep. I was sleepy and comfortable, the gentle rocking and breeze.
Just give me something to lean on, and I would have been out. We hauled our load all the way back to the hotel and I was super sick of walking by the time we got back, but it didn’t help that we saw two grocery stores close to the hotel when we had just hauled four bags from Manly. Things got reorganized and we left for our Ghost tour. Walked all the way back down to Cadman’s Cottage, We got checked in, and while standing in line realized that we were not the only Americans on this tour. Ghost Guide proceeded to hand out props to everyone, giving everyone a character to play at some point in the night. The props were somewhat large, and you wore them around your neck on a lanyard. Tim and I tried to avoid getting one, but then it was clear that he was going to pass them out until everyone had one. Somehow, he finished giving everyone one, and started the tour, only I still hadn’t gotten one. I was the only one off the hook. Only minutes into the tour, I was bored. It seemed to never end. I was hungry and tired almost right away as it started, and I hoped that I would get so enthralled with the stories and the tour that I would forget that my feet hurt and I was hungry. Not even halfway through I was ready to leave. Just chuck the prop at him and leave. Or hand it (and our self wound flashlight) to someone else and scram. We paid for it, we could tough it out, plus, maybe it would get better as it went on? His delivery of the decent stories was awful.
I also saw more cockroaches in the tour than I have in my entire life. Also two dead rats. Too many pauses, stuttered and stumbled like he didn’t remember the stories. He seemed very unprepared or just flat dumb because he would stop mid sentence. His pausing style was absolutely awful. But it finally ended, and there was a big hubaloo about finding the main part of the city again to take the train back to the hotel, but they dropped us off in nowhere and we kept getting stuck in sketchy dead ends.
Finally, chicken masala touched our lips, and life was whole again. ☺
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Tuesday Travel Day: April 27th.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
We both slept awful last night. It was hot and humid all night long. We woke up to the alarm at 7 to rain, but both of us were up numerous times during the night. Ugh. But it was the last night in the van!!! Yay for that.
We drove around Devonport, perused to the town a bit, but ended up parking near the New World. Across from the car was a Stonebakery Café place that looked amazing. We looked in and knew that that is where we would be getting our lunch from later on. The Devonport Library was amazing. They had free internet computers (30 min) for visitors. Tim even saw a kitty, but it ran into the office before I could love on it.
Left the library, and up the block was the pet store with four 7week old kittens and one 11week old kitten. All black and white and puffy and adorable.
We finished up all of our business in Auckland and filled up the HellVehicle with gas. We pulled off a few blocks away from the return place and pulled out our sandwiches. Mine was a Brie Vegetarian that was awesome. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, roasted red pepper, squash, and brie on a seasame roll. Tim had a HUGE BLAT (blt with avacado).
Got to the car place, Tim ran in. We pulled up to the door and unloaded our bags. We told the girl about all of the insane problems with the car. Numerous lights out, electric key didn’t work, chiller didn’t work (“It’s a chiller, its not a fridge”), windshield wipers barely worked, dvd player kept falling, and the van was absolutely filthy with crumbs and crackers. She was rather snippity, but apologized. She had us fill out a survey for some grad student that was ridiculous and long. By the end I had given up. And like, if we had been expecting a regular van, that had some bars welded into it, with a couch cushion, it would have been different. Even if it had been clean it would have been different. It was the fact that they oversold their product in the advertisements and didn’t give what they said they would deliver. That was our big problem. She called a cab for us, and soon we had left the piece of crap behind.
Checked in at the airport, not too bad a line, had to show our tickets out of Australia, got to the first point, NZ passport check, no one told us we had to fill out forms, so we had to step aside to do that, but they weren’t upset about it at least. Next step was security, kept our shoes on, zero line, walked straight through. It was fantastic. The Auckland Airport is super nice, at least the international terminal is. I would fly through here anytime.
Onboard, looked at our movie options, chose Bad Leiutenant, and got started on it right away. Take off was quite bumpy, as was the first 20 minutes or so. My tv shut down for a bit, and totally restarted, but at least it came back! Got served our meal.
We landed, and passed through the first customs passport check in under a minute. Stamp stamp, done. Picked up our luggage, but it took awhile to come out, and ours were some of the last ones and I was beginning to be a bit worried about it.
We were a bit worried about customs, our food was easy, wine and coffee packets, but we had to mark that we had been in nature basically and my hiking shoes had mud on them. We got sent to the guy, asked about our food, no problem, asked if we had been to farms, no problem, see ya. And straight through with no checking. Awesome.
Train station was right there in the airport, we got our ticket easily, and the train was right there seemingly waiting for us when we got to the right platform. It was a double decker train, just like the train we rode in Paris. I forget how much I like trains. They are very homey. It took us five stops to get to the Museum stop, and then we had to haul our luggage up four different sets of stairs to get out of the station, and then it was a bit of a hike to the hotel. It really wasn’t that long, but at that point, it seemed a lot longer.
We both slept awful last night. It was hot and humid all night long. We woke up to the alarm at 7 to rain, but both of us were up numerous times during the night. Ugh. But it was the last night in the van!!! Yay for that.
We drove around Devonport, perused to the town a bit, but ended up parking near the New World. Across from the car was a Stonebakery Café place that looked amazing. We looked in and knew that that is where we would be getting our lunch from later on. The Devonport Library was amazing. They had free internet computers (30 min) for visitors. Tim even saw a kitty, but it ran into the office before I could love on it.
Left the library, and up the block was the pet store with four 7week old kittens and one 11week old kitten. All black and white and puffy and adorable.
We finished up all of our business in Auckland and filled up the HellVehicle with gas. We pulled off a few blocks away from the return place and pulled out our sandwiches. Mine was a Brie Vegetarian that was awesome. Lettuce, tomato, cucumber, roasted red pepper, squash, and brie on a seasame roll. Tim had a HUGE BLAT (blt with avacado).
Got to the car place, Tim ran in. We pulled up to the door and unloaded our bags. We told the girl about all of the insane problems with the car. Numerous lights out, electric key didn’t work, chiller didn’t work (“It’s a chiller, its not a fridge”), windshield wipers barely worked, dvd player kept falling, and the van was absolutely filthy with crumbs and crackers. She was rather snippity, but apologized. She had us fill out a survey for some grad student that was ridiculous and long. By the end I had given up. And like, if we had been expecting a regular van, that had some bars welded into it, with a couch cushion, it would have been different. Even if it had been clean it would have been different. It was the fact that they oversold their product in the advertisements and didn’t give what they said they would deliver. That was our big problem. She called a cab for us, and soon we had left the piece of crap behind.
Checked in at the airport, not too bad a line, had to show our tickets out of Australia, got to the first point, NZ passport check, no one told us we had to fill out forms, so we had to step aside to do that, but they weren’t upset about it at least. Next step was security, kept our shoes on, zero line, walked straight through. It was fantastic. The Auckland Airport is super nice, at least the international terminal is. I would fly through here anytime.
Onboard, looked at our movie options, chose Bad Leiutenant, and got started on it right away. Take off was quite bumpy, as was the first 20 minutes or so. My tv shut down for a bit, and totally restarted, but at least it came back! Got served our meal.
We landed, and passed through the first customs passport check in under a minute. Stamp stamp, done. Picked up our luggage, but it took awhile to come out, and ours were some of the last ones and I was beginning to be a bit worried about it.
We were a bit worried about customs, our food was easy, wine and coffee packets, but we had to mark that we had been in nature basically and my hiking shoes had mud on them. We got sent to the guy, asked about our food, no problem, asked if we had been to farms, no problem, see ya. And straight through with no checking. Awesome.
Train station was right there in the airport, we got our ticket easily, and the train was right there seemingly waiting for us when we got to the right platform. It was a double decker train, just like the train we rode in Paris. I forget how much I like trains. They are very homey. It took us five stops to get to the Museum stop, and then we had to haul our luggage up four different sets of stairs to get out of the station, and then it was a bit of a hike to the hotel. It really wasn’t that long, but at that point, it seemed a lot longer.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
April 26th. Chillin Bikram Style.
Well kids, you certainly spoke up! In quite the numbers. So as promised, I shall give you more!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Lazy morning, except for Tim trying kwana. He didn’t hate it, but I thought it tasted like a nasty pickle, so we just left it at the hotel.
We went straight to the Hamilton post office, and it was clear the lady was not only miserable that she had to deal with us, but that she thought we were insane for spending that kind of money on sending luggage. It took about 20 minutes, she had to lug or suitcases around to her side, and pull them up onto the scale on the counter, I felt super bad, then she had to deal with tagging them, which was quite a bit more work than it seemed it should have been. But now its done with. Dealt with. Yay.
A sidenote about this country’s bathrooms. No paper towels. Shocker. These people never have paper towels. Its so strange. Its like, they are so environment conscious. Lights are rare. Like, bathrooms will have one bulb in the big area and that’s it. And you are supposed to turn it off when you leave. Or no lights at all! No paper towels. Sometimes hand dryers. Some don’t work. And even half the time there’s soap. Its aggravating how green people are. Plus the whole, put the key in the motel lock in order to put power to your room. Aka, no charging anything while you are gone. Or EVERY electrical outlet having a switch to have to turn on. No heat in most buildings. Just kind of sick of it.
25 minutes outside of Auckland, Tim figured I should drive since it was easy road, and he didn’t think I would want city roads. But really, highway driving isn’t even weird since you are totally separated from the other direction. But I did anyway. It was totally fine, the hard part was keeping it under the speed limit. After 10 minutes, Tim was already bored, so I pulled off at the next exit and we traded again.
We got into Auckland, had really no plan, so we plugged in the War Museum first to go check out their gift shop again. On the way, we noticed that we were really close to one of the Yoga places I was interested in, so we got there and I poked my head in.
Tim bought the NZ flag, and after a Subway lunch, we also tried a Pinky bar for the first time. Chocolate around a marshmallow base (pink) with a nonstringy, more jellyesque caramel strip on top. It was delicious, I’m glad we just now found them, cause I would eat them all the time.
More random wanderings through the city, stopped at several stores looking for the “perfect” All Blacks shirt for Tim. We wanted to go to the store we found the first time we were there, but we couldn’t seem to find its exact location, so we circled for probably at least 20 minutes. We hit the same 6 block radius of the Auckland CBD at least ten times. It was ridiculous
I figured out today that gas is $US4.88 a gallon.
I was still nervous about Bikram, but I was determined to try it, at least once, and this was the best time. Tim dropped me off, and I headed up. It turned out that the instructor went to Augustana in the Quad Cities, so that was really super random. Stood around outside the door til someone else went in, he told me to be at the wall not at the mirror, so I did, but it was pretty full already. Little did I know that that was only about a third of the class. There were at least 25 people there, if not more. Everyone was laying down, so I laid down too and it felt like I was laying there for 45 minutes, but it couldn’t have been more than 10. It was also good that I was good to go on his American accent. The warm up freaked me out, it was this weird breathing exercise that involved back bends and throwing our heads back. It hurt my neck immediately. Plus there were lots of poses that Carissa would have freaked out on, it was techniques that went exactly against what we should be doing. Like the toes and heels together always. There was one drink break the whole class, and I thought I was going to die at a few parts. And with no clock, it felt like it was going on forever. He kept telling us to push past the pain and just keep bending or stretching or pulling. But when your muscles are THAT hot (105 for bikram) then you are totally going to pull or tear something by pulling that much, so that was weird. Also, we did split poses, and no one else seemed to be sliding at all, but I was all over the place, but they were sweating the same amount! I was literally soaked at the end of class. We did a bunch of poses, but did every pose twice. We did a group of 2 or 3 things, then repeated them, the next group, repeat, all the way through for 90 minutes.
After class, we found the camp, The sign on the shower said limited hot water to ¾ turn. I turned that sucker up to full heat. And then 6-7-8 minutes in, the lights kicked off. They must be on a timer. I hate this country. That’s so uncool. Im showering, soapy, wet, and the lights are ALL the way at the other end. I at least had enough glow from the mens room to finish the shower, and by the time those cut out, I was in a towel so I could go turn mine back on. Its just ridiculous.
We found a Subway for dinner (shocker) but right next to it on the GPS was a Burger Fuel, something I had wanted to be trying, so we made the trip. Another Subway right next to it, screaming at me to be healthy, but I said screw it. I had some sort of chicken sandwich that was HUGE.
My extended palm and fingers did not cover the size of the bun. It took us awhile to get our food though. But mine was killer. It was chunks of chicken, a bbq/ketchup/A1 hybrid, brie, bacon (the English thick awesome kind that Ihad tim eat half of), lettuce and tomato. I nixed the aoli like a smart girl would. I also tossed the top half of the bun and probably a good third of the bottom bun. We shared Kumara fries, which Wikipedia says it’s a sweet potato, and I believe its in that family, but that is no American sweet potato, it is DELICIOUS.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Lazy morning, except for Tim trying kwana. He didn’t hate it, but I thought it tasted like a nasty pickle, so we just left it at the hotel.
We went straight to the Hamilton post office, and it was clear the lady was not only miserable that she had to deal with us, but that she thought we were insane for spending that kind of money on sending luggage. It took about 20 minutes, she had to lug or suitcases around to her side, and pull them up onto the scale on the counter, I felt super bad, then she had to deal with tagging them, which was quite a bit more work than it seemed it should have been. But now its done with. Dealt with. Yay.
A sidenote about this country’s bathrooms. No paper towels. Shocker. These people never have paper towels. Its so strange. Its like, they are so environment conscious. Lights are rare. Like, bathrooms will have one bulb in the big area and that’s it. And you are supposed to turn it off when you leave. Or no lights at all! No paper towels. Sometimes hand dryers. Some don’t work. And even half the time there’s soap. Its aggravating how green people are. Plus the whole, put the key in the motel lock in order to put power to your room. Aka, no charging anything while you are gone. Or EVERY electrical outlet having a switch to have to turn on. No heat in most buildings. Just kind of sick of it.
25 minutes outside of Auckland, Tim figured I should drive since it was easy road, and he didn’t think I would want city roads. But really, highway driving isn’t even weird since you are totally separated from the other direction. But I did anyway. It was totally fine, the hard part was keeping it under the speed limit. After 10 minutes, Tim was already bored, so I pulled off at the next exit and we traded again.
We got into Auckland, had really no plan, so we plugged in the War Museum first to go check out their gift shop again. On the way, we noticed that we were really close to one of the Yoga places I was interested in, so we got there and I poked my head in.
Tim bought the NZ flag, and after a Subway lunch, we also tried a Pinky bar for the first time. Chocolate around a marshmallow base (pink) with a nonstringy, more jellyesque caramel strip on top. It was delicious, I’m glad we just now found them, cause I would eat them all the time.
More random wanderings through the city, stopped at several stores looking for the “perfect” All Blacks shirt for Tim. We wanted to go to the store we found the first time we were there, but we couldn’t seem to find its exact location, so we circled for probably at least 20 minutes. We hit the same 6 block radius of the Auckland CBD at least ten times. It was ridiculous
I figured out today that gas is $US4.88 a gallon.
I was still nervous about Bikram, but I was determined to try it, at least once, and this was the best time. Tim dropped me off, and I headed up. It turned out that the instructor went to Augustana in the Quad Cities, so that was really super random. Stood around outside the door til someone else went in, he told me to be at the wall not at the mirror, so I did, but it was pretty full already. Little did I know that that was only about a third of the class. There were at least 25 people there, if not more. Everyone was laying down, so I laid down too and it felt like I was laying there for 45 minutes, but it couldn’t have been more than 10. It was also good that I was good to go on his American accent. The warm up freaked me out, it was this weird breathing exercise that involved back bends and throwing our heads back. It hurt my neck immediately. Plus there were lots of poses that Carissa would have freaked out on, it was techniques that went exactly against what we should be doing. Like the toes and heels together always. There was one drink break the whole class, and I thought I was going to die at a few parts. And with no clock, it felt like it was going on forever. He kept telling us to push past the pain and just keep bending or stretching or pulling. But when your muscles are THAT hot (105 for bikram) then you are totally going to pull or tear something by pulling that much, so that was weird. Also, we did split poses, and no one else seemed to be sliding at all, but I was all over the place, but they were sweating the same amount! I was literally soaked at the end of class. We did a bunch of poses, but did every pose twice. We did a group of 2 or 3 things, then repeated them, the next group, repeat, all the way through for 90 minutes.
After class, we found the camp, The sign on the shower said limited hot water to ¾ turn. I turned that sucker up to full heat. And then 6-7-8 minutes in, the lights kicked off. They must be on a timer. I hate this country. That’s so uncool. Im showering, soapy, wet, and the lights are ALL the way at the other end. I at least had enough glow from the mens room to finish the shower, and by the time those cut out, I was in a towel so I could go turn mine back on. Its just ridiculous.
We found a Subway for dinner (shocker) but right next to it on the GPS was a Burger Fuel, something I had wanted to be trying, so we made the trip. Another Subway right next to it, screaming at me to be healthy, but I said screw it. I had some sort of chicken sandwich that was HUGE.
My extended palm and fingers did not cover the size of the bun. It took us awhile to get our food though. But mine was killer. It was chunks of chicken, a bbq/ketchup/A1 hybrid, brie, bacon (the English thick awesome kind that Ihad tim eat half of), lettuce and tomato. I nixed the aoli like a smart girl would. I also tossed the top half of the bun and probably a good third of the bottom bun. We shared Kumara fries, which Wikipedia says it’s a sweet potato, and I believe its in that family, but that is no American sweet potato, it is DELICIOUS.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Tickle me pink.
Ok kids. Here's the time for you to get your piece in. This blog has zero followers, but I know at least some people have looked in, considering I have had a few comments, but other than that, I have no idea if anyone cares.
Life is busy and crazy and if no one reads it, Im probably not going to continue. I want to, so please please let me know if my blathering actually excites you. It would tickle me pink that I have readers.
SO.
Here's your chance. Leave a comment, shoot me an email, facebook me. Whatever. I am about a month behind on journal posts, I can start to catch up if you care. Or if you want info on anything else.
JUST OPEN YOUR YAPPER AND TELL ME YOU LOVE ME! :)
Life is busy and crazy and if no one reads it, Im probably not going to continue. I want to, so please please let me know if my blathering actually excites you. It would tickle me pink that I have readers.
SO.
Here's your chance. Leave a comment, shoot me an email, facebook me. Whatever. I am about a month behind on journal posts, I can start to catch up if you care. Or if you want info on anything else.
JUST OPEN YOUR YAPPER AND TELL ME YOU LOVE ME! :)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Top Trio of Food Discoveries.
Oh we just can't get enough, we just can't get enough!
Tim & Clare's fave dinner. Chicken Tikka Masala. Eaten three nights in a row, and totally could have been more. Looks like cat puke, tastes like Indian awesome.
Clare's fave fruit. Fresh fig. The healthier fig newton!
Tim's fave candy. Jaffas. Orange coated chocolate balls, crunchy choco-citrus!
Clare's fave dessert. Tim Tams. Seriously chocotastic.
Tim & Clare's fave dinner. Chicken Tikka Masala. Eaten three nights in a row, and totally could have been more. Looks like cat puke, tastes like Indian awesome.
Clare's fave fruit. Fresh fig. The healthier fig newton!
Tim's fave candy. Jaffas. Orange coated chocolate balls, crunchy choco-citrus!
Clare's fave dessert. Tim Tams. Seriously chocotastic.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Sunday, Cave Day! (25th)
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tim finally woke up, Madagascar was on tv, we ate our cereal, drank our coffee, and were on the road towards Waitomo by 8:10. Chilly morning, pretty gloomy and cloudy and misty so far. Neither one of us care! Although, despite the airing out of the van for the afternoon yesterday, it still reaks of nasty. More airing out today will have to occur. We had a great day yesterday and today should be equally awesome. Today is Anzac Day, so we might be out of luck on that one. Seems like everything is closed for the morning, and then opens mid afternoon or so. We got to Waitomo and there were several different tour companies with different booths, and we really couldn’t tell which one was ours, so we ended up going into the i-site to ask.
Drove to the Aranui Cave, it was a bit of a hike up hill to the teeny tiny entrance to the cave.
But once inside, it was huge. The guide pointed out the cricket like Wetas right away, giving me the creeps of being jumped on the whole time. Great. We then proceeded into numerous rooms and passageways seeing the different formations of rock and limestone within the cave. It was really quite awesome. There were massive rooms with tons of tiny icicle like rocks, and other small hallways with HUGE boulder formations. She said that in the cave underground was one of the safest places to be during an earthquake, which I found interesting. 
That in the cave, you could come out ad have no idea that an earthquake had even happened. Apparently most of the guides are direct ancestors of the Chief that showed white people the caves. She also said that people had weddings in the Aranui cave, which I found super interesting. 
Kinda weird, but it really is that romantic beautiful in the cold rock sort of way. So much of it looked like melting ice. The tour lasted only half an hour, then back through the tiny hole and down the path. This meant though, that we would for sure be able to make the 11am Glowworm tour.
Waited at the top for a little bit, and right as our guide got there, this large Asian group came bounding up, and the leader pushed through the 14 people in our tour, like violently, and started rudely demanding exclamations and things, as we were trying to follow our guide. Just insanely rude. They followed our group into the cave and in the very first room we listened to her talk about it, and as we turned to leave the first room, the leader BOUND through the area that was barred off and tried to get the guide to give him her flashlight. The gall of that guy was just beyond me. And then for the rest of the tour he was rude, the whole group was, lagging behind by a lot. The tour guide eventually just stopped waiting for them to being her talk, and they were loud.
We went to a small room and saw a few glow worm glows, and then bent down and saw a lot more, but then she turned on the lights, and we could see the really gross creepy strings hanging from the ceiling. It was really gross. Next was the boat. We had to wait as we boarded one at a time, and by the time it got to Tim and I, she asked if we could split and sit one in front of the other, we didn’t want to, but said ok. I went and sat in the back row, the corner nonetheless, and Tim went to sit in front of me, and then she told him to sit on the complete other side of the boat another row ahead. I couldn’t even see him anymore.
I was not happy. I was in a boat, in the complete dark, with long spidery glowworm webs overhead, and expecting something to come eat me at any moment. It was 100% straight from Voldemort’s cave that Harry and Dumbledore have to cross. Exactly. So the whole ride was spent in silence, which made it that much creepier, and I couldn’t figure out how the boat was even moving. I later saw that the guide was standing on te front of the boat, pulling us along with a rope on the ceiling. We exited, and in the gift shop it was FLOODED with Asians spending $30 to buy the picture of us in the boat. No pretty cave behind us, or glow worms, just us in the boat. Weird. And yet, still rude.
On the third trip on the same city block in the hunt for lunch, I saw that one of the cafes had desserts in a case, so I figured we could do Subway and a nice dessert, so we went in Scotts Epicurean, and they looked FANTABULOUS. We decided to get one for dinner dessert too and share both. I picked this caramel coconut bar, that ended up being like a thick caramel filling on a crust with a crunchy coconut top layer, served with yogurt and berries in a cup. Tim picked Sticky Date bread, a big slice, that came with a yogurt/toffee sauce cup.
This was the first Subway bread that was back to US standards. The sheer amount of Subways in this country is insane. It’s the Starbucks of New Zealand. I seriously don’t think we have hit a single town bigger than the size of Hudson that hasn’t had at least one Subway. Most have numerous. They LOVE Subway, otherwise there really isn’t much fast food. Dominoes. A few Burger Kings, handful of McDs. That’s it. Just a crap load of Subways.
Spent the afternoon at the hotel, Tim making a Kmart run, and went to the Countdown for waters. Walked back, I had intended to do yoga, but Tim kept laughing at me, and the video wasn’t very good. Plus, I had found a bikram yoga place in Auckland that I really want to try to get to tomorrow. So I scratched the yoga plan and looked through the Sydney book instead while Tim journaled. After that, I started our electric skillet dinner of red pepper, tomato, taco seasoning, and chicken. Tim had the last pita, we shared the quinoa salad from the store.
We sat down and plugged through the Sydney book, looking at the different places online, making our Must list and our maybe list, compared it to Moms, and mapping the different places on the map. I emailed mom with our own itinerary and questions about hers (since we had looked at her most recent plan, and from what we see, it looks fine by us). I feel better about Australia. She has some awesome things on her plan, and from what we have read on Sydney, I feel like I am getting to see literally everything that I would want to, and not missing much, which was a huge worry of mine on this trip. Tim was asleep by 11:45. I posted pictures, blog entries, and was ready for bed by 12:20. But somehow, I ended up on Tumblr til 12:45. Then FORCED myself to bed.
Tim finally woke up, Madagascar was on tv, we ate our cereal, drank our coffee, and were on the road towards Waitomo by 8:10. Chilly morning, pretty gloomy and cloudy and misty so far. Neither one of us care! Although, despite the airing out of the van for the afternoon yesterday, it still reaks of nasty. More airing out today will have to occur. We had a great day yesterday and today should be equally awesome. Today is Anzac Day, so we might be out of luck on that one. Seems like everything is closed for the morning, and then opens mid afternoon or so. We got to Waitomo and there were several different tour companies with different booths, and we really couldn’t tell which one was ours, so we ended up going into the i-site to ask.
Drove to the Aranui Cave, it was a bit of a hike up hill to the teeny tiny entrance to the cave.
But once inside, it was huge. The guide pointed out the cricket like Wetas right away, giving me the creeps of being jumped on the whole time. Great. We then proceeded into numerous rooms and passageways seeing the different formations of rock and limestone within the cave. It was really quite awesome. There were massive rooms with tons of tiny icicle like rocks, and other small hallways with HUGE boulder formations. She said that in the cave underground was one of the safest places to be during an earthquake, which I found interesting. 
That in the cave, you could come out ad have no idea that an earthquake had even happened. Apparently most of the guides are direct ancestors of the Chief that showed white people the caves. She also said that people had weddings in the Aranui cave, which I found super interesting. 
Kinda weird, but it really is that romantic beautiful in the cold rock sort of way. So much of it looked like melting ice. The tour lasted only half an hour, then back through the tiny hole and down the path. This meant though, that we would for sure be able to make the 11am Glowworm tour. Waited at the top for a little bit, and right as our guide got there, this large Asian group came bounding up, and the leader pushed through the 14 people in our tour, like violently, and started rudely demanding exclamations and things, as we were trying to follow our guide. Just insanely rude. They followed our group into the cave and in the very first room we listened to her talk about it, and as we turned to leave the first room, the leader BOUND through the area that was barred off and tried to get the guide to give him her flashlight. The gall of that guy was just beyond me. And then for the rest of the tour he was rude, the whole group was, lagging behind by a lot. The tour guide eventually just stopped waiting for them to being her talk, and they were loud.
We went to a small room and saw a few glow worm glows, and then bent down and saw a lot more, but then she turned on the lights, and we could see the really gross creepy strings hanging from the ceiling. It was really gross. Next was the boat. We had to wait as we boarded one at a time, and by the time it got to Tim and I, she asked if we could split and sit one in front of the other, we didn’t want to, but said ok. I went and sat in the back row, the corner nonetheless, and Tim went to sit in front of me, and then she told him to sit on the complete other side of the boat another row ahead. I couldn’t even see him anymore.
I was not happy. I was in a boat, in the complete dark, with long spidery glowworm webs overhead, and expecting something to come eat me at any moment. It was 100% straight from Voldemort’s cave that Harry and Dumbledore have to cross. Exactly. So the whole ride was spent in silence, which made it that much creepier, and I couldn’t figure out how the boat was even moving. I later saw that the guide was standing on te front of the boat, pulling us along with a rope on the ceiling. We exited, and in the gift shop it was FLOODED with Asians spending $30 to buy the picture of us in the boat. No pretty cave behind us, or glow worms, just us in the boat. Weird. And yet, still rude.
On the third trip on the same city block in the hunt for lunch, I saw that one of the cafes had desserts in a case, so I figured we could do Subway and a nice dessert, so we went in Scotts Epicurean, and they looked FANTABULOUS. We decided to get one for dinner dessert too and share both. I picked this caramel coconut bar, that ended up being like a thick caramel filling on a crust with a crunchy coconut top layer, served with yogurt and berries in a cup. Tim picked Sticky Date bread, a big slice, that came with a yogurt/toffee sauce cup.
This was the first Subway bread that was back to US standards. The sheer amount of Subways in this country is insane. It’s the Starbucks of New Zealand. I seriously don’t think we have hit a single town bigger than the size of Hudson that hasn’t had at least one Subway. Most have numerous. They LOVE Subway, otherwise there really isn’t much fast food. Dominoes. A few Burger Kings, handful of McDs. That’s it. Just a crap load of Subways.
Spent the afternoon at the hotel, Tim making a Kmart run, and went to the Countdown for waters. Walked back, I had intended to do yoga, but Tim kept laughing at me, and the video wasn’t very good. Plus, I had found a bikram yoga place in Auckland that I really want to try to get to tomorrow. So I scratched the yoga plan and looked through the Sydney book instead while Tim journaled. After that, I started our electric skillet dinner of red pepper, tomato, taco seasoning, and chicken. Tim had the last pita, we shared the quinoa salad from the store.
We sat down and plugged through the Sydney book, looking at the different places online, making our Must list and our maybe list, compared it to Moms, and mapping the different places on the map. I emailed mom with our own itinerary and questions about hers (since we had looked at her most recent plan, and from what we see, it looks fine by us). I feel better about Australia. She has some awesome things on her plan, and from what we have read on Sydney, I feel like I am getting to see literally everything that I would want to, and not missing much, which was a huge worry of mine on this trip. Tim was asleep by 11:45. I posted pictures, blog entries, and was ready for bed by 12:20. But somehow, I ended up on Tumblr til 12:45. Then FORCED myself to bed.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Saturday, April 24th: Happy Day!!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
There were so many people at the the Rotorua Farmers Market that we had trouble finding a spot to park, but really, that just makes total sense. The regular stores sell nothing healthy, everything is full badness levels, and the produce, while decent quality, is really expensive, but at the market, produce is much cheaper, just as good of quality if not better, AND the selection is much much greater.
This one was a little different than last weeks, there weren’t as much other goods being sold, but there was a flea market aspect to it. There was still grand stalls of fruits and vegetables, one stand of breads, one of coffee, one jams, one dessert. It was fun to walk around and see all the different things. There was quite a bit that I didn’t know what it was, but there was also one stall that was selling Durian.
The takeaway food (which we planned our dinner on) wasn’t as easily portable as the first one. There was lots of local foods, mango chicken rice, fried breads, hot sandwiches. The two that we did take advantage of was the waffle/crepe stand. We shared a maple syrup waffle.
It was perfect size to share, hot and crispy, and since it was meant to be carried, no plates, which had me worried about the syrup, but he carefully squirted a tiny bit into each square. And then Tim bought 5 kabobs (3chicken/2lamb) for part of the dinner later. We got spinach, mango, and red pepper to add to our lunch/dinner.
One of the towns between Rotorua and Hamilton was called Cambridge, and we drove right by their Saturday market, so of course we had to stop and look for the ever evading fresh figs. No figs, but a really good cheese sample, and we bought date/walnut bread (very hearty), Tim got a steak Cornish pie for dinner, and I got a strawberry brioche for dessert to my fruit/veg dinner. Two farmers markets by noon? Well done!
We arrived at Hamilton around 11, and wish we had known about it right away. This was the place for us to live. Both of us said it right away. Neither one of us had read a single thing about it, but that’s shocking because a town of this much culture, and of this size, with this nice of a downtown district, but still looked totally livable and workable, should be ranted and raved about totally.
Add in perfect sunny day with a light breeze, so that was we drove around with the windows down, we were in total bliss. Having spent so much time in the car, that’s really saying something, but the weather was perfect, there was tons of stuff to look at. 
We got out and walked down to Barton Street so I could take a picture of the graffiti I had seen earlier, of a robot lazer beaming a cat.
It was actually kind of cute in an odd way. Walked around a bit more, but got to the car around 1, decided to go at least attempt to check in to the hotel early. And were greeted into our awesome Bella Vista ground floor haven of awesome. We pulled everything inside, and I mean EVERYTHING. The windows of the van all got rolled down all the way, sun and moon roof open, and it had the next 4 hours to air out as best as it could. There was a great breeze, and the air was really warm from the bright ever shining sun today. As we worked in the hotel room even, we had the door slid all the way open and the window in the bathroom open.
We kept the laundry going all afternoon, the dryer didn’t work very well, so we snagged a drying rack and put it in our room. There were clothes everywhere. We were busy simultaneously doing laundry, updating the internet, unpacking and sorting all of our gear. Snacking on occasional pieces of the date bread. Next thing I knew it was 5pm. I did 15 minutes of abs on the floor while Tim continued to work, and then we headed out for a walk right at sunset. The weather was still nice though. We walked rather aimlessly, just in the general direction of “stuff” just a stroll.
So we saw a Countdown and picked up some raw chicken, peppers, and tomatoes to use with our leftover taco seasoning. I have also decided that these people have a liquor and gambling problem. The sheer vastness and hugeness of all the Liquor Saves everywhere. And there seem to be Lotto stations in every possible nook and cranny. Not machines, but actual kiosks with people that you buy Lotto Tickets from. And there are usually at least one or two people at them, no matter the size of the town.
I had brilliantly found illegal versions of ‘Til Death, and Modern Family for while we packed. Once we were close, I called a break for our ice cream and to watch Survivor (illegally of course). I showered, and with the water pressure of a raging river rapids, came out very clean, but feeling like a drown dog. But I would take that hard of water pressure any day, put away the last of our stuff and Tim was in bed by 11:30.
There were so many people at the the Rotorua Farmers Market that we had trouble finding a spot to park, but really, that just makes total sense. The regular stores sell nothing healthy, everything is full badness levels, and the produce, while decent quality, is really expensive, but at the market, produce is much cheaper, just as good of quality if not better, AND the selection is much much greater.
This one was a little different than last weeks, there weren’t as much other goods being sold, but there was a flea market aspect to it. There was still grand stalls of fruits and vegetables, one stand of breads, one of coffee, one jams, one dessert. It was fun to walk around and see all the different things. There was quite a bit that I didn’t know what it was, but there was also one stall that was selling Durian.The takeaway food (which we planned our dinner on) wasn’t as easily portable as the first one. There was lots of local foods, mango chicken rice, fried breads, hot sandwiches. The two that we did take advantage of was the waffle/crepe stand. We shared a maple syrup waffle.
It was perfect size to share, hot and crispy, and since it was meant to be carried, no plates, which had me worried about the syrup, but he carefully squirted a tiny bit into each square. And then Tim bought 5 kabobs (3chicken/2lamb) for part of the dinner later. We got spinach, mango, and red pepper to add to our lunch/dinner.One of the towns between Rotorua and Hamilton was called Cambridge, and we drove right by their Saturday market, so of course we had to stop and look for the ever evading fresh figs. No figs, but a really good cheese sample, and we bought date/walnut bread (very hearty), Tim got a steak Cornish pie for dinner, and I got a strawberry brioche for dessert to my fruit/veg dinner. Two farmers markets by noon? Well done!
We arrived at Hamilton around 11, and wish we had known about it right away. This was the place for us to live. Both of us said it right away. Neither one of us had read a single thing about it, but that’s shocking because a town of this much culture, and of this size, with this nice of a downtown district, but still looked totally livable and workable, should be ranted and raved about totally.
Add in perfect sunny day with a light breeze, so that was we drove around with the windows down, we were in total bliss. Having spent so much time in the car, that’s really saying something, but the weather was perfect, there was tons of stuff to look at. 
We got out and walked down to Barton Street so I could take a picture of the graffiti I had seen earlier, of a robot lazer beaming a cat.
It was actually kind of cute in an odd way. Walked around a bit more, but got to the car around 1, decided to go at least attempt to check in to the hotel early. And were greeted into our awesome Bella Vista ground floor haven of awesome. We pulled everything inside, and I mean EVERYTHING. The windows of the van all got rolled down all the way, sun and moon roof open, and it had the next 4 hours to air out as best as it could. There was a great breeze, and the air was really warm from the bright ever shining sun today. As we worked in the hotel room even, we had the door slid all the way open and the window in the bathroom open. We kept the laundry going all afternoon, the dryer didn’t work very well, so we snagged a drying rack and put it in our room. There were clothes everywhere. We were busy simultaneously doing laundry, updating the internet, unpacking and sorting all of our gear. Snacking on occasional pieces of the date bread. Next thing I knew it was 5pm. I did 15 minutes of abs on the floor while Tim continued to work, and then we headed out for a walk right at sunset. The weather was still nice though. We walked rather aimlessly, just in the general direction of “stuff” just a stroll.
So we saw a Countdown and picked up some raw chicken, peppers, and tomatoes to use with our leftover taco seasoning. I have also decided that these people have a liquor and gambling problem. The sheer vastness and hugeness of all the Liquor Saves everywhere. And there seem to be Lotto stations in every possible nook and cranny. Not machines, but actual kiosks with people that you buy Lotto Tickets from. And there are usually at least one or two people at them, no matter the size of the town.
I had brilliantly found illegal versions of ‘Til Death, and Modern Family for while we packed. Once we were close, I called a break for our ice cream and to watch Survivor (illegally of course). I showered, and with the water pressure of a raging river rapids, came out very clean, but feeling like a drown dog. But I would take that hard of water pressure any day, put away the last of our stuff and Tim was in bed by 11:30.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Russell with a side of syrup please.
It's impossible to come to Australia and not see a Russell Crowe movie. No matter how much you think he's a pompous butthead who can't act, right?
So there. I saw Robin Hood in Aussie Land. I took one for the team.
That being said, it wasn't as bad as I expected. His crew of merrymen made it worth it. Mainly, the Canadian. :)
And now I go to consume pancakes where British convicts were once sent to do manual labor....tasty social retribution!
So there. I saw Robin Hood in Aussie Land. I took one for the team.
That being said, it wasn't as bad as I expected. His crew of merrymen made it worth it. Mainly, the Canadian. :)
And now I go to consume pancakes where British convicts were once sent to do manual labor....tasty social retribution!
Ode to Cairns/GBR
Good Bye Cairns....I shall miss you. More than you know.
Towns run by hippies with the best fruit salad on earth.
Oceans that disappear during the tide.
Street performers with odd style.
Night Markets with endless tourist traps.
Italian eateries with calzones the size of my torso.
Not including the Great Barrier Reef...
Endless Coral
Endless Blue
Endless Green
Warm Sand
Intense sun
Sea Cucumbers
Strong Currents
Finding Nemo Fish
Coral at the top of the water
And a fish that tried to eat my leg off!
Towns run by hippies with the best fruit salad on earth.
Oceans that disappear during the tide.
Street performers with odd style.
Night Markets with endless tourist traps.
Italian eateries with calzones the size of my torso.
Not including the Great Barrier Reef...
Endless Coral
Endless Blue
Endless Green
Warm Sand
Intense sun
Sea Cucumbers
Strong Currents
Finding Nemo Fish
Coral at the top of the water
And a fish that tried to eat my leg off!
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Double Dose of Post. Saturday Style.
Two posts in one day! I know I know! Exciting! I have to get you all caught up though! Its only getting better.
Friday, April 23, 2010
It was warmer than the entire trip so far when we woke up to the alarm at 8:00. I can’t believe we slept that long, but I guess with the night before, its not surprising.
First stop was the National Aquarium. It was the kind that I like, theres really only one direction to go through the whole museum, so you know you aren’t missing anything. And it was kind of small, but really well done. You could see all the animals up close (too close if you ask me, but NZ seems to not care about being sued for kids that stick their hands in shark tanks). Lots of animals, big and small turtles, a crocodile, sharks, manta rays, cray fish, seahorses, eels, and lots of different fish. Then the last thing was a huge thank with different sections, but you could go into basically there was a tunnel that ran under/through the tank, so you could stand on the moving walk way, and go through and see all the fish to the sides and up above you. The sharks and rays were the coolest in that area.
A scuba diver came down and started feeding all the fish other pieces of fish that he was breaking up right in front of the glass. He picked up a crayfish, fed it, and then was aacting like it was his pet cat, he was a funny guy. He did a cell phone underwater bit, napping and blowing perfect o-bubbles, blew up a balloon to go to the top.
Now we are slowly meandering our way to Rotorua. Its sad, but I find that I see the beautiful landscape and don’t want to take pictures anymore. Its like, I feel like I have photographed it a million times. And the problem is, that it looks different and different areas, but I feel like I have photographed it all already, and therefore don’t bother. But I SHOULD, but its hard when you see it 10 hours a day, and feel like you already have that picture, even though you might not.
We arrived in Rotorua, and went straight to the Zorb site to check it out, in hopes that we could get it done still that day. There was almost no one there. It looked small from the bottom of the hill. They pick you up at the bottom in a jeep and haul you up, and they say its bumpy. But this was another ride all in itself. I am convinced that the waiver you sign is actually for the ride up the hill, not the ride down.
At the top of the hill it looks a lot steeper, and I got a titch bit nervous. Especially when the way into the zorb, is to run and dive through the whole. Only they lay a rubber mat over the seam, so I totally got stuck. I felt like an idiot. But one shove and I was in. The water was already in, and I got the tap on the ball, and crawled toward the front. It was awesome, your body is flailing everywhere. When you are backwards you feel like you shouldn’t be going backwards so you try to twist around and you flail uncontrollably even more. I loved it. Backwards and forwards and you feel like you should be at the bottom, but you aren’t, you just keep going. And then you are stopped basically by running straight into a hill, and they open it up and take your picture right away. Tim came out of his ball and it looked like he had the same blast that I did.
With 2+ hours left to kill before the show at Te Puia, we figured we could kill a few birds with one stone. We each got half an hour at an internet cafe. Tim booked the Bella Vista in Hamilton for tomorrow night, and because we booked it online we got a better rate, so that was positive. And we knew that it had laundry and free internet. How can you not love the Bella Vista?
Checked in at the camp, and that was when we first realized that the entire town smells awful. With all of the thermals and vents and things, the entire town smells like sulfur, no matter where you go. Its pretty gross. But we totally dug this camp (despite the smell) because the lady was super nice and told us about the farmers market tomorrow, the bathrooms had paper towels, and we could park literally right in front of the strip of bathrooms and kitchen and things. Yay.
When we got to Te Po for the night’s events, Guy came out and introduced to the Maori and the Jade Stone in the middle of the columns. We entered the Maori grounds, and our chief was picked. He was told what to do when the warrior came out of the Maori building and challenged whether or not we came in peace. It involved picking up a leaf and backing up, and theres nose touching involved. I was worried we would all have to do it. But all the warriors came out, and women too, and there was some singing while we stood outside and waited to enter the building. We were welcomed in, and had to all take our shoes off, as well as women weren’t allowed in the front row. 
There was the speech and then a few long songs, interspersed with a poi dance (and then women brought on to be shown how to dance), more long songs and warrior dancing. The warbling really got to me every once in awhile, I just wanted to eat! They did the Haka which was really cool to watch, and quite amusing to watch them try to teach it to a bunch of German men.
At the dinner, on the table was some sauces, bread, water, and a shot glass of some honey/plant liquid. It tasted like very flat and watery 7up. A blessing was said, and the starters came out, and we could go to the buffet. Tim and I went to the buffet first. Pasta salad, shrimp salad, crab leg meat, seafood chowder, a sweet potato soup, oyster, corn salad, it was all delicious. I didn’t really have any of the starters, more weird seafood, including eel. Then the main foods came out, chicken with stuffing, lamb (which was way overcooked), and pork (which I didn’t have). And then three types of potatos. One was soooo good. I wonder what kind it was. And then there was the dessert. I skipped the ice cream, strawberry topping, and fruit. But took sweet bread with sauce, cream puffs, chocolate mousse, some fruit pudding thing, and PAVLOVA. I understand why everyone loves it so much. Its very much like angel food cake, but somehow without the cake. It was strange.
After we ate, we were directed to head to the geysers, a bit early, because they were erupting early. We headed down the pitch black path, which was a little unnerving, you couldn’t see a single thing. And then I somehow saw a solid black kitty with white paws on the track. We got to the geysers, which were actually really pretty cool.
We could get quite close, and at night, with the lights, it was quite pretty. But then I saw the kitty again and went to play with it. It went to drink out of the geyser! I wanted to snatch it to save it, but it clearly it was fine and came back to play. When Guy got there, we got to sit on the hot rocks and watch the geysers while we drank hot chocolate. The sitting rocks were really hot, we had to move to a cooler section at one point because my butt was burning. Guy ended the evening with a song that he sung (he clearly likes to sing) and then we made our way back down the path. I was so full!
Back at the camp I went to explore the facilities that we didn’t use, and of course, on the one night we aren’t really at camp, it has an immaculate and detailed kitchen, and the tv room is warm and has leather couches and a tv with a dvd player. It was 8:45, and not time for bed with that much food in my tummy. Once the van was ready for bed, we came to the tv room to watch the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Once actually ready for bed, we figured it was too much work to try to figure out the dvd player, but we might as well finish Astroboy, did, and went to sleep. No idea what time. Little after 11 is my best guess.
Friday, April 23, 2010
It was warmer than the entire trip so far when we woke up to the alarm at 8:00. I can’t believe we slept that long, but I guess with the night before, its not surprising.
First stop was the National Aquarium. It was the kind that I like, theres really only one direction to go through the whole museum, so you know you aren’t missing anything. And it was kind of small, but really well done. You could see all the animals up close (too close if you ask me, but NZ seems to not care about being sued for kids that stick their hands in shark tanks). Lots of animals, big and small turtles, a crocodile, sharks, manta rays, cray fish, seahorses, eels, and lots of different fish. Then the last thing was a huge thank with different sections, but you could go into basically there was a tunnel that ran under/through the tank, so you could stand on the moving walk way, and go through and see all the fish to the sides and up above you. The sharks and rays were the coolest in that area.
A scuba diver came down and started feeding all the fish other pieces of fish that he was breaking up right in front of the glass. He picked up a crayfish, fed it, and then was aacting like it was his pet cat, he was a funny guy. He did a cell phone underwater bit, napping and blowing perfect o-bubbles, blew up a balloon to go to the top.
Now we are slowly meandering our way to Rotorua. Its sad, but I find that I see the beautiful landscape and don’t want to take pictures anymore. Its like, I feel like I have photographed it a million times. And the problem is, that it looks different and different areas, but I feel like I have photographed it all already, and therefore don’t bother. But I SHOULD, but its hard when you see it 10 hours a day, and feel like you already have that picture, even though you might not.
We arrived in Rotorua, and went straight to the Zorb site to check it out, in hopes that we could get it done still that day. There was almost no one there. It looked small from the bottom of the hill. They pick you up at the bottom in a jeep and haul you up, and they say its bumpy. But this was another ride all in itself. I am convinced that the waiver you sign is actually for the ride up the hill, not the ride down.
At the top of the hill it looks a lot steeper, and I got a titch bit nervous. Especially when the way into the zorb, is to run and dive through the whole. Only they lay a rubber mat over the seam, so I totally got stuck. I felt like an idiot. But one shove and I was in. The water was already in, and I got the tap on the ball, and crawled toward the front. It was awesome, your body is flailing everywhere. When you are backwards you feel like you shouldn’t be going backwards so you try to twist around and you flail uncontrollably even more. I loved it. Backwards and forwards and you feel like you should be at the bottom, but you aren’t, you just keep going. And then you are stopped basically by running straight into a hill, and they open it up and take your picture right away. Tim came out of his ball and it looked like he had the same blast that I did.
With 2+ hours left to kill before the show at Te Puia, we figured we could kill a few birds with one stone. We each got half an hour at an internet cafe. Tim booked the Bella Vista in Hamilton for tomorrow night, and because we booked it online we got a better rate, so that was positive. And we knew that it had laundry and free internet. How can you not love the Bella Vista?
Checked in at the camp, and that was when we first realized that the entire town smells awful. With all of the thermals and vents and things, the entire town smells like sulfur, no matter where you go. Its pretty gross. But we totally dug this camp (despite the smell) because the lady was super nice and told us about the farmers market tomorrow, the bathrooms had paper towels, and we could park literally right in front of the strip of bathrooms and kitchen and things. Yay.
When we got to Te Po for the night’s events, Guy came out and introduced to the Maori and the Jade Stone in the middle of the columns. We entered the Maori grounds, and our chief was picked. He was told what to do when the warrior came out of the Maori building and challenged whether or not we came in peace. It involved picking up a leaf and backing up, and theres nose touching involved. I was worried we would all have to do it. But all the warriors came out, and women too, and there was some singing while we stood outside and waited to enter the building. We were welcomed in, and had to all take our shoes off, as well as women weren’t allowed in the front row. 
There was the speech and then a few long songs, interspersed with a poi dance (and then women brought on to be shown how to dance), more long songs and warrior dancing. The warbling really got to me every once in awhile, I just wanted to eat! They did the Haka which was really cool to watch, and quite amusing to watch them try to teach it to a bunch of German men. At the dinner, on the table was some sauces, bread, water, and a shot glass of some honey/plant liquid. It tasted like very flat and watery 7up. A blessing was said, and the starters came out, and we could go to the buffet. Tim and I went to the buffet first. Pasta salad, shrimp salad, crab leg meat, seafood chowder, a sweet potato soup, oyster, corn salad, it was all delicious. I didn’t really have any of the starters, more weird seafood, including eel. Then the main foods came out, chicken with stuffing, lamb (which was way overcooked), and pork (which I didn’t have). And then three types of potatos. One was soooo good. I wonder what kind it was. And then there was the dessert. I skipped the ice cream, strawberry topping, and fruit. But took sweet bread with sauce, cream puffs, chocolate mousse, some fruit pudding thing, and PAVLOVA. I understand why everyone loves it so much. Its very much like angel food cake, but somehow without the cake. It was strange.
After we ate, we were directed to head to the geysers, a bit early, because they were erupting early. We headed down the pitch black path, which was a little unnerving, you couldn’t see a single thing. And then I somehow saw a solid black kitty with white paws on the track. We got to the geysers, which were actually really pretty cool.
We could get quite close, and at night, with the lights, it was quite pretty. But then I saw the kitty again and went to play with it. It went to drink out of the geyser! I wanted to snatch it to save it, but it clearly it was fine and came back to play. When Guy got there, we got to sit on the hot rocks and watch the geysers while we drank hot chocolate. The sitting rocks were really hot, we had to move to a cooler section at one point because my butt was burning. Guy ended the evening with a song that he sung (he clearly likes to sing) and then we made our way back down the path. I was so full!
Back at the camp I went to explore the facilities that we didn’t use, and of course, on the one night we aren’t really at camp, it has an immaculate and detailed kitchen, and the tv room is warm and has leather couches and a tv with a dvd player. It was 8:45, and not time for bed with that much food in my tummy. Once the van was ready for bed, we came to the tv room to watch the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. Once actually ready for bed, we figured it was too much work to try to figure out the dvd player, but we might as well finish Astroboy, did, and went to sleep. No idea what time. Little after 11 is my best guess.
Best of Van Cuisine.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
I was awoken with a text message from mom saying they had gotten a call from US Bank saying my card had been suspended and that some of the charges had been declined due to the suspicious activity. Now, I had looked at my account last night, and my supposed pending items (that were first in line to be considered “declined” were things like the Maori tix, the Cave tix, our hotel in Sydney)….bad news.
I was less than a happy camper when I called, the bank said that it was the Emirates flights that had flagged it. Which is ridiculous, it’s an airline. Of all the options, that’s what gets it? Stupid.
Made it to the ferry with plenty time, and were told to get into the line with the van. Got in the line, and it looks like you sit in the car until its time to load. You can get out, but I have nothing to do outside the car!
Aboard the ferry, found a nice comfy spot, had some toast and banana for breakfast and Tim is heading outside, how, I don’t know, its FREEZING. I’m sure if I was properly dressed I might be ok, but I only have my light green jacket. However, I was slightly more prepared than last time and at least have on long sleeves and a hooded sweatshirt. Brr. And these rude people go outside or come back from inside, and leave the door open. Its like people, I know you aren’t sitting up here, so you don’t care. But its cold, shut the frickin door!
While planning our Sydney excursion, a german girl came in and exclaimed something to her friends and they all ran outside, so naturally, we all did too. There were dolphins swimming along the boat!
We hit Hastings at about 4, found the Rush Munroe ice cream gardens. Pretty much just an ice cream shop, that part was a let down, and then further a let down when I got passion fruit, and Tim got hokey pokey.
On the way to Napier we saw the sign for the pet barn that had kittens and puppies. A stop was a must! Napier Town center was too far away to walk to, from the camp that we picked so we drove into town and parked outside the Countdown grocery store. I saw the Mad Butcher shop next door and after our awful meat experience the night before, we decided to check that out. It was actually really cool. Small, but TONS of meat. Coolers and coolers of every type of meat in every different cut and various marinades. Including tripe and oxtail. Other organs too. But it was awesome. I wish we had one like that. We decided that we were going to stick with our plan on taco seasoned chicken with red peppers.
When we left the internet cafe, we saw downtown Napier just totally shut down for the night. At like 6:30pm. It’s a whole country thing! Nothing is open. Still outrageous. It was a beautiful night and we would have loved to just walk around looking at things.
After dinner, I made dessert using a can of strawberries with juice, simmered it with some more of my strawberry jelly that I had, a packet of citrus jelly, and then added a cut up banana into it. The banana was in too long (I didn’t realize how long it would take to reduce) and it broke down quite a bit, but in the end it was like soupy jam, but tasted awesome.
By 8:30 we were super bored. We were half an hour in to Astro Boy, but watching it in the kitchen on the laptop, unable to do anything else was just rather obnoxious. It was too early for bed, internet was expensive, nothing to do! We ended up getting ready for bed, setting up the van, and planning to finish the movie in the van, and not more than half an hour later, out like a light by 10:30!
I was awoken with a text message from mom saying they had gotten a call from US Bank saying my card had been suspended and that some of the charges had been declined due to the suspicious activity. Now, I had looked at my account last night, and my supposed pending items (that were first in line to be considered “declined” were things like the Maori tix, the Cave tix, our hotel in Sydney)….bad news.
I was less than a happy camper when I called, the bank said that it was the Emirates flights that had flagged it. Which is ridiculous, it’s an airline. Of all the options, that’s what gets it? Stupid.
Made it to the ferry with plenty time, and were told to get into the line with the van. Got in the line, and it looks like you sit in the car until its time to load. You can get out, but I have nothing to do outside the car!
Aboard the ferry, found a nice comfy spot, had some toast and banana for breakfast and Tim is heading outside, how, I don’t know, its FREEZING. I’m sure if I was properly dressed I might be ok, but I only have my light green jacket. However, I was slightly more prepared than last time and at least have on long sleeves and a hooded sweatshirt. Brr. And these rude people go outside or come back from inside, and leave the door open. Its like people, I know you aren’t sitting up here, so you don’t care. But its cold, shut the frickin door!
While planning our Sydney excursion, a german girl came in and exclaimed something to her friends and they all ran outside, so naturally, we all did too. There were dolphins swimming along the boat!
We hit Hastings at about 4, found the Rush Munroe ice cream gardens. Pretty much just an ice cream shop, that part was a let down, and then further a let down when I got passion fruit, and Tim got hokey pokey.
On the way to Napier we saw the sign for the pet barn that had kittens and puppies. A stop was a must! Napier Town center was too far away to walk to, from the camp that we picked so we drove into town and parked outside the Countdown grocery store. I saw the Mad Butcher shop next door and after our awful meat experience the night before, we decided to check that out. It was actually really cool. Small, but TONS of meat. Coolers and coolers of every type of meat in every different cut and various marinades. Including tripe and oxtail. Other organs too. But it was awesome. I wish we had one like that. We decided that we were going to stick with our plan on taco seasoned chicken with red peppers.
When we left the internet cafe, we saw downtown Napier just totally shut down for the night. At like 6:30pm. It’s a whole country thing! Nothing is open. Still outrageous. It was a beautiful night and we would have loved to just walk around looking at things. 
After dinner, I made dessert using a can of strawberries with juice, simmered it with some more of my strawberry jelly that I had, a packet of citrus jelly, and then added a cut up banana into it. The banana was in too long (I didn’t realize how long it would take to reduce) and it broke down quite a bit, but in the end it was like soupy jam, but tasted awesome.
By 8:30 we were super bored. We were half an hour in to Astro Boy, but watching it in the kitchen on the laptop, unable to do anything else was just rather obnoxious. It was too early for bed, internet was expensive, nothing to do! We ended up getting ready for bed, setting up the van, and planning to finish the movie in the van, and not more than half an hour later, out like a light by 10:30!
Friday, May 14, 2010
April 20th! Glaciers and Pancake Rocks!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
-Got out of Wanaka a little after 7, the clouds were all around us near the ground, and when they weren’t, it was super foggy. I found it pretty, but I wasn’t the one driving through it.
-We made a bathroom stop and went into the café (smallest town yet, like three buildings and some houses) and they were super nice. They had no filtered coffee, but helped me out with figuring out what to order. No trim milk, but I had some of that and splenda in the car. It was like SUPER caffeine. For $4, it was tiny, but it was takeaway (that had added 50cents) so I at least got the lid, and it sent me through the roof. There was a German voice for at least half an hour. I was instantly awake.
-Now on to Fox Glacier! About half hour away, we came along the ocean beach, and for a good ¾ mile along the beach/road, there were rock pilings and branches all set up into designs and formations.
People had all formed these mini altar-esque things with them. A lot of the white rocks had been written on with peoples names and dates. If I had a marker, I would have done it. I could have spent a good hour just walking down the line looking at all the formations and writings on the rocks. It was very cool. There was a seagull that literally followed us down the line. He would sit on a rock very close to us, we would move down a few feet, he would fly down to right in front of us again.
-Fox Glacier was first, and the Access Road, and since you could actually see the glacier and the path to the glacier, we decided to make the trek. Big WIDE path of the glacier. An hour there and back. Climbed over rocks, crossed streams, up shaky paths. It would NEVER happen in the states. Never. Safety hazard waiting to happen. They were safe in the fact that we couldn’t get too close to it. On the way back took a mini side path to one of the melting streams and touched chunks of ice.
-After a very brief Franz Josef Glacier stop, we popped into a Four Square grocery store and I started to put our pita lunch together. Humus, spinach greens, red pepper from the night before’s salad, and deli ham. They were delicious. And then Tim had some more hummus with leftover broccoli and carrots while I had an orange. We each had two of the chocolate Afghan cookies.
-We made it to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes right at high tide. We felt like we were walking through a corn field with the types of plant and height of the plant that was constantly surrounding us. The rocks themselves were pretty neat. The waves just beating down on them in high tide and seeing all the caves and crevices below the rocks was just as cool as the pancake effect itself. The formations were much bigger than I actually expected them to be. Not the rocks themselves, but there were lots of them in the area.
-A mini mouthwash at the store cost $9.
-Stayed the night in Wesport, at the camp we parked right next to the kitchen. There were two people in there already, so it was rather awkard to make out pita sandwiches, our broccoli/carrot/olive/hummus plate, and heat up the egg pie. They were at the table, so we had to go eat outside. It wasn’t freezing, but I would have rather ate inside.
-I was getting creative for dessert, so I made the apple and banana in a skillet, with the honey and peanut butter and then tim put his in a pita, and I scooped mine up with half a pita. It was seriously awesome.
-Spent time looking up hotels/hostels for our few days in Sydney before Mom arrived, Our biggest hurdle is the flight to Sydney right now. With our luggage the way it is, it just seems impossible. Impossible So we need to work on that tomorrow.
-Got out of Wanaka a little after 7, the clouds were all around us near the ground, and when they weren’t, it was super foggy. I found it pretty, but I wasn’t the one driving through it.
-We made a bathroom stop and went into the café (smallest town yet, like three buildings and some houses) and they were super nice. They had no filtered coffee, but helped me out with figuring out what to order. No trim milk, but I had some of that and splenda in the car. It was like SUPER caffeine. For $4, it was tiny, but it was takeaway (that had added 50cents) so I at least got the lid, and it sent me through the roof. There was a German voice for at least half an hour. I was instantly awake.
-Now on to Fox Glacier! About half hour away, we came along the ocean beach, and for a good ¾ mile along the beach/road, there were rock pilings and branches all set up into designs and formations.
People had all formed these mini altar-esque things with them. A lot of the white rocks had been written on with peoples names and dates. If I had a marker, I would have done it. I could have spent a good hour just walking down the line looking at all the formations and writings on the rocks. It was very cool. There was a seagull that literally followed us down the line. He would sit on a rock very close to us, we would move down a few feet, he would fly down to right in front of us again.
-Fox Glacier was first, and the Access Road, and since you could actually see the glacier and the path to the glacier, we decided to make the trek. Big WIDE path of the glacier. An hour there and back. Climbed over rocks, crossed streams, up shaky paths. It would NEVER happen in the states. Never. Safety hazard waiting to happen. They were safe in the fact that we couldn’t get too close to it. On the way back took a mini side path to one of the melting streams and touched chunks of ice.
-After a very brief Franz Josef Glacier stop, we popped into a Four Square grocery store and I started to put our pita lunch together. Humus, spinach greens, red pepper from the night before’s salad, and deli ham. They were delicious. And then Tim had some more hummus with leftover broccoli and carrots while I had an orange. We each had two of the chocolate Afghan cookies.
-We made it to the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes right at high tide. We felt like we were walking through a corn field with the types of plant and height of the plant that was constantly surrounding us. The rocks themselves were pretty neat. The waves just beating down on them in high tide and seeing all the caves and crevices below the rocks was just as cool as the pancake effect itself. The formations were much bigger than I actually expected them to be. Not the rocks themselves, but there were lots of them in the area.
-A mini mouthwash at the store cost $9.
-Stayed the night in Wesport, at the camp we parked right next to the kitchen. There were two people in there already, so it was rather awkard to make out pita sandwiches, our broccoli/carrot/olive/hummus plate, and heat up the egg pie. They were at the table, so we had to go eat outside. It wasn’t freezing, but I would have rather ate inside.
-I was getting creative for dessert, so I made the apple and banana in a skillet, with the honey and peanut butter and then tim put his in a pita, and I scooped mine up with half a pita. It was seriously awesome.
-Spent time looking up hotels/hostels for our few days in Sydney before Mom arrived, Our biggest hurdle is the flight to Sydney right now. With our luggage the way it is, it just seems impossible. Impossible So we need to work on that tomorrow.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Black Wednesday: April 21st.
Preface: Near the end, I sound like a manic depressive, note the date, and check out facebook for current pictures and note how much happier I look!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
-There were Weka birds outside our car this morning, chirping away. We saw a lot of those yesterday, we thought they might be weird looking kiws at first, but saw a sign telling us we were stupid and they were Wekas. So we got ready, a little easier this morning than other mornings, not sure why. Maybe we are just getting used to it. Maybe it’s a little more methodic than it was originally, but we made our coffee in the kitchen and headed out.
-We pulled into Nelson, and the World of Wearable Arts/Collectable Cars Museum. It was smaller than I expected space wise, but had the same amount of stuff that I expected. The first room just had three ball gowns, one made entirely of wood, one made entirely out of copper tin things, and one involving an entire tea set on shelving as the bussle. Then there was a big show room, several were out in the room and stationary, but then 20 or so were on a constantly moving conveyor belt of mannequins, and then you read a card on your seat that talked about each one. I totally dug it, the materials were crazy, there were feathers and tea bags and car parts, and wood and ear plugs. Just very very strange. One looked like a brown big bird kiwi puffball. There was the South Pacific business suit with lots of sequins and craziness.
-The second half of the museum was the car collection. There was this crazy expensive luxury car that had real wood paneling and each back seat had a personal tv and the rear seats totally folded out like a lazy boy. That was pretty swank. They had a Delorian that Tim HAD to have his picture taken with.
-Nelson was like the Australia book jackpot. Of all the stores we had looked in so far, all they had was lonely planet for 60/70 bucks. This one had numerous brands, and those brands all cheaper. I gathered the best ones, and went outside to flag Tim into the store. We did our best logic and bought a small Lonely Planet Sydney book for $NZ28. That should at least last us the three days we spend there, and then we can look through Mom’s Australia book for the other cities.
-Lunch was a small bowl of nonfat cottage cheese, and a killer small bowl of fruit. It had mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, and canteloupe. Delicious and nutritious lunch. I miss healthy food.
-We started the drive leisurely to Picton, 3ish hours away. The weather stayed awesome and sunny with very few clouds, so we pulled off onto the shoulder pull offs a few times for pictures, listened to Tim’s ipod, it was actually a really nice drive. It’s just hard to fully enjoy how pretty and relaxing is. Its like, this is the most gorgeous place on earth, in the most beautiful weather, and we are stressing majorly about Australia and flights and getting our luggage to Sydney. Those stresses just overtake all that we should be enjoying, and its hard. We didn’t want it to be this way at all.
-Finally we had to say pause and go for a walk because we needed dinner groceries and it was getting dark soon. We walked down into Town Centre with this totally awesome little park right in front of the water to watch all the boats and ferries.
Green grass, nice beach, benches, playground. It was the perfect place, and all we could think about was luggage. We saw the big big ferry turn around into the dock, so that was somewhat interesting, it was like parking a Cadillac in a bathtub.
- Back at camp, Tim made more calls on luggage with no luck and looked up a bunch of things online. That is when I saw my bank account and had a breakdown. I can’t even go into it here because I will flip out again. And its not like I am even having a good time here. (for those reading this far, remember that this was April 21st when I wrote this…) We are cold every night, we sleep in a van, we eat crappy grocery food that is super unhealthy for us, but it’s the cheapest they have, and nothing is fun. Gas is ridiculous, everything costs more than we expected, all just to burn my savings. Ridiculous. I lost it. I sobbed in the van for at least half an hour. At least. No consolation. Can’t go home. Don’t want to stay here. Just trying to focus on being with mom in Australia, even if that means still spending more money. It will be fun, and involve hotels, and my mommy.
-It was 7:15 before we made dinner, and following the events of the day, it was an epic fail. The chicken was the worst chicken tim has ever even seen. It was 65% fat, and the actual meat was awful. We tried skilleting it, adding the veggies and butter and salt and pepper (just to make it edible) but I had about two bites of chicken, some of the veggies, and olives. The saving grace was that Tim got Uncle Bens thai rice for himself, you just microwave it, but there was enough for us both. Total savior. It didn’t help that there was a group of Germans in the kitchen making an AMAZING smelling dinner. Then they watched How I Met Your Mother. We wanted to get away from them, so we went to the tv lounge to be online and eat our chocolate cake roll thing, but it was so cold in there that we ended up back in the kitchen in the back corner, which ended up ok.
-He tried to book our flight to Sydney on Emirates, even switching over to the camp computers that were hardwired in, but it kept showing up as an error. It was annoying, cause we really need to get those tickets booked before its too late.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
-There were Weka birds outside our car this morning, chirping away. We saw a lot of those yesterday, we thought they might be weird looking kiws at first, but saw a sign telling us we were stupid and they were Wekas. So we got ready, a little easier this morning than other mornings, not sure why. Maybe we are just getting used to it. Maybe it’s a little more methodic than it was originally, but we made our coffee in the kitchen and headed out.
-We pulled into Nelson, and the World of Wearable Arts/Collectable Cars Museum. It was smaller than I expected space wise, but had the same amount of stuff that I expected. The first room just had three ball gowns, one made entirely of wood, one made entirely out of copper tin things, and one involving an entire tea set on shelving as the bussle. Then there was a big show room, several were out in the room and stationary, but then 20 or so were on a constantly moving conveyor belt of mannequins, and then you read a card on your seat that talked about each one. I totally dug it, the materials were crazy, there were feathers and tea bags and car parts, and wood and ear plugs. Just very very strange. One looked like a brown big bird kiwi puffball. There was the South Pacific business suit with lots of sequins and craziness.
-The second half of the museum was the car collection. There was this crazy expensive luxury car that had real wood paneling and each back seat had a personal tv and the rear seats totally folded out like a lazy boy. That was pretty swank. They had a Delorian that Tim HAD to have his picture taken with.
-Nelson was like the Australia book jackpot. Of all the stores we had looked in so far, all they had was lonely planet for 60/70 bucks. This one had numerous brands, and those brands all cheaper. I gathered the best ones, and went outside to flag Tim into the store. We did our best logic and bought a small Lonely Planet Sydney book for $NZ28. That should at least last us the three days we spend there, and then we can look through Mom’s Australia book for the other cities.
-Lunch was a small bowl of nonfat cottage cheese, and a killer small bowl of fruit. It had mango, kiwi, grapes, pineapple, and canteloupe. Delicious and nutritious lunch. I miss healthy food.
-We started the drive leisurely to Picton, 3ish hours away. The weather stayed awesome and sunny with very few clouds, so we pulled off onto the shoulder pull offs a few times for pictures, listened to Tim’s ipod, it was actually a really nice drive. It’s just hard to fully enjoy how pretty and relaxing is. Its like, this is the most gorgeous place on earth, in the most beautiful weather, and we are stressing majorly about Australia and flights and getting our luggage to Sydney. Those stresses just overtake all that we should be enjoying, and its hard. We didn’t want it to be this way at all.
-Finally we had to say pause and go for a walk because we needed dinner groceries and it was getting dark soon. We walked down into Town Centre with this totally awesome little park right in front of the water to watch all the boats and ferries.
Green grass, nice beach, benches, playground. It was the perfect place, and all we could think about was luggage. We saw the big big ferry turn around into the dock, so that was somewhat interesting, it was like parking a Cadillac in a bathtub.
- Back at camp, Tim made more calls on luggage with no luck and looked up a bunch of things online. That is when I saw my bank account and had a breakdown. I can’t even go into it here because I will flip out again. And its not like I am even having a good time here. (for those reading this far, remember that this was April 21st when I wrote this…) We are cold every night, we sleep in a van, we eat crappy grocery food that is super unhealthy for us, but it’s the cheapest they have, and nothing is fun. Gas is ridiculous, everything costs more than we expected, all just to burn my savings. Ridiculous. I lost it. I sobbed in the van for at least half an hour. At least. No consolation. Can’t go home. Don’t want to stay here. Just trying to focus on being with mom in Australia, even if that means still spending more money. It will be fun, and involve hotels, and my mommy.
-It was 7:15 before we made dinner, and following the events of the day, it was an epic fail. The chicken was the worst chicken tim has ever even seen. It was 65% fat, and the actual meat was awful. We tried skilleting it, adding the veggies and butter and salt and pepper (just to make it edible) but I had about two bites of chicken, some of the veggies, and olives. The saving grace was that Tim got Uncle Bens thai rice for himself, you just microwave it, but there was enough for us both. Total savior. It didn’t help that there was a group of Germans in the kitchen making an AMAZING smelling dinner. Then they watched How I Met Your Mother. We wanted to get away from them, so we went to the tv lounge to be online and eat our chocolate cake roll thing, but it was so cold in there that we ended up back in the kitchen in the back corner, which ended up ok.
-He tried to book our flight to Sydney on Emirates, even switching over to the camp computers that were hardwired in, but it kept showing up as an error. It was annoying, cause we really need to get those tickets booked before its too late.
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