Happy Birthday Daddy!

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Happy birthday Daddy!- Its the only time in your life you get to have a birthday wish TWICE- once in the southern hemisphere and another today! in the Northern Hemisphere. Sheesh!:)


Kia Ora everyone!

Sorry for the lack of entries...I ve been busy with school work- whaddya know, I actually have to do WORK here ! ugh...
I guess this wasnt a holoday after all??

But as I plan for my trip to the south Island in less than 2 weeks I can help but feel SOOOO excited:) Charles arrives tomorrow morning...and I cant wait to show off NZ to him. We will take a trip to Kapiti Island, a wildlife sancutary for native and nearly extinct NZ birds and flora nad fauna, on Sunday. Also, we will hit up welly's great cafes and museums and the waterfront. Then for a few days we will take the ferry across to the South ISland and travel around teh lakes, sounds, wineries, and mtns... I;m pumped. Then when Charles leaves :( I am going to hop a plane to Queenstown, at the bottom of the south island to meet up with Rachel, Lauren, and Jenn for term break. We will be in the "Adventure capital of NZ" for several days enjoying what is has to offer, then rent a car and drive all over the south island. Hopefully getting a glacier hike, a wahite water raft trip, tramp a little, ski??, and wahel watch. WOW!!!! AND i cant forget to mention Milford Sound, that is the HIGHLIGHT of my trip I am obsessed with this place I have never been to! :)

SO stay posted for some awesome stories/photos in the next couple of weeks.

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Hapenings since my last blog-

Flat 3 wai te ata Dinner party-

We invited around 20 ppl, and around 16 ppl came, it was heaps of fun, Liz made an incredible Lamb roast with baked veggies including the NZ Kumara, a staple food for the Maori population, kind of like a sweet potato. yummy, i love them!! Christian and i were on Dessert duty, which suits us since we are both sweetaholics. I have never met a man who loves choclate as much, or maybe more than I DO! we were destined to be flatmates haah
We had two long tabeles and lots of chairs set up, set the tabel with a lovely tablecloth, turned on some nice music Christian chose, and then poured the bubbles for the guests. It was a great night, everyone had a fantastic time!

I have bneen visiting the Wellington Fresh Market every sunday, where I pick up fresh veggies, fruits, eggs, bread and flour from nearby farmers. it is always a busy fun morning. Ppl from all over th farm country come with homemade preserves, breads, and fresh flowers. There is something so simple and purely satisfying when you can walk to the market, grab a crossiant and a baguet from the french bakery, and puruse the fresh vegetable stands on a coll sunday morning. it is a nice way to start the day. :: walking up the hill-of-death with lots of heavy bags after the market, is another story.....

Flat three is under attack. Yes you read that right, we have been under attack from little field mice. YIKES. It is definately a new expereience for me. (with an exception a mouse let loose on Poteat 300 my freshman year). We have so far caught and released into the wild 5 mice. With an expceition of One that got away, and another that Miss Kitty Cat pounced on and killed. SO that is a total of 7 mice so far we have encountered. We decided that "we mean serious business" and the mice have to understand that. It doesnt bother me as nuch as youd think since I lvie on the 3rd floor of the flat and the mice are only seen behind the fridge and int eh storage unit... So If they dont eat my noodles (they have a liking to chris;s and liz's) then i dont mind. Still, the hunt goes on, and we forge ahead. Their day will come, you just watch.

I've also been seeking out good live music here in the city. Sadly there is a lack of live music here. For some odd reason NZ is obsessed with Drum n bass electronica music. Yuck. Every bar has a DJ and apparently that is considered cool. NO thanks. I will pass. athankyou. SO Rachel and I have made it ur mission in life to seek out Live music. We have succeeded mildly. Last week we attended a Live Aoucsitc Lounge set at the Indigo bar. it was a mix of NZ musicians who jammed out and some who just stunk. Still, it was a blast, and we loved getting yummy cocktails from the bartender who made me an awesome milkshake type thing with a cherry on top. We also ran into our Australearn coordinator that night...lets just say she had been having a fun night. I got an apology email in the morning for her 'said fun.' that night.

weve also managed to see taj mahal the hawaiian blues guitarist's daughter, Deva mahal perform at Hope Bros. a flash bar downtown. She has an awesme voice, kind of lauyn hill-ish if you will.

moving on, tomorrow if charles is alive after heaps of traveling and is up for it, a bunch of ppl are heading down to the waterfront for a concert. The concert takes place on the F69 an old battles ship dokced in the harbor which is now a bar. It is exciting to see a concert on a ship, but it is even more exciting ebcause in the recent furutre welly has plans to sink the ship off the coast to create an artificial reef. How cool. So hopefully charles will want to go and we can all go head down to the ship and see the "Afro music jam" Deva Mahal will be there and some other reggae and african rythm bands as well. And Flat 3 will be hosting a preconcert cocktail party!

So friends, NZ is keeping me busy. I am ready to get out of the city though and into the scenery. Plus, I cant wait to post some awesome pics for you all to see. Enjoy some of these funny photos and I will talk to you all in a few days, hopefuly with pics from kapiti island and coast!

Hope all is well- Cheers shelly

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