Whitney Houston and Other Nonsense

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I could tell you that you haven’t missed much in the last couple of weeks of writing hiatus. But that would be a total lie, so I won’t. And unfortunately I am WAY too lazy to actually write about everything that has happened in the last few weeks so you will just get the skinny version. I left my family and ended up in a town called Thames where I spent one lonely soul searching day and then left there as quickly as possible. I ended up in the beach town of Whitianga and befriended two nice Dutch boys that were staying in my room. After a pub crawl with a crazy guy from the Isle of Man, and a fantastic live show of a Kiwi band called Steriogram (look them up, a bit like Rage Against the Machine if you like that music) I convinced the boys to let me hitch a ride with them out of the Coromandel and over to the Bay of Islands which is a few hours north of Auckland. The boys turned out to be like little brothers, complete with me helping them grocery shop and after many phone calls, text messages and emails of reassurance, my family understood that these boys were not going to kidnap me and throw me in a ditch somewhere. All three of us did a fantastic boat trip around the bay and I was super excited to swim with dolphins on the tour. In fact, I acted like a five year old going to Disney. Unfortunately, the dolphins were sleeping, or hibernating or out back having a smoke or some nonsense so there was no swimming. 😞 However, while swimming in the freezing cold water I met two lovely girls from England named Natalie and Erica and promptly befriended them. We all tried this thing called boom netting which was loads of fun and I would love to be able to explain but frankly, just don’t know how. Google it. Maybe something will turn up. Anyways, the next day, the Dutchies, Brits, two Danish girls they picked up and I all caravanned back to Auckland. I spent a sleepless night in a hostel and then met the girls the next day to go out to Waiheke island for a wine tour. Once again, we made a new friend on the ferry over to the island and the four of us spent the day running around drinking wine and playing on the beach. Fantastic! I took off early to get my stuff and stay with a friend I met in the south island who lives on the north shore of Auckland in an adorable community called Devonport. We spent the next couple of days traipsing around Devonport, reading books on the beach, and hiking up Rangitoto, New Zealands newest volcano- 600 years old. Things were going great until suddenly I realized my friend had a crush on me. Time to leave. Quickly. I headed back into Auckland CBD to stay with my two British friends for a couple of days. And now we have come to last night. Whew! I am exhausted now. Well, maybe that’s from 5 hours of sleep, but whatever.

And then there was last night. It was Erica’s last night in NZ and my last night before I headed back out to travel so I figured it wasn’t going to be a quiet girls night in. I knew I had to get up early so I promised myself it wouldn’t be a wild and crazy night. And I actually almost kept that promise. As we headed out I caught a glimpse of myself and realized I was wearing a new outfit that I love but would have never had the confidence to wear or much less try on in the states. Giant smile! We headed out to dinner at the most amazing Japanese restaurant with beef tataki and tiger prawns and squid and stuffed mushrooms and I even tried chicken liver. Its gross. Don’t bother. And then we went off to Ponsonby for a few glasses of wine. At 11 I said my goodbyes to the girls and started walking back to Natalies. I told you, I really almost kept that promise. So there I am, walking along, minding my own business despite a few random men trying to talk to me when I look over and peer into the open window of the bar I am passing when I spot one of the only things that could possibly have kept me out past my self imposed curfew. A drag queen. And I don’t mean just a guy in a dress in a bar, I mean a 6 foot Maori man in full hair and makeup with a red sequined dress on singing Whitney Houston. So naturally I am compelled to go in. Bedtimes are for losers. I only caught the last few songs of the show but lucky for me there is another one in 20 minutes. It is only after the show is over and I am sitting around alone that I realize I have no clue if this is acceptable in NZ. I mean, I know at home I can walk into almost any gay bar or drag show alone as a straight female and be fine. No one cares or for that matter even notices. But I don’t really know what’s ok here. But since I am in said fabulous outfit I say screw it and order another drink. I somehow make a friend, I know, that’s shocking, and end up being pulled onto the dance floor until the next show which I watch most of before sadly catching a cab the rest of the way home. Apparently, it is either completely acceptable for me to be there alone or I am simply so charming that even gay men and drag queens cant resist me. I’m going with the second one 😊

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