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Published: October 18th 2010
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As Fern and I were taking a shortcut to the mall Friday afternoon were walked through a swampy gully with a boardwalk. The path was packed with beautiful trees and a birds and a little trickling stream and was simple magical looking! Fern was laughing at me for being so enthralled by everything I saw and promised me that if I thought the “smelly swamp” was pretty, I would go absolutely bonkers when we got to the beach. She was right but more about that later. I should really document all this in chronological order. So after our walk around the shopping center Fern and I continued our tour around the neighborhood by stopping by the most incredible playground I’ve ever seen! New Zealand is a world leader in extreme adventure sports and is undoubtedly home to some of the world’s most intense thrill seekers and I think they start conditioning these natives from an early age. This was the ultimate playground for young adrenaline junkies! There was a giant rope Eiffel Tower-like structure that wouldn’t have a chance at passing safety regulations in any US playground, a human sized hamster wheel that could make the strongest of stomachs queasy, swings
and jungle gym equipment that bounced and swung and twisted more than the cast of Baywatch on trampolines, and even a zip line (or Flying Fox, as the Kiwi’s call it). Fern and I played on the playground until it started getting dark and chilly and then walked home sloshing barefoot through a soggy field. We warmed ourselves up when we got home by ordering a steaming pile of greasy fish and chips (and some deep fried pineapple too!) and then made some lemonade. From scratch! We picked the lemons off the tree in the backyard! It was tart and delicious but I don’t recommend drinking it shortly after brushing your teeth.
Saturday morning we popped to the grocery store for snacks and stuffed the resentful cat into its cage before road tripping to the Beach in Whangamata on the Coromandel peninsula (on the East coast of the North Island). Fern educated me on New Zealand’s top musical hits from the last two decades as we drove over the greenest hills I’ve ever seen. I’m not kidding! I swear New Zealand Green is a color we don’t have in our color spectrum! I don’t understand how the locals don’t
go into cardiac arrest everyday from the overwhelming prettiness of everything! Along the way we stopped at a few spots for some obligatory photo opps until the ocean came into view. Fern’s dad lives right near the beach at their family’s summer getaway in a little rustic cabin that’s just about one-room big. By this time we were sufficiency hungry so we stopped by a bakery for some meat pies and custard squares. More good ol’ Kiwi food! We sat outside in the sunshine for a while and then walked to the beach. Fern was right. It was so BEAUTIFUL! I shamelessly embraced my not-so-inner tourist and took pictures of everything. We climbed trees, picked pocketfuls of seashells, and got plenty of sand between our toes. At one point we passed by a giant drawing someone had made in the sand, and me only seeing a portion of it said, “Oh, look! A Venn diagram!” Fern quickly corrected me and pointed out that the drawing was actually a bit more phallic than that. So we put her degree in anatomy to good use and spent the next several minutes providing the beach with some much needed gender equality by making
a few labeled diagrams of the female reproductive system. We could have spent several more hours exploring the beach and walking through the waves but dinner was cooking and Fern’s dad had a feast of venison on the grill. After a meal that would have made any Norwegian proud Fern introduced me to a board game called Boggle and proceeded to wipe the floor with me for as many rounds as I let her play. If you know the game “Boggle” it’s a dysexlic’s wrost nihgtamre and I think I personally would much prefer charades or pictionary.
On Sunday morning it started pouring so our walk along the beach was cut short. We did come along a bird nesting conservation area and saw some adorable Dotterel chicks. (An endangered New Zealand bird) Our other plan for the day was to do a quick day hike to a waterfall but decided to leave that for a day with better weather and head home early. The night before the New Zealand lottery was for 27 million dollars so Fern had bought a ticket. We thus dedicated a significant chunk of the drive home dreaming about all the places we would travel
to if we were ever to come across such a sum. With a little extra time on our hands we stopped by an old gold mining town for a quick look around and then stopped at a camping supply store. The camping equipment on sale for 50% off was still alarmingly pricey so we continued to fantasize of ways to spend the hypothetical 27 million dollars on camping gear.
Fern’s other roommates are a Chinese student and another New Zealander who spent some time in China so we had some extra people over for a traditional Chinese Hot Pot dinner. Aside from being appalling at skillful chopstick usage I stuffed my face with all sorts of new flavors while answering curious questions about tornadoes in Kansas and concern over the American economy. Then Fern and I talked about camp so much we couldn’t finish the evening without pouring through multiple photo albums and reminiscing our way down memory lane. Speaking of pictures, let’s hope I can figure out how to upload some to this blog asap! I’m going to pick an orange off a tree in the yard, put some more clean laundry up on the line and then
get right on that!
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Twinkle
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Puc on the water
This is an amazing photo of you! (standing on a wooden post in the middle of the water, with a very dancer-like arched back) <3