Hanging in Palmy

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Its been a while since my last post but I'm feeling motivated!

I left the beachfront of Napier and worked my way down the North Islands East Coast with a brief stop at Cape Kidnappers and then inland to Palmerston North. Palmy is a college town where I was meeting an acquaintance from home (Jenny) who is in Massey University’s Veterinary program. Although we hadn’t met in person, I was looking forward to hanging out with a fellow West Virginian! She and her roommates, Lauren, Kelly, and Pre gave me a warm welcome and I spent the next couple days with a house full of college co-eds! haha Seriously, I had a great time and hope they know how much I appreciate their hospitality.

After getting settled on Thursday afternoon, we all went out for drinks at a local Irish bar for Trivia Night. Our team (black balls) consisted of 8-10 Massey U. Students and myself. We held our own, but in the end finished 6th out of a dozen teams, just a couple points out of the money!

The next day I cooked a 'gourmet' lunch for everyone from the the travel cooler and then had a tour of Massey U. We had an easy afternoon and then a birthday party/bbq out in the country for a friend (Fraser) that night. The NZ bbq is an all you can eat meat bonanza, so I fit right in! 😊

Saturday was to be a little more low-key with more cool, rainy weather keeping us indoors until the afternoon. With the sun peaking thru the clouds we put some beer in a bag and ventured out to the cricket fields where there were multiple league games going on…because watching one game at a time isn't confusing enough! We were there to see a friend of Jenny’s (Steve) play, and finally spotted his team just as they were getting ready to bat. Although I don't know all the rules, the games are great to watch. Everyone really gets into it but all in good fun. There is a lot of banter when then guys are fielding and when the team is batting everyone seems to lay around, have a beer or a smoke, and yell the occasional obscenity..normal sportsman like things. As this lasts for hours and we were now sitting with the team it gave me plenty of time to question Steve on some terminology like the 'silly mid-off' the 'square leg' and the 'wicket keeper'! ha! Still lots to learn!

We finally had some nice weather on Sunday and I spent a couple hours in the sun reading before heading off for Wellington (2 hr south) to meet up with another friend, Scully. I wasn't sure what to expect in Palmy, but I had a great time and look forward to having the girls invade my place once I land a job and get settled!

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