I Want to Plant a Kauri Tree

Kia Ora! This past week has been slightly entertaining. I'll start with the random tree guy. I'm walking down the street when I see a man starting to approach me. In my head I'm thinking, 'Shit. What could he want? Well maybe he just needs directions." Wrong.
Man: "Excuse me ma'am can I ask you a question?"
Me: Umm, sure.
He then starts talking about the old exit off the motorway, which of course I don't know anything about.
Man: "Wouldn't that be a great place to plant a Kauri tree? It would grow to be so tall. Taller than most of those buildings. I mean it would take a hundred years, but it would be so cool."
Me: "But you'd be dead by then."
Man: "I know, but my kids or grand kids could still be able to see it. It's the perfect place for it."
He continues to talk about how great this would be and how he needs to go to the City Council to have it done, but would have to lie to persuade them. Apparently that's the only way to persuade people these days. I finally had to cut him off by saying I had somewhere to be but that sure would be a great place for a Kauri tree.

I seem to have an extended family of lady bugs living outside my windows. I came home one day to a very hot room as my room is pretty much a greenhouse. So I opened a window. Not five minutes later, I turn around to find around twenty or so lady bugs running around my window sills. As I was flicking them all back outside, I realized that many of them are hanging out in the cracks of my windows. Fantastic. Guess my windows are stayin closed.

Tuesday night, Mary and I ventured up to Mt. Vic. It's not really a mountain by any means, but its a great lookout point. You can see the entire city, the harbour, the surrounding "mountains", and the ocean. It was sort of a last minute decision, and we didn't feel like climbing it, so we made a dash down the hill to catch the bus, but not without stopping at New World to grab some wine, cheese, and crackers. We make it to the bus stop in plenty of time and then watched our bus drive right past. It didn't even slow down. We sort of followed it at first, but quickly realized that was hopeless. So we walked to the next bus stop and caught another bus there. We got up there in plenty of time to see the sun set. Alcohol seems to be the choice of beverage up there as just about everyone had a paper bag with a little somethin somethin in it. After taking plenty of pictures, we sat down, cracked open the wine and enjoyed the sunset. Nicole had warned us about leaving while there was still plenty of light as the buses no longer are running. There is a pathway that runs through the bush, but of course there are no lights. Of course the prettiest part was as it was getting dark so we ended up staying a bit too long. Somehow we made it down. We used the torches on our cell phones and slowly and carefully made it down the hill without either of us falling. We stayed in town to see a movie, and of course because it was so late the cable car was closed. We looked to see if any buses were still running, and they were. So we waited around. When we realized the bus was about ten minutes late, I checked the schedule again. The time I had read was for the morning. Oops. Guess we wasted twenty minutes and had to walk up the hill anyways.

Wednesday was Mary's twenty-first birthday so we headed out on the town. Unfortunately it wasn't as exciting for her as it would have been in the States because she's been legally drinking here since we got here. Oh well, we still had a blast. We tried a new place for dinner. Casa Pasta or somethin like that. I had a mushroom, spinach, and lemon risotto. We then were hoping to go to the Flying Burrito Brothers for some margaritas, but for some reason they were closing early. So we headed to The Southern Cross, a place we had been to briefly once before. It has a really cool outdoor patio area. For some reason, the drinks took forever to get. We had a waitress, but she never came back, so we went to the bar where they told us they would bring us our drinks when they were ready. I felt like we had ordered food it took so long, but I was not disappointed. I ordered a Perky Nana, which consisted of Frangelico, banana liquor, Baileys, Kahlua, and pineapple juice. Definitely a new favorite.

To put some faces with names. Nicole, me, Mary, Jess

Heading to the other site of town, we ended up at The Library. One, because its full of books, which was very intriguing to Mary. Two, they have a 2 for 1 drink special on Wednesdays. This is also a really cool bar with all the books. But yet again, we had to wait a really long time for drinks, but this time they felt bad so we got them all on the house. Score.

We were again disappointed by the closure of Alice, one of our favorite bars, but our stomachs were grumbling so we made our way to Mackers (McDonalds

The walk home had Nicole and I in a fit of giggles. Across the street was a man walking with a butch looking woman walking a ways behind screaming at him.She suddenly stops and starts stomping her feet in anger. This of course makes us laugh harder. She continues stomping after him when he sits down on a bench. She retreats into a recessed area of a building and starts bawling. By this time we are way past them, but I can't help myself. I stop and watch the action, while trying to hold in my laughter. She then proceeds to lie down in front of him on the sidewalk. I can no longer contain myself. Probably best if we now walk away.

Mary's parents arrived in Wellington on Thursday and politely invited all of us out to dinner on Friday night. Unfortunately, the restaurant was ridiculously loud, so we didn't get to talk much, but the food sure was good. It was fish and chips Friday, which meant you get fish, chips, and a glass of wine or beer for a special price. This was one of the best fish and chips I've had since coming here, and they served it with tartar sauce! Its hard to find a place that serves tartar sauce here. But they also served oil and vinegar with it, which was surprisingly delicious. Mary had a cheese fondue that was to die for. I will definitely be going back just for that.

I was pleasantly surprised with an Easter package from home this week. It was packed full to the brim with Easter candy, Easter socks, girl scout cookies, family pictures, a Brewers shirt, Burlesque, chocolate chip banana bread, and my favorite, Velveeta mac n cheese. It's nice to get a piece of home. Thanks Mom and Dad.

So I'm all packed and ready to leave for Australia tomorrow afternoon. It is finally sinking in, and now I'm super excited, and can't wait to get there. I can't wait to share all my stories when I get back. Until next time...

Kia Ora,
Laura