Out and About

I've got my jones on to jump on a board and hit the water after having gotten into the habit of doing it everyday. I already told you about my beginnings where I was stripped of all my bad habits acquired by using a paddleboard and never learning to really surf. Last Tuesday started off with a morning session and me spending some extra time on my own in the surf in the afternoon. We then ventured off to the east coast that afternoon--the Pacific side--and drove along the beach highway (the beach is considered an actual road, from what I understand) on the way to our destination. After getting there, I was quite glad that I had gone out an extra hour and a half that morning/afternoon. There were beautiful, clean breaks as far as the eye could see up the coastline. I'm not very good with the whole wave height thing--never have been--but any South Floridian would have been in heaven with these barrel-worthy waves. I surfed pretty much non-stop (about 2.5 or 3 hours) until my sad little arms turned to jelly. Wednesday's adventure had us both in and out of the water. Kane said that this was probably the flattest he's ever seen it around, so it was a challenge for him to find us surf, plus the tides weren't in our favor. So we started the morning off with a bit of a session in the water, and then headed out for some optional surfing and sand duning in addition to a bit of site-seeing. We topped off the day with a very nice BBQ and some apple blackberry cobbler that I volunteered to make, and then on to some gaming. Thursday rolled around, and Kane was able to successfully find a good spot to surf as, once again, we drove up the coast for some surf about an hour and a half away. Upon returning, some of us took a tour of the point where they usually have surf (it was a virtual lake now) and collected some mussels to go with the pippies (sp?) the others collected the night before. Can I tell you that this guy made some incredible mussels? Yep, that's right boys and girls, I've been not-so-Kosher.

It was a sad thing to have to leave, but on Friday Kane dropped us off in Auckland, where some went their own ways, but I remained in the company of two Americans (Steve and Adam) and an Aussie (Hannah) for the evening. We went out to a performance tha twas part of the Fringe Festival and was a comedic skit of rapping/speak song that really showed off the quirky humor of the Kiwi: Lightbulb Man. It was a great departure from what I saw when I arrived in Sydney on Saturday at the Sydney Opera House. I decided that I could handle a 35 minute walk in heels, and I could, but I suffered a bit. I have resolved that if you cannot walk over three K in a pair of shoes, they are not worth having. So I arrived just in time at 7:48 (this is why you always set your watch aheah, so you'll have extra time) to pick up my tickets for a Midsummer Night's Dream that was merged with the music of Mendelssohn. Unfortunately I had had nothing to eat since my 1pm meal on the flight (really much earlier in the day since there was a time change along the way), but a nice couple from the UK bough me a glass of merlot. This combined with the creeping jet lag resulted in some serious head nodding the second portion of the show, and I was quite apologetic to those sitting next to me for the last ten minutes through which I struggled.

I ventured out again for some more site seeing on Sunday after grabbing some McDonald's hotcakes (I've been craving them since Christchurch and it's been well over a decade since I last had them!) and came to the Queen Victoria Building. Any shopaholic would be in heaven in this place, and even though the shops weren't open yet at 9am on Sunday, it was still filled with people to eat and check out this stores and the building itself. I had to go home for a nap (sleepy mode was influenced by church), and then was off again to head back down to the harbor since my camera died the night prior. Starved, I resorted to a Krispy Kreme at about 4pm, and then stumbled upon a homemade ice cream parlor about 10 blocks down the way which I couldn't resist. This is what happens when you start the day with carbohydrate dense foods like pancakes.

So I hate to leave off here, but I must be on my way to catch my Sydney to Alice Springs tour in ten minutes. That's all for now!