And this is how a really long blog entry begins... Haha. No I will try to make this quick. To be honest I don't really remember what I was doing three weeks ago. I believe I left you on a Wed. before going out to Couchsurfing. Well...
On Thursday I drove into town, and met up with a friend from the States. An old snowboarding buddy. She and I grabbed a bite to eat downtown and then just hung out. She had just come back from the states. (She has been living in the south island for a year, and it was the first time we were able to meet up). That was a nice meeting. After that, I headed home and watched Yannik. That night Thomas came over (after Yannik was in bed), and we chatted for a bit.
On Friday Christoph (the german Manny one) picked me up and then Fran, Christoph and I headed over to Thomas's where we met up with Aaron. We spent the day just messing around, playing music, video games, and staring out over the ocean. That evening while I cooked dinner, the 5 of us had a improvised song session which was thoroughly amusing.
The next morning I headed back over to Thomas's where we hung out until we decided to go to the Kingsland Festival. Pretty much it was just an excuse for bars to be busier earlier on a Saturday afternoon. But it was fun. There was a DJ in the streets and some street performers, and lots of people. Afterwards, Thomas and I went over to Neil's flatwarming party. At some point in the night we headed back to his place. I woke up the next morning in his spare bedroom. I walked out onto his porch and was standing overlooking the ocean with Rangitoto Volcano (an island in the middle of the harbor) directly in front of me. It was an absolutely stunning view. We hung out for a bit and then I headed home.
On Monday, Christoph's mother (Oma (really Oma means grandma in German, but its what we called her)) and his sister (Uli) arrived. From Monday on that meant it was German immersion time. This normally would be fine, and something I would have hoped for, only that they speak Schwabech (a dialect of German that is not Hoch Deutsch (High German)) which is what I've been learning. Thus everything sounded a little slurred to me.
At any rate, I don't remember a huge amount of things happening that week. On monday I had improv that went well. On tuesday... OH YA.! I TAKE IT ALL BACK! Something important did happen that week! On tuesday night I went to a drum circle. Every month on the full moon, there is a big drum circle and fire dance held in Mt. Eden Park. Now that might sound strange, but here for some reason fire dancing with either staff, poi poi, or fan is a pretty common hobby for people. You would be amazed at the amount of people that show up all with their own equipment and just go to town. So anyways, its this sweet as event, where you go, and sit under the full moon while you listen to people play the drums, while people in front of you dance in beautiful patterns of flame. Its pretty freakin sweet. And everybody shares, so if you want to try a fire fan or staff, or you want to break it down on the drums you just ask someone and they gladly share. BUT!! Thats not the Awesome part! The Awesome part, is that among all these fire toys was a fire hackey.... YA! Its what you picture. A hackey sack from that fad back in the late 90's only this time.... ITS ON FIRE! Haha. So I got to go over and kick a hackey sack around a circle with some guys only the hackey sack was a fireball. It was pretty gnarly if I do say so myself. (For those of you who don't know a hackey sack is similar to like a bean bag only round and about the size of my fist. The object is that you kick it and keep it in the air without ever touching it with your hands) So there is number 123 off my life list of goals. Kick a flaming hackey sack.
Anyways, outside of the the week progressed as normal. On Wed. I went out to CS, and on thursday night I watched Yannik. On Friday I went over to Rachel's 36th birthday party. It was a good time. I had to leave at around midnight though because we left for Coromandel the next day.
So, as I said on Sat. we packed up and headed to the Coromandel for a week with Oma and Uli, along with Christoph, Leigh and Yannik of course. It was gorgeous there as it always is. I did lots of hiking, kayaking, swimming, reading, and definite relaxing. I hiked back to the same waterfall as before, and climbed halfway up again and went for a dip. I kayaked in the estuary, walked along the beach, got a message at the Kiwi Retreat, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I als read an interesting book on gang life here in NZ. (It's a definite problem).
Well the family left on Friday, however I stayed and had them drop me off in Coromandel township where I waited for a bit, and then hitchhiked my way to Colville. There I waited to meet up with some friends of mine and we were going to make a weekend of it at a backpackers lodge. They finally arrived, and around 18 showed up. We stayed at the White Star Lodge. Nice place with lots to do. I was able to hike to two waterfalls (in which one I went swimming in and nearly caught hypothermia (it was cold I mean)), milk a cow, ride a four wheeler, build a sandcastle, watch the sunset on a secluded beach, and hang out with some friends for a good time. We did as I said end up going to this secluded little beach where me and a friend went for a nice long swim. However when we were out a ways she suddenly got stung something. We quickly made our way in where we realized it was most likely a jelly fish judging by the mark it left on her. So then... we decided someone had to urinate on it. I was unaware of this, but apparently in its common belief in NZ (and maybe elsewhere) that urine with sterilizes the poison or reaction (or whatever you want to call it) of a jelly fish. As it turned out all the guys tanks were empty but Kevin's. So we made a wall of towels, and gave them a moment, however, It seems that Kevin could not handle the pressure and his flow was rather weak. Well, I will leave that story there, but needless to say it led to a rather amusing afternoon. The whole weekend was great. On Sunday morning a bunch of us went to the buddhist temple down the road and did an hour meditation class. It was a pretty cool experience. Expect for when the cockroach decided to crawl on me, and I wasn't supposed to harm and living creature. That was something that was a difficult challenge of will power. Sunday evening I returned home.
On Monday I went to improv. Another successful night. On tuesday, I watched Yannik all day. We went to How to Tame your Dragon. It was good, I enjoyed it, although Yannik fell asleep in the theatre towards the end. At night he had an allegic reaction and swelled up pretty bad, but I think I handled it well. And now today is today. See that wasn't so bad. Oma and Uli left today, and now things head back to normal for a bit. Till my vacation in May. YAY.
Anyways, that catches us all up. I hope you are all doing well. I love you all and miss you dearly.
Wes
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