Opua

Friday May 20th

My bus came cruising into Paihia at about 8:15 pm and there was Emilie patiently waiting for me. After a nice warm hug we went out for pizza and wine. Our catchup began and we were off to the races. It had already been nearly a month since we had seen each other so there was plenty to chat about. Despite our chats it wasn't too late of an evening before we headed back to her place.

Emilie was renting from a local lady named Jan. Emilie had a cozy little basement type suite which I expected I would be sleeping in on that couch or something, but I'm Terrence so good things just happen to me. Emilie explained how Jan also had another smaller unattached suite that (yup you guessed it!) was vacant. Jan asked me to pay the small fee of $100 for eight nights. As I'm writing this I can't believe how cheap that is for an individual bachelor's suite. I actually checked air bnb and the suite usually goes for $68/night! I guess you could say I know the right people. Anyways I unpacked and fell asleep almost immediately after a long day.

Saturday May 21st

After sleeping in a bit Emilie and I headed to Keri Keri which is a small ish town of about 5,000 about half hour away from Paihia. There was a weekly market with all kinds of local food, clothing, jewelry, and live musical talent. I loved the vibe of it all and we had a nice pastry type breakfast there. Emilie was on a hunt to meet locals so we ended up talking to this guy who made soaps and other natural body products. Guess where he was from!? Yeah, Saskatoon! No freaking way right? Wes was a pretty cool guy and we chatted about our home a while before Emilie and I decided to go adventuring.

Emilie took me to this nice beach. We walked up it and the clouds rolled in. I assured her we had time and they would take a while to actually roll into the bay. I was wrong. They came in quickly and it absolutely poured on us. Not to mention the gusts of wind. I uploaded a video to Facebook that you should check out if you haven't. I think it pretty accurately summarizes the experience.

The rest of the day was really low key. Emilie made us apple pancakes (more like crepes) for dinner which was delicious. Her friend Josh came over for a bit and that was the night!

Sunday May 22nd

Today we went to Russell. We had a nice walk around the beach there before heading into the town for lunch. As a whole we didn't accomplish too much during the day, but the evening was quite different.

Jan had invited us to have a big lamb dinner, so when we got back around 4pm we started cooking. My job was to make the mint sauce. First we picked some fresh mint from Jan's garden. Then I took all the leaves off the stems (that's not the proper name but you get the point). Then we added sugar and I cut it up nice a thin. Then we just put it in a jar and filled it 1/3 with water and the rest with malt vinegar. Tada! I was pretty happy with how well it turned out. Jan took care of the rest which included the lamb, potatoes, kumaras, vegetables, and gravy. Now that I've written it all down it becomes quite apparent that Jan pretty much did everything haha.

While everything cooked we watched a local new zealand film called "Boy" which I really enjoyed. It was far from the typical American films I was used to so it was refreshing and actually quite hilarious, I would definitely recommend it to all.

Around seven the food was ready and wowzers was it good. I piled my plate high and stuffed my face. I think Jan could tell I really enjoyed it, and it was nice to have a full hearty home cooked meal for the first time in quite a while. Jan even made a light tomato and apple dessert which really doesn't sound that tasty, but somehow it just worked. What a delicious dinner.

Monday May 23rd

Monday afternoon Emilie and i went into Keri Keri again. We bought a few things from the warehouse (NZ's version of Wal Mart) including the newest Ed Sheeran album which surprisingly had a few songs that I didn't know. Needless to say I was a happy camper!

Later around four ish we took Emilie's friend Dan up on a sailing adventure he had offered a few days before. All he asked for in payment was some beer which was easy enough. It ended up being Dan, Emilie, myself, and then Oliver from Canada, Lea from Germany, a girl from the Netherlands, and a local kiwi named Seagull. Literally his name was Seagull haha.

We were out for about two hours and in that time I helped myself to four beers which needless to say hit me pretty hard. Peeing off the front of a sailboat, check! Twice! Haha. We all had a great time with one another and around six we headed in and found some food and then it was a pretty early night.

Tuesday May 24th

Today was pretty relaxed. Josh, Emilie and i went to the hot pools today. I also got to meet Josh's dog Blue, which I obviously loved given my adoration for dogs. The hot pools were smelly, but really quite amazing. The pools ranged in heat, but the hottest one was definitely comparable to a full heat hot tub. It was extremely relaxing, but also quite exhausting.

In the evening the three of us headed to Paihia's fancy Italian restaurant. We shared a pizza bread type appetizer and then I had spaghetti bolagnase. It was all really delicious. About halfway through the meal this couple I met in Byron Bay in my surf lesson walked in. I would say I felt surprised but at this point in my travels it had become normal to run into familiar faces which is really nice. We all cabbed home and that was it for the night!

Wednesday May 25th

Today was a complete write off. Neither Emilie nor I really felt like doing anything and the weather was pretty shit so we just stuck around the house. We literally did nothing all day haha.En savoir plus