27th, March 2011

Seems like the days are flying by and I am falling out of the habit of writing every day. I’ll have to work on that.

Dave and I just returned from a trip to Whangerai in search of work boots for him, more beer brewing equipment, shoes for me and whatever other random things we came across. We headed out on Saturday morning and had a great day, but was surreal at times also. One point in our drive, (traveling 100 kph/ 70 mph), I had to stop suddenly because the whole road was full of a heard of cows that were unattended and walking straight toward our car. I gave them a quick honk and they turned around and headed the other direction, but missed the gate they were coming out of. Dave quickly jumped out of the car, barefoot, and keeping a good distance from the cows got them back in the driveway they seemed to be coming from. I drove up behind him and waited for him to talk briefly with the aloof farmer and we got back on the road. Only, less than a minute down the road we encountered 1 giant truck off the road, a tour bus blocking the oncoming lane and a minivan pulled over trying to rescue a giant turtle in the road. This put us in hysterics. We knew that the day would be a bit strange from then on.

We arrived in town mid-day and putzed through the shops. Dave found shoes, but they were all out of my size in any shoe I liked. We found little restaurant on the harbor, had a couple beers, some bruscetta and salad. Yum!

The next mentionable weirdness was when we were walking through the frozen meat aisle of a butcher shop and Radiohead’s creep video was playing on a small VCR + telelvision above a deep-freezer. WEIRD! We didn’t buy any meat either, but instead headed to the grocery store for some snacks and booze. We picked up some eggs and potatoes for breakfast, veggies and dip for dinner, and a bottle of Villa Maria, Sauvagion Blanc. Then we got on our way to the campground.

The campground was the same place we went to my first day on the island, and we decided to get a small room for $60, because camping would have been too wet. It was a decent room with a nice squishy bed. We hung out, walked the beach, ate our veggies while we drank our wine and chatted most of the night.

(Forgot my camera this weekend, sorry!)