I wrote this quite a while ago, but figured I might as well post it now that we have internet so you can catch up on our adventures from January.
Hello everyone. We’ve been lax in posting, but here’s a recap of some of our best moments over the past week. To begin, Roxy, Christy and I had a fantastic New Years Eve in Christchurch. We got to town late after driving up from Dunedin and changed into dresses (and sparkly silver leggings), put on eye liner with our head lamps in the rear view mirror, threw on some belts and jewelry and made bets of a dollar on whoever could find someone to kiss for the countdown. Having only an hour until midnight, we had to get moving quick.
Our first stop was the cathedral square, where an outdoor concert was going on. Highlights were 500 miles and Cotton Eyed Joe, and lots of hand clapping. We wandered on over to Sol Square, and on the walk there met some boys we would proceed to spend the entire rest of the night with. I think they were mentioned earlier in Lauren’s post… in our defense, a few of them were 20, and age is fluid anyway, right? So there was Gus, an adorable blonde curly haired boy; Hamish, soon to fall hard for Roxy; Brad, a mature and friendly Australian; and Sam, drunk. Plain drunk and apparently a 19 year old pilot. It’s a terrifying thought. We went up to Fat Eddies with the boys and Rox won that dollar, fair and square, by planting a fat kiss on Hamish at the stroke of midnight. The band at the place was absolutely ridiculous, playing covers of everything from Third Eye Blind to Greenday, a real blast from our junior high past. We tried to teach our little tenderonis how to dance with girls, which mostly ended in failed attempts at spinning (usually in the wrong direction), stepping on feet, and awkwardly getting hit in the head by a flailing arm. Regardless, it was one of the cuter things I’ve seen watching Brad try to dance with Christy. From Fat Eddies we went to Boogie Nights, which without fail plays the exact same set list every night. The floor was disgustingly sticky to the point of disrupting our dancing… We couldn't move our feet at all without some real ambition and kind of just swayed from side to side. As Roxy pointed out, someone probably could have pushed her and she would have just fallen over.
At the end of the night, the boys serendipitously parked about 10 cars away from us on the same block, so we all walked together. Brad gave us his best mate’s number in Australia and made sure to let us know we could stay in any of his 15 houses. Awesome. We crawled into our cozy little beds in Connie and slept for a solid three hours until the sun rose and came blasting down on us. We grumpily rolled out of the car with our pillows and slept on the grass in the park for a while, even with Asian tourists walking over and around us. As we were packing up our stuff, a couple cops came up on bikes and asked what we were doing. Christy used the tried and true method of not actually admitting to anything. That way she was neither lying nor telling the truth. “Did you camp here last night?” Christy: “Would it be a bad thing if I said yes?” In the end, they thought we were kind of funny and just warned us for the future that no camping is allowed there. Yes sir, officer. No fishing allowed in the park either? You got it.
We’ve been in Nelson for four days now, soaking up the sun and enjoying the ocean. George and Jack met up with us here (we have had far too many fake goodbyes with them) and we talked them into staying with us for a few days. We went out one night in town, although try as we might, George was having none of it. We must have spent two hours arguing with him and trying to convince him that he would have a good time if he came out, all to completely stump the psychology majors. He definitely won in stubbornness, which is not an easy feat with Christy and I. Our pride was badly damaged. However, we did have a fantastic time with Jack. Somehow our first stop ended up being a strip club called the Dollhouse. We had just decided in the car to adopt a policy of brutal honesty with Jack, because we missed out on spending Christmas together, so when we stepped out of the car and asked where Jack wanted to go, he naturally suggested a strip club. We obliged, as Roxy and I had never been to a strip club before and it was free entry before midnight. The highlight was definitely when one of the strippers came off stage and kicked a girl out, then got so upset that she walked up to the manager and quit on the spot. Probably the best thing anyone could hope for out of that experience. The rest of the night consisted of dancing and pool playing, much more mellow. When we got home we tried to teach Jack how to floss (he had NEVER flossed before), as he spilled all the boys’ secrets, while George laid on the floor with his hands over his face, horrified at his brother.
The following day we all went to a jazz/blues festival at a vineyard and came home to an afternoon of absolute silliness. We ran down the property and were promptly engaged in a game of tag, which lasted only until we noticed the canoe near the water. We disregarded the three person or 570 lb limit, and the five of us kicked our shoes off and launched ourselves out into the inlet. Once we realized how tippy our little vessel was, we made sure to put phones and cameras on shore. I’m already on my second phone of the trip from dropping it in the water. It turned out to be a smart idea, because four minutes later we capsized into the murky abyss. Luckily, all those years of American summer camp taught us girls how to clear a canoe of water, and we all plopped back in for round two, soaking wet in our jeans and t-shirts. Not long after, we were swimming again in knee-deep water and sliding along the silty slippery clay floor of the inlet. George and Roxy, the older siblings, abandoned us in the middle of the water for some serious canoeing action, while Jack Christy and I sat on our butts and sang songs, gave each other mud spa treatments and war paint on our faces, piled silt onto each others’ heads to make different comb-over hairstyles, and used our hands to crawl our way toward the distant canoe. Jack turned to us, looking thoughtful with his prosthetic mud nose, and said “You lot aren’t like normal lasses, are you.” I suppose not. After dinner, we spent hours playing bullshit, spoons, Taiwanese snap, and scabby queen. Get ready for us to bring some GREAT new card games home.
Saying goodbye to them (for the 3rd? 4th time?) was achingly sad, although our fates seem to be inextricably intertwined. We’ve very nearly talked them into visiting us in America, and Christy and I are sold on making a trip to the village. I think Mom and Dad would have been happy if they’d jumped on board and joined us for the whole rest of the trip.
We bought tickets to Australia and are leaving on the 29th of January. AND officially changed our return flight to May 18th, so you all can expect our smiling faces at the SF airport then.
You girls can't imagine how cool it is to check in and find a new blog post. Even tho you aren't getting much response back, you gotta know there are lots of people reading of your adventures. So keep it up.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are finding so much opportunity to dance. Loved your clips of California girls in the road. That was ... well that was just frikken amazing. Don't know what to say, but I loved it. Specially Mel's little boogie into the camera.
And the rolling down the hill into the land of the Edge of the world. Glad you didn't fall off. Or BLOW off.
You guys are my heros....