So after reading my tale of a great weekend a while past let me tell you a little story of a great weekend just past. This past weekend was one of those, let your hair down hope the media never finds the pictures of you naked in the hotel room covering your junk kind of weekends for moi. Also, that was a prince Harry reference I was not photographed in any hotel rooms covering my junk. All things blog worthy are mother appropriate :)
My weekend started on Friday with a lunch with Graham. He took me to Yum Cha in Newmarket where I had a first time experience. First of all I had never been to Yum Char before and that was great! It is like a roaming buffet. These Asian ladies walk around with trolleys of food and come by your table to see if you want any of it. It does get slightly annoying if you are trying to have a conversation tho. I let Graham do all the food deciding because I didn't know what half of the food was on offer. One of the things he chose was, chicken feet. Yea! I know.......I thought the same thing. But I am also a firm believer that I will try anything once and as Graham said, "You haven't come to the other side of the world to eat the same things you do at home!" I actually had a bit of a hard time mentally prepping myself for that tho. When he told me I had to bite it down by the knuckle and spit out the bones I actually did get a little quiver in my tummy. Anyway after a few deep breaths and some stomach turning I bit into it, down by the knuckle. It was pretty tasty, but It actually is a little tough to think of it not as chicken feet. I used to say that I could do fear factor no problem because it is just mind over matter, blah blah blah. I am not so sure now that I would be able to choke down a raw cow heart or something. Although the money prize makes it a little easier. Anyway, I digress. Lunch was lovely, and he invited me to go to the Marae with him in the evening after work. Friday was the beginning of Grahams whakapapa weekend at the marae and his moms whole side of the family was going to sleep over at the marae. Whakapapa (remember Wh is pronounced F, hehe) is genealogy, so his family was gathering there to trace back their relations from the first two right down to the youngest baby. It was great to be a part of that and meet a lot more of his family, and see some of the ones I have already met. It was also great to see what the marae is actually used for in regular everyday life rather then for tourist ceremonies and stuff. It was a wonderful night spent among the most welcoming people I have met to date, looking at old pictures, sharing a meal, learning about Grahams family and sitting under the blue moon debating indigenous affairs with Grahams best friend. It really is like a breath of fresh air for my soul hanging out at the marae for those functions, I love it! We slept in the meeting house on mats on the floor with the whole family and when I woke up I thought to myself, when I looked up at the awesome paintings on the ceiling, "What a beautiful and wonderful place to wake up."
That was my beautiful start to what turned into a crazy wild Saturday night. I got up early and Graham gave me a ride in town to the bus station where I would be meeting my German friend Steph. We were headed north to meet up with another friend of mine, Kate. I had never been north of Auckland so this was another holiday for me. We took the bus part way and Kate met us and picked us up, this saved her from driving all the way down to Auckland to get us. She picked us up and we headed north to Paihia. The weather was a bit crappy and was cloudy, windy and cold so although the Bay of Islands is known for its beaches it wasn't really beach weather. We were driving along and we came to the next little town and Kate said, "So this is Waipu...." and I interrupted her with, "Are you serious!? Awesome! It is on my list to go here but I had no idea where it even was! I didn't think I would ever make it here!" This was very exciting because I was just saying the other day that I hadn't checked anything off in a long while and had a hankering to check something off. Perfect! So, Waipu is so special because the founder of the town was from.......wait for it...... NOVA SCOTIA!! Boom! Yea, that's right good ol N.S. in the N.Z! So the guy who founded the town moved from Scotland to Nova Scotia and established a community there. He didn't really make a go of it and the peeps were having a hard time hacking the winters. So he packed up all the peeps and moved the town to New Zealand! Before we got to Waipu Kate was saying about what our options for the night were, she said we could stay in Paihia for the night or we could go to her brothers rugby prize giving party and stay with her other brothers sister-in-law. When she saw how excited I was about the town of Waipu she said, "This is where the party is!" Hahaha! Imagine the odds! This was too great!
So we rolled into the township of Waipu and there was the museum and right out front, just up the road from Nova Scotia Drive, was a Nova Scotia flag flying high! I made the girls stop so I could get pictures of all things N.S. before we continued on to Paihia. Along the way, Kate, our wonderful driver guide made sure to stop at all the attractions along the way. We went to Whangarei and visited the waterfalls, we stopped in Kawakawa to see the toilets....I know what you're thinking, toilets? But yea! You know how some places have a little kitchy attraction like a gum wall or jandle fence? Well the only thing Kawakawa has going for it is the toilets. They were built by Frederick Hundertwasser and are now an attraction. The building is made of concrete and mosaic with glass, bottles, tiles etc. They are the artiest toilets I have ever seen. A big shout out to Kate for making sure I was able to see all the little things along the way! We even went to Waitangi where the original treaty between the Maori was signed. We made it to Paihia and had a look around the town, had some fish and chips for lunch and hung out. Kate had to meet a friend for a meeting there so Steph and I just killed some time walking around but it wasn't very nice because the weather was so windy and cold. I would like to go back to Paihia on a warmer sunnier day. Because of the cold crap weather and the promise of free accomodation in Waipu we headed back there for the evening. This would be great! Not only did I go to Waipu but I would attend an event for the Waipu rugby team too!
We got to Kates friends house around 6:30pm and this even started at 7ish so in order to pre-game with drinks we had to 'git er done'. Needless to say Kate and I were feeling pretty good by the time we got to the prize giving. It was kind of funny when we walked in and I felt like I was at the junior high prom. There were decorations over the entry way and some lanterns from the ceiling and it was dark and some music was playing. For the rest of the night I was no longer known as Jessica but simply as Canada. When Graham introduces me to people he always says, "This is Jessica, she's from Canada." Well Kate didn't feel the need for all the niceities she just said, "This is Canada and Germany." A few beers later and the prizes were handed out and the band was underway, the prom was in full swing! The rest of the story goes like this; Kate, Steph and myself had a lovely evening listening to the musical stylings of the band and meeting new people. We stayed perfectly sober, as all good girls do, and retired to bed at a reasonable hour after saying our prayers.............. The End!
The next day was a long one of doing nothing and then Kates friend Speedo giving us a lift back to Auckland where I really did go to bed early because I couldn't keep my eyes open. I would like to say a big thanks to Kate for the opportunity to get white girl wasted with her, everyone needs a time like that every once in a while! Well.....maybe not like that, but close enough Haha! Also, it was totally awesome to be able to say that I was from Nova Scotia and people actually know where that is and think it is cool you are from there! Haha!
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