I woke up around 11a, hung out in the room and did some stuff on the internet, then around 130pish, headed towards downtown to (hopefully) find this Japanese restaurant called Renkon that's supposed to be reaaaaaaally good. After carefully reading every cross street ( I was looking for Kingston), I finally decided to go into a souvenir shop to look for stuff I wanted and hopefully get some directions. On my list to get for today before I fly back to the US was one of those round ball sheep, a kiwi bird (both stuffed animals), some Rotorua soap that my mom had asked for, and, approximately, a ton of Tim Tams. So I go into this first place and find a (kinda) reasonably priced sheep, and (not so reasonably priced) soap, yay!! So I buy it, and ask for directions, to which the girl looks at me funny and says, "sorry, I don't know street." Umm, what? It seems like if you lived in a city, you'd kinda have a grasp of the streets. Whatever. So onto the next place, which didn't have anything I wanted, so whatever. I turn the corner, and in a distance I see "A Okay Souvenir Shop," so I figured I might as well check it out. Upon entry, I realize it's a bit more than "okay," in fact it's really nice, and they have the a kiwi! Not exactly the one I wanted, which I should've bought in Akorua (the only place I've seen it), but oh well, this one's adorable, even if it's not completely accurate (the Kiwi has tiny wings, and real Kiwi don't have wings at all [not even the remnant bones of them, like you know how whales still have "feet" or whatever]).
At this point it's around 230p, maybe later, and yesterday Mom said that I should go on one of the sailing tours that's offered by the company that raced in America's Cup, so I decided to head over there and check it out. Unfortunately I had already missed the sailing trip on the actual America's Cup boat, but they still had the Coffee Tour available that was departing in 4 minutes, and I could get it with a 10% discount if I don't have any brownies. It would still be on a sailboat, just not the America's Cup one, which was fine with me (the boat was a 50+ foot beautiful sailboat.... I want one [wood please! hah]). So I hop on, am told the coffee and tea is free, sweet! get a cup of tea, and we depart from the harbour. On the boat with me was a couple from Spain (I'm pretty sure it was Spain....), another couple from Houston, Texas (but had been traveling around for so long that they basically said that most recently they were from Australia) that had two little boys, a guy from North Carolina, a woman from Australia, and another couple from Australia. After leaving the docks and getting out into the harbour and open water, they released the sails and turned off the engine, and for the next hour or so, we were coasting purely by wind. It was amazing. They asked for a volunteer, and after no one responded I said, "Um, I mean I'll do it." And thus was how I became the first person on the boat to steer, woot! It was totally awesome and I didn't even think of taking a picture I was so stoked, how lame! But I could definitely get used to sailing.... maybe I'll take that sailing class offered by UCSC this quarter or something.
Anyway, I'm totally glad I decided to go on the sailing tour because I definitely was a bit apprehensive, but it was soooo worth it and I had a really good time. Thank you Mom and Dad! After getting off the boat, I headed back towards a bus stop that would take me to a Pak 'N Save (the 312), and on the way there saw a great souvenir shop that only sold stuff made in NZ, apparently. So I went in and had a look around, at which time I stumbled upon honey. Now, honey is kinda a big deal in NZ, and most books will tell you that you HAVE to try/buy some honey while over here, so I decided to buy a little pot of each flavor: Manuka (the healing one, and most famous in NZ), Rewarewa, Kamahi (I think), and just some good ol' clover honey. So, I'm excited about trying each one, even though they've added some weight to my checked luggage.... I hope I'm not over the weight limit, I'm dreading checking my luggage in tonight!! At the same store I also got one of those balance wine holder things. The Paua (abalone) options for inlays were the Kiwi bird, the silver fern, a map of NZ, a dot, or the koru. I went with the silver fern because I don't think I've gotten anything with it on it yet, and it's crazy how much the silver fern represents NZ and how much you see it every day over here. So yeah, I got that as well, and I found the MOST AMAZING greenstone piece, that I was IMMEDIATELY drawn to. It was crazy, I was just like, OH MY GOD, I need that. I'm not sure who I'm going to give it to yet (definitely a boy, but I don't think Brad would want it, and Dad doesn't wear necklaces haha, and I already got a fishhook for Taylor.... if he likes this one more he can have it. Maybe Ean). So yeah I definitely went over the checklist thing, but oh well, I like what I got and think everyone who gets something will too.
After the souvenir place I headed towards the bus stop that the 312 passed, and on the way there I saw the 312 stopping at a bus stop that was literally 10 feet away, so I jumped on, yay less walking! haha. I had not clue which stop would be mine, so I told the bus driver I was goign to the Pak 'N Save in Royal Oak, and he said, "no problem! Jump on!" After about a 30 minute bus ride (I was getting anxious that I might miss my stop, hah) the bus driver told me the next stop would be mine. I got off, crossed the street to the Pak 'N Save, bought two Mangosteen, then hunted down the Tim Tams. It's crazy how much you save by not buying them at tiny little corner stores; usually the single row ones cost something like $3.50-$4, but at Pak 'N Save, they were like $3.20 or something for a double row one. So yeah, I got five. hahahahahah. My bags are stuffed to the fluff, it's hilarious, but sooooo worth it. Then I walked down three bus stops just because the bus wasn't going to there for another 20 minutes and I didn't really wanna stand around that long, then caught the 19- Midtown around 6:30 or 7p. Finally I got back to Queen St. and immediately headed to the Indian food restaurant that has the best Indian food in the world. I ordered a Samosa Chat (not sure what the Chat means), chicken korma (medium heat), garlic paratha, and a glass of Gisborne Gewürztraminer. The food was delicious, albeit a bit too hot, but I definitely enjoyed it and took the other half (along with another order of garlic paratha) for lunch the next day. After that I headed back to the hostel and did some more stuff online, read a magazine, talked with my roommates, and just hung out for the rest of the night.
Now today, Friday, I've already checked out and am just hanging out, waiting for my shuttle to pick me up around 3p. I'm looking forward to lunch ( : I leave AKL at 7:30 pm today, and arrive in SFO at 12:45 pm..... today. haha. So I'll have fun time traveling today.
I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU ALL!! SEE YOU IN JUST A FEW DAYS ( :
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