It's been a horrible couple of days weather wise
here in Taupo, whilst I hear it's been glorious sunshine and hot weather at
home in England. Basically, what I think has happened, is that someone told the
Met Office I was here and that I was a little homesick, so they thought they'd
'help' and send some British weather over this way. Thanks guys, but I'm all
better now! Speaking of being all better, my cold is pretty much gone. I'm
still a little sniffly, but I think not going out in the rain and eating lots
has helped me beat it.
Saturday night, Becky had people round to watch the
Rugby. The games were France - Tonga and England - Scotland. I stayed out of
the way a bit for the France - Tonga, not really too interested in that and
would rather catch up with Desperate Housewives, but I went in at half time and
watched Tonga completely demolish the French. A shock yes, but a
welcome one, though I did feel for poor Leah (a former helper) who is French
and was obviously disappointed - France are still through however! Then onto
the real game, but not before the guests tucked into some of the bolognese I
made, Mum's recipe of course. There was enough to feed the army there, and
we've been eating leftovers for the last 2 days!
The England game was good, especially as we won,
but only in the last two minutes! And Jonny Wilkinson was ridiculous... but
I'll forgive him because he's gorgeous. Can't be losing to the Scots, honestly,
they'll be wanting independence next... (kidding, Scotland, kidding! Take
independence if you vote 'yes' in the referendum, whatever you wanna do
y'know!). I crawled into bed after the rugby and had a chat with Mum, I still
can't get over the time difference, so strange that she's just getting up when
I go to bed.
Yesterday I met up with Mum's friend Bryce and his
partner Diane. They're lovely people and I met Bryce briefly when he came over
to England a few years back. They picked me up around midday in the end, after
some confusion about when I actually was and a heavy night the night before. We
went for a bit of brunch at a little cafe, which was actually quite busy, so
two cups of tea, prawn tortellini and some catching up later, we took
a drive to Kinoch. On the way however, we stopped at a reserve, where we pulled
up, climbed over a stile and walked down to the water's edge of Lake
Taupo.
(Fun side story, I just googled how to spell stile
because I wasn't sure, so I typed in 'style walking' and what came back was
"Ability to orgasm affected by walking style" - that is not what
I was looking for, silly google.)
The views were just beautiful and I
dipped my feet in the lake. It wasn't warm, but it was sure warmer than the North
Sea! The water was also much much clearer than the North Sea. Diane told me how
the lake was formed by a volcanic eruption and that if there's another one, the
water will rise by another 10 feet! Then Bryce told me all about how they now
think that there were people in this area even before the Maori and that there
are Celtic carvings that point to some people similar to the Vikings.
After here, we continued on and had a
coffee and cake at the Tipsy Trout in Kinoch itself. They were looking for a
waitress for Christmas, half a mind to apply and just stay here forever (not
really Mum, don't worry). We met a parrot who was very friendly and got a shock
when Bryce gave it a peppermint. Basically, Bryce and Diane are lovely and I'm
going to take them up on their offer to go and stay with them from Thursday to
Monday. They did offer me their place for as long as I want but I'm afraid that
I have a lot of places to see and just 8 weeks to go.
Once they dropped me back, I done some
work here at the lodge and started thinking how great it would be to go to the
quarter finals game between England and France. Dreaming really, I looked up
ticket prices but was expecting $1000+. For a Category D ticket, it was $190.
£95(ish). But then I thought getting to Auckland would cost a lot... $60 on the
bus, not bad. $50 to rent a car - even better! So it'd be £120 to go and watch
England beat France (hopefully...). Especially after the French annoying me in
Rotorua this would be nice. I decided to sleep on it because £120 is a lot of
money on my budget, even if it's a bargain for what it is. Then, something
amazing happened. Our very close family friend, let's call him 'h' (that's not
code, he's not a secret agent, it's his name... or is it?), sent me a message
on Facebook and said he wanted to buy me a ticket! What a bloody superstar! So
I am over the moon! I bought a ticket and booked my rental car! So so stoked to
go!
Today after waking up and assuring
myself this all really was happening, I did some work at the lodge, clearing
out the garage and decided against going out. There was a big storm here today
and the weather was horrible, I'll brave it tomorrow. The plan for tomorrow is
to go and pick up my ticket (yay!) and go buy an England shirt. Job done.
In other news, I'm getting 'grass is
greener' syndrome, where I'm imagining my life when I get home and seeing it as
perfect, through rose tinted glasses. However, is it really rose tinted?
Because I'm pretty sure it will be awesome.
Oh and I'm home a month earlier now,
February 24th.
Oh #2, Rhea is booking her flights to
Bali on Wednesday, and the way it works out is we'll meet at Singapore airport
and get the plane to Bali together since we both have a transfer at Singapore,
funny how that works out. Unbelievably excited to see her, I miss her so much
and we're gonna have such an amazing time.
Things are goooood.
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