Kia Ora!

This morning we slept in (yay!), made bacon and eggs for breakfast, did a load of laundry, and called home to check on things. We got ready and headed out a little after noon to do some walking around and souvenir shopping. We returned to hang out a little in the afternoon before the evening event.

We were picked up at 5:30 by a coach to attend a cultural performance and dinner (hangi) at the Te Puia Center. After some difficulty with Hannah getting through the automatic gate (pictured 😂), we waited for the evening to begin.
   


We watched performances and had dinner cooked in a traditional hangi, which is cooked on hot rocks underground.
   

  

 



After dinner, we went to view the eruption of the geyser on the land while sipping hot chocolate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Closed roads, impromptu pancakes, and unexpected reunions

Image
So we flew into Queenstown yesterday- it’s a nice, tight packed place at the bottom of a mountain, but definitely a holiday town, so everything is more expensive than in Christchurch. We are in a hostel with pod bunks, and one of our roommates was nice enough to let me have her bottom bunk because I was having difficulties easily managing my assigned top bunk (lol). We got Fergburger for lunch (suggested to us by Maria in Christchurch) and had our lunches down by the water in a floating bar called Perky’s (suggested to us by Holly, a receptionist in our hostel). Fergburger is a local institution that specializes in, you guessed it, burgers. Burgers of all kinds. They have pictures and newspaper write ups all over their walls, claiming to be the top burger anywhere. We decided to give it a try. I have to say, I was impressed with it being a NZ burger and all. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was definitely a quality product. We explored the city, shopped a little,...
Read more

Reconnecting with my Aussie family

Image
Thursday Sarah and James picked me up from Hannah’s house and we went to Tanunda to have lunch. James was shy at first, and wasn’t very interested in sitting down for lunch. The drive out was lovely though, and I got to see the hostel where I lived for a month while working in the potato factory. Everything looked the same, though a few more shops have popped up on the Main Street. We stayed home and chatted the rest of the afternoon, and had dinner once Emmanuel got home from work. James is so sweet and cuddly and I look forward to playing with him again before I leave.   Friday I met Marie and Sam at a train station closer to the city to have breakfast with Roger. After a brief delay due to a train being stuck up the tracks and difficulties locating each other at the station, we met Roger at a restaurant called Watershed. After breakfast, we went for a walk on the grounds nearby and it was beautiful. Roger gave me a ride back to Gawler and it was so nice to catch ...
Read more

The stars at night are big and bright...

Image
Howdy from Dallas, Texas! I’ve been here since late Friday night, and my delightful and generous hosts have kept me busy ever since. The first thing you notice about Dallas is the HEAT 🔥. Sure, North Carolina is also fairly unpleasant in the temperature department for most of the summer, but it usually takes until July and August to have sustained temperatures in the late 90’s, which is what it has been all week. We haven’t had any rain, which has been nice since lots of our activities have been outdoors. I only have one full day left to get the rest of my Texas experience in and I fly out around 10pm tomorrow night for AUSTRALIA!l Saturday : We visited the 6th Floor Museum (commemorating the assassination of JFK) along with, I suspect, most of the other tourists in Dallas. It’s a self guided museum with audio commentary. It was fascinating to see how it all went down and hear all the possible conspiracy theories surrounding it.             ...
Read more