At the end of March, for Easter weekend, the University is closed from Friday until Tuesday, so I had a nice break of time. I decided to visit my new friend Ruby who lives up in the northern part of the Coromandel Peninsula.
Some of her friends
in Auckland were also going up to visit the same weekend so I was able to get a
ride with them. They picked me up and we set out for Ruby's. Her friends were
Eva and Dom, really nice people! They both graduated from University of
Auckland and we chatted about different things to do and see in Auckland. Along
the way, we stopped at a fruit and veggie stand and I tried feijoas for the
first time. Yum!
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| Feijoas |
Then we continued along and after a fish and chips stop in
Thames, we took the coastal road that wound around the various curves of the
mountains. Much of the road was eroding into the sea on one side and there was
danger of falling rock on the other so we had to be careful on certain
stretches of road. It was really nice to have a weekend away with all entirely
new people, and to spend some quality time being able to talk about and
understand some Kiwi perspective. About 2 hours into the drive, we stopped in Coromandel Town to pick up another
girl named Aurora who was also going to visit Ruby. She is from Galicia, Spain
and had brought her accordion along! How fun! I brought my pennywhistle too, so
together we had some fun once we arrived.
Ruby works at the Colville Cafe so we
stopped there and saw her at work. Colville is a really small town. I was
talking to some local fishermen and they couldn't believe how I had ended up in
Colville from the US. After chatting for some time, we headed up to her home in
the Karuna Falls Community about half an hour away. The community is composed
of about 15 houses and has about 25 members. It's situated in a valley and is
really gorgeous. Ruby's house is awesome! She has a big porch with a grapevine
hanging over the entrance, all her electricity is from solar energy, there's
lots of open space, and a beautiful garden. Her house was bustling with
activity this weekend. It felt like a very interesting family reunion between
people who didn't know each other but were all related in some way. Everyone
had a connection through Ruby but we all hung out together and got to know each
other. On Saturday we drank tea and relaxed. I taught some people origami (my
constant companion is my envelope of painted origami paper, it comes with me
everywhere - thanks mom!) and strung up some of the flowers we made into a
chain for Ruby to hang up.
Announcement! I discovered a new
tea that I am really enjoying, it's called Red Bush tea and the flavor is lemon
and ginger. I had brought some cookies up, and tried out a gluten-free recipe
for the gluten-free people what were there. Ruby's older sister was up for the
weekend, and staying at her parent's house who live next door. Her two kids,
ages 6 and 3 were adorable and kept us well entertained. We all went down to
the beach right near their house and climbed the sand dunes for a breathtaking
view. There were about 3 or 4 people on the big beach and Ruby and the kids
were disappointed that it was so crowded. Haha that is certainly a different
definition of crowded! I didn't take many pictures really on this trip but this is the beach:
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| Waikawau Bay |
Later on, we cut up the bags and bags of apples that Ruby
had and helped her bottle them into jars. The ones that wouldn't fit we set
aside and made into an apple crumble. One of the people in the community had a
pizza oven in their backyard and around 8pm we decided pizza for dinner was the
order of the day! So we fired up the oven, and by the time everything was said
and done we were sitting around a cozy pizza fire eating midnight pizzas. Very
delicious, we had all kinds but mostly vegetable and gluten free. Retiring back
to Ruby's I read a little and reflected on the day, then went to bed as the
rain pounded outside, singing me to sleep.
Sunday was Easter, and I awoke to some hyper children
jumping on me while eating chocolate bunnies. We all got up and had some
breakfast and Esther, Ruby's sister tried to teach me how to make a woven
basket out of the flax in the yard. I had a really hard time with it and
couldn't get past the bottom. She said it would be easier if I had pegs to hold
the base down. She made a wonderful one and in the end gave it to me! It's
sitting on my nightstand next to my bed.
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| I like to keep my tin whistle in the basket :-) |
There was a big potluck lunch down at the community house so
we brought chickpea curry and rice and walked down. Then Ruby hid chocolate
eggs for the kids and Esther hid chocolate eggs for us! So we went hunting for
these eggs around the main green. After resting and playing music and learning
some hula dancing, we went on a hike up to the top of Karuna Falls where some
people went swimming. It was really cold but really clear water. The view was
also spectacular, it overlooked the valley and we could see some of the houses
peeking out.
We returned to Ruby's and drank more tea. Then we talked into the
night. A bunch of people played music together and the rest of us played card games.
We ate some dinner and then some more apple crumble before going to sleep.
On Monday we packed up our things and had a nice breakfast.
Then we all went down to the beach again and from there headed out back to
Auckland. The drive back was a little windy and I did get a little carsick but all in all it was a good drive.
We stopped in Coromandel Town for a break and I tried garlic butter french
fries which were amazing. We played a word association game in the car where
you say two words and everyone has to guess what the connecting word is. For
example, if I said hat and cut, the connecting word would be hair: hat hair and
haircut. It was a fun game. We hit some traffic as everyone was returning to
Auckland after a nice weekend away, and I got home around 8pm.
No one was back
yet in the apartment from their respective adventures, so I had the place to
myself. Two of my roommates went to Wellington and the other one went to
Australia. I did some laundry and unpacked then relaxed with you guessed it,
more tea! and watched a movie then hit the bed. What a wonderful relaxing time.
And most of the people I met live in Auckland so I will hopefully meet up with
them again. I bumped into Aurora on campus and we decided we will definitely
need to hang out more and play some more music together as well. She is really
awesome. She writes stories and poetry and is always smiling. Now I am back in
school for a couple weeks before another week off. I haven't planned anything
for that week yet, but am working on it. I am more than halfway done with my
time here. I cannot believe how fast the time is flying! I am missing everyone
back home and hope you all are doing well. I love you so much!
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