Traditional Kiwi Day

What a day!

I went on a Tikki Tour (a way to say a little tour around pointing at all sorts of things) with Deby all afternoon. The day was rainy and stormy, so we set out to do some touristy stuff and quickly changed our minds and headed out for a typical Kiwi Day.

We drove about 30 minutes to a quaint little town, Cambridge, that resembles a small English town. It is full of a cute downtown with shops, cafes, and cobblestone streets. We went to old friend's houses and NO ONE minded us just dropping by. As we walked in the door of each home I was struck by the immediate excitement that visitors were there. They quickly put on the water for tea or coffee and had us sit down in the "lounge" (the living room).

I would have to say that my favorite house was Sylvia's. She raises Golden Retrievers. And currently has 4 (plus she was dog sitting a black lab). I am not joking when I saw there were dogs everywhere! I had to giggle as I thought of some of my friends picturing me in this situation in a small little house in a foreign country. Two dogs were full grown and two were good sized puppies and the lab was a small grown lab. Oh the things you do in foreign places :)

She was delightful! And loved showing me all the pictures of her litters that she had bred. There were pictures of Golden Retriever Litters all over the house. She was so sweet and made me laugh a lot. And I even let her dogs sniff me, lick me and touch me without freaking out too much:0 I did have to rethink the "hip pocket" idea I had. What is that you ask? I don't really love dogs, but I planned to have a secret in my hip pocket if when I am married with kids, and my family wants a dog. I will say no, but secretly when and if I can't say no any more I will negotiate with being willing to get a dog as long it was a Golden Retriever. I might still have that little sneaky plan, but 5 dogs in a little living room was enough to make me rethink that plan:)

We also went to lunch at a sweet little cafe that was an old pink church. It had been redone to be a store on the bottom and a cafe upstairs. It was yummy! And fun to shop in. Here is me and Deby on the stairs heading down for some fun shopping moments:



I was struck at how "small" New Zealand is today. I haven't lived in a small town for years, but had to admit that I missed it today. Deby would tell someone where she was living now by simply saying: 191 Crawford up in Te Puna. And they would say "Oh, yes." Remember we were at least an hour away at this point. So many times I have shook my head when someone tells you how to get to their house by saying the street number and the street....ie. 41 Ranch Rd. WhAt?!?! After living in LA when you give directions by giving the entire address, zip code included(sidenote: they don't even use zip codes here) so that we can map quest it OR we give directions by freeways (take the 210, to the 134, to the 5, etc...) I had to admit that I wasn't sure what to do with that. But it did make me smile inside the whole day.

We returned back to the Mount, so Deby could race to a birthday party and I went home to celebrate Uncle Neville's Bday. It was actually on Thursday (also the same birthday as my favorite 9 year old--ELLIANNA!!!) Family came over and we had Chop Suey...a little different but good. And then of course had to have birthday cake:



I ended the night sitting and talking to Auntie Ali for a couple hours in the kitchen over a cup of tea and hot chocolate. It has been such a fun time being here with them and I am reminded how incredible it is to have good people in your life.

It was a GREAT Kiwi Day