Hello from someone who is hungry!
I ate my last soup-on-the-go for dinner a couple hours ago, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to go to town :( Did you know everything here closes REALLY early? Most of the clothing stores and whatnot close by 5:30 and you're lucky if your local Pak-and-Save closes at 9. I miss Wal-Mart (and a variety of fast-food chains that don't close at 8). Anyway, I had my first mid-term exam today for my Biology of Animals class--it wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. I have my Physics mid term and my first paper in Ethics due next week. I had to opt out of going North for the weekend in order to give myself time to study...I don't think I'll be coming out of my room until next Wednesday.
Unfortunately all this studying I had/have to do means that I haven't seen the Hunger Games yet (gasp!). Though I may make time for myself to go see it Friday--fingers crossed!
This leads to why I haven't seen it yet. I would have had time to go to the premiere, but alas the local movie theater didn't have one :(
Instead of going to the movies, I got to go to Napier!
I love Napier.
I really wish they had a university there, and although it's only two hours North of us, the weather was so much nicer than here in Palmy. When we left, the weather was 55-60-ish, overcast, and windy, but when we got off at Napier it was a good 75 degrees and clear (and at night! We got there at 8).
I experienced staying at a hostel for the first time, but it was literally across the street from the ocean and only $25 a night/per person. When I got there, I realized that I had forgotten a towel. I was just going to use my fancy TRESemme Fresh Start stuff until the shops opened up the next day, but when we took a walk around town later that night we saw a Countdown that was open to midnight (gasp!).
The next day was absolutely beautiful! It was so warm and sunny, I got to wear a tank-ish top shirt and sandals! We got up early and went to a cafe for breakfast and coffee and then walked around looking at the shops. We walked along the beach going back to the hostel before our wine tour--there wasn't sand on the beach, only rocks! Our wine tour guide Peter picked us up from our hostel at 12:30 later that day and we went on a wine tour adventure.
The first place we went, The Mission, we didn't have a wine tasting, we only stopped to pick up an older English couple who had lunch there. It also had a pretty cool story: The Mission is a vineyard that was started by the Catholic Church so the priests who went to New Zealand to convert the Maori could have wine to be used during Mass. It eventually turned into a seminary, and around 1920, they moved the entire building to its current location. They sliced up the building like bread into (I think) 12 sections and moving the pieces 5 miles, and then put them back together.
The Mission vineyard is also the oldest business still owned by its original owner--in this case, the Catholic Church.
The waiting list to have a wedding/reception there is 3 years. Peter said that the joke is women come and see the vineyard and sign up to have there wedding there, and then they have 3 years to find a man.
We had a wine tasting at Salvare, Ash Ridge, and Sileni Estates--my favorite vineyard was Salvare and I liked all rosé wines I tasted (as oppose to the whites or reds). At the first two vineyards, they also made olive oils that we got to taste by dipping little pieces of bread in it. Salvare also had diffent dips and vinaigrettes that we also dipped bread in--really delicious stuff! After our wine tasting at Sileni, we stayed for a little while eating snacks that Peter provided us and sitting on the patio. There was a topping we named "lime sludge" that was really good (Peter couldn't remember its proper name, but joked that it reminded him of sludge).
The next day we got up a little earlier (our bus left at 3), went to a new cafe, shopped, and then visited the National Aquarium. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but it had this cool tunnel with a rotating platform. For lunch we had excellent sushi from a place that looked really sketchy the night before.
We got back to Palmy (and the cold weather) around 6 and my studying began.
I'm also getting back into the habit of taking lots of pictures with my phone, too bad the battery doesn't hold a good charge anymore...and you can see all the places I went in Napier by the photos on Facebook.
Cheers!
I almost forgot to mention, we change Biology lecturers every couple of weeks and we have Dr. Death now! His last name is Death and he has his PhD!
I ate my last soup-on-the-go for dinner a couple hours ago, and I'm not sure when I'll be able to go to town :( Did you know everything here closes REALLY early? Most of the clothing stores and whatnot close by 5:30 and you're lucky if your local Pak-and-Save closes at 9. I miss Wal-Mart (and a variety of fast-food chains that don't close at 8). Anyway, I had my first mid-term exam today for my Biology of Animals class--it wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy. I have my Physics mid term and my first paper in Ethics due next week. I had to opt out of going North for the weekend in order to give myself time to study...I don't think I'll be coming out of my room until next Wednesday.
Unfortunately all this studying I had/have to do means that I haven't seen the Hunger Games yet (gasp!). Though I may make time for myself to go see it Friday--fingers crossed!
This leads to why I haven't seen it yet. I would have had time to go to the premiere, but alas the local movie theater didn't have one :(
Instead of going to the movies, I got to go to Napier!
I love Napier.
I really wish they had a university there, and although it's only two hours North of us, the weather was so much nicer than here in Palmy. When we left, the weather was 55-60-ish, overcast, and windy, but when we got off at Napier it was a good 75 degrees and clear (and at night! We got there at 8).
I experienced staying at a hostel for the first time, but it was literally across the street from the ocean and only $25 a night/per person. When I got there, I realized that I had forgotten a towel. I was just going to use my fancy TRESemme Fresh Start stuff until the shops opened up the next day, but when we took a walk around town later that night we saw a Countdown that was open to midnight (gasp!).
The next day was absolutely beautiful! It was so warm and sunny, I got to wear a tank-ish top shirt and sandals! We got up early and went to a cafe for breakfast and coffee and then walked around looking at the shops. We walked along the beach going back to the hostel before our wine tour--there wasn't sand on the beach, only rocks! Our wine tour guide Peter picked us up from our hostel at 12:30 later that day and we went on a wine tour adventure.
The first place we went, The Mission, we didn't have a wine tasting, we only stopped to pick up an older English couple who had lunch there. It also had a pretty cool story: The Mission is a vineyard that was started by the Catholic Church so the priests who went to New Zealand to convert the Maori could have wine to be used during Mass. It eventually turned into a seminary, and around 1920, they moved the entire building to its current location. They sliced up the building like bread into (I think) 12 sections and moving the pieces 5 miles, and then put them back together.
The Mission vineyard is also the oldest business still owned by its original owner--in this case, the Catholic Church.
The waiting list to have a wedding/reception there is 3 years. Peter said that the joke is women come and see the vineyard and sign up to have there wedding there, and then they have 3 years to find a man.
We had a wine tasting at Salvare, Ash Ridge, and Sileni Estates--my favorite vineyard was Salvare and I liked all rosé wines I tasted (as oppose to the whites or reds). At the first two vineyards, they also made olive oils that we got to taste by dipping little pieces of bread in it. Salvare also had diffent dips and vinaigrettes that we also dipped bread in--really delicious stuff! After our wine tasting at Sileni, we stayed for a little while eating snacks that Peter provided us and sitting on the patio. There was a topping we named "lime sludge" that was really good (Peter couldn't remember its proper name, but joked that it reminded him of sludge).
The next day we got up a little earlier (our bus left at 3), went to a new cafe, shopped, and then visited the National Aquarium. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be, but it had this cool tunnel with a rotating platform. For lunch we had excellent sushi from a place that looked really sketchy the night before.
We got back to Palmy (and the cold weather) around 6 and my studying began.
I'm also getting back into the habit of taking lots of pictures with my phone, too bad the battery doesn't hold a good charge anymore...and you can see all the places I went in Napier by the photos on Facebook.
Cheers!
I almost forgot to mention, we change Biology lecturers every couple of weeks and we have Dr. Death now! His last name is Death and he has his PhD!
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