Catch up - part ll

Hello! It's catch up time, but from Jen!

Don't get too worried about drinking too much on "call": that only happened once for each of us. :) And Kelly, our manager, was only a bit drunk ONCE, and I think that was because her boyfriend was up for the weekend and they were having a good time.

Speaking of the Swiss Café, we’ve quit our other jobs (THANK GOD – no more cleaning at the hotel) and are solely working at the Swiss Café (well, besides our cleaning at the hostel for accommodation). We’re getting enough hours there and we want to make sure we enjoy our time here.

Speaking of enjoying our time, there’s a big hike in the works! In my previous post, you can see a lighthouse in the bottom picture. Near the lighthouse is the lighthouse cottage, where you can spend the night for $12.50. In order to get there, we have to take the ferry across the bay, walk to the start of the trek, and then hike 20 km to the cottage. It’s supposedly a crazy awesome hike. It follows the coast up and down steep cliffs. It’s going to be great. :)

The other day, I was able to take the ferry to Russell (the city across the bay) for free. What made the trip even better?! Three dolphins were following the boat! I was sitting in the back of the boat and when I turned around to see Paihia behind me, I saw them about 5 feet away from me. IT WAS AWESOME! I even got a tiny little tear in my eye. They really are beautiful animals. I was told that sometimes a little hammerhead shark gets lost in the bay and that the dolphins will kind of adopt it as one of their own. A few of the dolphin “regulars” in the bay even have names; Three prong and Ripcord are two such dolphins.

Speaking of the water, I am falling in love with the sea. It’s amazing. Today is the first day in the past 5 days that I haven’t spent at least an hour just sitting on the rocks looking at and listening to the ocean. You can never get bored. There’s always boats sailing in the distance, birds flying overhead, an occasional kite surfer. Plus, it’s been really good for me just to …sit. You know? Just sit and really think and listen to the waves crashing on the shore. Hopefully our next trip out on the water will be on one of the tall ships. They have tours where you can climb the rigging, help on deck…. It’s going to be cool.

Today is Halloween! Liz and I didn’t exactly bring costumes and Paihia is the smallllllest town ever. So our costumes? Liz is “fire” and I am “ice”. (Well, I guess technically I am snow because I am using the snowflakes that Grandma gave me to decorate the room at Christmas time.) Kelly, from the Swiss Café, gave us Halloween night off, and we’ve convinced most of the hostel to dress up as well. And what was the first thing Liz and I did at midnight (so the first moment of Halloween)? Eat the candycorn Liz brought. We’ve SAVED it and it’s been SOOOO hard not to eat it. But we brought it out last night and had everyone try it. The reactions? “Mingin” (which means disgusting in Scottish slang) and “Welll, that’s allllright,” which is fine for Liz and me because that is more for us! [Side note: Liz is currently trying to make flames out of gold tissue paper.....we'll see how this goes.:) ]

I’m off to try and make a dirtcake for tonight. No one here has ever heard of dirtcake! Although, it’s going to be quite a different dirtcake because we’re using chocolate shortcake biscuits for Oreos and a mixture of vanilla icecream and milk for cool-whip. [sigh]

We really do miss all of you. I think of everyone constantly and how much this person would enjoy this, and then I hear a song that reminds me of another person….. well, you all are always in our thoughts. Really.

- Jen