One week to go!
I can’t believe we leave New Zealand in one week! This is going to be a busy few days. As apparently is the usual for NZ, Kayla and I decided to deceive our employers and sneak out of our job a bit early. Which was a good call. Paihia has been making us a bit stir-crazy as of late. It will buy us more time to hopefully be able to see Hobbiton and hike Mt. Doom. And buy our last minute preparations for Asia and say goodbye to Auckland and the wonderful, generous Ostrowski’s one last time. ahhh. I still can’t believe it. Also can’t believe I have so many oranges and bananas left I’m going to be throwing them in the air for the wind to take..
Some thoughts on some things before I leave this beautiful country.
The news. Why does it have to be so so awful? Two hours before the news comes on, they begin to give little quips of what is ahead. Turns out those quips are the only things to come, just extended versions. They give you every single headline, you hardly need to watch the news. To be honest, sometimes it’s even hard to call it “news”. I once sat for fifteen minutes watching a little roll of toilet paper unroll all the way from Dunedin to Picton, as the broadcasters marked where every public toilet within three km of the state highway. They then cut to a program about the yellow wiggle. One aspect to the news that is different, but appreciated, is the movie reviews. As part of their daily national news, they review and play clips of new movies, and list off the current top five. Being one who always enjoyed movie previews, I must say this part of their news may be my favorite.
And let me just comment on their camera angles.
. ..I just wrote a paragraph trying to explain an ambulance commercial I saw, but I feel like its a had to have seen it sort of thing. So just trust me when I say they sure do choose some interesting and awkward camera angles.
Speaking of commercials, NZ has some pretty intense ones. They have a lot of important public messages, like how to tell your mate he/she is drinking too much, or questions about mental illness. They also have an ad telling people to drive slowly, in which they depict a car accident in slow motion. You see an apple flying from the backseat and exploding into a million pieces off the dashboard, you see all the organs inside the body slamming into the body, you see the lady in the passenger seat being whiplashed backwards into her seat. It’s really quite graphic- its my favorite. Oh my gosh, they also have a really inappropriate condom commercial that is just a bunch of shots of women orgasmimg. they play this ad at all hours of the day. It’s probably aired in front of five year olds watching their beloved yellow wiggle.
An a completely unrelated note, today Kayla said something along the lines of how “nobody does this- who else is in NZ right now doing what we are doing.?”..and, we decided anybody who is not American. There are soo many travelers here. Everybody is doing exactly what we are doing. I’d seriously say half the country is Germans, there is a good deal of English, Argentinians, French, a decent amount from the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Canada, and handfuls of many more. But where’s our representation, united states? Why is it not common for everybody to be gone traveling after high school? On a break from university? I can recall any American I’ve ever met. There are so few, they are all memorable, and I love talking with them. Most of them. Running into a couple from Birmingham where the wife attended Kalamazoo and Michigan was a particular favorite. Port Huron was noteworthy. The most impressive to date is a girl who pulled over to pick us up while hitchhiking. Lisa was from Grand Rapids, went to the same school as Gabe, and ending up showering and spending the night in our house.
Aaand such is New Zealand. It’s so weird my time here is coming to an end. I’m meant to return the very end of May, but for long and even if I am is still up for debate. Eh, I’ll figure it out.
I’m looking forward to mine and Kayla’s dinner date with Jace tonight. He is taking us out to the Indian restaurant for a goodbye to Paihia dinner and it’s going to be fun to get all dressed up. And then, up and out Wednesday morning.
