“Go Ahead Let Your Hair Down You’re Gonna Find Yourself Somehow. Somewhere.”

I know I’ve been slack these past couple of months. So I’m making up for it now.

Get your reading glasses and popcorn ready young folks. I’ve started off with the most recent events. Enjoy!

Alrighty, let me get started…

My Leaving Sweater Party: New Zealand’s one and only stylish criminal, David Bain, inspired this event. Haha. I honestly just wanted an excuse to purchase one of the many spotted ‘epic’ sweaters from a thrift shop. So I made this the theme for my going away bash. It was the most incredible night ever! I had friends from alllll over Hamilton. Kids from the halls my first year, the gym, ultimate Frisbee and soccer teams, all rocked up to my place strutting their ridiculous knitwear. You would not have believed final outcome of the night. Hahah. After town, we returned to our house and street cornered off by cop cars and our property was filled with police officers and search dogs. Neighborhood watch led us to believe we had an intruder in our house rummaging about at 3am. Curious about the outcome? It turned out to be my ex who jumped through the window to retrieve their belongings from the night.

Rugby World Cup 2011: You didn’t think I was going to make it out of this country without seeein a match did ya. Even though I’m pretty certain a majority of you reading this right now have NO idea that the World Cup was even on now. I enjoy it anyhow, so I went with two other keen fellas, Cam and Scott. We shuffled over to Rotorua the weekend before I left to catch the Namibia vs. Fiji match.

LUAU PARTY: I planned another Fun Friday for the Parkinson’s and MS group I train at the Rec Centre. What better than a Hawaiian Luau to say farewell? Yea that’s what I thought. Everyone needs a little spice in his or her lives now and then.

I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to walk into a room filled with dozens of smiling individuals wearing colourful leis around their heads, grass skirts at their waists, and Hawaiian print shirts on their backs. It honestly does not take much to light up someones day/week. Just throw out some hula-hoops, frisbees, switch on some beach tunes, and encourage the crowd to put together a theme-related morning tea. My contribution being mocktails or ‘mock coctails’ with some miniature toothpick umbrellas. music,

The Great Race Masquerade Ball: I don’t think I’ve ever planned so much for a dance or ball in my life. This event left my senior prom in the dust. My friends and I had the opportunity to go to a phenomenal masquerade ball associated with an international rowing held in Hamilton.

I’m not going to lie; it was an EPIC, once in a lifetime, magical experience. It is not everyday that you get to strut a floor length ball gown, get your hair and make-up done up like a princess, and make a red carpet grand entrance to a special event. I was skipping around in wonder in awe through a jungle of themed-rooms, impersonators, stilts crew, and staged concerts. Once too many delicious cocktails and glasses of wine made the end of the night a bit of a blur, but by all means a good one!

Hamilton Zoo Trip Numero Dos: I took my second trip to the local zoo. I must say racing around the Mario kart footpaths to the meet the giraffes for feeding time, watching the capuchin monkey and chimp show off, and observing the crazy prairie dogs, dusty old rhinos, and long-snorted kapirs NEVER gets old. Take a look through my telescope…

Raglan Surf at Indicators: Took a spontaneous surf trip with my friend Wilfried and Carley to the west coast after finding out my work appointment cancelled. I had my first experience surfing at a break called Indicators. This left-hand break was much more relaxed than the rip-tide trench covered beach break at Wainui which we moved on to later in the day.

We all made it to shore in one piece. At one point I was a bit worried because my new local friend Matama and I nearly had to team up and save some people. And I really don’t know how our worn out bodies could have done by that point. Oh and mustn’t forget. I have two new experiences to add to the little-big bucket list: trying a iced doughnut kebab and spotting a full-on double rainbow!

Cameron’s Messy 21^st: Lets just say I had another wild and blurry night with my good mates. My ex, Cam finally caught up to the age I was when I met him 2 years ago. Haha. I know I know what you are thinking, cougar. I can live with that. Anyways, I managed to kick my heels up onto the porch to make a speech when the time came. I couldn’t playback a word I said though. A friend told me not to worry though because the American accent makes anything sound good!

The Swandri Life: Do you reckon I could be a farm girl? How about owning a farm on the ocean coast somewhere along this beautiful country? But, I’m sure I’m not the first to make that request. That’s why dreams are so exciting. Maria, one of the leads in my Kiwiana family here lives out near Pirongia on a cute little farm with 5 furry flatmates: 2 horses, 2 sheep, and a cheeky little cat named Lily. I love taking adventures out there to visit and help out, whether it be hopping on a tractor and mowing the lawns, spoiling the animals with attention, veggies, and hay, separating plants, lifting and reorganizing the bails in the barn, playing spy up in the trees =), or simply just being there as company. Oh and I better explain what Swandri is for all of you Americans. It’s a stylish yet practical farm clothing company in New Zealand that produces cozy plaid wool jackets that I am in love with. I’ve been on the search for one of my own by rummaging through op shops and FINALLY added one to my wardrobe. I know I’m a dork, but I’m in love with it!

ZM VIP night: Haha funny story. So, I’m running errands in town one day when I receive a call from one of the local radio stations. Intrigued and confused I listen intently, blocking out the lull of cars in the background. Turns out my best friend Lucy had entered both of our names into a ‘Couple of Quiets’ bar crawl with the Z(zed)M crew that evening. This surprise phone call verified us for the signed us on the VIP list that evening at all the bars in town and free drinks at every place the radio crew led us to. Must thank Luce for that and for a misleading, ‘not so quiet’ Thursday evening after all.

New Plymouth day trip: This has always been a place I’ve been meaning to go. You kiwis are probably asking yourselves, why on earth? Haha. But mind yourself, everyone says the same about Hamilton. Most of my university friends were born and raised in this city situated on the south-west coast, so I’ve been meaning to have a look. It turned out to be another spontaneous adventure to add to my chapter book. My awesome neighbours had an extra ticket to a cirque-de-soleil-esque show called SOAP. The only difference was that the acts were held out of bath tubs. It was INCREDIBLE. I just remember looking across the aisle halfway through the show to find my friends eyes glued on stage and their mouths half ajar. I think we were all left speechless on this account. I couldn’t believe how they performed these crazy tricks and acrobatics on such a slippery stage. With all that said and done the Soap show, café crawl, New Plymouth was a fun, jam-packed adventure!

Alright I’m going to get back on track with these blogs kids. Sorry It was so long. I had a few months worth to make up for. As most of you probably already know, I’m on-the-go again…this time in Hawaii. I’ll submit a new one this week! Scouts Honor. =) I want to share in my Hana explorations.

Until later…

Aloha,

J Fish :)