Playing in Palmy (NZ Part 3)

NEW PICTURES POSTED!!

I can't tell you how good it is to be back in the company of one of my dearest friends, Bec. She's pretty much fantastic. It's almost surreal being here, because of how long it's been since we've been together, but it's good to catch up and have fun like we always do!

I've been living at Bec's home in Palmerston North (a.k.a. Palmy) with her wonderful and gracious family. Her brother and sister (Leighton and Chloe) have been lots of fun to get to know and hang out with. And her parents (Megan and Grieg) are very welcoming and kind. At the McLeay household, water comes from the rain, so conserving and saving is a way of life. Showers are precious things, although it rains a lot here, so it's not so big a deal, and really, I don't take that many showers anyway. ;) It's winter here, but even though it's similar to spring weather at home (40s and 50s), it feels cold to everyone else. Nights are the coldest, and the fire is lit to keep us all warm. The heat, of course is all from a wood stove in a house that Grieg built for the family. It's complete with a dog, a cat, chickens, and horses. There was an orchard, but the horses ate all the fruit. There was a cow and a milker, but no longer. Now they get milk from down the road - all fresh, complete with cream. And eating out rarely happens. Everyone is responsible for cooking, cleaning, and eating. :) And since Bec is a chef (she's taking her last cooking class now, which is a baking class), she makes amazing food, and she brings home yummy treats, including macaroons, chocolate candies, ice cream, etc., all homemade! Also, Bec and I have enjoyed playing musical duets - her on the piano and me on the violin (she has a violin here, so I've been playing hers). It's pretty sweet!

Usually on week days I bike to town in the morning, which is probably about 4 or 5 miles (10K) away, including hills... Bec puts me on a computer at her college computer lab. We bike around town, or take walks on paths in the area, picnic, etc. If she's busy, I'm just biking or walking around Palmy getting to know the area. Evenings are spent at home with the family watching TV (I know, I know... but I'm on holiday, so I don't care if I'm rotting my brain!) or reading or playing music or chatting or looking at pictures from the day. The sun sets around 5, so we have to really take advantage of daylight. Okay, for here, it's short days. :) My most memorable bike trip was when I went to the supermarket and biked home with about 30 lbs. of food on my back... that was a good time. But I made it! (I had to take a break up that massive hill...)

Bec and I enjoying a hike in the woods. This one was about 2 hours-ish. I had no idea where we were... but it was beautiful!

Bec modeling on a bridge... :)

Power for Palmy comes from the HUGE windmill farm, so Bec and I drove up to see them on the windiest day here yet! It was so cool. :) On the way back down the mountain, we decided to stop and climb a random hill. It happened to be a sheep pasture, so we walked between sheep poo and up this steep grassy hill to the top where it was windy and narrow and awesome. For dinner we made chocolate pudding and apple crumble, served with my new favorite ice cream: hokey pokey. (I'm going to bring some amazing NZ sweets home for everyone to try - mostly for me, though.) :)

This is the view from on top of the hill where the windmills are. We drove up here on a perfectly windy day!

Enjoying the view!

It was so windy, Bec and I could lean all the way into the wind and stay standing up! We also tried fun tricks, such as seeing how far our spit could go, running into and with the wind, etc.

This is on top of the random sheep hill we climbed on the way down. That white spec there is our van, at the bottom of the hill we climbed.

Bec and I had to take a seat at the top of the sheep hill because it was so windy. If you look carefully behind her you can see the windmills.

A collection of windmills

Bec leans into the wind, hoping she doesn't fall!

Oh yes, Bec has horses, so we've been able to ride!!!!! YAAAYY!! It's been ages, but it was amazing all the same. And then... the best ride ever... we took the horses to the beach! Bec, Chloe, and I all put a horse in the truck, and their Mum drove us to the beach on the west side of the island. It was wicked. We let the horses totally run free, and all I had to do was stay on! It was sooo cool! I was on the biggest one (also the oldest...), a thoroughbred, and old racehorse that didn't quite make it on the track. But he loves to race anyhow, and didn't let anyone get ahead of him, so we absolutely FLEW. So sweet. :) Also, I rode in jeans and gumboots (rain boots), which was a bad idea, so now I have this huge sore on my leg. But no worries.

This is Tim, the horse I've been assigned. He's probably about 16 hands, or thereabouts, 18 years old, slow as (unless he's racing...), and super sweet.

Bec rides Pal, the other thoroughbred hack (though it looks like an Apaloosa).

This is Chloe on Ringy, one of the ponies, riding on the beach! He turned out to be quite a quick runner! He put up a good race against Tim - we were absolutely flying down the beach - so cool to watch him run, though I was a little distracted staying on my own galloping horse to take any pictures. :)

This is Bec, once again, showing us how NOT to ride. Fortunately, Pal is super tolerant of her antics, and mostly was just enjoying being on the beach. Coming out here gives all the horses (and riders) and extraordinary renewed energy. It was pretty much one of the best rides of my life. Unfortunately, Pal didn't care too much about going fast, although he did gallop a little. Most of the time he was hanging out in the back. At one point, Chloe and I were at a nice canter, trying to keep them held up so they didn't run all the way home, and Bec's horse just trotted the whole time - this amazing extended trot, but never broke into a canter. So Chloe and I are up there going, "Easy, easy, whoa," as our horses try desparately to move from a canter to a gallop, and Bec's right behind us going, "I'm still trotting!"

Bec took this photo from her horse. I'm there on the left, and Chloe is next to me. The horses loved walking in the salt water (super good for their legs and feet anyway), and Tim loves playing in the water.

Can you see my reflection in the sand?

Ants is another Kiwi (New Zealander) that worked at camp, and her and Bec are long time mates. She lives on the South Island these days, but was up in Palmy for knee surgery. Bad news for her, but we got to meet up, which was awesome! It was definitely good to see her again, and surely not the last time before I leave. :)

Movie night: we watched a NZ classic, "The Whale Rider." It's pretty good, about Mauri legend, I recommend it. Also pretty cool, speaking of Mauri, a friend of Bec's, a guy she used to work for, knew I was coming, so he prepared a gift for me. He's a Mauri, and wanted to give me something really exceptional, I guess, to take home, so he gave me a traditional Mauri necklace carved from bone (now it's from beef bone, but traditionally it's from whale bone - whale hunting is illegal now) - a huge one - and this one represents the Mauri legends and myths. He put it on me, and no one else is allowed to wear it. So don't even ask. :)

It's pretty big, nearly the length of my hand. So beautiful!

I'm also planning a trip to the South Island, a bus trip type thing, so it's about 10 days. Should be a good time. I'm hoping to enjoy some awesome opportunities, all within a budget I'm working out now... I don't want to tell you all of them because I don't want to spoil it. But they're really cool!!!!

New Zealand is pretty friggin amazing. It's so green, even in the winter! South Island will be colder, for sure. Oh, but I got a pair of pants for $3.50 and a cool polyester softshell jacket for $13.30... and that's in NZ dollars. So 80% of that price is the US$ amount. Pretty good sale, eh? :)

NEW FROM YESTERDAY

Yesterday afternoon, Bec wanted to take me on the Bridle Path, one of the many biking paths in Palmy. It basically runs a big circle around the city, which sounded pretty cool to me! It ended up taking about 3.5 hours, plus biking in and out of town, which takes about 30 minutes each way, so our total biking time was about 4.5 hours just yesterday afternoon. With all the stops to look at maps, biking through grass, up hills, and turning around a few times, we didn't make excellent time. However, we figured we biked about 40 kilometers, which is almost 25 miles. Our butts were a little sore, and we were pretty tired last night. But mostly it was fantastic.

Bec coming through one of the many gates that hindered our way. Some we could walk through, others we had to actually lift our bikes over the fence to get through. Hmm... maybe they were there for a reason? Ah well, no one was looking!

We thought this sign was funny: "Extreme Care: Sections of this walkway are unstable." It was the second one of these signs we saw, so I figured I had better document it.

We biked along the Wanganui River for much of the way. Pretty cool backyard. :)

We took a wrong turn and ended up on this mountain biker trail in the woods. Narrow path through ditches and over logs and along steep ledges. It was pretty wicked fun. :) It turns out we made a huge circle and ended up back on our trail where we had been about 30 minutes earlier. But we did eventually find our way, and we saw the race track where we will go on Saturday to watch the SteepleChase Race!!

This is Bec fighting her way up a steep grassy hill. She's so hardcore. Okay, so we had to walk up a few steeper ones, but next time I won't be beaten!

This photo was actually taken in the back of the horse truck where Bec and I had to ride on the way home from the beach. It was a little chilly, so we bundled up on the couch under random horse blankets and coolers we found in the back. Anyway, we've definitely been enjoying ourselves.

Remember to comment - and thanks to those who already have! I hope your summer is as amazing as mine is. Take care!!
Cheers!