Yes, sadly I've come to some realizations in this past week. I have been hearing and reading about friends back home and their spring break plans in the warm sun and I have to say goodbye to the sun for the next few months. As the months quickly change from March to April, the southern hemisphere says goodbye to summer and hello to fall and the frigid winter. The winds from Antarctica blow over the hills near my house and it reminds why I live in California. The essentials in my purse are no longer sunglasses and chapstick; I traded those in for an umbrella and gloves. My everyday wear is no longer flip flops and shorts but boots, scarves and a raincoat. Now some of you, especially my family living in the east coast, are probably laughing thinking I'm being a little over dramatic. But come on, what do you expect from a California raised girl who lives in sunny, beautiful Santa Barbara? The fall here is colder than my winter! It makes me shiver to think it's only going to get colder! The best part is flats in Dunedin barely have insulation and no central heating.... I packed to live in warmer Christchurch, not freezing Dunedin! All I have is a tiny space heater the size of a toaster which costs way too much to run. Awesome. But I'll manage, it just makes going back home to sunny California that much better.
Now time to update you all since my last post. Last Monday I went on a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory which was one of the coolest things ever. I literally felt like I was in the middle of the Wonka Factory and kept looking for the Oompa Loompas. Our tour guide Cocoa Joe shows up in purple overalls (Cadbury chocolate's colors are white and purple!) and goes over the rules of the tour. But first and most important he hands everyone a chocolate bar. YES. Next he passes out hairnets and instructs us all to put them on. He also gave us little purple bags and said we had to hold on to them for more chocolate samples. I can't even explain my excitement at this point.
Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed during the tour. I saw how chocolate was made, all the giant conveyor belts that made the different candies, Cadbury easter eggs in the process of being mixed and tons of other chocolate specialties including...A CHOCOLATE WATERFALL with liquid chocolate samples. It was so cool. Cocoa Joe asked trivia questions on the way and whoever answered correctly got even more chocolate. So by the end of the tour my goodie bag was filled with free samples and some trivia candy. I felt like a 5 year that just finished trick-or-treating. You could say I went home a happy kid. Here's a few pictures I could get:
Cadbury World, yum.
Us freaking out in front of the giant pile of Crunchie bars. Which happen to be my new favorite candy bar!
Hair nets!
We played on the trucks...haha
Look at all that chocolate! Also, it was incredibly cheap. How mean...
Thursday was St. Patty's Day which was basically one giant, green party similar to the states. Dunedin has some Irish/Scottish heritage so the town went all out. I don't think I've seen that many green people! My flatmate and I decided to purchase green wigs to wear that night and everybody loved them. We were a big hit, it was too much fun.
Saturday was quite an eventful day. During the day the college kids had their annual Hyde Street Keg Party. What is that you ask? Well, it's basically what it seems. A small, tiny street called Hyde has a day party where every single house gets a keg and a theme and let's the chaos begin. Some themes included: Disneyland, superheros, Christmas, animals, Olympics, and many more. So of course I couldn't miss out on such an event. I did my best to create a superhero theme last minute and went out with some friends to jump in on the craziness.
Friends in silly costumes
So many people!
More ridiculous costumes
Then later that night was the rugby game. This was a particular big game for me because it was the Otago Highlanders versus the Christchurch Crusaders. So, I had to cheer for my original home of Christchurch even though I was surrounded by Otago fans. But the game was tons of fun. Of course half the time I was focusing on trying to figure out the rules (it was my first official rugby game!) but towards the end I sort of figured it out. I should be better prepared for my next one. The Crusaders won so I was happy!
The Crusaders entering the field
A friend and I trying our best to understand the game
Rugby scrum! So cool.
So that was my crazy weekend. Lots of fun, as usual. Haha. However, I'm counting the days to this next weekend. My friends and I are traveling to Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. There I plan to go bungy jumping off the 3rd highest jump in the world and swing over a canyon, the world's highest swing might I mention. I am already nervous, excited, scared, anxious just thinking about it! I'll try my best to get as many pictures and videos as I can. But for now I'll leave you with the website of the jumps so you can see pictures and understand my fear!
www.bungy.co.nz
I'll be doing the Nevis Bungy and ARC swing. Yikes!
Until next time. :)
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