Last night out in Paihia

Yesterday I made a handful of new friends. I met two Americans and a Norwegian and an Irish girl. We hung around the hostel and played drinking games and then went out on the town and had a grand old time (and an expensive one =( ). I also ran into my good friend Josh whom I met in Wellington when he was too drunk to differentiate between the sink and the urinal. Good times. It was a good way to spend my last night in Paihia.

Thirsty Thursday

Tonight was $4 drink night at the base bar in Paihia. Before I went out tonight I had a few beers and then a few shots of rum with some Koreans that I met. They were fun. Unfortunately we went to the bar together and one of them bought the first round of drinks and then when I bought the second they all buggered off. So I had to drink all the drinks myself.

I ran into my Albertan friend Jody again that I met eons ago when I was up here the first time. She is up here working at Dive HQ. I also ran into a Belgian girl who I bet would forget my name. She forgot my name but I remembered hers. It was Kim. I am pretty toasted now though so I am going to bed. Goodnight!

Angry Fruit

Today I was at the supermarket and saw an odd looking orange fruit covered in spikes. Naturally I wanted to try it so I bought one. On the way back I managed to cut myself with the fruit. It was in the bag and it scrapped on my leg and actually drew blood. I have never injured myself with a fruit up until today. Not sure how I feel about it.

Bryan's Birthday BBQ Extravaganza

Last night was pretty awesome. It was my dutch friend Bryan's Birthday and we wanted to have a good time. We started the day off renting a boat and heading out into the islands. We had a tube as well and I managed to hang on for a heart pounding ten minutes before Bryan put me in the drink. Following this Ilana gave it a shot. She went for about five minutes before throwing in the towel. Bryan went last and Ilana killed him right of the bat. He was not facing the boat when she got going and when the rope went taught he just got chucked out so he gave it another go.



We brought to cases of Corona out with us but unfortunately we neglected to bring a bottle opener with us. We tried using various implements available to no avail. I finally had the clever idea to pull up alongside a sailboat and ask if we could borrow a bottle opener. The first boat we came across had a friendly older Kiwi couple on it and they ended up giving us a bottle opener. I swam over to their boat to get it.



Once we got the opener we started enjoying our Corona's and taking turns driving the boat around the islands. Good times were had.



As our trip wound down we made a pit stop at the Black Rocks and I picked some mussels to have as a snack when we got back. I managed to grab a solid two dozen mussels in less than 5 minutes. That was without a mask or snorkel. I cant imagine the damage I could have done in five minutes with a mask. After my mussel picking expedition we headed back to land and settled our debt.



We went back to the hostel and I steamed the mussels and we consumed them in short order. Bryan has the pictures of this event and hopefully I can add them in here when he puts them on Facebook. After Mussels Ilana had to head back to Auckland so we said farewell and then Bryan and I hung out in the hot tub for awhile were we met an American girl from Texas. We had decided on doing a BBQ for dinner and invited her to join us. We packed the hot tub in and cleaned up and then the three of us headed to Woolworths to get venison sausages, burgers and of course some more Corona because it was quite cheap $26.99NZD ($18.60CAD) for a case of 12.



I was appointed Lord of the Grill and commenced the cooking upon our return to the hostel. I think I did a fine job of cooking everything to perfection. Our meal was delicious as was the Corona. After dinner and our beers were wrapped up we broke into the Mount Gay Eclipse and had some very stiff Rum & Cokes and chatted with a Northern Englishman (a rarity - most folk are southern) before heading to the Base Bar for some more Rum & Coke. Jessica packed it in around mid night and Bryan and I decided to head into town with two random Kiwi blokes we met. Unfortunately Bonfire was closed so at that point it was pretty much just head to bed. All in all yesterday was a fun day. Not feeling super hot today but often that is the cost of a starting to drink at lunch time and stopping at around 1AM the next morning.



I have no idea but I seem to take one of these pictures every single night. I am pretty sure I took this one while I was at the urinal as well.

Beer Pancakes

Tonight I decided to make beer pancakes using Steinlager in the place of milk in a standard pancake recipe. It turned out quite well. It was pancakes with a hint of Steinlager taste. I quite enjoyed them and garnered a lot of looks whilst I was making them.

For anyone that wants to know the recipe was...

1 cup self rising flour
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg (beaten)
2 tbsp butter... Unroll Parchment
1 cup beer

If you want them fluffier add some baking powder. I am taking it easy tonight in preparation for Bryan's Birthday tomorrow.

Easter Sunday = Kill Joy

Easter Sunday prooved to be another kill joy ending all the festivities at midnight once more. I made friends with a whole bunch of new people regardless and we had lots of fun doing random stuff until midnight. I also met up with one of my Israeli friends from Taupo.







Around midnight when things were shutting down a Belgian girl in our group had the brilliant idea to go swimming in the ocean. Past history has shown Ryan has ZERO problem swimming in the ocean in the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately when we got to the water everyone wimped out and I ended up swimming in the water - naked. All the while I was heckling the lame folk on the shore. After about half an hour I decided I'd had enough punishment and got out.



One English guy from Leeds was bold enough to join me for awhile and we took a team photo after. After my swim I went over to the bonfire that had since been erected and worked on warming up while chatting with old friends and meeting new ones. Being Easter Weekend a lot of Kiwis were out and about which put an interesting spin on the night. I hung around until the police shut the fire down and then lay in the wet grass for awhile watching the full moon.



Around 2:30 I packed it in and made my way back to bed. I woke up this morning in a bed full of sand.

Not so Good Friday =(

Last night was a massive dissapointment. I had mussels for dinner and while I was outside eating them I made friends with an English guy named Alan. We ended up going out for drinks after and having a grand old time at the base bar and then Salty's and took advantage of $4 drink night. However at midnight we found out everything was closing. Just like that the night came crashing to a halt. Good times over.





In other better news I had an entire eight bed dorm to myself last night. This allowed me to put my laptop out and run tunes on it all night instead of using my iPod.

Back in the U.S.S.R err Bay of Islands

That's right everyone. I am back in my favorite place in New Zealand. I am back up in Paihia for an indefinite ammount of time. I got checked into the hostel and the weather was rubbish but I went swimming anyways. I rocked down the road to the beach and swam in the ocean for a solid 45 minutes despite the rain and the wind. I am happy to be back up here. Mussels in White Wine Garlic Butter Cream Sauce for dinner. Happy times!

The Final Goodbye

Today Lisa, Mike and myself said goodbye to Grace and made our way back up to Auckland on the Kiwi Experience Bus. We made a stop in Hobbiton on the way up and Mike and I had Lamb Subs at Subway. Delicious.

When we got to Auckland we went our separate ways to check into our hostels before reuniting on Queen St. to grab some food. On the way down Queen St. I stopped at the pharmacy and got another nasal spray - just saline this time. After that I found Sophie at EB Games and said hi to her. We decided on Sushi for dinner and Mike and I enjoyed Milk Shakes for dessert. We wandered around central Auckland for a spell before returning to the YHA for a few drinks and some random nonsense.



Our random nonsense consisted of a game based around naming first countries starting with every letter of the alphabet and then cities. When we did cities the catch was you couldn't name a city from your own country or New Zealand or Australia. After a few rounds of this we said our final goodbyes and then I headed off to bed as I am making my way up to Paihia again bright and early tomorrow morning.

Meatball Sunday

I made it safely to Rotorua stopping at some nifty thermal mud pools along the way. Today is also Sunday so after pissing away a few hours on my laptop I went and got myself a meatball sub and a bottle of coke. I also got two M&M Cookies to go with it. I went to Subway at the wrong time though as the line up was out the door. I am off to meet up with Mike and Lisa and perhaps Grace as well now. Enjoy pictures of mud.

Another messy night.

Last night was even messier than the night before. We organized a drinking game called Ring of Fire or Kings Cup. We were playing with three Norwegians, one Swede, three Englishfolk, one Dutchman and one Canadian (not including myself). The game went quite well and provided much entertainment. It ended when Jamie (the Canadian girl) had to drink the "Kings Cup" which contained several types of beer, some white wine and some vodka and apple juice. She drank most of it without vomiting but she folded before she finished. I got a video of the whole ordeal.



Following this game we played a small game of "I have never" between myself, the Dutch guy, one of the Norwegian girls and the Canadian girl. I learned a lot of interesting stuff about the lot of them.



I am up early today as I am heading to Rotorua for a night. Hopefully meeting up with Mike, Lisa and Grace as well.



Around midnight we headed into town to element bar. I popped by Simon's usual hangout and dragged him over to Element. We had a grand old time at element bar with our group and were joined by my two Israeli roommates. We all danced the night away. One of the Israeli guys got kicked out at one point because he was too drunk. Otherwise the night was mostly uneventful.

Angry...like vegemite.

Last night proved to be quite entertaining. We hung around Mike, Lisa and Simon's hostel playing cards and eating cookies before Simon, Mike and I headed into town to check out what was going down



We went straight to Element bar and Mike and I got on the rum and coke. We hung around and chatted. I met a girl from Toronto that was dressed a Rugby Coach because her tour group decided they had to dress up as something starting with the letter "C".



Around midnight a big fight broke out between some of the local inbreeds and the bouncers at Element Bar. I was quick thinking enough to get it on video with my camera. I will have to see if I can upload the video somewhere. Shortly after the fight finally broke up the local 5-0 came about but we'd lost interest in the whole project by that point and had gone back to the rum.

Swedish Lisa from Te Kaha found us around 1AM and we had a reunion and got caught up on recent happenings in each others lives. I bought a few rounds of drinks in lieu of all the Heneiken Mike and I got off her and Maria back on the East Cape. I lost her or she lost me at some point and shortly after I decided to just pack it in for the night. I found my way back to the hostel drunk and in the dark on the first try which was nothing short of a miracle given my history with navigation.



Mike and Lisa are off to Rotorua today where I will beating them them soon.

Reuinion with Mike & Lisa!

Today I met back up with Mike and Lisa in Taupo. We all went to the lake where Simon, Mike and myself played games in the lake using golf balls we found from the nearby hole-in-one challenge.

Our first game involved a really broken hot potato/volleyball game involving a golf ball. We eventually switched to a game wherein the ball was thrown and whoever retrieved it first won. Unfortunately after a few rounds we managed to lose the ball. During our methodical search for the ball we found a cache of about 50 balls and each took one and resumed our search and recovery game using three balls. This was great fun and good exercise and lasted for a while. After we got fed up chasing the golf balls down we got up on one of the docks and began attempting to bounce the ball off the first dock and onto the second dock. We played at this until we decided it was time to head back for dinner.

We're going to meet up tonight and more than likely Simon, Mike and myself will head out for a night on the town. I am looking forward to it.