What Balloon Festival?

So this weekend was another success, I mean I am living in New Zealand – how could it not be successful? With a three-day week behind me I was excited to have another couple days off.

Friday

 I was asked Friday afternoon by my friend from IU (who has been here since October) to attend a comedy show downtown. I LOVE comedy shows, the awkwardness of some of the performers is the best! So I took the 9:15 bus downtown and walked around and finally found the place! We got there about a half hour before the doors would open so we got drinks (Macs Gold aka a pretty cheap but good beer) and caught up on what is going on in our lives and how we love it here but miss our friends and family from home. The doors opened and we were escorted to the front table right in front of the stage. I hate sitting there because that means the comedians will pick on you all the time – which is so embarrassing! Good thing there was a couple sitting besides us and during the show the comedians basically just picked on them (few times on us but not much J thank goodness). It was a great time and once the show was over we were exhausted! It was nearly midnight and it was time for me to head back. I had a full day ahead of me!

The only picture I took.. 

Saturday

Four other girls and myself had plans to go to a hotair balloon festival in the city of Hamilton  called the Balloons over Waikato on Saturday. They have a night glow where they light up all the balloons at dusk and have live music and some games. I found this event even before I got to NZ and definitely wanted to go. I love hot air balloons and was looking forward to seeing them.

I had to be downtown around 10:30 so I took a bus back downtown around 9:30 and started walking towards the car rental place. Hamilton is about 1.5 hours south east of Auckland and we decided to rent a car for the day and drive down there. Renting a car is really easy and not that expensive ( we split it between 5 girls). On my way over ( it was about a 2k walk) I ran into Brittany and Jordan walking over as well! We came across a Saturday market and there was this waffle stand, I bought a half of a Belgium waffle and OH MY GOODNESS it was AMazing!!! Highlight of my morning for sure!

so delicious! 

We finally made it to the car place, picked up the Nissan and off we went! After stoping a couple times we made it to Hamilton and found our hostel pretty quickly. The guy in charge was so nice and was able to have us in one dorm together. We dropped off our stuff and headed out for the day.

We stopped into this great restaurant (don’t remember the name) but the food was so yummy. I got fritters on top of a couscous salad  and it was again AMAZING! 

After we left we basically just stopped in other pubs for some drinks while making our way slowly to the festival. I had my apricot beer that I got at the beer festival and loved!

We finally walked to the festival (after following a group of high school students) and we were a bit disappointed. It is held on the university campus and we thought there would be more to do around there (college town ya know?) There were tons of games for kids and some music but nothing for adults.  

We decided we would travel back downtown and have dinner at a place called Inferno. I had some bruschetta and lots of red wine from Hawkes Bay – yummy! Our waiter was so kind and gave us tons of free drink and buy one get one tickets to some surrounding bars for later this evening.

After a few bottles of wine and some delicious food later we realized it was dusk and we should probably get going to the festival. We took a taxi there but it was to late, the balloons were gone but there was a firework show that started when we arrived. I was upset that we didn’t get to see the balloons but it was nice just to be with my friends.

We headed back into town and used up the drink tickets. We went to a bunch of different bars, listened to some live music and danced to some awesome 90’s tunes. Eventually we made it back to our hostel and slept like babies.

Sunday

After we woke up we headed out to breakfast, our hostel dude told us about  a place called town and country so we went there. Worst decision ever. The food has horrible and after paying 15 NZ$ on crap food we decided to leave Hamilton and head back to Auckland.

I drove a NZ car back and wow it was different! Being on the other side of the car and road was so fun!!! I had two main issues 1.  The blinkers are on the right side of the wheel and the window washer thing is on the left so basically when I wanted to change lanes I signaled with my wipers – haha! 2. There is a lot more car on the left side rather than on the right so that was a big difficult. Other than that smooth sailing!

We made it back safe and sound and overall I had a great weekend, not because of the festival (lack there of) but because I became closer with the girls who came with me. It is always so nice to make new and better friends J

My host family is away at their batch (beach house) in the Coromandel till Wednesday so Alison and I are fending for our selves the next couple of days. When they left they made sure to go over everything with me – all I wanted to do is say hey I have lived in a house/apartment for the past 5 years by myself I think I can handle it J

I am so excited for this week – I am in school today (Monday) but I am going on a Biology field trip tomorrow and a Social Science field trip to Kawau Island on Wednesday! Then of course I teach Thursday, Friday and then the weekend! I will make sure to keep you updated through the week!

Of course I am missing you all dearly!!