Chapter Six A: 29 September, 2004

Hello! How are you? This weekend we weren't quite sure what we were going to
do exactly since the season finale of the amazing race was on saturday night
for us!! EXCELLENT show! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out!!!!
:D (we got back in time to see it)

I finally got my work permit and visa YAY!

On friday after we got home from work, we were asking ourselves "So . . .
What do you want to do tonight? What are we going to do about dinner? Where
would you like to go? What is the plan for this weekend?"

I suggested we drive out to the caves that very minute and spend the night
out there along the way. I got the "Are you serious?" thing with the
incredulous look. He seemed to love the idea but was hesitant to go for some
reason. I said, get the bag and pack it!!! I had to hustle Patrick along to
get him moving, but we packed our bag, dropped it off in the car and went
for dinner. We didn't get on the road outta here until eight thirty ish
friday evening.

We passed through many small one road towns and spent the night in Hamilton.
The first place we checked out had BATHTUBS! spa bathtubs. with jets and
lots of hot water. :( We stayed at best western or some other well known
establishment that only had a dinky shower. I'm never going to have a bath
until we come back home for christmas. :( That thought brings real tears to
my eyes. Enough.

After Hamilton, we passed through several more one road towns on our way to
Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. I've since found out from a local kiwi that there's
a cave about an hour from here that's free and has plenty of glow worms.
Waitomo caves are pretty cool, beautiful, well lit, and cost us twenty five
dollars per person to go through AND you're NOT allowed to take photos. Part
of the tour is on a boat in the caves, which was most excellent!~ it was a
pretty great tour altogether, and we did learn a few things about glow
worms, which look like tiny green stars in the black black sky.

On to the pictures:

One of the small towns we passed through had a KIWI house with real live
kiwis in it~~!!!! We asked before we paid to get in if we should come back
at feeding time for the kiwis, but the girl said we were GUARANTEED to see a
kiwi. It was some bird zoo , some aviary, some place with lots and lots of
birds. we only really wanted to see the kiwis! They were very cool, so we
tried to take a picture. I brightened it up some, and patrick likes the
effect of the brightened picture. They're pretty big birds, and fascinating
to look at.

After the caves, we decided to drive through the mountains (if you can call
them that) to take a peeky see at Rotorua. They have natural springs. It was
on the Amazing Race. What they failed to say is how bad it smells there. It
stinks to high heaven. We gassed up and said, "Let's just go home - this
place STINKS!" so we did. On the way home, we passed through another one
road town with all of these super cool corrugated (aluminum?) metal signs
and buildings!!! it was very cool, so we stopped and took a few pictures.
There were many many more, they were on every single building down that one
street!! Well, just about every building.

In hamilton, just getting out of the car to go into our hotel room, my jeans
got DRENCHED. It was about eight in the morning or so and they were still
damp. There's no central heating. Our bed had two electric pads - one for
each side - so the rest of the room was pretty chilly. Patrick thought that
was so funny. He'd taken a few pictures of me blow drying my jeans, but they
were blurry since I'd accidentally put on his glasses that morning instead
of mine, so he wasn't wearing his.

Patrick absolutely had to take a picture of the time of day when we start
out on saturdays. Usually it's earlier. Pay parking takes effect at eight am
outside of the apartment building - and if you try to pay for parking, it's
three dollars an hour. In the underground parking in our building, it's four
dollars a half hour. We've found out it's eleven or twelve dollars for the
day if you park before ten am, so the plan this weekend is to nip down, get
the car, move it to underground parking early and stay home this weekend.
I've had enough of going out, and I need to relax and do nothing. I could do
this in a bathtub every few days or so, but I don't and won't have that
luxury.

When we were househunting, only one of the places had a bathtub, but it was
out in the boon docks.

I am going to be late for work now so I must sign off. I've taken pictures
of the centre but I have to upload them, resize them, and then we'll see if
we put them up on a page for any interested.

Much love hugz and kisses
still missing you millions!

April

re: my biopsy results - There are some abnormal cells on/in (???) my cervix.
They are not cancerous, but will need to be removed via laser. I'll have an
appointment set up at lion's gate hospital in december for that.

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