Surreal and bittersweet. That's how you could describe this past week. My amazing dad flew all the way out here just to spend my week long spring break with me in this foreign country I've come to consider home. His flight was scheduled to get in at 4pm this past Saturday, August 23rd, which meant I had to wait practically the whole day for him to arrive. I made a list of all the things we could do, watched a few episodes of Friday Night Lights on Netflix (yeah, I cheated the system), and extensively cleaned the lounge and my room. Then once about 4:15pm rolled around, I walked over to the hotel my dad was staying at. He had an 8 hour layover in Auckland, and you only get 30 minutes of free WiFi in that airport, so I hadn't heard from him since he landed there. It wasn't too chilly so I didn't mind just sitting and waiting outside the reception area until he got there. The table and chairs I was sitting at gave me just a glance of the street, and I tell you what, every car that passed made my heart just go crazy thinking it was my dad. I'm pretty sure I texted everyone I could saying The anticipation is killing me! Finally his shuttle pulled up and I saw my favorite guy who I haven't seen in two months! This is the longest I have been away from home. I mean I have taken one trip without my parents before and I go to college just down the road. This whole study abroad thing is kind of a big deal! It was so nice to see a familiar face and to be greeted with such a great bear hug! I'm pretty sure we smiled for about 20 minutes straight. It's crazy enough that I am in New Zealand, let alone my dad coming to spend a week with me!
It was about dark when we finally headed out for dinner, plus my dad just spent like 30 hours getting here, so we just grabbed some dinner close to the hotel. His hotel is just at the beginning of the main stretch of George Street and only a 10 minute walk from my flat. Not too bad I'd say! We walked down a few blocks and decided on a very American dinner; burgers and fries. Now I am not sure if we were both just hungry or if the burger was just that good, but man it was delicious! I mean I haven't had a burger since I have been here, so maybe that's what did it for me.
The next morning, praying for a sunny day, I gave my dad the tour of the campus and the town. But first, being breakfast people, we had to go to Caper's. That was the breakfast place I went to a few weekends ago and I knew my dad would love it. It's pancakes; pancakes have always been our daddy-daughter breakfast. And yeah it definitely hit the spot! Luckily the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and it was simply a beautiful day!
It was about dark when we finally headed out for dinner, plus my dad just spent like 30 hours getting here, so we just grabbed some dinner close to the hotel. His hotel is just at the beginning of the main stretch of George Street and only a 10 minute walk from my flat. Not too bad I'd say! We walked down a few blocks and decided on a very American dinner; burgers and fries. Now I am not sure if we were both just hungry or if the burger was just that good, but man it was delicious! I mean I haven't had a burger since I have been here, so maybe that's what did it for me.
The next morning, praying for a sunny day, I gave my dad the tour of the campus and the town. But first, being breakfast people, we had to go to Caper's. That was the breakfast place I went to a few weekends ago and I knew my dad would love it. It's pancakes; pancakes have always been our daddy-daughter breakfast. And yeah it definitely hit the spot! Luckily the sun peeked out from behind the clouds and it was simply a beautiful day!
Did I mention we grabbed a beer together? Yeah that was pretty awesome!
We also decided to do the Speight's Brewery Tour. It was in town so why not?! And being that it was spring break, there weren't many people around, so only two other people were on the same tour with us! We got to learn the history of Speight's and even see where it is brewed, which was a new thing for me! It was pretty cool! But the best part? You get 30 minutes after the tour to go into the tasting room and taste 5 different kinds of beer...as much as you want! I think we both ended up having around 10 glasses each. Granted they were not large glasses by any means, but the beer was just so good! We couldn't help it. Plus the tour was like $25 per person, so we had to make sure we got our money's worth! We also got ourselves some Speight's apparel to flaunt around at home. Apparently Speight's is not really in the US, our tour guide mentioned it may still be at Trader Joe's. My dad and I are determined to find it somewhere. Friends, keep a look out for us, huh? :)
We also decided to rent a car for a few of the days. Dunedin is great, don't get me wrong, but your feet can only get you so far. I was fairly confident my dad would be able to handle driving on the left side of the road. He's had a few more years of experience behind the wheel than I have, and I picked it up pretty well. I figured he shouldn't have a problem.
We rented a tiny little car from Rent-A-Dent (fire that marketing manager please. Sounds like we were going to get a piece of junk metal to drive around for a few days). It was actually pretty perfect for what we needed it for. Good gas mileage...or whatever they call it here. I wanted to go down to St. Claire and St. Kilda beaches again because it was just so beautiful. And I knew that my dad hadn't been on a beach in quite a while, like myself before I came here. I figured it would be a nice treat. And it sure was. The ride there had me a little nervous though. When you are used to centering the car in the lane from the other side of the car, you tend to drift to the left a little bit. Maybe I was just being a woman about it, but we came close to some cars parked along the side of the road! But nevertheless, we made it to the beach in one piece!
We rented a tiny little car from Rent-A-Dent (fire that marketing manager please. Sounds like we were going to get a piece of junk metal to drive around for a few days). It was actually pretty perfect for what we needed it for. Good gas mileage...or whatever they call it here. I wanted to go down to St. Claire and St. Kilda beaches again because it was just so beautiful. And I knew that my dad hadn't been on a beach in quite a while, like myself before I came here. I figured it would be a nice treat. And it sure was. The ride there had me a little nervous though. When you are used to centering the car in the lane from the other side of the car, you tend to drift to the left a little bit. Maybe I was just being a woman about it, but we came close to some cars parked along the side of the road! But nevertheless, we made it to the beach in one piece!
After a glorious hour on the beach, we decided to take a drive along the Otago Peninsula. And crazy to think that I have been here for 2 months and have yet to explore the Peninsula, which is like 20 minutes away. But as we were leaving St. Claire, I noticed a race track. At first I thought, Oh a wide open space? Must be a rugby field. But as we drove by, we realized it was a greyhound racing track. When my dad and I crash in the hotel room after dinner, we keep finding greyhound races on TV. We both got kind of into them on TV, so we were intrigued when we saw the track so close to Dunedin. I went online that night and the races were up in Christchurch the next day unfortunately. Maybe before I leave I will try to go! But anyways, we continued up the Peninsula and my goodness it was absolutely gorgeous! There came a point where you just look across the harbor and you could see practically the entire city of Dunedin! It was just so unreal. I told my dad that it looks just like a postcard. I'll let you be the judge of that.
We continued driving until we reached the one and only castle in New Zealand: The Larnach Castle. It had such beautiful gardens surrounding it with ideal views of the rest of the Peninsula. It was a pretty big castle too! Lots of rooms, of course. What castle isn't complete without a ridiculous number of rooms? And the detailing of the rooms was just amazing. The titling, the pictures, the stairwell, everything. There was also a tiny little stairwell that led us up to the top of the castle. It was pretty awesome!
And since it wasn't too far away, we ventured all the way to the tip of the Peninsula to the Royal Albatross Center. Now, if you don't know what albatross are, please let me educate you real quick. They are huge seabirds (similar looking to seagulls) who spend something like 80% of their lives at sea. And by huge, I mean huge! Their wingspan can get up to 11 feet! The only reason they need land is for laying eggs. Basically the first four or five years of their lives are spent at sea. And about 85% of the birds return to the original location they were born at. And if they have a partner, the male will return to that same spot hours, or even minutes before the female does. They mate for life and generally live to 60 years old. There was a bird at the Royal Albatross Center who was 63 years old! Isn't that just crazy?! It was so interesting to learn about these birds and then to actually see them...incredible! There were 4 juveniles on the side of the hill and one adult that liked to fly right in front of the viewing house and give us quite the show!
The second day we had the car, I ran out of places to drive to that were doable in one day. I really wanted to go to Queenstown and do some wine tastings, but that is not just a drive down the street. It is quite a good distance west, meaning we would have to deal with mountains, which we could easily do, but it just takes so much longer. So, with no plan in mind, we just drove north along the coast. And it was perfect. We found such a beautiful beach that for 95% of the time we were there, which was over an hour, we had it all to ourselves! It's called Long Beach and is just passed this tiny little town. It had this amazing cliff and thousands upon thousands of shells along the beach. We also discovered a lot of crab bodies. Just pieces parts scattered everywhere from seagulls. It was an incredible find, and one I probably wouldn't have found without my dad! :)
It was just so surreal to have my dad here to share with my the experience of a lifetime. But just like all great things, it came to an end too quickly. It was really hard to watch him leave, but like I said, it's not goodbye, it's until next time. I know he already knows this, but it meant the world to me that he would travel so far, for so long, just for lil ol me :) I guess my dad is pretty fond of his daughter!
9 weeks have passed since I began my journey here. About 10 and a half remain. Can't wait to see what else New Zealand has in store for me! Thanks for everyone's support! I miss you all like crazy. Love from New Zealand! I will write again soon!
9 weeks have passed since I began my journey here. About 10 and a half remain. Can't wait to see what else New Zealand has in store for me! Thanks for everyone's support! I miss you all like crazy. Love from New Zealand! I will write again soon!