Friday 25 December 2015

Kaitaia, New Zealand - Christmas and My first Yankee

Over the last few days I have met several new people, but one couple in particular made Christmas a lot more enjoyable.

A few days ago I met Trevor and Kathi for just an evening.  That evening Trevor and I had a few beers and chatted, while Kathi listened into our conversation, but was rather board. lol.  The next day Kathi and I went shopping for my new hat, and for her a tent.  When we got back, the two left to headed north to Cape Reinga.  So again I said goodbye to a couple of new friends.

Trevor and Kathi met while Woofing and decided to travel together for a while.  Trevor is my first american I have met on my trip.  He actually lives 4 hours from my home town.  Kathi is a young girl from Germany, not close to my home town.  It was really nice meeting someone who spoke English, and also lived not far from me.

Anyways, later the same day when they left, they reappeared.  They had a little bad luck and never made it to Cape Reinga.  However, the bad luck also came with good luck.  They found work in a hostel 15 minutes from Kaitaia and they get to see me for another day.  I know Kathi was excited for this. :) I think I teased her enough the first night.

So again, we all spend the night chatting and enjoying some good laughs.  Trevor and I probably annoyed Kathi again.

The next day was Christmas eve for us North Americans, but this is also Christmas for Kathi.  In Germany the celebrate the 24th, not the 25th.

That morning Kathi was all smiles and happy.  She even made Trevor and I breakfast.  After, Kathi and I played ping pong, which I totally rocked at, but she rocked a little harder.  She then wanted to play pool, and she told me she can't play.  Yes! I hate loosing and this ping pong thing was fun, but I looked bad and didn't impress her!  We did have a tone of laughs and made our own rules.

Kathi's first shoot in pool was horrible, she only made the queue ball roll a few inches.  Being the super nice guy I am, I tried to impress her by showing her how to shoot and hold a queue.  This was a horrible mistake because she started sinking one ball after another, and eventually we only had the 8 ball left on the table. Dammit!  I might loose!  I am now on a mission, I can't be beat by a girl!

Good news, my pride was saved after 8 or 10 tries of hitting the 8 ball, I finally got it in.

Oh, I did impress her once with my trick shot of jumping over her ball to hit mine.  Yup! I was able to impress a 19 year old girl who has almost never played pool.  This made my day! :)  Thanks Kathi.




After ping pong and pool, Kathi and Trevor were off to their new hostel and jobs.  I walked them out to the road, gave Trevor a High Five! because we are that cool and Kathi gave me another goodbye hug.  Trevor I know I will meet again and Kathi, we hope to meet in Germany if not again in New Zealand.

Christmas Day
Earlier in the week Alex, one of the young German guys organized a Christmas dinner, where we all pitched in a few dollars and the Germans would cook an authentic German meal.

Christmas day Mario was in the kitchen with a few other people cooking up a storm since 8 am.  Two of the German hot girls pulled all of the outside tables together and setup what you see below.



At around 7:30 pm everything was ready and we all ate.  I have to say, the meal was amazing and the new friends I made during the evening was awesome.  We spent most of the evening talking about Canada, and Germany, and annoying Anna, another German girl staying at the hostel.

A few pics from dinner and one of Kai and me from earlier in the day.



At midnight, I decided to head to bed as I am leaving early the next day to travel back to Auckland. I said goodbye to everyone, and wish them all safe travels.

It has been an awesome week here in Kaitaia, and I hope to one day come back.


2 comments:

  1. Happy New Year and I approve of the more recent pics where there is actually a smile on your face - damn well better smile while the rest of us are shoveling snow in order to get to work. :)

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    1. Enjoy that snow. It has only been 21 degrees C here the last few days. Brrrr lol.
      -Rob

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