taupo

ohh...it's been such a while. I've been MIA all this time without a good reason, so I won't spend anytime making one up.

I am now in Taupo, right in the middle of New Zealand's north island. I live on a farm with 12 horses, four dogs (3 scottish deerhounds and 1 greyhound) and a yet-to-be-counted amount of chickens/hens/roosters. I live about fifteen minutes from town, 20 minutes from the lake (which is massive and gorgeous); and being in a volcanic area, I'm surrounded by countless mountains which I plan on hiking once it stops pouring rain :)

Driving here is quite an adventure, and I have to constantly repeat to myself "keep left" in order to actually...well, keep left. Straight, busy streets are easy. Roundabouts and country roads are not. Shifting with my left hand sucks. Reversing while looking over my left shoulder also sucks. Turning on the windshield wipers when I want to turn left, again, sucks. But other than that it's not so bad. I have yet to turn onto uncoming traffic and well, I consider that a success.

Yesterday the town hosted New Zealand's Ironman, which means that for the past week, we were graced with the presence of head-to-toe, tight-clad men walking around the streets. The event started at 7am (with lots and lots of rain), and the course closed at midnight (with lots and lots and lots more rain). Kiwi Cameron Brown won for the 10th time (good for him) and it took him 8 1/2 hours to swim 3.8km, bike 180km and run a full marathon. I went out last night, and well past the 15-hour mark, people were still running and fighting the rain. As much as I admire all these people (I really do), I find them all slightly insane.

Living on a farm where it rains constantly forced me to get some rubber boots, or as Kiwis call them: gumboots. Most know that I have mocked girls that wear gumboots for as long as they've been "fashionable", and this is because there is really no good reason to wear gumboots in sunny cities...unless you want your toes to be super sweaty...so me getting gumboots was kind of a big deal. But just because I was getting them for functional purposes didn't mean I had to get industrial/dull looking ones, so I went out and got pretty black ones with purple and green spirals on them. I'm quite a fan of my new gumboots and if I ever find a way to download my pictures on this computer, you will see them and become a fan too.

It wasn't raining when I woke up this morning, but I just looked out the window and guess what? It's raining. I'm looking at Katana (one of the horses) and she doesn't seem to be at all pleased that the rain has started once again. She's looks quite funny trying to hide under a walnut tree. Marcus, the biggest snob of them all, is walking around like he's too good to be getting wet and looking at me as if asking: "will you please hire 10 or 12 tall men to hold umbrellas over me?" Even though he's the drama queen of the ranch, Marcus is my favorite. Again, one day I'll load up pictures and you'll be able to appreciate just how beautiful this horse is.

I say goodbye for now. I'll be back when more stories come to mind.

Much love.