A Peek in to Andrew's Past

Tuesday Andrew decided to take me in to Geraldine...the town where he went to our equivalence of High School.  It's a good 30 minutes or so away, which seemed pretty crazy considering he had to bus all that way to school. For here though (in the South Island), everything is quite spread out and towns are very small. So I guess it makes sense.

We started with a tour of his school.  Everything was set up sort of like schools in summery areas of the States where its got things located in different buildings and you walk to each...They had a sweet ropes course in the back of the school in the trees haha.  After the tour, and Andrew describing all the details of every building (haha), we went in to town to have lunch.  We went to a little cafe and I got to try all sorts of NZ goodies!  I had a bacon and egg pie, a custard square, a custard croissant, lolly cake and Andrew's favorite, Primo chocolate milk.

After lunch we went around the shops in search of Christmas presents and happened to run in to Andrew's Nanny (Grandma).  We had a chat with her and her and then went on our way to Talbot Forest.  Its a little forest right next to town that Andrew said his track team used to run up and down through.  The forest was situated on a hill with lots of tall and fat trees all over it.  The tree's wind and bend like a fairy tale.  Absolutely beautiful.  I feel like I'm going through the secret garden :) Some of the tree's were very tall...and some very wide...like the one in my picture.  I wanted to hug them all (haha). They were so amazing...

And the birds sound absolutely beautiful here.  Andrew was excited for me to hear the Magpies.  I can see why :) I'll try to snap a picture of one and post it at some point.  I snapped a few pictures of birds...including this one right here (can't remember what it is...Andrew could tell you) and a HUGE pigeon. Biggest bird ever.  It looked like a vulture!

After our little walk through the forest we we popped out somewhere along a road and walked back to the car.  Andrew took me on a drive past some hills that had cute houses along it...including this one...a real life hobbit house! Made me super excited...

We got back to the house pretty early, around 3pm, just in time to Skype my mom :) The rest of the day I got some work in and Andrew went out and rode horses with his dad.  Then later in the early evening Andrew decided I needed to learn how to ride...He picked a horse named Zeta for me.  We got in to the round pen and with a bit of Andrew's help I was up on the horse.  At the start it was a disaster.  I was able to get her going a  bit, but I had to kick and kick and kick and the second I stopped and put my feet down, Zeta stopped.  Fail.  We tried to get her in to a canter but she just would NOT go! Andrew had to run around and chase her and clap and yell and she STILL wouldn't go.  He thought I was stupid. Then he tried. Same problem ;) Haha. Eventually she started to understand what we wanted, and I was able to get in the groove.  After about 30 minutes or so I was SO tired! After so much work, and barely even getting to go on her...I decided maybe I'll just stop and try another day haha.  Andrew said I did fine...that Zeta was being difficult.  I hope that's true...

Tomorrow we get up early for Ashley's graduation celebrations in Christchurch.  Should be fun!