During the time that I was at work, he had apparently become more of a local than I! He’d found some really great local spots to eat, including a breakfast place he had frequented, as well as this inexpensive Japanese restaurant on Lorne Avenue called Mentatz. We ended up having dinner at Mentatz—delicious calamari, a teriyaki chicken rice bowl, and a Japanese beer—sooooo good! After dinner, we went back to John’s hostel so he could give me all the food, etc. that he didn’t need anymore. Among everything else, I was privileged enough to inherit Arash’s ridiculous bag of spices and herbs that he’d left with John before flying to Asia haha. Love it! I’ve actually used some of them too. =) Plus, John never used his free jet boating voucher, so he gave it to me to use…so awesome! I haven’t gone jet boating yet, but I will certainly enjoy it when I do. We walked back to my flat, chatted with Emma, fit in some final rounds of playing cards and even added in a few old-fashioned games of checkers.
Since Emma and I had work first thing in the morning, and John had a flight to catch the next day, we ended our game night pretty early and said goodbye. I was glad I got to see him again while we were both in New Zealand & I’m sure I’ll reunite with him and Arash again while visiting Canada someday! Luckily, I still had one more day to spend with Ricky before he flew out to Indonesia. After work on Thursday, I met up with Ricky again. We had dinner at another Japanese restaurant called Saika, which was also quite good. After staying there for a while chatting, we walked around some of the shops on Queen Street, where Ricky bought a little baby outfit for one of his nephews back in Indonesia. The rest of our evening was spent in Onehunga, yet another suburb of Auckland. Getting to Onehunga, however, turned out to be quite a challenge indeed!
We could have easily taken a taxi there, but for me, that seemed an unnecessary and expensive option. So, I asked some storeworkers which bus stop we needed to go to in order to get to Onehunga; they told me the bus stop by ASB bank. Ricky and I subsequently walked a few blocks up in the freezing cold weather, battling the even colder wind toward the ASB bank near my flat. Well…it turned out to be the wrong ASB bank. Wrong bus stop after wrong bus stop, our hunt seemed to go on for ages. We finally found a bus stop in front of another ASB bank that plainly said “Onehunga” on it..pheww! Well, after we got on the bus, the driver informed us we were still wrong. I’m still not sure how that was even the case. Nonetheless, the driver instructed us to just sit down and he would take us to the correct bus stop.
He took us all the way to the suburb of Newmarket, dropped us off right in front of the bus stop we needed, and refused to take any money for the bus ride =) Very nice guy. The bad news was that the bus to Onehunga didn’t come for another 30 minutes! Cold and bundled up, we looked at each other and said, “Cab?” Haha. After all that trouble, we ended up just taking a cab anyway. So, we spent the rest of the evening in Onehunga, which was a pretty nice area. Since Ricky works as a chef for the Crowne Plaza hotel chain, he gets super cheap deals on food, drinks, etc. at all of the hotels associated with that chain, including the Holiday Inn in Onehunga. It had a perfect lounge area for hanging out and catching up, standard with comfy couches and a fireplace. We had such a great evening, lots of laughs, etc. After giving him a big hug goodbye and wishing him a good flight for Friday, Ricky got me a cab back to the city. Fortunately, I knew I’d see him again relatively soon, as he would be flying back into Auckland after his four-week trip in Indonesia. =)
The cab ride back was….interesting to say the least. I’d heard that many of the cabbies in Auckland can be a bit sketchy, but I hadn’t actually experienced it until that cab ride! The driver asked me all sorts of questions about Ricky, whether we were dating, etc. THEN, he proceeded to hit on me! This 40-something-year-old Indian guy asked me out for a drink haha. I just sidestepped it as best I could, and then went on to endure an additional 15 minutes of awkwardness before being dropped off in the city. Eeek! Just as a precaution, I made sure not to get dropped off in front of my flat. I must admit it made for an amusing story though. I stayed in that Friday night (and did NOT go out on a date with the creepy cabbie man haha). After being on the go for a solid couple of weeks, I needed a bit of a rest. My inactivity didn’t last long though…until the next blog!
Cheers,
Ash
No comments:
Post a Comment