Mish-mash

I've had another couple of days in a row where not much happened and it was kind of just what I was looking for. There's not a whole lot of coherency in how I can recap it all, so I think bullets are in order.


* My whole point of going to Napier was for the wine. It's serious wine country there and there are wineries all over the place. It's really easy to get from winery to winery by bicycle and that woulda been a great thing to do. . .if it was summer rather than winter. Besides, it rained all day on Saturday AND I figured I didn't really need to spend another $100 on a wine tour. So what did I do? DIY wine tastings, that's what! I went to the Pak 'n Save, the cheapie grocery store here, and bought a couple of bottles to share with Joe and Paul, my CS hosts. Both bottles were from the Hawkes Bay area (where Napier is located) and I gotta say, I had just as much fun with this tasting as I did with the last one.


* I've had a lot of couchsurfing firsts recently. I'm sure Grandma was happy to read about Diane, my first ever female host. Then there were the Marshes, the first family I ever surfed with. And finally, Joe and Paul were the first gay couple to host me. Everyone was great, as usual; it's just cool that even after all the traveling and surfing I've done so far, I can still experience some firsts.


* This has nothing to do with the last few days, but. . .my hair fits in a ponytail now! Remember when it didn't?


* I went out for breakfast this morning before leaving Napier for Rotorua. At my table were an American (me!), an Aussie (Joe), and a Kiwi (Paul), plus Nico (French) and Ruth (Taiwanese), two other couchsurfers. How cool is it that there were five nationalities represented? And how come this doesn't happen to me more often in the US? Is it just because as a traveler I'm hanging out in traveler circles? 


And, uh, I don't know. I guess that's all I got.