LOUISE

So last friday we had a birthday party for Esme, who turned 22. We started off with girls dinner (me, Esme, Brittany, Gretchen and Lusy) containing some awesome Gretchen-made pasta/cheese/tomato sauce dish, wine & bruschetta. For dessert we had chocolate cupcakes with ice cream and jello shots. Yes, Gretchen made the coolest jello shots ever, I'll upload pictures later on. After dessert people started to join us, and after a short while the whole apartment was full of people, a dj and heaps of alcohol, in all kinds of shapes.

I even held a birthday speech for Esme. I was trying my best to sound as sober as possible, but after a couple of glasses of red wine a plenty of jello shots, it wasn't as easy as I thought. For starters, I made everyone in the room sing "happy birthday", two hours before midnight. Afterwords I was sure that I succeeded sounding sober, but apparently I failed, still fun though. Esme started to throw people out around twelve I'm guessing, and then we headed for Father Ted's, favorite bar to start a good night on. After father Ted's, we somehow lost each other, only to reunion at the Provedor, a club where I guess all of us expected to find Esme.

It was a great night, and the morning after was pretty fun too, waking up only to eat breakfast in Esme's apartment which was pretty, well, damaged from the night before. For breakfast I had eggs served on a chair, as the tables were all occupied by beer and liquor bottles. Later on, we got ready to go pick up the rental car and get going for our roadtrip.

So me, Esme, Brittany and Gretchen hired a car and drove up north with a local guy from AUT, Jake, who lives in Kerikeri, a town in Bay of Islands. A 3,5 hour long drive, crammed in a small car with five people isn't as bad as it seems like, just as long as you have some good music. We dropped off Jake, who took the chance to go home during the weekend to visit his family.

Us girls went to Paihia, a beach with a stunning view and some kick ass pizza and beer. After dinner at a local bar, we passed out in the car right by the beach. Not the most comfortable way to sleep, but absolutely cosy and 100% free. The next morning we woke up 6.30 and drove up north. After 3 or 4 hours of driving we ended up at Cape Reinga, and then we drove back to Kerikeri again, to go visit Jake where we were invited for dinner and to spend the night. We got some badass home made lasagna and a couple of beers for dinner, and then we spend a lot of time in their hot tub, just relaxing and having some drinks. I must say that Jake and his family are incredibly nice and fun people, couldn't have ended up at a better place.

On monday morning we had this huge breakfast and one of the traditional gossip sessions about what happened during the weekend (which we usually have on sunday mornings) and just chilled out. After a while we got ready to get going, Jake took us to a place that I not unexpected forgot the name of.. It was a beautiful place where I could have stayed for weeks, just enjoying the view and breathing the fresh air. Bay of Islands is really a wonderful place and I could most definitely spend my summer there.

Well, so we drove back and landed in Auckland six in the evening, and then it was back to reality again. I can only summarize our weekend further with these words: fun, amazing and GREAT!

Thanks ladies and Jake for a great experience!