I am a lucky girl. Not only did I recently turn 30 (Oh God... did I just write that down??!!) but my fabulous and most favourite sister in the wide world wrote *me* a birthday adventure. I couldn't have been more excited. The night before we were due to go out on our venture, Rebecca sent me a text with a picture of an airplane, followed by ROFL. Hmm. Nerves set in. I was then terrified that she was going to make me jump from a plane... or worse, stand on the outside of a plane, like Karl Pilkington. If you haven't seen 'An Idiot Abroad', then I must say now that you are missing out.
I digress. I had falling dreams that night - you know the kind. The kind where you are sweetly sleeping away and are woken with a start... just before you hit the 'ground'... heart racing, palms sweating. Yep, I thought I was going to be jumping out of a perfectly good plane. Morning came, my alarm went off and as I rolled over to retrieve my iPhone, I saw a text from Piggy. My sister. Adventure was off due to the weather. I was actually relieved rather than disappointed! Off due to weather, high winds... I guess not the kind of weather for jumping out of a plane. Another sleepless night to endure, more falling dreams and more nightmares of my parachute not opening. As I woke - I felt a tinge of excitement and hauled myself out of bed, into the shower, got dressed (comfortable clothes and shoes as requested) and climbed into my car. After some cuddles with my favourite twin girls (Zoey and Maya) we were off to let the adventures begin. Now I was excited.
Without further ado... being I know some of you are so keen to read on... welcome to Sarah's stupendously superb saunter, 2012.
Breakfast:
Without being too original and knowing me so well that she knew exactly what I would like for breakfast, Rebecca decided to go with something that is a favourite with the girls in our family. A lemony goodness turnover from La Tropezienne in Browns Bay. To our utter disgust, they had none left - and it was only 9.30am! We left there and thought we would try La Trop in Milford... but they were closed. Maccas was the next option and on approaching the golden arches drive-thru, Rebecca said to me 'are you going to want what I think you will want?'... yes... she was right - standard for me: A bacon and egg McMuffin Combo with a hot chocolate. She knows me so well! We were running a tight schedule, so ate on the run...no complaints here! Next stop please???
Auckland City. How I love thee!
The airport: Greet some tourists into NZ at the arrivals gate.
Words can't describe my relief at now knowing for sure I would not be jumping out of a plane, and all the sleepless nights and worry was not worth it. But this didn't prepare me for the flip-flops I found my stomach doing with the thought of greeting strangers at arrivals with a 'Hello and welcome to NZ!'. We entered the airport carpark, parked the car, walked into arrivals and parked our behinds on a seat...
Rebecca sat back and said with a sly grin: 'Whenever you're ready...". It took me quite some time in order to pluck up the courage to stand up and greet someone. I chose two asian girls who would have been about 20 something. They looked at me like I was completely nuts. They were probably born in NZ too! Unfortunately Rebecca didn't get a photo as she was still learning her way around my camera, but she saw me do it so that's good enough for me! After that my next task was to...
Have a photo with a tourist at the airport...
I approached an Asian lady who looked friendly and didn't appear to be waiting for anyone else. The last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt a welcome home with family and/or friends! I walked up to her and said 'Hello, you don't know me and you will think this is strange... but...' and the next thing I knew we were standing side by side, smiling for a photo. I love people who are keen to partake in such random things. She will never know how famous she will be, simply by appearing on this blog!
After paying the $5 for parking (which Rebecca insisted was utterly worth every cent given how uncomfortable she got to see me approaching strangers) we made our way to the next task on the list.
Play a round of mini-golf:
Easy! I love mini-golf. Such an easy task! But wait... did I read that correctly? It wasn't just play a round of mini-golf... but play a round of mini-golf DRESSED AS A PIRATE! The embarrassment commenced as I got out of the car, donning my ferocious attire. I was, for a short time today, a ferocious Pirate! Arrrrrrrrr!
Arrrrr! I'm a FEROCIOUS Pirate! Arrrrrrrrrrrr
Pirate booty... yussss!
Yo ho ho and a bottle of RUM!
Me ship.
So close to being a hole in one. Robbed.
I don't know who she is. Climbing my ropes on me ship. Arrrr. To the gallows with 'er....
Trying to steer me ship with me hook ... not easy!
So Rebecca dubbed me 'Captain Golden Balls', which didn't get old as far as jokes go. I had chosen a golden golf ball (in keeping with the theme of the task...) and the lady at the desk even erased all the kids names and ages for birthdays on their whiteboard and put MY name and birthday age. As if that's not embarrassing! 30. Ergh. There it is, in green and red. I even won the game. By one point. And don't ask why there are two holes missing, we have NO idea how that happened... potentially a little distracted by all the photography and fiming and 'arrrrrrrrs'???
Awesome. But embarrassing.
That's right. Captain Golden Balls for the WIN!
Our next stop was the gas station in order to pick up some supplies for some of the other tasks of the day. Marshmallows and Coke... and Rebecca even managed to find the *best* kind of Coke! Mine was *perfect* for a task which you will find out about later!
She's so cute with her new bangs!
Sing 'Old McSarah has a farm' in a public place.
So Rebecca drove me to a farm located not far from the airport... called Ambury Farm. It was here I managed to complete four of my tasks, which was rather a good effort! The first was to sing 'Old McSarah has a farm', which I chose to sing to two cows grazing nearby. The cows didn't see my humour and were most unamused, showing absolutely no interest in what I was doing whatsoever. I think this song was a ploy to get me to say I am old over and over again... I'm onto her!
Perform the birdie dance in a public space.
Originally the task said to do this in the presence of chickens. But with no chickens about we changed our minds... and being it is called the birdie dance and not the chicken dance, we felt that performing it in the presence of some nearby ducks would be suitable enough. I'm actually quite embarrassed by this video. I am appallingly out of time with the music... I couldn't hear it hardly at all! (that's my claim, and I am sticking by it!). See for yourself....
Sing the National Anthem with 20 marshmallows in your mouth:
Umm. 20? Really? I could *just* fit 10 of them in my mouth! A couple having a romantic hand-holding stroll walked by behind Rebecca as I was doing this... I imagine it took them a lot of will-power not to look my way... or were they just so in love they didn't notice us there....? Rebecca on the other hand, could fit 15 marshmallows in her mouth. Go figure. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to have a photo taken in the frame... shame about the 10 second camera timer and only having *just* enough time to run to the frame and climb on!
LOL!
Have your photo taken with a Piggy:
Surely most of you know by now that my sister and I call each other 'Piggy'... have done for years. So it makes sense there was a task involving a pig somewhere today. On the Ambury Farm website they have pictures of Pigs, so Rebecca thought it the perfect place. Fail. No real pigs. But they do have a Pig letterbox... it sufficed.
Lunch at Cuccina:
It is official. She knows me almost as well as I know myself... and took me to my all-time favourite restaurant for lunch, Caffe Cuccina. If you live in Auckland and haven't been - go! Amazing service, amazing food - every time. We devoured a plate of chilli/lime king prawns and an anti-pasto platter in a matter of minutes... Molto delizioso!
Busk with your flute:
Well, I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't keen on the idea of busking in public, it just isn't me... and being I let Rebecca off pretty lightly on some of her birthday adventure tasks back in February, she had to do the same for me. We ended up going to our old stomping ground, St. Johns Primary School in Mairangi Bay. After wandering the grounds, reminiscing and commenting how much smaller everything seems to look now, we made our way into the lower playground, fondly known as 'the gully'. For anyone who went to St. Johns, the Gully as *the* place to be seen.
It had it all. It was out of sigh from the staffroom, it had tyres to climb on and wooden structures... and the biggest slide ever. A thought popped into our heads - and meant that only minutes later I would be playing the flute whilst sliding down the slide. I was firstly concerned that my butt wouldn't actually fit into the slide these days - thankfully it did! I hadn't thought about the fact it was insanely windy and not all that easy to play much of anything whilst sliding down a slide. There were a few young boys playing on the playground who hardly even looked up as I played! This video is ever so slightly embarrassing... I am a relatively serious musician after all! But here you go... have a laugh!
Find a choc bar then hit the beach:
She really does know the way to my heart, my sister. Choc Bar... by Tip Top. The nommiest and best price ice-cream out there. A crackly chocolate and coconut shell, creamy vanilla Tip-Top ice-cream and a block of choc in the centre. Wow. Thanks Tip Top. Our beach of choice? Mairangi Bay.
Build a sand castle on the beach:
She didn't tell me until I was nearly done that it was a sandcastle competition! My sandcastle had real glass windows, a tree in the front garden and a bone bench seat. Not sure who won in the end!
Hard at work... this is serious business!
Rebecca's amazing castle of sand :)
Real glass windows, a pretty front door, a tree outside and real glass windows!
It's not easy building a castle...
JUMP!
Do the William Hung Dance in public - She bangs!
I did it. In a public place. It is hardly my fault there was nobody around... we chose to do this on the pier on Murrays Bay Beach. I am ashamed to admit that I had to look up the original William Hung video on YouTube and very quickly learn the words (and still managed to gaff it up!) but enjoy it anyway...
Send a message in a bottle:
I wrote the message on some note paper whilst at lunch. I am not one to litter, but in this case... it could be an interesting social experiment! With the Coke Bottle Rebecca bought me earlier in the day, I rolled up my message and popped it inside. When we were leaving Mairangi Bay Beach, I noticed a silver necklace half buried in the sand. It was meant to be - I put the chain in the bottle too and sent it out to sea. I explained why I sent a message in a bottle on the note, and the link to my blog in case someone really does find it - I would like them to get in touch with me. I hope it happens! How interesting it would be to hear where they picked it up! And how exciting to be someone who has found a real message in a bottle.
If this is your lost necklace - I am *deeply* sorry!
Anyone looking? Here it goes...
"I can't believe I threw something into the sea!! Agh!"
Going...
Going...
Nearly gone!
And that brings Sarah's stupendously superb saunter to a close. I hope you enjoyed reading this, although reading it simply cannot compare with the hilarity experienced that day between the hours of 9.30 and 3.30pm. Birthday adventures are so much better than getting a gift... the time I got to spend with my sister? Pretty priceless. She's awesome and I love her to pieces.
