Wonderful Wanaka Weekend

This last weekend was my best yet in Wanaka.

Thursday: went to Cuzy Corner for a Brewski after work with my coworker Shannon. While there, one of her flatmates, Mark, and another of her friends, Jen, dropped by. One Brewski turned into two, and two turned into three. Then our rumbling bellies convinced us that an impromptu barbecue back at their flat would be aces. I rolled with Shannon to the grocery store for the necessary supplies; Jen ran to her house to make a couple side dishes; and Mark went straight home by way of the beer store. At Shannon's I met another of her flatmates, Dean, and another of her friends, Simon. While the burgers were grillin, the conversation somehow turned to geographic trivia, with Simon playing the role of quizmaster. He was sufficiently impressed by my ability to name six of the seven "stans": Paki-, Afghani-, Turkmeni-, Khazakh-, Uzbeki-, and Tajiki-. Only Kyrgyz- eluded me. But the icing on the cake was when he asked me if I knew the only world capital that starts with the letter "U." When, without a moments hesitation, I answered Ulan Bator, Mongolia, Simon burst out of his seat, ran over to shake my hand, and told me I now had a friend for life. Shannon asked him why he was so impressed that I knew that, and Simon replied, "Who wants to hang out with stupid people? I don't." I liked Simon, instantly. The rest of the evening was filled with yummy food, cold beer, great company, and lively conversation.

Friday: After a shower and a quick bite to eat after work, I cruised down to Woody's to meet up with Shannon, Simon, Dean, and Mark to watch the evening's Super 14 matches. Mark is the manager there. It's never a bad thing to be friends with a bar manager, is it? I'm not saying they were, because how would I know?, but it might have been possible that our drinks were just a wee bit cheaper than the other patrons'. We ended up closing the place down. Thankfully, I live within walking (read, stumbling) distance from the bar. I crawled into bed around 2:45am.

Saturday: Didn't leave the house. Was a slug all day. See Friday night's activities for possible cause.

Sunday: Given my previous day's sloth, I wanted to get out and do something active. I recruited Shannon and we hiked up Mt. Iron--a good little hill nearby with some commanding views of the town and the lake. It's only a 1hr hike to the top from my front door. I had done it once before a couple weeks ago, but I had forgotten my camera that time and I wanted to get some pics. Shannon was a sport to accompany me. It was a great hike. The skies were clear, there was a nice cool breeze blowing, and I got the pictures I wanted. When we made it back down, she invited me to come back over to her house a little later for dinner and game night. I arrived to find the night's game of choice was none other than Monopoly. Sweet as! Don't these silly Kiwis know that real estate empires are where Americans shine? And shine I did. My new little group of friends are quite the competitive lot, even when just playing Monopoly. You should have seen the absolute creativity involved in some of the deals being done. I stuck to my tried and true strategy of doing whatever I could to acquire and develop the three red properties. I'm telling you, if you own those, you're golden. My strategy proved to be a winning one, as my trusty reds bled each of my opponents, one by one, to insolvency! It was a great night. Oh, and dinner was yummy too.

I met some fun people, drank more than my fair share of cold tasty beverages, ate lots of yummy delicious food, hiked a mountain--in name at least (Mt. Iron), impressed a few folks with my knowledge of the globe, and kicked some ass in Monopoly! It really was a fantastic weekend!