Research, research and more research

We woke up with all intentions of doing something in Wellington but we had both purchased 24 hour internet access passes so as we ate breakfast, we were researching things for our trip to Australia. Before we knew it, a few hours had passed and since we were planning to go to the zoo (in hopes of seeing a kiwi), we thought it might make more sense to go the following day so that we could get the most out of our admission fee. We did a few more hours of research and the decided we should get out and see something in the city. We walked down to "Cuba St" which is where all the shops and restaurants are located. It reminded me a little of the 3rd St Promenade in Santa Monica but without the street performers. We cruised up and down the street looking for a cheap lunch menu, but unfortunately all of the restaurants had stopped serving their lunch menu at 3:00pm. We finally decided to go to "Burger Fuel" because they had tons of burger and sandwich options at reasonable prices. I was able to get a chicken burger that had brie on it so I was pretty happy.
We then walked to all the different street bars surveying their happy hour options. We ended up at a bar that had $5 wine and draughts so that I could try a local beer and Alyssa could get wine. We sat on the outdoor patio watching all of the people milling about. We can't justify drinking much in Australia since everything is so expensive, so we headed back to the hostel after one drink. There was a youth underwater hockey league of boys and girls staying at the YHA and since the boys were all 17-20 years old, they had taken a liking to us. As we settled back into our spots in the dining room to continue our research, one of the boys began making talking to us. He was adorable (though 18) and you could tell he felt very cool talking to the older American girls. We later met his father who was one of the coaches for the girls team and he also took a liking to us and would often stop by to chat. We felt bad for the dad since he was the only adult there (all of the other coaches were under 25 years old) so we humored him with hours of conversation.
Since it was Thanksgiving in the states, I was determined to create some sort of Thanksgiving dinner. Alyssa could really care less about things like this but she knows its important to me so she humored me. They don't sell turkey at all in New Zealand so we had to just get a whole chicken. We found some stuffing mix and got potatoes and broccoli. And of course, a bottle of wine. It was a little bit more expensive that the meals we usually make but hey, it's Thanksgiving! Luckily, the YHA has three ovens so I could easily find one to cook the chicken. Everything turned out well except for the stuffing...their stuffing is much different than ours, it's really dry!

We stayed up talking to the underwater hockey team (and watching YouTube videos of underwater hockey since we'd never heard of it- what a weird and hilarious sport!) until we finally decided to head to bed.

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