Wainui day

Here in Gisborne! Lovely sunny warm weather for the time being, but some storms are due soon, from cyclone Pam heading in this direction. Still not sure how much will actually hit the island, but we'll see by tomorrow afternoon. We enjoyed the sunshine today,

Backing up a little, here's our arrival into Auckland, and our Skycouch worked out pretty well. It was nice to see land after crossing the Pacific. So much water.

We had a small layover until we boarded our domestic flight to Gisborne, so we stopped for some tea in the airport while we waited. Right before this we also bought some NZ SIM cards for our phones. I have minimal data and phone and text, but I do actually have it! Good for communicating with everyone here and back home.

At Brian and Barb's I was introduced to the passion fruit. I didn't realize it was actually a thing until now; I thought passion was like food-slang for mixed fruit or something. This is absolutely delicious, despite its odd appearance. You scoop the seeds out with a spoon and eat them. Crunchy!

My little cousin Safi came over in the evening, and this morning she wanted another reading of the book we brought her, There Was a Coyote Who Swollowed a Flea, while we had our tea this morning.

Then Sarah and I went to town to check out the market. Lots of pretty houses and GREEN GROWING things. Like these flowers. No cactus here.

At the market Sarah succumbed to buying an apricot Danish from a bakery stand. (Their bread was also yummy.)

And we saw a nice bunch of "Not so Perfect" roses at the next booth. I don't know how clear the sign is in the pic. But they were cheaper than the perfect bunches. Poor imperfect roses.

After that we visited Susie and Enrique's abode at the beach at Wainui. Stunning view and breeze. Had some tea and snacks.

And then walked up the hill a ways, where it got hotter away from the breeze. 

Now late afternoon, we went with Sarah (other Sarah) to her and Zach's place back near town, and then headed back to home base. Picked up some avocados off the driveway that fell from the tree. Because I've only had them in every single meal so far. (I can live off of these.) One split on landing, so that'll have to be devoured right away.

And I almost forgot, I bought a jar of organic macadamia butter at the market because oh my gods why wouldn't I???