new zealand.

nelson to picton, OMG, have you ever seen such pretty water!

new zealand is ridiculously good looking, it is the stet of countries.

<3!

ruby i walked by a store that made me think of you: eyeball kicks. do you know it?

also, please advise: where shall i find these buttered crumpets?

you buy crumpets at the grocery store, they will be with the bread. you toast them until they are browned lightly on both side and crunchy around the edges, and then you put on enough butter for it to drip out the bottom of them onto your plate, and then you add a thin layer of golden syrup (also from the grocery store).

i have never actually been into eyeball kicks! not sure what your ~style~ is but i have a feeling that you might like frutti: it's up the top end of cuba st, about a block before fidel's (a great little cafe that you'll probably like too)

estela otm

ah ok well... no toaster nor oven in our hotel

i think i saw frutti, will let you know. <3 cuba.

i asked a girl on the ferry, what's kumara? she was a bit taken aback so i said, meat? vegetable? ah, said she, it's a vegetable, like a potato. found out today in te papa it's a SWEET potato!

sideways rain on accounta the wind btw. nasty day , feels like home

w___ington, w___ington: the same but different

time to act like a tourist: cab + room service, get outta these wet clothes

i think kumara is still really different from sweet potato: i've only had sweet potato fries, but they definitely tasted a lot different. i think kumara is way way nicer! especially roasted until it caramelises a little.

what did u think of te papa? i think it's such an ugly building!

but frank kitts park is pretty!

which hotel are u staying at?

at the mercure, top of cuba street, webb and willis

te papa good bcz it's free, liked the earthquake stuff and the stuff about land clearing (lxy was right, let's put that on the record). the building is a little...muscular? doesn't maybe fit with the city that well.

te papa staff unis soooo ugly

i think it's also really, really dated-looking too. it's only about 10yrs old, but it looks so blah. the museum used to be in a beautiful old building that now houses massey university (go down webb st, turn left onto taranaki and then right onto whatever the next st is and you'll see it).

you are also staying a 2min walk from the house estela and i both lived it, and a 15min walk from the last house i lived at! if the weather's good i recommend going for a wander up aro st, it's super pretty.

if you want a really great view of the city:
1. take teh cable car to the top
2. catch the 20 or 22 or 23 bus up to the uni, go to the library and go to the top floor (you don't need student id or anything to get into the library)

heading toward the cable car now, found bagels and wifi on the way, a treat!

i was thinking about the gardens at the top of the cable car and i don't have a single undisgraceful memory of being in them.

now i do, i was demure there one tulip sunday, i strolled around looking at the tulips with my older friend p., i was confessing to things and he was tsking. i mainly learned the joy of tsking from him, he is a champion tsker. also he has this fantastic suspicious facial expression which he uses whenever i say something nice to him.

<3 your tskmaster

for posting later: sitting outside minibar, dribking more rums than expected cuz we arrived too rarly to dine @ nicplinis, catchinh fleeting moments ofwifo from the airport bus, chainsmoking andt listening to american oldies which i normally hate but somehow they sound so good here ~2 oopsie lol typos <3

nicolini's!!! <3 <3 <3

i like nicolini's too.

did u end up eating at nicolini's??? i had something very special set up for you, but either you didn't go or you didn't name-drop me!

we went for sure--really lovely!--but didn't namedrop. shy like that.

oops

wellington is really rainy, like rainier than seattle huh

hah

i feel @ home though

:)

well, you'll just have to go back again, and make sure you say 'justine says hi!' so that you get your special treat!!!

yes, i like to laugh at these californians who cry like babies every time it DRIZZLES for more than a few minutes. WELLINGTONIANS EAT RAINSTORMS FOR BREAKFAST, YOU PUSSIES.

ALSO: i wanted to recommend certain things on the menu! tell me what you had, i'm dying to know.

i had the special, it was lamb tortellini. also, the garlic bread, which was excellent, so drippy cheesy. lxy had umm what's it called? like if you took them out of context you'd think burritos, but with just cheese inside. what the fuck are those called? and we had two glasses of the cheeeeeap champagne. lxy was drunk (already, from minibar next door). we sat in the back cuz the front was filled up. luckily they had the heaters on. our server was an (aged) male model lookin dude, very polite. i had a moment in the bathroom where i was like 'damn i bet justine has been in here a million times, and through these rooms a million times, how weird.' deep thought i know, but it was a moment of connection for whatever that's worth. we looked for the guy you used to get in fights with but didn't identify him.

Cannelloni?

oooh the lamb tortellini is the fagotini - i actually hate it, it's too gingery!! the cannelloni is probably the most boring thing on the menu in terms of ingredients, but it's one of my faves.

the bathrooms for men are so scummy! they're the grossest things ever!!

i wonder if this 'aged male model' was toni... toni, the boss, is bald and quite big. but i hear they have a french dude working their so maybe it was him.

yeah, it was tripping me out to think about you there :) 8 yrs i worked for those guys, i know that place inside out.

ya, canneloni. it was good. and yes, i was dddrrruuunnnkkk. seemed appropriate as an homage to estela's days as a wellington rotter.

i tried to go into the men's (couldn't find the women's) and the waiter said oh luv that's the gents you don't want to go in there! cute.

our waiter wasn't big, didn't seem french though. also not that aging, i don't think. but remember, i was drunk so what do i know?

why o why did i not bring home all of the mealmates? i want them.

it was just that he wasn't 17 anymore, that's all.

it's raining, i'm soaked. new zealand.

what i did bring home: jaffas, fake darrell lea jaffas, fake sold in bulk jaffas (ojays), chocolate bullets

theoretically i brought extra to take to people at work but LOL that's never happened before! i get home and want to keep them all for myself!

xp oh hi!

it's raining like a motherfucker in seawa so welcome home, us.

ruby, there was also a girl waitperson who sang and whistled along to the corny italian songs. i made note of her.

was it like at macaroni grill when they would have the waiters sing arias and stuff to get bigger tips?

pretty much

there was??!

you've never even been to macaroni grill!!

nope, and i didn't hear any girl singing at ruby's restaurant either.