Kia Ora! I haven't said that for a while. How's everyone? Or the two of you that still read this :o) Trey and I are fighting colds so I took some time today to just sit and edit the next New Zealand photos, which made me happy and therefore, hopefully healthier.
One of the top Kiwi ice cream brands is Tip Top. They've been around for a loooong long time and have so many crazy flavors. Because we'd pass their headquarters each and every time we drove south out of Auckland, we HAD to get in there for a tour and managed to do so just before we left.
Tip Top sent me tickets in the mail and on the accompanying form they were adamant that we would not arrive in a "bendy bus," which is what the kids call the double buses with the accordion bendy thing in the middle. I thought only 10 year olds called them that, but apparently it is the official term used by even corporate attorneys. We took our little Suzuki jeep thingie and made it past the first checkpoint. Whew!
It was all very secretive. (Remember Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? That, but with ice cream instead of Double Bubble Burp-a Cola. I saw a guy that gave me a crazy eye like Slugworth, too.) And at the end we got to pick a ice cream out of a big cooler stuffed with all of the Tip Top treats! Yum!!!!
Here's another funny thing I just remembered. You know how I've mentioned the contrast between American lawsuit-preventing rules and regulations and the more lax NZ culture. I didn't realize they had a no photos policy (though of course, I knew it was a possibility). I have a pretty enormous camera. It's in no way unobtrusive and usually wherever I go, at least one person says, dang, that's a lens!! It's like 4 pounds and could easily maim someone if a problem arose. So the nice Tip Top PR lady says, "I see we have a spy from the States here!" But when I promised I'd just hold it and not take any pictures, she said, "OK!" And that was it. So trusting, those Kiwis...
And here's a random butterfly!
OK, Muriwai is next. I'm all set. Photos are totally ready. There are just too many to include with these. Hurry back, y'all!
xo, K.
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