Lazy Days spent at the beach...

The day after New Year’s, I decided we should have a lazy day just hanging out at the beach. We (again I mean me) drove to Uvongo beach and then lazed on the beach. Not much more to say about that…just sun, surf and good times…

The Beach

I was ready to indulge in some more dipped ice cream and told the others we should definitely make a stop at the store before moving to our next place…

YUMMY!!!

Later we headed to the shops and buy some fruit packed lunch, then headed to a friend’s pool, where we lazed around some more and soaked up a little more sun.

Yeah for swimming pools...and best friends!

Again, another surreal experience of sitting on a beach the day after new year’s… In Wisconsin we have what we call ‘Polar Bearing’, it is an event on the first day of every new year where people go down to Lake Michigan and they all jump into the water. This doesn’t sound all that crazy, but remember that the Lake completely freezes over and they have to chop a hole into 12 inch (30.5 cm) thick ice in order for everyone to even be able to get to the water. The water at a balmy 36 F (2 C) is actually normally quiet a bit warmer than the air temperature… needless to say, New Year’s Eve was a bit of a change for me J

Tamara and I chilling

New Year’s Eve…together…in the rain…

The day started with a little shopping as Rebecca had work, so we figured we would head to the center and pick her up when she was done. Of course the centers were both pretty packed as it had started to rain and the beaches aren’t much fun in the rain.

On a Steers napkin

Tamara managed to find a few gifts for her family and friends. I also made them try some Steers (mainly cos I had missed it so much!)

Shopping Buddies

Tonight is New Years and we are heading to Southbroom beach to celebrate with the masses. Us girls were doing a quick-ish Hunters Dry promotion which meant walking through the crowd making sure people were drinking Hunters. This also meant that we were able to stand in our own secluded section and had unlimited Hunters (and water) supplies at our ready. Not too bad!

Promoting...not drinking :)

Ahh New Year’s Eve… Normally the American New Year’s Eve is spent somewhere indoors, so putting on a pair of shorts, flip-flops and a t-shirt to go out on New Year’s Eve was strange to say the least.  I got to join the party a little later as the ladies had to go earlier to work, after joining them for a little bit I was assigned to checking ID’s for those entering the party… let me just say, that was fun. Having a bunch of 16 or 17 year old South African kids trying to bribe me with money to enter the party… not going to happen J … After we got done with ‘work’ the ladies headed off to do the hunters promotion at which point left me alone with my own private stash of Hunter’s Dry… life is hard right? … Once the girls returned we had a fun evening of dancing and partying ‘backstage’ with all the other acts that performed that night, which was nice as the party was packed and it would have been stuffy being stuffed in with everyone else.

Fun times!!!

The bathroom situation was a little bad. They were pretty far away from us and the party was under cover, however the walk to the bathroom was not. This prompted Tamara, Rebecca and I to go the other direction and squat a pee in the bushes closest to us, inaccessible to the general public. I came away with two injuries, banana plant thorns in my hand and foot :/ Other than that the night was amazing, as was kissing my boyfriend at 11:59:59pm on 31/12/2011, to welcome in 2012!

Dirty feet after our adventure...

And one of my injuries

Little did I know that I went to go get another round of drinks to everyone, and as I was paying the bartender I heard the crowd start chanting “10…9…8” … apparently I was the only guy at the party that didn’t realize that New Years was so close… Luckily enough I have a ninja girlfriend and just as the crowd reached “2…1…” she had tracked me down and was standing right behind me as promised with an amazing kiss… lucky guy. 

I think I'm the lucky one

Night Out at the Tavern…

I decided that I needed to take Tyler and Tamara to my “famous dance spot.” We went to the Village Tavern in Margate for a drink and a dance. I even won a black label t-shirt (which I gave to my dear boyfriend.)

The best part of my night (other than dancing the night away with awesome music and lovely people) was when Tyler ordered water! I know this sounds odd, but let me explain… He asked for “wa-are-der” (which is my version of the way Americans say “water”) and the bartender said “you want what?” so he decided to “speak South African” and asked for “w-o-ta” (which is apparently how we sound) and the guy understood him. I think all these small steps help him to see how I have felt in the USA.

While I disagree with that being the best part of the night ;), I will say that it didn’t help being in a loud bar. I still firmly believe that she somehow put the bartender up to it. Further adding to my conspiracy theory, the reason I was ordering that water was because Robyn asked me to go get one… I think it was a setup. That being said, this South African vacation opened my eyes to a lot of different things and I think helped me understand a lot of different things about my girlfriend… and more than just she isn’t the only one in this world that says water funny :P

Simba, Nala and friends…

We (well I) drove to the Lion Park, ready to see some lions. What we weren’t expecting to see were elephants…up really close. To say I was molested by an elephant would be 100% correct. We saw the elephants and pulled up to the side of the road. There caretakers told us we could touch them if we wanted to, not that we had much choice…Once the elephants smelt the apples we were eating they were happy to stick their trunks in through the windows and slobber all over us. Elephant snot…yuck!

Why hello Mr Elephant...

Awfully close huh?

... and the aftermath of an Elephant encounter

After our close encounter, which was a totally amazing experience even with the muddy wetness from their trunks, we headed to the lion section. Seeing the lions out in the wild is fun but a little scary too. You realize how much wild there really is out!

I know you are signing "the circle of life..."

After these fun animal sighting adventures we headed back to the South Coast. Briefly stopping at my high school so I could show Tyler and Tamara a little of my “history.”

Me! and my school!

The elephant experience was incredible, luckily for me I got to touch the elephant, but it much preferred the ladies in the car so I avoided the muddiness. I also got to keep my apple J … The Lion park was cool, a little bit intimidating, but a neat experience to get that close… 

Yip...a little scary!

Seeing game…on a game drive… AKA a Safari…

Driving through iTala game reserve was a really fun experience. We weren’t even 1km into the reserve before we spotted two Rhinos by the water’s edge. They stood as if transfixed by us, this allowed us to take a bunch of close up pictures.  Tyler noticed the humps from the hippos in the water and was convinced he would get a good picture of them. Unfortunately hippos love to stay firmly submerged underwater during the day. So, no good hippo pictures for him.

Rhino!

We also spotted warthogs (little pumbas), impala and eland.  A little futher in the park we found herds of zebra (if you are anything other than South African let me tell you how this is pronounced…it’s ZeB-bra NOT Zee-bra.) They were really relaxed and easy to photograph.

Pumba! AKA Warthogs

We noticed some ostrich, as well as some baby ostriches. They are so cute! Although I was a little weary of getting too close to them.

Mom, baby and baby baby!

My great search was for the giraffe. After getting lost (or temporarily misplaced) in the park, and after much exploring I finally realized that Rebecca is (like me…although maybe worse) directionally challenged. Once I decided to ignore her directional “help” and just follow my African 6^th sense, I came across a whole family a giraffe. A few of them seemed a little intimidated by me, while the biggest one, just stood tall majestic as ever.

Giraffe family!

After seeing everything on our checklist we headed to the Natal Lion Park…

How cute are these ZEBra's???

I love that it’s not only Americans that refer to the African wild life with names from the Lion King. J The game drive was a pretty neat experience, I have seen all of these animals before, but never in a natural setting like this, always in American zoo’s, and let me tell you it just isn’t the same. I will however admit that I am disappointed in the hippo’s, I was determined to get a photo, even made everyone sit in the car and wait, but alas, it just wasn’t in the cards for this American man… maybe on my next South African adventure. (I guess he just re-invited himself….I told you not to feed him, they ALWAYS come back if you feed them J)

Jumping out of perfectly good airplanes…again…

Tyler, Tamara and I headed to Angel’s Way where my mom, Richard and Rebecca were waiting for us. We had planned a day of skydiving, Tamara and my second jump (we jumped together in Milwaukee) but a first for Rebecca and Tyler.

Oh the faces my boyfriend pulls...

After we suited up, which took a while as we had to try find colours that everyone was happy with as well as suits that fitted everyone? Then we were paired with instructors, watch the movie and lastly we headed out the doors. Not of the airplane, but of the hangar. We climbed on the back of the tractor trailer, which drove us to the waiting airplane. We had decided on the following order for the jump…Tyler, Rebecca, Me and Tamara. We had to load in to the aircraft in that order reversed. Tyler was the last sardine in what seemed to be an overfilled can, but we somehow managed to squish in.

Squished in!

The beautiful run way

3, 2, 1 and take off…flying up high amongst the clouds is such an incredible feeling. I love staring out the window and looking at all the expanse that lies beneath me. Finally once we had reached the correct altitude they opened the door, I think Tyler got a little freaked out at this point, as he was the one squished right next to it. When the time to jump came all of us were ready to throw ourselves out of a flying plane…seems crazy! But the rush you get from that jump (or fall) gives you most amazing rush, and then you pull the shoot and canopy down and you get to feel what the birds must feel as they soar through the skies.

Rebecca and I "practicing" our style

It is a most amazing feeling ever. Experiencing it with my best friend, boyfriend AND sister, just made my second jump even better than my first! After we reached the ground (Rebecca and I having successful standing landings…unlike the other two) we were famished and quickly ordered toasted sandwiches.

Once we landed!

Glad we survived

I think skydiving alone would have been an experience that I could never forget, however skydiving in a foreign nation is something that just enhanced the experience. As I had mentioned earlier I was blown away by the landscape of South Africa, luckily this experience gave me a bird’s eye view of the land and it was absolutely breath taking. The jump was incredible, I cannot say the same for the parachute opening as that made the situation a little bit uncomfortable (gentlemen can relate to my plight at this moment), however the view was spectacular. 

(Rebecca?) in the air

Later we all packed into the teeny tiny car while my parents packed into the “Minnie Mouse” car and we made our way to the nearest shop. We basically all ran around like kids taking pictures and finding items to buy. No, I am not embarrassed as no one in Easton knows me.

Tamara and I in the shop

We then joined the instructors for a braai and a few drinks before heading to our cottage, for a good night’s sleep.

Braai time

As fun as the skydiving was, the evening was just as fun. Being able to enjoy another braai on a cool South African night with a few drinks was the perfect ending to an amazing day. 

Chilling at the braai

Best friends are re-united…

My dad offered to take Tyler and me to the Victoria Market and the Beachfront so we could do a little “Christmas” shopping for his family. It was really cool walking around and seeing all the handmade crafts. I have seen all these things many times before but sometimes you need to take a step back to appreciate all your country has to offer, I guess that’s where I am at the moment. Looking in on everything I have been away from and using this as reflection time, to see what is really valuable in life.

(Margate) Beach front stalls 

So Victoria Market was really cool, I am pretty sure that if airlines didn’t have size restrictions on bags I would have bought one of everything available… ok… maybe not everything, I would have left the ‘slap yo momma’ spice behind… Some of the other items for sale though were pretty cool to look at, that is one thing you will definitely not find here in America, we severely lack in handcrafted items.

More craft-Y stuff

Then Tyler and I drove to the airport with my Dad to collect Tamara. (Quick re-cap: Tamara and I met in the USA in 2009 where we both au pairing in Whitefish Bay. We spent much of the year together going to the beach, clubbing and even going to Las Vegas together. She is from Germany and I have not since here since Aug 2010…) Fast forward to right now and I am standing in the domestic terminal, so thrilled to be meeting up with her soon. Until I have a brain wave that since she is flying in via Dubai she will be flying into the International terminal…oops!

The last picture taken of us in the USA together (Aug 2010)

I quickly ran to International arrivals hoping I hadn’t missed her! Thank goodness there was still a little time before she walked through the gate and I run up to her. I am not sure if we did our usual *jumping hug while talking so fast it makes virtually makes no sense to anyone else* (you’ll have to ask Tyler about that) but I remember that it was so amazing to see her again after all that time.

Best Friends together!!!

I cannot say I remember any jumping hugs, that being said I wasn’t watching for any either. As for talking so fast that nobody can understand, that is difficult to determine because I feel like that is standard for my girlfriend when she is excited, which at this moment and many moments throughout this trip she was. At this moment, Charli (Robyn’s dad) and I just sat back and chatted till it was our turn to greet Tamara.

My dad and Tamara meeting and greeting

Once we had arrived back at Dad’s house we sat down for a lovely Lasagna dinner. Tyler then commented that *this stuff is pretty good*. Yeah I thought Lasagna (from Woolworths) is pretty good, and then it was revealed that my crazy, fussy boyfriend had never tried it before. NEVER. Even though his mother makes it. (I had to add that once we made it back to the US and people asked him what foods he tried in SA…he mentions Lasagna…hmmm)

Tyler and I at dinner

So here is where I am going to defend myself, this particular “crazy, fussy boyfriend” of hers went to a foreign country and tried every item that was shoved in my face (sometimes literally by my beautiful girlfriend)…I was admittedly picky, but I told myself that for this trip I would have no limits, and I did it. I have mentioned the Lasagna to people but only as a joke, I think I walked away with my favorite things being (and not necessarily in this order) malva pudding, pap, biltong, wors, and the mielies that we got at the Margate Mardi Gras. I think during this trip I ate better than I have in any other two week stretch of my life, and for that I have two fantastic families to thank!

Tamara with Riley and Roic (after she spoilt them with German chocolate!)