Pizza and Parking Adventure

Tuesday night after a somewhat hectic day with the kids we went out for a night on the town. It was beautiful and sunny so we had a nice walk down the coastal walkway. One of our new friends suggested a restaurant called Arborio for dinner. It has great big windows that look out to the water where we enjoyed our pizza and beer. This was not ordinary pizza....

Pizza #1 seared beef, red onion, roast pumpkin, zucchini, marinated feta, and pesto. Even though the picture doesn't look like it, this pizza was very tasty!

Pizza #2 moroccan spiced lamb, tomato, eggplant, spinach, citrus creme fraiche. This pizza was a little weird with the citrus creme fraiche. It was like a sweet orange/lemon sauce on the top. We think it would have gone better on a cake.

After our delicious pizza we went back to retrieve Black Betty from the city parking garage. Those of you who know the downtown Denver parking garage story, you know where this is going. Evidently the only parking garage in downtown New Plymouth closes at 6pm! Boy were we in a pickle now! Both gates were chained and pad locked. After spending 30 minutes brainstorming on what to do (call the security to make sure we weren't going to get towed, leave Black Betty here for the night, try to break the chain, have Jilling come pick us up, walk home, etc), we found the one other person who's car was still there too. He said, "Have you tried the exit at the top of the garage?" What! There is an exit at the top! Needless to say Black Betty made it home safe and sound and she got to park for free that night. :)

After the parking garage adventure we had to make a stop at Tip Top (our new favorite ice cream) for an ice cream bar. We got Memphis Meltdown BIG NUTS! Just to make your mouth water a little bit here is what it has, a whopping serve of the smoothest caramel, rippled vanilla ice cream, covered in nuts and plunged deep into delicious thick milk chocolate. On the package it says "WARNING: This is an ice cream product, it is not to be used for directing aircrafts, or increasing fertility."

For those of you who need another laugh. This was Tuesday's headline for the local paper. The cat (pussy) was stuck in a palm tree for 4 days before they figured out how to get her out!

Rain then sun...

We used our day off on Saturday to venture down the beautiful coast. A storm was pounding the West side of New Zealand so we got to experience a NZ downpour! The clouds and rain gave the landscape a mystical appearance. Along the way we visited Cape Egmont. There we saw a lighthouse and made a video of the waves crashing on the shore.

Here is a 54 second video of the rough ocean waves.

After our rainy drive to the cape we had a chai tea and a tasty chicken pie from Sugar Juice Cafe in Opunake.

On Sunday the clouds cleared and the rain stopped. We went tramping (hiking) at Lucy's Gulch in Egmont National Park. All the National Parks in NZ are free (maybe the high taxes pay for them?). The trees were very dense and some of them were 100s of years old! We climbed up high enough to get a great view of the ocean.

In this picture New Plymouth is to the far right.