Day #9: NZ Date: 25th of February, Thursday; US Date: February 24th, Wednesday.

I hadn’t had a day out with just my lady-in-laws yet, and Johnny hadn’t really had any time out with just his brothers. So, we decided to let Johnny go out hunting with the guys, and us girls would go to Taihape (Tie-Happy).

Let me say now, New Zealand really doesn’t have any BIG cities. Even there bigger towns (they’d call cities) are more rural and usually have 1 main street and a cross street or two, and then mostly consist of houses or older buildings that aren’t in a lot of use at present.

But, the small towns are charming. They usually have a small grocer, a gas station, a church/chapel, and most seem to have at least 1 old theater (though both the ones I’ve seen have been closed down, so sad).

We arrived in Taihape, and Katy & Jenny went over to McDonalds while Nana Deb and I went across the street to the subway (had roast beef this time, yum!). We girls met up with our food in front of the old library (which is lovely and in full operation) to eat our food.

After eating, we went to the bank, then off to a few shops. The shops we browsed were very cute and homey. The first was a quilting/sewing shop, I purchased a couple really pretty pieces of fabric (vintagey with pink roses on it) and some pink wool yarn (NZ made!).

We then went to the local thrift store, called “Caught Short.” I found a little pink sweater and a pink plaid summer dress for baby Vicky, a gift for my sister Naomi, and some more wool yarn I can use.

Then we browsed a cute baby shop, can’t recall the exact name, but it was super cute! So many adorable baby outfits. The lady there had a small basket out with baby headbands, and said she didn’t like any of them, so I could take 1 if I wanted, so nice! I got a cute little red headband with fabric flowers and a sparkly button in the middle.

Last place we visited was called “Wild Roses,” and it was just exactly the kind of shop my Mom and I could spend hours in! Lots of shabby chic items, little birdies, tea sets, vintage toys and candies… I did get my Mom a little something while there.

We then headed towards home, but HAD to stop at the towns icon, the “Gumboot” for a few photos:

Back at home, I helped Nana Deb peel and cut potatoes to go with dinner, then everybody split up to their own places to relax till the guys got back from their thing. I worked more on photos, of course.

The boys got back safely, didn’t shoot anything on there hunt, but they did see a couple deer, and a faun. And on their way back, Johnny spotted a young hedgehog along the road, so they turned back and grabbed him up to prevent him getting smushed by another vehicle. They brought him back to the house, we got to take turns holding him and we tried feeding him, but he was too scared to eat.

Brother Thomas came by and mentioned a lady near where he works that raises hedgehogs. Like, she take sin small ones, fattens them up and raises them, then lets them go when they’re of better size to survive on their own. So we sent this little cutey to this nice lady to brighten her day (as she didn’t have any hedgehogs to spoil just then) and to give this little fella a good start.

Brother Daniel and his wife and family came over, apparently on most Thursday evenings they all get together and have a “Sing-Song.” They use a couple of teh hymnals from their church and just have a night of singing and praising the Lord. It was really nice, got to hear some good oldies that I had grown up with, as well as some oldies that I had never heard before. And Papa Keith made up a few songs for the little kids who kept requesting songs, which was real fun.

I think Baby Vicky really likes the old hymns, felt like she was dancing inside me while we sang, and boy was she kicking hard! Haha!