Weddings, Bouquets, and Tiona

After waking up later than expected Friday morning due to a Thursday night out with what seemed to be the ENTIRE Blue Parrot Backpackers hostel, I finally picked up my rental car at the airport and started my journey to Forster for Alicias wedding around 2pm. I did however manage thursday evening to teach a brit, and a swiss how to play quarters, which my fellow Hickok Colers will apreciate! The 4 hour drive ended up taking me 6.5 as I continually was heading the wrong direction out of "roundabouts". I have a major problem with Austrailian signage, on all of their road signs for major throughfares there are NO directions assigned, ie north, south, east, or west. This makes it a bit hard when you are heading to a roundabout intersection, driving the opposite direction you would a "rottary" in the states, and know that you need to head north on route x but signs only give a route number and some name of a town that I couldnt pronounce nevermind try and spell in this blog. Therefore for 2.5 hours of the intended 4 hour drive I was driving in the wrong direction.

I finally arrived in Tiona where we were staying for the wedding at 8:30 pm. The location was part camp site, part cabins. After parking the car I walked over to reception to check in and find out where the group was. It was closed! Immediately I tried to text my friends but there was no cell phone coverage so I had a look around to see if I recongnized anyone or any cars but no luck. Another stop at reception brought upon the finding of a phone number to call incase of arriving late, as well as directions to a pay phone across the street. When I called the man on the other end of the phone, in a thick austrailian accent that I could barely understand, said he was simply the security company located WAY out of town and couldnt help me. I went back to the rental car, put down the back seats and prepaired myself for a night camping in the car while waiting for reception to open in the AM. Suddenly a group of people walked by and I noticed alicias voice! I jumped out of the car and luckly caught up with them as they walked to the cabin i was sharing with Cindi, Mark, Chrissy and Becs. Upon arrival we found that Chrissy had been locked IN the cabin as she shut the screen door and it locked her in for a few hours as the others were at a BBQ and given no cell phone service she had been as helpless as I was. The boys shimmied open the wrong side of the sliding door and she made her escape. We then headed back to the BBQ for needed drinks with a bunch of old kiwi friends!

Morning of the wedding was quiet! I simply sat on the porch in the sun and hung out. Becs and I also went to grab some grub at the cutest little cafe down the street. We then put on our dresses and headed to the wedding. The walk over was a bit wierd as we were all dressed up and walking through a campsite as campers looked on. It was an amazing ceremony in the rainforest that over looks a lake. Alicia looked gorgeous and the first sight of her through the trees gave me goosebumps. After the ceremony we headed to the reception where they had bought 70 bottles of champagne for 60 people. This was definitely an indication of how the evening was to end up. Dinner was great, speaches were funny, and I was having a great time until the ceremonial "throwing of the bouquet". As per usual all of the single women hoping to get married next were crowded at the center, I stood at the back. Niall told me to get up there and tried pushing me to the front but all he got out of me was a move to the side to avoid what was sure to be a female 10 woman pile for the flowers. As I expected it was everywoman for herself and the bouquet jumped over the crowd from hand to hand, then unexpectedly jumped one last 10 feet to right at my toes. Shocked I looked over as the crowd of insane women ran towards me so i grabbed it in self-defense. I was a bit freeked out that I now possesed the bouquet even though I had no desire for it....and if Im "next" people will be waiting a VERY long time for another wedding given my attitude and cynisism towards relationships. Oh well....

The next day brought an insane post wedding hangover for all involved. Luckly Alicias parents had a BBQ at their place which was 45 min from the campsite. They have a salt water pool which was my savior for the day. After jumping in I felt 1000% better! Then as if the catching of the bouquet the night before wasnt enough to freek me out margot, Marks 10 year old niece, looks at me in the pool and says "arnt kids fun, dont you want some, you should have some!", followed a few min later by an older man in the pool asking "which of these little rascals is yours?". I quickly responded "um none". Now I would love kids someday...and already have picked out some cool names, but for all who know me I am pretty much all about me right now and am enjoying my single freedom while traveling the world. I know people my age are having kids left and right but I couldnt immagine the white pickett fence and 2.5 kids right now when there is a whole world out there to explore, I cant stay in one place for more than a few years nevermind a relationship. Not to mention I dont tend to do anything steriotypical so I would probably never have that life style anyways....

Cindi and I started the treck back to Sydney around 3pm. It was a bit of a hike but it was good having my favorite South African to keep me entertained! We listend to tunes, chatted, and headed back to her place where I spent my last night in Sydney before departing in the early AM for Auckland!