The Republic 2 …

Ok so sorry for the lack of blog entries but I have been busy being a glob trotter.

Annnyways so there I was in Jo'burg with no license and the next 4 weeks in Africa came crashing down around me. I wasn't going to see Lesotho anymore nor Botswana and Namibia well that was still kinda on the cards when I thought hey lets just fly there. Luckily I didn't as I would have been stuck in Windhoek with nothing to do.

I decided that I will fly down to Port Elizabeth as I have family down there and I would be able to get around the place a bit and one of my Uncles had a car down there I could use in and around the city. Yup all illegal and stuff I know. Anyways I ended up staying with one of my mums Cousins for a bit and kinda fell into their routines as we went around town to Gymnastics and Karate with the kids. These kids are amazing in their sports and kinda made me feel like the big fat lazy sloth. Which after a while of thinking I was actually really ok with, I don't like to sweat.

We also went to a park on the edge of the city called Kragga Kamma Game Reserve which pretty much is just a big farm with wild animals walking around the place. I know in African terms having a game farm pretty much within the city limits isn't a strange notion but to little old me from tiny old New Zealand it was kinda like hey you have some Giraffes over there ,oh and that Cheetah wondering around too. We probably spend about a couple of hours in this park just driving around and have a snack at the rest area in the middle of the park. I try and go and see African animals every time I get to go to the Republic and having been born there it shouldn't really be a big deal for me. However I love watching all of them just going about their business as if nothing has changed in the last 500 years. I still cant decide which African animal is my favourite. The elephant is very high up on that list so is the Giraffe and I do like the donkeys in PJ's too.

After spending sometime with my mums Cousins family I went to stay with my cousin Gideon for the majority of my remaining time in the Republic. We ended up going to the beach one day by a Valley near the CBD that I have fond memories of. 'Happy Valley' and no to my Kiwi counter parts its not the landfill in NZ this is a magical place of wonder, hopes and dreams. Well it use to be now your lucky if you don't get raped or so I'm told. However Happy Valley like the name suggest is in fact a valley with a little stream running through it. Somewhere back in its history it provided the settlers with water now you probably get Gonorrhea from it. The Happy part in the name refers to the fact that it use to have little sculptures of all your favourite child hood stories hiding under trees here and there all along a path. Also from memory you use to be able to push a button and some of them moved and a speaker told you the story. But these days you get a Pumba and half of Timon and some of the other characters have also been violated in someway. However I told the touchy man no and went for a wonder down Rapers alley to relive my child hood.

I also went to visit Van Der Merwe HQ in Kirkwood and surveyed the happenings there. While in Kirkwood I went to visit a former Mrs Van and her class room to speak about NZ and the shakes that we seem to have acquired. I started speaking in Afrikaans as you do when in a class room in Africa and the kids told me no you have to speak English and I asked why? It turned out they wanted to laugh at my accent at which point I reminded them of a little rugby game they lost. Yes yes I was picking on a bunch of 10 year olds not my proudest moment. After speaking to them and answering all the their question for about an hour they had to write an essay on what I have said. I'm just waiting on some copies to be sent to me and I might post them on here mind you they are all writtin in Afrikaans though. However I thought it was pretty cool as I have never been a essay topic.

Well the rest of my time in PE seemed to have gone really quickly I met some awesome people and had some fun nights out at my new local bar Manhattans. FYI if your ever in Port Elizabeth go to Manhattans and order a Manhattan Milkshake, I named it and it was created at my request for a chocolate drink om nom nom nom. Oh I also went to Grahamstown to visit the Doctor who I haven't seen in like 16 years. She is a year younger then me and we use to play barbies together as kids … and my mum didn't know? But yeah it was amazing to catch up with old and new faces in the Republic and I really can't wait to go back.

Oh I also went and rode on an elephant but I'll blog about that in my next post …. ciao