We met Rosemary at the Cathedral and she entertained us with stories of hosting an exchange student, who became a second daughter and called her Kiwi Mom. Rosemary is a delight!

We visited the farmers market and met Damaris from Germany. She owns a great business called Little Squeeze. We had scrumptious yogurt ice cream blended with loads of real fruit. This is by far the best ice cream we have experienced on our trip. She is also at the Montgomery markets on Sunday’s.

Walking to the Queens garden a women stopped us and asked “Are you the little boys that were playing the piano in front of the museum earlier today?”
“Yup!” And a new friend was made. Her beautiful name is Nyree and has a young kiddo named Ace. She graciously gave us great advice on what to do and see in the area.

We hiked up to the “Centre of New Zealand, I passed a woman walking down the mountain. I thought I saw on her t-shirt “Mount Everest” and went bounding after her to ask if she was from Mount Maunganui. (see Brett’s blog post “How to Climb Mount Everest Without Leaving the Beach from last month). Vicki is from there and had completed the Mount Everest Challenge! Whoooo hooo! Even though she was on her way down the hike when we met up, she turned around with us to walk to the top once again. She mentioned how much she enjoyed walking the Mount as a daily routine that now, as she is traveling, she is on the look out for walks that are similar so she can keep it up. Way to go Vicki! Such an inspiration!! Vicki was only 15 years old the last time she hiked to the “Centre of New Zealand” and has a photo of herself at the top. So we took another photo to commemorate her return. So happy to make such a wonderful new friend!