I survived!- Gemma

I survived; no internet, restless days sitting on the couch with nothing to do, bored conversations with April, no animals to keep me occupied and no sense of direction to go for a run by myself. But I am back home now with everything to keep me satisfied. It's back to work soon with netball trainings and games though.

On Sunday afternoon my Uncle drove me to Ngatea - a small town situated in the Hauraki Plains- to where my Nana (along with my other Grandparents and Aunty and Uncles and cousins) live. The first night I was there we played scrabble. We were sitting on these cube like cushions when the house started to move. We looked up and the lights were swinging from side to side. I stood up and it felt like I just came off a boat, trying to stand up straight. I realised we were in an earthquake! It was a weird but amazing feeling (that's from me having never been in an earthquake before). The swaying settled down after about a minute and from watching the news we found that the earthquake was centred in Wellington (this is a particularly long way from Ngatea). That was an exciting night but I knew I still had to survive the next few days.

Monday morning came quite quickly with the electric blanket 'heating' me off to sleep. I'm not use to staying at Nana's by myself because normally I stay with my cousin, Zoe. So, I just did what I would usually do at home(because my Nana was snoring away in a deep sleep); pour myself some cereal (in this case, muesli), turn the heater on, sit on the couch and watch some television. Finally, Nana awoke so I didn't feel so alone and told me to get ready because we were picking up Zoe and heading to Thames. We went to Dick Smith and Noel Leeming to find a charger for my cousin's phone. Then we went to Kiwi Bank for my cousin. As you may have found out this was an extremely boring trip for me. The rest of the day was as boring. I still had to survive a couple more days of this.

Tuesday arrived with horrible weather and a new royal baby boy. My Nana was so amused and never changed the news channel. Because it was such a 'special' day we went to the Corogate Café. This café is England crazy and was advertised in the Women's Weekly, the news and the Hauraki Herald. So Nana decided what better time to go then now. We picked up her friend Carol ,who is from England, and headed to the café. As soon as we walked through the door we could see how English fanatic they were. In the café there were; cardboard cut outs, statues and memorabilia of the royal family from all generations, a royal nursery, foods and sweets such as mushy peas and polo mints from England and the ceiling was fully covered in finished jigsaw puzzles! It was overly amazing. It must have taken ages but not even getting started with all the expenses. One morning left.

Wednesday, here I am enjoying typing this very long piece of writing about my holidays. But I survived. My Nana is thinking about what I am doing next holidays...