A Thanksgiving Adventure...With Togas

While in Whangarei, I invited Katherine* to join me and my American roommates for Thanksgiving dinner in New Plymouth. After I disappeared to Paihia, American dude Andrew and Canadian gal Jaime couch surfed with her and Rob, and Katherine invited them as well. Katherine already had a bus ticket to New Plymouth, so that opened up a seat for me. I met up with Andrew and Jaime in Auckland and we set off together.

*[Not only is she American, her last name is The U.S.]

Before I continue, here are some things you should know about these people.

Andrew:
*The man is an absolute wizard when it comes to old, beat up cars...like his white 1988 Toyota Corolla, named Great White.

*He is traveling with the giant tome known as "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

*Andrew is perhaps the most chilled out guy I have ever met. If he thinks you're getting too stressed out, he'll give you rum.

*Speaking of rum, the guy makes a wicked rum sauce for pumpkin pie.

*He is learning the harmonica, because, "Sometimes you just need to whip something out of your pocket and play some music."

Jaime:

*She is adamant that Canadian Thanksgiving came before American Thanksgiving. Need proof? Just look at the calendar and behold Canadian Thanksgiving in October.

*Jaime possesses the magical ability to make your fork disappear, then reappear later once you are more thankful for it.

*She was a vegetarian for eleven years before relapsing...on a Wendys baconator.

*Jaime remembers the Alamo!

So we're driving along, and I tell them about this cool beach called White Cliffs about 50 km before new Plymouth. We decide to stop there. Yay! Happy days. We get back in the car for the last pull home. The clutch goes out. To set the stage, we're on a narrow dirt road leading directly into the ocean at a fairly steep grade. Things are looking grim. But Andrew has a plan.

We're only twenty feet or so from the main road, which slopes down in the direction we want to go. He's pretty sure we can gain enough momentum going down to force the car into gear. We just have to get there. With sheer brawn from Jaime and me and some timely abuse to the starter to give the wheels a little jolt, we heaved the Great White onto the main road. Sure enough, with gravity on our side doing what it does best, Andrew fired it up and we were in business...even hit third gear on the highway.

Katherine decided to make Thanksgiving into a toga party. Why have we only been friends for a week? Such a tragedy. She got a head start on her quest for inebriation by constantly tasting Andrew's rum sauce, then licking the bowl.

With the guest count expected somewhere between 20 and 30, we got permission to hold the festivities in Decantas, the restaurant where Cheryl (American roommate) works. I made a beastly macaroni and cheese dish that almost got completely devoured, and that's saying something considering that, true to tradition, we had about three times as much food as we needed. Jaime got her first American Thanksgiving dinner, along with several Kiwis, four Germans, an Indian, and a Malaysian. Katherine had casserole for the first time in her life---no lie. All in all, it was a most stellar holiday feast.

Katherine tried to get me drunk, but I ate way too much for that to be a realistic possibility.