We both still rose early thanks to the jet-lag but the longest of days still gave us the longest night sleep. Waking early we were both so tired we just turned over and, with my audio book in my ear as a sedative, went straight back to sleep.
We opted for a lazy day of being driven around the city and stopping at various stores for a wander. The country is so large here that you have to drive everywhere, even to cross the street. Shops are so distantly spaced out there is no option but to.
First we went to a motorbike shop. A huge motorbike shop with lots of shiny bikes and a huge selection of clothes. Aimi had a sit on a few bikes, contemplating an adventure style bike for the road trips we are planning next year. There is nothing really like this in the UK, maybe Superbike Factory comes close. There was a really wide selection of jackets, some I hadn’t seen before and one I really liked. Im going to do some googling and see if it can get it cheaper in the UK or not. But I still releived them of a complementary sandwich on the way out.
We stopped at an Adidas outlet store to see if I could find a pair of waterproof trousers. I don’t usually buy Adidas but I got these trousers a few years ago from a friend of a friend and they are just the most amazing winter hiking trousers I’d give anything for another pair. Unfortunately they didn’t have them, but i think i know what they are called now, so I’ll have a look when I’m home again.
Julia took us to one of her favourite shops, a Japanese/Korean pop culture shop that I can’t remember the name of. It was offensively pink inside and had cuddly toys on dedicated shelves lining the walls. It authentically took me right back to the super cute toyshops of Japan.
From here we picked up some Greedy Donuts for after dinner. There were loads of flavour fillings to choose from and a huge inflatable cartoon guy sitting in the corner of the cafe.
Next we stopped at an organic cafe for some lunch. Coffee, sandwiches and the bluest of blueberry scones I had ever seen. It may be organic but I don’t think I’ve ever eaten something quite so toxic looking that tasted so wholesome.
Next door, and maybe part of the same company, was an organic farm shop stocking all the veg you could ever want. Apparently there is a valley just over the mountains that is famed for its stone fruits. We had a taster of the most juicy apricot and had to agree.
After a last stop at a sportswear shop where I found a hat I liked we came home. It had been a more tiring day than we thought but Aimi and I still took Suki out for a short walk to the park. This is a daily thing for us at home so it was nice to go for a walk. Aimi was missing our boys so Suki was a welcome surrogate. This also gave me an excuse to get the drone out and whoop around the play park and a gazebo structure. My poor batteries were not so happy after a few big donks left dents in them.
The day rounded off with chicken wings, wedges and special caber corn on the cob, reported by Graham as the sweetest corn in the world. We were too tired to commit to a full movie that night so watched a tv show about whales off the coast of Scotland and chatted until our eyes started closing. It was still early, but hopefully tomorrow we will have acclimatised to the time zone fully.