Never ever yet had I experienced autumn as incredible as this year. Every morning I wake up inspired and full of energy, every cup of coffee tastes amazing, every new experience makes me smile. Truly, you need nothing more but a sense of harmony to feel happy. And though this delicate rare state of pure balance consists of thousands factors, by the end of April I managed to figure out my two key points that lead to the best autumn ever.
There’s nothing better than waking up to the bright sun overflowing the terrace. Hard to believe, but New Zealand fall turned to be sunnier than the summer! It was the worst and the most rainy summer ever, locals never experienced anything like that before and we shouldn’t base our opinion on what we’ve seen two months ago, I know, I know. But I should also admit, after that summer I was ready to face the even more unpredictable gloomy autumn. First of all, because this season is normally like that in Russia. Literally, you can’t think of the least pleasant months to visit our country than October-November (which equals April-May in here). So who knew we would be sunbathing and enjoying outdoor activities for the whole season? People are so dependent on the weather, so having such an amazing autumn automatically rises the level of happiness. Really, I can’t stop admiring it!
The second (and probably – the most important reason) of falling in love with this fall are our friends. Surprisingly, we welcomed three guests in one month! What means April was full of travels, new places, hiking, swimming, delicious food, fun and, yes, no blogging at all.
Having your best friend by your side on the other end of the world means, sorry, a whole world to me. We were laughing to lungs’ pain, slept in the old church, made friends with local rastafarian at the bus stop, got wet to our underwear while exploring Leisure Island under the heaviest rain, hiked Mount Maunganui barefooted and wearing beach towels after (everything else was too wet to wear!), made silly comments on football games we both have no interest in, turning Alex’s life into a nightmare. I mean, when else and whom with can I do that again?
And I know I promised two reasons, but there is also one more thing I truly appreciate this fall. That “us time” coming after all the friends are gone and all the adventures are done. Though we enjoyed our crazy April a lot, we also waited impatiently for the time we would be able to just relax and do nothing all on our own, get back to the familiar rhythm of life and our small pleasures: morning pancakes we never had time for last weeks, blog updates, watching favourite travel-show series after series…
Last weekend we celebrated this “going back to normal”, as I call it, moment by driving 100 km to Hamilton to simply enjoy our favourite Duck Island Ice Cream (Maple, Honeycomb and Roasted Almonds flavour is to die for!) and do some shopping. No sightseeing, no going nuts, nothing like that. We ate a lot, smiled a lot, walked a lot. It was such a cute romantic time… Hell yeah, I definitely love this autumn!
