Rumble In Rotorua

Thursday.  Mai took a "few" pictures of the black swans in Lake Rotorua.  Then, we made the excellent decision to buy $9 bottles of wine and drink them by the lake at night.  Walking past the classy bar appropriately named the "Pig and Whistle" it was as if the gods called out from above.  We hear a live bands faint rendition of the classic song, Mai's song, "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eye Cherry.  And yes, we did go to said bar post wine and yes, Mai did ask the band if they could play "Save Tonight" again and yes, they did comply. 

Friday, we made a delicious salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, green capsicum, broccoli, and apples (see parents, we're eating healthy too!). If you didn't know, capsicum is a long-winded way of saying "bell pepper".  So it seems that Brian and I have created a record of debaucheries Fridays.  This Friday was no exception to our newly instated rule. We began the evening by purchasing our beers the kosher way, from the hostel (if a hostel has a liquor license then you are not allowed to BYOB)... but because we can't afford drinking beers, we brought our bottles of wine into room 206.  An eight-bed dorm, room 206 became the party room Friday night. The guest list: 1 American from LA, 1 guy from Finland, 2 girls of London, a guy from Germany and Brian and I.  We began the evening celebrations with a round of Kings. Like our previous experience, playing Kings with foreigners who are unfamiliar with the game is guaranteed to be heaps of fun.

An hour or so passed and we realized it was time to the hit the town.  Most bars close at 1230-1 am.  We went by a few options before splitting up with 206, Brian and I going to the Pig and Whistle. We are suckers for live music.  Following an intense jumping/dancing around session, we met up with our fellow 206 roomies at a karaoke bar. Brian and I sang our signature duet, "Cruisin". Not long after our tummies began to rumble and it was time.. Mickey D's time. In Rotorua, you're allowed to walk through the drive through. In New York, you need to be in a car. Thank Goodness, I think hitchhiking through the drive-thru is a hori move.

So there we were, a group of 7 backpackers, walking our way through the drive thru, blissfully imagining french fries, diet cokes and home comfort food at 230 in the morning when an angry "honk-honk" shoots us back to reality.  A group of four 19 year olds in a white car pull up behind us. The girlfriend of the guy driving is leaning over him honking the horn.  Shit is about to go down.

Now I (Brian) was in the back of our group with the other American and the kid from Finland as this was going down.  We laughed it off each time she honked and we told her to relax and calm down.  We weren't going any slower than we would have if we were in a car - late night fast food service just takes a while.  Everyone knows that!  I even took multiple people’s orders so we could go faster.  This impatient girl was still not having it.  She continued to honk and yell at us.  A group of kids who had already walked through in front of us and were enjoying their delicious McDonald's goodness informed us that they were from around the area and it was totally cool if we walked through the drive-thru.  They said not to worry about the car behind us, they were just being dumb.

We were about to pick up her food when the girls chimed in the "conversation" between the white car and us.  Before I knew it, this tiny pissed off girl was standing in front of Mai threatening to punch her, and I was standing right in between.  In true Long Island fashion, Mai responded as she put her stuff down, "Go ahead.  Punch me.  I'm in New Zealand and want to get the full experience.  Punch me."  As I observed this confrontation I thought, "Ok, I have two options.  If I can, I'll grab this girl's arm before she gets a chance to land a punch on Mai.  But if she does, I'm going to have to punch this girl.  I really don't want to punch a girl."  Before I knew it though, someone pushed someone else and all hell broke loose.  I kept the girl as far out of reach from any of us as possible and watched as the two UK girls we were with go at it with the girl's friends.  I looked up and saw that our American friend was in a chokehold by the boyfriend and the girlfriend was trying to hit him.  So Mai and I ran over to help and being that we are so intimidating, the kid dropped our friend.  Unfortunately he hit the back of his head on the concrete pretty hard and cut it open.  Mai tripped over him as we pushed the kids away and scraped her knee a bit.  By then, the girl and her boyfriend got back in the car and her two friends were confronting Mai.  I stood next to Mai as they talked, trying to make sure no other fights would happen.

As they argued about who started the fight, the friend said something about getting married.  Mai's attitude quickly changed as she exclaimed, "Wait.  You're getting MARRIED!?  How old are you?"  She's 19.  The girl spoke of her husband-to-be and how much she loved him and how her new dress was ripped, courtesy of Mai.  Mai: "Oh you can stitch that back up so quickly!  Don't worry!"  The girl asked why we were in Rotorua as she considers it a "shit-hole" (and it certainly smells like that from time to time).  So again, in true Long Island fashion, two girls who were at each other's throats bonded talking about love and marriage and literally hugged goodbye.  I stood there dumbfounded while finally enjoying my Big Mac.

In the end, we convinced our American friend to go to the hospital and get his head stitched up.  He was a good sport about it, cracking jokes to both the cops and the ambulance service, making us all laugh the whole time.  Mai had a small cut on her knee and the rest of us made out without a scratch to show.  Moral of the story: don't fuck with Long Islanders.