On the way out of the beautiful, laid back town of Raglan, I stopped off at my last waterfall of the trip - Bridal Veil Falls. Appropriately named if the bride were 50 metres tall. The water in the stream leading up to it is super murky due to runoff from all the farms in the area, not that you'd know looking at the white of the falls themselves. The stream, which is quite small and calm, gets an upsetting surprise when it goes shooting off a 55 metre high cliff into an almost circular pool below. The pool at the bottom sits in a steep-sided bowl in the hills (this country is really good at hiding its waterfalls! Good thing there are signs...). No swimming in the pool - gross water, etc. Also if you jumped in you probably wouldn't come out unscathed, since you would have to jump off a cliff into a pool that is mostly 5 metres deep... except for the huge boulder sitting in the middle that you can't see. (Okay, I'm taking their word for it that the boulder is there, since you can't see through the water when its a few inches deep, let alone when you're standing 50 metres above it looking down...) 
As usual, the waterfall and stream were hidden away in a fantastically green and very un-Canadian forest full of moss and trees and ferns (and those fern trees!) dense enough that the full noon sun was dimmed to a green twilight. Speaking of green... I had a piece of the BEST melon I have ever tasted today!!!! It was SO GOOD!!! I'd never had it before and didn't recognize it (it was already chopped up, so I don't know what the rind looks like or anything) - its bright green, quite soft, and very juicy... sort of sweet and slightly lemony-tart at the same time. I asked what it was and the lady told me "rock melon" - except when I got back and googled rock melon, it came up with canteloupe! It was definitley not a canteloupe. So if anyone knows, from my rather poor description, what this ridiculously tasty melon is called (and if you can get it in Canada :p )... please tell me... please... I'll buy them one :D (if they sell them back home - countries seem to dislike you bringing fruit across borders :p ).
A few weeks back I was talking with an Australian and we got on the topic of the different brands in different countries. This ended up rolling around to pharmaceuticals; she had never heard of acetaminophen. I thought Tylenol was everywhere, so I was surprised. Similarly, she thought it odd that we didn't have paracetamol. Turns out its the same thing. N-acetyl-p-aminophenol. I guess nobody calls it that and different continents condensed it to different things. Fun fact. :p
This is my last night in New Zealand, which is really quite sad. No offence to Australia, or anything. It has been a spectacular trip... and may require another visit. (Takers? I don't think my dad needs much convincing to visit to Mt Cook... ;) )
In the interest of not having to deal with morning traffic on the way to the airport tomorrow morning (and the lack of parking around hostels in Auckland), I booked a cheap motel near the airport off expedia. Except somebody somewhere slipped up, because the hotel got overbooked... shoot... however, the perk of this mistake happening through a big booking agency like Expedia means that instead of my original cheap motel, I am now staying in a 4 star hotel right by the airport for the same price plus a refund of $25 for the "inconvenience." Fine by me! :p
(erm... I turned on the tv in the room to Discovery, and Adam from Myth Busters is getting really excited about something that sounds uncomfortably like the Cyber-men from Doctor Who...)
Tomorrow, I fly (on a plane, still no wings of my own) across the Tasman Sea to Sydney, Australia!
- Marysa
(hmm, googling "green rock melon" gives some that miiiiight look right...) :|
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