Global Starbucks

As it's nearing summer here, I noticed today that a few people were carrying around cold drinks in Starbucks cups. (Interestingly, it's also October here, so they're promoting pumpkin flavors as well as summer drinks.) I'm a sucker for frozen beverages, so I made a stop at the Starbucks across the street, on my way home from the grocery store/meeting with a Wellington insider (these happened in two different locations). I completely forgot that I actually hate Frappucinos, due to their weird chalky consistency and bitter aftertaste. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf blended drinks are way superior. When I got my tall, overpriced coffee drink, served by an American girl from Kentucky by way of Manhattan, I remembered that I don't like them. Then I hoped that since I'm in New Zealand, far, far away from the source, it would be a little different, i.e. tasty. Well, I'm here to tell you... New Zealand Frappucinos taste *exactly* like American ones. Like scarily the same. Usually when you're in foreign countries, there's some distinction between flavors in common items like potato chips, chocolate and pizza. But not Starbucks.

Anyhoo, I have more pictures and more important projects that I'm procrastinating on. So here are a few more.

The Waitomo caves. We weren't allowed to take pictures of the glowworm cave, but this cave was also kind of cool:

Just so no one is crushingly disappointed with this next batch of photos, I'll reiterate...I have no pictures of the giant carrot yet. But I will, and I will post. In the meantime, here is an example of why I'm not an outdoorsy person:

But then again, this is why I wish I were a more outdoorsy person: