Africa: Week Three
V & A Waterfront, Cape Town | Dook Photography
Thankfully Cape Town is a city that ALMOST never sleeps.
Aunty C stopped by to pick up our bags and Mam but Tez and I weren't ready to head home. We hadn't seen Lauren, Andy or Nicole in so long that it seemed too silly to go home just yet - especially since Lauren didn't have work the next day and Andy and Nicole didn't have to go back to school or Uni yet.
So we jumped in into Andy's car and headed down to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.
Even at 9pm the place was bustling. The shops weren't open but the restaurants were and the 3 story building was full of people window shopping, out for a stroll after their dinners or looking for another place to have dessert.
The V & A Waterfront in Cape Town is a tourists dream. This is where you can find all the fancy shops like Louis Vouton and the 5 star restaurants. It's jam packed full of touristy shops - the tourist factor doesn't seem to deter the locals from filling up the restaurants either.
South African's are such massive foodies, it's amazing the volume of restaurants that are in one place that still manage to stay jam packed full of people. I remember as a kid going out to eat at a restaurant almost 4 times a week - and now we only go out to eat as a special occasion.
After running around the V&A and grabbing a couple ice creams Andy dropped Tez and I back to Aunty C's where we collapsed into bed around midnight and drifted off to sleep.
Week 3 started at a crawl. We were all so exhausted from our first two full on weeks that we decided to spend week 3 catching up with old friends and just kicking it at home.
Monday was spent lazing away at the pool, eating too much and napping. Tuesday we were dropped off at Canal Walk Shopping Center. So can we just pause to take a moment to try and describe this place. If you've ever been to the states, this probably won't impress you much. But there is nothing like this in little Old New Zealand.
Canal walk is in the shape of the infinity sign. It is 3 stories high, not including the parking and it takes you about a full day to walk around 1 level of this shopping center. The place is HUGE. There is a 3 level food court in the middle of the place that has every type of food and restaurant you can think of - and it's ALWAYS full. You have everything from clothing and shoe stores to furniture and home wares to electronics. Everything you could ever need you can find in Canal Walk. So we were dropped off at 8am and shopped
literally till we could shop no longer.
It's unfortunate that we live in a society that is so ready to judge a book by it's cover. Mom used to work for an insurance company and she'd taken out a policy that had matured - which is one of the main reason's we went back home. The policy paid out about Fifty Nine Thousand Rand - which converted back to NZ dollars at the time wasn't all that much, and it was easier to use in South Africa rather than try bring over here. So we had quite a bit of money to spend. Even though we were using Rands we were constantly doing the conversion to dollars and even then everything was a whole lot cheaper than what we would pay for them here in New Zealand so we spent a lot of our time shopping in the more expensive places - places that we never would have stepped foot into if we still lived in South Africa. Also, because we were on holiday we weren't dressed like we had a lot of money to spend. We were in jandals, shorts and tshirts - comfy traveling clothes. Tez and I wandered into this trendy store called The Lott. Mom followed just casually glancing around. The lady behind the counter looked down her nose at us as we walked in and continued doing whatever she was doing at the counter - not even uttering a hello in our direction. Tez and I strolled around pulling clothes off the racks and running into the changing rooms to try things on. The lady at the counter didn't even offer to help. Not until she saw mom pull out the calculator and cash. Then she was all over us like white on rice!
"If you purchase more than R750 you get a pair of sunglasses for free" I laughed and said "you better get ready to part with more than one pair of sunglasses then. We'll call you if we need any help" and proceeded to continue shopping. Incidentally, we purchase alost double R750 so we only got 1 pair of sunglasses but it was still worth it.
Mom's friend Charmaine joined us for a late lunch at about 3pm and after that we went back home to hers to stay for a night.
Charmaine and Mom used to work together and through the years became pretty close friends. Mam grew up in apartheid - essentially a state of segregation that lasted way longer than it needed to - and although that might not mean anything to the rest of the world it meant quite a bit that Mam was Coloured and Charmaine was White and they still managed to become friends. Through them our families became quite close. They'd visited us a couple times here in New Zealand and her two sons became like younger brothers to Tez and I. So it was so good to see the boys again - and their 3 adorable dogs. Lulu - Golden Labrador, Duke - Pug and Bella - Teacup Yorkshire Terrier. As things go Bella was the feistiest of the 3 dogs and would yap and chase the other two around the garden like she was ready for a fight. The craziest and cutest little wee rat in existence.
On Wednesday we went with Charmaine and the boys down to Eden on the Bay in Blouberg so Nic could go surfing while we watched from the comfort of a comfy restaurant. Again, eating far too much. Tony joined us with Jason after work and then Charmaine went to call Nic out of the water so we could gather our things and head back to Aunty C's place.
literally till we could shop no longer.
It's unfortunate that we live in a society that is so ready to judge a book by it's cover. Mom used to work for an insurance company and she'd taken out a policy that had matured - which is one of the main reason's we went back home. The policy paid out about Fifty Nine Thousand Rand - which converted back to NZ dollars at the time wasn't all that much, and it was easier to use in South Africa rather than try bring over here. So we had quite a bit of money to spend. Even though we were using Rands we were constantly doing the conversion to dollars and even then everything was a whole lot cheaper than what we would pay for them here in New Zealand so we spent a lot of our time shopping in the more expensive places - places that we never would have stepped foot into if we still lived in South Africa. Also, because we were on holiday we weren't dressed like we had a lot of money to spend. We were in jandals, shorts and tshirts - comfy traveling clothes. Tez and I wandered into this trendy store called The Lott. Mom followed just casually glancing around. The lady behind the counter looked down her nose at us as we walked in and continued doing whatever she was doing at the counter - not even uttering a hello in our direction. Tez and I strolled around pulling clothes off the racks and running into the changing rooms to try things on. The lady at the counter didn't even offer to help. Not until she saw mom pull out the calculator and cash. Then she was all over us like white on rice!
"If you purchase more than R750 you get a pair of sunglasses for free" I laughed and said "you better get ready to part with more than one pair of sunglasses then. We'll call you if we need any help" and proceeded to continue shopping. Incidentally, we purchase alost double R750 so we only got 1 pair of sunglasses but it was still worth it.
Mom's friend Charmaine joined us for a late lunch at about 3pm and after that we went back home to hers to stay for a night.
Charmaine and Mom used to work together and through the years became pretty close friends. Mam grew up in apartheid - essentially a state of segregation that lasted way longer than it needed to - and although that might not mean anything to the rest of the world it meant quite a bit that Mam was Coloured and Charmaine was White and they still managed to become friends. Through them our families became quite close. They'd visited us a couple times here in New Zealand and her two sons became like younger brothers to Tez and I. So it was so good to see the boys again - and their 3 adorable dogs. Lulu - Golden Labrador, Duke - Pug and Bella - Teacup Yorkshire Terrier. As things go Bella was the feistiest of the 3 dogs and would yap and chase the other two around the garden like she was ready for a fight. The craziest and cutest little wee rat in existence.
On Wednesday we went with Charmaine and the boys down to Eden on the Bay in Blouberg so Nic could go surfing while we watched from the comfort of a comfy restaurant. Again, eating far too much. Tony joined us with Jason after work and then Charmaine went to call Nic out of the water so we could gather our things and head back to Aunty C's place.
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