A Weekend of Roadies

Roadtrips. Since the longest you’d ever have to drive to get to a beach in this country is about 1.5 hours and a drive from the top to the bottom of the north island would only take about 8 or 9 hours, kiwis consider roadtrips (aka roadies) to be pretty small distances compared to American ones.  On Saturday, Ryan, Loren, and I “roadtripped” to Ryan’s house about an hour away in Rotorua for the day.   Ryan and I had talked about doing this a little earlier in the week, but it was a pretty spontaneous, but great, decision.  We decided to spend the afternoon crafting and making bracelets so we drove through the city and stopped at a craft store to get some embroidery thread on the way to Ryan’s.  Ryan and Loren have a class together, so I was in charge of quizzing them for their exam on Tuesday, which ended up being hilarious because part of the time they tried to talk in American accents when they answered.  Anyways, we got to Ryan’s house, which seemed like it was pretty much out in the middle of the green rolling hills; he has sheep, cows, chickens, and tooooons of land.  We hung out and made lots of bracelets/anklets for most of the afternoon :)  

Loren and Ryan creating their masterpieces

Later on Ryan took us out on his 4 wheeler.  It was SO cool to just be out in the middle of all the hills with no buildings or development in any direction whatsoever.  Out of all the touristy activities I’ve done (which actually isn’t that many I don’t think), these are the kinds of things that I really love.  We rode around Ryan’s huge yard, up through the hills, through gates, and next to cows and sheep... SO wonderful.  They probably thought I was really weird because I kept taking pictures and saying “this is so in my top 5 NZ moments”.  Ryan’s sweet mom made us chicken kebabs and mashed potatoes for dinner, so we ate up, made a few more bracelets, then headed back to Uni!  Such a great spontaneous afternoon roadie with some awesome friends!

Ryan and me 

Loren and me on the back!

This weekend (yesterday, Sunday) was the Rugby World Cup FINAL: New Zealand vs France.  On Sunday as I was about to get ready for church, Loren popped into my room and asked if I wanted to go up to her house (a little bit outside of Auckland) for the day/night to watch the game.  Um, YES!  After we got to her house, we reluctantly took off for a run with her dog (who walked to my running pace) through the farm filled backroads to an air field (Sheesh these 2 weeks of half-marathon training are kind of starting to get to me… only one more week to go though!).  We got back and sat in her hot tub for at least 2.5 hours (oops) and it felt so great.  Her family had a bunch of friends and neighbors over for the game that night, so it was lots of fun to just hang out all low key and watch it!  It reminded me of when I was in high school and all my cousins and everyone used to go watch the super bowl and my Aunt Paige’s house… lots of food, fun and people.  And then we all grew up and went to college :(  The game was a wee bit stressful to watch though as the final score was 8-7, New Zealand.  It’s so weird that all the RWC hype that has been going on since the beginning of my time here is finally dying down.  But how awesome that I got to be here during such an exciting time, right?!

SO EXCITING!!!

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast (yummy ham aka bacon, sausage, and eggs), baked two delicious batches of cookies, studied a bit, went tennis shoe shopping (aka my heaven), and headed back to Uni.  I am SO thankful for Loren; not only for her generosity, but also for all the laughter that being around her creates, and also her constant help with my kiwi accent that is absolutely horrible and her explanations of kiwi lingo that I don’t fully understand (gracias amiga! Nekminnit…).  I know it’s not really that hard of a task to make me laugh, but this weekend I feel like laughed more than I talked, which is a good thing.  Maybe all the chocolate and desserts we ate had something to do with it as well…  Loren has definitely been one of my most favorite friends here and has been so sweet me over the past 4 months.  Ahhh I don’t want to leave!!!!!  Good thing she’s coming to visit next summer :) right Loren??

the view of Auckland from Loren's deck

It’s so weird to think back to 4 months ago when I literally knew NO ONE here.  How cool that the Lord has revealed his faithfulness to me in so many different ways, one being friendships.  He has provided me with friends who are so willing to include me in activities, hang out, and get to know me.  He has used these friends to guide me to where He wants me to go and what He wants me to see and be exposed to.  Even though I struggle to put my hope and trust in the Lord each day, His love is unfailing and so apparent through the people that He has surrounded me with a million miles away from home and familiarity.  I am so thankful that this whole experience, lack of old friends and the chance to make new and wonderful ones, has showed me more of Christ’s love and that it’s not my job to try to figure everything out, but to just trust in Him and the plan he has set out for me!

Interesting Observations:

-a braid=a plat

-They say “can’t be bothered” a lot.  Example: “I should get up and go for a run but I really can’t be bothered.”

-They also say “meant” in place of “supposed” Example: “I was meant to study today, but I really just can’t be bothered” or “You were meant to put spaghetti on my toast but you forgot!”

-The summer Olympics are actually in the winter here, how sad.

-These obnoxiously awesome shoes Loren and I found today:

And now I leave you with a video of the bikkie Haka performance at Loren’s house:

“I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength…”

            Ephesians 1:18-19

Also... SO proud of my mom and my aunts for conquering the Susan G. Komen 3-day, 60 mile walk for breast cancer this weekend!!! Wooooohoooo yall did it!!!