This week I celebrated my 8 month arrival-iversary in Christchurch! Which means this blog has been going on for 5 and a half months longer than I intended it to. But I'm still here, and this is still a great way to recap my adventures and share them with my family -- so here we go. :)
I've been trying to limit my posts to just weekends away, but I realized that I've been leaving out so many of the things that have been making me happy recently. So without any further ado, and in no particular order, here are the things that have been making me smile since getting back from the US last month.
My parents got a puppy. She's the cutest little thing in the world and I love her. I also love when my mom sends me photos of her. Especially this one:
We got bikes! To be fair, Cam had a bike, and one of his best friend is kindly lending me a bike for the winter. We used them to ride to the market a couple weekends ago, and then took a ride around the botanical gardens, over to an outdoor mall for a fresh squeezed juice, and then to the riverbank to chill out before riding them home. It was a really nice day -- Thanks for the bike, Margaret.
 We've been trying new cafes in Christchurch on weekends! Cam discovered neatplaces.co.nz which just has lists on lists of brunch spots around town. This one was probably our favorite.   |
We bought a really cool poster!! And found this awesome frame at a second hand store for $15. The poster is drawn to look like an old computer game in Christchurch's Cathedral Square. The square looks so different now - as does the rest of the city - so it's really cool to have this poster of Chch pre 2011. And it's making my apartment feel homey to have some art on the walls.
The Fifa U20 World Cup came to Christchurch... and the office got excited. A couple Sundays ago we all met at the office for a fish fry, a Stanley Cup viewing party, an office parking lot soccer game, and most importantly a pre-drink party before the Germany v. Hondoras game. It was a ton of fun!
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| A win for Germany! |
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| Beer and Cam in the office! Much better than a normal work day. |
And the winter sunrises and sunsets have been amazing!
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| On the roof at my current site inspection - Probably the highest point in Lincoln, NZ |
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| Sunrise from the office (cause I've been getting there too early) |
And lastly, I got to video chat with my mom and my sister.
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| My mom and my sister were together in New Jersey and Cam and I got to FaceTime with them! Courtney got hurt last weekend and was receiving some TLC from our Mama so it was good to see her smile. Those are the times when you miss home the most, but I'm so thankful for video chat :) |
So now, on to the main point of this blog post - Cam and I and three of his friends spent a weekend on the Coromandel Peninsula at his family's beach house.
Cam's family has a house in the town of Pauanui, just a quick walk away from the beach. I've heard so much about his summers at Pauanui, so I was excited when he asked me if I wanted to go up with him for a weekend. In a non-typical fashion for me, the weekend was full of mostly relaxing activities. We had a really great time playing games, making pizzas, and going mini golfing. But we couldn't leave without climbing the mountain, so despite my unwillingness to get out of bed Sunday morning, Cam and I climbed Mt. Pauanui.
Cam's family has a house in the town of Pauanui, just a quick walk away from the beach. I've heard so much about his summers at Pauanui, so I was excited when he asked me if I wanted to go up with him for a weekend. In a non-typical fashion for me, the weekend was full of mostly relaxing activities. We had a really great time playing games, making pizzas, and going mini golfing. But we couldn't leave without climbing the mountain, so despite my unwillingness to get out of bed Sunday morning, Cam and I climbed Mt. Pauanui.
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| Excuse our appearance.. it was early. but look, we made it to the top! |
We got to the house Friday afternoon, and after a quick look around, walked out to the beach. The lighting was beautiful and I was so happy to be there. We had so much fun watching the waves crash and taking a few selfies.
Cam's friends arrived just after we got back from the beach and we drove them around the neighborhood, and picked up some fish and chips on the way home. The fish and chips in Pauanui is on point.
We spent the rest of the night playing an apparently very stressful game of Jenga until we all passed out early. Turns out traveling was too tiring for all of us.
The weather wasn't great on Saturday, but we had to get out of the house during the day, so we bundled up and went to the local mini golf! Turns out Cam is randomly really good at mini golf, so he crushed all of us, but everyone had a lot of fun. The mini golf course was pretty funny too. It was basically a series of holes that all went in to a little hut over a pipe that took the ball on to another green. We got a little tired and cold by Hole 13 and skipped to the end, where I got the ball in the winning spot and won a free round of mini golf! Guess we have to go back soon :)
Saturday night, it was time for Cam to show off his pizza making skills. Their house has a wood fired pizza oven in the back, so after you let it heat up, you can cook pizzas so fast! It was really fun to do with five us there because each of us got to design our own pizza (or two) and have a go and cooking it in the oven! My pizza had heaps of pepperoni of course. #america.
Cam's friends arrived just after we got back from the beach and we drove them around the neighborhood, and picked up some fish and chips on the way home. The fish and chips in Pauanui is on point.
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| Showing them the beach! |
We spent the rest of the night playing an apparently very stressful game of Jenga until we all passed out early. Turns out traveling was too tiring for all of us.
The weather wasn't great on Saturday, but we had to get out of the house during the day, so we bundled up and went to the local mini golf! Turns out Cam is randomly really good at mini golf, so he crushed all of us, but everyone had a lot of fun. The mini golf course was pretty funny too. It was basically a series of holes that all went in to a little hut over a pipe that took the ball on to another green. We got a little tired and cold by Hole 13 and skipped to the end, where I got the ball in the winning spot and won a free round of mini golf! Guess we have to go back soon :)
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| Pretty funny little huts, huh? |
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| Almost forgot- we got ice cream! |
Saturday night, it was time for Cam to show off his pizza making skills. Their house has a wood fired pizza oven in the back, so after you let it heat up, you can cook pizzas so fast! It was really fun to do with five us there because each of us got to design our own pizza (or two) and have a go and cooking it in the oven! My pizza had heaps of pepperoni of course. #america.
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| PIZZA CHEF! |
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| love this view! |
Overall it was a really nice weekend! Really fun to spend the time with Cam's friends and see a place that's so important to him. Next trip I want to do a bit more exploring on the Coromandel though! Cathedral Cove is definitely on the bucket list.
Til next time, Pauanui!
(And special thanks to Don McLeod for letting us use the beach house!!!)
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