Oh What a Night (or a Weekend)

     Well it's just been too darn long since I posted! Sorry about that folks.  The last few days have been a bit busy! I've had some real quality experiences lately.  At school on Friday, for example, we had a New Zealand party! We ate New Zealandish foods like mince (aka ground beef) pies, golden kiwis (I'm telling you, they are delicious and they put green kiwis to shame), pavlova (common in New Zealand), Tim Tam slams, and Vegemite (which is down right disgusting...no offense to any of you who like it).  We had quite the spread!   

This is our wonderful director Erika.  

She tried Vegemite for the first time and was not exactly pleased.  

 And this my friends shows the ingredients for the most wonderful creation ever...Tim Tam slams.  Milo is kind of like hot chocolate (less sweet) and Tim Tams are the most delicious biscuit (aka cookie) ever. Ever ever ever.  To experience a Tim Tam slam, 1st- Bite off both ends of the Tim Tam (I highly recommend caramel Tim Tams), 2nd-Suck the heated Milo through the Tim Tam until the Tim Tam starts to feel a bit soft, 3rd- Get the entire Tim Tam in your mouth before it falls apart in your hand, and 4th- Experience the endorphins that are released as you consume pure joy.  Warning: You will experience a sugar high and you will want to eat the entire package of Tim Tams yourself.  They have Tim Tams in the states, so go out and get yourself some ASAP (I think they sell them from March to November so stock up).  Replace Milo with hot chocolate and love your life. (Side note: Milo is better, but seeing as they don't have them in the states...hot chocolate will have to do). I'm telling you people, you won't be sorry.       

Friday night we went into the city with Natalie (our wonderful "host babysitter" of sorts).  (Our host family was out of town for our first week and Natalie was taking care of the house. She also ended up taking us to lots of different places in Auckland.  

We love her and are so sad she can't live at our house forever!)

One of the places she took us is called Devonport.  It's a little city that is very British-inspired and it is adorable.  Natalie drove us around and our favorite spot ended up being the top of Mt. Victoria.  We could see the whole city from there and it really was quite picturesque.     

Soooooo pretty! 

The rest of our evening was spent exploring downtown Auckland.  We walked around the wharf (which you can see below) and explored what the city had to offer.  I learned two very important things while I was in the city. 1- Downtown Auckland looks like most other cities, but it is incredibly less crowded.  I'm definitely a fan of that! 2- I love spending time in the city, but I think I'm actually more of a suburban/rural kind of girl.  Go figure! 

Andrea and Natalie were tuckered out from lots of walking.  

Too bad this was at the beginning of our excursion! haha

Saturday brought more adventures. Adventure #1 was at Piha beach. We'd heard about this beach from several other people and knew it was supposed to be a rather dangerous beach (the TV show called Piha Rescue told us that much). Before we left for the beach our host dad even warned us about the dangers of Piha: it has really strong currents, really tall waves, and a drop off that is difficult to see.  His parting words were, "Girls, you will be in trouble if you drown."  With these warnings in mind, we headed to the beach.      

Even with its dangers, Piha was beautiful!! The currents were super strong and just plain weird.  There were waves and currents pulling in every direction! The other really "mean" (which means cool) thing about Piha was its black sand!  Because there is so much iron in the sand it is almost black and will burn your feet off! I felt like my feet were going to blister in a matter of minutes!  

We liked this beach, but we feel like we've had enough of it for a while.  

Adventure #2 came when we went to a missionary homecoming party with our host family. Our stake really emphasizes missionary work and they make a huge deal of missionary farewells and homecomings.  We went to a party for a missionary who just got home from Tonga and were able to hear about his experiences and enjoy both musical numbers AND a dance party.  As my host sister would say, it was mean!!! We danced the night away with our little host sisters and were absolutely exhausted when we finished.  It was great!  

This is one of the little host sisters we danced with.  Her name is Snowden, but we usually call her Fufu or Bunnyfu (just a little nickname).  She's hyper as can be and really likes jumping on us, 

but we love her!!

Sunday was full of church (our ward is wonderful!), a BBQ with the rest of the BYU girls, another missionary get together, and another Harry Potter movie.  Pretty darn great if you ask me!  Monday and Tuesday were full of school (this week is math or "maths" as they call it here), homework, and time with our host family.  (P.S. Our time with our host family was definitely the best.  We've learned some awesome songs [videos coming soon], laughed till our sides hurt, and even seen a great movie.  Rise of the Guardians people! It is SO good!) 

More to come! New Zealand is teaching me lots and giving me experiences I never knew I'd have! Love you all! 

~Rach 

Kiwilicious

I guess you could say we've finally established some routines here in New Zealand.

We leave our humble abode at 7:20 to trek for 35 minutes.  

We're getting our exercise just by walking to and from school everyday!!

  We go to school in this lovely chapel, Mon.-Fri. 8:00-3:30.

First day of school! Let me just say (again) that I adore these girls! 

As we walk home from school we often take a detours to Pak'nSave, one of New Zealand's wonderful grocery stores.  It's kind of like Winco in the states, and we really like it.  In Pak'nSave we often come across some foods that aren't what I'd call typical.  

                                                         

 New Zealand has a thing  for  honeycomb.    

                                                        Chocolate mint milk? Might as well drink ice cream.  
                                                                                    

                                                              

       Kiwi-flavored juice (and pretty much everything else)    

                                                  Fish heads! What a pleasant surprise it was to come across these!
                                                                        

Some foods are different, but some have also become favorites (to the point where we will all definitely go through withdrawals when we have to leave them behind).   

             

                            Tim Tams were a wonderful thing to discover and they exist in the states!        

          

                                                     

                                                      Golden kiwis are ten billion times better than green kiwis! 

Ginger beer and Lemon Lime & Bitters sodas.  They may seem odd and oh they are so tasty!

Last but not least, chicken flavored potato chips.  

Yes they taste like chicken and yes they are delicious. 

We get home at about 5 everyday and eventually watch the sunset from our kitchen window.  

I bet you wish your view from your kitchen window was this pretty huh??

We're loving the kiwilicious lifestyle here in New Zealand! More to come!! 

- Rach 

Lessons Learned

(I’ll apologize now for only having two pictures in this post, so um sorry.)

Well everyone, I finally have an actual home here in New Zealand! No more tent (at least for a while) and no more being homeless. Wahoo!!  Here are the happenings from the last two days...  

SATURDAY

We (the 8 of us) left Whangarei early Saturday morning (we were very sad to see it go) and met up with our teacher at her flat.  Our host families picked us up shortly thereafter and off we went in four different directions.  Our host family was rather busy, so they sent their sweet friend Natalie to pick us up.  

Our introduction to our family (oh P.S. I live with just two of the other girls...Andrea and Janessa) was pretty quick and this is what we’ve learned about them thus far: 

- Our family consists of Erin and Rose (who are sweet, fun-loving, and easy-going), and their kids...Denszel aka Sizzle, who is 5, who gets mad easily, and who has already told us she hates us because we wouldn’t carry her up the stairs haha; Snowden aka Fufu, who is 7, who is as hyper as can be, and who is a huge fan of jumping all over us; Pascal, who is 16, who so badly wants to grow up right this very minute, and who thinks everything is “mean” (but don’t worry that actually means “pretty cool”); Jivarne, who is 21, who just got home from his mission on Friday, and who is still very much in mission mode (he referred to us as sisters); and Cheyenne, who is 20, who is currently an EFY counselor (so we haven’t actually met her yet), and who will be leaving for the Salt Lake City West mission on March 26th!!  

- They’re on holiday up north, so we will learn more about them (and take more pictures of them) when they get back.  

Here are some of the other things we learned at our house yesterday:

- Sharing a room with two other girls is surprisingly cozy, even though it means we pretty much live on top of each other.  

For some dumb reason the picture wouldn't upload the right way. 

So tilt your head to the right and you will see our lovely room!!   

- Due to the huge windows that stay open for much of the day, our house is also a house to bugs.  We vacuumed up about a gajillion spiders yesterday and I was fortunate enough to find an earwig on my shirt.  What a pleasant surprise! I just love those disgusting little creatures and their stinkin pinchers...NOT! 

- I miss living in a tent with 7 other girls! I love the girls who are here and don’t like being separated from them...just saying.  

After we unpacked all of our stuff, Natalie drove us to the mall so we could pick up some essentials (a map so we won’t get lost, hats and sunscreen so we won’t fry in the sun, and New Zealand money).  Here’s what we learned at the mall:

- New Zealand malls have most of the same stores as U.S. malls, just with different names. 

- New Zealand malls (at least the one we went to) also have grocery stores, so if you ever see one don’t be surprised if you see grocery carts. (Speaking of grocery stores, to buy make up at the grocery stores here would cost you an arm and a leg!) 

- New Zealand malls don’t have escalators. Instead they have travellators.  Imagine the moving sidewalks at airports slanting up and down and you’ve got travellators.  

- New Zealand malls close at 9 pm on Thursdays and Fridays, but close at 5 or 6 pm every other day.  Ran-dom! 

- And last but not least, the restaurants at New Zealand malls offer “mean” deals right before they close.  They want to get rid of their food so they start throwing out $5 and buy one get one free deals all over the place.  It will be a very good thing to know about for future reference.  

We finished our evening by making dinner and as is typical for us, going to bed super early!      

SUNDAY

We had church at 10 am today and it was wonderful! Lessons learned at church included: 

- The people and setting may be different, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same everywhere you go.  It was so comforting to walk into the church and instantly feel at home.

- The people here are SO nice! The women greeted us with kisses on the cheek and I already feel like I know them. Ah! Our ward is great! The people are just so dang friendly! 

- Sometimes after listening to the accents of the people here, I start to think/read in an accent.  Maybe I’ll come home with an accent ;)

We’ll spend the rest of our Sunday relaxing, going to stake choir practice, and oh yeah, using the free WI-Fi at McDonald’s.  Our house doesn’t have Internet access right now, so McDonald’s is just going to have to do.  Good thing it’s close!!   

Go team McDonald's!! 

-Rach 

A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts (bet you couldn’t figure that out from the title ha).  Today included...

...my first time doing yard work in New Zealand.  We carried wood, whacked some weeds, and pulled out an entire wire fence.  Way to go us!! 

...my first experience picking avocados.  It was surprisingly enjoyable, especially when we shook the tree and it rained avocados.   

Let's just say there were maggots in these avocados. Gross.

...my first time at Whale Bay.  It was UNREAL! It was like a beach straight out of a movie and it reminded me that the Lord sure had an eye for beauty when the world was created.  He blessed us with so many beautiful places to visit!  It was a little chilly (yet again), but the beauty made up for it.  

Yep it's real. Crazy right? You thought these places only existed in movies.

 

Elise, Andrea, Kylie and her popcorn, and Brooke

I love love love these girls.  Best group ever!

...my first experience jumping off a bridge into a salt water river-ish thing (I don’t actually know what you’d call it) (And don't worry Mom, it wasn't too high.)

I'm was a winner as far as pointed toes were concerned.

Lots of us tried it, but miss Sarah [the one jumping] went three times! You go girl!

...my first time eating Thai food in New Zealand (there are no pictures for this one...sorry). It was sooooooo tasty! Definitely some of the best Thai food I’ve ever eaten.    

     New Zealand is a beautiful place (I say that a lot I know, but it’s true!) and I quite like it here. People are so friendly and everything just seems so calm and relaxed. It's great! (Not as great as home of course, but it will definitely due for the next 3.5 months)
  My internet access may decrease in the next few days, so if I don’t post for a bit don’t worry.  I’ll be back on top of it as soon as I can.  Love you all and hope everything is going well for all of you wonderful people.    

~Rach

The Enchanted Land

After hours and technically days of travel, I finally made it New Zealand!  It was a long trip, but so worth it! New Zealand is truly a magical place! I'll going to use pictures to illustrate...(get ready for a picture explosion)

We waited for a long time at LAX and obviously started getting kind of tired.  

Good thing we had 13 hours of flight time to look forward to!

As you can see we were pretty darn excited to get going.  Thank you Air Pacific! 

We did have a mostly pleasant flight.

         Air Pacific really got me in the island mood.  The flight attendants wore Polynesian        outfits and flowers in their hair and well every snack/meal/drink was complementary.  (Alcohol was included with those complementary drinks, and let's just say that some people should not be allowed to have access to lots of complementary alcohol.) This was my first meal on the plane.  It was semi-edible so heck, it did the job.

        We made it to Nadi, Fiji after 10 hours and were SO excited to finally be on land again.  Fiji greeted us with hot humid air and live ukelele music, so we were pretty content with life for the first little bit. (After four hours of waiting for our next flight, however, we weren't so happy.)

3 more hours and BAM! New Zealand appeared!  This lovely arch greeted us on our way to customs at the Auckland airport and we were reminded that we were in Maori land.   

We were also reminded that were in enchanted Lord of the Rings land, or should I say Middle Earth.  (The man on the left is wearing a sheath for arrows, the man in the middle is wearing armor, and the woman has pointed ears and a tiara.  Do any airports in the US have such enchanted adds? I think NOT.  Score one for New Zealand.)

We met up with our teacher and our tour guide of sorts (his name is James and he is AWESOME) and headed to a place called Whangarei (pronounced fawn-ga-ray).  On our way up we got our first view of downtown Auckland...

                                 ...And the unbelievably green Auckland well not countryside.
                                             This is just Auckland for ya.  It's b-e-a-utiful!

James decided to give us our first taste of New Zealand ice cream on the way 

home and boy was it tasty! 

The drive to Whangarei was long, but also extremely beautiful. Imagine taking all the green crayons from Crayola's big boxes and using them all to color a single piece of paper and you're pretty much imagining what every part of the drive looked like.  We got to James's house (where we would stay for the rest of the week) and proceeded to set up our mansion of a tent! We did a pretty good job if I do say so myself.  We were exhausted and easily ended our first day by going to bed at 10:00.   

Day 2 started early with trips to 2 different beaches.  This was the first beach was called Church bay.  No one should be allowed to go to a beach this beautiful, I mean really.  

          The water was deep blue-green and every inch of the surrounding area was covered in green.
         So pretty! (You're just going to have to deal with me saying that about pretty much everything!)

     The water was a little chilly so we spent most of our time soaking up some sun and eating yummy New Zealand treats (GingerNuts and golden kiwis, which are my new favorite fruit by the way.  They're way better than green kiwis!)

We also spent some of our time kayaking! It was so so so so fun! (P.S. You can see our wonderful James in the left hand corner. Everyone should be able to meet him.) 

The later part of our day was taken up by SURFING LESSONS!!! This is the lovely Sandy beach (creative name huh?) where our surfing extravaganza began.   

We learned from the instructors at Tutukaka Surfing Co. and actually made some significant progress. Let it be known though that surfing is not as easy as it looks.  After fighting our way to the deeper water and fighting against wave after wave, we were able to actually stand up a few times. We are winners! Our arms were dead by the end of our three hour lesson, but it was all worth it in the end.  (Pictures of us surfing will hopefully make an appearance soon.)   

Day 2 concluded with a stop at a little cafe that apparently sells some of the best fish and chips in New Zealand.  I'm not a huge fan of fish, but I decided to give it a go anyway.  Sadly enough, I didn't become a fish and chips fan.  Chips I like, but fish not so much.  We did also sample some New Zealand sodas though and those were sooooo good.  Lemon lime and bitters, peachie, and ginger beer. YUM! (This is us enjoying full bellies and another New Zealand beach.)

Today was day 3 and it was much more relaxed.  We wanted to go hike some mysterious cave, but due to rain we ended up shopping in downtown Whangarei, trying to go see a movie (movies are $10-$17 here...what's up with that??), doing yoga and gymnastics in the rain while James mowed his lawn (see Kylie's headstand and James on his lawnmower below) and deciding to just have a girl's day at home.  We ate more snacks than people should ever be allowed to eat (we did have healthy options thank goodness) and watched Pitch Perfect (which has great music, but absolutely terrible language dang it).  We finished the night with lots of chatting and dinner from James's wife Janet. Yum yum yum.  

She's talented. Just sayin'.   

This man is wonderful.

New Zealand has been wonderful thus far.  It already feels like it's going by too fast.  I'll just keep doing my best to eat up every minute of every day.  The only thing I know about tomorrow is that we're going to pick avocados for James.  I'm sure that and everything else we do will be wonderful.  I'll keep you posted.     

Bonus (luckily for you there's more to read!):

Here are some other fun facts about kiwi land...

1. Swimsuits are referred to as togs, coolers are called chilly bins, and flashlights are torches.  Am I going to change my vocabulary? I think so!  

2. I still have a hard time with the whole driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing, but it's becoming more and more normal.  

3.  New Zealand accents will never get old. 

4.  Lots of people here walk around without shoes.  To them I say, more power to ya. 

 5. New Zealand sells some of the cutest one-piece swimsuits (or should I say togs) I've ever seen, but they're $200+.  Why New Zealand?! Why?!

6. I don't know why, but I love that cookies here are called biscuits.  

7. James has THE cutest granddaughter in the entire world.  If we could take her home we would in a second.   

Gwyneth everybody. It's impossible not to love her. (Oh and to top it all off, her mom calls her "my darling" in the most wonderful accent ever. In love my friends, in love)   

~Rach