Kiwi Adventures…the video remix.

 

 

Dear God, I want to be a Kiwi.

 Beach, countryside, mountains, forest…not to mention cafes galour with incredible food and coffee. That’s my kind of place–New Zealand. God’s glory illuminates the whole country, such beauty and majesty wrapped up in a small country in the middle of an ocean.

 

 

 

My housemate Rian and I took off on a spontaneous 5 day adventure to Christchurch, New Zealand. The city was absolutely beautiful.

Our adventure began at the airport where we waited on Jucy car rentals to deliver Sunny–our little white faithful car. We (meaning me) successfully navigated the way to our hotel, where we opened the room door to reveal 3 beds–enough for 4 people to sleep. Needless to say, we slept good.  So by the time we check in and find a place to eat, I am starving–no food for a long time makes Lydia a little cranky. Anyway, we find the restaurant and decide to park in the next nearest parking garage. This particular Wilson parking garage seemed a little sketchy seeing as how there was no one in it and the ticket booth didn’t work. So Rian and I decide its probably best to find another place, however in the process, one side of the parking garage begins to go down. I thought it was all good…until the other side went down, trapping us in the parking garage.  I mean at this point all I could do was laugh. About 15-20 minutes later, a woman came to our rescue, freed us and we went on our way to eat Mexican food!!

Day two started off a little late–thanks to me. My phone was still set to Sydney time and therefore we woke up when a housekeeper knocked at our door. After a little confusion with finding the cafe, we finally ate breakfast at like 12. But it was an amazing breakfast…we took pictures of all our food because it was just that good. Day two was spent really just wandering around Christchurch, checking out the cathedral and some random shops. Later that night, we decided on dinner too late and ended up ordering a Dominoes pizza and taking it back to the room and watching the Dark Knight.

Day three began at an amazing cafe where I ate the best breakfast ever–>scrambled eggs with feta on smoked salmon on wheat toast. SO good….and I had some amazing coffee. We also had a delightful conversation with an older couple who directed Rian and I on the “classy places” to go because we were “classy Southern girls”…haha, I love it. We did the tourist thing for the day and took the Gondola ride over Christchurch and then went punting down the Avon river. Long day, amazing scenery, too much laughter.

Day four–rain, rain, rain. But we decided to brave it and road trip it down the scenic highway to see all there was to see. The rain cleared up just out of Christchurch and made way for a glorious day, cold, but none-the-less glorious. We had no agenda, no destination, just an open road and a camera…flippin sweet. Rian took some amazing pictures, while I took hilarious videos. –go figure. New Zealand blew me away, it was so amazing. I absolutely loved it there, and I only saw a small part of the country. We waited out a rainstorm in a gourmet chocolate shop…bummer, right?! Cows, sheep, chocolate, mountains, and really cool gloves…what else could you ask for on a road trip?

Day 5, home we go. well, home meaning Sydney. Before leaving NZ, we ate at the Globe cafe, where we ordered bowls, yes BOWLS of coffee. “Skinny bowl of mocha java, thanks.” That coffee went perfect with the freakin cold weather outside. The day we left, it was sleeting and snowing in Christchurch…it was ridiculously cold. I could have sat by a fire all day and read a book. But instead, we boarded an airplane destined for Sydney. By the grace of God, I found a girl I serve alongside with at college and she was able to give us a lift home from the airport. (God bless you, Rachel!)

 

All in all, New Zealand was incredible…which brings me to my prayer, “Lord, I want to be a Kiwi.”

*Fyi: A kiwi is not only a fruit and small bird, but it is also the nickname for New Zealand natives.

–more pics to come, until then enjoy some recap videos! (I will post the other recaps and crazy videos asap!)

All my Love to yall!