Greetings from Kaitaia

Firstly, a belated merry christmas to all! Mine was great - massive lunch, double layer pavlova and my mum's specialty cheesecake, family, presents, and fun times.


On the 27th I flew up to new plymouth and hung out with Joe. We played tennis and went swimming at the beach. Although for Joe it was more like a quick 10 second dip and he was outta there!! After dinner, we went to the festival of lights at the park where we listened to a band and even took a canoe out on the lake. Very fun. But don't ask me to row, I was most confused even how to hold the oar!

On the 28th Joe and I met Dan and Jared Lyn in Cambridge. From there it was a good couple hrs drive to Whangarei, our overnight stop, mainly cos we were all starving! And on our final leg up, we stopped at Taupo Bay for a swim. Refreshing but so difficult to get warm again. Our fish n chips 'snack' did the trick though. And of course another trip to the beach. Played touch rugby which was awesome since I missed it so much in wellie. There was a game of poker which lasted till 3am.......for Dan and Joe battling it out.

The 29th was beautiful and sunny. So off to the beach yet again. This time I tried out some surfing for the first time ever. I think I've found a new interest! New Years was excellent. Full credit to Mike's parents.

Our day trip to Cape Reinga was the highlight of the trip. After taking some photos and mulling around the lighthouse, we headed to the massive sand dunes and rode down on body boards. We even got some tandem races going. Brooke and Joe, Dave and Jess. The girls looked like they were riding horses down the hill, as they only held on to a tshirt! Next was a stop at the beach. And another chance to test my surfing skills!! Well this time I actually had a mini lesson. And although the waves were terrible, I was very close to standing up on my first attempt! Finally, we all rushed to the bach in Taipa and were stunned to find tables laden with salads, meat (including the crayfish the boys caught) and drink. Lest I forget dessert.

I left Kaitaia on the 3rd, we stayed at Dan's house. Played a lengthly game of 6handed 500. My team won. Joe and I managed to fit in a quick swim at the mount in Tauranga (absolutely stunning beach aaaaah) before I caught my flight home. How tempted was I to miss my plane home! I mean who would want to go back to work after a week with awesome people, food and beaches??

Catch yous up with my life!

Some photos from our Roadie after end of exams. We stormed through the South Island over a week. Basically it was flippin' awesome: hurtling down the winding track on the luge with the boys in hot pursuit and taking the opportunity to ram us whenever possible to bungeejumping and dining like the rich in Queenstown, exploring the sluicings in bannockburn, rockclimbing in christchurch with Mike and Rach, countless games of 500, nightly bedtime readings (not only to Esther and Debbie in greymouth!), touch rugby, stopping the car on the side of the road to eat chip sandwiches for dinner in the pouring rain(now THAT was a first, and yeah not bad!), and spending hours at Hanmer Springs with the boys suffering with sunburn and moisturising practically 3 times a day.....and so many laughs. And some sleeptalking competitions. Too bad, we didn't get to see Joe break out in a single-star musical!! Thank you so much Chris (aka 'poser'), Joe and Brooke for a great week!!




Hi guys. Okay okay it's been a while. To be honest, I have kinda been avoiding blogging since I got home, pretty much cos after the road trip, after shopping with Brooke, playing tennis, and being on an adrenalin rush all week, I kinda just hit rockbottom. What is annoying is that it probably could have been prevented had I studied conscientiously when I got back from Germany. I sometimes wonder, what happened to the fastidious student who cared so much about getting good grades. It was like I couldn't even THINK about study cos I had too much catching up to do, touch rugby to play, photos to show, emailing my friends overseas and anything else besides study to fit into my days, okay whoops pranks is probably up there too. Haha. And after all that, I will have to repeat Econ 302, my most dreaded subject in the world.

And then I had to cope with my failure. Failure to pass my exam, failure to myself, to my parents and to my brother and sister, and to God. And all my plans of graduating in August just got trampled on. To triple my feelings of hopelessness and regret was the 2-week-struggle and the pressure I placed on myself to find a job. At least if I was working, I would not have had to think about how I had become entangled in some sort of unescapable net.

Fortunately, I have escaped. Through prayer and encouragement from friends (thank you!), more fellowship, heart to hearts with my sister and brother, supportive parents, and God speaking to me and teaching me through so many different outlets. And thoughout this bitter dark period I leaned on my God more than ever, and searched for some kind of resolution.

I realised that even though I stuffed up, God will give me second chances and third and fourth chances. As long as I put Him first in my life, His plan will NEVER fail. There is always a lesson to be learned, and the difficult times we go through will build us up in character, faith, strength and hope. That's why I love Psalm 18:35 You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great.

God has been there the whole time. I have spent two days at my new summer job at Bluebridge, the cook strait ferry at the wellington terminal. And it is fantastic. On top of spending a whole morning on walkie talkies and directing cars, I have been learning new skills in a fun environment. Today I took my first call for a bluebridge ferry booking. The girl couldn't speak very good english so I had to repeat everything about 3 times but at least it was successful. I also accompanied my friend (the boss's daughter) as she drove the luggage truck off the ferry for the first time....................and crashed in front of horrified passengers!! Ripped off the green protector on the side of the truck and produced a pretty sizeable dent! But WE were okay!