Saturday 22 December 2012

We Made It!

So once again I have been completely MIA this past month due to busy-ness, sickness, and a lack of photo-worthy occasions. But I wanted to be sure to sneak in a final post for 2012 as the year comes to an end. I hate to break it to all you North Americans... the world has not ended. Down in the southern hemisphere we made it all the way through 21 December 2012 without so much as a blip. We've also made it through a year of a lot of changes, adventures, and newly established memories. 

As many of you may have heard, Wellington has recently been transformed into the Middle of Middle Earth for the world premiere of the Hobbit. There were markets and sculptures and celebrities littering the city. We missed out on the actual premiere event because of a good surf evening, but I was able to check out the Hobbit Artisan Market. The Market consisted of a number of stalls selling Hobbit-themed goods and a big stage featuring Weta Workshop who worked on costume and make-up for all the JRR Tolkien movies. I'm definitely not a fan of LOTR or the Hobbit, but it was fun to get involved in a bit of the hype around the city.




At the beginning of December, Kevin and I were blessed with a visit from our old flatmate Chris who we lived with in Kelowna. He is spending a full month with us exploring beautiful New Zealand before he jets back off to SE Asia for another few months. We all congregated at the Hataitai Bowling Club for Aurecon's Christmas party (Kevin's work). We enjoyed an afternoon of lawn bowling, food, drinks, and good company. I discovered that I am terrible at lawn bowling; however, this is a fact that I have come to accept. I think I will survive lacking this skill in my repertoire.




Yesterday marked the longest day of the year and we have had some beautifully sunny and warm days the last few weeks. Last weekend we took a visit to Red Rocks Reserve, a coastal walk on the south side of Wellington. It was an incredible day, but it. was. WINDY! The photos are very deceiving. If you look close enough in a few of the photos you can actually see the mountains over on the South Island across the Cook Strait.







We are all off tomorrow for a two-week roadtrip from Wellington to Taupo to Waitomo to Rotorua to Coromandel to Gisborne. We'll stay in Gissy for Rhythm & Vines music festival over New Year's and then track our way back to Wellington at the beginning of January. Many photos and stories to come shortly after.

2013 has a lot in store for us. Moving into a new flat in January with a lovely couple from Michigan, vacationing to the Cook Islands late-January with both our parents, showing said parents around New Zealand pre- and post-Aitutaki, a trip back to Canada in August, and plenty more adventures to come. 

Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for the New Year. Sending lots of Kiwi love to you all.

xoxo Sam and Kevin