NARNIA

Our free weekend is over.
It went by soooo fast.
The students and staff get two free weekends during the DTS, and this weekend, all the students (minus Beth and Dan) rented some vans and went to Narnia.
It's true.

Saturday morning, we loaded up into the 2 vans, one girl van and one boy van (THE GIRL VAN WAS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST ONE) and we started the MOST AWESOME roadtrip in all history of roadtrips.
The great thing about New Zealand is, there are no interstates or big road systems. Everyone gets everywhere on small, curvy, lovely, country backroads. And though it's not very fast, it makes for the best, most amazing, roadtrip memories.

The girls' van had the good speaker system, so we jammed and partied - the windows down and music blaring with Marit expertly navigating the rather large, stick shift van on the LEFT side of the road. For the record, we only accidently drove on the wrong side of the road once. We were slightly lost. In Paeroa.

Man, the roads up over the mountains on the way to Coromandel are sketchy. There's literally no shoulder as you wind up the mountain - you swerve and you fall of s crazy cliff to your death. Steph and I fearfully clung to each other as we rounded each turn - we may or may not have let out a couple of gasps (screams). But Marit's a champ and we didn't die. Even though we went over that mountain FOUR TIMES.
Yeah - I tell the rest of that story later.
Anywho.
We made a pit stop and peed on the side of the road. I'm pretty sure Marit unintentionally mooned some lucky truckers. I love Marit.
As we got closer to Coromandel, the scenery just more and more beautiful and captivating - you can't tear your eyes away from it. So we all saw Chase and Sam at the same time. Yep, the dudes leading our Circuit Riders conference, the ones I've talked about previously, had the same exact idea as we did and were trekking out to Coromandel as well! So they joined us in our lovely journey! HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

So yeah, we finally got there.
And we had to walk to the beach.
Cathedral Cove, its proper name.
And by walk, I mean a 45-minute-hike. You have to work for that beach.

I basically ran the entire way.
Nothing was gonna keep me from kissing the sand that William Moseley once walked on.
I almost trampled Tasia and the Jacobs a couple of times.
And so, I finally made it to Narnia.
GUYS, IT'S JUST LIKE THE FREAKING MOVIE.

 

I walked through that cavernous arch right to the sparkling water and towering cliffs, as much in awe as the Pevensies would have been.
I threw down my towel and ran into the ocean and pretended I was Lucy Pevensie, joyfully rediscovering Narnia.

It was soooooo incredible, I just couldn't believe it.
Oh, and as usual, the water was cold.
Like, really cold.
Isn't it always?
I think that's the third time I've willingly thrown myself into frigid temperatures since I've been here.
Gosh, not to brag, but I'm living the life.
How many people get to do this?
Like zip.
Anywho, we frolicked in the ocean and jumped off rocks, screaming "FOR NARNIA" and took manymanymany pictures (which will come very soon!). We layed around, chit chatted, and played volleywall (it was a game Sam invented - I won't even try to explain it) until we decided we were hungry and we needed to find a place to sleep.

So I said goodbye to Narnia and trudged back up to the van.
When we got back, we found out some lady had talked a cop out of fining us $400 for double parking. And the boys' battery had died since Kyle left the lights on. But some angelic Kiwi gave us a jump start. God is so good.
So we were on our way to finding FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD.
So over the terrifying hill we went.
Steph and I snuggled to stay warm.
I love Steph.
I swear, we stopped by at least 3 towns before we found food we could all agree on. As we went to go eat, we last Sam and Chase to some teenage boys they felt they needed to share Jesus with. Gosh, I hope that, one day, hunger won't get in the way of my desire to share God's love with the world.
So some guy convinces us to eat at this pub. And we do. And some drunk, German woman named Marion strikes up a conversation with me. And she gives me the number of someone who could possibly let us pitch some tents in their yard (or at least that's what we thought). And then she let me pray for her. Which was awesome - God totally touched her and she nearly started crying.

And then we went over the mountain to the hot water beach.
It's hot because it's on top of a volcano.
Oh, yeah, by the way, we went at nighttime. Which means it was cold. And the Artic winds blowing of the Pacific aren't too forgiving. So it was cold. But the hot water was marvelous indeed. But let me tell you, that sand was PIPING HOT. The deeper you got into the sand, the hotter the water got! But the tide came in, and the water got cold, so we all ran screaming to the vans. Us girls loved our van. We changed in it, slept in it, ate in it, everything. So, naturally, it was a mess. It ate my sunglasses and gum in the first hour. Needless to say, we all just tossed everything everywhere and it was one big beautiful mess. But oh so comfy. I don't think there's ever been a more comfy mess.
So we found a campgroud. But it cost $21 PER PERSON to sleep there! PER PERSON. So we called the lady and found out she had 8 beds open in a hostel-like beach house and anyone who didn't want to pay to sleep somewhere could just stay in the vans and we could sleep on the side of the road. So back up over the mountains we went to the beach house! It was so lovely, driving in the dark New Zealand landscape, listening to James Vincent McMarrow. Just like a dream.
Just a note - I love our group. In case you didn't know.
We pray for EVERYTHING. All the time, and God totally blessed us.
We got to the beach house and piled out of the vans and prayed for our accomodations that night.
And then we went inside and found out the house had 10 extra beds open.
EIGHTEEN BEDS EXACTLY.
We had exactly 18 students on the trip.
We took God's subtle hint and took all the beds. And we slept like babies after some nice games of ping pong and fun snuggling time.
The next morning, we packed up and drove over the mountain for the last time. And we went to HAMILTON. I had such a relaxing time - before we got to Hamilton, we stopped in Peoroa - the historic location of the creation of the famous New Zealand drink of choice, L&P. After we ate and got a picture by the big bottle, we made the two-hour trek to Hamilton and relaxed! We went shopping, ate, and I got a new sweater. Maybe two. THANKS GRANDMA! :)
And finally, we made the last leg of the trip home. And I was so happy when we finally pulled into Crystal Springs, jamming to Taylor Swift.
God is good.
More to come.

Peace out girl scout.