*appears in an explosion of fireworks and confetti and strikes a dramatic pose*
I’m back, everyone!
*stares around at empty blog and forsaken cbox*
But… but I’ve only been gone four days! Surely you haven’t all given up on me already?
Wait – it appears half of you are having internet troubles. That probably explains most of it… And the other half of you are probably waiting for me to reply to you. Oh dear…
Well, I’m back in cyberspace, anyway! I know you guys have probably found my short absence rather annoying, but I have actually rather enjoyed it! I also expect that declaring that I didn’t miss you guys at all isn’t going to improve your tempers much, so I think I’ll keep that revelation to myself. *is secretive*
I have had the most fantastic few days, though.
On Thursday we had some friends over for lunch. They were a Kiwi homeschooling family who have spent the last couple of years studying at seminary in America. They have been friends since I was young kid, and used to run the youth group at our old church. We went and stayed with them for a week in Kentucky when we were over there last year also, so I remade friends with their oldest, Anna-Marie.
Anyway, it was lots of fun catching up with them again. We had some great talks and ate lots and played tag up the big elms in our backyard. We have some ropes and swings and stuff strung up between the trees, so we went hurtling through the branches after each other, with anyone who touched the ground becoming ‘it’. It was pretty fun.
Their Dad was preaching at one of the churches in our area on Sunday, so we promised to go hear him.
The next day, Friday, started pretty normally. That evening the youth group were going to Ocean Spa, which I went to for my birthday… wait, I haven’t told you about that yet, have I?
*sigh*
Ok, I’ll give you the short version…
WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO GIVE YOU A LONG OVERDUE BRIEF ON A FANTASTIC BIRTHDAY:
The fourth was a Sunday here, and as that’s most of my friend’s Sabbath we decided to hold the party on Saturday night. It went fantastically – I and several of my friends, along with their mothers, met at a new Turkish restaurant in ‘downtown’ Hastings. We all feasted on delicious food (Turkish is my favourite!) and talked and ate and looked at presents and talked and ate and talked with our mouths full. It was delightful.
Then we hopped into our cars and drove over to Napier, where a delightful place called Ocean Spa has recently opened. Now for you ignorant underprivileged Americans, I shall have to mention a bit on Napier. Napier is a pretty famous tourist destination worldwide, due mainly to a disaster in it’s history. Abut fifty years ago we had a ginormous earthquake here in Hawkes Bay.
Those of you who have read my posts on New Zealand will know that, New Zealand being directly positioned over a fault line, earthquakes abound here. We don’t usually get ones of this magnitude, but it still wouldn’t have been too major if it wasn’t for the fact that, somewhere in Napier, a fire started. The watertanks being broken or cracked and the roads being rutted up rendered the firefighting rather difficult, so the whole centre city pretty much burnt up. It was a horrible happening, but, as every cloud has it’s silver lining, this was no exception.
Because the whole city had to be rebuilt all at once, they planned it out far better, and, being the Art Deco era, it was all built in that style. Therefore, it is now a great tourist attraction, named the ‘Art Deco Capital of the World’, and, every Art Deco weekend, fills to bursting with vintage cars and people dressed in old fashioned furs and caps.
There was another advantage in the quake, and that was that a whole lot of the beach was shoved upward, leaving lots more room for expansion of the city, and the beach drops very quickly and suddenly into the sea, turning it into a fantastic port. Because the water is so deep right up to the shore ships can come right up to the beach as can sealife like whales and stuff. However, it means the beach is incredibly dangerous for swimming and full of really deadly undertows and stuff, so you can’t swim at all anywhere along that stretch of shore. Now, Napier being such a coastal, touristy city, you can imagine this would be rather a trial to them.
And this is where Ocean Spa was born. They pump salt water up from the sea into their pools, and half of them heated with hot pools and warm pools and cold pools and freezing pools, so it rather resembles a Roman Baths. It’s got lots of fountains and waterfalls too, so it’s fantastic fun to swim in or sit in or chat in or play in.
We went at night, so it was beautifully lit with the stars overhead and the sea breeze and warm water and everything. It was just the perfect place to relax and chat, and that’s what we did for hours. It was great fun to catch up with my RL friends in such a setting, and a perfect end to a perfect day.
The next day, my actual birthday, was great also. It began with all the siblings bouncing on my bed, and a showering of presents. Ione gave me some more fluffy pink socks, which I wore to church with my Mum’s high heels as my sandals wouldn’t fit socks. They didn’t really go with my subdued green outfit – ok, they didn’t go at all – and I received a lot of weird looks for them, which was fun.
We had lunch at my friend’s house and played with her horse, which was also fun. After the evening service we went and brought a whole lot of treats at the supermarket and had an entirely unsophisticated feast for dinner. It was bucketing down so we couldn’t really stop anywhere to have it, so we just ate it all in the car. It was pretty crazy, and terrific fun.
Then I went online and read all the notes from my HSB friends, as well as Scaryman’s A.A. Milne-ish birthday greeting.
That was another perfect end to a perfect day!
*sigh*
Sorry.
Ok, so where was I?
So, the youth group was going to Ocean Spa. Unfortunately, due to the prevalence of ridiculous swimwear at such events as well as the ‘making out’ that often goes on, Mum didn’t want me going without her or Dad about, especially, as she doesn’t know the youth group all that well yet. She was going to a Ladies Fellowship evening though which I was invited to, so I, a little disappointedly, settled for that instead.
My spirits rose a little, however, when I heard that the subject of the evening was to be Chocolate. After all, the stuff is chemically known to restore optimism, especially New Zealand stuff, which is some of the best in the world. And, no, I’m not just being biased! It’s in the milk, see – American cows are horribly mistreated. Honestly, the conditions they live in! The stuff they’re fed is awful also, so it’s no wonder their milk, and chocolate, is shoddy quality, and their cheese comes out sickly orange or white. Seriously, it’s a real problem! You Americans really need to start thinking about your milk products, as such a life is not just horrible for the cows, but terribly bad for the devourers. Forget about global warming; cow care is a far more serious problem. Honestly.
Moving on…
We have our Shabbat/family night on Friday night, and have a big, candle lit dinner and do lots of stuff, so it usually takes quite a bit of preparing for. Anyway, we were frantically trying to get everything done so we could leave at seven, when Dad was called out on a job. Being a locksmith, he’s constantly at the beck and call of anyone locked out of their house or car, and usually needs to drop everything and sweep to the rescue immediately. So, by the time he got back, we would have been a good half hour late and dinner wasn’t even started. It was rather disheartening.
Anyway, we got over it and enjoyed our very late tea. Then, the oven still being hot, we were trying to decide what to cook for dessert. Keren was begging for banana splits, but it was a freezing night, and we hardly had any bananas. I had found a delicious recipe for hot bananas, though, and was eager to try it. Dad decided that, since it was late already and Saturday the next day, it wouldn’t hurt to stay up late.
So, it being almost ten o’clock, when the supermarkets close, we all rushed to get our shoes and jackets on and pile into the car. Dad drove as the ‘L’ plates were in the other car and we didn’t have time to switch them, and we zoomed down to the next town and arrived two minutes before closing time. We got the bananas and some chocolate, and then Dad, feeling festive, drove down to the park where we all went insane and ran around in circles for ten minutes. At last the thoroughly tired children piled into the car and munched contentedly on chocolate on the way home.
The bananas were delicious. They’re pretty easy to make, and fantastic on cold winter nights. All you have to do is:
Grab a banana for each person. Without peeling them, slice them longways through the middle, without cutting right through the peel on the other side and stick them in an oven dish. Then get three squares of chocolate for each banana and wedge them into the split, so they’re holding the two edges apart. Then, fill the gap with a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon and some lemon juice, and stick them in the oven for ten minutes, and you’re done.
The result is delectable!
While we were waiting for them to cook, we sung hymns and had our bible reading. At the moment we are reading through Luke, with each of us taking turns to read one verse until we’ve finished each chapter. It’s really fun, and really good to read it at such a slow pace, while really thinking about each thing.
We were reading a passage about Jesus healing a blind man, and for a while I kind of tuned out, being one of the numerous miracle stories I’ve heard so many times before. But then I caught myself in the middle of that thought, and took another look at the passage, and it really excited me. I mean, sure it’s just a pretty routine miracle, but it was a miracle!
Can you imagine the setting, with the hoards following Jesus through the dust and the heat, listening to his every word and wondering at him, wondering if this was their Messiah come at last. And then the man came, and Jesus healed him. Can you imagine the excitement of the man as, for the first time in years or perhaps forever, he saw, and the first sight that met his eyes was his Messiah? Or the joy and hope the watching people would have felt as they saw the most incredible event looked for throughout their history unfold before their eyes? Just at that moment, I could, and I realised that these were real people we were reading about. This wasn’t just a story, it was real. And the excitement of that realisation just made my heart thrill with joy.
Then I went to bed.
The next morning, we decided that we’d climb a mountain. Some half hour away there’s a good track which climbs up to a hut just above the snowline. It’s just a couple of hours climb and a good track, so we older ones have been up there quite often, but this time we decided to take the whole family. So we packed some lunch, procured tramping boots and jackets for everyone, and jumped in the car.
My mum is building a garden and she wanted to find some rocks for her waterfall, so our first stop was the river. She chose some enormous rocks, and it was quite a mission for the four of us to together get them to the car!
Then we drove further up to the carpark. Scaryman and I stood on the pack rack on the back bumper and held onto the air foil, which was great fun. We took turns to jump off and open the gates, and, as always happens, Dad pretended to drive away without us. Scaryman was being insane as always, standing backward on the rack and jumping off while the car was still moving, etc. For a while we practised jumping up and down in unison so the car lurched up and down, but it didn’t really work very well, and Dad wasn’t very impressed!
At last we reached the track at about 2:00pm, and took off in good spirits. My spirits soon dropped a bit as I discovered that our camera wouldn’t work in the dim bush light. Dad took some on his phone, but they weren’t very good quality.
I’m really gutted that I can’t show you some pictures, as it’s the most beautiful place. The first part was full of tall, straight trees rising majestically into the sky, with ferny undergrowth all about and tree ferns and young trees hanging over the path. It was lovely, and indescribably elvish. As we climbed the growth got shorter, less majestic and more pretty. By that time, however, Liviya, who I was carrying in a backpack, was beginning to feel rather heavy, and I wasn’t paying so much attention to the trees!
At that stage I put my MP3 player on. It’s incredible how listening to music can help you to ignore aching muscles! I gave one of my earplugs to Livi, and she was enchanted with it. Then she proceeded to enchant the rest of us by obliviously singing along to the choruses in her baby lisp. It was incredibly cute.
On and on we climbed. After about an hour and a half of steady walking hauling babies up the hill, we stopped for a rest and ate some of the eons of supplies Scaryman had packed and dragged up for us. Then we went on, now at a crawl. Keren, at four, was pretty tired and had to be carried much of the way, while we were still carrying Livi and a couple of packs.
The walk seemed to drag on. Short halts became more and more frequent, and the MP3 player was put to constant use by whoever was carrying the baby. Jerusha had ‘zoomed’ ahead, and, after not catching sight of her for a good ten minutes, we sent Dad ahead to catch up with her.
Half an hour later, at about four thirty, we were nearing the summit and met Dad and Jerusha coming down. Apparently she had run all the way to the top and had been happily waiting for us at the hut. Anyway, Dad said that the hut was another ten minutes away, and we had to head home without going all the way to the top, as it was getting too late and we had to get back before dark. Heather burst into tears on the spot, and we all sent up such uniformed protest that he at last relented.
He took Jerusha and the babies and began the trek downward, while the rest of us ran and puffed and heaved ourselves up to the summit.
Unfortunately, we discovered that it was so heavily enveloped in cloud that we couldn’t see a thing. We had a much needed, although brief, rest at the hut, and polished off the last of our food. Then we took off again, back down the hill.
When it was just Dad, Scaryman, Heather and I we ran down the hill in about forty minutes. However, when it was just us, we also only took about two hours to climb the thing, rather than three, so we could have counted on it taking a little longer. Mum had only taken her sunglasses rather than her prescription ones, so as it got darker she was quickly becoming quite blind.
Ione was getting rather tired and wasn’t making much progress at all, so we sent Mum ahead with Heather to catch up with Dad before she went totally blind, and Scaryman and I stayed with Ione. Ione can be rather… tiring when she’s tired, as she makes her exhaustion known rather vocally. In short, she hardly stopped complaining all the way down the mountain. That, on top of everything, was rather exhausting.
At last we caught up with Dad about half way down. By that time it was getting really rather dark, so Dad and I each shouldered a baby and sent Mum ahead with Scaryman and Jerusha.
Ten minutes later, even I was finding it difficult to see. Heather and I, with Keren on my back, walked ahead with our eyes constantly fixed on the path, while Dad followed with Livi and Ione. Toward the end we had to move forward by feel in places, and the only way to avoid tree roots sticking in the middle of the path was to watch out for trees growing close by.
It was pretty slow and very exhausting. By the end my back ached and my feet were throbbing so badly that I couldn’t feel my legs. There was one very steep rise just before we reached the carpark, and I practically crawled up it. At the top there was a stile, and I had to get Keren to get out and climb it herself, as I simply couldn’t make my legs lift that distance with her on my back.
I was utterly exhausted.
At last we reached the car, and all I wanted to do was lie down in its comforting warmth and never get up again. That would have been death to my muscles, however, so I forced myself to keep moving and do some stretches as we packed the car. Then Scaryman and I hopped on the packrack to open the gates. Needless to say, we were a lot more subdued! It was very refreshing, though, to feel the cool wind on our faces without having to move much. It was also a good way for our muscles to cool down without stiffening! The stars were all out by that stage, and it was a beautiful drive.
By the time we got back into town it was almost seven, so we stopped at the Fish ‘n Chip shop and brought some burgers.
Then we collapsed into bed.
The next morning was a Sunday, so there was no chance of a sleep in! We were going to Riverbend, the new combined mega church I told you of in my Robson Lodge post, to hear our friend preach, so we had to leave even earlier than we usually would.
Incredibly, we managed to make it, not only on time, but five minutes early. It was a fantastic sermon on Jesus’s rest, and well worth hearing. He has such a great preaching style, fun and easy to listen to, but really fascinating and inspiring. It was so great to listen to that again! We’re counting the days until you Americans will give him back for good!
Miraculously, none of us had been feeling particularly achy that morning, but when I stood up after the service my legs almost collapsed from under me. Sitting still for a couple of hours had completely stiffened them, and they pained me constantly as I wandered about catching up with my friends.
At church (of all places!) I heard some exciting news from one of my Mum’s LotR crazy friends. They’ve been rebuilding Hobbiton in Matamata for filming, and in two weeks they’ll be asking for two hundred volunteers to be hobbit in the film! I so much want to volunteer, but I’m not sure how I’d cope with travelling back and forth for the filming. If any of you would like to take part in the movie, though, now’s the time to be planning a trip to New Zealand!
We spent the evening service at the Reformed Church, and talked about our plans for Queen’s Birthday Weekend Camp this year. It’s coming up in a couple f weeks, so I’ll be absent for a while. I’ll post about it closer to the time, though, so I won’t leave you guys in the lurch!
Anyway, I had better wrap this up. It is now officially the longest post I have ever made, with seven pages of type in Times New Roman font, size twelve, or 3,542 words and 18,805 characters! |
