Ride Like the Wind, Bullseye

I tried out my new shorts on my run this morning…amazing run, amazing weather! Some of the girls here are doing a half marathon in February, I am thinking of participating!! My only worries are February is the hottest month here and the run is at 12:30pm, which is the peak of the sun! I have always wanted to do a half marathon though and it is a flat run along the beach, which sounds nice! Hopefully writing this on my blog will help me to stick to it! The morning was spent planning how to get us 20 girls to and from horseback riding. The girl who made the plans got sick on Friday and did not get travel plans completed. Not too many bus routes go to Helensville from West Harbor, so we had to find times to work. The next problem was once the bus stop we would get off at was 5.1 km away from the horseback-riding place. I called the horse place to make a later appointment because it was the only bus time, and they offered to drive a van and make trips to pick us up! Thankfully after trying just about everything we had made a plan! Some of the girls have never ridden the bus before so they struggled. I am glad we have so much experience with the bus and know most all of the drivers!

We all met at the Westgate shopping center, all but one! My family loaned me one of their cell phones so I could call the horse place for the van when we got there. I was able to call our leader on the cell and tell her who was missing. She was able to find her and meet us just in time.

I chose to get on a black horse named Surprise! She was beautiful! I later learned she was usually one of the slower horses. Not with me riding, no way. I got her trotting and I was the only girl who got her horse cantering! Everyone was jealous! 

One of the girls in our group was riding Philip from The Chronicles of Narnia! It was Edmunds horse! Two other horses were also in the movie, but one just in the background and one actually knows how to play dead and played a dead horse in the movie! Back at the ranch they had a bunch of Shetland ponies….my favorite! They were so adorable; I could have just taken one home with me! I hope we can go back when Kaity comes out here in April!

Since I was in charge of making all the travel plans, when our leader had 2 seats left to head home, I volunteered Emily and I to go. All the girls were a bit jealous because they had an hour wait for the bus and a long bus ride ahead of them. 

We got ice cream from one of the fruit markets. I got mixed berry! They put in a rectangular chunk of ice cream and they pour in the berries, and then put it through something that swirls them together! So delicious!

Once we got home Elyse took us out to La Porchetta for dinner. It is a fairly priced, semi-casual, Italian restaurant. I got a focaccia with cheese pizza! New Zealand includes tax in all prices, which seems really nice because you know the exact cost. They also round their price and do not have once cent coins. Ten cents is their lowest currency so any price is rounded! Sort of a smart idea if you think about it! Another great thing here is you do not tip! You don’t tip the waiters or hairdressers or anything else for that matter. Elyse says they make enough hourly, you do not tip! I kind of like that concept as well. When will America learn?

We got back to the house and Brooke and Kirsten came over for girls’ night! We tried some new lollies, while we watched Just Like Heaven! Oh how I love chick flicks! We stayed up until after midnight, which is extremely late for me, sharing life stories and then crashed!