"Fun"garei Weekend

We got this cute little house, secluded, out in the country, in Whangarei (pronounced fungaray). Outside the house were 2 large tents. To the left of the house was a small garage with a little room next to it. I was lucky enough to score an actual bed in this room. The house was nice and had an even nicer bathroom inside. There was also a bathroom just outside the house, which was still nicer than any camping bathroom because it had running water.

We took off to a farm, so we could see some cows. For all those who say “Happy Cows come from California” have got it wrong. First reason being the beauty and the weather in New Zealand are to die for. Second reason, the dairy cows are all stored outside on land, as opposed to inside, so they eat fresh grass instead of processed grass, making the dairy here so much better than the states! I think Happy Cows come from New Zealand!

            I got to have my first experience milking a cow! I thought I would be sitting on a small wooden stool, tugging on it’s utters, but to my surprise it was a huge milk making factory. The cows all come twice a day and maneuver their way into this large round contraption. Once inside they eat, while you put these sucker things onto them. The contraption spins around and stops milking when it hits a certain point. Once it is all the way around the cows back out and new cow comes in its place. The girls had a lot of trouble getting the suckers to stay on the cow, so I was nervous for my turn. Also as sick as it is….you are right at the cows’ butts, so some girls got a bit of cow poop on them. I got into place and you would have been so proud of me! I got the thing on it in record time. I also did 3 more cows while I was at it! Maybe if I wasn’t doing teaching, I would become a dairy farmer. Then again, probably not. 

                 

AND ON THAT FARM...We met Sid Going. E I E I O. If you have never heard of him, it is okay, neither had I. But you should have! He was spoke about in general conference and also was featured in this Mormon message!

That is him standing just behind me!

 After the farm we prepared for the YSA barbecue. We had a good feed and there were tons of new people to meet. Someone brought this huge log roll cake, which was delicious! We played games with a bunch of the people. Capture the flag was attempted, then some different variations of tag. As much as I love all the girls here, it was so nice to get to mingle with some new faces! I stayed up later than I think I have stayed up since I have been in NZ. Some of the boys tried to scare me with stories of a so-called “drop bear,” which was supposed to be a large possum that falls out of the tree with razor sharp claws….yea didn’t get me with that one.

It was extra nice I got to sleep inside because I missed out on the rainstorm Friday night. I was not even the least bit cold. Ready for a beach day we loaded into the vans. I got in the van to go boating, while the other van went to the surf lessons. We arrived at a cool beach area and in went the boat, followed by a couple of us girls. The water was freezing and it did not help that it was windy out. The sun was out, but the wind made cold seem freezing. As Natalie, Mallory, Brooke and I loaded into the boat we were all a bit hesitant for tubing. I knew it would be miserable in that cold water. Brooke and I went first on a banana type tube. The tube was not all the way blown up and that made hopping on very hard. At least the attempts we made over and over began to warm us up. We had to pull the tube back to the boat and jump straight on it. We made it about 2 seconds with the boat in motion before toppling over again. This was pathetic because I thought of myself before this as quite a good tuber! 

We decided to switch to the other boat and try out a different tube. Brooke and I made it quite a long time and we never fell off although the driver tried to throw us off. As we came to a stop I noticed my fingers had turned white from gripping the handles so tightly and it was extremely painful to try to open and close my fingers. 

 Since the banana boat was not working out too well on James’ boat he hooked up a huge, blue inner tube. This raft was not meant for tubing, so I thought it would pop at any given time. No one wanted to try it, so I volunteered. Without any handles this tube was a bit crazy, but after being thrown around a bit I signaled for James to take some turns. As the boat whipped around I was thrown up in the air, time after time, having no control of what I was doing. My body somehow was thrown in the air, did a 180 degree turn, and left me on the blue inner tube facing opposite the direction I was before. I signaled to slow down and could not stop laughing! Oh the joys of Tubing!

Timing could not have been better because right then Chris arrived to take us to surf lessons. We showed up to the beach and were introduced to our instructors, Amy and Simon. We suited up and got on these fancy yellow shirts so the instructors could make sure we aren’t drowning. I learned a lot of different techniques. When pushing myself up I naturally pulled myself up onto both my knees and then took my hands off the board as I stand up. I was told to keep my fingertips down as I get to my feet, but I had a harder time doing it this way. I did best just finding my balance and was able to get up a good number of times.

            We got back to James’ where we all rested and played some games. One favorite was bananagrams which is like a scrabble game you play on your own against others. I filled up on just about every lolly imaginable and ate some ice cream as well. They had a sweet karaoke machine that got set up outside and we all had some turns karaoking that classics! 

Sad to leave this place!!