At the end of the day, we felt accomplished and it had been a beautiful hike. We had a great time with Peter, Shelly, & Paul (all Kiwi's) talking about the biggest cultural differences we've noticed in New Zealand, sharing stories about our friends in "The Industry," and hearing of their overseas adventures. 
Some of you have been wanting to have a visual picture of where we're living, so here are a few shots to give you an idea. When we lived in LA, we thought our apartment was small, but we had no idea what small was! However, I do find our place to be quite efficient...I even have a washer/dryer & a dishwasher! Don't worry, we've got a plan for where we're going to put the baby! And, remember, moms & dads, you had a great time in the early years of marriage living in trailers, small apartments, & not even having enough money to buy a coke! These are the times we'll talk about with our kids, too!
When moving to another country, any connection is a bonding connection. We met Matt through my cousin, Wes. I only just met Wes about 6 months ago through my cousin, Steve. And, I only met Steve about 2 years ago when a few of our other cousins told us we were both living in LA. Wes was renting a room from Matt's mom in Santa Monica and Matt had just moved to Auckland a few months before we did. Long story, I know. But, its been great to have a buddy here and we often all relate on topics of adapting to a new culture, while reminiscing about the not-so-typical culture itself, in LA.
On Saturday, Mike & I headed out to the Waitakere's for another hike. We took our fellow Los Angelean, Matt, with us and the visitor's center pointed us to another great hike over near the beach at Piha. I've never been on so many easy hikes with such great rewards! After only hiking for 30 minutes or so, we got to this great waterfall called KiteKite. The benefits of hiking here this time of year are having the trail to yourself and plenty of rainfall to stoke this waterfall up!
We considered how many people it would have taken to construct such a dam, which was apparently completed in 1927. And, how did they do it? No bull dozers, no power tractors...
On the way to the hike Mike teased that if I was good there would be a waterfall and behind it there would be a treasure and a pony (he knows my utter every-girl love for horses!). The beauty of the spot was certainly a treasure, but I didn't really want to get wet to see if there was a pony back there...we'll just assume there was!
This is the part where Mike started to get so preciously boyish, running here and there, snapping photos, pointing out things and telling me their scientific names, considering how God will even have colors we've never seen in heaven. I loved it! I love getting to see him thrilled.
Though it was chilly out on the deck of the visitor's center, tall trees blocked the wind once we were on the trail and made for a very temporate walk.
It was a morning of many metaphors and just as many similies as we tried to describe the wonders God placed before us as we "tramped" around Waitakere park. Palm Tree martini glasses, ivy so tightly woven it sprang back at us like bedding, slick glass lake created by the dam beyond it which would make a perfect ski cove. One of those hikes that makes you think, if this is here on earth, imagine what God has hidden up his sleeve for His eternal masterpiece!
From Thailand to today, since I'd just mentioned several memories from the past year, thought I would throw in a few photos to memorialize them!
Had to do a glam shot in the gift store before we left the skytower. The Kiwi's have definitely made everything you can imagine from anything to do with all the sheep that live here!
Although our anniversary is on July 4th, we celebrated this past weekend so we could go to the skytower on Saturday night. We had a great time hanging out in the observation tower, getting oriented to our new city before a wonderful dinner of "Eye fillet" (kiwi pronounced "fill-et," in other words fillet mignon, and roasted lamb loin. I wore the perfume from our dating days, Weekend at Burberry, and the Dr. Pepper lip gloss Julie gave me for our honeymoon!
Last year we celebrated our anniversary in Thailand, this year Auckland. I wonder what land we'll celebrate in next year? We spent the evening recounting the past year and just praising God for all the blessings and fun memories: Mike's graduation from USC, learning how to do the Hustle in dance lessons, Thanksgiving AND Christmas with our families, Mammoth ski trip with Chris & Julie, Melissa & Fredo (we both loved hot tub night and Mike loved he and Chris's crazy top of the mountain adventure!). We also recall the excitement of finding out we were pregnant, my 30th beach birthday celebration, flying home for Steve & Melody's beautiful backyard wedding, and our crazy roadtrip home getting to hang with family and friends before coming out here!
