Week 41 is a blur because it was so long
ago and now lives in the dark shadow of week 42, which was FULL OF GINA!!! I guess of note, Gina arrived on Friday of
week 41 and so the rest of the week was prepping for that. Oh and Kensley and I spent the day with
Jacqui and Walt in Rangiora (about 30 min drive from Christchurch). We meet them at the pool and did our first
public swim. Thank goodness I tackled
this for the first time with Jacqui, who is the definition of super
woman/mom. I didn’t at all think about
logistics so she helped me through it.
Kensley and Walt loved the experience! While we were waiting for them at the pool,
Kensley decided to up and walk. She has
been working on taking a few steps for a few weeks now but this was fully up
and walk across the room. I wasn’t ready
for it, at all! Insert crazy mom here =
tearful, jumping to encourage her and scrambling for my phone. I think I scared her out of walking for the
rest of the week.
So in all seriousness, I could not wait for
Gina to arrive on Friday! Imagine my
disappointment when her flight got delayed not once, but twice. She had to stay a night in LA and then AGAIN
in Sydney. What are the chances!? So Caleb treated Kensley and I to a beer and
fries out Friday afternoon to ease the pain.
24 hrs later, and Kensley and I made our way to the airport to pick up
Gina. Gina was obviously exhausted but
she was a trooper and ready to visit.
Kensley had been saying “G” for days in anticipation of her arrival and
that little girl was pumped to see her!
Kensley LOVES having visitors and it didn’t take long for her to start
showing of her tricks to “G” and insisting that she read her multiple
books. On Saturday night, Gina and I
went out for drinks and supper with Helen, Lucy and Michaela. We had a great time and drank lots of yummy
wine. I was a bit worried on the walk
home thinking about how much I was going to pay for the wine consumption the
next day. However, I woke up and felt
pretty decent and had a significant realization; For years I have had people tell me that they can’t
drink red wine because of the hangover it gives them, even 1-2 glasses, and now
I’m that person. We drank white wine
that night and while I was still a bit sluggish on Sunday, if it had been red
wine, I would’ve been a wreck. So now, I
guess I’m going to have to try to limit my red wine consumption….eeek wish me
luck! On Sunday, Kensley spent the
morning with Sarah while Gina and I went for a run, for brunch and wandered the
city!
Caleb was away for the weekend with Andy on
a hiking adventure. They made their way
to Cameron Hut in the Arrowsmith Range.
This a basically 2 hour drive south west. He said it was a good hike on a trail that
wasn’t well marked. They had the hut to
themselves. I was pretty happy for Caleb
about this weekend because most of his exploring has been on his own so I was
pumped that he had a buddy. The hut was
almost at the base of a glacier so they checked that out too. They ran into some snow so it prevented them
for getting along the ridge as far as they had hoped.
Here we go week 42!!! The best week ever! Monday Kensley was off to daycare and I took
Gina to my favorite place around Christchurch, Godley Head. We did a great trail run, in matching shirts
that Gina brought for us. Anyone that
knows me well knows that this is totally my jam – I want to be matchy matchy
with all of my favorite people, all of the time! We then did some serious work (oil change,
groceries, coconut milk lattes) to prepare for our roadtrip that was starting
the next day. Kensley, Gina, and I were
headed on a girls’ road trip around the south island. It started Tuesday morning with a 3ish hour
drive to Lake Tekapo and a pit stop in Geraldine (or Grenedere to some people)
where we hit the goat cheese jackpot. We
checked into our airbnb, did a naptime (Kensley napped) workout, and enjoyed an
impressive view of the lake. We checked
out the lake and the very small town and then made our way back to the airbnb
for a chill evening at home. Chill
evenings at home were theme on this trip with a baby but we made the most of
it.
On Wednesday we packed up and drove 2ish
hours to Wanaka. We stopped at the
AMAZING Wanaka Lavender Farm. This farm
has been recommended to me by three people from different groups in Canada and
was also recommended to Gina, so it was a must.
An Ottawa gal married a NZ boy and the farm is theirs. We were really impressed by the farm, shop,
and Kensley loved the animals. We then
headed into Wanaka proper to check out the town and have an early dinner. On Thursday we did some more exploring of
Wanaka, but this time on bikes. We
rented bikes and Kensley joined us on her first bike ride. Although were didn’t go as far and I had
hoped she’d tolerate, it was a pretty good success. On Friday, Gina’s favorite day, we drove an
hour to Arrowtown for a quick stop and café visit. We then went to Amisfield winery where Gina
did a wine tasting and loved the Pinot Gris (although 4/5 is a pretty tough
rating). She thought they were all good
but that was her favorite and our bottle to enjoy that night in
Queenstown. We then drove straight into
Queenstown and made our way directly to Fergburger to get a famous burger. We enjoyed them along the awesome waterfront. Now to get to our amazing airbnb, which had
the most stunning view and was an amazing space in general. I didn’t want to leave but we did end up
going out in the afternoon and Kensley started walking (May 10). I define it as walking when she’s walking
more places than crawling and that day, at the park, she seemed to decide that
she was done with crawling. We downed
that bottle of Pinot Gris that night and reflected on how amazing our lives
are, seriously! In NZ, with our favorite
people, just living the dream! On
Saturday, we started our journey back to Christchurch but broke it up with
another night in Lake Tekapo where Caleb met us. He took Kensley duty that evening so Gina and
I could go to the hot pools in town and again, reflect on how much life rocks
(and chat about Trenton)! We got home to
a great spread of charcuterie and cheeses and wine poured for us. And Sunday was back to Christchurch and the
real world (well not really, Gina’s visit continues and that means lots more
fun!)
It seems needless to say but week 42 was nothing
but perfect! I am super thankful for
this experience and our year in NZ but to share it with one of my favorite
people (other that Caleb and Kensley) was awesome. The week was actually so smooth. It couldn’t have gone any better in my
opinion (ok, maybe I could’ve planned for one more night in Queenstown). Gina is my perfect travel partner – we are
completely on the same page (workouts, food, wine, relaxation, sleep, fresh
air, laughing). And Kensley was an
absolute gem. She slept well, she
tolerated the car well (no pukey), she laughed a lot, and she started freaking
walking! My heart is beyond full after
fun (sometimes serious/sometimes ridiculous) conversation, scenery that
pictures just won’t do justice, too much cheese, a reasonable amount of wine, a
perfect baby with the cutest rain pants, and even a little thievery!
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| Just a couple of gals in Lake Tekapo |
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| First swim with Walt! |
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| Gina's in the gardens! |
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| Kensley showing Gina her favorite tree! |
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| Caleb and Andy |
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| There sweet hut! |
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| Godley Head |
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| Matchy Matchy <3; Self timer take 10 |
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| Lake Tekapo |
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| Wanaka Lavender Farm |
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| Loving "G" and the sheep |
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| Biker Gals |
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| She's too much for me <3 |
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| Our amazing place in Queenstown! |
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| My little love! |
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| "Hey mom, I'm just going to walk now" |
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| These two were so happy to be reunited! |
