a wonderful weekend

Last week and weekend was amazing.

Last week, despite my intense bible study preparations, I went for a bike ride and it was so fun. The school has about 6 bikes that we can use whenever we want which is awesome.

Here's a picture of me and Frank being silly, as usual. When Frank, Natasha and myself were riding we saw Michelle going for a long run.

She was super tired and didn't want to run back so Frank gave her a ride. It was pretty hilarious.

On Saturday morning I talked with some girls about going to Hamilton Gardens. It's really the only outdoor thing to do in Hamilton and it's free :) So off we went.

Here is the Indian Char Bagh Garden. It was gorgeous. It had the 4 areas of all sorts of flowers and super detailed architecture for the building on the far end.

Isn't this picture so cool? I look like I'm going to heaven or something. It was after this bamboo area that we were in.

Here I am at the entrance to the Japanese Garden of Contemplation. It was cool because it had all these sand gardens and stuff. Also a neat pond area.

This is the Italian Renaissance Garden. It was by far my favorite. The colors are so vibrant. There were a lot of areas that I want to go back to once the weather gets nicer and nicer.

This is at the top of the Chinese Scholars Garden. We almost ate our lunch here but it wasn't that comfortable. We were there for quite a while and only saw one fourth of the gardens so we'll definitely be back!

Later that night I went to the movies and saw Inception. I think I may be one of the last people to see it and it lived up to all the hype, I really enjoyed it. Before the movie me and some others got food in the mall's food court which is always a great place to take some photos :)

At one point during the movie I forgot I was in New Zealand. It becomes kind of surreal at times. Like I know I'm here but I still can't wrap my brain around it.

One Sunday after church, Mac, myself and Kelsey got invited over to this ladies house for lunch. We go to an Anglican Church in Cambridge and I love it. The worship music is quite different than CCC but the people are SO amazing. Every week after church they have tea and biscuits and everyone chats so that's how we've gotten to know so many people.

The lady, Marilyn, lives outside Cambridge on a dairy farm with her husband Merv. Their daughter and her two kids came over with us. After lunch Marilyn gave us all clothes and gum boots to wear so we could go walk around the farm. The first stop was to see the new born cows.

Here is Jack (Marilyn's grandson), Mac, Kelsey and me. Yes, I know you are jealous of my sweet looking outfit :)

The calves didn't really like us that much. They were pretty scarred of us actually. Mac and I got in the pens with them to see if we could pet them and this is as good as it got. They were so cute! (Probably because they are small)

Here's me and Jack with the calves.

Next we walked up this hill on their property to get a really amazing view.

Here I am at the top of the hill. It seriously reminded me of the Sound of Music.

Their property was SO amazingly beautiful! I was overwhelmed by how generous they were.

Another view from the hill.

And heading back down for afternoon tea.

I love random weekends. I love getting out into the different parts of New Zealand that I haven't seen yet. The longer I've been here the more I really see how beautiful the land is and also how kind and wonderful the people are.

Prayer Request:

- Continued prayer for 2 week break travel plans

- Continued prayer for my driving lessons with a stick-shift

- Prayer for my knees because they have been hurting. I think it's from this workout I've been doing that involves a bunch of jumping so hopefully they will get better from rest.

- Praise for Marilyn and her family showing us more of NZ beauty. Also Praise for our church family that continues to be such a blessing.