My very first summer birthday

I've come to the conclusion that celebrating your birthday in New Zealand is the very best. Not only because you get to celebrate it twice (once for New Zealand and once for the States) but because it’s opposite here! As I was swimming out in the ocean my friends and I had an epiphany. This is the first time I can ever remember swimming on my birthday! I’ve always had cold, windy and even snowy birthdays! So this was definitely one of a kind.

I honestly couldn’t have asked for anything better. I had so much fun. I woke up and walked out of my bedroom to find that Phyllis had put up a sign in my honor! I loved it! She is so nice to put forth that extra effort.

Brooke and I planned a beach trip to Takapuna Beach where we were planning on meeting Kirsten, Emily, Mikaela and Amanda. On our way there we stopped at an interchange and hopped onto Kirsten and Emily’s bus with their driver Tua (who has invited all 20 of us over for dinner next Sunday…it’s going to be a Samoan barbeque) because he said he was headed there very soon. As it turns out he was headed there…eventually. We took a very long scenic route through downtown Auckland, picking people up and dropping them off until finally we were the only people left on the bus. It was really cool seeing the buildings up so close and what not. We realized after a little bit that Tua was no longer picking people up and he told us that he was actually on his break. He used a good portion of his break time driving the four of us to the beach! Who else can say they got a tour of downtown Auckland on their own private bus for their birthday??

We arrived on the beach just as the sky was clearing up. Some local business happened to be giving out free apple juice drinks by the bathrooms so we even got a free can of juice. We had arrived a little later than we planned so we were hoping that Mikaela and Amanda hadn’t gotten lost and were about text Mikaela’s ipod when they showed up behind us singing happy birthday!

                                     

 

A little while later Mikaela, Amanda and I were wading out in the water when suddenly Margo appears running towards us in the distance! Apparently she, Mandy, Brooke and Brittany had been there at the beach since 11 that morning and she was out walking and just happened to stumble upon us! They knew we were planning on going to the beach but weren’t sure they ever be able to actually find us. It was so fun once we all found one another. It just makes me realize more and more how much we depend on our phones for everyrthing. I don’t know how they used to make plans and find one another without them. It’s something that’s taking me a long time to get used to being without.

After the beach we went out for real fruit ice cream (something that I find very hard to say “no” to) and then rode the bus home. Amanda and Mikaela came over to our house and Phyllis took us all out to dinner at this cute little buffet called Valentine’s. It was incredible! I’ve never been very good at pacing myself when it comes to buffets but I should have taken a stroll past the dessert table before I filled myself up by trying everything else. When it came time for dessert I couldn’t help but try one of everything there as well. I wasn’t going to let a full stomach stop me from trying my best to force more in. I think I might have appalled Phyllis just a little bit with just how much dessert I piled onto my plate. It was delicious! I couldn’t help it. Besides, it was my birthday…

The next day was technically my mom’s birthday. But everyone back home thought it was still mine. And because everyone on facebook thought it was still my birthday my friends thought that maybe we should celebrate again!

Brooke and I started the day off by going for our first ever run! It was great, especially because it was a perfect drizzle outside. We came back completely drained and about to collapse. On our way inside I checked the mail and was so surprised and happy to find a birthday letter! I was so excited that the day could have ended there and I would have gone to bed so happy! But it didn’t. Our friend Reece took a small group of us to Orewa Beach for the day. This was the same beach we went to within the first week of being in New Zealand. Unfortunately for us it had been really rainy and cold and hadn’t felt much like summer. This time was completely different. Not counting the small drizzle when we first arrived the beach was sunny and beautiful! It was transformed to the beach I’d seen on the postcards! Reece taught us how to play cricket…which is similarish to baseball because you use a flat bat. After baseball I watched as the rest of the group played tackle rugby in the shallow water. We did some swimming and went to the park and laid out in the sun. It was perfect. Then, to top it all off, Kirsten and Emily’s host family sister, Elyse, took us all to this little place in Auckland called the Chocolate Boutique. Oh my heck. It was incredible! Brooke ordered something called “Death by Chocolate” which essentially was chocolate ice cream, buried under a layer of chocolate mousse, drizzled with chocolate syrup and topped off with chocolate marshmallow fish and some whipped cream on the side. I got the same thing with a “mud cake” as a side and split it with Kirsten. Surprisingly, it didn’t actually kill us. It was though, indisputably, something to die for.

We finished off the night by heading back to Emily and Kirsten’s homestay home and watching The Dark Knight. I had so much fun and went home completely happy. I really couldn’t have asked for anything more and I was given way more than I expected. Everyone should celebrate their birthdays in a foreign country!