Our new Kiwi family, Jan and Vicki (thanks to my Seattle Kiwi friend Kim), came to visit us from Auckland. We spent a few days in town and then took a daytime trip over to Akaroa, about an hour away from Christchurch.
Before Covid, Akaroa was often overrun by tourists from cruise ships but we had this lovely town almost all to ourselves.
The highlight of our visit there was seeing the Giant’s House (http://www.thegiantshouse.co.nz/). It was Vicki’s birthday and she got to blow out the candles on a colorful mosaic cake.
Pepi also played in her first NZ national tournament. It was her first experience to play 2-4 games per day.
During this tournament, I made another good friend. The mom of another player on Pepi’s team, my dear friend Rose, invited me to join her for a girls’ weekend at the end of the month. I didn’t know her friends and the weekend fell on Nina’s birthday but nevertheless, I said yes. I was so happy to be invited to do something with other adults that I was happy to ‘move’ Nina’s bday by a couple of days ahead.
The fun fact about this invitation is that I probably misunderstood most of what Rose originally asked me, all due to how Kiwis pronounce the letter E.
She asked me if I would like to go to ‘fete’ with her and her friends and I had no clue what she meant.
Then she said, “You know fete, like fair, market?”
I finally understood she was asking if I would like to go to a fair in a nearby city for this girls’ weekend.
She then said ‘We’ll have enough beds” but I understood her to say “We’ll have enough beads (like beads for making necklaces or bracelets).” I thought that she and her girlfriends were going to make necklaces with some beads for this fair and that they would have enough beads for me too (my BMBs in Seattle have at times made necklaces with beads at some of our girls’ weekends so this wasn’t so weird to me).
All in all, that girls’ weekend was great.
Refresh Journey 