free days

so... oh my. where to begin. friday was a pretty solid day.. amazing breakfast... hazelnut spread has become a part of my day permanently ( i feel like i'm missing something special when i only eat weetbix) but we had our last lecture with baryll.. we just had a prayer walk around our base (you know, praying for those scary dark areas that make us run... when we are alone.. and feel like our soul is about to be startled..) prayed the crap out of it. THEN we prayed for our countries.. since i'm a part of both the u.s.a and canada, i prayed for both, but realized that i have a far larger passion for canada.. i used only have my butt when i prayed for the states but canada got me engulfed in it (however this could be because there are only 4 canadians as opposed to like.. 10 americans...) but i still feel like canada is where my heart is. i grew up there for a reason i guess... my back still hurt very much this day. (ps, now it is back to 90% WOOOO) stupid straining back muscles.
then (oo fun) got a ride into town and went to rent our van! it was a very nice 11 seater mitsubishi... fun to drive (and manual!) a van full of 9 brothers an sisters... it was all 7 of us guys and arby, jess, and joanna. we headed down to taupo, a nice hour and a half away. but it was a pretty sweet town.. beautiful lake, beautiful pizza hut where we had real pizza finally after such a long absence.. lovely. then we witnessed what was surely the most beautiful sunset any of us had ever seen. EVER. this was a topper... i took no pictures for fear of stealing its beauty forever. (i had forgotten it in the van...) but i stole many pictures from people (by stole i mean ruined by diving in where i was only 2% welcomed). but.. you'll see. we found an ok campsite to tent for the night, which was absolutely freeee so we weren't complaining about quality or lack of facilities.. it was just nice to do something for free. the tents were so easy to set up, and we crammed 7 guys into our 6 man tent and the 3 girls took their own 6 man tent... we objected and offered to sleep a few of us in there with them, but not everyone is as comfortable as us guys are with each other. tis love. but we played mafia for a few hours then went to bed.. really cold and cramped.. but i slept like a baby.. nothing new. i sleep great in cold. that sleeping bag has already made me fall in love with it.. mummy bags are the best. so stinkin warm. in the morning kristen proclaimed his new hatred for camping (he did not sleep.. at all.. he did not have a mummy bag. poor aussie (also not everyone is used to the cold... it was like we were camping in may in the rockies.. cold but worth it. snuggles.)
after we packed up camp we ate subway breakfast then we drove the skydivers to the airport so they could do their thing.. i was kinda jealous watchin arby joanna john-mark nik and jacob go up.. buuut thats ok. too much money... it was cool to see their little white beacons jump out of the plane then soar to earth then light up the sky in pretty colours with parachutes.. i was ok with watching. they were ok with falling.. everybody wins! arby and jacob were super jacked up in the stomach from the parachute ride (they spiral down to earth.. i woulda puked or pooped) so arby sat shotgun as we drove off to the coromandel pensisula... 4 hours away. 6 and a half hours later we got there! (we chose to go the 'pretty' way along the coast. cuz its the coast! therefore beautiful. and flippin stupid. the windyest roads ever going uphill and downhill and sometimes gravelly and so slow and very testing on my manual noobyness.. (i'm a pro now. lets do this.) but yeah it was an adventure. just like we wanted. so no complaints! our destination was cathedral cove, (which none of us knew where it was. adventure, right?!) so we ended up in coromadel town, and found a sweet little hostel for $12NZ for each of us, and we tented on their lawn/crashed in the gazebo/hammocks/trampoline. they were very rad people. (also, fires are frowned upon pretty much anywhere on the north island. so far. we haven't found any place to have a campfire. and the names of the towns are all the same... not really, but they are all moari, and mostly start with T or P. like.. putaruru, tiarao, tiarua, punaninu, and every other combination of vowels mixed with T or P... and R... lots of fun though.) yeah... the long way was a fun way.)
we also found out cathedral cove was an hour and a half back the other way (in our trekking, we had come across a 'shortcut' through the heart of the peninsula that was the windyest most dangerous road ever, covered in gravel and steep and one lane wide at points and hecka fun to drive... had we not taken the shortcut, we would have ended up in whitiatangahhahdenngr or something where catherdral cove 'was' (but... i'll tell you later (but ALSO we wouldn't of found such a sweet hostel or enjoyed any of the luxuries it held. like an outdoor sink.. sweet as.)) so in the morning we headed out, the less scary way which only took about 45 minutes until we got to the town.. an found out cathedral cove was another 45 minutes south of where we were, which is where we had passed the previous day BUT IT DIDN"T MATTER cuz we enjoy adventuring. we finally found the place, had a sweet half hour hike to the beach and chilled for a few hours. (they filmed prince caspian at parts here. go to where you would say 'oh, they surely got a pass from God to film in heaven' and thats where we spent the afternoon. SOOO nice... i think the most beautiful place i've seen. it was a really good day. we ran into a few of our leaders who had come seperately... it was so strange when i was standing at the mouth of a cave to hear leader jacob's voice saying 'cmon! jump in an swim here!' but i did and it was him an nick and crystal.. cool friend suprise. chris an erika were body surfing so we went and did that with them for awhile too. it is very exhausting. there were several 10 foot breakers that tossed me around and put salt and sand in every crevice of my body. including my brain, because any time i bent my head over lots of salty liquid would pour out of my nose. sooo attractive..) we went home, and on the road ran into tyler and annarose in their car. we got home in much quicker time, 45 minutes early for dinner. we drove about 815km all weekend, so all in all it was a stellar success. now we are home, and new week begins! our topic this week is worship as a lifestyle. my bets are i'm gonna be grinning for awhile after this week. (giant contented sigh) time to go read my book for my book report due on tuesday. high fives.