I haven't said much about my recent sojourn to New Zealand with Status: Welcomed, but it was pretty sweet so I will fill you in.
It's been exactly one week since I left them (sob, sob, sob), so re-looking through my snaps from that stint is probably good therapy.
Since the girls are there primarily to promote a movement of hospitality towards refugees and other displaced peoples, much of our time looked like this:
<Idun, Cat and Bethan are all wonderful public speakers and I certainly grew in my awareness of the refugee crisis and how I could begin to help as they spoke in universities, cafes and small groups during my time with them.>
So that was rather awesome and inspiring.
But we also had lots of hours at "home" (in the 9.5 days I was there, I slept in 3 different beds in 3 different cities) where we cooked, played, rested, worked or planned for the next hours.
Home is always sweet.
Our home life looked something like this:
OH yeah-I guess I should note that I'm the one who asked them to sit awkwardly in front of the rad wallpaper for long minutes. You're welcome girls.
We also had hours on end in the car, on the road, traveling about-to speaking engagements and a couple of times to adventures.
Our time on the road mostly looked like this:
And then we had a couple of adventure days...like Hobbiton (in case you didn't know, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed in the gorgeous New Zealand.) It's fun to scout out places that look familiar from the films.
I shan't heap too many facts upon you but I'll let you in one one juicy detail-it took 2.5 years to build Hobbiton for The Hobbit and it appeared in the film for under five minutes. Whaaaa?!
Our (dorky?!) Hobbiton day looked a little like this:
(In retrospect I realized I took more photos on my phone than on my camera so your glimpse of the greatness will be brief.)
That was well worth doing once and I'm glad I had a bit of..ahem, siteseeing to write home about. I spent as much time outside as possible and we had a few hours of adventuring together-from climbing a wee mountain to jumping out of the car at random pretty places. New Zealand is one of my Very Favourite places in the entire world. It's beauty is stunning and I can't get enough of it.
Also, my girls are rather gorgeous themselves so it was a winning combination.
I made it up for almost every sunrise...though I wasn't always in a picturesque location.
Our adventure time looked a little like this (though for once I'd say my beloved photography fails me as it barely does justice to the beauty at hand):
I'm entirely grateful I got to go and see the girls launched into this season of touring and speaking. If I could, I would certainly have spent the next two months traveling with them. (But something about being married, running a business and family matters does not lend itself to this notion. Hmmphhhh.)
I will be with them in heart through their miles on the road though you won't have photos to gaze upon from this.
One last thing to note:
Naomi, my love, flew up to see me ON MY LAYOVER in Auckland when I was journeying home.
(Forgive my unedited iphone photos which do not bring justice to her gorgeousness...or perhaps even my photography. HA.)
Naomi and I have been heart friends for ages-since meeting on a rock in the Pacific many years ago. And neither time nor distance will ever weaken our bond though being so many miles apart is forever a great sadness.
Our wee afternoon catch up with coffee and wine was not nearly enough but it was still the perfect ending to my trip.
And so I bit you adieu.
xo.
