Hens Day & Night

Lovely Readers...Apologies for the delayed publishing of this blog post. So delayed in fact that this lovely lady married her hubby yesterday! Enjoy this post and look out for a post about their amazing wedding coming soon :) 

In January two of the Hubby and I's closest friends D & C are getting married.

Last Saturday night was us girls chance to toast this amazing event in their lives by celebrating C's Hens day/night. And toasting we certainly did!

It all began at 10:15am with C jumping off the Sky Tower. This was all a huge surprise to her, she had no idea what was install for her over the course of the day and night.

Then all us girls and our inaugural guy (C's brother - Mr Gay World) headed off on a Wine Tour.

We stopped at three amazing wineries where we sampled 7 different wines at each vineyard and also learnt little tidbits and facts about wine making and vineyards in general.

For example....Do you know why they plant red,pink, white or yellow rose bushes at the end of the rows of vines? No?! Well we found out that they are planted for two reasons. Firstly the colour depicts the variety of grape that is planted on that row. Pink and red symbolise a red grape variety and white and yellow symbolise a white grape variety. Secondly, if a Blight disease is going through the vines, the roses will show black spots first before the grape vines, enabling the growers to spray the vines before they becoming infected.

Our first stop of the day was at Soljan's Winery where we learnt all about the art of making wine, champagne and sparkling wine. We also learnt the key difference between what is considered a champagne and a sparkling wine. Sparkling wines are generally just a white wine that has had CO2 put into it.

The second stop for the day was at Matua Valley Wines, this vineyard had the most amazing tasting room. It had gorgeous big windows covering all the walls which allowed you to look out over the grounds and the sun to stream in.

Our last stop on the tour was at Westbrooke Wineries, here we indulged in some sparkling wine while eating our picnic lunch before having our tasting in our very own private tasting room.

We had some time to kill, so decided to head over to The Riverhead Tavern. This was our chance to have some coffee and sober up re-energize ourselves for the big night ahead.

For our evening entertainment, we had exclusive use of a nightclub on K'Road where we danced our feet away and indulged in a few drinks :)

Overall it was an amazing day and night and the perfect send off for Candy as she embarks into married life with her high school sweetheart!!

Halloween 2013

Every year good friends of the hubby and I, B & K host a halloween party. 

Here are some pics from the night.

Word of warning...this is a photo only post. 

Weekend In Review - Labour Weekend

This past weekend was Labour weekend in New Zealand. On Monday 28th October we celebrated Labour day, which meant New Zealand got a long 3 day weekend. 

For the hubby and I this meant that we would be spending three glorious sunny days hanging with friends, family & each other making memories and having fun. 

Here's a run down of our weekend with pictures :) 

Friday night we started our long weekend with a good old-fashioned Kiwi dinner of fish & chips and egg burgers. Egg burgers are lovingly known as 'Kiwi' burgers here in New Zealand. 

Saturday was spent making good use of the gorgeous sunshine we were having by doing washing and running errands. 

Saturday night we joined close friends of ours at the local theme park Rainbows End for the annual Halloween Night Rides night. It was awesome catching up with good friends, laughing and having fun. 

I always enjoy hanging out with my friends enjoying the good times together and cherishing the memories made. 

 After our fun and games we headed to the local Denny's Restaurant for a snack and BIG glass of water!
While there I got to meet a local celebrity...heavyweight boxer David Tua.
Here is a photo of myself with him.

Sunday the hubby and I spent the day relaxing together watching TV and not doing a whole lot. I made us a cooked breakfast of bacon, poached eggs, toast and mushrooms.
Sunday night we headed out for dinner and a movie with the hubby's parents. We had tapas for dinner at this amazing restaurant Bolero before watching the movie Captain Phillips. I highly recommend the Captain Phillips movie, it was intense and had you enthralled from the very beginning right through to the very end. Highly emotional in parts but a perfectly told story that made you feel for those involved.

On Monday {Labour Day} the hubby and I headed to the Pop Culture Expo Armageddon.
Here the hubby got to indulge in his love of pop culture and we also got to meet a few celebrities we are fans of.

The hubby got a picture and autograph with Mark Rolsten from Aliens and Super Natural fame. The hubby is a huge fan boy when it comes to anything Aliens related. He has all the movies, numerous collectibles and so far 3 autographs and pictures with actors from the movies.

I myself got to meet Kim Rhodes {The Suite Life of Zac & Cody and Super Natural fame} and Barry Bostwick {Spin City & Super Naturla fame}. I got both of their autographs as well :)

I loved every minute of this weekend as I got to spend it with those that I care about whether it's friends, family or the hubby. Here's to making many more memories and having many more laughs as we continue heading into summer.

Rainbow's End

Last Sunday, the hubby and I went to Rainbow's End with two of our friends D and C.

Rainbow's End is our local theme park.

Here are some pics from the day :)

Enjoy!

                           ~ D & C on the Log Flume Ride ~               ~ Log Flume Ride ~

 ~ Me & the Hubby ~

 ~ My favourite ride - The Invader ~

~ The Hubby & D on the Roller Coaster ~

 ~ The Hubby & D ~

 ~ Goldrush Ride ~

 ~ Me & The Hubby ~

~ D & C ~

My Faith

In recent weeks my sister and I have made friends with the two sister missionaries in our ward for the local Mormon Church (LDS). Long story short - my sister and myself are not Mormon, we are Christians though, the sister's turned up on our doorstep looking for our father who is on the ward list (his family are Mormon, and for most of his child he was an active member of the church), he was not home but I was and quickly made friends with them. They are two delightful, wonderful, amazing women in Christ.

For the last 3 weeks they have been visiting our house and family once a week. The first week they came, we played a card game called Skip Bo together and just got to know each other and my sister and I learnt a little about what it was like to be a sister missionary for 18 months. The second week they came for dinner with the family.

This week they came and did a lesson with us. The lesson was on Christ's attributes.

First we made a heart from play dough and read a verse from the bible...

"But now, O LORD, You are the Father, We are the clay, and You our Potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand." - Isaiah 64:8

The bible teaches us that God is the Potter and we are the clay. When we are open to God's will in our lives, He molds, transforms and sanctifies us as we walk with Him in our journey. Just in the same way that we mold the play dough into the heart that we would like it to be, he molds us into what he would like us to be. Each one different, and yet the same.

They also talked to us about Christlike attributes and if we could pick one attribute that we would like to strive to have more of.

Christ's attributes are as follows:
Faith
Virtue
Knowledge
Temperance
Patience
Brotherly kindness
Godliness
Charity
Humility
Diligence
Obedience

Not on this list is Leader - my sister picked this one. She would like to become more of a leader and less of a follower.

Personally, I found it hard to pick just one Christlike attribute I would like to strive to be more like.
I think overall I would like strive to have more of all Christ's attributes. If I can strive to achieve a little more of all his attributes that would make me a better follower of Christ.

I know myself that sometimes I do not show patience, charity, humility, or Temperance. I also could do a lot better in Faith and Godliness, especially when it comes to my journey in Christ.
I think part of my lack of faith (maybe that's the wrong phrase to use), but my lack of strong faith [going to church, reading the bible etc] is because I have never found a church where I feel I truly belong, a church that I have connected with on a whole other level. Yes, I was baptised, and yes I did have strong faith when I first chose to be an active Christian after many years of dabbling in Christianity and attending Catholic high school, but as of late my faith has dwindled and I do believe that has a lot to do with not having close friends who share my belief in Jesus or a church where I feel I belong and am a part of.

Perhaps meeting the sisters has done me some good, perhaps this was all part of God's plans for me, perhaps this will enable me to be a better woman in Christ and to have better faith. I believe that God is still molding me into the follower he wants me to be. And this is all part of his journey for me.

I suppose all I can do is trust in the Lord and see where he takes me.

Happy Birthday Tess!

This weekend just been we celebrated our friend Tess's birthday in style... 80's style!

She hosted an 80's style costume birthday party... and everyone really got into it which was awesome.

We had a totally fun night that was made even better because we were in the company of friends.

Below are a few pics from the night.... Enjoy!

 ~Myself & the Hubby~

 ~Super Mario~

 ~Alf~

 ~Magnum P.I.~

 ~Karate Kid~

 ~Cool sign above the bar~

  ~Super Mario & Vyvyan Basterd (from the Young Ones)~

 ~Super Mario~