Oh the Places You'll Go!

The other day, Randy was perusing his phone and this came up in his Google Maps. It made us pause in wonder to see all the places we'd explored in just a year, and this was not even the entire list. I made a solo trip to Christchurch for a medical cultural competency training event in August (I have a post about this sitting in drafts that I have not been able to finish).

Many people spend their entire lives in their home town, never being able to explore the world around them. As each day goes by, the more I am able to go on amazing walks in subtropical forests on my days off, take a quick trip to the beach, the more I realize just how much I was just working and surviving instead of truly thriving and being one with my world. Some of these trips were a bit pricey, and others were very inexpensive. So many of the adventures my family has had since arriving to NZ were completely free.

Our First Trip of the Summer

Can I tell you how tickled I am to be able to say that the Sillik family has a special summer place that we have now gone to for a second summer in a row? We never had a special place in any season that we would return to when we lived in Arizona. I loved Hawaii but to go would mean thousands of dollars and many hours of flying. It was not a convenient getaway.

Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) in northern Mexico was a nice place to visit, just a few hours south of Phoenix. Although it did provide us with some ocean waves, it did not provide me with the kind of rejuvination from nature that I can get from places like Hawaii or New Zealand. To go back to the Caribbean was also a long, often expensive journey.

Last December we went to the Coromandel Peninsula and stayed at the Hahei Beach Resort. It is a quaint and comfortable property that rents out camp sites and cabins. Right overlooking the ocean. We knew that we would be making this our yearly beginning of summer trip. We were so excited to return and it did not disappoint. Soon after Christmas we went again and stayed for 5 days. Last time, we went Kayaking, and dug our own hot pools at hot water beach. We took water taxis to Cathedral Cove. This year, we did more walking and long beach days.

We welcomed the New Year while at Hahei Beach Resort. They entertained us with a live singer that sang for hours, until just after the New Year. It was so much fun to congregate with the rest of the guests.

Life still kept happening while we were gone, but I am so grateful for relaxation, a week where the kids could explore, imagine, and play together without the use of electronic devices. They read their books and drew and played on the beach and in the grass. We hiked and swam and napped and ate good food that Randy prepared and cooked there. We ate ice cream almost every day we were gone- a Sillik family record. Nature renews my soul like nothing can. Hahei Beach and Cathedral Cove are our family's special summer place and we are already planning our Dec 2023 trip next summer.