Kia Ora: Surfing at Tawharanui

By far one of my most favorite beach days (and days in general) here in New Zealand.

On Friday we were lucky enough to have a beautiful day at the beach. We all loaded in the vans and drove for an hour to Tawharanui beach. Man was it one of the prettiest places I have seen. It was also the first beach that we have been to that had REALLY nice W.A.V.E.S!! I was so excited!

I finally got to play in the waves, boogie board, and surfboard.

Yes people. One of the things on my bucket list has been accomplished, I have surfboarded.

Ramona's husband is a big time surfer so he was able to teach any of us that wanted to. I got up on like the 3rd try and never wanted to stop. It was hard for me to give up the board at the end of my turn, but we will have another beach day where we can try surfing again. It was kind like snowboarding and wake boarding, just on big waves. The hardest part for me is feeling when to start paddling. You have to get it just right to hit the wave right.

Boogie boarding was another thing that I absolutely loved. I cannot believe how FUN it is. When you hit the wave just right and come cruising in...ah I LOVED it!!! I was doing it like the whole day.

After the beach we all went to dinner and then went and saw the movie "The Vow". I thought the movie ending was a little weird, but it was fun seeing a movie all together in the theatre. It's been a while. What a fun weekend activity. Then Saturday was spent ALL day long doing our technology class assignments and skyping with our teacher. That wasn't so fun, but at least we are almost done with that class!

It was so beautiful

Sequence of events goes as follows: get close to the waves for the first time

here it comes

uh oh

salt!

Yay! Kirsten come play with me like a little kid in the waves

YAY

We love playing in the waves

Me, Mikaela, and Kirsten

Boogie boarding with Kirsten

Look at that beach!!!

SO MUCH FUN. I'm addicted now.

I'm in heaven

Here we go Brooke

Wahooooo

Surf time! I had never really realized how BIG and
tall surfboards are.

can't wait

I'm so glad Chris was able to teach me, it is hard to figure out the
wave timing (I liked having him tell me when to paddle)

The first time I tried it I got the timing perfectly with the wave......I just
didn't realize you were supposed to actually stand up haha!!! So
I just cruised in the whole way to the sand.

Here's me realizing what I had done. DUH Mandy! My face is funny though,
I was literally like AH haha I was supposed to stand up, not lay on my
stomach!