It’s hard to believe, but we’ve already been in New Zealand for 13 months!
A lot has happened in those 13 months, and we have really grown together as a married couple. If you haven’t heard, we plan on staying here for a couple more years. It is exciting! But we are sad that we won’t get to see our incredible friends and family as often as we wish.
It’s been a while since we posted here, but let us share a few highlights from the last couple months:
1) The CBD has opened up again. After 2 years of being shut down because of Earthquake damage, they finally removed the red tape and are letting people inside. Make no mistake, there are still years worth of work to be done. Some buildings still need to come down and very few businesses are open again.
But our first time walking near the Christchurch cathedral was very encouraging. There were lots of people around, and you can tell the people are starting to have hope that we can really start to move forward.
2) We went skiing! I (Evan) have no shame in admitting I love skiing. If you told me I could do anything I wanted, then I would choose to ski. Turns out we’re 1.5 hours from a pretty awesome ski resort: Mt. Hutt. Next weekend we’re going down to Wanaka for three nights to ski with some work mates. Pretty exciting!
3) Kaikoura Seal pups: I (Morgan) have been wanting to do this for months. 2.5 hours north of us, there is a waterfall full of seal pups. Each day they swim up a creek to a large water hole where they can play safe from predators. It was so amazing! You could get super close to them and we took some great photos and video (seriously watch!).
4) We’ve nearly survived winter: Despite the lack of central heating in New Zealand, we’ve still managed to survive! It’s actually been a rather wet, but mild, winter. No snow days sadly, but it’s pretty amazing seeing the snow covered mountains everyday on my (Morgan) drive to work!
5) American visitors: Morgan stayed pretty busy over her winter break. We made a new friend, Elise, when she came to stay with us for a week. She is a recent UGA grad so obviously she was an awesome person and Morgan showed her all over Canterbury. Our church also hosted a team of 7 Americans from West Georgia who came to do ministry on the college campus here. Morgan took them on a day trip to Arthur’s Pass and showed them around Christchurch. It was great for both of us to meet new people and get a taste of home (these guys actually like the Braves!).
That’s all from us. What’s been going on in your life?
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