champagne.

After a wild trip from the east coast to the west coast, I am with Brittany and Kasey and it’s so nice. I’m now drinking coffee, eating dark chocolate, and having spoonfuls of peanut butter whenever the heck I want. 

Muriwai is a magical place. A place where radio stations play 90s music all weekend and six Mariah Carey songs in a row. Muriwai gives people what they want. It’s a place that specializes in surfing and it’s super laid back. Surreally beautiful.

This is our view from our “glorified camping” cabins in Muriwai.

We wake up to the sound of the Tasman Sea and the tui bird. We sit at the picnic table or the car seat bench while enjoying the view while we drink our instant coffee or eat our rice cakes with peanut butter. Then we head down to the surf school for 2 hours of work a day in exchange for the housing. The first day, we moved around 1,000 cement pavers for a project that our host, Martin, hasn’t quite planned yet. When I met Martin, he was exactly like I’d picture a guy who owns a surf school in New Zealand. He has a MacGyver/Chuck Norris look, with shaggy blonde hair. He has worn the same Rip Curl hat since Wednesday and he talks like Steve Erwin. 

Bridget, Martin’s beach babe wife, told us that it’s more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than a shark, so we decided to go for it and try to surf (and because we can use the wet suits and boards for free while we’re here). She ordered the “hunky coach” for our surf lesson. Nick was patient, kind, and he must’ve been a good teacher because we all stood up, so we celebrated big by having a chocolate milkshake at the Sand Dunz Café (delicious, but really really milky, not thick like the milkshakes we expected!)

We love it here and are enjoying not knowing our next step, I think. There is no internet and only one fuzzy mirror and we are about as relaxed as people can be. Especially when I think about how I should be running Homecoming at my old job right now.

Stay tuned and watch out for those champagne corks!