South Island Journey - Journal #2

Today we visited the most Southern Point in NZ: Slope Point. (South Island). What a beautiful place. We have had a great trip thus far – we’ve ventured down the entire East Coast staying with some YFC people and also visiting some good friends of ours (Nate & Deb) in Dunedin. Nate & Deb gave us a great time down south as we played all over their parents farmland. The guys went Dirt biking and Deb and I went Horse back riding; cantering through the fields. We spent 2 days with them at their parents house and had great company. It was wonderful to enjoy a good sleep in a real bed, and have some good home cooking.
Since the last blog we have: visited the Cadbury chocolate factory to see how chocolate was made (this was a very yummy tour). We ended up with heaps of chocolate and even got to see the worlds largest Chocolate Waterfall!! We also spent some time in Christchurch touring there, we saw a brewery, some old historical churches, heaps of waterfalls, some Lord of the Rings places, we took a punting ride through the parks in Christchurch, visited some museums, did a little tramping (hike) here and there, spent many nights camping, drove up the world’s steepest street, (boy was it steep!!) and made cheese fondue!
Now we are off heading up the South Island’s West coast for some of the most beautiful places on earth. Doubtful sound & Milford sound. We are half way through our journey and have had a great time. Thanks for all your prayers for our safe travels! This trip has been such a treat for us and we have been doing it all strictly off our personal wedding funds.

South Island Journey - Journal #1

(Friday, January 9th)
Quick Snip-it: We started our South Island journey, met some YFC people at their bases in Wanganui & Wellington. Toured Wellington, Had our ferry canceled, got adopted by strangers who are nice old couple who have 4 children & 12 grandchildren, stayed with them at their batch (holiday home), Preston mowed their grass, and we went diving for Paua and Muscle. How’s that for the beginning our of South Island Holiday Trip??

Here is The Story: It’s day 3 of our South Island Journey and we have had an incredible and blessed time thus far. We drove about 8 hours the first day just to “get south” and stopped off in Wanganui to catch lunch with a friend, Melody who is serving YFC in that city. From there we had a 3 hour drive to Wellington where we Met up with Karl and his wife Mel and their 2 cute little kids. (Poppy & Mia). We spent 2 nights in their home and were able to tour Wellington during the day. We visited the Te Papa Museum, which was much larger then we anticipated, and then took a cable card ride to the top of a mountain to overlook the city, see some botanical gardens, and a few observatories. Can you believe all those activities in Wellington were Free!!? That’s how we like it. It was just $5.00 for the cable car and then $12.00 for a day of parking!Our second day in Wellington is where the adventure began…. We were suppose to be at the Vehicle Ferry at Noon for a 1pm shipping. However, we got a txt message saying that the ferry was canceled due to mechanical problems. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad they canceled it; it’s a 3 hour ferry trip on a good day; and I didn’t want to be on a broken boat stranded in the middle of the ocean. But it also kinked our plans. We could either ferry the next day or at 7pm that night. However, by taking the night ferry we wouldn’t arrive on the South Island until 11pm. In doing this, it would be really dark to drive, and hard find a camp ground with openings when we arrived. So anyway, neither of us really cared what we should do, so neither of us wanted to make the decision. We just wanted the cheaper and most convenient option.

So the story continues from there….. Preston would not tell me what he wanted to do at all. So standing in the parking lot at our car I gave him a dramatic play on describing both sides. (stay in wellington another night and waste a day, or go in the dark and have to setup camp so late). After my whining was almost over a nice old man walked over and asked: “Do you not know what to do?” and after a short conversation he said “take the 7pm ferry and come to my home and pitch your tent on our lawn so you don’t have to find a camp ground – I have a holiday home right in Picton where you want to go” Then in the next breath after his wife walked over - he said “Actually we will give you a bed and a nice hot shower just follow us when you get off of the ferry”. WOW! What a nice guy.

So long story short: Here we are in Picton staying at a “batch” (holiday home) with some nice ole Grandparents. (Doug & Rhonda) We were only going to stay one night, but they want us to stay again, and since we had no real set plans, we are. We all went in their boat today and collected heaps of 

muscles to cook; and we also went snorkel diving for Paua Shells. (Paua is a gorgeous shell with bright colors and has a black thing in it that you can eat). PS: I am not eating it!!

 We hung out, popped a bottle of wine, had a cook-out and Preston mowed their Grass. Yes – all with some strangers but lovely people!! We’ve spent 2 days hanging out with them and absolutely loved it. Great conversations, great hospitality; and they use to be in tourism so we’ve been getting heaps of tips and pointers on where we should go, what we should do, and where to stay! Since we will be gone for 21 days and planned on camping, any genuine hospitality is great – sure beats paying for a camping spot, sleeping outside, and cooking our own food.

We saw Seals on the side of the road today sitting on rocks at the beach. 

We walked right up to them for photos!! 

Summer Holiday

Well now that we are in the heart of Summer and have Summer Harvest Camp behind us, we are all escaping on holiday while we can. Feb-May will be crazy busy months for us so we are taking 3 weeks to do a little traveling while we visit some YFC bases along our journey. We're headed down to the South Island!!

We will be traveling down to Wellington today (12 hour drive) stay with a YFC guy and his family for 2 days while we do some touring, catch the vehicle ferry on the 8th to get to the South Island. We have heard some horrific and some great stories about the vehicle ferry and it all depends upon the sea and if there are any storms. It could take anywhere from 3-6 hours to get across to the South Island. So we will see how our journey goes. When we get to the South Island we will start in Nelson and work our way south to Dunedin and Alexandra, then curve around the southern point of the island along the coast and head up the West Coast. We are planning on seeing some wild penguins, stopping for a swim with the dolphins, hiking up to see the big ice glaciers, some of the Lord of the Rings places (These are all Free!!) and then find heaps of other free stuff.  We were told that pretty much anything on the south island that costs money to see - you can see for free if you just know where to go. And Luckily a lot of the Lord of the Rings places are either just a hike in or are off of the road; so we are excited to see them as well. Who knows, we might even spot a Hobbit here or there!!! :) 

We might try and post a story or pictures here and there from our trip but since we will not have too much web service since we are camping, who knows when we will get them posted. But check back every once in a while!! We will be back around the beginning of February :) 

Summer Harvest Camp Photos (Dec 28 - Jan 2nd)

We spent our New Years ringing in the New Year 80's style with 200 youth at Summer Harvest Camp. We had a great time at the camp and saw lives change in mighty ways. We Arrived at camp the day after Christmas to setup and prepare the cow field for the arrival of many eager teens. We setup marquees, a workers kitchen, lighting, sound, radio station, camp microphone, nurses station etc... We spent 2 whole days setting up, and then the fun began....  

Preston and I were "tent town parents" - basically we were "mom and dad" to a specific group of kids (boys) in our tent town (Yellow Boys = Rubber Ducks). We had all the Northland boys in our area, and they soon named our tent town the Rubber Duckies.  As our tent town also had a name, so did we.  At the beginning of camp the guys called us "Mom & Dad" then as the days went on we were referred to as Mrs. America and Captain American.  

We had a great time leading daily/nightly talks with the guys as a follow up to the speakers we heard all week. In addition, we enjoyed great worship with the camp, and a wonderful time at the beach among the Hot and harmful sunshine. (The Sun in NZ is the worst anywhere due to a hole in their ozone).  We only saw one cold day of rain, but other then that the weather was perfect. Lives were transformed and changed this past week and we are so blessed to have been a part of it.  We absolutely loved our role at camp and have found it to be our favorite ministry opportunity thus far.  We prayed with students nightly who were going through tough times and were handing everything over to God; we saw complete transformations in students, and were blessed to pray with so many who accepted Christ in their lives for the first time, and for those who were fixing a screwed up life.  We appreciate very much our role here; it was even more evident this past week when one of the students told us that they only feel comfortable talking to us about their situations; they know we will pray for them.

We heard many amazing testimonies from students about how they totally enjoyed the New Years celebrations, and how it was their first New Years not actually drunk - they had good fun, and they remember it.  Others (adults) commented on how it's nice to see teens having a good fun time and celebrating together, without peer pressure, and a beer in their hand. 

We saw many students find their worth despite the horrible things their families call them: worthless, loser, mistake, freak,  lost, disgrace etc.... God has worked in many mighty ways through us, and we continue to seek him to help heal some of the students from camp of so much brokenness. 

New Years

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We just got back from Summer Harvest Camp and spending the new year (80's style) with 200 youth camping in a cow field! We saw many lives transformed, walls broken down, and the Holy spirit move in mighty ways. I will spend a bit of time tomorrow uploading some videos, photos, and posting pictures of the Harvest Event. So please check back later on in the evening for that!
We hope you had a very blessed and happy New Year!