It's Time To Bike!: Catchin' you up on the happenings

Saturday, Jan 19, 2013

“I be chillin’ “

What a chillax day. One of the first in a while, so it was a pretty sweet day. Basically, I slept in, cleaned up my cabin, went biking on the camp trails, went for run on the camp trails, did a (really) small workout on the playground equipment and then had a fantastically enjoyable facetime convo with my dear friends KelseyG and Hanza! (thanks team).

After that I helped Chuck destroy some rock with the rented digger, had a late “Tea” (supper) and we watched a bit of American idol. I also learned more about 7^th Day Adventists, but would want to research it a bit more before posting any of my new knowledge for fear of being horribly inaccurate. Also, I’m pretty excited for my adventure that starts tomorrow!

Looks pretty good. Like nothing ever happened really.

A view from one of the camp bike trails...typical NZ.

Seriously crushing some rock!

Sunday, Jan 20, 2013

“Adventure time”

Today I attended church with Chuck and his family, and wow have I missed that sense of community and Christian fellowship! It was an absolutely wonderful experience and I was able to meet SO many wonderful people and they were so…wonderful! I had a huge grin on my face pretty much the whole time and I was just refueled and filled by God! What a sweet little diverse church. They also had a solid/together band, and I knew most of the songs they sang. It was cool to see how similar church is, even in another country. They too had their various bulletin boards promoting their upcoming mission trips, youth events, and other info.

We were sitting a few rows behind the “youth section”, and there a was a elderly couple 2 rows in front of us and it was super sweet to see how the youth clearly loved them and gravitated towards them. I don’t know they were, but clearly the cared about the youth and the youth knew it. As I watched it as an outsider I was challenged to be that type of 60+ year old.

Just 2 other things worth noting.

#1. We had communion and there were absolutely zero guidelines given and so I carefully watched others to know how they specifically did it. At first I wished they had provided some more structure, but as it went on, I realized that there was really no was to do it wrong. It was all good, we were just having communion and that was that.

#2. They had members of their youth preaching all summer (the month of January) and it was super sweet to have a young person give the ‘sermon’. The guy who preached that Sunday did great, and I thought it was a really great idea and the youth seemed to genuinely appreciate the opportunity.

I also went to Maca’s and had the Kiwi burger, complete with fried egg and beet. It was ok except for the beet. While there I received a huge compliment when I commented that the burger was “terrible” (but only when the beet was still in it, I took it out later). Jenny Lynn said that was the first negative thing she’d heard me say. Wow, after 2 weeks, that’s how she’s seen me be? That’s exciting, cuz I really want to be a positive person, and that was just a bit of encouragement that I’m succeeding at being who I want to be.

I was then off to Auckland aboard the nakedbus.com line. (the naked referring to a striped down service with not a lot of frills, but great prices). On the bus I sat beside Terry from the South Island, and he offered me a place to stay if I made it down there. It was a great conversation and he was able to offer me lots of advice for my upcoming trip! When we finally arrived in Auclkand, we were late, so I n longer knew what bus to take, so I just walked the 5ish blocks to my hostel. But as I got close to where it should be, I still had no idea where it was. A random guy (just looks at me an say “You look lost”) on the street ended up walking with me and his mates to the hostel, where they were staying too. It’s such a friendly place it amazes me each day. The hostel is actually super nice, and I have my own room and bathroom, it’s pretty much just a very small hotel room.

Anyways, I’m up at 4:30 to get Travis, so good night!

Such a great church experience!

Our rather nice hostel room.

Monday, Jan 21, 2013

“Travis Time!”

Ok, so it was a real early morning, but the bussing went great, Travis arrived safely and it so our traveling adventure really starts! One thing I’m learning is that I need to ask people for advice and help all the time, because they are super willing and able to help. Another thing I’m learning is that you sometimes have to keep asking for help until you find someone who really does know what they are talking about. (we walked a little bit extra to get to the bus from the airport due to this fact).

The arrivals area in an international airport may be one of the happiest places around and I much enjoyed sitting there watching all of the joyous reunions.

As for the day, Travis and I went back to the hostel, dropped off his stuff, and then set out to walk the streets and find breakfast (and we found a sweet little place) and then wait until more things were open as at this point it was still before 8:00AM. At 9:00 we boarded an on-and-off tour bus that went to 14 of the main Auckland attractions, and from there we started sightseeing and snapping pics! Our sights included some parks/monuments, an aquarium, and the wharf where 2 huge cruise ships sat.

A highlight from that tour would have to be the crazy and fun aussie kids we met and hung out with for the next few hours! Where were super fun and if felt like we’d known each forever when it finally came time to say farewell.

After our many hours of adventure we headed to a sweet little place for lunch, and then back to the room to recharge for the evening’s activities.

For the evening we went out walking (as we did a lot that day) to the pier and it was awesome! Auckland is a beautiful and very clean city (at least where we were). Travis is a champ at starting conversations with everyone, so we talked to a local who’s a bit of a songwriter and she told us about some stuff to do in the city. As we walked around, we decided to fly to Queenstown ASAP, rather than hang in Rotorua for a while first. This meant we had to book bus tickets, hostel rooms, and plane tickets, and all in all the plan is a bit crazy, but we’d have it no other way!