best adventures yet : )

exploring beaches on the peninsula

This one is going to be short because we are getting ready to head out for another weekend trip, but i wanted to post a quick update, basically to relay that Spence and i are having such a fantastic time here together and i can't wait to blog a huge update after he leaves.  We've been really busy doing a whole bunch of fun things; this weekend we are heading to Queenstown to do some hikes and just see the area.  We were planning on doing a big multi-night tramp but those plans fell through in other events that happened last week, which you will all hear much more about later.  Ohhhh it's a story, that's for sure.  But until then, enjoy these photos of the beginning of our time here.

sunrise at tunnel beach

hiking the Copland Track

wild & wacky midsemester break - part III

Our time in Wellington was a needed break from the outdoors; it was really nice to spend a few days in the city.  And i have to say, a few days was just the right amount of time.  I stayed with Paul in his apartment and it was so nice to see him and catch up after such a long time.  For those of you who don't know him, Paul is a friend of mine who used to live in Somerset but moved to California sophomore year of high school.  I found out earlier this semester that he was studying abroad in NZ as well - he in Christchurch.  After the earthquakes he transferred up to Wellington and when i found that out and we finalized our plans for break i figured it was worth a shot to see if he was going to be around during the time i would be there.  Turns out that he would be arriving back in Wellington from his break travels the same night i would be getting in, so it worked out great.  Meanwhile, Alex and Suzi stayed with a bunch of student life guys.  It was a really great few days.  In a nutshell... We toured the museum, which is the NZ national museum, so it's huge and super cool.  We made dinner with Suzi and Alex (which was awesome - enchiladas and chips and cornbread and apple crisp and ice cream)  at the Student Life guys' (who are awesome) flat and hung out with them (which was awesome) and played games and such.  They really are great guys, i feel so blessed to have met them.  The one guy, Cody, introduced me to orange chocolate chip ice cream, which i've seen here but this has never appealed to me, as mixing orange and chocolate just doesn't sound good.  Well, he just wasn't having this, as orange choc chip is his absolute fav, so he and Max (one of the other sl guys) went to the store and bought a tub of it and fed me.  Well...i have to say, it was actually really good.  The ice cream just tastes like a creamsicle, so how could it not be good?  Anyways, i will never complain about finding a new ice cream flavor that i like.  Also, fun fact, one of the other sl guys is named Leigh, which is the more rare spelling and also my middle name.  The next day we spent some time down by the wharf, where Alex obviously jumped off of a whole bunch of stuff while i took pictures of him almost freezing to death because of the cold water.  We walked around the city and stopped at a few cafes, one of which served the best hot chocolate i have ever had in my entire life.  We also went to a place called the Midnight Expresso, where we met Tammy, a girl from California who is visiting NZ and being a WOOFer (Workers On Organic Farms) for a while over here.  She hung out with us until we left, super fun girl.  Later that night we met up with Sam, a friend from Australearn who we met way at the beginning of the semester.  We ate at a Thai restaurant (my first Thai food, yum!) and went to a sports bar to watch the end of the Breakers vs. Cairns basketball game - a big deal thing because it's an Aussie league and the NZ team won, WOOT!  Then we went to watch the royal wedding.  Leigh was nice enough to drive us back to Paul's apartment after the wedding and on the way we noticed a lady slumped over on the curb and we stopped to see if she needed help.  Turns out she was drunk out of her mind.  We drove around for quite a while trying to figure out where she lived so we could take her home but that didn't really work out.  We finally ended up taking her to the hospital.  It was quite an interesting evening but a really neat opportunity to do what we could to show Christ's love to a stranger.  We also spent some time roaming the botanic gardens before heading back on the ferry on Saturday.  Man, those gardens are nuts.  Soooo huge!  We played on this weirdo tree, i think it's called the trippy tree?? (see below), at the beginning of the gardens.  It looks like a giant hedge but you can climb on the inside and get to the top and look out and see the whole city, it's pretty neat.

L-R: Paul, Tammy, Alex, Suzi, me

Alex in the air

Suzi & i

So...after all of that, the three of us ferried back to the south island to make out way back down to Dunedin.  Unfortunately my camera died right at the end of our Wellington trip so i don't have any pictures of the west coast, which was phenomenal, by the way.  Hah, though one thing that i definitely need to recount is the sandfly massacre that occurred on our way back.  Ohhh, it was bad.  We stopped along the side of the road to take some pictures of this amazing part of the coast where we'd been driving.  I got out and was taking a picture with Alex's camera when i heard something and noticed that something strange was happening in the car.  I went back to it (i was driving) and realized that in the very short amount of time we had been stopped, sandflies had totally invaded Lucille and were just attacking my poor passengers, and soon me as well. The only way to get rid of them is to kill them and/or move fast enough that they can't keep up.  So i peeled out, we put all of the windows down, and took off down the road, yelling all the way because these awful things were all over us, just eating us alive.  We took every chance we got to smash them, as it was either they suck our blood or we kill them.  I sooooo wish i had a video of this moment, because it would be absolutely hysterical.  I am driving down the highway, trying not to wreck us, smacking myself everywhere (but mostly my feet) and occasionally the windshield in front of me to try and kill them, all of us are shouting and hitting each other to get rid of the flies, and moaning because of the pain of the bites.  It was absolutely ridiculous.  Basically a sandfly holocaust, to be honest.  So i mentioned in my previous post that i had thought that my feet were bad from the sandflies at Abel Tasman...nothing compared to what i dealt with from this situation.  For the next several nights i would wake up itching my feet.  And i will have permanent scars from the bites.  Those sandflies don't want me to ever forget that massacre.

my poor poor feet [+ sweet chaco tanlines]

Other than the doom of the sandflies, which i can safely rank as my least favorite thing about my NZ experience, we had a jolly good time on the west coast.  We stopped at both glaciers, Fox and Franz Joseph, and just marveled at the beauty of God's creation.  This coming weekend we will be heading back that way to hike part of the Copland Track, a good tramp with some natural hotsprings and big mountains to appreciate.  More to come on our latest adventures and details of my time so far with Spencer : )

a sweet reunion

First off, a quick apology for the repeat on the sabbath lesson, i think there was some sort of glitch with blogger and it wouldn't show me my edits but then it actually ended up moving that post to be a new one but also left all of that in the previous post.  Should be fixed now.  Maybe a sign that the Sabbath is important! : )

I will soon get a third post up to finish telling you about my time in Wellington, which was the last portion of our midsemester break.  But for today i am heading out to hike Mt. Cargill, which is a small mountain in Dunedin.  And i'm hiking it with Spencer (!) who arrived yesterday.  Needless to say, it was quite an exciting reunion.  More to come soon!!

a lesson learned

Before i continue recounting the many adventures we had over midsemester break i'd like to share a huge lesson i learned recently.  These past few days i have been working pretty hard to get my 2 papers done before Spencer gets here, knowing i will kick myself if i save work to do while he is visiting.  So i have practically lived in the library for the last few days, which has actually gone better than i'd expected.  The weather has been yucky for the entire past week, to the point where i am really surprised if i go outside and it's not raining.  Anyways, i am almost done with one of my papers and Saturday night when i left i thought to myself that i would go back the following afternoon and start on the next assignment...but then it dawned on me that it would be the Sabbath.  I recently have been convicted about what it means to keep the Sabbath.  I've had the blessing of having several conversations with some of my friends about this and i've been thinking more and more lately that i should be more serious about relaxing and not doing any work on Sundays.  In the past i have found it simple enough to not do things like yard work, for example (because my family always operated with the rule of resting on Sundays), but i have always viewed homework as sort of a different thing, like it doesn't apply to the no-working-on-Sundays.  But i am a full-time student, so why would i pretend like homework doesn't apply to the Sabbath, especially when i call it homeWORK??  Basically, i'm owning up to the fact that i've just been making excuses about homework on Sundays, always telling myself than i'm just too busy to not work on Sundays.  But this week i decided to not do any homework.  I don't even know if i can get across to everyone reading this blog how excited i am about this decision, but i'll try anyways.  I had such a refreshing and fulfilling day.  A few friends and i went out to brunch at a place called Caper's - a really cool pancake house that serves the BEST pancakes EVER.  Then we walked around George St. and just took our time getting back to our flats.  Church in the evening, then baked some cookies with other Jen.  Overall, the things i actually did on this Sunday weren't that different from other Sunday's i've had; there have been plenty of whole weekends when i haven't done any homework at all (i can see your frown now mom!).  But the difference here is that i deliberately chose to do no work on this Sabbath.  Because of this i felt so much more free...it's not that i had no work to do, but i was not going to do it then.  It was probably the most stress-free day i've had since i can't even remember when.  It's this epiphany of sorts that makes me better able to understand what my friend Suzi meant when she was talking about resting on the Sabbath.  She told me that she's found when she keeps Sundays set apart from the rest of the week she is actually able to get more done on the other 6 days than she could if she worked 7 days a week.  This totally makes sense to me now, because i just feel so refreshed and rejuvenated and ready for the next week.  Take a moment to reflect on what Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV) says:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

I encourage all of you to challenge yourselves, if you haven't already, to keep the Sabbath.  We are called to do this not for selfish reasons but for our well-being and so that through our resting we will be better able to serve the Lord each week.  God created us, He knows our inner cores and He determined that we would need this Sabbath in order to best live each day.  Why would we choose to ignore this, when it's what's best for us?  I challenge you to save that load of laundry, that home-improvement job, all of those menial tasks and take the day to refresh yourself, get into the word, and relax.  For all of you who are in high school or college, free yourself from studying for this one day a week!  It is such a needed break and will prepare you to be able to go hard all week, until you can have another break the following weekend.  If you go into keeping the Sabbath with an open heart and seeking the Lord i promise that you will not regret it.  Even if you're unsure of making this change, i challenge you to just do it for a week or two, and see for yourself if you are not better because of it.

wild & wacky midsemester break - part II

our group ready to start Abel Tasman.  L-R: Alex, Jen, Suzi, me, Eilidh, Carolyn

typical view from the track

SO! On to more of my break adventures!  We left early Monday morning to hike Abel Tasman - this is both a national park and a great walk (there are nine great walks; these are DOC-sponsored, really awesome hikes around NZ).  The tramp is about 51 km.  We planned to do it rather quickly, starting Monday at lunchtime and finishing Wednesday at lunchtime with two nights of camping.  We did indeed do it in that amount of time, but it proved to be more challenging than we'd expected.  Turns out that doing it backwards (it's not a loop, so we parked our car at the beginning and started from the other end) is harder than hiking it the way most people do, because the uphills are much steeper when going from finish to start.  But we did really enjoy the tramp and felt very much accomplished when we finished.  It's a coastal route, so we would cross a beach and then hike inland, up a big hill, back down the other side, and come to another stretch of beach.  Along the way we met a German dude named Felix (at our first campsite) and he hung with us for the rest of the time.  The whole area of Abel Tasman is quite beautiful, it's  located on the northern part of the south island, so it's a bit warmer than Dunedin.  The sun didn't come out a whole lot for us but it didn't rain much either, so it was great weather for hiking.  We had a few different tidal crossings that we had to time corresponding to low tide...those were quite interesting because of how tender our feet were from hiking; add to that the fact that the sand is much less refined along Abel Tasman and most of it was covered with tiny clam shell pieces, so it basically felt like we were walking on glass.  Also, other Jen got the nastiest blister i have ever seen in my life, basically her entire heel came off.  But we made it! The really great thing about this tramp was that everything that happened was something that we learned from and we powered through every situation that we found ourselves facing.

me at one of the many beaches we crossed

typical view along the track

cooooollllldd tidal crossing!

baby seals, taken from my cliff perch

One of the coolest situations i've found myself in this semester happened during the afternoon of the first day of hiking.  We decided to hike down a side track and see a lighthouse at a place called Separation Point.  When we got down there one of the first things i noticed were some seals on the rocks below us (i hadn't gotten down to the actual lighthouse yet, and it turns out that i wouldn't because of my focus on these seals).  Seals are pretty common around the Otago area but i've never gotten very close to any, well except for that one in Kaikoura he was an angry seal.  Anyways, i wanted to take some better pictures of the seals so i walked down a bit closer - keep in mind i am still about 20-30 yards away at this point - and then i realized that these were not just any seals, they were a mama and her babies!  My excitement level spiked and i just needed to get closer.  I decided to climb this jutting cliff thing that would put me above them, able to look down and get some good shots but still be safely away from them.  Seals can get relatively aggressive in any situation (like we learned in Kaikoura) but it's a no-brainer that you don't mess with a mom and her pups.  I sat on my cliff for a whole and looked down on them as they played in the water.  By this time the mom had gone out to the sea to sun on a rock...from where i was sitting i could see her but she was facing the other direction.  it wasn't too long until i grew bored of my high-up vantage point and wanted to get closer still.  I climbed back down and made my way to the waters' edge to watch the babies playing.  Now, any professional would say that it was totally inappropriate for me to get that close to seals, but they were just babies, i could see the mum and was safely away from her and able to quickly exit the situation should she come back, and when else am i ever going to get to watch wild baby seals??  I got some really good shots and patiently waited to see if they would come any closer.  Lo and behold, when one of the waves washed in to the rocks on which i was standing some of the seals came with it.  I saw them on one side of me, about 3-4 yards away now, and stood very still while taking pictures.  Two of the little guys climbed onto a nearby rock and stared me down, as if they were having a conversation about what kind of foreign being i was.  I stepped onto a flatter rock in order to have better footing and continued to stand still and take pictures.  One of them, the more daring of the two, plopped into the water between my rock and his and climbed up very close to me, but taking his time.  At this point we were less than an arms' length (big no-no, says professional) and i was so very close to reaching my arm out an petting his head - they are very dog-like at that age - when he let out a small growl and i quickly came to my senses and moved back, knowing it would be a very bad thing if i made that mama mad.  Still, that little seal and i definitely had a moment : )  Enjoy the some photos:

wet friends on the ferry

By the time we finished the track we were more than ready to be done with tramping for a while.  I was so sweaty and dirty and ridiculously itchy from the ridiculous amount of sandfly bites i had on my feet...though, i would later realize that this discomfort was minimal compared to what i would later face under the wrath of sandflies.  More to come on that in the next post.  We piled our sweaty, smelly bodies into the car and drove off to Picton, where Alex, Suzi, and i would catch our ferry to Wellington.  We arrived into Picton about a half hour before boarding time when i got a message that our sail would be delayed one hour, due to rough seas.  We drove back to the hostel where just a few minutes prior we had just dropped off Jen and Carolyn and we all went to find something to eat.  Carolyn and i got some fish and chips and the rest of the group found some good Indian food.  We were really happy to chow down while sharing a case of beer and some wine, laughing uncontrollably at so many things that weren't really all that funny, and sitting in the car while it poured rain outside.  It was towards the end of the meal when Alex came up with the bright idea of stuffing himself so that he could get seasick and vomit off the side of the ferry later that night (boy does this sound soooo much more dumb as i type it out!).  Looking back on this situation i can now so clearly see what a really terrible idea that is, but Alex had never gotten seasick before and really wanted to experience it (what.) and we all reasoned that it would have to be the funniest thing ever for us to be able to send spewing-Alex photos to Carolyn and Jen, who were staying on the south island and wouldn't have the honor or witnessing sick Alex.  So Alex went to down on the remainder of the curry, chips, aioli, and fish (don't forget adding beer and cheap wine to that mix).  So we were off.  It wasn't too long until Alex's stomach really wasn't having the combination that he forced into it and poor Alex was a bit of a miserable lad.  He and Suzi and i checked in and waited around for a while longer and finally got to board the ferry, which was much nicer than i'd expected.  It reminded me a lot of a smaller cruise ship - they had really nice seats and little shops and a food court area and a movie theater and a bar.  We went up to the lounge on the upper deck and plopped down in some seats; Alex was looking green already.  And thus began our 3+ hour journey across the Cook Straight.  We quickly realized that when they said rough seas, they really meant it.  We stood out on the outside deck for portions of the sail and got totally soaked from the spray.  The waves we plowed therough were really huge and it was really cool to watch the fierce sea at night.  Apparently for a typical night of sailing the norm is 1 meter high waves.  On the night we sailed the waves were ~5 meters high.  It was really insane.  For the second half it was much more intense and we stayed in our seats and watched the water crash against the window in front of us.  It was quite an experience.  Oh, and quite unfortunately for him, Alex didn't get sick - how ironic.

We arrived into Wellington around 11 pm.  Alex and Suzi had arranged to stay with some Student Life guys and i was planning to meet up with Paul Fremeau (who happens to be studying in Welly this semester - what a small world!).  Cody, the first student life guy i met and the one who picked us up at the terminal, kindly offered to drive me to meet Paul, and then picked Paul up and drove us both to Paul's apartment.  I was sooo glad of this because Paul lives up this huge hill, which is awesome for the view of the city, but not so awesome for the walk required to get to and from it.  The situation couldn't have worked out much better, as Paul arrived back into Wellington airport around 10:30 pm. And thus began our time in NZ's capital city!

post Abel Tasman - our defeated poses

wild & wacky midsemester break - part I

Hello!! Man it feels like it has been so long since i've posted - probably because it has!  We just got back from traveling all over the place during our mid-semester break last week.  It was a really amazing trip and i'll tell you all about it over these next few posts.  But first a quick recap of the last couple of days.  We got back into Dunedin last Sunday night and it was so good to be back to home base and sleep in my bed again.  We had been driving for about 11 hours that day so i was shot.  But it was good to be bombarded by Paula and Asma right when i walked through the door and hear about some of their trip to FIJI (i know, insanity!).  It was hard to believe that classes were the next morning, but so goes life.  So the week didn't start off too bad, i was just having trouble being motivated (what else is new).  I don't know where Monday and Tuesday went but i found myself on Wednesday (yesterday) wondering how i still hadn't gotten anything done yet this week.  The day started off with me waking up at 8:53 am for my 9 o'clock class.  This is not the first time this has happened, by a long shot, but i just wasn't going to accept it this time, i needed to be at that lecture.  So i literally just put jeans on and brushed my teeth (to spare those who i'd sit next to) and ran the whole way and got there right at 9.  I won't recount the long list of everything that went wrong after that but it was the worst day i've had that i can recall; some highlights include figuring out that i have indeed lost my cell phone (the second i've had in NZ now), everything being erased from my ipod, the internet not working, and a $40 parking ticket to top it all off.  Fittingly, it poured cold rain all day long.  The ticket was the end of the line for me; i had held myself together up until that point.  Needless to say, i was glad that today was a new day.  But even with a fresh start i am still having trouble getting things accomplished for school and i feel like i've been wasting a lot of time.  I want to use my time here in NZ well and make the most of it, and that includes pursuing excellence in my schoolwork, friendships, and personal time.  It dawned on me this morning that i've not been focused in my relationship with the Lord and it suddenly became more clear: how can i expect to be more focused in certain areas of my life if i'm not focused in my core?  In neglecting to spend quality daily time with my Creator i am choosing to sacrifice that from which all else flows, i am cutting myself off from my supplier.  Now, i am certainly not saying that once i get back on track in my morning prayer and devotion all of my schoolwork, for example, will be instantly or easily accomplished.  But i am saying that i will once again gain the satisfaction of a day fulfilled, knowing that no matter how many material things i accomplish, i have set my sights upon what really matters.  Only then will things like facebook, email, and even sharing this blog be an encouraging supplement to my day, rather than a distraction.

the crew (L-R): Me, Suzi, Jen, Carolyn, Alex

So anyway.  Two Fridays ago we (myself, Alex, Suzi, Jen, and Carolyn) headed out from Dunedin, driving up the east coast.  We planned out our break (ok, so i did most of the planning) to include time in Nelson, Abel Tasman, and Wellington, then driving back down the west coast.  We left early in the morning and our first stop was at the Moeraki Boulders.  We had stopped here earlier in the semester but it was high tide so we didn't get to do much playing.  Well this time was splendid : )  If i didn't explain them last time, it's basically a beach with a whole bunch of big, really really round rocks.  Obviously, we had a blast taking photos.  Here are a few favorites:

yep, that's me : )

We then continued north and passed through Christchurch on our way...what a weird thing.  The city is still there and somewhat functioning but so many of the shops and buildings are closed.  We drove through whole streets that had just a few random things opened and the rest were locked and dark.  We could see into most shop windows and the memory shot i have from the one is just a dark office space with the filing cabinets toppled and random things all over the floor, left exactly as it was right after the earthquakes happened.  The reason for this is that inspectors haven't been around everywhere yet and people aren't allowed back into structures that haven't yet been inspected for safety.  It was a bit of an eerie drive.  Then as we passed though the last bit and out into open highway again this is the sight that we had to our left:

Such a good reminder of God's beauty and majesty, even in the midst of disaster and destruction in the world.

We then continued the drive up to a coastal town called Kaikoura and spent the night there.  We arrived at a good location to camp about 8 pm and it was already dark.  Oh, and we had planned to make tacos for dinner but the grocery stores were completely out of mince the night before, like none at all!  Reason: we shopped on thursday night and the next day was Good Friday...there is a law here that places are not allowed to be opened on Good Friday.  So we figured we could maybe find some sort of meat on the drive up on Friday but with nowhere but gas stations opened we were almost out of luck...until we found a dozen eggs at one of the stations.  We had breakfast burritos, so good!  Actually i'm pretty sure that it's just that everything tastes amazing when you're camping.  So we ate our feast and then set up camp: one tent and then hammocks for each Alex and I.  I had THE most amazing campsite EVER.  I snagged these two trees and put my hammock up about 6 feet from the edge of the cliff, overlooking the ocean.  We got to watch the moon rise over the ocean...and hah, we didn't know what it was at first and were pretty confused.  When the first bit of light showed (it was deep orange) it was a sort of optical illusion, appearing as if it was in the middle of the water, pretty close to us.  So we spent the first 5-10 minutes of the rising saying things like "what in the world IS that!?" and "it's gotta be some sort of boat, it's in the middle of the water!" and "aliens?? it could happen..".  When enough of the moon was showing, then, i figured it out.


The next morning we woke up to a beautiful sunrise and some of the most spectacular sky coloration i've ever seen.  The coolest thing, though, was the pleasant surprise i got when i looked across the road and saw what we couldn't see in the dark the night before.  On one side of the road is the cliff and ocean and the other side has lots of farm fields (which we knew were there) and then sooooo many mountains in the distance and some ponds showing the reflections and it was sooooo cool!  In our picture frenzy i stumbled upon (fortunately not literally) a large seal chillin' on the beach.  He wasn't too happy that we were there in his space, which i think is the whole beach, but i got some good shots.  I've always thought of seals as friendly creatures, but my views have changed a bit...this guy was pretty mean in his growling and teeth-bearing.  But i would soon be reconciled with seals - stay tuned for that story.

mr. angry seal

my sweet hammock spot

That morning at our Kaikoura campsite was nice and relaxing and we had some time to just be alone and journal and listen to the crashing of waves below.  Then we made our way into the actual town of Kaikoura, where we went to a neato lookout point where we could see a crazy view, then we went to a farmers' market, then continued north up to Nelson, our next destination.  We arrived in Nelson around dinnertime on Saturday night.  Some background on this situation: Suzi the Scot has her grandmother back in Scotland who is good friends with a family called the Hilsons.  Some of the Hilsons moved to NZ a while back and now live in Nelson, so Suzi was invited to go and meet/stay with them anytime this semester.  Well, they were incredibly welcoming and hosted all 5 of us during the Easter holiday; it was so kind and generous of them.  I can't tell you how great it was to be with a family during Easter.  They fed us soooo much delicious food and we went to the Nelson Anglican Cathedral for Easter Sunday.  It was also really helpful to get some help in planning our tramping trip to Abel Tasman, a nearby national park.  I am just so thankful for such hospitality from this amazing family.

all of us with the Hilsons after church

Nelson Anglican Cathedral

Click the link to check out my from east to west album.  More to come soon!