Bay of Islands

Ok I dont have much time so I am typing real fast, hope it makes sense! Re-cap of the last few days/weeks...
Sunday, 1/23
we made the drive from Auckland to Paihia today. up early, its been raining all yesterday and today. Auckland is soaked! Paihia is a nice little town right on the coast of some large body of water im not sure which. its hard to keep track, there so much water around, between oceans, bays, lakes, seas, etc. we will eventually get to Te Uenga Bay, not far from Paihia then boat across water to Urupukapuka Island. quite the process. the drive was very scenic. the road is VERY curvy, twisty, and hilly. Megs, you would get sick in like 2 minutes in the car here. crazy roads. and driving on the wrong side of the road of course! neat farms, tidy fences, livestock grazing, sheep dotted fields and hills. unique blends of forest... tons of vegetation, the shapes, variety, sizes of plants all together in one place... amazing. the underbrush is thick. i cant even begin to explain, this place is incredible. instead of gatorade they have mizone. they also have powerade, coca cola products, red bull, and this really popular drink called L&P kinda like sprite... just to name a few. everything comes in milliliters, grams, liters, and kilograms. snickers is like $2.50 for regular size. pricey stuff. 'heeps' is a the word used to say 'a lot.' tons of water everywhere, a lot of flooding going on in places. we saw a group of cattle stranded. felt sorry for them. the place is an odd mix of the ozarks, oregon, colorado and florida. most buildings are older but well maintained. the hostile we are in is very nice, way better than i expected. good sized, great kitchen, big thick wooden table to fit 13 of us for supper. toilets have two buttons here. one is half flush, one is full. interesting. fresh water is a valuable commodity in NZ and australia so they have taken many strides to save water. once checked into the hostile, we went to Waitangi (not sure on the spelling there), the site where a treaty was signed by british officials and maori cheifs (maori is the native tribe), they signed this long treaty and for new zealand its kind of like the declaration of independence for the U.S. kind of the start of the modern new zealand as we know it. the maori make incredible structures and carvings. they are a very respected group of people here, unlike many other indigenous tribes in other places. we saw a building made by the maori and it was incredible. such detailed carving in the pillars, walls, ceilings. they are into carving heads and bodies of important warriors and cheifs. they tattoo like crazy. most of the chiefs, their entire face is tattooed with intricate designs, mostly in the form of lines, not shapes. they look like they have a mask on but its their face. the bay where the treated was signed was also a great place. long, open, green lawns overlooking the harbor which was one of the first places the english came in. it had a maori meeting house built there, numerous trails, long maori ships (like 50 ft + big canoe) the house of the main officer who led the treaty signing effort, cant remember his name, whos quarters where preserved just like they were back then. very cool coastline and view of the bay. after we got back from that i went for a run with Ali. the run in the rain was awesome. it was about 60's and cloudy. we ran along the coast and up into a hilly wooded area. great times. shes pretty cool. she is from new york and has a twin sister. she is going to Harvard next year. she says it is sort of a family tradition for she, her sister, and her dad to go for long runs on saturday mornings. reminded me of some people i know! shes really into eating healthy and nutrition etc. i went a little farther after she was through and found a great place have a little chill time by myself. it was so refreshing. we had stir fry for supper. I like, Holly's, (our leader) food choices, we are eating very well and very healthy. we split into groups of three and will alternate nights on cooking supper. it was fun. had some tim tams for dessert. it is like a rectangular cookie that is popular here. more on that later. then we learned a game called jungle speed. sweet game. its played with cards that have different symbols, shapes, and colors. you start with a certain number of cards and try to get rid of all of them first. you eliminate cards by trying to notice a matching card that another person has played. you lay one card face up each round. if you see a matching card as another person you must grab the totem (wooden hand sized pillar in middle of table) first and you get to give the other player your card, subtracting one card from your hand and adding one from his. if you play a card and it does not match anyones your card will remain on the table and you will play on top of it for your next turn. the bigger pile you accumulate on the table, the more you will give away to the next opponent that you beat to the totem. it is a very intense game. if you grab the totem at the same time, you must fight for it! after the game i had a pretty deep conversation with Holly about where she was in her faith. it was a good conversation. to say the people in the group are different than me would be an understatement. but they are great people. very sharing, whether its food, sunscreen, helping you out with bags, whatever they are a giving bunch, good community. there is so much profanity. the f word being particularly popular. its starting to wear on me a bit, but ill learn to deal with it. we are very respectful of each other and our various perspectives on life, so that is nice. we have already had many conversations about faith, values, and morality and it is easy to see differences among members in the group. many of them are into smoking and drinking, so that is popular conversation as well. i also had a unique opportunity to talk with two twenty something gals and a guy from switzerland tonight after supper. it is so neat to be in hostiles. you have all walks of life, many languages, people making bizarre foods right next to you, as well as very familiar dishes (hey, you like that too?!) its a sweet place to meet different people. i talked with the switz people for quite awhile about our lives, the similarities and differences, very interesting. maybe i should move there, the ladies were very attractive.

Monday, January 24th
today was our first work day with D.O.C. (department of conservation) they maintain much of the ground in NZ, national parks, islands, rivers, etc. got up at about 6:30 and had muesli for breakfast. it is a really good type of cereal here... lots of oats, various nuts and seeds, dried fruit, really good stuff. wish we had it in the states. we met up with the DOC guys a little later and followed them down a winding road to the whangamumu scenic reserve. the drive again was stunning. we entered the reserve in a valley with open field and long grasses. we met some friendly horses who thought we had food for them. unfortunately for them we didnt. it was fun to hang with them for a bit though. the trees began to thicken and suddenly we were in a dense forest that stretched for miles. it was really neat, pretty much a jungle type feel. today was 70s and sunny. a much needed break from the rain. my first job in the jungle was weed wacking, or 'scrub barring' as they call it, around the walking path through the reserve. they call the walking paths or trails 'tracks.' the scrub bar was the most massive weed wacker i have ever seen. it had two handle bars and you hitched it to a vest that helped distribute the weight. it had blades instead of string. did some serious work with it. had chaps, ear and eye protection. after that i set to clearing the drains. the drains are 5-6 inch wide ditches that stretch along the tracks for water draining to keep the track from being washed away or flooded. this is hard work. you take a grabber... a hoe-like tool, and clear extra dirt, grass, roots, rocks, sticks and other debris from the drain. sometimes you make a completely new stretch of drain which is a good load of work. the dirt is hard is most places along the track, lots of clay. this works out the back pretty good. most of the others had no outside work experience, it was kind of funny to watch. it made me proud of my nebraska roots. someone said i looked like i should be getting paid to do what we were doing... i took it as a compliment! the track is straight up and straight down, no flat areas. every once in awhile you get to a high place and there is a small break in the vegetation and you can see all around... amazing. wont even try to describe. the sun is brutal down here. i guess the UV rays are worse because we are closer to the hole in the ozone so wearing long sleeves, sun block, having a broad hat, even pants to protect your calves from burning... is almost vital for people who arent used to it, ie. americans. it seems like we put more sunblock on every hour, and i practically never use sunblock back home. most of us have some burns going. after work we checked into a new hostile, which was again very nice. this one had more of a family atmosphere to it. less younger people, more older people, and more families. it was right next to part of the residential area, and there were some cool houses built into the bluff next to the hostile campus. it had a great view over the water and of nearby islands as well. water and islands are all over the place in this part of the country. they also had space for pull up campers which was a neat touch. we walked about 10 minutes to Long Beach. a gorgeous place... great waves, you can see for miles. at one end of the beach and there is high ground with black rocks at its base that extends for a long ways. we played catch with a tennis ball and some random dog on the beach, skipped some rocks, did some swimming, jumped/crashed into some waves. i tried to do my own made up form of body surfing. i would get to swimming fast before a wave so when the wave caught me, it carried me on the top for a few seconds. it is a really cool feeling, i actually moved with the wave for a few moments before it passes under me. the water is chilly but fine when you get going. once back from the scenic walk from the beach we made supper. it was spaghetti, which was real good. we had sausage, cucumber, mushroom, tomatoes, onions, and carrots in the sauce. good stuff. after supper kitty and i found some random bench and had a great time of prayer together. it was a neat experience because she is a catholic and has never prayed with someone out loud informally, always formal prayers. she thought it was great, it was neat to hear her heart and prayer. we had a great conversation comparing catholic and christian traditions afterwords. very interesting how the perspectives differ. she is so reverent to God... probably something I need to work on.

Tuesday, Jan 25th
we headed out to Urupukapuka island today, where we set up our base camping spot for the next few days. 6:30 am start. we boated our van and trailer across the bay via a vehicle barge with about 7 other vehicles. it was sweet, never seen such a thing before. We drove a little further then hit the bay where we met Chris, one of the head doc guys. he pulled up in a world war II looking boat, kinda like the ones used to take Normandy... it had a flat door at the front of the boat that dropped down to large amounts of cargo to be loaded directly from shore. pretty cool. he boated us over to Urupukapuka island. about 20 minutes total from mainland. once there, we set up 3 person tents, and a kitchen area in the trees which consisted of tying a huge tarp up in the branches to form a ceiling and one wall. we stowed all of our food and a big cooler here. we have about 5-6 huge boxes of supplies for cooking, eating. including our packs, it is a lot of work moving from place to place. but worth it. i am quite sore from the work yesterday, i busted it pretty good. we have a couple burners that connect to a propane tank for cooking. once we were set up, we took our day packs and hiked to the sheep farm that DOC runs about 10 minutes on foot from the camp site. We met Chris and Dean and two younger assistants about my age, Lucky and Cain at the sheep farm. today we worked around the farm hauling sticks and logs from the surrounding areas, trimming up the farm with scrub barrs, mowing the grounds, and cleaning up the nearby walking track. more words: chocolate is 'choc', breakfast is 'brekkie' gas is 'petrol.' i ended up mowing today with a beast of a push mower. it was real old. pry 2 ft wide deck self propelled approx 100 lb machine. it was a work horse. odd controls. it had two levers, one for each wheel. you put your the levers between your index finger and thumb on each hand and pushed the levers that way. little awkward but i got the hang of it. looked good after i got done. they cut their grass short here. everywhere. every once in awhile i would look up and remember: 'hey, i'm in new zealand!' the DOC guys are pretty sweet. really fun people, definitely know what they are doing, very good sense of humor, patient with us... know most of us have no idea what we are doing but they don't make us feel bad about it, pretty laid back and calm. hard workers. after we were done, we marched back to camp and took some pictures along the way. Holly is into goofy pictures. every group picture we take has to be different. the grass is so nice here. so soft. you can walk everywhere barefoot and not worry. once we got back to the camp i went with Pat for a swim. we swam for about 10-15 minutes to a nearby part of the island where there were rocks sticking out. we climbed the rocks, then the cliff, about 40-50 ft over the water. we explored the flat ground on top. ran into a patch of crazy looking trees. they looked like they were from another planet. they were covered in green very fine, stringy, moss like stuff which was all over the trunk, and branches, much of it blowing in the breeze. pretty groovy looking. very jagged and groovy branches. there were some places we just stood and took in the view for a few minutes. amazing place. you look around and there are tons of islands big and small all around. and lots of water. one side of the hill was facing the open ocean. we made our way down to a secluded rocky beach. the rocks are sharp and hard on the feet and hands so you have to be creative at what path you take, plus sharp shells and barnacles stuck to the rocks close to the water but its so worth it. after checking that out for awhile we made our way back, and swam back to camp. i felt like a true explorer! swim to the place, climb the edge of the cliff/hill, explore the hill, climb down the other side, get through jagged rocks to a secluded beach, explore the beach, climb back out, make it back to the other side to the water, and swim back! took about 2 hours. greatness. the water is pretty clear here. in some places there is stringy plants on the bottom and it looks like a lawn of regular grass, really thick and lush, except under the water. pretty cool. we had burritos for supper. keeping things dry is tough. once things get damp its almost impossible to get them dry. the toilet and shower options are pretty bleak too. cold hose for a shower and a really smelly outhouse for a toilet. laundry is rough in most places so far too. $8 to wash and dry one load. nasty.

Wednesday, 1/26
interesting fact: many people smoke here, and many roll their own tobacco. Chris does it all the time. interesting to watch. 'rubbish' is the common word for trash. instead of the game 'rock, paper, sissors', you have 'steve, crocodile, sting ray.' where steve beats crocodile, crocodile beats sting ray, sting ray beats steve. funny. the air is so fresh on the island. a hint of after-rain smell all the time. the water keeps temps mild and breezes cool too, great weather. sunny today too. got up at 5:30 to watch the sun rise today. awesome. had a great time with the Lord after that as well. having a quiet time alone to the sound of the waves on this island is something else. i have started reading the book of Romans. what hit me today was the cost of the gospel. thinking about the sacrifice, humility, love, and grace it took Christ to do what he did. how much it must have cost the Father. how hard it would be to lay the wood to your own son. your perfect son, whom you love more than anything. to see him in pain, to watch him take the punishment from your own hand. to imagine the struggle that relationship took for those difficult moments. all for people who dont deserve it. after quiet time was breakfast. we got to work by 9 clearing a lot of drains today near the sheep farm. i also got to work with Dean's son (Dean is another head DOC guy) on a gate to a cemetery they had nearby. this gate was a massive wooden thing. it took 6 of us to carry it. my job was to bolt down thin logs to the front so it has an aesthetic rugged look to it. the wood is great wood, and the gate and the logs are stained too, so it looks beautiful. the gate took most of the day. got to talk with Keagan, Dean's son, a lot. he is 16 and currently on summer break. their break is only about 2 months but they get more breaks during the school year. it was interesting to here similarities and differences between a guy growing up near the bay of islands and a guy from rural nebraska. more similarities than differences actually. he goes to a small high school a little bigger than Norris... the school is made up of kids from a lot of small towns in the area, a lot of farm kids. in his school he said a good part of the student base will not go to college and just pick up jobs. he said this outdoor work is the type of work he wanted to do so he did think he would go, maybe even work for DOC.  so much to talk about, so little time. after our work day was through, i went for a hike. i hiked one of the highest points of the island and had the most wonderful view i have seen yet this trip. a 360 view of the entire island and surrounding islands and bays, ocean. fantastic. i took a movie clip of it on my camera but it just doesn't do it justice. after supper tonight we had our first Tim Tam Slam. The Tim Tam is the cookie that i spoke of earlier... it has a type of creme filling in the middle of two crunchy parts and the whole thing is covered in chocolate or some flavor. so what you do for a Tim Tam Slam is you break off two opposing corners of the rectangular cookie. you have a cup of hot chocolate ready, stick one end of the cookie into the hot chocolate and put your lips to the other end and pull the hot chocolate through the cookie. the hot chocolate then quickly melts the cookie, making it warm and soft with hot chocolate stuck inside. then you slam it... stuff the whole thing into your mouth. it is unlike any dessert that i have had. SO good. im going to have to bring some back. personally i like to eat the cookie in small bits... which is messier but you can enjoy it for a longer period of time. we also played our first game of cricket. cricket is popular here in NZ and Australia. rugby is probably the most popular. cricket is kind of like baseball but there is only one base, and you run back and for between that base and home to score runs. a score has a different name, cant remember what its called. and the batter can have as many tries as he wants unless the pitcher manages to knock over a wooden structure called the wicket which is where the catcher would normally be, if the wicket is knocked over the inning is over. the pitching motion is odd... you release the ball over your head. its more like a softball delivery with an opposite release point. weird. i like baseball better.

Thursday, Jan 27th, day 7
today i went to a spot i found while hiking yesterday, facing the ocean, for a quiet time. today was Romans 4&5. as odd as it sounds, sometimes it is sort of easy for me to get lost in the awe of creation and forget about the Creator as i am here. however, to think about what it must have took to make it all, brings my admiration quickly back to Who it should be on. today we got on Chris's boat from base camp and boated over to Roturura island to work on clearing more drains. we divided into two groups. another island with endless walking track. yet we saw very few people while we were here. i like that aspect. its mostly you and the land... not all this touristy stuff here. my group was not the most excited about work today. from my perspective there was a good amount of standing around, looking around, watching others work, talking about whatever, taking breaks, etc. i felt compelled to do good work and get something done so i was doing a good amount of the work. while i was happy to do it myself, i knew this was not beneficial for the total work getting accomplished or for members of the group. so it was an interesting art i had to develop in order to encourage the others to get something done and not come across as nagging. i didnt look down on them because most of them had no background in working outside, little experience of really getting after hard hands-on labor. today we were up aways from the water and it was hot. no cloud in the sky, sun was intense. i am really sore too. not a fun day but a good one. today we got done early, around 2. we had a nice few minutes relaxing under some trees right on the water, with a refreshing cool breeze blowing on us. it was great after a hot days work. Chris boated us back to camp and we had a fun game of hacki sack. i have not played that since middle school. crazy. after that i wrapped up the afternoon with a 30 minute swim. i was actually pretty cold by the time i got done. water was rougher today. for supper, Manisha, Karen, and I made Indian Curry for supper with some Papa Dons. I had never had either of these so it was an interesting dish. Our Curry consisted of carrots, onions, sweet potatoes, curry, lentils, coconut cream, boiled together spread over rice. The Papa Dons were these circular flat bread slices that we flipped into a frying pan with oil in it. the papa don would absorb the oil and cook quickly... we fried them until light brown and crispy. we had to stick something on them to keep them flat or else they would curl up at the edges. it sounds nasty but they were actually quite tasty. after supper we played charades. we tore up small pieces of paper and each  wrote random things on 10 pieces, and threw them all into a pile. we divided into two teams, each having a player act out what was on the particular sheet that was picked. i wrote 'poop on a boot' for one of mine, because we did have poop on boots while on the farm, and it was hilarious watching them try to act it out. probably THE most funny one, but hey i'm pry biased. today, for whatever reason, was an especially wearing day of profanity, negative comments, complaining, and the like... and by the end i was a bit tired of it. the phrase 'oh my God' is probably uttered close to every other sentence. hopefully things will get better in this department. we are all starting to pick up on each others' quirks and annoying habits, and starting to voice our opinions about them, so that is probably why things were a little down. happens pretty quick when you spend all day every day with people.

Friday, Jan 28th, day 8
last night was the best of the three nights of sleep for me. the first night was horrible. not really used to sleeping in a warm, damp, crammed tent snuggled up with two other people i dont know too well yet. but last night was great. it rained all day today. it seems when it rains, it really rains. non-stop. we went to the wool farm and carried the gate up a hill and across the top to the cemetery. i guess a lot of geological work is done around here and they find a good amount of remains so this is a designated spot to put the remains they find. the gate was a bear. 6 of us carrying it close to a quarter of a mile. we took a break about every 100 meters. this was our only task today, a very short day. we said our good-byes to Dean, Cain, and Kegan and headed back to camp to pack up. packing up in the rain was not too pleasant but we got it done. we dragged all our stuff to the beach, onto Chris's boat, and off we went to the mainland. on the way back Christ spotted some dolphins so he steered over to them, going real slow. they were sweet. a couple swam right next to the boat for a ways, like touching the boat. it looked like one wanted to race us. they were surprisingly big. like the bigger ones probably 6 ft long, dark gray. we saw a couple jump out of the water. such playful animals. Chris said these ones were territorial and would get aggressive if you swam with them. they lost interest in the boat quickly and swam on the merry way. hard to get a picture of them, always moving fast. i have to admit it was sad leaving the DOC guys. God made Chris to be one of those naturally wise guys. he always has good ways of explaining things, finds the comical part of any situation, is even keeled all the time, even when someone messes up, has a jovial laugh, is optimistic, patient, and a good teacher. Holly knows him well and says he would be a fun to have as a dad. once back to the mainland we packed everything into our little trailer and hit the road, wet and sloppy. we stopped for lunch in a town called Russel. lunch while camping usually consisted of a salami, tomato, avocado, cucumber, cheese, sprout sandwich. pretty good stuff. rather than going out today, i ate some left over noodles from a previous supper. eating out is real expensive, even for something simple like a sandwich. the drive to Auckland is about 3.5 hours. i definitely underestimated how big even a small country can be. i feel like we have done a lot of driving and we have only seen a small portion of the NORTH island. being away so far has also already given me a new appreciation of the simple familiar ways of living at home. the regular ways of having fun... having people over, watching movies together, going out to eat, playing various types of games, sports, going to church... stuff like that. it is amazing how being in another place has caused me to re-evaluate my own home and usual way of life. to see how differently some people live. achieve a meaningful existence in an entirely different way. suddenly i am exposed to something completely different and i must consider... do i like this? what do i think about this? why do i think this way? how does this compare to where i am from and how i do things? is it better or worse? differences in our cultures is intriguing to me. there are similar things and different things in the same wavelength. for instance, language. we both speak English and can understand each other but use completely different way of speaking it... different slang, structure of sentences, vocabulary, accent. its nuts to me. it seems that every moment of the trip so far has had something new about it... something new to learn or pick up or think about or observe. we got stuck in rush hour traffic in Auckland, so by the time we got to our hostile a roof, a bed, a free warm shower (it is not uncommon in NZ to have to pay for a hot shower), running water, a hygiene friendly bathroom facility, and a dry place to put your stuff was a sight for sore eyes. the feeling of being clean and dry... goooood. Instead of going out for supper, i went with Holly to get some groceries at a near by grocery store. i look for sale prices and specials cause even groceries are through the roof here. also had some time to catch up on other things. it is a difficult balance to find time to write, schedule extra activities during free days, do laundry, re-pack and re-organize your stuff, keep track of your stuff, find time to go on a run every once in awhile, have time with the Lord, have time with the group, etc all outside of the schedule we already have. but its working out good so far.

Saturday, Jan 29, day 9
white water rafting day! great night of sleep... having a bed is glorious. left auckland at 8 am this morning. 4 hour drive to town of Rotorua. seemed to take forever. we had a detour because of flooding so it took longer than planned. we had a rushed lunch in Rotorua... for my lunch i had bread, one tomato, 100 grams of sliced ham. i learned that if you take one bite of each, chew it all together, it tastes as if you are eating a sandwich. didn't have much time to put it formally together, so ate it in bites :) we met up with the people from the rafting place and drove another hour to the river. the river that we were supposed to raft was over flooded so we ended up rafting a different river than planned. this river was really full as well and was moving very fast. good choice for white water rafting. they said it was like 4-8 meters higher than normal, and it has never been like this before. on the way there the roads kept getting smaller and smaller, and less maintained. down to one lane, finally just a dirt road. you really felt like you were out in the boons. when we got there, we were given a wet suit, life jackets, and helmets. we had quite the briefing on how to paddle, positioning in the raft, how to keep yourself from falling out, how to pull your buddy back in, how to paddle in time, and all the commands from our guide: forward, back paddle, back right, back left, right over, left over, get down, and hold on. it was fairly intense, i was surprised. i felt like i was in the military and our guide was a drill sergent. not that he was mean, just direct. Austin and I were at the front of our raft so we took the brunt of the punishment, getting a fair amount of water in the face. it was a good fight to keep paddling after you just got  a face full of water and your eyes are flooded. i got taken out by a tree branch that was skimming the water... normally would have been no problem but with the high water i got nailed. almost took me out of the boat. i bet it looked pretty funny. it was like slow motion to me. i could see it coming but didnt know what to do. the water was real cold. my hands were ice by the end. thankful for the wet suit. the backdrop for all this was forrest. usually steep inclines formed the sides of the valley the river ran through, with many sections  of tall thin pine trees. very scenic. there were a couple places that had evidence of mud slides/washouts where trees were down and lots of mud, big logs sticking into the water because of all the extra rain lately. our guide was a guy named Matt. he was from NZ originally and got a major in outdoor recreation and management. quite the major. now he spends several months in NZ in the summer months and several months in california doing rafting and kayacking trips. never sees winter. tough life. the ride lasted for about an hour. after it was over, they had hot tomato soup, bagels, cookies, and juice waiting for us. the hot soup felt good to eat. id never tried this but bagels dipped in tomato soup is a pretty good combination.  we had a good time conversing with all of our guides afterwards. there were a couple other people not a part of our group that went rafting with us. while were were all together talking, a guide stood up on one of the vehicles and shouted this, very informally... (picture the down under accent please):
Guide: "ok one of you dudes owes me money... (pointing to one of the other dudes) ah, yea i think its you, mate. you lookin away when i said that."
Dude: "I owe you money... why?"
Guide: "You just went rafting, brew! Come over here and let's do business. step into my office... (pointing over to the back of an old beeter looking SUV with the back doors hanging open). Austin, Jake and I just cracked up, it was so funny. after we finally made it back to a civilized road, it was a 2 hour drive to Taupo. got some enjoyable reading in... started reading "The Greatest Miracle in the World" by Og Madino. its great so far. 5 k's outside of Taupo we had to stop because the suspension of the right side of the trailor had failed, so the wheel well was resting direcly on the right tire. bad deal. we had to leave the trailor in the parking lot and load all the bear necesities into our laps on the van. we checked into Tiki Lodge... a hostile for backpackers. again, nice place. great view of Lake Taupo and surrounding residential area. the lake is gigantic. they say it is actually filling in the mouth of a vocanoe that errupted years and years ago. went out for a run along the lake. it had big waves rolling in because the wind was stout. partly cloudy day. there was a nice bikin/running path along the lakeside that made for a perfect run. at one point there was a small jut of land sticking further into the water than the land around it. i stopped and went out to the edge. the only person around was a random dude fishing on the shore about 50 yards away. the wind was stiff and constant in my face. i looked up into the sky and the clouds were rolling, poofy, and stormy looking. they were wrestling with the sun, making the rays shine through at random angles. i had my hands at my sides, palms forward, feeling the wind as it rushed through my outstretched fingers, its rapid flow over my face, chest, arms and legs. the Revelation Song came playing on my ipod and I sang loudly into the wind, fully drowned out the sound to anyone near enough to hear. i gazed across the water, up into the clouds, at the waves, the bluffs, the housing on the ground and in the hills... and thought how great God must be to make all of this possible. it was a spectacular moment to share with the Lord that i wont soon forget. when i got back, i took out the laundry that i had put in before the run and got it sorted out. supper was warming up frozen veggies and a cheap frozen pizza i found at the grocery store. while i was eating, the others came back from eating out and had some beverages with them. they went to sit out on the deck so i joined in. it was nice, just chillin on the deck. after awhile we decided to go out on the town and see what was going on. we got to this place and they were checking passports at the entrance. i realized i had forgotten mine, being pretty new to this whole process. when i got back, i realized it was back at the trailer, so there would be no going for me. bummer. i did hear a good story about Steph and Pat later on though. I guess Steph was dancing at the place and this creepy guy came and started dancing with her. She immediately grabbed Pat, who happened to be in the area, and stated that he was her boyfriend. Pat, then proceeded to confirm this statment while putting his arm around Steph and therefore successfully deterring Mr. Creep. If you know Pat, you would know this to be a priceless moment. Pat is 6'4" of the most quiet, polite, unassuming guy around. To see him play along in this situation and put his arm around a girl that is not his girlfriend is a classic, an ESPN game changing performance. man i wished i could have seen it. they went out later that night and i heard about a funny story on Steph and Pat.

Sunday, Jan 30, day 10
free day in Taupo! slept in which was great... queen size bed all to myself baby. breakfast at 9 was eggs, bacon and hash browns made by the group. twas good. put some diced sauteed onions and mushrooms on my eggs and toast... gross to some, good to me. we spent the next tour hours as a group buying groceries for our canoe expedition. we were divded into groups of 4, and we chose our meals and what we needed to buy for the week, and Holly paid for it. getting 4 youthful, at times spastic, people to agree on what to eat, what people like and dont like, what we needed for fixings... all while everyone is talking all at once and no one is listening... made for a bit of a fiasco. but somehow we got 'er done. when we got back i made some plans to go to Korakei Orakeo... a geothermal park just outside of Taupo. It was nice, the hostile lined up the shuttle and everything for us. it was $56 total for each person, shuttle included. kinda steep but, im not sure if i'll ever be in Taupo again. Austin, Jake, and Sasha all went with me. it was a 25 minute drive there, and we took a ferry across a river to get into the park. there was hot water bubbling everywhere. slimy algae type growth and sediments collecting on the edges of the pools that made interesting orange, brown, white, gray, and yellow colors on the surfaces of the rock and in the water. the water smelled strongly of sulfur, the rotten egg smell. there was a big main area with lots of bigger hot pools and random other smaller pools scattered around it. there was a small geyser but we didnt see it go off because it erupted randomly every 2-3 hours. there were also mud pools, differing in colors... brown, gray, black... that made constant belching or farting like noises as the spewed fresh mud from holes. kinda gross. there were also deep boiling pools of water that were clear. bubbles would rise from unseen depths, making you wonder where they were coming from. mysterious. the park also had a beautiful track through the surrounding forest by which you got to see each hot pool/viewing area. there was also a pretty massive cave with a clear pool of at the bottom of it which was pretty neat. there were sections where the ground, rocks, and parts of the cliffs were completely white and grey... it almost looked like we were on the moon or something. hot water and heavy white steam would pour from random places in the ground. possibly my favorite part of the adventure was taking funny pictures with the others along the way. for some reason we have this thing where Austin and I take a picture with every warning or caution sign that we come across during the trip. we've had some pretty good poses and expressions in these pictures. good times. After we left, Austin decided to jump into the river before we got on the ferry. i got a pretty sweet pic of him air borne off the doc in his boxers with the river and hills in the background. Alright... out of time on my Internet... until next time!