Mieke with her sisters

Lake Taupo

View of beautiful Lake Taupo

Thermal lake in Rotorua

Whangamata - Coramandel Peninsular

Whangamata - Coramandel Peninsular

14/04/05 General Update

Hey gang,

Here's a summary of some of the things that have been going down so far on my travels.......

I spent my first 3 weeks staying with Matt Watson, a close friend who lives in Wellington (smallish city - capital of nz located right on the southern tip of the north island). It provided a perfect opportunity to relax and unwind & during that time I was probably the most relaxed I've ever been - so nice on the back of a busy and hectic 2004. I got opportunity to meet some truly fab people, through connections with Matt,and also being really inspired by the beautiful/stunning/incredible surroundings.

It was incredibly sad leaving Wellington on the 11 hour train ride to Hamilton (which is where I'm now based working in a church there) after a totally amazing & enjoyable time. During my time there it was nice to mix things up a bit ... sometimes with planned adventures (like going to a 1 day International cricket match with kiwis against Australia, a boat trip to the south island where I got to do some painting.. to both biking & running up and down some incredibly stunning, rugged hills) ... and then other days getting up with no partic agenda and taking it pretty easy.
On the unplanned days, not being much of a tourist-type person, I tended to much prefer the community thing of hanging round people's houses, having lots of cups of tea, going out for brunch or doing the beach (weather has been gloriously sunny & hot). Also had plenty of time to chill out and explore on my borrowed bike.

Wellington now feels like quite a long time ago, with me now being in Hamilton just over 4 weeks.Its been a really enjoyable time ... but also a little tougher - in terms of adjusting to new surroundings, not knowing anyone, meeting lots of faces (remembering names is not a strength of mine!) and seeing how I fit into the church I'm based in here for the year.
The church is a place called Gateway (Gateway Christian Centre), and is not tied to any denomination or anything. Its very smilar in size, style and feel to the church I was part of in Southampton with an overall congregation of about 1000-1200 people. Everyone here have really welcomed me in and are really open to me 'trying' to input where I feel I can.I'm still finding my feet but am going to be invovled in a number of different projects throughout my year here.
Some of these include, helping to run a 'community meals' programme on a wednesday evening where about 200 folk come to the church for dinner .... consisting mainly of homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics & people with mental health problems).I'm also going to be looking to setting up a discipleship programme in the church, and also doing quite a lot of work with students in the area.
There's plenty of other things to do ... such as working on a potential new logo for the church, making some short films/ trailers to show in meetings, playing around with some visual ideas for displaying on projectors during meetings.There's definitely lots of stuff to get my teeth into while I'm here but its also pretty laid back, and I can also take time out to travel when I want as well. That will definitely mean some ski-ing on the south island when winter comes in a few months time
Last weekend, I went on a 'Boys camp' with some of the lads from the church here, a wild experience .. tenting with about 30 guys ageing from 14-30.Got to learn a lot more about Kiwi culture!We stayed on the most beautiful farm with acres and acres of fields & wooded forests, surrounded by an estuary, mud flats & sea. Was the perfect location for lots of outward bound games. On the second day... i was the poor pomme boy .... as we had team races to find our lunch .... which involved running bare-footed through waste deep stretches of mud, up and down gravel paths, and climbing steep banks full of thorny bushes.My feet were in agony! .... bleeding/ bruised/ scratched .... I finished a good 5 minutes after everyone else .. including the little kids! ... everyone in southern hemisphere seems to be used to walking everywhere bare-footed ... so they have feet of nails (whereas I don't .... yet!)
Hamilton is NZ's 4th largest city with a large student population. It has a long main high street like Southampton, with our church at one end of the high street.There's plenty of decent cafes (cafes have really take off in nz in the last few years) ... which I'm sure I'll be frequenting lots!There is a beautiful river that runs through the city .. with nice walkways ... and provides the perfect place to run after work. Also there are some spectacular themed gardens which is a beautiful place to retreat to.

Have also started seeing a great Kiwi girl called Mieke which is exciting stuff, whom I met early on during my time in Wellington. She's a good friend of my mate Matt and lives with his sister.We did heaps together over my first few weeks .. and have had opportunity to meet up a few times since I've been in Hamilton.She's a school teacher and has the next couple of weeks off as part of her school hols ... so she's flying up to Auckland where I'll go & pick her up on Tuesday & we'll get 7-10 days or so to catch up.

Have got myself a pretty handy car as well .. which is essential for getting out of tow and seeing this beautiful country.- its a Nissan Lucina ... looks bit like a naff sports coupe with a tacky spoiler and alloy wheels (and handles like a girls car too!) ... I didn't realise it also came with a 6 CD autochanger as well which has been excellent!
So there you have it ... thats enough for now.Hope you're all doing well.Enjoying the mainframe and solid/reliable English weather.All the best in the coming weeks.
As you can tell I'm really enjoying myself here.
Loving New Zealand, excited about what the year holds for me particularly with regards to the work at the church.

byeee for now,

Disaster no.2

Poo Poo Poo .... not only did I lose my Palm Pilot last week, my laptop screen has only gone and died on me today. How poor is that!

2/04/05

Mieke up for Alysia's graduation in Hamilton

2/04/05

Mieke & I in Hamilton (after I rushed back from boys camp!)