Aotearoa 10 - Small Town

Jan. 28, 2007: Franz Josef Glacier

Today was a nice, relaxing day for me. The Poons left early to go climb on the glacier. Unfortunately, I had a *very* tight budget, and had to choose between that and other activities. You had to have a guide to go on the glacier. It was too dangerous without one. Apparently it's really hard work to be a glacier guide - you have to cut the trail, literally....with an ice pick. When they got back they said it was really neat, lots of fun and definitely worth doing.

While they were away I stayed in the room a while just reading and relaxing. Around lunch time I decided to walk into town. It's so safe here, I wasn't afraid of walking alone in a strange place. I passed the community school, which was a tiny one-room (maybe two?) school house. At any rate, you could tell that they fit several grades into the same room. They say they're always looking for more teachers, though. :)

In town I first found the two local churches. The community here is so small (and probably so few people go to church) that they don't have services every week. So this Sunday, instead of going to church, I only go to see the insides of these churches - one Catholic, and one Anglican. I said a prayer in each, and "played" a little on the small bellows organ. It worked! :) While I was inside the Anglican church it started raining a little, so I left.

I passed a trail on the way back to town, so I decided to see where it led. It was called the "Terrace Walk" and it was nice, but more of what I'd already seen (beech forests). By the time I got back to the trail head it was raining a little more, so I ducked into a book shop. I found this very interesting: there were no Bibles in the whole store. It's okay to sell books that say there is no God, but not okay to sell Bibles? Is there something wrong with this picture or is it just me?

Went next door to a little cafe to get lunch. It was either this café next door to the book store, or walk out of my way to an Indian restaurant. I would've liked the Indian restaurant, but the café was closer and it kept raining.

I tried to wait a little for the rain to die down, but eventually decided I had to just go. I walked home in the rain, which I usually love, but this was a cold rain, which isn't as much fun. Oh well, I still enjoyed it. :) It actually got a lot worse after I was back at our room where it was comfy and warm inside.

I think one of the things that I liked a lot about being in a "western" country was the music selection. I was tired of hearing the same Chinese songs over and over and over again on the radio. It was nice to hear the selection at the grocery stores, even if the music was a little dated. Still classic! (and still sweet music to my ears after only Chinese pop for so long)

Blessings

God is good to me. My close friends all went home already, and I guess I've been a little lonely. Okay, well, I've been craving the company of foreigners. I love my Chinese friends dearly, but sometimes it takes more energy to hang out with them. I guess I just wanted some people around who I was better able to relate to. Anyway, God knows what I need!

A few weeks ago one of my Chinese friends came over to my house and said she'd met two new foreign girls who had just come to the city to teach at another school. YAY! So we've met together a few times, and I like them immensely. In fact today is Jaimee's birthday, and last night we had a party at her house. We're planning on getting together each week for dinner to just hang out and relax. I don't think either of them are believers, but they are super friendly and just so much fun to hang out with! This is definitely going to help me get over my recent anti-social tendencies. ;)

Today someone I barely know - a guy - has been sending me lots of text messages, wanting me to help him study his German. Okay that's fine....except I know - no matter how hard he tries to deny it - that he has a hidden agenda. Sometimes these Chinese men can be subtle, but this guy is asking me questions about love, saying he's given up on love and he wants to find a foreign girlfriend, and do I have a boyfriend, and he could introduce me to some Chinese boys and he wants to treat me to dinner in exchange for help with his German. Okay, so I'm really flattered, but really not interested.

The thing is, around here I am called beautiful all the time, and I know that several of these guys are interested in me, but....it's just because I'm white. They say that they want to find a foreign girlfriend because they're so different from Chinese girls, more independent and the like, but the guys are still treating foreign girls as objects, instead of as humans. And as much as I enjoy being called beautiful, it means less when everyone says it, just because you're white.

For Easter I'm having over a foreign family in town. They are believers, and I haven't seen them in a long time. They have three young children, so it should be interesting to hear the pitter patter of little feet in my house. :) I'll be cooking some of my American Thanksgiving (boxed) food, which will be good because it's always more fun to cook for people than for just yourself. It should be a good Easter!

HAPPY EASTER TO YOU ALL!!! :)

Aotearoa 9 - Q: Why would anyone jump from a perfectly good airplane?

A: Because the door was open, of course!

Jan. 27, 2007: SKYDIVING Wanaka - Drive to Franz Josef Glacier

Yes, we did it. :) It was AMAZING. INCREDIBLE!!! Indescribable.... I've always wanted to fly - to really fly, mind you, not just in an airplane. We went for the earliest option, which was a slot at 9:00 a.m., and reserved the spot the day before. The weather was perfect - sunny, no clouds, not windy, warm and comfortable....we got to the little airport and waited around a bit, meeting the other jumpers before the place actually opened. The other girls who were jumping at the same time had never been skydiving either.

The first thing they do is show you a short video and try to get you to buy a video of yourself jumping, and of course you have to fill out the release of liability forms and the like, as well as a brief health statement and what altitude you want to be jumping from. We chose 12,000 ft. The highest you can go is 15,000 ft. (more expensive option), and the lowest is 9,000 ft. (which only gives you 30 sec. of freefall). Then they weigh you - to make sure they get you the right size parachute and instructor, I guess - take your money, suit you up, and let you wait around for your turn!

While we were waiting I got the same feeling I remember having before piano recitals. Not so much nervousness as just....anticipation. I was just ready to go!!! Impatient to get going or something. :)

Finally we got to meet our tandem instructors. My instructor was a guy named Eugen from Budapest. He checked my harness to make sure I wasn't going to fall out... "I don't want to lose you" he said. ("I don't want you to lose me either" was my reply) Then we all piled into the little turbine and took off. I kid you not, this was the most comfortable plane ride I've ever taken - no bumps, plenty of leg room, no annoying seat belts.... :) You're practically lying down as you go up. Of course the disadvantage for us shorties is that it was harder to see out of the windows. As we went up my instructor pointed out some of the gorgeous scenery to me - Lake Wanaka, Lake Hawea, Mount Aspiring, and Mount Cook. The scenery really was breathtaking, although I bet it'd be even more so in the winter when the mountains are covered in snow.

You get this little cap with goggles to put on - to keep your head warm and protect your eyes. All the other instructors were stuffing their girls' hair into their caps, but when I asked mine if my hair was okay he said it was fine & he liked it. Awwww. Then when we reach 9,000 ft. the door opens and the first of the jumpers is out! We circle higher a bit longer to reach 12,000 ft. During that time, the rest of us are getting all set up, the instructors making sure that the harnesses are all connected and everything. I'm just thinking "let's GO already!!!" :) Finally the door opens again, and Steph and her instructor go tumbling out. Now it's my turn..... :)

Right before you jump, you sit in the doorway and there's a camera mounted on the wing that takes your picture. When we got to the door - you could *really* feel the wind, although that shouldn't be a surprise since you're flying in a plane at 12,000 ft. and I don't know how many mph - I looked down at the ground below. WOW. Then it really hits that you're about to jump! It looked further away to me than it usually does when I'm flying. So the camera takes the picture, then my instructor leans my head back on his shoulder, we rock back, and....fall out of the plane..........

WOW!!!

You know the feeling you have on roller coasters right after you go up the slow, gradual incline and then immediately fall down the steep side, how your stomach does a flip? Or the feeling you get when you jump off the high dive? Well, imagine that feeling magnified, and you're not sitting, you're falling. Seriously, it's a good experience in how strong gravity is! I remember in those few seconds thinking a few words I usually don't say out loud. :) Or maybe I was just praying, I don't remember. What I do remember is seeing the underside of the airplane, and realizing that I was falling. But after like 2 seconds we stabilized and were just in freefall. It was SPECTACULAR!! Once you stabilize, you really don't feel like you're falling. The wind is rushing around you, but you feel like you're just floating or flying. I don't think I blinked the entire time! I didn't want to miss a thing! It was SO AWESOME!!!!

After about 45 sec. of freefall, the chute opened and we were just floating down. Man, I wish the free fall time could've lasted longer! My instructor said I was gorgeous. (meaning that I did a gorgeous job) Ahhhh, the things people will say when they're being paid! :) But I don't care that he was paid to say it, it still made me feel good! I guess that's one of the perks of tandem skydiving - the instructors are supposed to help you have a good time. The instructor unhooked part of the harness, which made me a little nervous, but I guess that's what they're supposed to do for a smoother landing and better visual path. It was neat to see everything on the ground - there were lots of cows in a nearby field, for example. :) I wish I could've operated the parachute for a bit though. That would've been sweet!

I actually landed before Stephanie, which I thought was odd at first. Later I found out that my instructor (notorious for this, maybe?) did lots of spins (swooping?) with the parachute. I could really feel that from the air - again, a kind of roller coaster feeling. :) I think those spins make you fall faster, hence the reason I landed first.

I always wanted to go skydiving, and I have to say it exceeded my expectations!! This was probably my favorite thing we did on the whole trip, and I definitely want to go skydiving again, maybe even get a license so I can go solo! And between Puzzling World and skydiving, I'd say Wanaka was probably my favorite stop on the whole trip.



(The last 2 pics are courtesy of Stephanie; also she's the one in the flying picture - she had the yellow chute; I had the red chute; that's my instructor in the last pic)

After finishing up, we got in the car and drove to our next stop. On the way we stopped a few times to see some places of interest.

"Blue Pools" = incredible color! (I didn't know that color turquoise blue could be found naturally!) Just an area where two small rivers converge. Great place for fly fishing, because of all the trout (we didn't see any though - wrong season maybe?). Would've been a great place to swim, too! To get there we had to walk on this path through rain forest, and over a suspension bridge which was fun. I didn't realize how much I missed trees!

"Thundercreek Falls" = tall waterfall, that Dad would've loved (I wished you were there to see it with me, Daddy!). Again the gorgeous turquoise blue water. This is really a paradise for waterfall lovers. :) And again getting to the waterfall was half the fun, walking through the beautiful beech tree forests.



We also stopped at another random rushing stream to take some pictures. I love this place!



Eventually our road ended up along the coast. The first view of the sea just took my breath away! I didn't realize how much I loved the sea until I saw it here! I don't think I ever felt this way about the sea back home... We stopped to take a few pictures at an overlook where you could see a beach, but I liked seeing it from the car just as much as from the lookout point. The sea just goes on forever!



We stopped one more time when we got to the terminal face of the Franz Josef Glacier. The glacier is 12.5 km from end to end, and the river flowing from is it milky from all the ground rock. You can't walk on the glacier without a guide - it's too dangerous. You couldn't climb to the top of the glacier from where we were anyway - it was hugely tall!! :) - and you wouldn't want to anyway, since the chances were high of falling and impaling yourself on one of the many jagged pieces of ice. Plus ice breaks, is slippery, and is constantly melting, so you never know what could happen. You could also see how far back the glacier had receded in the past, oh, 100 years, which was fascinating and a little sad.



Eventually we made it to our destination: the small town of Franz Josef, where we checked in and went grocery shopping.

All in all, another good day. :)

Spring is in the air!

The trees are blooming beautifully. I'm so excited to finally see flowers and green leaves!!

On the down side, my apartment is sitting pretty at a comfortable 63 degrees.

(the heating system is controlled by the city - they turn on the heat around Nov. 15, and turn it off March 15, regardless of the weather/temperature. Go figure)

Discouragement

If God has made such a difference in your life, shouldn't you want to talk about it?

You don't have to be a fanatic to want to let others experience the same joy you've found in a relationship with God.

You don't have to look further than next door to find people who are looking for fulfillment in their lives, in all the wrong places, and still coming out empty.

Easter should be a perfect time for sharing, since telling the story of Easter invariably leads to telling about the change that has been made in your life.

Why is this a difficult concept? Why do people feel so threatened by a God who loves them? The new believers here are afraid to speak up because they could get in trouble. Their teachers have told them that they will be punished if they try to spread "religion". This is at my school! And I think my city is fairly tolerant, for this area of the world. This is the world we live in.

Some of my foreign friends in another city - also teachers - gave a welcome address to their school on the first day. Immediately after they gave their speech, the school officials stood up and told the crowd that these new teachers were "religious", and might try to talk about "religion" in the classroom. The students were told expressly to ignore them. What they have to say is untrue and could seriously undermine the very fabric of our society. Not to mention these religious nuts are all probably bent on overthrowing the gov't or world domination. They eat babies, too.

Coincidence....???

As those of you who are reading my blog know, this week is Easter week, and today, being Thursday, is what I've grown up calling "Maundy Thursday". This is the day we commemorate the Last Supper, remembering what Jesus taught us shortly before He gave the ultimate Sacrifice - Himself.

This week in my classes we've been talking about Easter. It's an excellent time to share, because in telling the story of Easter, you end up telling the reason that you believe what you believe.

Incidentally, this year a Chinese holiday - according to the lunar calendar - falls on the same day as Maundy Thursday. This holiday is called "Tomb-Sweeping Festival". It's a time for families to go to the graves of their ancestors, clean them off, plant flowers, and pay their respects. It seems innocent enough, but you couple that with the fact that many of them are actually using the time to pray to their ancestors, it starts to make you a little uneasy. In fact, last night as I was walking home with a Chinese friend of mine, we saw several people lighting small fires along the street, burning large squares of paper. I said it seemed like it was an odd way to pay respects, lighting fires along the street of all places. My friend told me the reason they do that in such an odd place is that they believe that ghosts are walking along the street that night. The paper they're burning is supposed to represent (or turn into) money, which the ghosts will take to be appeased. Ideally, the money finds its way into the hands of their deceased relatives.

I was just thinking how interesting (for lack of a better word) it is that these two days would coincide.
On the one hand, you have a festival to remember/appease your ancestors. This makes me think: if I have to rely on my descendants to take care of me when I am dead, what will happen to me when I cease to have descendants? or what if my descendants forget about me, or get too busy to take care of me? I'm basically screwed.
On the other hand you have a festival to remember the sacrifice Jesus made to appease God on our behalf. Instead of relying on human beings, we rely on the Supreme God to take care of us. Because of what He did, nothing more needs to be done. We can completely trust Him because He's completely dependable. And that's a much more comforting thought than hoping that one day my rebellious teenager will turn around and want to take care of me instead of shunning me. :)

In any case, it's a reminder of the spiritual darkness that is here, and a reminder of how important it is to bring in the Light.

Is. 9:2
Matt. 4:16
Matt. 5:14-16
John 1:5
John 9:5
John 12:46
Eph. 5:8
1 John 1:5, 7

Aotearoa 8 - a-MAZE-ing place!

Jan. 26, 2007: Drive to Wanaka - Puzzling World

This morning we woke up, packed, and checked out before heading to our next destination. You wouldn't think it, but driving the New Zealand countryside can be a pretty hair-raising experience! We were just a few km out of the city (of Queenstown) when the roads started getting steeper and more windy. They offered some spectacular views, though, and we stopped to admire them for a bit at one of the beautiful overlooks.



On the way to Wanaka, we passed by/through a small town called Cardrona. The roads wound through the smaller mountains (larger hills), which were really pretty to look at. Cardrona looked like it didn't have much to offer (I thought America had small towns - then I went to New Zealand), but it did have a few historic buildings, including what looked like an old schoolhouse/church. I would've liked to take a closer look, but we were preoccupied with getting to our next stop. We also saw a lot of monster trucks parked in random places in Cardrona. Apparently that's one of the things to do there.

When we got to Wanaka we walked around a bit and checked into our Top 10 (LOVE those places!) We rested for a bit in our nice little private room (reminded me of camping in the States, especially KOA's - I probably said that already). After a good, long rest, we went to one of the main attractions of the city: Puzzling World.

Puzzling World is a fun, eccentric little place dedicated to such things as optical illusions and playing with the mind. It was FANTASTIC! If I could take my family anywhere in New Zealand, I would want to take them here. :) There are 4 main rooms, plus a little gift shop/entrance hall and some outdoor things.

The first room is just the entrance hall. It's free to go in and play, and there are several tables set up with "puzzling" items, such as Rubik's cubes and the like. The ceiling of this room is a conglomeration of several mirrors, creating a kaleidoscope effect when you look up. I would've liked to spend an hour or more just playing around there! The other rooms have a small fee, but are worth it.

From the entrance, you go into a room full of holograms. There were some really neat ones! My favorite was a hologram of one of M. C. Escher's paintings (of a lizard crawling on his desk). From there, you walk through a small hall that has a few optical illusions painted on the walls, and then you enter the "Hall of Faces". The walls are covered with carved faces that are made in such a way that any way you move, it looks like the faces are following you. They had such familiar faces as Beethoven, Mother Theresa, Albert Einstein and Nelson Mandela.



After the Hall of Faces, you moved into what is known as the "Ames Room". This is a special room designed in such a way that if one person stands on one side, they look big, and if someone stands on the other side, they look small. This technique is used very often in movies, most notably in Lord of the Rings. I also remember watching a movie called "Babes in Toyland" when I was a child, and it used the same technique. It was really cool, because it really worked! :)



After that, we went into the "Slanted/Tilted Room". The room is built with the floor slanted at a 15 degree angle. It was CRAZY! As soon as you walked in, you felt like you were going to fall down! I even had to sit down for a minute, to let my head adjust. :) It really messed with your mind because your perception is completely altered. Inside were some more fun things, such as a pool table that was slanted so that it looked like the balls were rolling up hill, a fountain where the water looked like it was flowing uphill, and a chair that looked like it was sliding towards the ceiling. Just walking around was a real trip! I loved it though, it was so much fun! :)



The bathrooms were another fun feature. The guys and girls go in different sides, of course, but come into the same room! In front of the real bathrooms is a large room with replicas of Roman-style toilets, complete with a painting on the wall of the proper way to use said toilets. (not as bad as you think!) Inside, the bathrooms were also fun. The toilet seats and covers were made of clear plastic that had random items inside.



The main attraction outside was the Great Maze! According to the designer of this little attraction (Stuart Landsborough), it was not meant to be the most difficult maze in the world, but is meant to be the most enjoyable. :) There are four corners, each with its own tower, and the challenge is to make it to all four corners. There are also some stairs and bridges, making it even more exciting.



Outside of the building there is also a fun sculpture called the "Leaning Tower of Wanaka", complete with a clock that runs backwards. My one regret about Puzzling World was that we went too late in the day to enjoy it longer.



After visiting Puzzling World, we hiked around the lake (Lake Wanaka) to a place that was supposed to have a pretty little waterfall. Alas, we didn't find the waterfall (I doubt its existence), but we did have a nice walk. Lots of vineyards on the walk - I was reminded of Tuscany (only what I've heard of the place - I haven't actually been there). By then it was almost night time, and we barely made it back to the car before it got dark. It was a little too cloudy to see the stars, unfortunately, but all in all a good day. :)

These are pictures of Lake Wanaka - some of my favorite pictures from the entire trip:

It's not about the money

…I know it’s not, really. I’m supposed to get paid around the tenth/fifteenth of the month. Usually I don’t end up getting paid until the twentieth. Okay, no problem, I can get by, no need to complain about that. This is what frustrates me – going in to get paid, and finding out that I actually am getting paid less than I expected. This has happened to me numerous times before. Okay, I guess I should just be used to it, right? Well, one of my American friends (you know who you are, probably) told me that it’s our job as foreigners to let our Chinese friends/contacts know when something like that bothers us, so that they can handle it differently for future foreigners.

For this most recent incident, I decided to take my friend’s advice. I’m supposed to be paid 4500 yuan per month. It says so on my little salary sheet. So, imagine my surprise when I go in to get paid (just in time to visit my friends in Beijing – after getting no response from the Foreign Affairs Officer), and I’m handed 3000 yuan, instead of the usual 4500. I inquire as to why, and she (the FAO or “Waiban”) pulls out the contract, showing me where it says, in English, that my salary is 4500 for every full month, and it is prorated during partial months. Because the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival happened so late this year, March was not counted as a full month at this school. Okay, no problem, I can understand and accept that. The thing that really bothers me is that I expected to be paid 4500 yuan, and I didn’t find out otherwise until I went to collect the money.

So, the Waiban and I had a nice chat about how important it is to let the foreigners know immediately if something like that is going to happen, so they aren’t surprised and get upset. She apologized, and I did feel a bit better. It all but settled in mind, though, that I’ve about had it with the way things are done here. I’ve pretty much decided that I will not be back here next year.

I have mixed feelings about leaving. I really don’t want to leave my friends, and I really don’t want to leave and “loose ends.” I enjoy living in a foreign country, and I’ve gotten pretty used to living here (especially living on my own). On the other hand, it could be good for some of my friends to step out on their own without clinging to me, and I definitely am looking forward to being home again, seeing friends and family there. Still pr*ying about the next steps.

What's my age again?

Recently I’ve been spilling or dropping a lot of stuff. I don’t know if that means I’m just more accident prone, or more tired, or just more under attack. It’s kind of frustrating though. Last week it was a glass bowl full of my supper that fell and broke. WARNING: Glass is sharp. Don’t try to find this out, just trust me! Today I dropped a container full of apple slices on the bus. WARNING: DON’T pick up apple slices after they drop onto the floor of a Chinese bus. (I didn’t – I’m not that dumb!)

Rest for the weary

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matt. 11:2

"And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.'" - Mark 2:27

"And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done." - Gen. 2:2

This past weekend (Palm Sunday) I again took the trip up to Beijing to visit some friends (different ones this time). It was just what I needed! There’s a couple up in Beijing who I met through some friends who let me stay at their place if I’m ever in the area. They are seriously my parents in China!

It’s only been 2 weeks of being back to school, and already I’m worn out. That seems to not bode well for the rest of the year, but I already can’t believe how quickly it’s going by.

Anyway, I haven’t been to a service in such a long time that I really wanted to go to one. I wanted to go last weekend, but I was busy visiting with some other friends (which was fine, and I really enjoyed seeing them!). I decided to come back the next weekend and visit again. I didn’t even realize it was already Palm Sunday! (time passes in odd ways in China)

The weekend was just what I needed. All we did was visit, watch movies/news, put together a puzzle, and chat. And we went and bought some western food for me to take back with me. I haven’t just sat and watched the news in such a long time – I had no idea about the tornados all over the South-Central, or the British sailors taken captive by Iran. I feel so isolated and out of it where I am. I also had my first experience of a Chinese movie theater. This one was high quality: just like back at home! We watched the new movie Deja-vu. We all thought it was really good! I recommend it! It seemed to have some spiritual undertones to it, which I really liked.

After we watched the movie we ate at a Mexican restaurant! I haven't had Mexican food in such a long time.... on the way there we drove past the new Olympic Stadium in Beijing. It was really neat to see the real thing! It was also really interesting to see the difference between that part of the city and the rest. Most of the city is dirty, crowded, and polluted, but this area was nice and clean and modern-looking. One of my friends commented that that Olympic Stadium looks like a huge, metal bird's nest that was definitely designed on a computer. So true!

One fun thing that happened to me was that just after arriving by train, and while sitting in the McDonald's waiting for a more decent hour to go over to my friends' house, I met some other believers who don't live too far from me. It was just a random encounter, but encouraging nonetheless, and hopefully I'll be able to go visit them.

I also loved being able to just sit around and not have any demands made on me. It was wonderful to just be able to fellowship with some mature believers. I have believing friends in my city, but a lot of them are new believers and look to me as kind of their leader. It was wonderful to just go somewhere where I didn’t have to ‘be strong’ if that makes any sense.

Sunday morning was pretty emotional for me. Most of my fellowship here has gone home. The fellowship I have is with non-native speakers, who again look to me as kind of the leader (although we’re trying to break them of that habit – I have so much more respect now for my Dad and all Ch. leaders). The fellowship where we went is for ex-pats. It was so wonderful to be singing again in English some familiar songs, and seeing the kids come in, waving their palm branches. I seriously almost cried! And it was wonderful for me to be able to take communion, not only with so many other believers, but also with my adopted family.

I love them so much! They are the sweetest people in the world! And since they’re going to be back home this summer, hopefully I can stop by Dallas and see them while I’m making my cross-country fishing trip. ;)

I love my girls!

DAD has blessed me a lot recently. Last week I met with some of my girls. They are new believers, and we hadn’t seen each other very much since getting back from the vacation. So I asked them if they had been reading over the break, and if they had learned anything. Well, it’s funny how you can be surprised by people. One of our original skeptics has really become dedicated to reading the Word. She finished what I had asked them to read, and started reading some other books on her own. The others had been reading some too, and we all shared some things. One of the girls (she’s really sweet!) said that what she learned over the break was about fellowship and being encouraged, because she went through a difficult time and didn’t have anyone to encourage her. That was a good lesson for all of them about how important fellowship is.

In hearing them all share, I was aware that I was also being encouraged. I often feel like I’m kind of an island unto myself here, being one of the few foreigners, and one of the even fewer foreign believers in this town. It was a great reminder to me of how precious these girls are, and how God can use them to bless me and encourage me as well.

Aotearoa 7 - Unspoiled Landscape

"He pai rangi tahi" - The beauty of a single day

Jan. 25, 2007: Milford Sound

We had to get up early to drive to Milford Sound. It's about the same latitude as Queenstown, [we crossed and re-crossed 45 deg. Lat.] but there's only one road that goes there (very few roads in New Zealand....). So, instead of going straight across the mountains, we had to drive pretty far south (around Lake Wakatipu), then west a bit, then back up north. Maybe a little inconvenient, but the drive was really beautiful and therefore worth it. :)

We stopped for lunch in a little town called Te Anau. It has this theater that's supposed to have a spectacular film of a helicopter flying over Fiordland - one of the most beautiful areas of NZ, I think. We didn't have time to see it though...

The mountains along the drive were INCREDIBLE and everywhere you looked were crystal clear streams. Again, it reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings. We stopped at a small waterfall that was really beautiful! We also stopped at a small place called Mirror Lakes. They were more like ponds, not lakes - kind of small. :) We had our first encounter with "sandflies" here. They're nasty little insects kind of like mosquitoes - they bite. (they didn't bite me, but they got Steph and her folks) I read somewhere that in the past the government would punish criminals by sending them to an island infested with sandflies. If the criminal deserved the death penalty, they would be tied to a tree, naked. The sandflies would've cleaned them out in 3 days.

To get to Milford Sound we had to actually drive across/through the mountains, which made for spectacular scenery and windy, dangerous roads. We had to go through one long, dark tunnel (through the mountain!) that was pretty cool - a little over 1 km long. VERY dark - you couldn't see from end to end.

We also saw what I think was a Kea bird at the tunnel. They're allegedly ferocious, with beaks that can tear through a car roof. They let humans get really close to them, though.




MILFORD SOUND...is not really a "sound". It's actually a "fiord", but I forget exactly what the difference is. I think a Fiord is a mountain valley that filled with snow (that turned to water) and a sound is a river bed. Anyway, this Fiord/Sound was filled with freshwater and saltwater. The saltwater from the sea flowed in, but the freshwater from the rain has a lighter density, and therefore stays on top. That gives it a kind of dirty, dark color. That also tricks marine life into thinking it's deeper than it really is, so rare species of coral live closer to the surface. The freshwater is about 2-14 m deep. The freshwater and salt water together go down about 220 meters, even at the edge of the water next to the mountain, so the boat can get right next to the mountains. Our boat went up to one of the smaller waterfalls to get some water for all the passengers.



If you use your imagination, you can see shapes in the mountains: a lion, steps, and kissing turtles. :) It also has one really pointy, easy-to-recognize mountain called Mitre Peak.

There are some gorgeous waterfalls there. There are 2 or 3 perennial waterfalls: Bowen Falls, close to the docks, and Sterling Falls, farther down, which are the result of glacier run-off. The other waterfalls are caused by rain, and therefore aren't always there. 6 days without rain is considered drought here. When we passed by Sterling Falls, the boat took us up right under it so we could get wet.



The Sounds/Fiords in Fiordland all open out into the sea. This one was apparently particularly hard to find, and most explorers missed it when they were exploring the area from the sea. It also has a beach with lots of "greenstone" (jade). The Maori legend is that a man "cut out" the Fiords. He had to leave his 3 wives to do it, and their tears turned into the greenstone. You get the jade by throwing the rocks into the fire, then throwing them into the sea when they're really hot. That will split them open where you can see the inside. The outside isn't very attractive, but I think the jade inside is even more beautiful than the jade you can get here.

There are two kinds of jade: one is harder and darker, and was used mostly for tools and weapons. The other kind is more malleable and translucent, and was used in jewelry and trade. You can still buy lots of jade necklaces, but they're a little pricey.



Also fun, we got to see a bunch of seals. They're all natural in this area - better than a zoo!



The Sound/Fiord opens into the Tasman Sea. From there it's just a 4-day boat ride to Australia/Tasmania....the guide said we had enough fuel, but not enough beds. So....maybe next time. ;)



This was my first encounter with the sea in a long time....and it was just the tip of the iceberg for me...