on the road again

The University has been closed since the date of the quake and is currently closed until the 14th of March. The current plan is to have lectures, registration and oweek begin that day but things are, to a point, still up in the air. Lectures were originally suppose to begin on Monday February 28th. Due to the damage in Christchurch where many staff and students reside and the University being a center that Civil Defense can use, campus is closed for the next two weeks. A bus tour has been set up for international students to take to tour the south island so I will be heading off on that tomorrow with about 80 other students. We will be stopping in Kaikoura and then in Nelson. Once in Nelson myself and 4 friends I have just met will be touring the North island together.

There will be myself, Melissa from the North Island of New Zealand (Tauranga ), Nate from Colorado, Michaela from Colorado and Harald from Norway. We are traveling from Nelson to Picton to Wellington on the first day then renting a car for a couple days until we get up to Melissa’s parents place from there we will use her car to travel the north part of the north island, up to the Bay of Island and along the coast. So here I am off on another road trip and packing everything I need into my backpack again. I won’t have my computer with me so pictures and updates will come at the end of my trip. 

sunday morning

On Sunday morning I got up early and headed to a church I had found online, only about a 15 minute walk from campus and held at a community center. I got to the community center to find it empty ! I wasn’t sure what to do. I really wanted to go to church, not because it is something I have to do as a Christian but something I desire to do to learn more about God. As I was leaving the community center a car with a older couple stopped and asked if I was looking for the Lincoln Baptist Church. I said that I was and they explained that the church had moved buildings and asked if I wanted a ride up the road with them to the new building. I hopped in and we headed to Church. It was the first time I had been to Church here in New Zealand and it was incredible to worship God with people from another nation and to hear their passion to know God more and there prayers for their city and their Nation.  After the service the couple who had picked me up introduced me to Tim and Liz, a young couple in the church who lead the Christian Fellowship group on campus. They kindly invited me to their home for lunch, I accepted and spent the next few hours with them before they gave me a ride back to Campus. 

surviving the earthquake

On the morning of the 22nd I attended the check in for international students where they gave us a tour of the campus and gave us the opportunity to meet other intentional students studying here at Lincoln University.  

After the check in I headed to the grocery store with a few other international students I had met. I was in the grocery when the earthquake hit. It was a different experience and pretty intense.. I don’t really know how to describe it. Everyone, locals, students, staff, absolutely everyone in the building froze when it happened. You could hear the quake coming and then just stood and watched as people ran from everything in the store that crashed to the ground and watched through the stores windows the parking lot of cars dance as the earth shook.  As soon as the earth stopped trembling the staff went into panic mode everyone checked out and the store shut down. Walking back to the University the second tremor hit, it wasn’t hard enough where I was to knock you down but the ground shook and you could see and feel the earth move under your feet. Since then I have felt many aftershocks some of which are more intense than others. 

At the time I didn’t understand the severity of the quake. To be honest I wasn’t sure if it was just a regular aftershock or something more severe. It wasn’t until we arrived on campus to see everyone evacuated, hear the President of the University speech, and then watching the news in the dinning hall while engineers check the safety of each building that I started to understand the intensity what had happened. 

As most of you know from the news Christchurch is a mess, many have died and 100’s are still missing. I am so incredibly thankful that I was not in the city at the time... see the thing was that I was planning to head into down that day but decided against it and I had been in the city just the day before. Many people however are in serious need after the quake. I went into the residential area just outside of Christchurch yesterday (the 25th) to help. I spent the day alongside over a 100 other student volunteers digging trenches to channel water in the streets. Many of the streets have been covered in a gray silt (the material has characteristics very similar to concrete.. its a fine dust when dry but like a liquid muddy material when wet). This material becomes a liquid and comes through the soil and cracks during an earthquake, this is called liquidation. At the moment this silt covers peoples entire yards, roads and is even in some peoples homes. These pictures just show some of the damage along with the people I worked alongside that day. 

Steel and I..you can see how the streets are flooded 

and the characteristics of the silt

Steel, me, Taylor and Melissa digging through the silt

Harald and I digging silt out of the drain

one of many cracks in the streets

everyone at work

another goodbye and hello Lincoln

On our trip around the south island Emily, Alison and I hoped to see penguins but since we didn’t see any in the wild we settled for checking out the little blue penguins at the Antarctic Center in Christchurch before heading to the airport. The 21st was Emily and Alison’s final day in New Zealand! After saying our goodbyes they took their plane off for Adelaide, Australia and Karen drove me to Lincoln University where I will be studying and living for the next few months. 

It was a weird experience being on my completely on my own in a foreign country.. I have to admit it was a tad intimidating but more than that it was exciting and freeing. After Karen dropped me off, I spent the evening exploring the campus and meeting the few other international students who had also moved in early. I also tried out the cafeteria food which was surprisingly good, since I am living in a semi catered residence while I am here I get to eat at the dinning hall for dinner. Yes the dinning Hall, there is one on campus.. 

I guess one thing to mention is that the university I am attending is a, lets just say, a small school in a equally small town.  Lincoln is a nice little town, with one grocery store, a pub, a couple cafes, 3 churches, a hardware store and some other small businesses and is located about a half hour outside of Christchurch.

experiencing an Antarctic storm at the Antarctic Center

the little blue penguins 

Alison, Emily and I at the Antarctic Center

our one last adventure

Instead of driving straight back to Karen and John’s from Mount Cook we went to Karen brother and his wife’s place which is in high country on a station. Karen’s brother is the head shepherd of a 46 000 acre farm with 20 000 sheep and over a 1000 cattle located in the Southern Alps! We spent one night there and then hopped in the back of a truck, with two dogs, John and Karen’s brother to explore the farm and the mountains!! We could see Mount Cook from the mountain we climbed (sitting/ standing in the back of the truck) and the view was amazing. We also got to watch the dogs heard a few sheep that were out in the mountains, it was a different, incredible and definitely off the beaten path!

looking out at the Southern Alps

this is how we climbed a mountain ! 

the 'road' we traveled on for our over 3 hour climb

sheep being herded by a local shepherd 

sheep and more sheep

one of many one way bridge in New Zealand

‘home’ again and Mount Cook

Again Karen and John greeted us with an amazing place to stay and home cooked meals. We stayed at their place for two nights and then drove with them up to Mount Cook and hiked to see the Tasmen Glacier.

Emily and I in front of Lake Tekapo

The town at the base of Mount Cook .. but sadly because of the clouds

 we couldn’t see the mountain at all so we watch the 3D movie instead.. 

The view as we hiked up to the Tasmen glacier 

Alison, Emily, Moi, John, Karen

Tasmen Glacier

one last night in Nelson and our final bus trip

We spent the next night in a hostel located in downtown Nelson before catching our last bus back to Christchurch. Once in Christchurch Karen picked us up and we drove though the city and then headed back to Karen and John’s place in Ashburton making a couple of stops along the way. 

Marahau to Kaiteriteri to Nelson

The next morning I woke up early and headed to the beach on my own at 5:30 am to watch the sun rise over the mountains and sea. It was incredible. Again pictures just don’t do justice.. 

Our trip back to Nelson was similar to the one there I swam and then just enjoyed the day laying on the golden sand beaches with Emily and Alison, enjoying the weather and the beautiful scenery.

Marahau 

Kaiteriteri

Abel Tasmen Adventure

We took a kayak tour the next day around the coast of the Abel Tasmen park. There was our guide and 5 other people on the tour with with us, two guys from Germany and a family of three from Amsterdam. It was beautiful to see the sandy beaches and coast line from the water. We got to learn about local vegetation and wildlife from our guide as well as see seals from only a couple meters away. After stopping for lunch at Watering Cove we took a water taxi up the coast to Barks Bay from there we took a 3 hour hike back to Torrent Bay before catching another water taxi back to Marahau. 

the beach at watering cove 

Alison and I paddling as hard as we could 

aren’t we lady like ?

the view down from a swing bridge

looking out over the park from the trail from Barks Bay to Torrent Bay

who knew this was a legal method of public transportation?

this is how they get the boats in when the tide goes out

watching the tide go out from the beach in Marahau

Nelson

We stayed at the beach hostel in Nelson a five minute walk from Tahunanui beach for two nights. After arriving on the evening of the first night we went out and explored the beach. The next morning we headed back to the beach before meeting up with my Dad’s best friend from high school and university and his wife Genevieve. We spent the afternoon with them touring Nelson and planning the next few days. Sadly Alison wasn’t feeling so well so we dropped her off at the hostel to rest before going out for lunch at a restaurant right on the water and then to Genevieve’s sister’s place for the evening. Emily and I both had a good time meeting everyone and eating a good home cooked meal. One of Genevieve’s sisters lives out towards Christchurch so I hope to catch up with them again at some point this semester. 

Early the next morning we got up and caught the sea shuttle over to Kaiteriteri where we spent a few hours hanging out on the beach (our first nice swimmable beach so far!) before catching a bus up to Marahau, which is right on the edge of the Abel Tasmen National Park.  We spent the evening watching the tide come in and relaxing by the water.

Russ, Genevieve and I at a lookout on Panorama Drive in Nelson

driving up the west coast, pancake rocks and sunsets

So after our time at Fox Glacier we set off for Punakaiki where the pancake rocks are. Our drive there was incredible these pictures do little justice to what you could see you the windows of the bus, but there was more to that bus ride up to Punakaiki than the views out the window. A lady from the Netherlands who had moved to Australia and was now traveling New Zealand sat down in the seat beside me about a half hour into our trip and eventually we got to talking. 

Before I can explain what followed I guess I have to explain a bit of who I am.. a few years back I became a Christian, I could no longer deny that Jesus Christ was the son of God and that he died on the cross. I decided that I wanted to be in a personal relationship with the God that created me and since then I have seen crazy thing happen in my life as I have prayed and trusted God with my life. I guess meeting Trudy was one of those things. She was an incredible Christian lady who shared her life with me, she taught me alot and told me some crazy stories of what she had seen God do in her life. It was not only an encouragement to me but an absolute answer to prayer. 

After arriving in Punakaiki we found our way to the little cottage we had rented for the night and dropped of our stuff before heading to the beach and up to the pancake rocks. The next morning we explored a small cavern there before  heading further up the west coast to Nelson.

If what I have said about what I believe in this post interests you and you want to know more about anything  just let me know. Also I just want to say that I don’t intend to offend anyone with my beliefs but I can’t write a blog about my life without sharing the most important part of my life and that is my relationship with Jesus Christ. 

taken on the bus during the drive up the west coast

pancake rocks with the tide coming in

pancake rocks - do you see faces - I do 

sea weed I found washed up on the beach

me running though the ice cold sea

watching the sunset on the beach

finally updating

I feel torn between updating this blog and exploring.. and as you can tell exploring always seems to win.. but here I am attempting to update you on what has happened in the past few weeks. It feels like an impossible task as so much has happened.. I will start with our trip to Punakaiki and work my way to the last few days the earth quake and life here at Lincoln.

off to Fox Glacier

We arrived in Fox Glacier late afternoon on Thursday .. the weather kind of ruined our plans for the day ...  apparently it was to windy to skydive! So instead we packed a picnic dinner, rented bikes and headed off to see the fox glacier 4 km up (literally up) the road. 

Fox Glacier

next stop Queenstown

Queenstown is a beautiful city, located down the road from the Remarkables, famous ski hills here in New Zealand, the city is the hub of extreme sports. The city is located right on Lake Wakatipu with a beautiful beach, a series of pedestrian streets, and unique architecture throughout the city.

We stayed two nights at a lovely hostel which looked out over the city, the lake and the mountains and was full of sweet people. While we stayed in Queenstown we explored the city, the parks and the waterfront from within the city. We also took a gondola ride up one of the mountains where we had an incredible view and took a ride on the luge. 

Queenstown from the gondola

looking out over Lake Wakatipu from the beach in Queenstown

the luge .. once is never enough ! 

Te Anau to Milford Sound and back again

One day I hope to maybe treck on foot from Te Anau to Milford Sound, if it is anything like the drive there (minus the mass amounts of rain ) it would be an absolutely beautiful hike. Mid morning we hoped on another bus - same bus line but this time with a driver who talked and joked for pretty well the whole 3 hours it took to drive 120 km road through farm fields, rolling hills, sheep pastures, more sheep pastures, by lakes, in and around mountains, by hundreds of waterfalls and through the rainforest. Along the way we stopped at a few ‘tourist destinations’ but they were nothing less than incredible. My favorite was the Chasm - a twenty minute walk in the pouring rain though the rainforest with some pretty sweet views of the river quickly flowing down from the mountains. Our bus driver kindly dropped us off at pretty well the door step of our hostel where we spent the next two nights. Again our hostel had an incredible view of the mountains. The first night we stayed there you could see many streams of water flowing down the side of the mountain due to the sheer mass of rain coming down. By the next morning however only one or two of these waterfalls were left as the rain had stopped and the sun was shinning. It was a perfect day for an cruise, so on a two and a half hour cruise we went though the fiord out to the Tasmen Sea.  I don’t even know how to describe it ..  I felt so tiny as we went though the mountains soaring high above our heads .. these pictures could never capture the beauty of what we saw and experienced that day... 

After two days of exploring Milford Sound we hoped on another bus and headed back through Te Anau and eventually Queenstown..

me and the mountains

the rainforest

the river outside of our hostel, Milford Lodge

pedestrian crossing 

Alison, Emily, Me 

on the cruise though the fiord