Home Again, Home Again

We are home safe & sound! Our flights were eventful with several continuous hours of turbulence between the two of them. We are happy to be home, sad to be off vacation and a little worse for the wear. It's about 2am, but I wanted to let you all know we are home safe & sound.

My hope is to update this tomorrow night with hyperlinks, photos and human interest stories I've forgotten about along the way. We'll see how tired I am. Dave, I'm sure will also be posting photos sometime this week.

UPDATE: The plane rides were rather eventful. The first one over the Pacific was supposed to be 11 hours and 45 minutes. Due to the eight-hours of turbulence we encountered, it was closer to 13 hours. At one point, both Kate & I thought the plane was going down. The plane tipped first left, then right, then dropped altitude dramatically. Stewards were screaming, things were rolling and hands were shaking. KT, Josh and Dave though it was "fun". WHAT? Kate did the rounds about an hour later to nurture and mother us, making sure we were all OK. Needless to say, it was quite scary. We now know the plane dropped so dramatically to avoid the turbulent atmosphere, but since it happened so quickly - we were shocked & scared!

Once in LA, we got off the plane, claimed our bags, went through customs, then re-checked in for our Northwest flight to Detroit (thanks for not going on strike!). By the time we boarded our second flight at 5:30PST, we had been traveling for 17 hours. Our next flight to L.A. had over an hour of turbulence. I wasn't scared as it wasn't as bad as the first flight, but the lady next to me did ask to hold my hand... and told her friend that she "loved her" and "appreciated their 30 years of friendship". I love women! We are so dramatic! None of us got the chance to sit next to each other on the second trip, so it was good that it wasn't as bad as the first one.

For those of you still checking - thanks for keeping us in your prayers & thoughts. I've added a few pics, and will continue to do so over the course of the next week!

love you,
kendra


~kendra

Last Day

Our last day in Auckland is coming to a close. Our day started off pretty lazily with a nice family breakfast around Lynette's table. We were all a little groggy from the night before (hey - we're in our thirties now, we don't party like we used to!).

Dave, Mark, Nadine & Kate took off to a local Rugby store for last minute shirt shopping. Kate & Mark returned with some great memento shirts, and David returned with a new wardrobe! Kristin, Josh and I lounged around the house - mesmerized by the books we've been reading (Josh is reading Intimacy by Henri JM Nouwen, Kristin is reading The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks and I'm re-reading parts of Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller). When the gang returned, Kate & I holed up in my room for some prayer time, and the rest of the gang gathered in the lounge to figure out the day.

We decided that Blackwater Rafting will have to take place during our next adventure to the South Pacific - it was just too much to fit into our last day. Kate, Josh, Jacinda, Mark and Dave opted to go kayaking. Nadine, Kristin and I opted for a ferry ride on the ocean (great pics and all). Jacinda is an outdoors / survival expert and knows all of the good places around here for getting fun out of nature!

I'll have to have Dave fill you in on the kayaking adventures b/c I wasn't there. I can tell you, however, about our day on the ferry. It was very funny b/c after all the build-up of getting to the ferry and talking about the ferry and dreaming about the photo ops from the ferry - we found out that the ferry ride was only 12 minutes!!! We couldn't stop laughing about that as we lunched at Calypso Cafe and walked the streets of downtown Devonport. After lunch, we made a mad-dash for the ferry, only to see it sail away without us. Since we now knew that it ran every fifteen minutes, we just made ourselves comfy in the ferry terminal and waited for the next one. HAH! Even though we only spent twenty-four minutes on the ocean, it was still very fun.

After our ride was over, we stopped off at the grocery store so I could pick up some New Zealand favorites to bring back to the office and my home (I'm so addicted to their local soda "Sweet As L & P" that I picked up a 2 liter of the stuff!!!). Then, we met back up with the kayaking gang, finished up our packing and headed to the beach for some NZ fish & chips.

OH MY WORD! It was such a different experience than eating fish & chips in America. First of all, the fish is "crumbed", not breaded. It is served wrapped in newspaper, as opposed to a basket or any other kind of wrapping. The Sleemans have a tradition - buy fish & chips and eat it on the beach. We ate so well on our last evening in Auckland - crumbed fish, chips (both potato and kumera), donuts, pineapple rings and chip butty sandwiches. Chip butty's are an interesting idea - you take a piece of white bread, butter it, throw some chips on there and then smother it in ketchup. It's basically the best way to get ALL your carbs for one day in ONE serving. I'm not ashamed - I tried it. It was delicious!

After dinner, we wrapped up with some pics on the beach. It was quite sad really - I shed a tear or two. Once at the airport, we had quite a rigamarole to leave the country. First, there was a flight check-in, then there was Customs, then they charge you a departure tax. First country I've ever been to that has charged me to leave it! The Sleemans were troopers, hanging with us until we went through security to get to our gate. Finally, we bid farewell to Nadine & her family... and headed to our gate. Thank you so much, Sleemans, for making us feel at home so far away from ours!

We can't believe it's over! We've done so much, but missed so much along the way as well.... which is alright by me... just more excuses to come back again, again and again!

Auckland

We made it to Auckland safe & sound. We arrived about 1am in the morning, and crashed. It's now about 9am here, and a few of us are up & milling about.

Yesterday was AWESOME! As I mentioned, we went souvenier shopping and finished up in Tauranga. After lunch at a cool little place called Zambezi's, we hopped in the car for our drive to Hamilton where we were to dine at Jules' and John's (family friends) & meet up with Nardine's mum.

When we arrived Jules' and John's, we were ecstatic to see that they had both cows and sheep. Josh has been dying to catch a sheep since we got here, and I've been wanting to pet a cow. John let Kate & I help him round the cows into a different pen and remove a fence. We couldn't really understand him - he was yelling at us from across the field, not only mumbling but with the thickest accent we had heard yet. Kate & I sat there dumbfounded and giggling screaming "What?!?" in our green, American accents. We were yelling across the field, asking how to get into the pen, and he was answering... but there was definitely a communication breakdown. Then, their dog came over to us, excitedly wagging his tail. I said "Kate, the dog will tell us how to get to the field!" Ummm, yeah, it didn't. We realized we had definitely had a blonde moment when the dog just wanted to walk around in circles. We found this bench up against the side of the fence, so we hopped on the bench, straddled the fence and went to meet John out in "the field". We helped him move an electric fence. In our flip flops, capris, cameras slung over our shoulders and otherwise Midwestern costumes. I caught a glimpse of Lynette (Nardine's mom) and Jules laughing their arses off on the other side of the window. We must have looked very un-farm like.

When the guys arrived, Nadine talked John into letting Josh finally catch that sheep. The sheep were grazing a ways back on the property, so we took a jaunt out there to get them (dodging cow patties and sheep poo along the way). Once the sheep saw us coming, they started running in the opposite direction. John lined a few of us up one way, and a few others another so we could corral them. Josh & John finally got the sheep going in the right direction and the rest of us ran alongside.

Once the sheep were where they needed to be, John needed to put them in an even smaller pen so he could shear them. When they started running away again, John told us to put our hands out on either side, and that would signal them to stop. It worked! Everyone held their hands out, and the sheep came to a dead stop, no questions asked.

After our "herding" experience, we pet a few of them and asked a lot of questions about sheep raising. Finally, Lynette (Nadine's mom) had to come out and get us because she wanted to "feed" before the big game!

Jules & Lynette had prepared a great feast of chicken, ham, roast beef, potatoes, taboouleh, celery salad and slaw. Lynette had made meringue with fresh berries for dessert. During dinner, we were quite entertained by John's stories. He was SUCH a character.

After dinner, John & Jules agreed to drive us to the rugby game so that we wouldn't have to find parking, etc. We watched the Crusaders vs. the Chiefs.... and cheered for the CHIEFS. We were told that we would be taking our lives into our own hands, should we choose to cheer for anyone other than the Chiefs. Despite our ruthless cheering, the Crusaders beat our guys 25 to 19. Kate & I were lucky enough to sit next to a very cute NZ'er who was more than willing to share the rules of the game. If only his girlfriend hadn't been on the other side of him....

Rugby was AMAZINGLY FUN to watch. It was so physical, and we got to see a lot of the action from our 5th row seat on the 22 meter line!!!! Those guys are in amazing shape - they only have (4) subs for 14 guys, limited time-outs and 40 minute periods. It is insane how much they run around. We were tired just watching them.

After the game, we were able to walk across the field and grab a few pics of the Dave & Josh wrestling each other to the ground while Lynette gave instructions. Then, it was back to Jules' and John's who had prepared for us some apple fritter, tea and coffee for the road. We piled back into the car, a very tired and happy bunch and ended up at Lynette's about an 1.5 hours later.

Today, the guys are going shopping in Auckland and we girls are off to hike to a waterfall in the Waitakeri ranges. Tonight, we are dressing up to eat dinner at the Skytower downtown, courtesy of Mr. John Richardson. Tomorrow morning, we'll go blackwater rafting in the Waitomo caves, church and sadly on our flight at 11:30pm Sunday evening (which will be 5:30am Sunday morning your time).

we'll talk more later,
kendra & co.

Tauranga, Part 2

Back online! Some of us are shopping (myself included), some of us are walking the beach... but I wanted to take a moment and say what I keep forgetting to say:

- When we said "windy in wellington", we didn't know how truly windy it was! Apparently, we were apart of a every-150-years storm.

- While aboard our yacht, we had to fill out census forms, as we are here during their 10-year census take. We are now a piece of NZ history!

Where did I leave off? Oh, yes, we were hobbling along a gravelly, windy road atop a mountain with barely any gas or air in our tires. When we set off in the morning, we had no idea we were driving into the middle of nowhere. We affectionately called our drive into "nowhere" our drive into middle earth. We eventually happened upon a general store and paid upwards of $13 for a pop & some chips! The lady who ran the store felt sorry for us after we told her that we were almost out of gas! She asked to see our gas gauge, and after seeing that we had 1/8 tank left she assured us that we would be fine. Then she looked at our other vehicle and admonished us to be careful with the tires! Turns out - she had never seen Americans before! Yep. That is how remote of an area we were in. Who knew that Americans could still be appreciated novelties?

Six hours after our journey began, and several pit-stops-in-the-woods later, we emerged from "middle earth" and saw a concrete road again. We were in Tauranga about two hours after that. Our lodging last night was neither mansion or yacht, but it was nice all the same. It was called the Calais Mount Resort. We had rented (2) two-bedroom apartments with a view of the beach and Mt. Manganui. We girls had a balcony running the full length of our aparment. It was a lovely place for girly time after the sun went down.

After we washed up a bit, we headed downtown to eat dinner (having skipped lunch in Middle Earth). Most of us had our first taste of Turkish food at Zeytin's, a downtown establishment. Dave even had bananas on his pizza! It was weird, but very good. The rest of us weren't as adventerous and ended up with Iskender meals. We were about a ten minute walk from a bustling downtown area. After dinner, we had our first NZ ice-cream and then headed to the "hot pools". For $5 NZ each, we had our pick of hot tubs, baths and pools... all saltwater. We stayed there until closing. It was practically chilly compared to the HOT HOT HOT Polynesian spas.

This morning - Kate, Dave, Mark & Nadine headed up Mt. Maunganui for pics of the sunrise. It was a beautiful hike. Josh took a run by the water, I slept in and KT enjoyed some moments of solitude our our deck. We met up for breakfast, and are now milling about town shopping for souveniers and the like.



Around 2pm, we'll head to Hamilton. There, we'll meet up with Nadine's mum and watch a rugby game. It is apparently a very big game, and people are jealous that we have tickets. Dinner & rugby in Hamilton and then we're OFF to spend our last two full days in Auckland.

Tomorrow morning brings hiking in the Waitakere Ranges, shopping in downtown Auckland. Sunday will bring Blackwater Rafting, a visit to a church (did I mention we met someone on the plane who invited us to his church) and then a flight home.

I'm off to shop! Everyone sends their love. Can't wait to upload the pics - we'll try to do that in Auckland!

love to you again,
kendra & crew

Tauranga

We made it Tauranga! We had imagined the ride to take us about 4 hours from our last stop (Napier), but it ended up taking about 8 hours!! We took a windy, gravelly road through the mountains for about six hours.

We learned that "yellow" roads on the map = gravel, but we also learned that gravel roads = breathtaking beauty! The drive provided us with scenic views of water, mountains and fields of green. Here was Dave's take on the ride yesterday:

Who knew that we would wake up today and drive through the mountains while dodging wild black stallions, falling rocks and wandering sheep?

Dave, Mark and Nadine expertly guided us through the mountains driving a manual right-hand-drive vehicle. One of our vehicles almost ran out of gas, and the other one almost had a flat tire.

We made it out... OK. I will write more later - the group is now ready to head out for the day. tonight, we're going to a rugby game!

Love you,
kendra & crew

Napier

Yesterday was quite an interesting day! Again, awaking early, Mark & I cooked a family-style breakfast for everyone and we checked out of our lovely accomodations. We all met up in Waitangi Park to see a Photo Exhibit, which was really neat. There were about 200 photographs, mounted on frames suitable for the outdoors. It was set up so that you could walk through the park and view the photography at the same time. Each photo had a placard with information on the photo, and challenges to take better care of the earth. It was beautiful and quite interesting.

Afterwards, a few of us were hanging out in the skate park - and we had a bit of an "incident". Kate, Nadine and I had all been playing on the half-pipes... sliding down them, running up them, walking all over them. As Kate ran up the ramp for just "one last one", she slipped and hit her head on a concrete ledge. I started laughing because it was very funny, but when she looked at me, I realized it was decidedly NOT funny. She had blood gushing down her forehead, onto her shirt and onto the concrete. She didn't even know that she had hit her head, and began to go down the ramp again. I yelled at her, panicking over the sight of bright red blood against her blonde hair. Seriously, I was FREAKED OUT! She, however, was fine... saying that she just needed a band-aid. We took her to a hostel to get cleaned up (we were both bloody messes). Then, the girls hopped into the car for a trip to the hospital. The guys went about their day, visitng an old church and Parliament
building.





We, meanwhile, waited just a short period of time in the ER of a Wellington hospital before seeing a doctor. An hour later, Kate emerged from the ER with six stitches and a prescription for Naproxen.

We met up with the guys on the steps of "The Beehive", also known as their Parliament Building. We ate lunch at a place called the "Bench Box", and then hit the road to Napier. Napier is a small beach town on the coast.

The drive took a bit of time - probably five hours or so. We drove through the Rumatakas, a mountain range that was absolutely beautiful, stopped at two wineries along the way (Tirohana Estate & Margrain Vineyard),testing some incredible NZ wines, stopped for dinner downtown at a place called "The Governor's Inn" and finally, arrived at our destination - The Blue Water Hotel.

We were meant to have (2) suites, each with a king-size bed, and two singles and a kitchenette. Imagine our surprise when we were told that they "gave our rooms away" due to our late arrival! The night-receptionist suggested that they could give us a boat in place of our suite. The only problem was that it slept six, so she would also give us a room that slept a few more. We were disappointed to say the least, as we were absolutely exhausted. Dave wisely suggested that we not take the boat until we saw it. Imagine our surprise when the "boat" turned out to be a sixty-foot yacht! Apparently, the owner has a yacht that is available for overflow rooms when he is not using it. The decison was quite an easy one to make, and we took both the room and the YACHT for the night.

Nadine, Dave, Josh & I opted for the yacht accomodations. Mark, KT and Kate opted for the standard room accomodations. Nadine, Josh, Dave and I couldn't believe our good fortune - we were sitting on a yacht in a harbor of the Pacific Ocean in NZ! I found the whole thing to be incredibly humorous, and couldn't stop giggling. IT WAS AWESOME to sleep in a yacht for the evening. Who knew that our lives were so glamorous.

This morning, we awoke later than we have been. We packed our beach bags and headed downtown to breakfast in Napier. Then, we hit the road to a beach that Nadine had picked off the map. It was a scenic drive, which was completely unexpected. On one side of the road, we had the coastline. On the other side, we had rolling plains and hills full of lush green and dotted with deer, sheep and cows. BREATH-TAKING. (I know I keep saying that, but it really is true!)

We ended up at Whakapatiki Beach, which was quite isolated, very private and very beautiful. We spent the afternoon together - Kate & I walking the shoreline, Kristin, Nadine and Josh "laying out", Dave & Mark sneaking off to climb some bluffs and take some photos of the beach, and the landscape.


Tonight, we went to dinner at Acqua Seafood. We all ordered some interesting fares. Most notably - Kate got a crock of sea creatures smothered in garlic & butter. Josh got a full baby snapper, served WHOLE on his plate - eyes, teeth, tongue and all. Kristin and I split some risotto, which to my dismay, was served with a WHOLE scampi. I couldn't bear to touch the thing, and opted not to eat the crazy fish thing. I filled up on the risotto.

Now, we are at the "email espresso" bar, and I think the group is ready to hit the road for home (read: yacht). Tomorrow, we'll journey to another beach town called Tauranga which is about a four and a half hour drive. This is a new change to the itinerary - we hadn't previously planned a trip out there, but I'm sure it will be GREAT! Tauranga is another small beach town, afoot a mountain called Mount Maunganui. There are also rumors of more "hot pools". Can't wait!

Hope to log in again soon! We love you all.


~kendra

Wellington

Time is flying here in NZ, and we are loving every minute of it. Here are a few more details since last I posted (adding a few feminine touches to Dave's).

Sunday started off interestingly, with the five of us (Josh, Mark, Dave, Kate & I) deciding to check out a church in downtown Rotorua. We had seen the sign for the church the night before on our before lunch. It was called Destiny Church, and that's pretty much all we knew. We woke up fairly early, and headed down to a craft fair (where I bought myself a rather nice "green stone" necklace for a souvenir). Afterwards, we walked over to the church - praying that we could all make it through the service without eating our own arms, as we hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

The church was amazing! It turned out to be a Maori Gospel church (Maori's are the native peoples of NZ). The worship was fantastic, and the message was inspiring. We were challenged to become "choose-able", to be Christians that are ready to be chosen, to be followers of Christ that can be trusted. After church, we were approached by several people, and asked about why we were there. Guess our blond-haired, blue-eyed selves stuck out a bit at the church!

Breakfast was at a little place called the "Fat Dog". GOOD FOOD. After that - we hit the road to Wellington! The drive down was interesting with five of us crammed into a Mitsubishi Diamante. Those of us in back were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder for about six hours. It felt like an incredibly long journey, but we were able to splice it up a bit with a side stop at Huka Falls.

When we arrived in Wellington, we couldn't believe the accomodations. Dave went into several details, so I won't step on his descriptions as they were quite apt. The only thing I will add about our first night is that we got dinner from a place called Hell's Kitchen and the number had a "666" in there, which I didn't notice until the box came... and then I felt really weird about liking the pizza so much! The pizza here is rather different - our choices were unlimited. We had cashews, apricots and all kinds of different things on our pizza. We also found out the the first choice for sauce here is BBQ, not tomato. Their BBQ sauce tastes a little different, it's a little sweeter and a little less spicy. Regardless of the evil numbered pizza joint, the pizza was delicious.

The first night was rather uneventful, we were just so excited to be soaking up the atmosphere of the house (which was so unbelievably affordable). Dave and Mark spent quite a bit of time on the deck taking pictures of the amazing nightscape from our balcony. The Palliser House, as it is called, was quite a palace. (NOTE: I will be updating these links and pics at a later date!)

The next day, as Dave said, the guys got up and took AMAZING pics of the sunrise. Kate & I entertained ourselves sitting on a bench, soaking in the moments of the sun peeking over the mountain-tops and doing calisthenics to stay warm. Then, off to the grocery store to buy things for a nice big "brekkie" and a wonderful dinner. We chose a local Wellington fish called Tarakhi. Mark and I broiled the fish and served it with a mango apricot salsa on a bed of risotto. It was AWESOME! The day was spent in Wellington, visiting many sites as Dave mentioned (the Te Papa Museum, taking a cable car up the side of a mountain, watching students train for the upcoming Dragon Races, and a visit to the Botanical Gardens). WONDERFUL WELLINGTON!

Dave's Comments Sunday

Had a good night sleep last night and recovered from the long flight. This morning we got up early and I gave Mark driving lessons on right hand drive. He did very well for the first time and only pulled into the opposing lane one time when making a turn. After that we went for a 1/2 hour run down to the lake and then back trough the Hot Springs Geyser fields. It was chilly out and the smoke was pouring out of the geyser pools. We had to avoid the smoke because of the toxic gases so it was an interesting obstacle course. Very scenic morning run. Well time to get on the road again.

We are Here!

We have arrived safely, and have now been in this beautiful country for about 24 hours now. The plane ride was uneventful, but so incredibly long. We emerged from the plane smelling of 100+ passenger's worth of bad breath, B.O. and "sleep". I'm sure we all made quite an impression on the custom's agents - guys with their five, six and seven o'clock shadows- girls with our bangs stuck to our foreheads with all of the "night oils". I"m sure we were quite a sight!

My bags got "searched", as a dog apparently smelled bananas in my bag. Back in Detroit, Dave had asked me to carry his bananas for him, as he had no more room in his bag. Luckily, we had already eaten the bananas and my entry form for customs was filled out truthfully! Otherwise, I would have had to pay a $200 NZ fine!

We got through customs OK, and only lost (1) piece of luggage. It was Mark's "main" bag. Once we got our car rental taken care of (very small, by the way, for five people!) - Nadine & her dad took us to a mall to get some breakfast, and to get Mark some new clothes. Mark's choices were limited in the clothing department - the men's styles here are limited to 3/4 length shorts (read: capris for men) and "stubbies" (read: short short shorts). Rumor has it that there was a pair of red & black "stubbies" on the table for purchase, but Kate vetoed their purchase, regardless of their potential humor!

After breakfast, we bid farewell to Wayne, Kristin and Nadine. KT and Nadine have rented a beach house "up north" and are headed there with Nadine's best friends and mom. They'll meet up with us again tomorrow (Monday).

We then hit the road to Rotorua, NZ. It was an interesting drive, watching Dave expertly weave in & out of traffic in a right-hand-drive car, and watching Josh, Kate & Mark cuddle in the backseat (as there isn't much room). Along the drive, we saw plains that reminded us of Kansas and lakes that reminded us of Alaska. It was a beautiful drive, and we put in our NZ Music Mix that we all contributed for the trip. GREAT MEMORIES ALREADY.

Once in Rotorua, we lunched at a little place called the "Pheasant Plucker" and then headed to our hostel, the Kiwi Paka, for the MOST GLORIOUS SHOWER EVER... we had been in our same clothes for 40 hours! After showering off the stench of "Plane", we headed to Kuirau Park that you could walk through to see natural geysers. It was interesting, but very stinky. The geysers smelled of sulfur, reminding Kate of "stink bombs" and me of "well water".

Then, we were off to a little place called "The Luge". We took a gondola ride up the side of a mountain, and then took these go-cart-like things down the mountainside. Well - Kate, Dave, Mark and JoshUa did. My back was killing me, and I opted NOT to pay $5NZ to fall off the side of the mountain, thus ending my life & this trip! I got some good pictures, though, and I'll upload them when we hit our house later on tonight. The scenery was BEAUTIFUL. We had views of Lake Taupo, which was amazing. I loved my time watching "the kids" go down the mountain, breathing in fresh air and being surrounded by mountains and lakes and little country-side homes. Dave got some really good pictures, and I'll upload those later on today as well.

After "The Luge", we headed to the "Polynesian Spa" for some time to soak our sore bodies. The Polynesian Spa has all of these hot pools, naturally heated by the geysers (and, yes, smelling like sulfur). We rented a private pool for the five of us. BOY WAS IT HOT. Kate got in first, and immediately jumped out in pain because the water was so hot. She reached for me to help her, but ended up pulling me into the pool as she panicked. We were both screaming. It was very dramatic and very, very funny!!!! The guys, who thought we were overreacting, came running to get into the pool, but stopped when the water actually touched their bodies. Meanwhile - I'm baking in the pool (by choice). I discovered that as long as you didn't move, it was OK. So, we all gradually immersed ourselves and stayed very, very still. Then JoshUa, our resident brain child, found a spigot that fed cold water into the pool! It turned into a very relaxing, very enjoyable time with much laughter.

After our time in the hottest bath EVER, we headed downtown to eat dinner. We found this little place called Sirroco's, a small cafe-like bistro. When they couldn't accomodate (5) people, they ended up moving in a table from the outside and rearranging the chairs for us. It was quite nice. By this time, as you can image, we were all falling asleep. The little sleep we'd had on the plane, coupled with a long day and hot bath - we barely had the energy to eat our dinners (which were, by the way, delicious). We dragged our tired bodies back to the car and back to the hostel - where we crashed until just about an hour ago.

Now, well rested, we'll eat some breakfast and hit the road to Wellington. Today's agenda includes about six hours of driving through a mountainous region, a Maori museum and some hiking trails as we make our way to the other side of the island. For tonight's accomodations, we've rented a house.

I'll post pictures later! We are all very happy, very safe and very excited. The New Zealand people are very friendly and accomodating. The scenery is breathtaking. Can't wait to show you pics!


love you,
kendra

Ok, we are at the aiport and our first flight has been delayed to LAX. We only have an hour to make our connection.. So, hopefully no more delays.. Kendra already called Air NZ and asked them to hold the flight for us if we do show up late! Darn those washing machines.. maybe they were an omen.. (posted by Dave)

Well..

Here we are, about 17 hours until we all meet in the driveway of Dave's house. Hard to believe that by 1:30pmEST on Friday we will be de-planing on a runway somewhere in Auckland, NZ.

Today has been frought with all kinds of worries - first & foremost - the MP3 player that I purchased specifically for this trip BROKE today! ARRRRGH. Actually, to be honest, I broke the player. I accidentally kicked it while it was loaded into the USB drive on a computer at work. On my way today, my car stalled a few times (what's that about), and finally, after I started a load of laundry and was still in the basement - I realized that it wasn't spinning. It was whooshing and whirring... but it wasn't spinning. Uncanny, really, because Dave's washer is also doing the same thing. Are these all signs that I'm not supposed to go... or signs that I'm supposed to power through? That question is for naught, as I've already bought the tickets and made the arrangements and there is really NO WAY IN THE WORLD that I'm not going.

Still not ready to leave - I'm writing this instead of packing. All of the clothes I want to take are carelessly thrown into the suitcase I'm bringing, and I find myself wishing for a bigger one. How am I supposed to make a trip to the South Pacific with only one suitcase. Cruel and unusual, I tell you.

I'm off to make procrastinators proud by keeping the clothes carelessly tossed in the suitcase, and going to bed.... and lay awake for a few hours while trying to decide if I should purchase another MP3 player or not...


love,
kendra

Introduction

Hi there friends & family!

We are heading off to New Zealand this Thursday (cannot believe how quickly this is happening). I've established this blog, so that we can communicate pictures and stories and interesting happenings in somewhat "real time" while we are there. From time to time over the next ten days, I'll post a travel journal to keep you up to date with our adventures, states of mind and photos! Remember - New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of EST!!

Bookmark this site, checking back often to see the "haps!". Nadine tells me there will be internet access along the way, so I will update as often as I can.

Here is some information sent before, but I thought I'd post it again... so that you don't forget!

Travelers:
Nadine, Kendra, Kristin, Kate, JoshUa, David, Mark

Itinerary:

• March 4 - Arrive Auckland; Drive to Rotorua
• (Nadine & Kristin will branch off here & rejoin us in Wellington).
• March 5 - Rotorua to Wellington
• March 6 - Wellington
• March 7 - Wellington to Napier
• March 8 - Napier to Auckland
• March 9 - Auckland
• March 10 - Auckland / Hamilton
• March 11 - Auckland
• March 12 - Auckland / Leave Auckland / Arrive Detroit

Potential Activities

• Hiking
• Kayaking
• Black Water Rafting
• Boating
• Beaching
• Rugby Game
• SkyTower

Prayer List

• That we would have safe travel
• That we would experience Good Community
• That we would have Good Attitudes
• That we would have Joy!
• That we would have Gratitude and a spirit of Thanksgiving
• That we will be refreshed
• That we will be kind & considerate
• That we will make it a priority to spend time with God