Looking to the Light

Long Time Coming...

So this update is a long time coming but hopefully well worth the wait. I don't think I put anything on here before our trip to New Zealand about the fact that Jordan is pregnant. I can hardly believe her cute little bump. I can believe even less that I'm gonna be a dad. I'm so excited for our little girl. We keep talking about a few names (Eden and Tyler are top of the list). Our baby is due June 21, 2008 and we're hoping we'll have most of the house and the yard all done before that.

Jordan and my mom have spent a lot of time painting our nursery and it looks so cute. Check it out here.

Day 11 in New Zealand

We left the hotel early in the morning for our dolphin cruise. We left the pier at Paihia for the open seas around the Bay’s 144 islands. It was so beautiful. James and I spent a lot of time on the bow (I think that’s the name of the front) watching the water as we sped along. It seemed like forever until we came along a pod of dolphins, but once we saw them, they were right up next to the boat. I think James took like a million pictures. It was really cool to see all the dolphins, but unfortunately we didn’t get to swim with them. Swimming with the dolphins isn’t allowed when there are babies in the group because baby dolphins have to feed like every three minutes and if they get distracted and miss a couple of feedings, then they’ll get hypothermia and die. Sad. No one wants that. So although I didn’t get to fulfill my lifelong dream of swimming with the dolphins, the boat ride was fun. I guess James will just have to take me somewhere else to swim with them. We headed back to Auckland afterwards and checked in early for our flight in hopes to get good seats. We spent the afternoon at this mall in Auckland, just passing the time. But the lame thing was that the stores all closed at 6 p.m. I don’t think that could ever happen in the States. We went to the airport with nothing else to do and spent a few hours there, reading and completing this blog. We’re going to start boarding in about 30 minutes, and we’re definitely ready to go home. The trip was amazing; we really enjoyed our time in New Zealand. It feels like so long since we first got here. However, I think it’s time to go home and get back to our everyday lives. It will be nice to be back in a familiar place with good food (not McDonald’s) and the same bed every night (although it’s smaller than we prefer). It’s time to refocus on work, moving, and the impending holidays.

Day 10 in New Zealand

On Sunday morning, we attended church at the Whangarei Second Ward. Unfortunately, the First Ward (where James spent most of his time) didn’t start until 1 p.m. and we couldn’t wait that long to get on the road. It was good to go to church and we enjoyed watching the Primary program. Little kids are so funny! After church, we made our way north to the Waipoua Forest which is home to many of New Zealand’s kauri trees. The largest kauri tree is named Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest) and it was huge. We passed through Opononi and continued on to Paihia, which is in the Bay of Islands. After settling into our hotel, we took a stroll downtown. I got some mango sorbet (not James’s favorite) and then we went to Waitangi, which is where the British signed a treaty with the Maori allowing them to keep the rights to their lands (which wasn’t always followed). At Waitangi, we visited the huge Maori war canoe (waka) and marae. We spent hours trying to find somewhere decent to eat dinner, but settled with a baguette and some spaghetti sauce from the store. Seriously. New Zealand food is horrible!

Day 9 in New Zealand

Jordan wasn’t feeling too well today. We woke up and started getting ready which started with Jordan tossing last night’s meal and finished with her tossing anything else in her stomach. From Hamilton we shot up to Auckland to go to the Otara Flea Markets with a brief stop for more tossing and a scoop of Pokeno ice-cream. We didn’t see much of interest in Otara but did run into President Kennerly who served in the Mission Presidency with President Mendenhall (and 3-4 other mission presidents). After leaving the markets we tried to grab lunch at a burger and fry joint we used to go to on my mission but unfortunately we must have been the only ones that went to it because it was gone. We settled for McDonald’s (for like the 8^th time). I think there is a high likelihood we’ll never eat at McDonald’s ever again. We then checked into our motel which was just on the other side of the Kamo road round-about from the flat I stayed at for the 8.5 months I served in Whangarei. Jordan slept for a little bit while I tried ringing Debi Birch a woman Elder Tanner and I taught and baptized. I spoke with her mom and step-dad and told them we’d call by later that evening. I woke Jordan up and we head to the Whangarei Falls and tried to go in to town for some shopping only to find every store was closed (it was 6 pm). We swung by Debi’s place and had a chance to sit-down with her and do some catching up. She’s getting ready to head over to Brisbane, Australia with her job. It was unfortunate to hear that she had slipped into inactivity and she gave us several excuses but ultimately it was just too hard and she didn’t care that much (not her exact words but pretty much what it boiled down to). A little disheartening but hopefully she’ll find her way back in the very near future.

Day 8 in New Zealand

From Thames, we traveled back to Hot Water Beach right in time for low tide. At a beach shop, we hired a spade (i.e. rented a shovel) and walked down the beach to the thermal area. There were probably about one hundred people either sitting in or digging holes. I guess there are thermal spots below the sand, and if you dig down a little bit, you’ll get a pool of warm water. James and I searched around for a spot of ground at just the right temperature. James dug around for a while and tried to adjust the temperature with canals of hot and cold water. The water in our pool was very hot, even though it was only a few inches deep. We left after a while and headed back down towards Thames and onto Hamilton. On the way, we stopped in Paeroa, where the famous Lemon and Paeroa (L&P) soda is made. Someone found some mineral springs in the town a while back and used that water to make the soda. We made sure to take a picture with the huge L&P bottle by the museum. We finally showered in our Hotel in Hamilton, which is where a large majority of the LDS members live. We caught up with the Jamiesons, a family James knew while serving in Te Puke, and had dinner at an Italian place in town. It was good to meet them and catch up for a while. Again, it was weird for James to see how much all the kids had grown up. In Temple View, we checked out the Church College of New Zealand (which is closing soon) and of course, the Hamilton New Zealand temple.

Day 7 in New Zealand

After waking up from passing out at the hotel-- from exhaustion (apparently sleeping at a hotel next to a late night pub is not such a great idea) we walked around town for a bit looking to buy some souvenirs but not only does New Zealand close at 5 pm but also doesn’t open until 10 am J. After unsuccessfully purchasing anything we drove up to Tauranga through Te Puke (the kiwi fruit capital of the world) and on to Mount Maunganui (Mao Au). We decided to hike up round the mountain which took about 40 minutes and had some gorgeous views from the top of Tauranga and the Mount. I do have to say Jordan was quite the trooper given that she is still pretty nauseous all the time. Hopefully she’ll feel better after her first trimester is over.

We then headed up the Coromandel Peninsula to check out Hot Water Beach and the Cathedral Cove. We found the Hot Water Beach pretty easily and saw that we’d missed the peak time for the Hot Water (around low-tide) and would need to come back the following day around 12:30 pm. So we tried to shoot over to Cathedral Cove only to see that where the map had suggested we hike from would take us 3.5 hours there and back. Since I’d been there before I recalled we’d gotten there a different way. We quickly re-navigated to a closer entry point and had only an hour hike (round-trip). Again Jordan was great on the hike and showed a lot of gusto hiking up and down the rolling hills on the way to the beach entrance. Once again we saw some more gorgeous landscapes.

After a busy day we were scheduled to meet up with the Rush family, a family that I became very close with while I served in Whangarei as a missionary. Brent Sr. was the Bishop of one of the ward’s I served in and he and his wife Laverne helped me and my companions more than they could ever know. Since serving in NZ they had moved down to Thames where Brent purchased his first McDonald’s where his son Angus is training to be a manager. We picked up some chocolates and flowers for them and head over to their home for tea (dinner) and catching up. While a lot had changed with Brent and Laverne and their family they were still the good people I’d grown to love so much on my mission. We caught up with them until almost midnight when we had family prayers with them and parted.

Day 6 in New Zealand

We flew back to Auckland early this morning and drove to Rotorua. Rotorua is in the central part of the North Island and is surrounded by geothermal activity. We went to the village of Whakarewarewa (which is actually the shortened version of the name) where we saw lots of hot mineral pools and geysers. For centuries, a Maori tribe has lived off of the land. For example, they were able to keep warm in shacks because the ground is so hot. They cook their food in steam vents and mineral pools. They even have a bathing area. It was pretty cool. Only about sixty people live there today, mostly earning money with tourist shops. We learned about the Maori traditions and culture and watched a song and dance performance. It was kind of like a smaller, less flashy version of PCC. James introduced me to kumara, a cousin to the sweet potato and yam. It was pretty tasty. For the rest of the afternoon, we walked around the town and relaxed at the hotel.

Day 5 in Aotearoa

We spent a lot of today in the car. We drove from Queenstown to Christchurch, making our total mileage on the South Island around 1,000 miles. That’s a lot of driving! Queenstown was so beautiful and the view from our hotel window was absolutely spectacular. We really enjoyed our time there. On our way to Christchurch, we passed by Mount Cook (the tallest mountain in NZ) and Lake Tekapo, both of which were amazing. Once you see something so beautiful, it’s hard to imagine seeing something that could top it. I feel like that every day, but we keep seeing beautiful things. The lake near Mount Cook was the most amazing color, like a robin’s egg blue. It almost looked like an impossible color for a lake. It was so gorgeous! The mountain reflected perfectly in the lake, too. Don’t worry; we took pictures.

We arrived back in Christchurch around 2 p.m. and checked into our hotel (the same one we stayed in Christchurch before).  We spent the afternoon checking email and watching television. We didn’t really do much sightseeing today; we mostly just relaxed. We did some laundry in the hotel basement, but unfortunately, the dryer didn’t really work at all. James and I worked our magic with the hair dryer and iron in our room to help as much as we could. We’re heading back to Auckland early tomorrow morning.

Day 4 in Aotearoa

I woke up and got ready for the day. Once Jordan woke up I went down to a local bakery to pick up some breakfast for us. After breakfast we hit the road and came up to Queenstown. Queenstown reminds me of a cross between Park City and Lake Tahoe. We walked around town for a bit got some lunch and then met up for our tour of the area. We went out to some of the sites where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. More beautiful scenery and it was nice for someone else to drive for a change J After we got back we watched a local touch rugby game picked up some dinner and just hung out/relaxed at the hotel room for a while.

Day 3 in Aotearoa

Wow I didn’t know it was possible to 1) Drive as much as we did today 2) See more beauty in a single day or a single moment (except when looking at Jordan). We left Omarama and drove about 2 hours to Te Anau where we stopped for lunch at Subway and then kept heading to the Fiordlands and Milford Sound. You’ll have to check out the pics I’m going to place on Flickr because words can’t describe how amazing it was. We saw some gorgeous lakes and mountains and skies. 

After driving to Milford Sound we came back to Te Anau and got settled in to our hotel and then went out for a walk around Lake Te Anau to see 3 of the only Takahe birds (cousins to the Pukekho) and watched the sunset over the lake.

I can’t believe Jordan and I have been married a year today. I am so lucky to have such a beautiful wife who puts up with my garbage all the time.