Anyone would think I'm obsessed with sunsets!

I drove a friend to Richmond and back this afternoon and on the way home couldn't resist stopping to admire the view from the top of Princes Drive. It's a beautiful view at anytime of days, but especially when the sun is setting. Tonight I went to see "Chicago" with Emma and Elizabeth. It was a joint Nelson Colleges production and we knew a couple of the young people in it, from our church. It was an excellent show, very professionally done...and always fun to see familiar faces on stage. :) Hmm, what other news...oh, the guinea pigs had MORE babies. I've lost count now! They are pretty cute, like little brown teddy bears. I studied quite a bit today and am now ahead of schedule which feels good. By the time I go back to Canada I'm hoping to have all the online assignments done so I can focus on the main papers for the rest of the semester. Ciao for now, sleep is calling!

Haulashore Island and the Boulder Bank to the right in the background.

Sunset over Tasman Bay.

Friends

I've been busy catching up with friends over the last few days. This cutie is Eliana, my friend Jessica's baby who I met for the first time yesterday. Jessica and I have been friends since we were 7 years old, it's hard to believe we're "all grown up" now!

Eliana was full of smiles!

Here's Jessica, Eliana and I.

This is my friend Jodie - we met a few years ago when she was on holiay in Nelson from the States. She now lives here...and I live in North America!

These are my friends Loretta and Michael - Happy 24th, Loretta! :)

To the Beach again

Emma, Liz, Grace, Katherine, Sophie and I went to the beach this afternoon. We got fish and chips on the way down then spread out a blanket on the sand. It was lovely and warm and the snowy mountains could be clearly seen which is unusual as usually they are covered by fog.

Our picnic view!

Mmm, fresh fish 'n' chips!

Here we all are...

The colours were stunning today.

Fire Stick Action

Emma recently got a fire stick (it's kind of like a baton with spongy ends which you soak in kerosene and then light up). Here's she and Dad practicing their moves on the driveway.

Dream Farm

Last night I went to hear my brother Sam's band Dream Farm at Yaza Cafe. It was the first time I'd heard them play live and they were great (I even bought a CD!). Check out their tunes at www.myspace.com/dreamfarm if you're interested.

Alexa, Emma and Saskia

Dream Farm in action. Sam is at the front.

The guy in the foreground to the right had really long hair which looked impressive while he threw his head up and down - unfortunately in this picture he looks headless. ha ha.

Tahuna Beach

I went out for coffee with a friend this afternoon. While driving home I passed Tahuna Beach and it looked too beautiful to miss so I parked up and went for a walk. It was sooo lovely, I really miss the beach in Canada (the REAL beach that is - the lake shore doesn't really count!). I've spent many, many hours here walking and sitting and thinking and praying and parking over the years, at all times of the day and night.

Haulashore Island. The jagged rock to the right of it is "Arrow" or "Fifeshire" rock, named the latter because the Fifeshire ship ran up against it many years ago.

Sky reflecting in the water...

Liquid gold! Isn't it amazing? I could park myself right there forever.

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Poppet the Rat

This is Poppet, my sister Elizabeth's pet rat. She's sooooo cute!

Latest fashion accessory.

Love me, love me!

Okay, I think this is taking the rat-love a bit far!

Yo!

Love is in the air

Yesterday I went to visit my great-Aunty Bel in Motueka and met her "boyfriend," Max, for the first time. :-) Aunty Bel didn't know I was in New Zealand so she was surprised to see me! From left to right in the photo are Max, Mum, Me, Grace and Aunty Bel.

Parties and Pigs

My lovely friends Claire, Loretta and I at Claire's parents' 30th wedding anniversary celebration last week. It was so nice to be a part of - people married for that long these days are such an inspiration and testimony of faithfulness. My parents' 30th will be in a few years, too.

I went to church this morning and then had a pretty quiet day with my family. We just finished watching the new-ish version of Oliver Twist. Charles Dickens is a legend, I want to read more of his books sometime, I recently discovered he wrote a whole lot I'd never heard of before.

Tomorrow Semester 2 starts and I haven't received my course CDs yet so I guess I get an extended break. Fun now, but not so much later when making up for lost time!

My sisters have A LOT of pet guinea pigs at the moment, many of which are babies - they are really cute, I'll have to try and post some photos. They have guinea pigs of every shape, size and colour imaginable, I think there are about 17 in all. If anyone wants one, let me know - we may be able to arrange mail-orders. ;-) That's all for now, it's getting late. Ciao!

Trip to Christchurch for the Getsmart Conference

Here's the youth from youth group waiting for their dinner in the church hall they stayed in for the week.

This was taken early one morning from the top level of a carpark - it was worth missing the closer parks to see!

My friend Julie being a poser in the mall.

Jessie, one of the parent helpers and I doing a lovely self-portrait.

I just got back from Christchurch (5 hours South of Nelson) where I went with my old church to the annual Getsmart Youth Conference. It was great reconnecting with lots of the kids from church that I obviously haven't seen much of while I've been in Canada. Hillsong United was at the conference one evening, with Phil Dooley speaking, so it was like a smaller version of the concert I went to in Toronto a few weeks ago! My friend Julie also went down and I stayed with her at her mum's place which was great (sleeping isn't as easy in a hall full of teenagers!), it was really cool to have lots of time to catch up as the last couple of times I've been back in New Zealand she's been out of the country. Our time together was actually the highlight of the week, we had many great conversations (and skipped a few conference sessions in the process!). My cynical side sprang forth with a vengeance during the conference for various reasons I won't go into here and it was fun to have a cynical friend process things with. ha ha. Lets just say it was the complete opposite to the social justice conference I went to a few months ago in Toronto. I guess I am just tired of these kind of youth events that seem so limited to the four walls of the church and "inward" focused. Anyway, it was an interesting week and I'm glad I went. NEW ZEALAND COFFEE IS GREAT!

Hi from New Zealand! After lots of you asking me about my blog before I left for New Zealand, I decided I'd better resurrect it from its cyber-grave where it's been slumbering for the past few months.

I had a great trip home from Canada with smooth flights in every sense of the word. I even had two seats to myself for the 12 hour LA-Auckland flight which was a huge blessing. I got in several hours of sleep and a couple of good movies so I was in a great frame of mind when I arrived in Auckland at 4:45am! There was a momentary panic at the Niagara-Buffalo border on the first day of my trip when the customs officer LOST MY PASSPORT! Yikes. God bless America. All's well that ends well and I was most relieved to see that little blue book after they did a frenzied search.

Once in Auckland, I got the first flight to Nelson and then a taxi to my family's house. I walked into the kitchen at 8:30am on Thursday to my sister Grace's shock! Everyone else was scattered around the house and it was great fun seeing their reactions; Mum was speechless at first! Good times! We drove into town later to see my brother Tommy at his work, and Dad at his, then I saw my other brother Sam the next day. It's great to be back and catching up with everyone.

While it's Winter here, it's not as cold as I expected and as you call tell by the picture above, the weather is gorgeous and the beach is beautiful! You can't really tell in the picture, but the mountains behind us are covered in unusually low snow. In the sun it's about 14-16C so it's not too bad. Early mornings and evenings are a lot colder - I'd forgotten how chilly New Zealand houses are in Winter!

I went to church this morning and it was great to catch up with lots of people there. In a couple of days I'm going with the youth group to the Getsmart conference in Christchurch so that'll be fun, if not tiring. Based on past conferences, we don't get much sleep thanks to hyped up teenagers. I'll try to be tolerant though - I can remember when I was one of those hyped up teens on exactly the same trip! :-)

I'm just about to go out with Mum so will say bye for now. Love and hugs from New Zealand!

Oh, left to right in the photo is Sophie, Elizabeth, Katherine, me and our dog, Chloe.