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.