Sunday, February 10, 2008

New Zealand or bust...

Wow, we are actually in another country. It doesn't really seem as different as I thought it would be. I guess I am living loving and laughing still so that...that is good. Since we have arrived in New Zealand, I think if anything it has been an emotional rollercoaster ride. I find that we tried to think of how it would be before we left Canada, and yes we guessed quite accurately but, now that we have actually felt these various emotions, it is harder than we thought. You can only live in the moment though right?
Anyway, we left Edmonton at a 'blistering' or do I mean 'blizzarding' (LOL) -35C, or so. The flight to Los Angeles via Seattle was ok, your typically sit and wait game. I really can't remember, I was snoozing most of the time.
Los Angeles was good, we arrived in the night so not to much to see other than the millions of lights everywhere.
The next day we woke up nice and early to go to Universal Studios. The night before we booked a tour bus for a ride there, and on the way there we passed either Hilary Clinton, or that Obama guy, both who are running for the presidential election in the USA. Our bus driver said that he only had ever seen that much cop cars and limosines when somebody like the president or "runners-up" were inside. So that was neat to see.
Universal Studios was a blast, we went on the Universal Studios Tour, and were able to see where they create most of the movies in Hollywood. There were many different backdrops, and studios, that was definitely neat to see. Probably the best show that we were able to see was the "Waterworld" Show ( the Kevin Costner Movie) ...there was explosions, sea-doo's, and various stunts that the actors did. All of the actors were also from TV shows like CSI Miami, and others.
One of the more exciting parts to my day was doing a skydiving simulation. There is a place at the Universal Studios City walk, where you pay to be able to go into a 40 feet clear tunnel, that has a gigantic fan on the floor so you are able to be airbourne and pretty much skydive. That was such a blast! We have some funny pics of my cheeks (facial..lol) flappen around. So yeah, I loved that.
Then it was back to the airport..again.
The 13 hour flight to Auckland New Zealand was much better than what I thought it would be, it actually went by quite fast. Sleeping always does that.
I do think that the flight was definitely the moment when the big change of life hit me. I had a lot of sudden worries, and felt quite stressed. So before I went to sleep I prayed that God would take them away. My biggest worry I think was having doubts about meeting new people, and being able to phone someone when we needed direction or help. (Both me and trav have wonderful families who always have been a phone call or drive away, but not in this new situation. ) So, yes this was my biggest stress. But...God works in wonderful and mysterious ways....because within 20minutes of being at Auckland airport ...we met Martha. A fellow Christian, and a definite answer to prayer.
Martha was going through a tremendous amount of stress, she is from Queenstown, NZ, and the person that she was travelling with was postponed by the immigration officials, and she was told that he might have to immediately go back to Brazil. We were sitting at a coin/credit internet kiosk, and I had just used the internet and had like 15 minutes left. So Martha comes up and asks me to help her figure out how to get on this kiosk thing, so I just told her to forget about paying and just use the rest of my internet time. So she uses it, and finishes, then tells us what has happen to her. So a few minutes later, we both know eachothers stories of how we are there, and how we all are Christians. Anyway, we helped Martha out, and she offered us a place to stay at her brand new house in Queenstown. Later, her friend was let through to NZ, so another prayer was answered!
We knew that Queenstown was a huge tourism hub for NZ, and Travis would more than likely find work. So, we hitched another plane to Queenstown that afternoon. Arriving in Queenstown was wonderful, it is a town (actually a few together- spread out) that surrounds a lake, and is surrounded by mountains, and has +23 degree weather. We then found out that it would be a few days or a week until Martha could have us stay with her, so after an hour we found out that we could stay at Pinewood a hostel, which had a private room for us. So that was a relief.
So we stayed there for a week, we lived day to day for sure, we found that Queenstown is very expensive unless you know where to go. So, we knew that we needed to find proper accommodation and get to know more people.
Work for Trav, has definitely been the 'emotional' part of this journey. We called and emailed many people, and many of them took days to reply. So, trav def. was stressed out everytime he opened his email account to find nothing. Many times he has said sorry to me, for getting us into this situation, but I think that it is right where we need to be. This is making us rely on God more and more, and also more on eachother for support, and encouragement. I think when we are more settled and have things figured out, we will look back and think it definitely was worth it. Everything is already getting better for sure.

Anyway, I have this whole last week to catch up on, but I will do it in increments. So c-ya.
Oh, and I cannot forget the NZ goodbye ....Cheers Mates!

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Nelson Mandela