Hello from 19 hours ahead in New Zealand! We flew into Auckland and drove 2 hours down to the city of Matamata and where we are staying this week in a YWAM (youth with a mission) camp. They have provided a wonderful place for us to stay with cabins and a tent area (I’m in a cabin…whew!). We are eating good food like Weet Bix cereal, fresh New Zealand plums, and the NZ cheese! My favorite things so far about NZ are all the locally grown and produced products. We’ve eaten “Kiwi” made ice cream with a yummy flavor called “Hokey Pokey” and the cheese here is seriously the best. We are down the street from the place they filmed Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings movies. Maybe I will get to visit a Hobbit hole while I am here!
The facilities staff is friendly. Some are Kiwis (New Zealanders) and others are from other places around the world like Slovakia, Scotland, and India. We learned a little NZ history. The country is very young and has a lot of Polynesian culture and influence. The Maori people settled here first and the British folks came to help set up government. It’s a well integrated society and although about half of the population will tell you they are Christian, they will also tell you that NZ isn’t really a Christian society at all.
Gas (or petrol) is super expensive. It was $1.63 NZD per liter which comes out to something around $4.75 USD per gallon. We will be moving tomorrow to our assignment for the month in south Auckland. I’ll write more about that once we get there, but we are supposed to have internet access…yay!
From beautiful New Zealand….bye for now!
P.S. I have pictures of the beach and the mountains coming soon, but we are on limited internet access right now, but be watching for some gorgeous scenery to come!
