Questionable Authority

I am trying to put my finger on the one general occurrence that hurt/upset/angered/etc. me at DTS. It is really hard to pinpoint any one thing, even generally, because there were so many, but the one that I have been ruminating on today is the leadership that was lacking at my YWAM base. I think that the leadership was very much corrupted by selfishness and pride, which blocked some of the 'authority figures' from doing God's will, and lead them to do their own selfish will.

I keep thinking about a particular person from my favorite summer camp who was/is an outstanding leader. Let's call her Bops. And I keep comparing the staff and director of my DTS to her, and I can see why I was so upset during DTS. Bops spends every summer (and a good portion of the rest of the year) dealing with people who are, for lack of a better term, nineteen-and-useless. This is a term we used at camp to describe counsellors who were 19. When you turn 18, you get to be an adult. When you turn 20, you don't have to be an obnoxious teen anymore. When you turn 21, you are legal pretty much everywhere (especially Las Vegas). But when you turn 19, what are you? Useless.

The whole nineteen-and-useless thing was kind of a joke, but also kind of totally and completely true. Generally, the first-time counsellors are 19. And generally first time counsellors are a bit useless until they get the hang of it and mature a bit. I think back to my first summer at camp, when I was 19, and the rule definitely holds true for me.

Anyways, Bops spends all summer every summer mentoring and guiding these useless 19 year olds to become useful leaders who can take care of children and teach them useful skills. And every summer she succeeds. She succeeds because she leads with such grace and love. She is still the boss, and knows when to put down her foot. But she is also a friend and willing to be hilarious and have the funnest times. She has the amazing ability to push you in the direction of growth and maturation without actually commanding you to do anything. She is completely fair in the way she treats everyone, no matter how annoying they are. And she is so forgiving, and never holds mistakes against anyone. She might joke about it, but she won't hold a grudge or use ridiculous punishing tactics.

So, I learned to lead from one whom I am proud to say is an amazing leader, and Bops is the standard that I hold myself to, and others as well. Unfortunately, the director of my DTS was not as gracious and loving as Bops, and she liked to rule with what I like to call TOTAL CONTROL. Or in other words, a totalitarian dictatorship. Everyone had to submit to her rule, and any question of her authority was means for dismissal, or more likely, an exorcism. Even if she was being unfair, or if she was trying to shove some unbiblical teaching down your throat and claiming that it was the word of God. Really, not much in common with Bops, except that we will refer to her as B, and Bops starts with B. But don't get the two confused because there is no relation.

I still can't quite figure out the reason that B had such a vendetta against me. I hope that vendetta is the right word, I don't actually know what it means. It just sounds right.

BAHHAHAA I just looked it up on google and this is what popped up:

ven·det·ta

venˈdetə/

noun

1.

a blood feud in which the family of a murdered person seeks vengeance on the murderer or the murderer's family.

Pretty accurate.

HAHA obviously I am joking. (That Canadian sarcasm coming out that is apparently such a sin, I apologize..... Not. Oh Sarcasm, how I love you). But B did pursue me with the bloodthirstyness of one that had been thoroughly offended, and she did try to force her beliefs on me in a very non-loving way. A way that could almost be described as abuse. She repeatedly called me into her office, always finding little things about me that needed to be broken off by prayer. At first it was fine and I was open to it, but after a while it just got exhausting and felt like she was tearing me apart completely and didn't feel right. She even called me to her office because she heard that I had read Harry Potter and therefore had decided that I had an obsession with the occult. Ummmmmm, no. That was the final straw. No more 'prayer' allowed.

All joking aside, I think that she was offended because I did question some of her teachings. And she saw it as rebellion against her authority. When in reality, I am just a person who questions everything and researches new ideas thoroughly before accepting them as correct or as part of my beliefs. And I am especially questioning when it comes to matters of faith and christianity in general. It's just the way that I am. And it is healthy to question things, that way you can be sure that you don't get sucked into anything sketchy.

I really just wanted to be sure that I was getting the biblical truth, I didn't want to 'rebel against authority' or whatever. And B did teach a few things that were her extrabiblical interpretations, and I did not accept them simply because God is the ultimate authority, and the bible is the source for His word, and His Word did not corroborate B's. However, I did consider her teachings deeply and pray and read scripture to come to a conclusion before accepting or rejecting anything. And this was the reason that B picked on me so much, at least that is the only reason that I can think of for her unjust treatment.

So, in conclusion of this thought stream, I think that B's treatment of me, and her use of her position to manipulate and oppress and even abuse, was the center of most of my resentment. So I get to work through that now. Awesome. Stay tuned, or not. Whatever. I don't mind.

First blog post in almost a year... and the start (or continuation) of a journey

It has pretty much been a year since my journey at YWAM "ended". It ended in the sense that I got to leave Matamata behind forever, and the people too - at least I had hoped. Even though there were positive things that happened to me there, all I seem to be carrying with me are the bad. I wasn't allowed to post in my blogs about any of it, so I don't know if anyone really realized that I was dealing with some pretty awful stuff. At least 'awful' in terms of my heart and my spiritual growth. And by that I mean things preventing me from growing spiritually, and hardening my heart towards God and the people that were with me at YWAM.

Today I had the pleasure of talking to one of the few people that walked with me through that time and didn't leave me bitter and full of hurt. And today was the first time that I really was able to talk about what happened to me a year ago. I have been too upset to even really think about that last months of my DTS, when I left that place I was filled so full with anger that I didn't know what to do with myself, or with my anger. I am no longer angry, but it still hurts me deeply to reflect on outreach and DTS, so I just don't think about it. I have been having so much trouble processing everything that I just shut down and stopped.

When my old friend called on me today, she offered me the opportunity to talk about the way I was treated and how it made me feel. I have to admit, when she first said she wanted to talk about something important I was a little worried that I was going to be rebuked and blamed and potentially told that demons had strongholds in me or something ridiculous (only because that is the only feedback I received during outreach). But I was intrigued, and I was amazed by the things she said to me, she really affirmed me and gave me an apology on behalf of the people that should have been apologizing to me. I guess it was God's way of telling me that it's OK. I am not as evil as I was lead to believe by some of the people at YWAM. And even that I was right in feeling that I was being treated unfairly and even abusively, because I was.

And today I cried. A lot. A lot while I was on skype with my friend, and a lot after, and a lot right now. But they are healing tears. I don't think that I have cried yet about my negative experiences. I yelled a lot, and hit things, and stewed in my own anger, but I have not yet cried. Let me reiterate that it has been a year. I never really realized that those people had truly truly hurt me, I guess I was just masking my hurt with anger, not only hiding it from other people, but from myself.

Now, I am sure that anyone reading this that was not on my DTS might not understand what any of this means, I bet some of the people on my DTS don't even know what this means. But this blog is for me to process my feelings and experiences in an honest and real way. I believe that this blog was a big part of the growth that I experienced in the very beginning of my DTS. But as soon as the 'authorities' took away my freedom of speech, I was no longer able to be real in my writing. I only grazed the surface - the things that happened that day, some funny stories, but never anything to do with my feelings or the things that were happening within my heart.

So I guess what this means is I am ready to process for real. To remember the events that upset me, and come to terms with them one way or another, so that I can return to a full relationship with God. I need to let my heart soften again, even towards the people that hurt me the most. I don't know if that is possible without their apology (but I don't think that will ever happen), I don't have too much faith that they will be able to humble themselves because they were the 'authority' so they were obviously right. (I am sorry, that was snarky, but it's truly the way the leadership behaved, so I am not going to untype it).

I am sure that by re-openning this blog I will offend some people, but that is not my intent. My intent is to be real and honest in the way that I feel and the way that I remember things or see things. So beware that the following posts will be uncensored, so if you don't want to hear it, don't read it. This is for my spiritual wellbeing. Maybe forgiveness will come, maybe healing will come.

Yes, friend-that-I-talked-to-today - you can pat yourself on the back <3

The Last Supper, Time Warps and Life in Limbo

Well, it has been a while since I have written! I have been unsure of my state of everything since I have arrived home, and I have not been sure what to write. But, like every unfortunate assignment, eventually you have to put something on the paper. I still have so much processing to do. I thought that I would be able to summarize my experience when I got home, but I don't think I will be able to summarize anything for quite some time. But I can still write about the trip home!

Let's see what my memory has stored...

My last day in New Zealand made me not want to leave. Rich took us for fish and chips on the beach. It was beautiful and delicious. I truly miss the chips in NZ. Canada just can't quite figure out how to make fries. Which seems weird because all you have to do is throw them in a deep frier, but what do I know? Oh well, one more reason to return to NZ in the future.

Rich actually had a whole date night planned for us. First was 'tea' on the beach (tea is supper in NZ speak), then was cliff climbing on the beach. It was so beautiful. I am a bit scared of heights but it was still awesome. And I didn't feel so bad because I found out that Schnegg is possibly more scared of heights than me! Mwahahaaa. So we watched the sun set from atop the cliffs and had a last dip in the ocean. It was the perfect way for Rich to make us feel really bad about leaving!

And then on Thursday March 7 (the longest day in the history of my life), the taxi man came and got us and dropped us at the airport with our mountains of luggage. And Schnegg, Marit and Elisa caught their plane around lunch time. I caught mine at 11 PM. So I had a very eventful day at the airport.

First I worked on getting my bags checked. I was flying with Air New Zealand. They are sticklers for baggage weights. So good thing I was there 12 hours early. The girl made me move stuff around from bag to bag in order to make sure that they weighed 23 kgs. I had two bags to check, plus a guitar and a carry on suit case and purse. The carry on could only weigh 7 kgs. That was hard considering the suit case itself weight 5 kgs. So I essentially took everything out of it and put the stuff into my purse. I don't understand why they make people do that, but whatever. So I had an empty suit case and a purse filled with everything, including a ukulele. Fun times. But eventually it was all good and I got to go sit in the food court for about 9 hours before my plane left. Good times.

Eventually I got on the plane and I watched the Life of Pi, then I decided that it would be fun to watch all of the Lord of the Rings. I think I got 15 minutes into the first one and then I fell asleep. I got a window seat, which was awesome, and the plane was kind of fancy, and you could put up a foot rest thing, so I just curled up with that and it actually wasn't too uncomfortable. And I had my awesome eye mask so that I could sleep in darkness.

I mostly slept good, except there was a lot of turbulence, so every now and then I woke up and prayed that the plane wouldn't crash and that I wouldn't die. And I it didn't and I didn't, so that's good.

After an 11 or 12 hour flight, I made it to LAX, where I got to hang out for 5 or so more hours before the plane to Calgary left. I don't remember what I did. I think I went to the bathroom and got a Starbucks. So much fun.

The flight to Calgary was about 3 hours, and I got a whole row of seats to myself, so I curled up and slept most of the way to Calgary. And finally I got home at about 11 PM on March 7. I think that all together March 7 lasted 44 hours. It was a LONG day. But it ended well with Mom, Vicki and Gord greeting me with a welcome home sign and some Tim Hortons. Ahhhhh the taste of home.

Since I have been home I have felt really weird. I feel like everything is the same but I'm not really the same. I don't really know how to put the way I feel into words. Everyone asks "How does it feel to be home?" And I really don't know how to answer that question... Good? I guess... It is kind of like when you wake up from a dream and you find yourself in your bed and you are kind of relieved, but at the same time you wish you were still dreaming...

But I have been feeling better and better about being home as time goes on. I have been meeting up with a lot of friends which is nice, so I don't feel so alone after 6 months of constantly being surrounded by friends. And finally this past weekend I was reunited with my Jeep, Clyde.

Clyde spent the winter in my Uncle's shop up North. He was probably pretty lonely. But at least he got to be parked inside and not out on the street in the snow, which is where he would have been if he had stayed home. But, I was actually disappointed in the snow here in Calgary. There was a bit of snow when I arrived, but it was the kind of snow that is hard and sucky. The kind that has been there a while and half melted, then froze, etc. And there was a lot of grass visible. So I asked myself "where is all the snow?!?!" Well, I found it this weekend.

When I went to retrieve Clyde I found that the country up around my Grandma's house and my uncles houses has SO MUCH snow. Some of the snow drifts are as tall as me! And it is COLD up there, like -15. In Calgary it has been mostly above zero. I was glad to feel the cold on my nose and in my lungs. My favorite smell is the smell of the morning in winter. When you step outside and it is still dark out and you can see your breath and the air smells crisp and fresh. Mmmmmm. Love it. So I finally got to smell that smell and now I actually feel like I am home.

Overnight Logging Routes, Fancy Cars and A Room Full of Luggage

Time is going so FAST! It is already Wednesday, and I leave NZ on Thursday... TOMORROW! I am so excited! So excited that I actually am having fun packing. You know that you have been away from home for too long when...

On Monday we celebrated Hannah's 19th birthday! We had a lovely brunch of pancakes and such things, which I did not partake in, unfortunately. And we went on an adventure to see the Orca pod that was supposedly in the harbour, but alas, we were too late to see them. Dangalang.

In the afternoon, Hannah's amazing mother drove Marit and I to the Wellington Airport to pick up our free relocation car that she hooked us up with. It was a big, white, fancy Ford sedan of some sort with a huge hatchback to fit all of our stuff. It was beautiful. And unlike our crapmobile, Sunny, which we had on the south island, this new car could make it up hills without slowing down to 5 km per hour and we were able to go faster than the big trucks. Woah. Livin the life.

So we took off and drove about 6 hours to Taupo area, and searched for somewhere to camp near Mount Doom. We eventually found a cosy spot just off of a gravel road that appeared to be an obscure and rarely used gravel road. Kat had been wanting to freedom camp the whole trip but hadn't got the chance, so we went for it. We pulled over off of the road a few feet and pitched a tent. The ground was just perfect for tenting and sleeping on the ground. It was lumpy, with lots of random sticks and branches jabbing out and lots of random holes in the ground.

In the night, we were woken up probably ever 30 minutes by big semi trucks driving by hauling logs. We would see bright lights approaching, and the ground would shake as though there was an earthquake, and it always seemed like the truck was gonna come and run us over. Let's just say that none of us really slept. But we did learn a valuable lesson - don't tent on logging routes.

In the morning we drove by mount doom to get some photos. It was really cool. And so fitting that Mount Doom was the last site to see on our journey. I felt like Frodo at the end of his epic quest, finally seeing the end of his journey in the distance and knowing that he was almost finished. And that is the same for me. My long journey in search of God and other things has finally come to the end, of this chapter at least, and I can go home really soon. It is bitter sweet. But I think the sweet is overpowering the bitter at this moment in time.

After another many hours driving, we made it to Matamata to drop our borrowed tents off at the base and pick up the luggage that Kat was storing there. We went first to town and visited the ATM and I went to say farewell to my buddy Dublin Del and got my last delicious latte from him. We arrived at the base just in time for lunch. And we got to meet some of the new students.

It was pretty weird to be honest. But I was pretty excited because two of the youth that I worked with over outreach were supposed to be doing their DTS now. So I was so jacked. The first guy to come out and say hi was Rayner. Yay! He was one of the youth from up north that my outreach team conned into doing a DTS. And I was expecting Jackie from Fiji and I was so excited to see her, but instead another youth from the north came outside and shocked the pants off of me! Patty. He was supposed to be off somewhere else in the world doing work for God, but he ended up at Matamata. Pretty exciting!

We got to say hello and goodbye to the staff and Marit got her camera back. And then we took off to get our car to Auckland airport in time! We got the car there about 1.5 hours late, but no one seemed to notice. Praise Jesus. And then we hung out at the airport trying to decide what our next move would be. We could either stay at Kings Kids in Auckland for 2 nights, or get a ride for about an hour out to Rich's house and stay for 2 nights. We finally decided to take a taxi by Kings Kids to pick up our stored luggage and then get dropped out at Rich's house.

We got to Rich's at probably around 7:45 pm. We had assumed that although he has a job, that he would be home by 5ish. But there was no one home. So we loaded all of our luggage out onto the lawn and had a worship session on his front lawn. We worshipped for a long time. Eventually it got dark out. We got out our sleeping bags to keep us warm, and waited. Every car that approached got us all excited, and then it would drive by. We were almost ready to move all of our stuff into the back yard and sleep under the stars when a car approached, and didn't drive by...

Rich and his mom pulled up. All they saw was a pile of stuff in their yard and five bodies laying around. I think they just about had a heart attack. They thought someone robbed them and trashed their house. Nope. It was just 5 YWAMers creepily waiting around and inviting themselves to stay over for a couple of nights. Bahaha. They were relieved though, and brought us inside. All of our luggage literally took up the entire spare room. Haha.

But the highlight for sure was sleeping on the couch. I have slept on the ground every night for the past month, and that couch made my life so much better! I slept like a rock. It was beautiful. I can't even describe the amazingness that was sleeping on Rich's couch. Glorious. Praise Jesus.

And now we hang out until tomorrow when we return to the airport, for real this time. I'm so excited to get home and see my family and friends!!! My sister has been posting on my wall every now and then saying that she misses me. Now, if you knew my sister and I you would be shocked by this occurrence because mostly we fight and often I wonder if she even likes me. But she does because she misses me! Mwahahahaha. Mission complete. I miss her too and I can't wait to see her!!!! And to show her how much more tanned I am than her! :P

Trailer Park Men with Good Memories, Meat Pies and Cuba Street Performers

Time is flying here in New Zealand. Somehow we have made it from Oxford to Wellington. It all seems a blur in these last few days. All that seems to have remained in my memory is a long drive from Oxford to Picton, tenting at our campsite in Picton, a Ferry ride to Wellington and a relaxing time with the Robinsons.

In Picton we visited our old haunts. We had supper at Subway - the same subway where I had my first bite of chicken in many years. Then we went to the old ship for a beer - a ginger beer to be precise. I think that I am wishing to be a child again so that I wouldn't have to decide what to do with myself. Maybe if I continue to have ginger beer when I could have real beer I will revert back to a 10 year old. I think it could work. Then all I would have to worry about is remembering all of my beanie babies names and who to invite to my birthday party. I wouldn't have to decide what to do with my life.

We camped at the same campsite as we did a few weeks ago when we first got to the South island. There were some old hippie guys that live there and they recognized us. Hmmm. Creepy? Maybe. Good thing Schnegg sleeps outside of our tent doors like a guard dog.

On Friday we dropped off good Ol' Sunny the Nissan and took the Ferry across to Wellington. It was pretty uneventful. There were some dolphins playing around in the water by the Ferry. So I guess that was exciting. They had gluten free pies, so I decided to have my first ground beef since 2008. It wasn't all it is cracked up to be. I still don't like meat. Fancy that.

Hannah's sweetheart mom picked us up at the Ferry terminal and brought us home! We got to see Henk and Noemi and Kat! And Hannah's poor family took us all in - all 8 of us crazy YWAMers. We cooked the family some dinner that evening. It was lovely and the next day we explored Wellington. Hannah took us to her favorite street - Cuba street. It is a trendy little street with amazing coffee and good Opshops. I was amazed at the prices in the Opshops. Thrifting in Calgary is so popular/trendy that it is actually expensive to by second hand stuff at the trendy little thrift shops, but in Wellington the expensiveness has not caught on quite yet. I bought a few things that I am quite excited about. I hope they will fit in my luggage...

There were lots of random buskers out and about on Cuba street. There was this one guy who could beatbox like dubstep. It was so cool. He was so good that I gave him a dollar. Lucky guy. We also sat down for a bit to watch a performance. There were two girls performing in the street. They were like those circus performers that twirl around while hanging on ropes. We thought it would be sweet. And the beginning was, they just did some acrobatics and such, but then it got weird. One of the girls started to strip down. And there were children watching. It was so strange. She was already only wearing a skin tight body suit, then she took it off and was only wearing a bra and panties. And the other girl stripped down to a nude suit and stuffed the crotch to make it look like she was a man. It was so weird. We left. So I don't know how the performance ended. I am glad that I don't know.

Then we said our farewells to Noemi, Henk and Rebekah who caught the bus up to Aukland, and they are leaving today - the 4th. Schnegg, Marit, Elisa, Kat and I are still at Hannah's. Yesterday we went to church and then had lunch with her family. It was really fun. Then we ordered pizza and watched a movie.

Today is Hannah's birthday! She is 19 today. I actually can't believe that she is only 19. We are going to have some breakfast together soon - pancakes and scrambled eggs for everyone except for me! Haha, I get the usual oat meal. Mmmmmmm. And then this afternoon we are getting a FREE rental car to transport us up to Aukland. Sweet As, Bro. Hannah's family knows a guy who works at a car rental place and he hooked us up with a free relocation car to take from Wellington to Aukland! And it is BIG! So we can fit all our stuff. Sweet deal. So tonight we are gonna head to Taupo, stay overnight and hopefully catch a glimps of Mount doom before departing to Matamata and then to Aukland for our last days in New Zealand.

I can't help but be SUPER excited to go home. I just really really want to go home. But I think it is mostly just because I know that I am going home soon. It is like when you have to go to the bathroom. When you are not near a toilet you don't have to go AS bad, but when you get closer and closer to a toilet, you have to go worse and worse because you know that you can. It is like that for me and going home.

But the thought of going home is bringing up thoughts of the future. What will I do? Who knows really. I know that I need a job, but where? And I could take my MCAT so that I could apply for Medical school at some point in the near future... I don't know. I wish that God would tell me. But I think it is one of those things where he would be happy no matter what I do, so I should do what I want. Ughh. I guess I will be able to figure it out though...

The Steepest Road in the World, Awkward Church Barbecues, Sun Burns and a Welcome in Oxford

Steph's adventures on the South Island have almost come to a close. I have two more nights before I catch the ferry to Wellington. It is bitter/sweet I suppose. I love it here, but I am so ready to go home. But, I will be home in 8 days and I know that as soon as I arrive I will be sad to have left New Zealand. However, there are SO MANY things that I am excited for at home: SNOW, Parents, Meine Schwester, Mes Amis, My BIG BED with MEMORY FOAM (no more thermarest on the ground in a tent, which I roll off of every night and wake up with something hard jabbing into my back), REAL FOOD, Clyde, My Clothes, Snowturd, TV, UNLIMITED WiFi, So many other things mostly related to normalcy...

A few days ago (who really knows how many???) the little crap-mobile Nissan Sunny barely made it up the steepest street in the world. But he did it. And we didn't die, and the car remained relatively scratch free - however, the roller-coaster-ride spent 1/8 of a tank of gas. I guess it was worth it though.

On Sunday, we went to Church! Surprise! We went to C3 Church in Dunedin. It was such a cute little church in an old brick building, and most of the people in the church were students. I guess that Dunedin is mainly a University town. And it is so super awesome, filled with old buildings and lots of hills and lots of students! Some of the church people were having a barbecue at their house to kick off the new school year and invited us over. It was mostly awkward, but also awesome. I ate a sausage, my first sausage in many years. It was not good. Yuck. I don't like Kiwi sausages, no offense.

After quite some time sitting in a driveway eating sausage sizzles, we embarked on another long leg of our journey. All the way to Lake Tekapo. It was about a 4 hour drive. But on the way we stopped at Moeraki to see the round rocks. It's pretty weird. Just a collection of perfectly circular boulders on a beach. They are almost as tall as me, and perfectly spherical. It really looks like they were put there by extraterrestrial activity, but scientists claim that they are just rock bubbles. I'm not really sure how they made it out onto the beach, but I picture it like this: Back in the day when the volcanoes were still active (maybe they still are? I don't know), the volcano erupted and shot these massive boulders of molten lava up into the sky, and then they rolled down the hill, and hardened and landed on the beach.

And we camped at Lake Tekapo for 2 nights. It was the first time that we have been somewhere warm enough to wear shorts and a tank top since we were in Queenstown. I have come to the conclusion that if a place is far enough south for penguins to be wandering around, it is too cold for me. Lake Tekapo was lovely. We tanned all day one day. Lovely. It made up for the fact that all I had eaten in ages was gluten free pasta with tomato sause, or rice. Plain rice. Mmmmmm. And that's all that I ate in Tekapo too, but it's ok because I got to tan.

I tanned so much that I now have a very distinct line on the side of my face from my sunglasses. Sweet As, Bro.

And now we are staying at the YWAM Oxford base outside of Christchurch. It's really nice here. Way more homey than the Matamata base. And we get free WiFi and free laundry. BONUS! And the food is amazing! Last night we had chicken and potatoes. And for lunch today there was hummus and veggies (and pitas for those of us who can eat gluten). And then we went out for din din in Christchurch in a restaurant on the beach. It was good. I had steak. Weird. I haven't had steak in years. It tasted like steak.

We also went to this sweet mall in Christchurch that is made out of containers - like those train container box things. It's pretty neat. They put it up after the earthquakes. Way to go Kiwi's - making a tourist attraction out of a natural disaster. I was surprised though, there is still a lot of mess left over from the earthquakes. A LOT of the roads downtown were closed off, and there was a lot of collapsed buildings. It made it a little difficult to navigate!

Yesterday, I had an embarrassing moment. I really hope that no one noticed... When we arrived at the Oxford YWAM base, I changed out of my shorts into some India pants, just incase the shorts were not YWAM appropriate. I put on a pair of India pants that were not freshly clean. I proceeded to wear them all day, and then before bed I noticed that a pair of underwear was peaking out through the leg hole, and it had been for the WHOLE TIME. Oh man.

And tomorrow morning we drive to Kaikoura to see some whales and then on to Picton where we will spend the night before we drop our car off in the morning and catch the ferry! Woohooo!

Cold but Beautiful: Mishaps in the South

The south of the South Island of New Zealand is cold. Really cold. I am so thankful for my Raven -7 sleeping bag from MEC. Even though it is losing down quite fast, it still keeps my nice and warm. Marit is not so lucky. I think her temperature rating on her sleeping bag is +14. That's unfortunate considering it comes close to freezing over night and we sleep in tents. Last night Marit thought that she would be warmer if she snuggled up right next to me. And she was right. She was warmer. But I could literally feel her sucking the warmth out of the areas of my sleeping bag that she was touching. But on the bright side, we won't be heading any farther south. We are on our way back towards the North, and the warmth.

I think that it was on Tuesday that we left Queenstown. We picked up my shoes from the bungy jumping place and set off on the next leg of our adventure. We drove Southward-ish to Te Anau, stopped in for some information on camping, and headed West toward the Milford Sound. The Milford Sound is a Fiord. There are a bunch of Fiords on the south western coast of the south Island in NZ. I think that Milford is the only one that you can get to via roads with cars. I think there are hikes and canoe trips and such that you can do to see other Fiords, though. Anyways, we headed for the closest campsite to Milford, which was about 1 hour away from Milford. It was a pretty nice camp ground, considering it was one of the DOC sites.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) sets up little camp sites all over the place, and it costs only $6 per person, but it is not much of a campsite. Some of them have outhouses, but that is all. So this camp site was much like the others. It was on a beautiful clear mountain lake with rocky shores. We pitched our tent in the trees, and as the sun went down, it got COLD. We ate some supper and were sitting on the beach chilling (literally), when a guy walked by and said "Hey, come 'Yoin' us" and gestured towards a place where some other guys were sitting. I was intrigued by his accent, so I went over and asked where they were from. They were from Sweden. Cool! I haven't met anyone from Sweden here yet, mostly just Germans, so this was a nice change.

I sat in one of their lawn chairs (which was awesome since we always sit on the ground), and some of the Swedish guys lit a somewhat pitiful fire. But it was better than nothing. It even gave off a bit of heat once in a while, along with all of the smoke. I literally cried from all of the smoke. They had Swedish names. One guy was named Linus, when he introduced himself, though, I thought he said Lioness. Awkward. Then there was and Eric and and Isaac and Eimel or something like that. I couldn't really understand.

But the most embarrassing thing ever happened. Elisa and I had the bright idea to go star tipping. The stars were so beautiful that night, so it seemed like a fun idea. The only problem was that we were on a beach beside a freezing cold body of water. I volunteered to go first. Star tipping involves choosing a star to focus on, and spinning until you are dizzy, and then someone holds a flashlight and you try to run towards it. Generally this results in something hilarious. So I started to spin a good distance from the lake, just to be sure. Marit was the flashlight holder and insisted that I keep spinning for a ridiculously long time, until suddenly I see one of the Swedish guys jump in front of me and try to grab me. And then my feet were in the water and I was too dizzy to stop spinning so I pulled/pushed him into the water. We did an awkward little dance in the shallow water and then I landed on my but on the shore. It was SO EMBARRASSING. He was trying to save me like a gentleman and I got him all wet. Oh My. I wanted to stick my head in the sand. But instead I just laughed at myself.

Then Marit went and after she spun for a bit, I flashed the light at her and she just froze and tipped over to the side and landed on a rock. Bahahaha. And she was too embarrassed to come back to the Swedish guys, so I had to awkwardly make conversation. I was still mortaphied about getting that guy wet (he was the cutest one too). But I managed to get them to teach me a sentence in Swedish. I learned: Hej mitt namn as Steph. That is my name is steph. Swedish is pretty sweet. Anyways, eventually Marit and I made it back to the tent, and I just laughed and laughed for probably 30 minutes at the ridiculous star spinning fiasco. Oh man. So funny.

In the morning we got up nice and early and drove to Milford sound. It was a really pretty drive, through lots of mountains covered in rainforest. Then I took a ferry ride around the sound, no one else would go with me because they were too cheap. Their loss. I saw baby seals. It was so beautiful too.

Then we headed back down the road towards Te Anau, and on further towards Invercargill. And we found a really cheap (free) campsite. But the downside was that it was about 20 minutes drive off of the highway on a gravel road. But Marit had fun drifting around the corners. I think she really misses snow. The campground had minimal amenities. There was an outhouse, but no toilet paper. That is literally all that was there. It was basically a random field in the middle of nowhere. But the grass was nice and cushy so we had a good sleep.

Then we continued on our journey through Invercargill and on to Porpoise cove. Porpoise cove was so beautiful. The campground was literally right on the beach. And it was only $6.50 per person. A steal of a deal. And in the water, dolphins come and swim with you. So we got to see dolphins! But I didn't go in the water. It was SO COLD there, and SO WINDY.

And after a night there, we continued on our road trip. And we went to see the petrified forest that was just down the road from the camp site. It is basically just a bunch of rocks, but some of them have imprints from logs and such. Apparently, millions of years ago there was a big forest there and then a mudslide came and buried the forest, and now it is fossilized. Pretty neat. But the neatest part was that penguins live on the rocks there. And we got to see one! Awe yeah! But I actually felt really bad for the poor penguin. Because people go there every day and get their big cameras out and take pictures of the penguins. And that is the penguins' home. I would be so annoyed if people came to my house every day and started pointing and taking pictures.

And then we also stopped at Nugget point along our journey. It is a beautiful little peninsula (maybe?) with a light house and a bunch of nuggety rocks out in the water. So beautiful. And there were seals basking on the rocks way down below where we were standing. So much wildlife. New Zealand is perfect for animals like seals, dolphins and penguins to nest and have babies because there are no predators on NZ at all, so the babies can be safe!

And finally after Nugget point we made it to Dunedin, which is one of the bigger cities in New Zealand. It is so beautiful here. So many old buildings from the 1800's. I thought that Queenstown was my favorite place so far, but I think that Dunedin wins now. I would totally live here, except its kinda cold... says the Canadian... hahaha.

This morning we went to the Tunnel beach which is just outside of Dunedin. There is a steady downhill walk towards this beach, and near the bottom you have to walk through a tunnel to get onto the beach. It is so beautiful! We hung out there and took lotsa pictures! The beauty in New Zealand continues to blow me away every place we go! And this afternoon we are going to take Ol' Sunny for a drive on the steepest street in the world! Hopefully the poor little crap-mobile will make it...