Hello everyone. Thanks for checking up on me... and sorry it's
taken so long to post this... So on Saturday, October 20th my DTS
school traveled to Castle Hill. It's about 50 minutes away from
Oxford. A little about Castle Hill... (yes it's from Wikipedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Hill,_New_Zealand) ... sorry...)
Castle Hill is a location and a high country station
in New Zealand's South Island. It is located at an altitude of 700
metres, close to State Highway 73 between Darfield
and Arthur's
Pass. It is private property and located within the Kura Tawhiti
Conservation Area.The hill was so named because of the imposing array
of limestone boulders in the area reminiscent of an old, run-down
stone castle. The front of ChristChurch
Cathedral in Christchurch is made from Castle Hill limestone. The
station was established by the Porter brothers, and later owned by
brothers John and Charles Enys. John Enys was a noted entomologist,
and friend of novelist Samuel Butler.
In 2002 it was named a "Spiritual Center of the Universe"
by the Dalai Lama. It is widely considered to be the epitome of New
Zealand's South Island climbing scene, where on any given day one can
find rock climbers bouldering
the unique limestone outcroppings.This area has recently seen more
visitors, as nearby Flock Hill station was used for the filming of
the climactic battle scenes of the 2005 movie, The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Flock Hill also has a huge number of climbable limestone boulders
though access requires a short certification procedure via the
internet, unlike Kura Tawhiti which, as a conservation area, allows
free access at all times. So now that you know a little more about
Castle Hill, here are some pictures of our epic journey there and
back...
I hope this link works as I couldn't directly put the pictures onto this post. If it doesn't please let me know...
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100943962984627945404/albums/5803135795720461921?authkey=CJHTqOCemNrZWg
10.25.2012
10.07.2012
Base Tour Video from Ben Murdoch
Hey again! So I did a little bit of searching and found this video made by a fellow YWAM'er, Ben Murdoch. Okay, the video is a little sketch and he doesn't really show a lot of the base but it'll do till I take my pictures and such. If you want to know where I live, my room is the first one to the left when you go up the stairs in the Main House. You won't see it in this video but just to give you an idea.
10.06.2012
Adventures in Christchurch & Mount Thomas & Oxford
Hello! It's been awhile but here's the low-down of week one...
Lots of just training and getting into the swing of things, like work duties... devotions... community living and all that fun stuff. On Friday night we went and visited Christchurch. We walked around and explore the city for a couple of hours. It was lots of fun! This morning (Saturday Oct. 6) I went with a small group to hike at Mount Thomas. Me and Carrie (she's from Texas) decided to not hike to the top of the moutain with the others so we followed another trail and ended up following a creek and sorta got lost but we found our path after some wandering around. It was definitly an adventure to say the least especially with the little bit of hail and rain :) And Sunday morning my school got to help play some games at the annual Spring into Oxford fair, a cute little fair with some games, crafts and some cool different shops. Lots of jewellery, scarves, clothing and soaps and lotions and the such (like Alpacas). Good times... enjoy the pictures, I hope to post some of the base shortly...
Lots of just training and getting into the swing of things, like work duties... devotions... community living and all that fun stuff. On Friday night we went and visited Christchurch. We walked around and explore the city for a couple of hours. It was lots of fun! This morning (Saturday Oct. 6) I went with a small group to hike at Mount Thomas. Me and Carrie (she's from Texas) decided to not hike to the top of the moutain with the others so we followed another trail and ended up following a creek and sorta got lost but we found our path after some wandering around. It was definitly an adventure to say the least especially with the little bit of hail and rain :) And Sunday morning my school got to help play some games at the annual Spring into Oxford fair, a cute little fair with some games, crafts and some cool different shops. Lots of jewellery, scarves, clothing and soaps and lotions and the such (like Alpacas). Good times... enjoy the pictures, I hope to post some of the base shortly...
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| View from the plane coming in.... |
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| View of outside Christchurch |
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| Earthquake damage |
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| Earthquake damage |
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| Earthquake damage |
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| Nathalie (she's from Columbia) |
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| Nathalie enjoying the flowers before supper |
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| A pretty tree where we ate supper |
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| Wandering the city... |
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| A cool Honda car that was parked on the side of the street |
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| Tyler (left; MB, Canada) in front of McDonald's and Chelsea (right; BC, Canada, no she's not photo chopped in) and check out the sign on the roof :) |
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| A cool chalkboard wall |
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| Personalized Coke bottles at the supermarket (Kevin and James are two guys from YWAM) |
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| View from a bridge. |
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| Underground coffee is pretty popular here. |
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| On the bridge |
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| Other direction |
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| Off the bridge as the sun was slowly setting. |
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| Just a street. |
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| A cute car... |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Mount Thomas |
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| Petting the Alpacas at Spring in Oxford, Val (left; Chicago, USA), Lisa (Norway), Allyson (Alberta, Canada) and Lily (BC, Canada) |
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| Spring into Oxford (a local annual event) |
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| Ruby (a leader of the Backpackers DTS; North Caralina, USA) |
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| Tyler (left; MB, Canada) and Chris (right; Oxford, NZ). Chris is a local contact with the base. He's not a student or a base/ school staff. He shows us some interesting local foods and gives us the low-down of whats good and what's not, he's like our translator but he doesn't really have to translate anything... and he's only around on the weekends because he is working to save up for his own DTS in April... He's a cool guy and good friends with Tyler :) |
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| Mountains by Oxford |
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| Lisa (Norway) |
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| Ceasar (leader (on the left) for Justice DTS; California, USA), Riley (middle; Ontario, Canada) and Cody (right; California, USA) |
10.01.2012
The First Day...
Hey, so today it was the first official day of school. Lots of learning about some basic YWAM stuff and different duties we'll get to do while here at the base. Lots of pretty exciting stuff. But I have to say that the food here is great. It is always really delicious and hearty. So good. One of my favorite things that I learnt since being here is about eating kiwis (the fruit, not the people or the bird, and it didn't happen today, more like 2 days ago...). A local Kiwi, Chris (he's not a student or a staff but more of a local contact, he's going to his DTS in Germany in April) was eating a kiwi fruit whole. So of course the guys thought that was cool and different and started eating them like Chris. So like it is I got challenged to eat a kiwi whole. It is SO good. Way better than I thought it would, and it's way less messy. I thought it was kind of cool. :) Just wanted to share a cool Kiwi/ New Zealand thing. Also I found out that the Tim Tam Slam tradition is pretty big out here too. (To bad I can't have them... and if you don't what a Tim Tam Slam is, I'm pretty sure that you could Google it). Well, it's time for an evening of staff testimonies so gotta go...
p.s.
please email or comment or snail mail me, I would love to hear from you, the encouragement would be welcome :) and please keep praying... God's definitely here in cool ways, but prayer is always good.
p.s.
please email or comment or snail mail me, I would love to hear from you, the encouragement would be welcome :) and please keep praying... God's definitely here in cool ways, but prayer is always good.
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