Day 3… Kaikoura to Nelson

We stopped along the way to Nelson for lunch at a national park. We hiked for about 15 minutes to a swinging bridge and had lunch overlooking a beautiful river.




After a long day on the bus, we arrived in Nelson at 3:30pm. Nelson’s claim to fame is being the sunshine capital of New Zealand and also the geographical center of New Zealand. We hiked to the top of the mountain during sunset and took pictures at the center.



Most of the bus hung out around the hostel after dinner, so the night was full of great conversation.

Day 2… Christchurch to Kaikoura

It always make you feel safe and secure when you cross a bridge with a maximum load of one person...

We boarded the Kiwi Bus at 7am, which was really 6am because of daylight savings time. If you can’t guess, I was not thrilled to “spring forward” twice in one year. The bus is nice and big with lots of friendly people. After one stop for breakfast, we arrived in Kaikoura around 11am.

Kelsey and I decided to take the three-hour hike around the peninsula. We ate a quick takeaway lunch from a seafood stand. I had a L&P soda with a Whitebait and egg sandwich. The fish still has eyes in the sandwich… I love when my food stares at me. Kelsey and I enjoy ordering different dishes and going halvies. She had a tasty Blue Cod sandwich. Because I lost my camera, I don't have pictures of our food, but we met a Whitebait fisherman who let us take a picture of his catch. This is Whitebait...


Check out the beautiful views from our hike… the Kaikoura mountain range took my breath away all day... and we saw seals for the first time!!

Skipping to the present...

It's really hard for me to reflect on my school life, but I'm working on updating the past few weeks. I didn't want you guys to miss the sick awesome vacation I'm currently on though. I typed this blog post when I didn't have internet. The [] marks are supposed to be pictures. However, I've lost my camera (and actually think it was stolen), so please pray for a miraculous recovery. Seriously! I have to get it back. So use your imagination when you see a [] and hopefully I'll fill in with some of Kelsey's pictures later.

Kelsey and I are doing a 14-day Kiwi Experience bus tour of the south island during our school holidays. We flew into Christchurch and arrived at our hostel around 11pm.

After a great night sleep, we woke up to explore the city. We ate a great brunch at Bailey’s Bar and Grill. Kelsey had hot cakes with a side of scrambled eggs. You know you’re a teacher when you notice the fraction example of your leftovers. I had Eggs Benedict with a side of fruit and yogurt. One of my favorite things about NZ is how cheap kiwifruit is.


After filling up, we rode the tram around Christchurch to get an overview of the city and take in some of the beautiful architecture.


We weren’t able to tour the Christchurch Cathedral because of a funeral, but we hope to catch a tour on our last day of vacation. Look at all the priests outside!
Check out the link below if you’re interested in seeing our upcoming stops: http://www.kiwiexperience.com/bottoms-up-backpacker-tour.aspx

We got free tickets to the Canterbury versus Northland rugby match. Kelsey and I know nothing about rugby, but it was fun to be around screaming fans and cheer a team to victory. We cheered when the Canterbury fans cheered and yelled when they got upset.




Then we went to Countdown (the NZ grocery chain) and bought cheap baguettes, meat, cheese, and other snacks. We took our food to Victoria Square park and ate by the river.

Christchurch is such a beautiful town. It reminds me a bit of Charleston, SC in its historical beauty and quaint personality. After watching a few episodes of Friends, we went to bed in preparation for our 7am bus start.

Namaste…

Week 1
If you were in my NZ classroom, that would be the children’s greeting to you each morning for the first week. First of all, I’m terribly behind on blogging. I now understand the difficulty of maintaining a blog. So many things happen in my day, and I think, “I should blog about that.” Then it doesn’t happen, but I promise to do better. Let’s start with Week 1 though.

My wonderful home stay family picked me up at the airport. I immediately began to notice the difference between a house of girls and a house of boys as Simon (7 years old) and Daniel (4 and over ¾ years old) raced down the escalator in the airport. Daniel’s age is very important because NZ children don’t start school until the Monday after their fifth birthday no matter when it falls in the calendar year. They just join an established Year 1 classroom, and the school determines their readiness for promotion at the end of the year. Needless to say, Daniel has a countdown to his birthday and is excited to join his older friends at school.

The first week of teaching was mostly observation. I LOVE my class! New Zealand is an incredibly diverse country. The 24 children in my classroom represent about ten nations of the world. Teaching here is fulfilling my dream to teach the nations in some really neat ways. Not to mention, everyone has adorable accents!

My first weekend was very low-key. It was raining (as usual), so I took the opportunity to rest, acclimate to the time change, and play games with the boys. Overall, it was a good way to ease into life here since I jumped into the classroom 48 hours after my plane landed.

I’m attending a fantastic church called New Hope Community Church. It meets at Point View School where I teach. It’s really neat to worship at the same place where I work… such a great opportunity. The people are so friendly. I’ve started attending a small group that meets at our house every Wednesday night. It’s great to fellowship and get to know people outside of Sunday morning. I’m very thankful because my home stay family attends church there as well. It’s very unifying to have our faith in common and share the same church experience.

Keep checking back… pictures and more updates coming soon!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

It's official. I am student teaching in New Zealand this fall. I leave on August 26th and will return on November 21st. I'm still feeling a HUGE range of emotions but overall I'm excited and very peaceful about going.

I will teach at Point View Primary in the city of Howick, a suburb of Auckland. My mentor teacher is Kay Morris, and she has 24 five-year-old students in her classroom. While this might sound like the beginning of a nightmare for some of you, I could not be more thrilled. I love teaching, and although I sometimes panic about being ready, I'm excited to jump in and start.

My home stay family sounds amazing. Gerard and Tina have two sons: 7-year-old Simon and almost 5-year-old Daniel. Their house is a less than ten minute walk away from Point View. We've emailed back and forth several times, and I'm so encouraged by their open and friendly personalities. Tina is a teacher at another school down the road, and her mentor teacher was also Kay Morris several years ago. Small world?

The more I research about things to do and places to see, the more excited I get. It's going to be an adventure. I love teaching, traveling, and being surrounded by kids, so I feel like this entire experience combines all of my favorite things. Will it be hard to leave my family, friends, and the great city of Athens? Yes. Will I miss being part of birthdays/things that happen here? Yes. The Lord has been so great to remind me of his faithfulness though. So many times in the bible, his people have a spirit of doubt or fear... Adam and Eve, Moses and the Israelites, Abraham, Elijah (skip a few years)... Jesus's disciples. Yet the Lord showed up for all of them and spoke. So I guess that's what I'm praying for... that in this season of being alone in a different land, that God will speak to me. I want to learn how to dwell more deeply with him.