TEA-01/2009 Halfway Already!

Hello!

Time is flying and we are already in week six, halfway through our TEA program. We have seen, experienced and learnt so much while we have been here. Since our last blog entry we have travelled with George from Christchurch to Queenstown, with various stops on our way and a 5-day tramp.

We left Christchurch on the 2nd of February and drove to the town of Twizel. On our way there, we stopped at the beautiful Lake Tekapo, with views of the Southern Alps in the background. There is so much beautiful scenery to be explored here in New Zealand. We like it!

The next day we went for a day walk by Mt. Cook up to the Hooker Valley Lake. On this sunny day, we were surrounded by glaciers. Gunnvá and George thought it would be a good idea to go for a swim, so they jumped in the lake with the icebergs, which had broken off the Hooker Glacier. It was not a long swim though because the water was freezing.

The water was freezing.

Bonfire on the beach in Kinloch.

And back on the road the next day, all the way to Kinloch, to camp for a night before heading of on our tramp in Fiordland National Park. This would be our longest tramp, going on the Caples-Greenstone track. First night we stayed at the Upper Caples hut, where we were literally being eaten alive by all the sandflies there. It was an itching night, but we enjoyed ourselves with the different people there.

Before the next day's seven-hour tramp from Upper Caples to the McKellar hut Hanné and Naomi thought we should have the 'honour' of eating burnt porridge. Not so enjoyable. But the tramp went quite well anyways. It was long, especially walking down off the saddle to the lake, it seemed like we would never reach the lake. We got to the hut and it was already packed, so we decided to make this our first night sleeping under the stars, and we slept well.
And the next morning we were served burnt porridge again, this time prepared by Eva and Timon.

Climbing down the long hill to the lake.

The next night we stayed at this same hut, but it was not as full, only four people plus the eight of us. We had a very good evening; talking to these people and solving different riddles. Among others, George's 'passing the sheep herds'-riddle which got everyone to use their brains for a while.

Solving the riddle.

Tramping in the rain.

Next day we were walking 5 hours to the next hut, Greenstone hut, in rain. But, we chose to have a good attitude. Arriving at the hut we were happy to see that we had flushing toilets – what a luxury. Again this night we had good conversations, and the matches for 'passing the sheep herds'-riddle also made it on the table. All the people from the previous hut were also at this hut. So we were really able to get into some deep conversations.

Next day we had a shorter walk out to the van. And we drove off to Queenstown. We have now been staying at a Christian camp in Queenstown for 4 nights and will stay here one more. We have been helping out a bit on around the camp. On our second day here we met a friendly man, who invited us to try riding on waterbiscuits and waterski behind his boat on the Wakatipu Lake. It was so much fun. We liked it!

Splitting & stacking wood at the Christian camp.

Norm and Todd took over after the tramp and George went back to Papakura. Todd will drive us up the west coast of the South Island these next 10 days. We are very excited about getting to know him.

Please be praying for the people we meet. We have met so many different people and we have been able to have very good conversations with them. Pray that God will work in their hearts and that they will accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Pray for us that we glorify God in all we do. Our goal is to glorify God and show him to others.

Pray for TEA 2 as they start their program today. And for our leaders, who will be traveling back and forth between the two teams for the next 5 weeks.

All our love,

Hanné, Eva, Rahel, Naomi, Daniel, Timon and Gunnvá (TEA-01/2009)