Photos #2 - landscapes, cars and a few other random things

The Huntly Powerstation

The new section of motorway in Auckland. I't's currently a toll road

the really high bridge spanning that section of motorway - don't see many bridges like this in NZ

coming up to the tunnels on that same piece of road.

about to go through the tunnel - you can also see what is sometimes referred to as a 'cheesecutter barrier' motorcyclists tend to call it that - and many want to see them removed from various sections of highway. If you want to know what I mean by that feel free to ask.

something completely different - the pile of photos we've been sorting through so mum can make the display she wants to for my birthday

Myrtle the turtle - Dad was looking after it for a friend. This was at feeding time - it eats shrimp and apple chopped into tiny pieces

The view of our church fromt he mainstreet side - the actual main entrance is on the opposite side to this

Not the clearest of photos - will put a better one up sometime - Dad's birthday present from me.

The Life FM (christian teen radio station of NZ) car outside Central Baptist Wanganui just before Youth of the Nation began

My uncle took us to visit a Lamborghini showroom

Will post some different and more interesting things sometime soon - but in the meantime what would your ideal holiday be?

Photos part one

Well the good news is my computer has been returned - and with all the information present - very helpful...BUT I have an assignment due in 2 days so am just hoping that it will continue to work well and that nothing will go wrong. Besides that, since I have my computer - I have the photos I took between Wangas and Auckland last week - different to the last time. These are in no particular order

In Maori, NZ is known as Aotearoa which means 'Land of the long white cloud' we certainly saw a lot of that on this particular trip - but what was different was how low the clouds were - at the middle of the hills instead of covering the tops

The turnoff to the Forgotten Highway

The railway carriage cafe in Taumaranui

One of the rail bridges

the Banana bridge - from a distance and close up

This is one of the bad areas of the Parapara - the road currently goes abound in a U bend - but one section has a huge washout meaning its currently only one lane (so traffic can only pass in one direction at a time) in order to eliminate this, the new road is being built as can be seen above, cutting across the U using a bridge, then cut into the hill, then another bridge

that same piece of road - you can see the road currently goes around where the small Ute is parked - the new route goes straight ahead - across the bridge and through the v gap that has been cut into the hillside

look at the small amount of almost white in the shade of the trees...what might that be? :D

and a little more (this could only be seen in the shaded areas where the sun hadn't reached yet)
and just a little on the road
and beside the road...what do you all think it might be? (sorry bout the clarity of the photos not being the best)

Mount Ruapehu in winter

the second tag...and a question

Firstly - another tag - from skittles
Where are your pants from? somewhere would be the logical answer to that
When was the last time you drank tea? Don't - Don't like it
Do you have any pets? no unfortunately - borrow everyone elses by petsitting :D
Who was your last phone call from? Uncle
What did your last text say, and who was it from? Plse answer - Uncle
What was your last notification?"this person also commented on that person's status".
Excited for anything? Possibly :D - you'll find out what at some point
What color is your couch in your living room? in Hamilton is beige, at Dad's is brown and Mum still 'will be getting one soon' ....its now 2 years after 'soon' began...
Do you play any instruments? keyboard
Were you ever in a plane?yup - 9 times just in the last 4 weeks - just for the trip to see Bluey - was really worth it tho :)
What was the last song you listened to?I actually don't know - being without my computer means I haven't been able to listen to music for the last week! :(
What is the closest red thing to you? Warwick 1B8 Exercise Book (don't know if you have anything called that in the US - basically just a book for taking notes in)
Who was the last person to write on your wall?Bluey's mother - on my return to NZ
Ready for Christmas? Dunno
When were you last to the movies?see tag below
What's your dad's name? Dad
Do you like Miley Cyrus?Agree with Bluey on this one - ?
How many kids do you want? not sure
When do you think you'll get married?I don't know
What kind of deodorant do you use? silly question
Are you close with your family?sorta
Does anything hurt on your body?not at the moment
When was the last time you laughed really hard?Probably when I was at Dad's
Does anyone like you? if you're talking guys, doubt it
Do you have any Facebook inbox messages?yes a number - but all read
Do you use capital letters? WHAT GAVE YOU THAT IMPRESSION?
What is one thing you want right now? My computer back and working properly
What annoys you on a daily basis? probably only one small thing
Who was the last person to visit you at your house? Family friends
Who's car were you in last? Mums

And finally one question that has been asked many times this week - and I'm interested as to what you all think - if you have an important decision to make, how do you go about it? what method do you use to help you decide?

A tag and a tale

1. What time is it? 5.44pm

2. What's your favourite memory? a few weeks back - getting to spend time with my best friend :D


3. What are you afraid of? Losing contact with one of my close friends and/or living a life that doesn't glorify God would be the main things


4. What is the most recent movie that you have seen in a Theater? Surf's up - haven't been there since 2007


5. Place of birth? NZ.


6. Favorite food? pizza.


7. What's your natural hair color? same as Blueys :D.


8. Ever been to Alaska? no - would like to go there to visit 'sirk tho.


9. Ever been toilet paper rolling? No - and why such a silly question?


10. Love someone? Yes


11. Been in a car accident? Yes. - tho not driving


12. Occupation? Student


13. Favorite day of the week? Sunday.


14. Favorite restaurant? St Johns


15. Favorite Flower? Unknown.


16. Favorite sport to watch? none really


17. Favorite drink? Mountain Dew, L&P, Orange and barley and lemonade, or water


18. Favorite ice cream? chocolate eclair


19. Disney or Warner Brothers? dunno


20. Ever been on a ship? Does a boat count? - tho actually yes anyway - took a tour of one in Wangas once


21. What color is your bedroom carpet? creamy browny sorta in two places, blue in the third


22. How many times did you fail your driver's test? none.


23.From whom did you get your last e-mail? Bluey.


24. What do you do when you are bored? music, TV, computer


25. Bedtime? whenever.


26. Who do you expect will comment on this? everyone hopefully.


27. If you could do only 3 things, what would they be? -Take one of my friends on a world trip, visiting all the others along the way, ending with us all together at Parachute Festival, -Help as many people as possible, -Do all I can to be who Christ wants me to be


28. Who is the person that you are most curious to see their responses? ALL OF YOU.


29. Favorite TV shows? M*A*S*H*, Monk, Get Smart.


30. Last person you went to dinner with? Would have to be people - Bluey and her family :)


31. What are you doing right now besides being on the computer? Isn't that enough? I'm doing an assignment as well as blogging


32. What are your favorite colors? Red, Black, Blue


33. How many tattoos do you have? none.


34. How many pets do you have? like pets but don't have any currently

35. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I'll leave that open to debate


36. What do you want to do before you die? See Bluey again, possibly visit some of my other online friends, see more of the non-christians who I know's lives changed for Christ, see the members of my family who are in london again - hopefully before my niece turns 5 - I want to do other things too but those are the ones I really don't want to miss out on.


37. Have you ever been to Hawaii? No


38. Have you been to countries outside the U.S.? I'm FROM a country outside there - but I can say I've been there now :D


39. How many siblings do you have? tough question - could be 0,1, 2, or 3 - will say 3 cause that includes everyone


40. Time this survey ended? 6.14PM.


Anyway Dad's going to London soon to see my sister, brother in law and niece. Have bought the little one another outfit for her second birthday - a tiny pair of red jeans and a little blue jacket with 'my bunny' and a pic on it :)

Hopefully will get a few photos of her wearing them :)

Here - but not here

So what's new? basically my computer hard drive has a broken disc in it. Right now my uncle's friend is in the process of getting me a new hard drive (and it'll be twice the size of my old one :D) but...in the meantime it means I only have a computer at Uni - I need my one back soon tho cause I have an assessment due next Monday and I know I work better on that sorta thing at home rather than at Uni - so please could you all be praying that I'll get it back very soon.

Big apologies to those of you who I was chatting to at Uni when Gmail decided it was going to keep logging me out - the problem has been rectified - so next time we talk I should be able to finish conversations properly. To those who I haven't seen - sorry bout that - hopefully I'll have my computer back soon and then we can chat

Hoping to post about my time in the States with Bluey later this week (likely as soon as I have my computer back)

Besides that, as you've likely guessed by now, I'm back at Uni. Second half of this school year - and once its over I only have about 3 more years to go :D. Am really looking forward to having it finished. Am taking 6 subjects this semester (double what most students take) so will be a lot of work - but at least it means ony 3 years left instead of 5 if I keep this rate up.

Anyway will post a longer blog post soon - but for now this computer lab is about to close so I'd better sign off. Can't wait to have my computer back!

Returning to NZ

What a time this has been.  I had an awesome time in America which Bluey and I will possibly fill you all in on soon ;) but on the 3rd it had to come to an end.  It was really hard to say goodbye after having spent such a fun time together - I can honestly say that I didn't want to leave - but unfortunately it had to happen.  

Bluey and her mother took me to the airport early in the morning on the 3rd.  Had a few hours there before an emotion filled farewell, after which I got on the plane to Charlotte NC.  It wasn't a bad flight, but it did run slightly late...so even tho I saw a shop with something a family member had asked me to get, I had to ignore it and continue at a fast pace toward my next flight which was already boarding when I arrived at the gate.  

That flight took me from Charlotte to Las Vegas and was the most turbulent of any flight I've been on so far - in fact the person sitting in the seat next to me said that she'd been around the world several times and been on too many flights to count but had never been on anything like that flight - it was the worst turbulence they'd ever encountered.  Anyway so that was interesting...and kinda crazy.  

Once that plane had landed I had to go through the Las Vegas airport to get to a different airline which left from a concourse on the other side of the airport.  It was a little different to all the other airports I went through tho cause instead of walking along toward the gates and then clearing security just before reaching them, you had to go through security and then had to wait at a 'station' for a train to take you to the part of the airport where the gates were.  That plane was half an hour late leaving due to it being late arriving at the airport, however it was probably the best short flight I've had so far.  It was a little turbulent to begin, but the crew provided so much info that none of the others did - also even though it was less than an hour long there was a short program shown on the TVs - timewarp (sorta like mythbusters in some ways).  

Got to LA and met up with members of my family who live there - they took me away from the airport for a bit - went to have a pizza and managed to track down some chocolate skittles to bring back to NZ.  

At 8pm LA time I was back at the airport and headed through to the flight back to Auckland.  That was the longest of all the flights I've been on so far at over 11 hours - was really cool tho - had 2 meals on the plane (just like on the way over - dinner #2 and breakfast #1) - and once again they were proper meals - not just snacks.  we also had our own mini TV's again with tons of channels to choose from, plus about 80 movies, the electronic games, documentaries and the real time footage of the trip - which showed things like airspeed, altitude, position, distance and time (both travelled and remaining) outside temperature...etc - was really quite interesting (that part of the journey was about 10500km by the way if any of you wanted to know). 

 

Anyway so I made it back to Auckland...and the first thing I remember from back there is 5 different people asking me if I was visiting NZ and how long I was staying and all - so it seems that even people in my home country can't tell I'm a Kiwi.  Everyone seems to think I'm American.  Also I met 3 people from Bluey's hometown including one who is on an exchange at Waikato Uni. Didn't really get to talk to them cause we were in different parts of the line, but still was unexpected.  Anyway so I got through passport control and then went on to baggage claim and customs where again Dad's policy of declare everything meant I got waived practically straight through.  My uncle was waiting for me just outside that area and after looking at the line of people waiting for domestic baggage transfers (it really was huge) we decided to skip that and take my suitcase across ourselves.  After handing it on, we stopped at Mc Donalds for breakfast #2 (not typical breakfast things but oh well - bluey can probably guesss what I had there ;)) and then half an hour later I boarded the smallest flight of the trip home (a 20 seater) for another slightly turbulent flight (but at least we had warning of it with that one). 

I do have photos of a few of the planes I was on, but not all or many since most of the flights were at night.  Mum and Dad were both at the airport, so after picking up my suitcase we headed back to Dad's where he made breakfast #3 (got to try vegemite at last).  

Overall this trip has been an amazing time and I know I will never forget it.  I'm actually keen to repeat it in the future hopefully - and in the meantime I think I'll always be torn from now on - between NC and NZ.  I really am so glad I went tho and I hope its not too long before I get to see Bluey again :) 

finally reappearing

Well after a very long time off here, I'm finally back. My computer has been the main cause for such an elongated absence - a faulty battery forces frequent restarts of the internet and thus makes blogging difficult...that being said the last few days that particular computer has been one of the farthest things from my mind.

That of course is due to the biggest trip of my life. It was all finalised on the Thusday. Might explain what went on behind this at some stage, but for now its enough to say that it went from nothing planned, to everything planned in the space of 24 hours...and just 3 days before leaving

The trip began with a 1 hour flight from Wangas to Auckland - the same locations as the first flight I've ever been on - and therefore not too far out of the ordinary...or at least as much as that applies when you've only ever been on 4 flights before and all are 1 hour or less. Shortly after I arrived in Auckland my uncle came and picked me up at the domestic airport - much more pleasant than waiting for 8 hours at the international terminal, I finally arrived there after dinner at my uncles', and equipped with new sunglasses, borrowed digital camera and a whole pile of other extras (and no I had NOT been shopping during that time) at about 7.30 pm.

Once we reached the international airport I went through customs (one of many firsts for me) and then headed down to the gate to wait for boarding. This particular flight was probably my favourite of them all so far. It may have been 12 hours long, but looking back it really doesn't seem like it. Was served chicken for dinner #2 a few hours in, with NZ white Chocolate icecream for dessert. Got a few hours sleep (not a huge amount...but oh well) then a few hours before landing breakfast was served. Was a bit of turbulance on landing, but on the whole was still a good flight. Of course I also went across the international dateline on this trip meaning I had a second 22nd of June...and on my way back I will be missing a day entirely

Next came luggage claim, followed by customs again - and following Dad's wisdom of 'declare everything even if you think it may not need to be declared' meant that this was luckily a very quick and painless process - my passport now officially shows that I have been overseas! Thankfully my suitcase had been tagged right through to my final destination so rather than having to take it with me for the 8 hour stop, it was simply a matter of handing it on to the different airline.

This break was also made more enjoyable due once again to not being stuck at the airport for the entire duration. Dad's cousin met me at the airport and took me to Venice Beach to look around, followed by yet another dinner - this time mexican food. Arriving back at the airport 2 hours before the next flight was due to leave was both smart and crazy... cause I'd been directed to the wrong terminal. Luckily this was easily sorted and I arrived with pleanty of time to make the next flight.

After going through the 3rd set of security barriers/xray machines/metal detectors on this trip I was waiting by the gate for the 3rd flight - the most turbulant of the full trip. 4 and a half hours later I was finally in the state I was headed to, only a 1 hour wait followed by a 55 minute flight away from my final destination.

Walking down to the gate to wait for the call to board, one of the security guys called me over...now since this was my first time out of the country this was kinda crazy cause I had no idea why he'd singled me out... and his first question of 'where did you just arrive from' made me wonder even more what was coming... - It couldn't have been more unexpected as after my reply of 'LA' he asked if it was 'good to be home' and mentioned that it was cool that I was wearing a state T-shirt???? (ok so now the NZ christian magazine - soul purpose - T-shirts are officially a state shirt of NC?????? - and do I really sound American???? - he was the 4th person to think I was headed home!) still it was good to know that I hadn't done anything wrong - simply a case of mistaken identity

Anyway, I got on the final plane and, 1 hour later arrived - with Bluey, her mother and sister there at the airport to meet me :D. After hugs all round we headed back to Bluey's place where I have been for the past few days, and am currently. Still sometimes hasn't completely sunk in that I'm actually here - but I'm definitely enjoying it! :D. Am here for about another week yet before heading back to winter. One thing is certain - This is definitely my favourite holiday so far and I will certainly never forget it!