Training it through India

(A traveler’s term we picked up somewhere along the way is to “train it,” meaning, to travel by train. Now you can tell folks how you’d like to “train it” down, up, or across to somewhere…) 

 

 

Madras (Chennai)

On February 3rd we found ourselves in the sunny city of Chennai. Our days there were spent in the hospitable home of Augustine Asir & his wife, Hera, their son Jim and daughter Sharon and her son Sam. Though their house is not large, they gladly  and graciously welcomed us in and gave us a room of our own. They fed us and let us join in parts of their ministry,  Word for the World—begun by Augustine, 20 years back, taking the Gospel to the socially neglected people of India. The Word for the World headquarters and national office happen to be quartered in their house.

 

We were in Chennai for two weeks, spending time with the Augustine family (in India people take on the first name of their father/husband as their last name), playing the mind-twisting game of Connect 4 with Jim (who is severely handicapped and cannot speak—yet his mind is sharper than most and he is almost impossible to beat at this game), did some shopping for cultural garb and became accustomed to real India food. While there, we also shared with the office staff and a boys Bible study some of the things God has been teaching us on our travels. One Sunday, we went out to a leper colony and preached to a congregation of a few lepers and their children and grandchildren (leprosy is not hereditary). It was good to spend time with these friends and this family as well as find new brothers and sisters in Christ.

 

 

Pondicherry

Just a three hour bus ride to the South, we lodged at the home of Rishi David and his daughter, Davitha. He too is a WFW (Word for the World) missionary and one of their leaders. We did not know what to expect in Pondicherry, but our week there was richly blessed with good conversations around the dinner table lasting late into the night. We strengthened a friendship with this family and others whom John had begun a relationship with three years ago.

 

There we worked together teaching children’s “action songs” (songs with hand motions) from John’s early childhood to some local missionaries (ever sang, “Who’s the King of the Jungle?”?).

 

 

 

Madurai

We came here by ordinary train (three to a bench & windows down). We stayed at the New Life Center, a home for handicapped and mentally retarded children. Here spent a  fair bit of our time ill—John with a mild case of the flu and Kirstin a sinus infection and a cough. When we had recovered, we spent some time with the boys (11 or so), who were a lot of fun. Though we could not talk with many of them (some being deaf and mute), we made great hand signals to them and Kirstin used sign language (though they didn’t seem to get much of that either).

 

We journeyed out to the town of Arrupokortai with Ebineezer, the head missionary in Madurai, and stayed one night with he and his wife and daughter. This is where we were first allowed to cook in India. Angel, Ebi’s wife, taught us how to make purri, which John got to cook. It was a delicious feast on their roof-top courtyard at night. And the mosquitoes weren’t too bad.

 

We also got to spend some good time with a cool bro named Karthick. He was physically handicapped from brith, unable to walk, use his arms or speak. He told us his testimony, how at a young age he was told about God but rejected him. At around age ten, in a dream Jesus appeared to him and asked him to “Let me come into your heart.” After that, he began to pray and read his Bible. After one year, he began being healed. Today he walks, talks, uses his own hands to feed himself, and is completing his MA in English Literature at the university.

 

 

Coimbatore & Ooty (Ootacamund)

If you want to savor truly good homemade food in India, you need to stay with Uncle Douglas, who in his bachelor years taught himself how to cook. Uncle Douglas and his wife hosted us for a few days and over the weekend sent their son, Samuel, with us to the mountian hill station of Ooty (Ootacamuhnd). There we breathed the cleanest air in India we’ve yet inhaled. It was a very beautiful place yet unlike the mountains of N. America. (8,000 feet climbing up from near sea level, mountains covered in thick jungle vegetation. Here they grow the tea we all love to drink on the mountainsides on terraces. And at night it got down right chilly!). We spent our time touring around with Samuel, our guide, and his friend Prem, and their school mate who is from this area, Praveen. It was a great time with these fellows who are about our age and cross-culturally it was good to explore and build relationships on the other side of the globe. And to see another wild piece of God’s creation we had yet experienced.

 

 

Navi Mumbai

We then journeyed on northward to Mumbai spending one and a half days and one night on board a train. Minus several people trying a get us to pay them some kind of tip for normal services, solely because we are European-Americans, it was a great train ride.

 

Here we’re living on our own in a small two-room house. We’ve enjoyed cooking on one a one-eyed stove and shopping at the local market for raw ingredients. Attempting to be creative in our food creations, we have found that Indian food is somewhat akin to Mexican. We’ve also learned that though it is rich with spice and flavor, Indian dishes are primarily made up of the same ingredients. We have yet to starve and are getting in some great practice making our own Chipati (Indian tortillas). We truly are enjoying eating a lot more fresh fruit and vegetables…don’t worry, all washed and clean and prayed over.

 

This last week we’ve been attempting to teach English at slum school. We applaud all the teachers of the world.

 

We’ve also spent good time with a man John met on his last visit here, Limma. It has been a great encouragement to talk with Limma as his heart bubbles over with joy and compassion for those around him. Though from the state of Orissa, he has come here and has chosen to live in a slum alongside those he ministers to. He shares the love of Jesus with everyone he encounters through a smile and a real relationship with them. We’ve enjoyed walking with him through Chinchpada (the slum where he lives) and seeing three-year-olds come up to him smiling and barefooted to shake his hand and say, “Uncle! Praise the Lord!”. Wherever we are when we grow up, we want to be like Limma.

 

We’re not sure what the next week in Mumbai holds, but after that we will head north for a bit longer and then home.

 

Continually, we must give glory to God in our travels as He continues to bless both us and all His people we meet. We serve the One true God who made heaven and earth and is the most powerful. We say this because we have born witness to its truth. Thanks for all of your continued prayers. We look forward to telling more stories soon and can’t wait to see you all.

 

 

 

Johnson & Kirston

 

P.S. Pictures are now coming to facebook. We’re spending all our rupees at internet cafes trying learn how to use WordPress and get it to cooperate. 

Photographs slowly released: Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia

Photographs that have been far too slow to appear,  from Cambodia, Thailand & Malaysia.

Homemade Chinese noodles in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Talk about delicious.

Lunch hour in Phnom Penh. A peeking woman, a man a mirror and a motorbike, and no rules to these roads.

Seth, John, Stephen, at the Roberts, Phnom Penh

Mr & Mrs Roberts, Marry, Malachi, Daisy.

Kirstin and some more of the Roberts family!

Fish food. These Parana-like little fish provide a ‘natural pedicure’ for the feet.

Angkor Wat temple. Still worshiping the same idols here today that people were 800 years ago. Siem Reap, Cambodia. Amazing human feat to build.

Entrance to another one of the 20 something temple complexes in the Angkor Wat area. Cambodia.

Tomb Raider anyone?

This was truly far out. These temples were forgotten for 300 years or so and only rediscovered in the last century (by the French who once colonized Cambodia).

Marbles on lunch break from selling things to tourists.

Our first train in Thailand. The local 6hr train that cost $1.50 to Bangkok

For Pa: “Look, there’s a whole flock of ‘em!” Asian cousins of the Ivory Bill.

Pensive reflection

In a Thai tuk-tuk

Snoozing on the back of a tiger

And then…! Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai, Thailand

This cat seemed different than the tigers…

Fortunately we read English. For once in my life, I’m glad I followed the rules. This fellow (lion) was touchy.

Headed out of Chiang Mai, Thailand

Our bags keep getting heavier

Possibly the best soup in Asia

Bangkok

Thailand from a train window, heading South

Sketchy food from the dinning car

Malaysian butcher

Chinese tour bus stops for bicycle rickshaw tour of Georgetown

Sunrise on the ferry from Georgetown to Butterworth, Malaysia

Passing through central Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The formerly tallest buildings in the world. From a train window, rolling through Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

More to come…

Little boys on a train.

To India we’ve come

Thai,

Malay,

Sing,

India.

What we’ve been up to more than anything else.

Where to begin…

It is an overwhelming task to come back to our all but forgotten blog and attempt to speak again of what has occurred recently.  As of the last four weeks we have been submerged in the Sub-continent, specifically India. If our journey were a sea voyage, our feelings here would be comparable to being shipwrecked and then rescued by foreign merchants from some land we had only hear of in tales and that was very different from our own. First we would be immensely grateful for their rescue of us, and in the days that followed, we’d learn where they had come from and about the customs of their land. All the while explaining to them and comparing with them the customs and culture of our own homeland. We might adopt their clothing, for we would have lost our own. We would eat their food, listen to their songs, and learn bits and pieces of their language. All the while, growing outwardly to appear more and more like them, yet inwardly longing more and more to be returned to our own lost land.

Vaguely, this is our odyssey through the land called India. Though I, John, have been here once, three years ago for a few months, this trip has taken both of us deeper into culture and custom than we have delved in any country outside of our own. India is vastly different than the countries of the West we have visited (England, France, New Zealand) and it has felt far richer and more engulfing than the countries of the East we have passed through (Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore).

In England, we knew no one, though were somewhat familiar with their culture as it too is our heritage. France we were with family, though for only a week. Fiji we knew zero people and were with the tourists and our islander hosts. In New Zealand we stayed with friends of friends, found their culture more similar to our own in many ways and more so than that of Europe (hard working farmer folk make for like-minded friends of Kirstin and John). There we ate food we were mostly familiar with and used in a language almost like ours. When we camped for three weeks we ate typical camp food like we would camping anywhere in America. We drove a car on the wrong side of the road, but even their road rules (aside from the right and left hand issue) are very much the same. In Southeast Asia, we were with Americans in Cambodia and on our own everywhere else. When alone without local contacts, we have found it to be truly tough to get a true taste of culture when you are a foreigner. It can be done, but you will get sick, may get robbed, will for sure be ripped off, will sleep in places and situations where you really don’t get much sleep (or later will wonder why you stayed there and how you survived), and you will end up in places you didn’t mean to go, don’t know how to get back, don’t know where you are, or how to say the name of the place you’re trying to get to. And in all of this, somehow, you will get a taste of culture. But it  will be mixed with a lot of confusion, anxiety, time and money. And language will always be an issue. Even if you meet someone who speaks English, it is still their second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth language (Western countries which speak English are an exception to this last rule of travel; but if your accent is thick and ear dull, it still applies).

Traveling was not quite what we imagined.

In India, however, we have been rescued out of the vast ocean by locals. These are mainly those people I (John) met last time I was here. And our experiences have been rather rich.

As you can see in some of our photos, we’ve collected a few of their native dress outfits. We’ve learned to eat their food in their fashion, picked up on many words and phrases, taken on their custom of “taking rest” (a nap) at least once or more times a  day. And even once so far spent a week sleeping on a couple of straw mats and blankets on a cement floor (A round of applause for my five-month-pregnant wife, she is the jolly-good heroin.)

If there has been a country where we have been given the chance and taken it, to truly adapt to their way of life, it has been here India. Mostly this has come because our travels have consisted of always staying with locals, where ever we go. And because the culture is so big, vast, traditional, strange, different, unique, quirky, and cool, there hasn’t been much option. And at the same time, if there is one country where we have felt more American (the US of A kind—one Brazillian traveler told us he too was American), longed deeper for our own country and reminisced more about the land we love, it has been India.

More stories from India to come.

Thanks,

Johnny & Kirsty

p.s. I have felt my child jumping for joy in its mother’s belly! Out of everything we’ve seen, done, heard, smelt, tasted, and felt, this is the most neat and incredible experience yet! I think it shall only grow wilder as this child gets ready to greet us. We’re fattening up the calf and will soon be decking the halls. Everyone be ready to come on over sometime in June for a big celebration.

p.p.s.  Several photographs coming tomorrow…if we’re able to make it back to the cyber cafe. We’re in Mumbai. Alive. And happy. But getting to the net these days is harder than you American folks think. We’ll do our best.  Thanks.

Brief notes from Asia

In lieu of being inadequate blog authors, the following are  excerpts from various journal entries and messages written over the past few weeks. Apologies for their roughness.

Cambodia was a trip. And not the one we expected.

“We are doing real good. Our first few days in Cambodia being very blessed as we met the Roberts family. Our midwife, Lisa, put us in touch with them. We flew in from NZ through Singapore to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia and took a tuk-tuk (a small motorcycle/dirt-bike/moped pulling a two wheeled rickshaw sort of wagon deal with two benches facing each other and a covered roof. Sweet!) to a hotel the family recommended. That night we walked over to their home, not far away and had dinner. They’re house was a bit wild and crazy but a lot of fun. They have 10 children, the dad until a couple of months ago had long curly hair, they drink beer at supper, and they’re from Boulder, CO. And they’ve been in Cambodia for 9 years. Ha!

“Oh yeah, and they’re Anglican!

“So the next day we walked over and rode to church with them. It was fantastic, though not so much Khmer (pronounced Kem-ai) folks (indigenous folks) as expatriates. After church, Mrs. Roberts told us her sons offered to let us have one of their rooms, if we wanted, and we were welcome to stay with them. So we accepted. Yeah, it’s fun. “

 

Next come a few thoughts following an informative and intense conversation we had. Still mulling this one over.

“One example of something we’ve just learned this morning is often times, how badly orphanages effect the children they raise. For instance, once a child turns 18 who has grown up in an orphanage that is run by Westerners and/or nationals, it is very difficult for the person to enter into society–apparently–because their own local culture is so foreign to them as they’ve been kept inside the walls of the orphanage their whole life and often think and live more like the westerners who’ve raised them than their own native culture. In the West, we see orphanages as great places to go and work for a summer or to sponsor a child or to support with our dollars or to go and build or begin in the 3rd world. But this does not really solve the underlying issue, which is the need of family (it all comes back to the “sphere of the family”). And the orphanage can actually undermine that sphere.  Children need families and parents, (we know this! ), and orphanages (unless in a recently war torn country) often attract parents who give up their babies in order for them to have a better life and a better education (albeit meals, schooling, college, violence in the home, etc). It is not that these needs should not be addressed by the Church and cared for, but perhaps we should rethink our actions, or simply stop and consider what damage we’re doing and see how to better love and serve Christ and his people. Shoot fire!

“I’m not super knowledgeable about this, but when the folks we’re staying with told us about this issue, it was so foreign to all that we’ve been told is good and worthy of support back home. Orphanages may be of some good, but longterm the results are not a desirable and sustainable yield. Apparently a lot of Western missions can easily tend to be this way. It’s is good short-term, but it doesn’t build a foundation and strong indigenous Church.”

 

Chiang Mai, Thailand:

“Best Site: the Chiang Mai rail station (it was sight for sore eyes after about a 16 hour train ride, preceded by 6 hours on a 3rd class local train (widows down, sweat rolling) from just over the Thai border and before that a 5 hour bus ride from Siem Reap, Cambodia.

“Coolest thing we’ve done: travel from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We planned it all by ourselves, thanks to the grace of God and the man in seat 61.

“Best thing: the best thing is that we’ve not gotten sick from any food yet. Praise God. Keep praying.”

 

Thoughts on Thailand 1.26.2012

“In Chiang Mai, we found accommodation for a little over $10. And I found out how much I really love Pad Thai and Fried  Rice! Other than eating, we enjoyed a day of rest and some musical worship, Tiger Kingdom, where we petted and laid on full grown tigers, and also attempted to meet up with a traveler we met, Steve. Our attempt to find Steve’s hostel and take him some crackers and Sprite since he was not feeling well was futile. But we got about 3 hours of walking in and thus slept  quite hard that night.

“During our time in Chiang Mai, I have once again realized how in love with  John I truly am. Life is so good with him and it is hard to imagine life without John, now. I am so grateful he is my husband and can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him! We refine one another a lot, but it is good and so good for my growth. This trip has been marvelous simply for all the time we’ve gotten to spend together.

“This afternoon we caught a train out of Chiang Mai  to Bangkok, and this time are on the 2nd class non-A/C with lots of Chinese. We’re the only Westerners. Should be exciting, eh? [And it arrives at 5:30 tomorrow morning!]“

 

Bangkok 1.28.2012

“We are in Bangkok and it is stifling. Not in the heat nor humidity, which are high, but the spiritual darkness which is all around us. It feels as though we are on every side surrounded by black satanic  evil, for anything that is not worship of God is of satan. And here there is one great mix of materialism and literal idol worship and temples to demonic spirits. I have never quite felt or seen anything like this.

“New York City is no less spiritual nor even demonic perhaps, (than again maybe it is less demonic as there is most certainly a greater Christian presence there than in total pagan — since inception –Bangkok), but here you witness open worldliness: the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, yet on every other block there is also a temple and priests and people worshiping satanic spirits. In NYC, it is materialism at its  highest, but the temples and idols are not so blatantly marked.

“Here, and truly since I began to consider this matter in Cambodia, we have had a much more heightened sense of the presence of the Holy Spirit of our Lord indwelling in us. And of the evil one around us. It is no joke to claim the Lordship of Christ over your life anywhere in Asia.

“I am no doubt only hitting on the cusp of this. I do not doubt for a minute there things are much deeper and more real than I am aware of. I am reading K.P. Yohannan’s “Revolution in World Missions” in Asia has been eye opening to these things also.

“Why in Asia, is there so much suffering and why are so many people seemingly enslaved here, trapped in it? K. P. says the root cause is a problem of spiritual dimension. Until people stop worshiping demon gods and bowing down to  satan, the Asian countries and cultures will never be free from social suffering and oppression.

“Christian relief efforts can be spent on helping people have better lives in this world, but that is only short-term. And greater and far worse will be their eternal suffering. And still the root of social impoverishment will not be removed.

“Yohannan proclaims that the preaching of the Gospel — the repentance of sin and filling of the Spirit of God — is what changes people’s lives. And ultimately this and this alone will result in a better society in which to live.

“Christ has already accomplished that for which communism has only ever dreamed and hoped.”

 

Thank you seriously for your prayers! Little baby Moore has been kicking, and definitely growing! God has been incredibly gracious with food, thank you for your faithful prayers! They have made a huge difference as we have not been sick from food once yet! (Please pray for God’s mercy for the next two months to be on our physical bodies.) From everything we’ve read and even from people we’ve met, we likely should have been sick by now — we’ve literally experienced God’s power and protection. Pictures may get posted in the coming month.

It’s dinner time in Asia, off to get some pad thai for 30 Baht.

 

 

Jackfruit and Kebabs

A Toast to New Zealand: Photographs and Stories

Hello friends and family,

First a confession: we are not good bloggers. Our liking of most technology has only dwindled, therefore, this blog has suffered a bit on our trip. However, we want to share some photo highlights from New Zealand. We have just left there and continued our trip to south east Asia. Thank you all for your prayers and notes throughout our trip – we do miss our home, but are definitely enjoying our trip!

Hike along Golden Bay on the Abel Tasman Track

A huge hole named Harwoods Hole – picture is deceiving, it was huge!

Cape Reinga: the most northern campsite in NZ

Daytime Cape Reinga

good old camp food

the attack of the sandflies

90 Mile Beach: rental car adventure

part of our drive to the 90 Mile Beach

Sledding anyone?

wet and sandy day

a cool bridge out in the bush

The Shearer Family: Mr. & Mrs., Rebecca, minus Michelle, Michael and Sheryl, Rachael and Samuel, and Matthew and Antheia

a spring from the ground

Moeraki Boulders tried to eat Kirstin

…but they definitely liked John more. (no pun intended ;-D)

Spelunking in the cavern

Hiding the tears brought about by Larnach Castle

a disappointed and poor tourist

John shearing his first sheep at the Shearers

The Wooly Sheep

On the way to Milford Sound

Pa taught us the real way to hug a tree

Fox Glove

This wild flower was everywhere in NZ

the great Milford Sound

Mt. Cook

Dorthy Falls

A New Zealand Fern

Imagine this!

A flat between the mountians

Thinking of Pa at Fox Glacier

The melting Fox Glacier

Hokatika Gorge

Bridge over turqoise water. It’s real.

Indeed!

River on the way from Nelson to the West Coast

River bend

a little growth of a little baby named…

still in love and trekking

If our bodies and brains are worn weary from travels throughout New Zealand, our imaginations are exploding with newfound love of and faith in God. But New Zealand was decidedly different than we had expected, as was the landscape. And that was it. We thought it was some crazy place filled with crazy folk who lived only to seek the thrill of adrenaline. No doubt there are some who do and there are indubitably plenty who come to do just that, but most Kiwis we met were good natured, kind and gentle folk (or burly men who like to wear short shorts). The scenery is far more sedate and often quite quaint, even a bit subtle. The two main islands, North and South, are filled with luscious vegetation, rolling hills, green mountains, and jagged, rocky peaks and cliffs. The South is far more mountainous than the North, having the Southern Alps (Mt. Cook rising some 9,000 + ft., beginning decently close to sea level and ascending). But the North is just as beautiful in other ways, being blessed with some of the most incredible coastline perhaps in all the world (so we were told). From white beaches of silica sand (same stuff all you landscapers pay big bucks for at Home Depot—it’s the whole beach) to some really massive dessert looking sand dunes (a few hundred feet tall) and a 90 mile beach you can drive. It seems the Southern Island is filled with more continuous or more interesting beauty, almost always having some mountain somewhere in the distance, but both Island would be exceptionally neat places to live. At least for a while.

Our great revelations (that are still in the works) had more to do with the pristine nature of the beauty of the untouched land. Icy green waters and the most clear blue lakes and rivers ever to be seen in all the world, I’d think, are here. Prehistoric fern forests with moss so thick on the forest floor it felt like you were stepping on a trampoline. Surrounded by enormous beach trees in a virgin jungle with Bell birds singing in octaves , fifths, and major and minor thirds—these sort of rare beauties compelled our hearts to bow deeper before our Creator and our minds sing louder the glory of God.

Top Ten Highlights:

• Traveling with your best friend is…well…the BEST!
• Road trips make for great reflection and strategy conversations
• Praise God for good health thus far!
• Long trips help you come up with long lists of things you want to do back home
• Camping out near a large hole in the ground is quite cool
• Picking up foreign hitch-hikers in a foreign country is a great way to learn about the world
• Crumpets! no need to explain if you’ve had them
• Making new friends
• Tenting is still fun, even after 4 weeks
• A plethora of funny moments, induced by two very human people

Sincerely,

Juawn & Kerstein

If you plan to travel, make sure you take none other than your very best friend. Friendship is fashioned in many ways, none of which are sexy. Friendship has in these last 300 or 400 years or so, been short-changed and portrayed as something far less important than love. But in life’s true tales, the ones we live most everyday, there is now no doubt that the friendship is the truer bond of the two and the one thing that will really make room and provision for love to continue to grow strong and live long where it first began.

Atop Takaka Hill at Harwoods Hole, New Zealand

Already erring on the side of esoteric, an old African proverb says, “if you want to go fast, go alone. But If you want to go far, go with someone.” On an around the world trip, there is many a day (especially in New Zealand) when one of two travelers (who is not pregnant) wants with great enthusiasm or/and impatience to go fast. (There are many good “tramps,” aka multi-day hikes, here in NZ. But long, tiring tramping is not the most conducive to being almost 4 months pregnant, yes, we ARE expecting a baby!)

But the absolute very best times have been when I, with my best friend, take it slow, one step at a time. It is so strange how real life is not caught by doing everything or seeing every neat sight.

It is so strange how visiting a foreign country(s) will open your eyes, if you make room for it, to the most unforeseen yet ever so simple truths about life. It is sorta like learning the most about home by going somewhere different.

Enough navel gazing. It’s back to life!

Kirstin will tell you what is actually going on… soon.

John

Omarama

An Abrupt Ending

Just to follow up on the last post, we realized the cafe had closed twenty minutes prior to our exit, making a abrupt and premature publication of our last post. We’ll strive to check the hours of operation in the future.

 

We’re off to camp at Milford Sound. Enjoy life today friends!

 

Happy Boxing Day,

Jambalaya and Kiwi

Christmas Camping Down South in Kiwi Country

G’Day Mate and  Merry Christmas!

We’re having a great time in New Zealand, though this is our first Christmas away from our families, so we’ll have to see how it goes. We’re currently in Wanaka and have been camping the last three nights, complete with a chilly mountain lake bath this morning. We’re getting ready to celebrate the 25th, though it feels a lot more like July than the December we’re accustomed to. Poor odds for a white Christmas for us this year. Here’s a brief update of what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks.

G'day, Merry Christmas!

As we mentioned, we were able to catch our breath and spend a couple of weeks on the farm with the most gracious and kind folks, the Shearer family. In our time there John experienced milking cows, shearing sheep, slaughtering a lamb, rabbit and opossum hunting Kiwi style, and a lesson in driving on the left-hand side of the road. Kirstin got to socialize, catch up on rest and eat consistently (and it was great! –Kirstin).

Dinner on the beach with Michelle, and her now world famous meat pastry roll

The Shearer Farm

This is sheep and beef country. The Shearers have 40 acres and a small farm operation, but it suits them well, makes for a great farm lifestyle that allows for work outside the farm too, and requires a lot of hard work and many a long day. But the Shearers love it and have raised a great family on it.

Opossum, Rabbit, Hunters

There were about 15 more rabbits shot this night. Yep, I said night. Spotlighting in New Zealand is completely legal and total Kiwi style. Straight out of the back of a pickup cruising through the “paddocks” (fields). We had a double barrel shot gun and a .22. It doesn’t get more Kuntry than this!

Geoff Shearer Shearing His Sheep

Pancake Rocks

Sunset near Fox Glacier

Mt. Cook

 Jaun and Katrina