Central Motor Lodge Morrinsville

... and very safe now. Uncle Dennis said it's even better now because they have extended the hiking area by over 80% but there is too much to see with our little amount or time we had to stop. Amazing views and we would love to go back and explore more but we'll see what happens.

... with all the horses. Got a hack to ride - Trans, he is just the best (great listener) lol! I'm staying in the little village of Matamata aka Hobbiton, this is where the Lord of the Rings movie was set! Ill have to go and do the tour soon http://www.hobbitontours.com/ - will let you know how it goes. Iv not done many touristy things - just settling into the families way of life - Darryn and ...

... lighting up for that matter. There was a lady performing on a tight rope hanging from balloons and during her show, the balloon kind of caught on fire a little bit... but they didn't care... its new zealand. The next day was the last day before we left Hamilton for 2 weeks. It might be annoying, but i am going to have to make another post so that i am able to pin the locations for the trips on the map.... so work with me.

... way to Whanganui or the short way, Larisa desided that yes the short way was the way to go!! Well the short way was 50 kms of gravel road through the jungle!!! But rather then turn around we said that adventure was why we are so we went with it. About 5 minutes into our drive, there was a huge sculpted spider on the side of hill which to be honest actually a little shocking when you first looked at. So further into the jungle we drove seeing the occasional driver ...

... be ready when it is time to come down. Back On Earth Mark Wills Well I hit the charts and I took a trip On this silver eagle rocket ship And now look at me I'm hanging with the stars And I try my hardest not to change But everyone around keeps acting strange People look at me Like I'm a man from Mars. That's what I told her Through the sound check noise of Kansas And the satellite relayed me ...

I was up around 7:30 a.m. and prepped for the feeding the calves routine. They were mooing with hunger this morning, but unfortunately, two of the three groups of calves are being weaned from milk today so they only got grain today. They weren't particularly happy about that, but it made our chores shorter! Later in the morning, we discovered that we would have to move ...

Quite a fun day today as I was able to meet my NZ pen friend for the first time. She lives on a large dairy farm. I got up this morning and helped her escort the cattle to graze and feed the calves. I felt like the true farm girl in my dairy overalls and boots! The calves are adorable... they like to suckle your fingers but luckily they only have teeth on the bottom ...

Well, the Omokoroa community is well and truly getting behind this project. The Omokoroa Point Primary School has agreed to form a partnership with Nsoni Primary School in Mikolongwe. Nsoni school has a roll of 945 children with just 8 teachers. Thats a teacher / pupil ratio of 1:118. We are going to be taking a scrap book ...

Well, the main thing for us is to going to be to establish relationships and get a true understanding of the situation. This will allow us to work out some practical ways of supporting the local church and community. We will be visiting local villages, schools and World Vision projects. One of our local schools here, Omokoroa Point School has agreed to partner with a school in Mikolongwe, so we will be taking a book prepared by pupils from Omokoroa Point ...

In October 2005, Helen Green, CEO of World Vision New Zealand, shared her passion for Africa and especially the HIV/Aids pandemic sweeping that continent with a group of people in Tauranga. Amongst the stories she shared with us was one of a young church pastor, supporting his own family, supporting a number of orphans and trying to lead a church (including burying 12 members of his church a week). As a young pastor in New Zealand my ...