Happy First Day of Summer!

It's the first day of Summer here in New Zealand and it was beautiful! Sunny and warm with a cool breeze. :)

The past few weeks have been pretty busy...good busy for the most part but busy none the less. Two weekend ago Torre and I took the Overlander Train from Levin to Auckland for a long weekend trip. We love riding on trains! They are much roomier and easy to move around on than plains are and the scenery along the way was breathtaking. It is about a ten hour ride, one way, but we were delayed. The train had several cars, one for luggage, three or four for passengers, a Cafe car that had beverages, sandwiches, wraps, ice cream, meat pies, lamb shank dinners, a variety of novelties and, of course, the engine. :) The rear car had a "lounge" at the back that had bench type couch seating, a table and big windows all around to viewing the scenery and at the front of the first passenger car you could go outside on a platform and take pics while the train was moving. Twice along the way we stopped so they could change the engine from an electric engine to a diesel engine and then I think at some point back to an electric engine. The crew was really great...very friendly and attentive. The train manager served as our tour guide and gave us all kinds of historical information as we chugged along through towns, over rivers and bridges. We arrived in Auckland around 7pm, walked several blocks through down town to our hotel, The Auckland City Hotel, and then decided to go in search of some dinner and BUBBLE TEA! Ever since our friend Chris introduced Torre to Bubble Tea at a yummy vegan Thai restaurant in Boston he's been addicted! The good news...in Wellington and Auckland Bubble Tea seems to be on every corner...the bad news...none of them come close to how yummy the Boston vegan teas are. In Boston they use coconut milk, fresh fruit and tea to make them but here they use powdered milk, powder flavoring and tea. The common denominator is the "bubbles" or "pearls" which is tapioca pudding balls. :) Sunday we spent the day exploring down town, Christmas shopping for family, hunting down more Bubble Tea shops, eating Sushi and Mexican food and every so often we stopped to watch the Auckland Triathlon World Cup. We didn't even know it was going to be there. *Hey Brett! Some day we'll be rooting for you in the Auckland Triathlon World Cup!* Torre had to leave early Monday morning and head back to Levin for work on Tuesday but I stayed to go to the Acts Churches Leadership Conference at the Bruce Mason Centre on the North Shore with the other leaders from our church. The conference was Tuesday through Friday afternoon and was a really great time of praise, worship, teaching, encouragement and fellowship. Glenn Berteau from Calvary Temple Worship Center in Modesto, CA, was the key speaker. He share with us part of his "Christianity Lite" series and it was super! It's kind of funny being at a conference in Auckland, NZ, and sitting their listening to a speaker from America! As good as the conference was, I was pretty bummed that Torre wasn't there too. I left Auckland early Friday morning and took the train back to Levin. *Brace yourself for what comes next...it's a sad and tragic event.*
Just a few hours after we left Auckland we came to Hamilton for a quick break and to pick up new passengers. After leaving Hamilton we were going down the tracks through the country, surrounded by cows, when all of the sudden there were bumps, gravel flying into the windows and then the train came to a sudden stop. We all thought that someone had put rocks or something on the tracks and that was it, but shortly after we saw one of the train attendants outside checking out the situation the other train attendant came over the loud speaker announcing that someone had just committed suicide by jumping in front of our train. Yeah. Too awful for words. I can't quite explain the feeling that spread through my body at that moment. The only thing I can think to compare it to is that wonderful warm sense of safety and peace when you are in the company of a loved one only  COMPLETELY opposite. I felt a shutter of terror and sorrow shoot through me and then began to quietly sob. They were tears of grief for a man that decided life was so hopeless that the only "logical" solution was jumping in front of a train. Tears for the family and friends left behind wondering if they could've done something to stop him. Tears of remembrance from a similar scene about six years ago when a man ran in front of my truck one dark evening while Torre and I travelled home through the Arizona desert to announce our engagement to our families. The crew was extremely calm and compassionate, making sure they did everything they could to make sure everyone on the train was okay. The female attendant said that it has happened before and does happen more often then people realize. They offered a councillor to anyone who needed to talk and continued to keep us updated. Over all nobody in my train car seemed too outwardly upset by what had happened but that doesn't mean they weren't. The police and investigation units came and secured the area and the train so we were not allow to get off or move for just over two hours. After they were done clearing the scene we moved on, changed attendants and the poor engineer who saw it all happen and continued on to Wellington. Friday night and Saturday was kind of rough emotionally. I kept bursting in to tears randomly but I'm okay now...just not sure about taking the train any more. :/

This week has kept my mind off it though as there was plenty to catch up on and prepare for. We have a Pastor and his wife staying with us from the Island of Tonga today through Monday. He is one of the Equippers Pastors and is here to speak to the Youth tomorrow night and at our two Sunday services. They are a really neat couple! We are excited to have them staying with us. :)

We've also been getting ready for "Christmas in the Park", a free community wide event that will have performances, food, games, vendors, prizes and Santa arriving in a red Jeep! This is our church's first or second year overseeing the planning of this event and I am the Stage Manager so be praying it all goes smoothly!

That's all for tonight...so tired...it's 11:30pm on Thursday night. Sweet dreams. xox

Welcome to AUCKLAND!

Hi!!! We arrived in Auckland a few hours ago and were greeted by our first New Zealand sunrise, went to Torre's meeting and now we are back at the airport waiting for our next flight to Palmerston North at 12:45pm. Palmerston is about 45min from Levin so we will get a rental car and drive to Levin. The flight here was really good...we slept prob 6ish hours and they fed us dinner and breakfast. :) Our taxi driver, Peter, took us on a short city tour to the "One Tree Hill" Monument in the center of town. Apparently there used to be one lone tree atop this huge volcanic mountain in the middle of Auckland and a Islander chopped it down in protest. He must have been really upset! One Tree Hill is on a reserve that was donated to the city and it's actually farming land! There were tons of sheep and lambs all over the place as well as cattle. Auckland is a city of approximately one million people and Levin, where we are going to be living, has a population of approximately 23,000. Big difference! Peter laughed when he heard we were going there because he said it's very rural. We are getting ready to get some lunch so we will be in touch as soon as we can find internet again. We asked Peter what we should know about New Zealand as new comers and he said one of the most important things was for us to make sure we look both ways before we cross the street but to make sure we revers the order of direction that we normally look! He was really nice. :)

Our first sunrise in Auckland, NZ

View of downtown Auckland from One Tree Hill

Goodbye from LAX! See you on the other side! :D