August 5-12

This week was soooo awesome! We found someone to watch Pepper (actually it worked out perfect - a young adult who still lives at home in our congregation who liked the idea of having her own place for a few days with a dog) and packed out bags up late Wednesday. Thursday morning we got on the road by 10am and headed the long route up to Auckland. Our first stop was in Sansen for the BEST coffee this side of the equator. We made quite a few more stops for pictures (see below) - it was great weather with sunshine, although Mt. Taranaki hid itself in clouds. After going through New Plymouth on the west coast we drove up to White Cliffs Brewery where we stopped for some delicious brew at the smallest brewhouse in NZ. The owners were South African, so that was neat to learn a bit more about where we're off to next! We had dinner in Hamilton at a place called Coyote which was a Tex-Mex fusion restaurant. It was really yummy and we enjoyed seeing kokopelli's and Maori designs intermingled on the menu! Talk about multicultural! We got to Auckland at about 8pm, after ten wonderful hours enjoying the countryside. We were both very excited for Faith Inkubators to begin Friday so we hit the sack early.


Talk about All Blacks Supporters!



West coast beauty


Fuji has a timer!



We really enjoyed the Mountain Lager



Dinner in Hamilton - can you see the Kokapelli and the Maori designs?


Friday morning we picked up Kerri from the airport and met up with the other four members from our church that were attending the conference. We were pleasantly surprised to see eight other Lutheran pastors/leaders from around the country (including the President) - great support! The conference itself was amazing - hard to describe in a blog spot, but to sum it up nicely: Sunday school was created for those outside of the church who had no parents to teach them about the faith. However, today we've enabled the parents to drop off their children and have no say in their faith development, expecting the youth workers and pastors to bring up their children in the faith with 20 minutes a week. Ridiculous! Faith Inkubators is focused on getting pastors and youth workers to work together with parents to encourage faith development in the home, which is part of a parent's responsibility. We learned sooooo much and I think the Manawatu left with quite a vision for youth ministry in the parish. I know Ken and I are very keen on this method of faith development and will incorporate it into whatever church we end up working full time at (or at least incorporating it into our own family).

One of the premises of Faith Ink is the Faith 5 that you do each night with your family


Rich BLANK teaching us



Friday night we ended it by going ice skating at the rink in Auckland (there isn't one in Palmy). It was super fun, although we were the oldest people there. I guess Friday nights at the rink is for all the junior high students and there was a live DJ with stobe lights and fog. Crazy, but fun.

Sky Tower


Winners!

Saturday finished the conference and then Kerri, Ken and myself went to Sky City (NZ Las Vegas) to have a little fun - we all walked away richer than we were walking in! Sunday we dropped Kerri off at the airport and began our way to Whakapapa, the ski village at Mt. Ruhapehu! The drive down was eventful - we saw an elephant! In the countryside of New Zealand! WHAT??!! On closer look, it belonged to a circus, but still, it was pretty crazy!

A New Zealand elephant?!



The Chateau blew our minds - we had one of the nicest rooms, with heated floors in the bathroom and a perfect view of the mountain! We took a nice walk to see some waterfalls while it was spritzing with snow...so romantic! It was a perfect start to celebrating our first year anniversary (a bit late, but we planned it that way because we wanted to ski, but the season isn't good until August).

The Chateau with Ruhapehu behind it



It's snowing!




The waterfalls we took a walk in the snow to see




Monday we got up nice and early to hit the slopes - sooooo much fun! We picked up skiing pretty quick and were on blue slopes before you knew it! That night we had a wonderful three course dinner at the hotel (part of the room package) and enjoyed a bottle of champagne and chocolates back in the room. It was picture perfect.







Tuesday we began the trek home, getting back in the early afternoon. It was back to work after we said hello to the Pepper. What a wonderful week - it was very refreshing and a much needed positive uplifting time of learning and playing!