New Zealand… My trip so far! bye Bye 2007!

Wow! What a beautiful place New Zealand is. I have been here for two weeks now and it’s simply stunning. You can see so many contrasts of color and beauty.

I’ve always thought that New Zealand was breathtaking… But not literally! After a few days here I got asthma, the thing is that New Zealand has one of the highest levels of pollen and apparently my throat/lungs did not like that too much. So, for several nights I thought I was gonna die and every breath was full of weird noises. Helped me in my prayer life that’s for sure. But after a few days I finally went to the Doctor and she gave me some meds and I’m all better. Praise the Lord. Because even though the days were great, the nights were horrible.

Not anymore, I am really blessed to be here. Ben’s family is great. His mom, dad and grandma are amazing people. I am staying with him in their house. They live in Paihia, a town in the coast of the Bay of Islands. Paihia is a beautiful place, a small tourism town that now, in the summer here gets full of people.

Christmas was great here also, pretty warm, although I’m used to that since I come from Puerto Rico. On Christmas Eve, Ben’s dad, Bill, who is a pastor had organized an event called Carols on the Green, which was in the park and had music, free sausage, face painting and such. It was really good, there were several hundred people there. Then on Christmas morning, before opening our gifts, we went to the same park and had communion with the people there. When we got back, we opened our gifts and then had an amazing Seafood lunch. Crayfish, Prawns, Musells and more. It was a great time, we had crackers and christmas poppers.
Ben’s family love chocolates and New Zealand has really great ones. There’s always chocolate around the house, so I have made them part of my daily diet. Flakies, Tim Tams, Lindts, Cadbury… Anyway, great chocolate.

One of our Christmas gifts was a trip around the bay on a Speedboat, the Mack Attack. It was really good and we got to see the Hole in the Rock and many of the beautiful islands.

On the 29th, the day before my Birthday, Ben and I left on our 1st road trip. We went North, heading to the top of New Zealand. On the way there we stopped at several bays and beaches and I got my first try at surfing, it was ok, didn’t do too good but I liked it. We stopped at the Ninety Mile Beach, a beach that is… well 90 miles long. Then we got to a great bay, Taputaputa Bay, this is the place where we were to spend the night. We were looking for a good place but were truly blessed in finding this amazing one. After setting our tent we went and walked throught the volcanic rocks and took some pictures. Then had some spaghetti and meatballs sandwiches for dinner and after chatting for a while went to sleep.

Then, on the 30th of December, for my 26th Birthday I woke up with the most amazing view of the beach. Ben gave me a cool necklace and a parasailing ticket as my gift. We went swimming for a while and then left this beautiful place. We headed a bit north to go to Cape Reinga, the top of the country. There we saw where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean collide. Pictures cannot describe the beauty of this place although I tried to capture as much as I could. On the way back we stopped for my birthday lunch, real New Zealand Fish and Chips, it was great and greasy. We stopped at Cable bay, which so far is my favorite beach, maybe because I had some fun in the waves and it was my birthday.

My birthday was great day, one of the best so far, if not the best. Up there in the top of New Zealand I was able to experience a peace from God in some areas that I was needing and all throughout the day, God ministered to me though His Word, through His creation, through my Best friend and through music. I am really thankful for my 26th Birthday.

Today is the last day of the year, here in New Zealand. In the states it is tomorrow. For those who don’t know, New Zealand is a day ahead. So I will be in 2008 when my family and friends are in 2007. Crazy, huh? I really like New Zealand but I cannot discard thinking of my family and how much I love them. I really hope that 2008 will be agreat year for them. To my friends in the States and in Puerto Rico, I hope that 2008 will be a great year for you all and that God’s love, favor and blessings will overtake you during this new year. So, even though I like this place a lot, this is not home for me. New Zealand is the most beautiful place I’ve seen but I like home and I like smiling, smiling’s my favorite. So many greens and blues make this place a paradise, but there is something about the place that you belong to at a certain moment of your life that… well, it either is or it is not home. Tonight we will go out on a boat, to say bye to 2007 and see fireworks in the bay. See you Next year.

May God bless you and give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.