Well for those of you who I haven't contacted yet, which would be pretty much everyone except Mum and Dad, I have safely arrived in Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea.
I think I have now traveled in the smallest plane I will ever travel in, a Cessna 206, maximum capacity 5 passengers. I was in the co-pilot seat so had a wonderful view of the clouds and occasional river and rolling hills that make up the PNG eastern highlands. I had to be careful not to stretch my legs too straight as there were some foot pedals down there and I didn't really want to send the plane in an uncontrollable spin or anything. The flight was around 1 3/4 hours and the plane actually felt reasonably safe, it didn't bounce around too much.
On arriving in Ukarumpa I was met at the airstrip by my department bosses and Tony and Martha Hinton, the fellowship family that was assigned to show me around. Tony is a fellow kiwi although he has spent about 10 years in the UK and another 10 years in the US so his accent is a little confused at times.
There is a sign up sheet in the post office here with all the new people on it, where people sign up to have the newbies over for dinner or lunch. So far I have been out for dinner 3 times and lunch 4 times, so I am getting to know people pretty quickly. There are a bunch of young people here and the ones I have met so far have been great fun to be around and very welcoming.
On Saturday night there was a contemporary worship time with a really good worship band playing a good mix of songs. I would have to say it was one of the best worship bands I have seen. The music on Sunday morning was a little less to my liking, although they say if you don't like the style of service here, come back next week because it will be totally different, so I will have to see what it is like next week. I had a chat with one of the worship leaders and he sounded keen to get me involved in his team. There are so many good musicians over here, I guess I won't be playing quite as often as I was in Vancouver.
I haven't gone for a walk with my camera yet so don't have many photos yet, and the ones I do have are still on my camera so they will have to wait for the next posting. I was a little concerned for a while that I wouldn't be able to post pictures on my blog as I have to pay 30 cents per Mb for web usage. Fortunately that charge is only for incoming traffic, so I can post pictures for free! I will have to limit my web browsing though so probably won't be playing any of Dan's I hate Monday games for a while.
And that's all I have to say today. Check back in a few days and I may have more to say.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Final post from NZ
Well my month home in Auckland has just flown by and it is now only 12 1/2 hours until I depart to on my next great adventure.
In my time back home I have once again come to realise how good my espresso machine is. I had actually gotten used to not having fantastic coffee at home while living in Vancouver and had forgotten how good it was to wake up and be able to start the day off with a perfect latte or espresso. It will be missed over the next 5 months for sure.
It has also been nice being able to play a few rounds of golf over the last month, even if I got absolutely drenched in the process. I was certainly a bit rusty after not playing since October but in the last game I was starting to be a bit happier with the way I was hitting the ball, despite the somewhat unimpressive scorecard. It has been great being able to finally use my 'new' driver on a course at last, surprisingly it didn't totally fix my slice, so perhaps there is a flaw in my swing.
In my time back home I have once again come to realise how good my espresso machine is. I had actually gotten used to not having fantastic coffee at home while living in Vancouver and had forgotten how good it was to wake up and be able to start the day off with a perfect latte or espresso. It will be missed over the next 5 months for sure.
It has also been nice being able to play a few rounds of golf over the last month, even if I got absolutely drenched in the process. I was certainly a bit rusty after not playing since October but in the last game I was starting to be a bit happier with the way I was hitting the ball, despite the somewhat unimpressive scorecard. It has been great being able to finally use my 'new' driver on a course at last, surprisingly it didn't totally fix my slice, so perhaps there is a flaw in my swing.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Vacation montage
Well I have been very slack writing about my vacation and quite frankly am lacking the inspiration right now to write a detailed commentary on all I did and saw, so instead I will put together a bit of a photo montage of the last month or so.
Whistler
It was kind of cloudy up the mountains so we just hired some bikes to ride around the valley. There are some really nice lakes that are pretty close to the village. Didn't get a chance to do any downhill riding, Mum and Dad didn't seem to keen.
Victoria
Apparently we were really lucky to see so many orcas resting. And as you can tell we got really close to the whales to. Splendid.
The deer in somebodies garden was pretty cool.
Salt Spring Island
Beautiful place, we stayed in a really nice little log cabin beside a lake. Highlight of Salt Spring Island was visiting the cheese shop, very yummy goats cheeses. The bread shop had some really nice bread too.
Las Vegas
We arrived kind of late at night so all the rooms that we had booked were taken, so we got an upgrade to a suite, a 2 level room complete with a sauna shower and jacuzzi. Unfortunately it also only came with 1 bed so I had to sleep on a roll-away. Didn't really do much in Vegas other than sleep and eat.
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Well known for it's hoodoos, indeed they were the best hoodoos I have ever seen.
Grand Canyon
The grand canyon is huge, I had no idea it was that big. It is pretty hard to capture the scale of it in a photograph, I kind of failed in that regard but I got a photo of a bee and a squirrel!
Yosemite National Park
My favourite of all the places we visited. I would love to go back there in winter time, maybe next year.
San Francisco
Didn't really get any photos worth posting here. We went on a tour to the golden gate bridge but it didn't stop on the side of the bridge I wanted a photo from, a little disappointing.
Whistler
It was kind of cloudy up the mountains so we just hired some bikes to ride around the valley. There are some really nice lakes that are pretty close to the village. Didn't get a chance to do any downhill riding, Mum and Dad didn't seem to keen.
Victoria
Apparently we were really lucky to see so many orcas resting. And as you can tell we got really close to the whales to. Splendid.
The deer in somebodies garden was pretty cool.
Salt Spring Island
Beautiful place, we stayed in a really nice little log cabin beside a lake. Highlight of Salt Spring Island was visiting the cheese shop, very yummy goats cheeses. The bread shop had some really nice bread too.
Las Vegas
We arrived kind of late at night so all the rooms that we had booked were taken, so we got an upgrade to a suite, a 2 level room complete with a sauna shower and jacuzzi. Unfortunately it also only came with 1 bed so I had to sleep on a roll-away. Didn't really do much in Vegas other than sleep and eat.
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Well known for it's hoodoos, indeed they were the best hoodoos I have ever seen.
Grand Canyon
The grand canyon is huge, I had no idea it was that big. It is pretty hard to capture the scale of it in a photograph, I kind of failed in that regard but I got a photo of a bee and a squirrel!
Yosemite National Park
My favourite of all the places we visited. I would love to go back there in winter time, maybe next year.
San Francisco
Didn't really get any photos worth posting here. We went on a tour to the golden gate bridge but it didn't stop on the side of the bridge I wanted a photo from, a little disappointing.
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