Meeting Jennifer

So we're currently in the Philippines and planning to spend three weeks here.  We had two specific goals in coming here.  One is to visit a coconut oil factory that Mike is familiar with and the other was to meet our Compassion International sponsored child, Jennifer.  Each of the girls has a friend that they write to.  The other three have all had the opportunity to meet their girls and Trina was very excited for the opportunity to meet Jennifer.

This was such a fun and special day.  We flew into Puerto Princesa which is where her family lives.  The day before, Trina and I went to the local mall to buy a gift for Jennifer.  She had so much fun putting together a bag with art supplies and buying her an outfit.  Trina kept eyeing the art kit and commenting on how much she thought Jennifer would like it--I think she really wanted to keep it for herself :).

I continue to be so impressed with Compassion.  These visits are always well-organized and they have great staff members.  Our hosts, Hermyne and Adrian, picked us up and first took us to the church where the Compassion activities are held.  Here we met Jennifer and her mom, Norma, along with a number of Compassion staff members and the pastor.

Our big shock was that Jennifer had been in a serious accident in September and was still working through that recovery.  She was hit by a vehicle and had had serious cranial surgery.  She hasn't been back to school yet (it's now summer break here--school begins in June) and still suffers some moodiness and anger issues.  Of course her family also was hit with some big medical bills.  We felt so badly about not knowing--we're assuming the news came in a letter after we had left.

From the church, we traveled to Jennifer's home and met the rest of her family.

Jennifer and Trina

Talking with Jennifer's family in her home

Trina and Jennifer broke the ice by drawing pictures for each other using the art kit.

Our next stop was the local mall, to have some interaction and fun.  This was the first time her family had been to this mall.

We ended up at a Chuck E. Cheese type place called Tom's World.  We all had fun there--the older sisters, the moms, and even Grandma (the guys went to the hardware store next door).

We even had some success with the claw!

We found out Jennifer's dad works at a restaurant on the waterfront so he made reservations for all of us to have dinner there that evening.  I'm a little squeamish with unfamiliar seafood, so I was very proud of myself for trying all the different dishes (and they were really good!).  But, sometimes it is better to ask why the squid is black AFTER eating it.

And here's the whole group:

Grandma, sister Joann, sister Jennybelle, dad Jun, mom Norma, Jennifer--and on the end is Hermyne, the Compassion host who coordinated the day.

We only stayed in Puerto Princesa about 3 days and then ventured on to Boracay.  More on that next...

See you later, New Zealand!

Not able to bring myself to say goodbye.  Such a beautiful place that I hope to get back someday and explore more of it.

We spent the last week and a half of our time there renting a campervan and traveling around, usually parking in a carpark at night so no internet.  Sorry to overload with pictures, but lots to catch up on!

For our last week, we traveled back up to the north island and around Northland--the area north of Auckland.  It's just filled with bays around the coast and rolling green hills inland, so the scenery pictures continue:

We hiked up and down two of these hills (we'd like to call them mountains) to reach Cape Reinga, the (almost) northernmost part of New Zealand:

Meanwhile, all these other lazy people just drove their cars to the carpark and walked a short pathway to it!

This one is for Aunt Jamie.  We stayed in a basic campground with this pasture between us and the beach.  The girls were tentative, Mike insisted it was no big deal, this bull stepped into our path--and we drove to the beach.

The north part of New Zealand used to be filled with these huge kauri trees, until they were used up for their lumber and gum.  We went to see the granddaddy of them all, "Tane Mahuta".  With the huge trunk and those wild branches at the top, this looked like an enchanted forest.

And of course the girls loved the cheesy picture of the four sisters in front of The Four Sisters--4 kauri trees that grew out of one root system.

We sought out beaches as we traveled around and there were lots to choose from.  On the west is Ninety Mile Beach (actually more like 90 kilometer beach) which you can drive on and is notorious for its sand dunes.  Michiganders, be proud--those dunes weren't nearly as impressive as the Lake Michigan ones.

On one beach, we saw people digging and Mike found out it was for clams.  He enlisted the girls' help and it was quite addictive.  The clams were everywhere and just under the surface so we just wanted to keep finding more.  The next day, Mike prepared and ate about 50 clams for lunch--no other clam eaters in this family!

Trina found a nice spot to read for a while

This was another hike we did while in Christchurch on the south island.  Unintentionally we hiked it right at sunset and the sky just burst into color.

Felt a little like India--we got stared at a lot!

At one of our other beaches, Mike discovered rock oysters.

Mike convinced Trina to try one.  Wish I had room to include pictures of the whole process, but here are some of the most telling:

Found this sweet beach as we were looking for a picnic spot one day.  We ended up staying most of the afternoon.

But we also had picnic lunches like this

CHRISTCHURCH--Christchurch really deserved its own post.  We somewhat remember hearing about the earthquake in 2011, but we didn't pay much attention at the time.  Well, it was devastating to this city.  185 lives were lost and there was huge destruction to many historic buildings and hundreds of homes.  It was shocking to drive through the city--cranes and construction and flat areas all over.  But the city is doing some really cool things.  An organization called Gapfiller has been installing temporary art in vacant areas and the site of a former mall now contains this really cool container mall:

We also visited Quake City, a museum that tells about the earthquake.  We were most impacted by a video of individuals telling their memories of that day.  And Trina had fun with the legos.

Christchurch Cathedral was one of the historic buildings severely damaged.  A Japanese architect constructed this new cathedral--nicknamed the Cardboard Cathedral--in only a few months as a somewhat temporary place of worship.  Those tubes are made out of cardboard.

This was a memorial to the dead entitled 185 Chairs.

Side Note:  Just as I was preparing this post, I saw news about the Nepal earthquake.  This is where we spent the first part of our trip, developed some friendships there, and spent time in the areas affected by the quake so it all feels a little more personal.  Please pray for Nepal.

And so our camping days in New Zealand came to an end, and we had lots of dirty laundry to show for it.  Quick stop at the laundromat before heading to the airport.

We're now in the Philippines and spent yesterday meeting Trina's Compassion friend and her family.  Hoping to post about that soon.

New Zealand

So now we're in New Zealand and have been here for about 10 days.  I'll be posting lots of pictures of scenery because that's what it's all about.  Beautiful views wherever we are, and within an hour, we can see beaches, green fields, rocky cliffs, bush land.  The variety is amazing.  But sheesh, do you PAY for those views.  Even a powered campsite runs upwards of $100 because they charge for the site and another $10-20 for each person.

East coast of the North Island

To travel from the North Island to the South Island, we did a campervan relocation.  You can rent a camper for $5/day and have three days to deliver it from Auckland to Christchurch.  New Zealand allows for Freedom Camping--in certain area, if you have a self-contained vehicle, you can just pull over and camp.  Because of costs, we did this all three nights.

This was a fun experience but put our togetherness to the test--bed in back, bed up top, table that folded into a bed, and a very narrow walkway through it all.

And we're back to driving a Sprinter--although things are a little backward.

Waking up to views like this each morning made it all worthwhile.

And of course we had to stop at the giant kiwi!

I was curious because I have no idea how kiwis grow.  On the right are the trees.

And they were definitely in season--falling off the trees.

Near Rotorua, on the North Island, we visited a Redwood Forest:

One of the biggest draws to Rotorua is the thermal pools which are found all over.  We went to a city park and found these fenced in areas everywhere.  And there were also a number of orange taped areas where new hot springs had been found.  Some were steaming water and some were pools of bubbling mud.

And then we stopped at an area where you can swim in the thermal pools.  They take the boiling hot water, which is running down the hillside, and adjust the temperature for a variety of pools.

In Wellington, we had a necessary stop to apply for our Chinese visas at the embassy.  Wow--if pick up goes smoothly, this was the way to go.  It was just a tiny little office and they hardly asked for any info--much easier than sending it in from the states.

Between that and catching the ferry to the South Island, we visited Te Papa Museum, an amazing museum about all things New Zealand.

One floor was an art museum and Trina spent most of our time at this tracing table.

On the South Island, we've enjoyed the scenery in a number of different ways:

A beach in Kaikoura where we Freedom Camped

We took a hike around the peninsula there and encountered tons of fur seals.

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In Queenstown we did a pretty intense uphill hike overlooking Lake Wanatipu and the town.

My "must do" was a trip out to Milford Sound.  Unfortunately it was a cloudy day (the odds say it will be) but the rain held off and it was beautiful in a powerful kind of way.

A typical shot of Mike--most likely explaining rock formations or wind forces.

We did some hikes in the Milford Sound area that were filled with this lush, green vegetation--like an enchanted forest.

We've been drinking lots of this--New Zealand's native soda

There are a surprising number of vineyards.

Watching bungy jumpers

We've been staying mostly in hostels while traveling around and we've encountered some beautiful ones.  This is where we stayed enroute to Milford Sound with this pretty lake view.

Whew--way too many pictures, but even this is just a sampling.  Driving around here is almost like a big Thanksgiving feast.  You take it all in and almost get full from it--but then the next day you're ready to start right in again!