North Island

we flew off to Rotorua tuesday and had 5 glorious days exploring north island (where its WARM). from swimming with hundreds of dolphins in the ocean at Whakatane (pronounced fuk-a-tawn-ee) to surfing at Raglan! Don't forget blackwater rafting by the light of gloworms... we're sold on life in North Island. oh yeah, we stayed in a hundred year old hotel on the hill that was totally victorian (though you do have to climb out your window to get to the porch). but getting back to our south island home was the best. we love it all!

been procrastinating on studying the sabbath school lesson, which is bad, because we're teaching this sabbath. also doing song service, and we hope not the children's story (but we're prepared just in case). we never thought we'd be so involved in church since we're always up and going somewhere on the weekends (and there's so many places to go). but they really appreciate it and we get alot out of it so we keep agreeing to do more and more.

the new zealand language is also growing on us. we like it heaps. we're always saying cheers but can't quite get used to "ta" which seems to mean, bye and thanks in the same word. in fact, i'm so used to it, i can't think of any more words right now. culture is different too. they're very egalitarian, no one looks up to you just because of your position, you actually have to earn their trust by talking and socializing before you get to what they really came in for. you can never tell what they actually want though, because no one wants to offend, so they're just pleasant no matter what.

well, that's a pretty substantial amount of writing for me so don't get you're hopes up...though i will try to do better.