A fabulous birthday weekend! Part II

That next day we headed out to The Chasm and Lover's Leap, which is where the sheer cliffs drop off into the sea. Lover's Leap is a eroded cliff where an arch has formed at the bottom of a deep chasm (unfortunately those pics didn't turn out). It's just a 5min walk through a pasture full of sheep (and sheep poo!). 

By then we were sweating on a hot NZ day (75 degrees!) so headed out to St.Clair beach, where Kimball got some awesome surfing pictures while I checked out the heated outdoor saltwater pool and coffee shop. 

On the way home we stopped by Nugget Point for the sunset. What a great way to spend the weekend!

A fabulous birthday weekend! Part I

Well, as some of you may know, last Sunday was my birthday. Just for fun, Kimball and I headed for Dunedin, a city 3 hours away. The first thing we did when we got into town was to check out the new Chinese garden. Dunedin's mayor is Chinese and the city's sister city is Shanghai. So this amazing garden, rock waterfalls, bridges, lanterns and all, was built in Shanghai, then disassembled and reassembled after being shipped to Dunedin. Incredible! It was definitely a place I could visit again and again.

Then we drove out of town, to the Otago Peninsula where we caught a boat that took us out to see the sea lions, albatrosses (with a wingspan of 10 feet!), baby seals play fighting, cormorant rookery (where they nest in the hundreds on a steep sloping cliff above the water, balancing their eggs precariously on shelves of straw) and one little blue penguin swimming in the water (who happened to be quite brave and allowed us to get very close to him). What amazing animals!

Next we headed for our favorite place, the Penguin Place, for some good photo-ops of the elusive yellow-eyed penguin. We saw one playing in a freshwater pond, which seemed strange since they usually head out to sea. The others were molting, so had to stay out of the water. They looked like fat down pillows with the stuffing coming out. =)

Finally, starving, we headed to the only place to eat on the peninsula, 1908. A classy little restaurant with local specialties like venison and blue cod. Kimball had the venison and said it was the best he ever had.

Exhausted, we drove about 5 minutes to our little cottage for the night. It was a fisherman's hut back in the 1800's that had recently been converted to an adorable cozy little cottage by a German/Maori couple. We slept so good in the down bed and woke late the next morning to a knock at the door and our hearty German breakfast being delivered in a large basket. 

(No luck getting the rest of the photos to load for this edition so check out facebook for the fun pictures of the cottage, penguins, etc).

Young Adult Beach Trip

This weekend Kimball and I joined the church's young adult group for a trip to Curio Bay, where one of the church members has a bach (pronounced "batch" what they call a beach house, also known as a "crib" here).  It was an amazing little place right over the beach where we could watch the dolphins play from the breakfast table. The little Hector's dolphins there are rare and only about 3-4 feet long. There is a group of about 40 of them that live in the bay and are there almost every time we visit. Today, they were surfing the waves with us and Kimball caught pictures of it. 

The youth pastor, Jonathas, has arrived recently from Brazil and got to try surfing for the first time and managed to catch some good waves. He's doing a great job with the youth to follow up on the work started by the last youth pastor.

While Kimball was out surfing a sea lion swam up to him and touched his board. Later while we were on shore a sea lion scuffled right up to us and lay his head down to sleep on the rock we were sitting on! We're not sure if it was the same one but he sure was friendly. Didn't see any penguins on this trip but heard they were around. It was so relaxing to spend time with God and nature and fun friends, we'll have to do it again!

Home in NZ!

It's sad to leave our family and friends in California once again but we had a great visit. The more we think about it, the farther away we feel from everyone. I don't know if it's a passing thought/feeling but maybe we would like to relocate someday in the good ol' USA. Let us know if you know of a spot that would fit woodsy, sea-loving types like ourselves. The only prerequisites are no bugs and not too cold (if that's possible). If we could get the rest of you to relocate with us it would be even better. Never fear, though, if you still are planning a visit to NZ, we will be here for the next year or two or more. After that...it all depends. 

On the other hand, it is great to get back to our cute little house and garden in NZ with our parrot and good friends and surfing nearby. If only there was a quicker way to get from A to Z. To help with that I downloaded Skype today at www.skype.com and tried it out talking to Jon and Brian. It is amazing that some things in life actually are free! How is that possibly? So it's up to the rest of you to sign up and give us a ring and show us your house, cats, children, scars, whatever...we would love to hear from you!

Last day of work...again!

Yup, just closed shop at the Otautau Medical Centre...forever. Well they'll still be there, I just won't be back. Well, that's what I keep saying anyway. A patient just told me today they're glad I keep having one more "last day". I do think I'll be back once in a while just to help out and for that country doctor experience. And the drive out there isn't bad either. Check out our springtime lambs on flickr...too cute. OK so maybe I'm sad to leave Otautau where I've spent practically the first two years of my first real practice, first years of marriage and first two years in New Zealand. Who wouldn't be sentimental!? But from now it's on to bigger and better things now that the Balance lifestyle centre is really up and running and work at Vercoe and Brown Medical Centre (another private practice) starts up in March.

But first, we're off to California, yippee! Hope to see as many of you there as possible. There's no fixed plan, but I'm feeling spontaneous so start thinking up ideas. Would love to get out surfing, climbing, coffee shopping, climbing, etc!

We had a good Kiwi Christmas and got invited to friends from church for Christmas lunch so didn't even have to cook! We went surfing too and the dolphins joined us! It was amazing....too bad the pictures didn't turn out of the dolphins but here's some of our friends, Wayne and Kim in their kayaks.

Then we found a hidden beach over the hill from Riverton. Somehow we never knew it existed until now. Here's what it looks like.

And here's a great little beachfront cottage for sale. Are you sure you all don't want to move to New Zealand?

The day before Christmas...

It is close to 70 degrees out and that makes it a hot summer day in New Zealand. It's still doesn't feel natural to have Christmas in the middle of summer with not a flake of snow in sight so we've decided to bypass Christmas altogether this year. We're quite pleased not to be contributing to the excessive commercialism this time of year but wonder if we should spend just a little to help the economy.

Well the Safari book is done and if you haven't seen the pictures yet, you can email me or facebook and i'll send you the flickr link. The photos are amazing!

We're both on call this Christmas Eve so will probably have a quite night at home of Scrabble (and looking at our pictures of course!)

We miss all you lovely people on the other side of the world and hope your Christmas is a peaceful and happy time. We wish more than anything you all would have a greater understanding and love for God in the New Year and that you would have a joy that is limitless!

Heaps and Heaps of Love from us,

Amy & Kimball & Kiwi (da bird)

South Africa Safari and Faith's Wedding

Hi all! We're back from Africa and had the most fantastic time ever with Melissa & Mark and the rest of the gang at Faith Lukens' wedding to Charl in the Kruger National Park. Pictures coming soon. We have thousands to sort through and plenty to delete...

In case you haven't noticed, we're now on facebook! Check there for pictures etc. We'll get back to posting here when we recover from jetlag (is it age or does it take longer than I remember to get back on a normal sleep pattern?).

Thanks to Faith and Charl for the great idea of a destination wedding. We hope the rest of you single people get the hint and plan your weddings in fabulous destinations around the world. We like this!