Enlightened by Gravity

2009-04-29T22:29:00.003+13:00

Queenstown lights and reflection

Our new house and a particularly colourful sunrise.

This a view from my drive to work.

Autumn Toadstools.

These two shots are both taken in Queenstown Gardens on the same morning just after sunrise.

This is the road to Glen Orchy. I love the light from the car headlights on the water and the rocks.

This is the TSS Earnslaw, a coal powered ship that’s been sailing on Lake Wakatipu for almost 100 years. The lights look amazing at night when it’s coming into dock.

Now it’s getting on for winter I’ve been enjoying the lights of Queenstown at night, particularly the reflections off the water.

The smoke coming out of this chimney was being lit from behind. The long exposure time of this photo really exaggerated the light and colour in the sky.

This is the Kawarau river just down the road from our house. I took these pictures last week on the way home from work.

2008-12-20T10:10:00.005+13:00

UK '08

We returned to the UK at the beginning of April this year and the weather was absolutely gorgeous for about 2 months, followed by the wettest summer on record! After living in Queenstown and Austin this year, my overwhelming impression of the UK was how amazingly GREEN it is. It's so lush and so richly green in a way completely different to anywhere else I've been recently it took me quite a while to start finding it normal again. The West coast of NZ on the South Island gets a huge amount of rain and is also very green, but it's a much darker, more tropical feeling place. England on the other hand is more a shade of bright emerald or even lime green. It's funny what you don't see in a place until you leave and come back...

Our first trip to Robin Hoods Bay over on the East coast

We had great weather which made up for forgetting our tent and having to borrow one!

Our first day on the beach I spent balancing stones...

I saw an orthopaedic surgeon in May and got the all clear to have the metalwork removed in September

This was our first visit to the butterfly house since I proposed to Jen there back in 2003

The other animals held still better than the butterflies, especially the terrapins!

Beautiful sunset over lake Buttermere in the Lake District

Jen went on a Hen Do to Bath, which has a bit of a pig theme going on

This is us at Cragside, an amazing National Trust house and gardens in Northumberland near the Scottish borders

The house at Cragside

Giraffes in Edinburgh, where we met up with my brother for a wee trip around the Highlands

Jen at the Falls of Dochart

A great camping spot near Aviemore

The Rothiemurchus estate

Ben McDuie

Sunshine at Arisaig

Sunset at Arisaig

In my Tartan for a friends wedding

My 33rd birthday

2008-12-11T13:59:00.015+13:00

TEXAS 2008

This is a small selection of photos from our time in Austin Texas earlier this year.

Arriving with a large pile of luggage.

Airport toilets...

Burgers with Derek & Amy at "Frans Hamburgers"

Funky interactive art piece

Steel Armadillo

Jen and little Levi (Mark & Hannah's boy)

Hannah trying out a bike

Mark trying out Levi's buggy!

Stone Tower at the "Lady Bird Johnston" Wildflower Centre

Interesting trail sign...Don't Run!

Texas Hill Country

Texas fast food

Art in the forest...

Jen trying out the rocking 'Unicorn'

Metal flower art

Austin's annual kite festival

Red balloons

Mark playing live at "South by SouthWest (SXSW)"

A night out in costume during SXSW

Derek's 40th birthday

Jen's Art Opening at the "Art House"

The nine colour pieces

"Austin"

Cool Graffiti

Beautiful springs we went swimming in

Wildlife at the springs...a corn snake I think

The "Art House"

The wall I built at the front of the house

Us and the Stoneys just before we left for the UK

2007-11-24T16:59:00.001+13:00

Leaving New Zealand

We are going to leave New Zealand! At the moment we’re leaving on the 10^th January next year, giving us enough time to sell up and ship out. Even in 2 years we've acquired quite a lot of stuff. We’re planning on flying to Austin, Texas to stay with our good friends Derek & Amy for a couple of months. Then we’ll be back in the UK some time around the end of March, probably in Sheffield.

The reasons we’re leaving are pretty simple…firstly my broken leg. It’s healing up nicely and I’m now walking around without a stick, just a very slight limp. However when we saw the doctors last, around three weeks ago, they’re prognosis for recovery was a lot longer that we were expecting. Firstly they didn’t want me doing any impact for another 3 months, so no running or jumping, which are pretty essential in my job. Secondly they advised me against skydiving at all before the pin is removed…in about a year! This is due to an increased chance of breaking the bone while the pin is in...time for a change of plans!

The Second reason is that Derek & Amy invited us to go and live with them in Austin, which was an unexpected offer, but it only took us a couple of days to realize that it’s definitely the right thing to be doing. Plus, the art project Mangola that Jen is working on and involved in with Derek & Amy, is happening at the beginning of March in Austin. So all in all it's the place to be.

I’m really excited about going to Texas and having close friends around, and then being back in the UK, seeing family and friends we’ve only talked to on skype or e-mail for 2 years, it's going to be great! Having good friends around that we know well and are really comfortable with will be a really big change from most of our time here in NZ. It seems like the season for close friends is arriving and I'm really looking forward to it! I wonder what God has been teaching us while we’ve been down this end of the planet feeling a bit isolated?

I’m also looking forward to doing some work as a builder again and actually genuinely being self employed and having weekends off and stuff! With skydiving you’re technically self employed, but don’t get to enjoy any of the benefits, especially not weekends off. Fantastic job, but there’s always a down side!

I'll definitely miss the scenery though ... see you all soon!

2007-10-08T15:46:00.000+13:00

CRASH LANDING

OK...here's the video footage of me crashing 2 weeks ago. It's not easy viewing, so be warned!

2007-10-03T17:44:00.000+13:00

Surgery

I had my surgery done in Invercargill down the bottom end of the South Island. This involved a 50 minute chopper ride down from Queenstown which I was a bit gutted about because it broke my record of jumping out of every chopper I've ever been in!

The first picture is of the traction bed they had me in for 24 hours before surgery, and me looking a bit wasted.

These are the surgery scars and staples holding me together. I get the staples out this Friday and it's feeling pretty good. I got out for a walk today in the sunshine, all of 300m which took me at least half an hour! I'll keep you updated on my progress.

2007-10-02T18:05:00.000+13:00

SMASH & RUN .... err No!

For those of you who don't already know, I had a wee little accident the day after my birthday (Monday 24th) involving me hitting the ground, whilst coming into land, rather harder than is recommended. This resulted in a broken femur, but luckily nothing more serious. So here are a couple of x-rays, before and after. The second shot shows the titanium pin that runs down the length of my femur and one of the screws that holds it in place. Ouch!

I'm now out of hospital and back home in Queenstown, hobbling round on crutches trying not to annoy Jen too much. Please pray for my healing to be super quick so I can get back to work, and for Jen to have masses of energy and grace to look after me while I recover. Cheers!

Freefly Tandem Exit

2007-08-03T00:11:00.001+13:00

Here is a short clip of a tandem exit I filmed yesterday. The freefly coaching in Arizona is starting to pay off!

2007-07-30T13:09:00.002+13:00

ARIZONA

I got back from Skydive Arizona a couple of weeks ago after a brief 5 day visit. I was there to do a bit of skydiving, but mainly to spend 2 hours in the wind tunnel there getting some coaching.

The tunnel - it's a 14 ft diameter enclosed vertical wind tunnel...and it's quite loud!

My coach Jason Peters and myself inside the tunnel.

The dropzone saloon

Sunset in the desert

I'm in the process of editing the video footage of my time in the tunnel. Hopefully when I've done I'll be able to post some movie clips...

2007-06-02T10:52:00.000+13:00

Tandem Photos!

These area few choice photos taken of tandems over the past few months...now doesn't that look fun!

Nice linked exit!

Head down over Queenstown

Our pilot joining in the fun!

Marcus....doing his last jump of the season!

2007-05-22T19:19:00.000+13:00

Full time CAMERAMAN!!!

I am now officially a full time skydiving cameraman! Which means the only thing I get paid to do now is jump out of airplanes and film people...awesome!!

More photos soon, watch this space...

2007-05-18T15:20:00.001+13:00

Fun Photos

These are a couple of nice freefly photos, both taken just after exit.

JP trying to work out which way is up!

You've gotta love helicopters!

Beers on the lake shore after a hard days jumping.

2007-05-18T15:01:00.001+13:00

Skydiving Photos

Not sure who took this photo of me in the door, but I'm just about to leave the plane filming this tandem. The thing in my mouth is the bite-switch for the stills camera.

This is me "sit-flying" (photo taken by JP)

This is what happens when your canopy rotates as it's opening, you get line twists, which aren't all that fun! (photo taken unintentionally whilst trying to get out of them)

This is me under canopy flying along side JP

This is JP just above me!

What my canopy looks like from above (also taken by JP)

2007-05-16T20:28:00.000+13:00

Sunset skydives

Towards the end of this summer there were a few days when we jumped right up till the end of the day, with the sun just starting to set behind the mountains. It's such a beautiful time of day to be skydiving.

2007-05-01T17:41:00.000+13:00

QUEENSTOWN

This is a link to a Google Earth hybrid map showing where we live and where I work;

Queenstown Map

You can zoom right in and see our house or the dropzone. I'll find some more things to add if it all works properly!

P.S. I've got some great photos to post really soon!

2007-02-22T18:05:00.000+13:00

Wingsuit Base

If this video doesn't show up in your browser it may need to download completely which may take a few minutes!

This video isn't of me by the way, just incase you're wondering!

I recently did my first wingsuit skydive, closely followed by five more. It's an awesome feeling to fly horizontally so fast and for so long. One day I want to do wingsuit base jumping which is what these guys are doing to the extreme. This video makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

These are a couple of pictures of wingsuits, so you know what I'm talking about!

2007-02-01T18:35:00.000+13:00

CAMERAMAN

Here are some pictures of me doing a paid camera jump!

My shot of the exit.

My shot while falling through a cloud.

My deployment shot.

2007-01-12T09:47:00.000+13:00

Paid to jump out of airplanes!

I must have been told it a few hundred times while I was doing the skydiving diploma last year..."When your time comes to do camera, you won't get any warning! You need to have all your equipment ready to go, so the moment the boss asks you to do camera on the next load, you can get straight in there and do it!" Geoff Mundy, our course director, never got tired of telling us this, and a good thing I took him seriously because yesterday it happened to me.

With no warning I got asked if I could do camera on the next load! I could hardly believe it, a million different thoughts were suddenly fighting for space in my head, and whilst trying to control the surge of adrenalin pumping round inside me I got myself ready to do my first paid skydive!

I'm ready, in the plane and climbing to altitude, trying to calm myself and think about what I have to do. Skydiving is a sport that is never done well whilst tense or stressed, it requires relaxation and focus of body and mind, otherwise you fall out of the plane like something resembling a plank of wood!

At this moment Geoffs most infamous words come back to me vividly..."Whatever you do, don't fuck up!" Now this is possibly not the most helpful lesson he ever taught me, but fortunately the thought made me smile and relax a bit. I went through the jump in my head, got ready, and climbed out the door! The rest, as they say, is history.

I did a second jump the same day, which was slightly less nerve wracking, and I was up to do a third but we got cancelled, due to too much cloud, so that was it.

I am now officially a stand-by cameraman at one of the busiest commercial dropzones in the world! It's quite surreal for me to realise that I've made it ... I now get paid to jump out of planes and film people. It's something I wanted to do since the first day I started skydiving back in 2000. I thought at the time that the guys on camera had the best jobs in the world, and you know what, I was right!

2006-11-27T18:09:00.000+13:00

Stoney Pony!

If there was ever a rock star pony this is what he'd look like! He reminded us somewhat of our good friend Mr Mark Stoney who just happens to be a rock star himself....hence the name!

2006-11-27T17:59:00.000+13:00

The Kepler Track

Self portrait!

Picnic spot on the Kepler tack near TeAnau

Jen and her parents Rex & Jill at Brod Bay on the Kepler track

2006-11-27T17:29:00.000+13:00

Fjordland & Milford Sound

These are a couple of shots from our recent family trip to Milford with Jill & Rex (Jen's parents).

The road to Milford

Kea - these cheeky alpine parrots just love pulling the rubber bits off tourist cars...

...and fighting over the remains

Jen being sized up!

The lodge at the head of Milford Sound

Milford sound & Mitre Peak

2006-11-16T17:07:00.000+13:00

PARACHUTE PACKING PRO!

This is what I do for a job at the moment.....while I wait for the job I really want as a camera man! Packing parachutes, mainly tandem parachutes because that's what NZONE does the most of (around 12,000 a year). I get paid by the pack job, which takes around 10/12 minutes, and I have to keep a record of the parachutes I pack. This is mainly so I get paid, but it also means that if anything goes wrong, everyone knows who did the last pack job.......No pressure!

1 - Organise the harness container & set the brakes

2 - Pick up the canopy & shake it out

3 - Hang the canopy up

4 - Oragnise the canopy material and lines

5 - Roll the canopy in the tail material

6 - Put the canopy on the floor and put a carpet on it to squash the air out

7 - Squash the rest of the air out of it

8 - Fold

9 - Stuff into deployment bag

10 - Stow the lines

11 - Still stowing!

12 - Untwist the drogue bridle and cock the drogue chute

13 - Put the deployment bag into the container

14 - Close the container

15 - Fold and roll the drogue chute

Dah Dah!

Not the most stimulating job I've ever had, but I quite enjoy it!

2006-10-18T00:02:00.000+13:00

CHOPPER JUMPS!

I jumped out of a helicopter today.............three times!! It's just awesome, totally different to jumping out of a plane, much more like BASE jumping. You're falling into still air so you have pretty much no control as soon as you let go, and you get the same feeling of acceleration you get when you jump off anything, it just lasts a bit longer!

These two are Ritchie in the black & white and JP in the mostly black.

Hanging by their feet!

2006-10-09T13:34:00.000+13:00

Skydiving and Landing

This is me landing on my new canopy

These are from a tandem swoop I did a couple of days ago

This is Ricky, our resident canopy piloting expert, swooping the lake edge!

2006-10-09T13:07:00.000+13:00

NZONE

I've been working here now for nearly 4 months and I've even been paid once! I have been meaning to post some pictures of where I work, so here they are.

Coming into land

Tandem landing

This is a photo I took of a visiting jumper, you can see Queenstown behind him & we live on the far side of the lake just to the right of his left knee!

2006-09-02T19:19:00.000+13:00

I GOT A JOB!!!!

Great news I just found out for sure that I have a paying job starting on Monday 4th September! I will be packing tandem parachutes, which is pretty hard work, but it's also much better paid than the other job I was likely to get which was general ground staff. My job description is also really simple and finite as I'm only paid for every parachute I pack! Ground staff on the other hand are paid by the hour and therefore have to appear constantly busy in order to justify their existence! So all in all the job suits me down to the ground, however I may need to find myself some knee pads!

This is a picture of my new canopy (not me under it), it's a 120 sqft HiPerUSA Nitro www.hiperusa.com and it kicks ass! It's the first canopy I've flown where I can get myself way higher than the canopy during a turn! I'll post some in flight photos soon. Plus it's NZONE colours which always goes down well!

2006-08-18T13:17:00.000+13:00

GLENORCHY

It was Jen's birthday the previous Wednesday, so we thought we'd go up to Glenorchy for the weekend, do a bit of walking and just enjoy the scenary. This was my first booked time off since I started my work placement at NZONE and the weather forcast for Queenstown was terrible. Fortunately Glenorchy, which is only about 40km up the lake, was really nice pretty much all weekend!

Lake Wakatipu

You can see the weather coming down the lake in the two photos above, but everywhere we drove the sun just kept shining!

The Dart River

The view from our wild camping spot near the start of the Routeburn Track

Beautiful forest!

Cute Forest Pixie!

2006-08-06T09:09:00.000+13:00

No pictures this morning! Just an explaination as to where some of them went! As a favour to Mr Stephen Ward (good friend, best man & all round great guy) I have reduced my blogg to 2 posts per page. This is due to the fact that Steve & his lovely wife Tracy live in the middle of nowhere and are one of the few places left on Earth still unable to get broadband! Glad to help!

2006-07-07T21:53:00.000+13:00

QUEENSTOWN...

This is the amazing view from the balcony of our apartment at sunrise.

Paragliders at the "QT Winter Festival" during our first week here.

Two guys base jumping from tandem Paragliders over the lake during the Festival!

2006-05-23T21:57:00.000+13:00

Freefall shots

These are a few choice shots I've taken over the last couple of weeks.

This is the dropzone from under canopy

2006-05-23T21:27:00.000+13:00

Camera Assignment

These are four pictures from my camera assignment where we had to simulate a tandem jump and get good shots of the exit, freefall, deployment & landing. This is Jon doing a great job of pretending to be a tandem for me!

2006-05-23T21:23:00.000+13:00

Methven Sunrise & Sunset

2006-05-04T22:52:00.000+13:00

Canopy Landing

This is some footage of me and JP from the course, I'm the one hooning down!

2006-05-03T22:59:00.000+13:00

Rose goes offroading!

Jen looking gorgeous

2006-05-03T22:21:00.000+13:00

South Island Water

Avalanch Peak stream in Arthurs Pass

Queenstown

Franz Joseph glacier

West Coast

2006-04-07T07:43:00.000+13:00

10 Weeks of Skydiving...

I've been skydiving now for 10 weeks, and it' been pretty busy hence the lack of posts recently. These are all my course mates on the day of my 100th jump, except Jon, who we just couldn't find! The rest of my course bar one are still to reach the magic 100 and it's turning into winter here pretty fast, which is going to make jumping in your underwear pretty flippin cold! Once you have over 100 jumps in NZ you can put a camera on your helmet so you can film other people in freefall, which is going to be loads of fun!

This is me and one of the instructors Ian (he's Welsh incase you hadn't guessed!), just after exiting the plane. I'm doing a coaching jump called "Cat & Mouse" where I have to follow Ian wherever he goes in the sky. Now this is pretty dificult, but loads of fun when your having a good day and it works really well!

This is a jump I did with one of the other guys from the course called Shaun. We're freeflying, which basically means doing anything that's not belly down. This is me trying to sit fly!

2006-03-29T11:07:00.000+13:00

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS...

I haven't posted in quite a while, mainly because I haven't taken any great photos recently! The course has been keeping me pretty busy, and last week I did my "undie hundie" which is my 100th jump....in my undies, hence the name. It was a little bit chilly, as you can probably imagine, and skydiving without a jumpsuit is a fair bit more difficult than jumping with one because you have much less grip on the air so you slide around quite a lot!

Now I've got 100 jumps though I can start using a camera on my helmet to film other people in freefall, which will be really cool. I've done 5 one-to one coaching jumps and I have the video footage from those jumps, so I'm going to make a little compilation video and try to put it up online, and send a copy home.

I should have some photos to post pretty soon, of me actually skydiving! Keep watching....

2006-02-22T20:22:00.000+13:00

KAYAKING & THE WEST COAST

2006-02-05T19:14:00.000+13:00

SKYDIVING

These past two weeks I’ve been skydiving, which is something I haven’t done for over four years, though I knew I would do it again I just didn’t know when. The drop zone is a a little place called Pudding Hill on the very edge of the alps, near the local ski area called Mt. Hutt. The plane ride up to 12,000 ft. is amazing, as long as the fear of jumping out isn’t gripping you too tightly. I’ve done three jumps with instructors, just to make sure I hadn’t completely forgotten which handle to pull. Since then I’ve been out on my own, enjoying the feeling and getting used to falling at 200kph again.

I learnt to skydive 5 years ago, here in New Zealand up at lake Taupo in the north island. My girlfriend at the time and my good friend Steve Ward also learnt and it was a huge amount of fun, particularly after we qualified Steve and I would jump out of the plane together clinging on to each other and laughing hysterically. Being in this country and jumping out of planes again, reminded me how much I enjoy sharing these experiences with good friends.

The long walk back after my first jump (they don’t let you land too close to the hanger incase you try landing on it instead!)

The jump plane. This is an NZ made Fletcher with a 700bhp turbine engine that takes eight passengers to 12,000ft. in about 12 minutes, and comes back down at about the same speed we do!

Atilla, one of our instructors, showing us how it’s done!

2006-02-05T19:09:00.000+13:00

Moeraki Boulders & Dandelion Fountains

These boulders lie on the East coast of the south island and are truly bizarre. They formed in a similar way to pearls, lots of thin layers, and they're almost perfectly spherical.

Christchurch is a beautiful city to walk through at night, there are lots of parks and green spaces lit up in fun colours, like these dandelion fountains near the city centre.

2006-02-05T19:02:00.000+13:00

Queenstown and the southern alps

This is the amazing view of Mt. Cook from the road on the way down to Queenstown.

Another prime example of the Roman road!

This is the leaning tower of Wanaka at the amazing world of puzzles.

A classic photo opportunity I just couldn't miss.

Queenstown from the top of the gondola.

The famous Queenstown luge, not as dangerous as it looks, ut definately faster than you expect!

2006-02-05T18:57:00.000+13:00

Oh little town of Methven.....

We moved to the little town of Methven two weeks ago, the day befor my course started on the Monday. We’re staying at the Redwood Lodge, which in winter is a six bedroom ski lodge, but we’ve rented the whole place for the summer and we’re sharing it with two guys from the course who moved in a week ago. The place used to be a vicarage, so it’s one of the oldes buildings in town and it has a really nice peacefull airy feel to the place.

Road builders round here stuck strictly to the Roman road building ethos.....straight!

These are the local hills just out of town, on the edge of the alps. We took a trip up the Rakaia valley at the end of the day and caught the sun shining through from behind the clouds.

Our camp fire at the edge of lake Colleridge, further up the same valley, where we stayed that night.

2006-01-01T17:25:00.000+13:00

CHEEKY ALPINE PARROTS

These juvenile kea really loved trashing just about anything they could get their beaks into.

Lupins growing wild by the side of the road in Arthurs pass.

2006-01-01T17:21:00.000+13:00

AVALANCHE PEAK

Jen and I walked 1000 metres up Avalanche Peak in Arthurs pass, being followed around by hopeful Kea

The view from the top

2006-01-01T17:18:00.000+13:00

NARNIA

Jen the fawn, prancing around the rocks of Narnia (Arthurs pass)

Jen in a bathtub

2006-01-01T17:14:00.000+13:00

CHRISTMAS WITH SHEFFIELDERS

This is Christmas dinner with Emma & Dan, Mat & Jo and Neil & Natalie

Jen's opal ring

2005-12-23T18:27:00.000+13:00

Expression No. 2473

2005-12-23T18:00:00.000+13:00

Whale watching - Kaikoura

Skipping swiftly down to the south island. We did stop off for some blackwater rafting in the Waitomo caves but it wasn't that great for photo opportunities.

So.....seals,wales and dolphins

Not entirely sure what type of seal this is, but they all seemed particularly grumpy. Apparently it's breeding season!

A sleeping (honest, it really is) male sperm whale.

Diving for dinner.

Dusky dolphin.

2005-12-16T15:44:00.000+13:00

JET BOATING

Taupo Rapids Jet

We're the ones in the centre of the middle row.

2005-12-15T19:37:00.000+13:00

Thermal Wonderland

This is Wai-o-tapu, just south of Rotorua, with such attractions as Champagne Pool and the Devils Bathtub.

The Lady Knox geyser

Jen in the mist, no gorillas though!

Champagne Pool

Boiling mud pool......beautiful!

2005-12-15T19:32:00.000+13:00

Freefall Preview!!

possibly the coolest thing we've done so far!

This is the only wind tunnel in the southern hemisphere, and I highly recommend having a go if you get a chance.

2005-12-15T19:28:00.000+13:00

KIWI CAFE

Jen enjoying tea on a rainy afternoon on our way to Rotorua

A cheeky sparrow shaking itself dry right at our table

Kiwi country!

2005-12-12T11:04:00.000+13:00

Travelling in the Funky Van

We headed up the Coromandel Peninsular once we'd finally got our van. This is us at Sunset just outside Coromandel town.

A very cool tropical butterfly house we stopped at for lunch on the Coromandel. The bird is a white finch apparently.

Mount Maunganui. You can see our van in the campsite below, honest!

We've been here for about a week and we're leaving for Rotorua today. Well worth a return visit, hopefully with better surf next time.

2005-12-12T10:52:00.000+13:00

Auckland & Beyond

The famous Sky Tower

Pervy Santa!! He winks and beckons with one finger!

The shy Pukeko, wandering around our campsite in Auckland.

The fernery in the Auckland central Domain.

Jen getting friendly with some Alpines!

The view from our tent on the first morning out of Auckland up in the North Land (sorry this is a bit out of order, as this is before we actually got our van!)

Cute ducklings

Aahhh!

How big can I make my hands look with our wide angle lens!

Purple haze on the way down from the North Land

2005-11-27T11:27:00.000+13:00

Here is the funky camper that God found for us, that's got absolutely everything we wanted in it! Cool isn't she!
Her name is Rose.

2005-11-25T15:17:00.000+13:00

Hey we got here, actually about a week ago now, but who's counting.
These first four pictures are from the second leg of the flight from Hong Kong to Auckland as the sun came up over the Tazman sea.

These two are of the west coast, the first one is just to the west of Auckland at Piha and the other one is taken at New Zealand's spiritual home of surfing, Raglan.

2005-11-15T09:10:00.000+13:00

We're off to New Zealand, tomorrow, and it's actually starting to feel pretty real. The one thing that I'm really glad to have finished doing is getting rid of all our stuff. Between us Jen and I have accumulated a fairly large collection of excess posessions and it's taken literally weeks to get rid of it all. Especially all the random stuff that any house just seems to accumulate on every horizontal surface.

Flights are booked, we've both got visas and I'm enrolled on a commercial skydiving course that starts next January. This is a course that I've thought about doing for about 4 years, since I was last in NZ learning to skydive. I never thought it was ever really going to be possible, but here we are sold up and shipping out!

The amount of stuff God has done for me in the past two and a half years since I came to known him is incredible. I feel disproportionally blessed. He has given me everything I ever really wanted and more! I've only just started to know God and yet he blesses me incredibly. When I first came to know him I felt like I was being trapped, that I would be under some kind of obligation, but all he has done is set me free.