Ok, so I quickly put up collages from my last few weeks in the South Island... I am getting ready to fly to SYDNEY, Australia... tomorrow morning, if everything goes as planned! :)
It has been ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL in NEW ZEALAND!
I love it here! obviously, b/c i spent 2x as much time as originally planned... but that's ok.
God is teaching me lots of things - like SLOW DOWN when I need to . . .
I ended up staying 2 months on the S.Island of NZ. I am really glad I did. One day, when I was hiking up one of the mountains with some friends, I had a thought, "What's your hurry?" Like God was asking me why I felt like I had to keep moving, traveling on to Australia, India, etc. Well, I answered, uhh, I guess nothing. Ok. I'm not in a hurry. I don't have to be. I can just enjoy being RIGHT HERE. Hmmm. I wish I would remember that lesson. (In hindsight, God took care of timing everything just right, getting to Australia and India, and I didn't have to help Him a bit.) So I stayed with the Shaskey's on the S.Island, in their beautiful town of Oxford, right outside of Christchurch. It's where God spoke through a pastor, "restoration, God is working restoration in your life"; where God gave me my theme verse for the trip, Psalm 84, "blessed are those who have set their hearts on pilgrimage, they go from strength to strength until each appears before God in Zion"; where God gave me Song of Songs 2 for me - that springtime was coming into my life, winter was past; and where I met and lived with my dear NZ family, the Shaskey's; having many talks and prayers with Annette, my NZ mum; playing Lord of the Rings w/ my NZ lil' bro, Daniel (aka Legolis); hanging out, talking and playing sports with my NZ sis Tammy. And I got to help bring in the cows and hear the dreams of my NZ pop, Garry.
Do you want to see some beautiful country? Go to the South Island of New Zealand. Seriously. Erina and I drove through a back, one-way-in, one-way-out road to Mt. Cook - which we ended up not being able to see because of clouds. Nonetheless, it was one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on, rivaling Wanaka NZ and Switzerland. Mountains, lakes, clouds, fall colors; can you do better than that? Erina and I stopped by this small church built on the waterfront, called Church of the Good Shepherd. Honestly, I don't think you need a building to have church in those surroundings. I walked behind the church and stood on the rocks overlooking the water. I decided to sing love songs to Jesus. I felt stupid at first; what if someone hears me, or watches me; will they think I'm crazy? But I really do love Jesus, and I wanted to tell Him. I closed my eyes and even raised my hands half-way (still a little timid to do the full-arm reach) and started to sing. Erina told me later that a tour bus of Korean people had come to the church and they stood behind me, raising their hands in the exact-same 1/2 way position, and quietly sang the same songs. Honestly I had no idea. But when I heard that, I was glad I decided to look stupid.
That's the world's largest bird. Is anyone else glad it's extinct? Found in NZ, or used to be, I should say. After saying goodbye to Melanie, our Aussie sis, Erina and I traveled around the S.Island for a week. Those pink flowers, guess what they're called? Erica. No joke.
Not exactly same spelling as my name, but close enough. I was really excited to find out a flower of me exists. I bought it and gave it to my dear host family, the Shaskey's, so they would have an Ericka forever in their backyard. Erina and I visited the penguins on the southeast side of the Island, and laughed at the road signs nearby. We wanted to see a sunrise over the pacific ocean, which we figured would be the 1st sunrise of the new day, according to the International Date Line, unless some whales saw it before us. We sat in the pre-dawn chill for at least an hour, the horizon getting violet, then light rose, then deeper rose, then orange... Erina asked me if I thought the sun was really going to come up. It was taking infinitely longer than we ever expected. Doesn't it just pop up, and you have to watch it, or you'll miss it? Obviously not. At least not when your eyes are glued to the horizon, waiting for it. But I told her, It will definitely come up. It's the sun. That's what it does. For the thousands of years that we have been spinning. But it did seem that morning it wouldn't. I wonder if that's what it's like in waiting for Jesus to come back. We get to a point where we think, Maybe He's really not going to come. But I think the answer to that is just like the sun...
In NZ I met one of my twin sisters from whom I was separated at birth. Not really, but
you know how WHOAH it is to meet someone whom you think, "this person has to be me."
But they're not. But its pretty close. Well, that's what happened when I met Erina.
She doesn't really look like me, she has beautiful chocolate brown skin, and mine is more
of a peachy tone, but I'm telling you, we are twins. She happened to be traveling around the
world with Jesus in the other direction. Do a lot of people do this? And we happened to meet
at Light House church in Wanaka. She was in the last part of her trip, having come from London (if you ever get to hear a black girl talk with a British accent, it is SO COOL), traveling thru Uganda, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Her last stop was to be the U.S., so I was glad to get to send her to my friends when she drove thru Indiana. And later she told me she loved America, because of the people she met and stayed with... amazing what a little hospitality can do. Back to NZ: Erina and Ericka (doesn't it sound like we're twins?) and Melanie, another beautiful sister from Australia, drove from Wanaka to Queenstown, the famous place in all of NZ for extreme sports. It was there that I chose to do my bungee jump. The three of us had a grand time together. I was impressed with how enterprising both Erina and Melanie were. Melanie was dreaming, and pursuing a dream, of starting a make-up beauty line called Fruits of the Spirit. She had been working on it for about 5 years. Market research, manufacturers, searching for the right ingredients, wow. And she always dreamed of living in Spain, so she was going to go there to "suss it out" (which I think is Australian for check it out and see about possibilities).
Erina had a dream, birthed in S.Africa, to start a Zeen, which is a one-page magazine, that she wanted to distribute in all the underground metro systems of London. The Zeen would be full of real life stories about young people who are living out their faith in Jesus. Her dream is to inspire a new faith life in the upcoming generation in what she sees as a spiritually dying London. I was so amazed as I listened to both girls. Would they be able to do what they were dreaming? What dreams to I have? 
Do you want to go to a really beautiful place? Try Wanaka. It rivals Switzerland as my favorite place from my trip. It reminds me of heaven. Not that I've been there. But if there is a place like heaven on earth, I would nominate Wanaka. Mountains rising out of nowhere, huge lake, warm fall colors. It's nice. I stayed at Lighthouse Church. It's made up of NZ er's and US'ians who want to share with snowboarders God's amazing gift of life thru Jesus. I met some great people there. Their US church connection is in Mammoth, California. I added the chicken picture because I ate some of their eggs while I was there. Thank you, chickens. 
The day after my 3-fold fun (heli ride, ice climb, kayak) I signed up to hike the glacier. I was only at Franz Joseph for 2 days, so I had to make sure I did it all.
The glacier is basically a huge pile of ice that is squeezed between a crevice of the surrounding mountains. We hiked up with clanky foot crampons that looked like they came from 5 eras ago. I was thankful for them. It would have been mighty slippery walking on the ice without the help. At one point, we squeezed thru a narrow passageway that had 20 foot tall ice rising up on either side of us, and I imagined I was one of the Israelites passing through the parted Red Sea. Although I think it was a little colder where I was. Another fun one was this big mouse hole they found. (They say the ice is moving every day, so one day you'll have a path, the next day you won't. There were parts of the hike that were scary. I could see how someone could easily slip down a crevasse. This wasn't a tour with guard rails.) Anyway, the mouse hole was really cool. Literally. We climbed up a rope stair ladder and shimmied and scooted on our bellies in this 360 degree tunnel of ice for probably 100 feet. The blue world around us made me think we were inside an iceberg in Antarctica. Not that I've been there. At the end of the day, I was tired, and my Heavenly Dad (God) treated me to a pizza dinner date. I was so thankful. It was so nice to sit by a warm fire in the restaurant and relax with yummy pizza, rather than sit in my room eating ramen noodles. Sometimes God gives us special treats, and I was glad.
When I was near the Glacier, I found out they had an indoor ice-climbing gym. My brother Mark ice climbs and loves it, so I decided I would give it a try, in his honor. I thought I would have to do major pull-ups/upper body strength stuff, which I failed in my 5th grade rope-climbing test. But to my surprise, it was as easy as climbing a ladder, as long as your toe and ax picks lodge securely in the ice. Do I look like a pro? Then that same day, as if I hadn't enough adventure, (actually, now that I think about it, I also did my helicopter flight that same morning!) I decided to go kayaking. It was fun, I loved the smooth water and the views around the lake. And, interestingly, the water was black. Something about the dust from the surrounding mountains.
This is my buddy, ryan. He is 7 years old and we had lots of fun having adventures together.
I got to visit his school. Lucky enough, the kids can go bare-feet to class. I wish I grew up in NZ. I listened to ryan play the piano, ate a Fish N Chips picnic on their living room floor followed by a yummy NZ dessert, played night fishing on his trampoline in the back yard, and rescued a princess in distress in the woods behind his school. Ryan has a great family and i was so blessed to stay with them. 
I hitched a ride w/ Annette Shaskey's mom and dad and their pastor friend up to the north part of the South Island, to a town called Motuaka, near the famous national park called Abel Tasman. We had fun talks in the car, and I heard a great story about how the pastor guy met his wife. It went something like this. He was walking along a beach when he saw 3 girls coming towards him, and believed he heard God say to him, "You're going to marry the one in the middle." Well, shortly after, he went off to Asia to be a missionary. He prayed about what he heard for a long time. He came back once to meet her again, but somehow another guy joined in their only opportunity to be alone. So nothing was said. He went away again, back to Asia, and prayed about it more. Then he believed God told him to write her a letter, telling his feelings and asking her to marry him. Meanwhile, this girl, back in NZ, was praying about direction for her life, and she heard in her prayer-time, "You're going to get a letter from this guy in 3 weeks, and when you do, answer Yes." Well, the letter came, in the exact time it was foretold, and she answered Yes. She was the daughter of the president of the missions organization the young man was a part of, and later he became the president. Interesting enough, they figured out later that the exact day that the young man was prompted to write was the same day that she heard she was to say Yes.
The pictures here are mainly from Abel Tasmen Park. Beautiful jungly hikes around beaches. I felt like I was in a tropical rain forest. I stopped in one place where I saw some kids playing Cricket. Similar to our baseball. Kind of. I watched them for a bit and then I asked if I could play, and they said yes. We had lots of fun. I especially liked that they thought I was really good. I didn't tell them it was because I was a Big Kid, so I had an unfair size, strength, and sports experience advantage. Then I realized I had to make it back for my boat to pick me up... Walking would take an hour and then some, and I only had 40 min. I started to jog. I felt like Pocahontas, Indian Warrior Princess, running through the woods. My backpack broke, which added an extra challenge, but I can't say much because it was my $3 one I bought back in Bolivia. There were so many times, especially going uphill, that I wanted to stop, but I knew I had to catch that boat - it was the last one of the evening. So I kept going, 15 min, 20 min, 30, 35, I think I'm going to die. God, give me strength. Down the last hill, jumping a creek, pounding up a ridge and then, there it was, the beach where the boat would come! Thank you, Father! I collapsed on the sand and felt my lungs and heart thundering in my chest, trying to catch up. After recovering past the "i'm going to die stage" I took a swim in the freezing water, ouuuiiii! Only 5 min, but it was enough to cool me down and make me be real thankful for the warm sunshine. Then the boat came and I climbed on board. I was so glad I didn't have to camp there over night.
I know, I said I had 9, but I had to show you this...
When we got back to the Bungy Center, they had
old bungy cord ropes, with their nylon rope shell removed,
to show you what was holding your life up...
A little scary! But actually quite amazing, too. To think that
all those LITTLE rubber bands, when working together, can hold up a decent sized person, and keep her from dying...
that's quite a feat!! I'm thankful mine were working!!
This is the group of lovely people with whom I had the pleasure of sharing my "scariest thing I've done since...well, since a while". We made it!! (2 American guys ~ Mid-west boys!!, and a couple from Ireland... lets just say we all bonded, really well. I think that's what happens when people go off to battle... some dramatic/life-threatening situation, and you all survive it together... it'll bond anyone. :)
Here's what other people do while the really NUTTY ones are
out on the plank... They cheer and wave, ooooh and ahhhhh,
and probably get a little nervous for their loved one / or complete stranger who is out there, on a skinny piece of wood,
about to plunge head-first into a canyon.
In this particular video, I didn't quite get it on film, but there was this dear Japanese lady out on the plank, and all of her family (or tour group?) were there watching... she seriously
was having a hard time going - she'd get out there, and then
scream and rush back in the hut, then she'd go out again, look down, scream again, and hold on tighter to the guy who was helping her... it probably took about 5 minutes to get her to jump... and when she did, she actually squatted down, to maybe step off?, and then she just fell - I really don't think she meant to. But she made it!!! And boy, could you hear her yelps!! And the dear people who were watching her... laughing and oooohing and ahhhhhing; all very thankful it wasn't them out there! :)
After I was rescued by the Yellow Boat People, I decided to go back up to the Bridge and look again, this time in relative peace, at the place where I jumped...
When I was up at the top, pre-jump, getting my feet strapped in, and trying not to panic... a question popped in my mind, one I hadn't thought to ask before... "How do they get me down?" The guy just kind of laughed at me, and said, "You'll see..."
So after the BIG JUMP, when I was dangleing there by my ankles (quite thankful for the towel that gave extra padding for the tightness/semi-burning feeling at the ankles)... that's when I met the Yellow Boat People...
After the BIG JUMP... Here's Ericka's Version of what really was going on. :)
It may seem as if there is no problem...
an easy thing to do, like tying a shoe, brushing your teeth, Bungy jumping...
WHATEVER!!!
Inside, my mind was really panicking (how do you spell that?)
and wondering, can i do it, will i die, o my gosh!!
And then the guy hit 0 (he was counting back from 5),
and I knew I had to just step forward and dive.......................
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...........................
(And, yes, that is me yelling!)
Notice my nervous laugh and smile...
I'm trying not to panic or black out at this point.
Notice also the towel around my ankles and the secure(?) strapping...
Walking out to the Plank...O Jesus, Help Me!!
Interview Before the Plunge!
Before your possible coming death is a bit of a scary time.
Even with my Psalm 46 word from God,
I was still quite JUMPY inside...
(not too thrilled about JUMPING).
In Queenstown, New Zealand...
about to attempt the world famous
Bungy Jump, from a 43 meter high
bridge - the 1st official site of commercial
bungy jumping! EEEEK!!!
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