Pics: Southern Travel w/ Erina, Sunrise

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...