Happy New Years!!

Happy New Years All! 

Today we are packing up our stuff and are about to leave from the town of Wanaka… However I'm going to back up a bit and fill you in on our experiences here… 

When we arrived in Wanaka, it was a few days before New Years, we hadn't booked any accommodation yet, and apparently this was the place to be. Matt and Derek set out right aways to find somewhere for us to stay, while the rest of us explored the town… but that didn't take to long. How it all worked out was that we were going to stay 2 nights at one hostel, 2 nights with no accommodation, and 2 more nights at a different hostel. So we decided for the 2 nights that we didn't have a hostel we were going to camp out, and spend it in a hut. 

Our first hostel was awesome! Probably one of my favourites. It was nice and small, and the people were very friendly. On our second night there, our team hung out with three men from Saudi Arabia that had come here to learn english. They invited us for tea and biscuits, and we talked and laughed late into the night. 

Our third night (New Years Eve), we unfortunately had to spend it at the loud campsite. That evening we decided to go out into the town to experience a New Zealand New Years, well we didn't really experience it the way most of the Kiwis did because we weren't drinking. But none the less we had a fantastic evening talking to people, watching fireworks, and spending the night together. I personally had one of the best conversations yet on outreach that night with a  young 24 year old man and he was really interested in what we were doing, and really encouraging as well. Unfortunately as soon as I was about to ask him some questions about his faith his friends bolted into the crowd and he had to go after them. Never did I see him again to follow up on that conversation… bummer deal. 

The fourth night we decided to spend it in a hut. Derek and Kristoffer headed out first thing in the morning to get to the hut, and Matt, Katie, and I were going to join them later in the evening… You see the first day we were here they both burnt their backs really well, and that day it was about 27C outside… so hiking in the heat probably wasn't something we wanted to put them through. So there we were in the nice cool evening hiking out towards the hut, unfortunately about 10 minutes in we got hit by some gale force wind and rain (that made it in the paper haha) but we decided to keep on going. At about an hour in we decided to turn back and just spend the night in the van… a very very very long night in the van. None of us were able to sleep because of how loud, and strong the wind was… it felt like i was on a roller coaster the entire night. Kristoffer and Derek on the other hand had a great time at the hut filled with awesome conversations. 

The 5th and 6th night we spend at the last hostel. It too was a really great hostel filled with lots of people to chat with and play games with. Yesterday Kristoffer took Matt Dane(friend from hostel) and I sailing and it was a AWESOME!!! Denver and Mary joined us last night and they will be traveling with our team for about a week. We are all very excited that they have joined us, and are amped to see what God has in store next!! 

Yours Truly,

Team Kiwi Fiji

Prayer Points:

- Heb.1:11

-To be bold

-Healing on April's ankle for she re-pulled her ligament. 

-continued unity in our team

-opportunity!