Waiheke Island

well.. It was another great week here in Auckland. The more I am here the more I love and appreciate the fact that I AM here right now. Have I really almost been here a month already??? The time sure is flying by, but I've enjoyed every second of it!! I switched one of my courses this week. I was having trouble understanding my professor(her accent and the way she spoke)So now I am taking WOMENS 101! I've only been to one lecture, but I've already caught up on reading the 2 novels the rest of the class read within the first two weeks!

Saturday, I took my first ever ferry ride to Waiheke Island. Hard to believe, but this was also my first time riding on the ocean too.. My friends here couldn't believe that this was only really the 3rd time I'd been near an ocean :) It was a pretty cold ride; we decided to sit on the top deck for the views! It took about 45 minutes and we were there. We had big plans to go sea kayaking! I haven't been kayaking in probably 8 years so I was pretty excited! Our excitement dropped when we approached the shed and no one was there... We did call and e-mail ahead of time, but no one returned either of our attempts to contact them. We found out that due to the weather, they were not always open. So, we improvised and found an i-site (visitors centers) After speaking with a woman there we had our plan and we caught Bus#2.

We bought an all day bust pass for 8 bucks so we could get on and off as we wished. We stopped at a "vintage market" It was more like a rummage sale, but it was pretty interesting! They had a mini farmers market, too. People enjoyed crepes and snow cones while we were there.

We got back on the bus in plans of finding some alpacas..which we never did find. We ended up passing up the farm on the bus but they weren't out (because of the weather). We got off the bus at the end of the route which was right by a bay. A woman was also getting off the bus and she could tell we weren't locals :) She asked what we were looking for, and told us a cool hike to take, so she walked us there herself on the way to her weekend home.

We took the short hike down to the beach where it was part of a regional park. We collected shells and saw some rare protected birds, just as it began to rain down on us. We found this little bathroom hut thing so we stood under it for a while because not everyone had an umbrella. We decided that we should probably just make our way back to the bus stop, not knowing if it was going to get worse or not. We had a map and decided to try to take the road instead of the trail we took down to the beach because it was all mud! We actually ended up on the trail that we started up on because the road was taking us too far out of the way. It was a bit slippery and we were a little dirty by the end but we made it back to the bus stop!

Everyone was wet, tired, and cold and thought we should just go back, but I thought we should try to go to the Olive Oil tasting that we thought sounded cool. So the bus driver let us off in front of the place and we took a little tour of the garage where the olive oil is processed. It was a little family owned business, but very cool. We got to taste some different kinds too :) It turned out to be a good stop! After that we made our way back to the ferry and took the next one back to Auckland. We sat underneath this time, but it was a lot more rocky and a few of us definitely felt a bit sea sick and ended up falling asleep because if our eyes were open we felt too sick. All in all it was a fun outing tho! We got out of the city for the day and got to see some beautiful landscape!!

Some other things we did this week:

Friday night, Mariel and I went to the Overseas Christian Fellowship meeting where I met some leaders who are actually from Wheaton, IL. (go figure) It was a good time, and the first time since we've been here that we were able to meet other Christian people (besides at church). We also went to the evening service at St. Pauls where we found out is the service that most of the younger people go to as well. It has definitely been a challenge to be surrounded by all different kinds of people with different beliefs and different faiths or people with none whatsoever. If you'd like to pray for something for me this would be it. The opportunities to witness here are basically endless. Sometimes its hard to know what to say or not to say. So pray that mariel and I will have the words to say and the actions to accompany our faith. 1Peter 3;15 says, " Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

Thursday our whole group that came here through Arcadia got to meet with one of our directors for coffee to catch up and meet some women from the U.S. who work for different schools/organizations that help students study abroad. It was great to catch up with Kate and share our experiences with those women. Plus, I never say no to a free cup of coffee :) We also went out for sushi. I got the Japanese equivalent to chicken fingers which were delicious! We also shared a vegetarian Korean pancake which was also delicious!

This week is another busy week of classes. Friday we are leaving in the early afternoon for the Waitomo Caves and Raglan. We'll come back late Sunday evening. This is a planned activity weekend through Arcadia so we don't have to pay anything!

Here's a few pictures to highlight our trip and our week!