and summer is over

Just as quickly as it arrived the summer has now departed. But it has been good...incredible actually.

I leave my family in Florida tonight to head back to Lookout Mountain for the beginning of another year working at Covenant. So much has happened this summer for me. I have been on 15 flights, traveled through 20 states, 4 countries, met tons of people, been in two weddings...etc, etc.

My time here in Florida has been good. It was weird at first to be living somewhere for more than 3 days. I went straight into wedding mode as one of my dear friends, Pedro, got married the first weekend I was down. So things were pretty fast paced, I was still on the go, and I was meeting new people, along with reuniting with many good friends.

But after the wedding things died down and I was able to lie around and relax...a lot. And it was very hard for me to do that actually. In fact, I really couldn't do that for a while. But I found things to do and eventually was able to sit and do nothing which I think I really needed after such a trip. Was able to play golf a couple times, play tennis, disc golf, go to the beach a few times, go to a high school reunion, see Inception (which I really recommend), visit with some friends, spend time reflecting the trip and journaling. It was good.

And now I am outta here and back to the real world...I will be updating the blog with some more videos and maps in the future. Until then, thanks for letting me share the summer with you.

God Bless,
-b garrison

we're back...

Well...after a long time in travellers' limbo we finally made it back to the United States. In the last three days we have been in three countries and four major cities.

We ended up walking to the airport in Christchurch in the cold, trying to hitch a ride through the suburbs. And we actually picked up a ride eventually. We spent the night in the airport along with a lot of other people and got up around 4 a.m. for our 6 o'clock flight to Sydney. We arrived in Sydney at 8 a.m. Sydney time with a 13 hour layover until our next flight. So Joel and I decided to take the day and spend it in Sydney, while Scott decided to rest and hang out in the airport.

Joel and I went straight to Darling Harbour to check out the place in the day time and to see if there were any World Cup games being shown on the FIFA FanFest giant screen. From there we stopped at the Star City Casino on our way to the Fish Market to see what was going on there. The casino was huge and really sweet. It had everything you could think of, along with shops and resturaunts, etc. Joel and I wanted to walk around and check out the sport's bar so we had to check our bags and ended up becoming members of the place for free so that we could get our bags checked for free. They ended up giving us $10 for slots and Joel actually won around $25 on his first slot!

From there we hit up the Fish Market which is the second largest fish market in the world in terms of variety and amount. The resturaunts and the seafood shops were incredible and the food smelled so good. There were also bakeries, huge fruit stores, cheese and meat delis, and much more. It was a really cool place to be, not too far from the hubbub of Darling Harbour. It started raining at the Fish Market and our goal was to walk onto the Sydney Harbor Bridge. So we did...

And it downpoured on us. Like really hard. We were completely drenched. Once we got close enough to see the bridge we dropped our bags off at this small little overhang off the side of the road (probably a poor choice, but there really wasn't anyone around) and we took of running for the bridge. When we got there it was clear to us that it was really worth it. We were still able to see a good distance down the harbor and another good view of the Opera House with Circular Quay to the right. The bridge walk was really great. But we got soaked...totally worth it though. We picked up our bags and got some Starbucks to dry off and then headed back to the airport, which we walked to from the clesest bus station to save a ton of money. Then we discovered that we needed to fly out of the domestic terminal and we walked about three miles out there.

Our flight left from Sydney to Brisbane at 9 p.m. to connect with our LA flight which was the next day. once into Brisbane we set up camp and slept in the airport for the second straight night. It actually wasn't too bad of a night.  The total layover time was almost 14 hours by the time we left the ground. Our final moments in Brisbane were good. I knew I was going to miss Australia a lot so I was just trying to soak it all in. Our flight left at about noon on Friday the 9th. After about a 12 hour flight, we landed in Los Angeles at 8:30 in the morning on Friday the 9th. So it was just a huge never ending day...it basically will last around 40 hours long for us. And unfortunately I didn't sleep very much in the plane.

So Scott and I are here in LA. Joel went on to Chicago to visit his sister. Scott was able to find a place for us to stay through a connection he had and by the continued generosity that we seem to continually recieve we have an apartment in West Hollywood all to ourselves. We have done nothing today since coming in...just sitting around, watching TV, eating...we haven't done nothing in a long time and it feels great, though really foreign and almost wrong. But we are just really tired. Been dozing on and off.

Alright, well good as gold. We have Saturday, Sunday and Monday here. Tomorrow we hit up Hollywood. Sunday going to a baseball pre All-Star game in Anaheim. it should be a good relaxing few days. Good reflection time as well. I will fly to Chattanooga on Tuesday morning and then will be off to Florida on Wednesday night.

So the adventure continues...each day, one day at a time.

-b garrison

South Island = Crazy Awesome

Well....I greatly apologize to all of you who have been on sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for my next post. (Let's be honest, that applies to no one). But seriously, this is my first post from the South Island and it is long overdue because tomorrow we leave and there is no way I can pack all of the South Island into one post.

But I guess I will have to try.

The last I posted I was in Wellington. The ferry ride the next morning was beautiful. We were blessed with crystal clear blue skies and great visibilty throughout Cook Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. The boat was really cold standing in the front with the wind howling in my face. The three of us would spend some time outside and then go in for a bit...then come out and go back in. Like I said, it was gorgeous weather, besides the bit of cold because of the early time. We were able to see the beauty of the strait, with the Kaikoura Ocean Range in the distance (beautiful snow capped mountains) and then once we entered the Sound in towards Picton we were stunned by the peaceful beauty of the water and large coastline hills. It was great.

Once we reached Picton (which is a very small town, basically there for the harbor alone...less than one million people live on the South Island) we pciked up our hired/rental car, which we got for a great deal and headed south toward the small town of Omihi where our first contact of the South Island lived. We drove down the major highway (every major highway is one lane each way) on the east coast toward Christchurch. We had some good scenery along the way...the north part of the island is wine country, so tons of vineyards, very California looking area according to Joel. We stopped in the thriving metropolis of Kaikoura. Of course I exagerate because it is a big city on the map but such a small town in reality. Kaikoura was one of the most beautiful places though. Right on the beach, famous for the breeching of hundreds of Sperm whales a year, plus a snow covered mountain range in the background. So cool to see both beach and mountains...never seen anything like it before.

Anyways, we eventually ended up at Alec and Nacy Baxter's sheep farm that night in the middle of nowhere. They were great folks. So kind and generous. They had a great meal ready for us, a roast which was delicious. We chatted a lot witht hem about all sorts of things. Like I noted before, I have been able to learn so much about Kiwi culture just by staying in people's homes. They are so willing to discuss and tell us abou tthemselves and their country and culture and they have much pride in their home. It was really special to stay with so many people. We told Alec our plans for driving down to Cromwell the next day and he told us that we would never make it and we would miss the beauty of everything by driving in the dark. He called his sister up who lives on the West Coast in the Greymouth area and got her to take us in so that we could take our time the next day.

So we were able to sleep in and then spend some of the morning with Alec around the farm, with the sheep and in the paddocks. It was really awesome to get a hands on experience of it all. Nancy made us an interesting breakfast as well. First cereal...then toast with butter...then eggs sunnyside up on top of spaghetti on top of a peice of toast. Quite interesing for breakfast, but actually really good. We left Omihi just before 11:30 in the morning and began our dricve to the West coast, via Arthur's Pass. And again it was a perfectly clear day and somewhat warm too. The drive through the pass took us just north of Christchurch through the Canterbury Plains (the site of many LOTR shots) and into the Southern Alps (another site of many LOTR shots). The drive was simply stunning. I could picture the Lord of the Rings movies as we were driving through the areas. Joel was listening to the music on his iPod. I can't really explain it beyond saying it was gorgeous and incredible for so many reasons.

Canterbury Plains (video)

Once we got to the West coast we stopped in Greymouth to take a look at the beach and then we called up Helen (Alec's sister) and got to their home in the middle of nowhere. It was a cool place, still in the midst of being built and working off of solar power. It was such a blessing that Helen let us stay with her so last minute. It wasn't a part of the plan but it was much needed. Again we got a hot meal, for dinner (err...I mean tea) and for breakfast. The stars were absolutely incredible from their home. There was just a bright streak across the dark sky filled with thousands of little lights...unlike anything I've ever seen in the night sky before.

We left pretty early in the morning to Cromwell. The West coast was mountain terrain. There were great views all along the way. Definitely a more rainforesty feel to the place. We passed two major glaciers (people pronounce them glass' ee ers here), the Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers. These are two of the largest in the world apparently. We did a good bit of hiking up the Franz Josef. Some good views, waterfalls, etc there. Really cool stuff. A huge gorge too. We stopped to look at Fox and then carried on. Mt. Cook was somewhat visible as well. But the real beauty was once we entered Mount Aspiring National Park (the site of Rings and the Narnia movies) and the Lake Wanaka area. In my opinion this was the most beautiful area of the trip, though today comes close. Unfortunately, I was driving so I didn't get any pciks and it was starting to get dark so we didin't stop for a look or a photo. But it was amazing! The mountains and the water with the rivers and the beauty of it all was breathtaking.  The Lord really blessed with great weather.

So we reached Cromwell at the home of Jim and Helen Harrington, who were another Covenant connection. Once we arrived we went off with the family to their church for a ping pong tournament. (I ended up getting second place in the loser's bracket...there were some sick players there). But the Harrington's were amazing people. They used to be missionaries in Africa and now have a ministry in Cromwell. We were fed incredibly well by Helen. Such a blessing. We stayed there for two nights. Our second day there was very cold...a lot of ice and frost. We went into Queenstown and we picked up some hitchers on our way. Once close to Queenstown we broke through the fog and it was perfect blue sky yet again. Queenstown is a beautiful city. It has all the feeling of a major ski destination.It is very touristy, very young, and very international. It was a really sweet place and it was really nice to get to be in place with a lot of people again since the South Island seems to be humanly extinct. I think sheep outnumber New Zealanders 7 or 8 to 1 out here. And cows aren't doing too bad either.

Queenstown is right on a beautiful lake surrounded by several different mountain ranges. The Southern Alps to the north, the Remarkables to the west. And it is the adventure capital of the world. You can't walk anywhere without seeing an adventure office location on the street. Whether it is bungy jumping or sky diving or white water rafting, or luge cars, or giant swings, or jet boat rides, or skiiing, or whatever. And yes, I caught the fever and wanted to do everything. Joel and I were able to do the Jet Boat ride which was freaking awesome. It is a ride which gets up to 80 km per hour and spins in 360s and cuts close to rocks and canyons through a farely shallow river called the Shotover. It was so sweet...very cold, but really cool. I would recommend that to anyone.

Jetboat ride - Queenstown (video)

The rest of the evening was spent looking in shops or hanging in pubs...we ate the infamous Fergburger which was delicious. We got back to Cromwell in the evening in time for tea (dinner) and it was delicious again. Scott and I played Jim in some ping pong and then we watched a movie again. It was like being in a good friend's home...really a fantastic time there, such a blessing.

Today we came up to Christchurch and will fly out in the early morning so our plan is to sleep in the airport. Hopefully that goes well. Again our drive included some spectacular sceneray, some of the best in the trip...just hard to write about it because there is not much else to say...you need to experience it. We went through many more LOTR areas (by now you can see I am a little obsessed with Lord of the Rings sites...oh well). Christchurch is a very odd city. Largest in the South Island but very small...no high rises. It's just really spread out. It has a famous cathedral and that is about it.

Well, I hope the pics can help to explain the beauty of this place that I cannot explain to you. As far as the culture, I feel like I have been immersed into the culture. Staying with five families in the matter of ten days can do that. I have noticed myself and the other guys saying phrases or using a small piece of the accent here and there. It's really funny, but really cool. The top three phrases in my opinion are: "Good as gold." "Good on ya." and "Sweet as." I love it. It has really been a good time. I am sad to start thinking about leaving. Moving back into normal life will be both good and bad I suppose. I know that we are all missing home in some form and long to be back. I certainly have felt the desire to get back, some times stronger than others. But all in all, I think we did a fantastic job of putting together this trip. What we have seen and done and the people we have met will last me a lifetime. It has changed me and moved me to think and act and live differently. And I certainly hope that it continues.

It is sad to leave such a beautiful place. It is like we were teased with it all in such a short time. We saw so much in such a small period of time and were not able to experience even close to half of what there is to offer here. So I guess I will need to come back, eh?

Much love from Kiwi country,
-b garrison

on to the South Island

Wellington, New Zealand...capital of the country. It is cold here, though we had some beautiful weather this afternoon. I really have enjoyed moving southward through the North Island; it has been beautiful every step of the way. Wellington is on the southernmost tip of the North Island. We are staying in a backpackers hostel here in the city and will pick up the BlueBridge ferry tomorrow morning at 8:00 to head into the South Island. We will arrive in Picton and pick up our hired car to drive south of Kaikoura to a small town called Omihi to stay with a family there.

On Wednesday morning we missed our early morning bus to Wanganui from Tauranga do to some misunderstandings...and we couldn't find any other alternate buses going down. Joel was feeling pretty sick and we eventually decided that Scott and would drive down in a rental car and Joel would stay with his cousins and sleep so that he would feel better for the South Island. It wasn't the ideal situation, and definitely the toughest decision making I have had to do thus far...but everything worked out and I believe that the Lord had a plan for that day.

So Scott and I took off driving south toward Wanganui by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and Tongariro National Park. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive. We were blessed with some pretty good weather throughout the drive. I was amazed at how the landscape was SO diverse, so quickly changing, so vastly beautiful...it was inexplainable. Lakes, big hills, rocky cliffs, dark green grassy fields...you name it. The highlight of the trip was definitely Tongariro National Park. When we got to Taupo we could see the glimpse of Mount Tongariro (Scott's first snow capped peak) which topped in snow. As we drove we saw Mount Ngauruhoe which was the perfect peak. An amazing view to say the least. It looked like an upside down funnel covered in powdered sugar with a beautiful blue backdrop and several shades of green and brown in the foreground. Certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

Just beyond that was Mount Ruapehu or also known as Mount Doom and the land of Mordor from the Lord of the Rings. It was pretty spectacular being there. I felt like Frodo running through the fields of Mordor trying to get rid of the ring. Haha...not really. More like Gollum actually.Mt. Ruapehu is the largest of the three mountains and also one of the ski resprt capitals of New Zealand. It was crazy to see a volcanic mountain covered in snow and filled with skiers, surrounded by a completely desolate area. All three of these mountains are all in close range to each other so that from the side we were able to see them all in the perfect landscape panorama view. Absolutely stunning.

MORDOR! (video)

South of the mountains was some equally incredible views that just would make me stop and stare in disbelief. It is amazing how many times I have done that on this trip. Not that I don't believe it is this beautiful just that all of NZ is this beautiful. Everywhere we go there is vast beauty...and it seems that NZ has the best of what every country has to offer.

Yesterday we spent the day with the Gillepspie family showing us around the area of Wanganui. The Gillespies are a wonderful family. They have three kids, 13, 8 and 3 years of age. It was really a blessing to get to spend time with them. They took us to the Rangitikei River which was another LOTR site (where the Fellowship took canoes down the river in the first movie). We did a little hiking there and saw a waterfall. Then we drove to Gravity Canyon which is the site of a lot of extreme opportunities and Scott went bungee jumping there from a bridge 80 meters above the river. It was pretty sweet. We also went up to a tower overlooking the city, saw downtown Wanganui, and then ate some take out fish and chips with the family. It was really a great time.

It is pretty obvious that we have learned a lot more abou the culture of NZ just in this short time by staying with families. We have learned about the Kiwi culture, lingo, geography, history, characteristics, and even the spiritual state of the country. I love how we have picked up the unique characteristics of the accent as well, compared to Aussies...especially in how they say "O's" in words like "go" and "E's" is words like "mess". There is so much more that I do not have the time to go into or to explain. There has been so much I have been learning and thinking through about so many different things. God is always so good.

Now...on to bed. Tomorrow...on to the South Island.
-b garrison

country number three: New Zealand

Well, this has been our 2nd day here in New Zealand. It is very beautiful here. We have only seen such a small portion of the country thus far as well...but I think it is safe to say that this is a gorgeous land.

We arrived yesterday in Auckland around 3:30 PM which was about 4 hours behind because our plane in was delayed in leaving Fiji...and for no real reason in particular, just that fact that they run on their infamous Fiji time (which is sometimes an excuse for being a bit lazy). When we got through the most intense and strenuous customs in the world we met Pam Hill who picked us up in the airport. Pam is Joel's cousin; what a great feeling to have a smiling face greet us at an airport at this stage of the trip. the Hill family live a little ofver two and a half hours away from Auckland in the area of Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty area of the North Island.

It has really been a good time here thus far. Not really that cold in this part of the island. And we were actually blessed with some nicer weather today. We drove out to Matamata where the filming of the Shire/Hobbiton from the Lord of the Rings went down. At the moment the set is also under some construction for the new movie, "The Hobbit". We drove out to Buckland where the entrance was and saw the nearby land about 2 and 1/2 kilometers away from the film site. To actually go there it costed $64 NZD, which was too steep for us. But we didn't need to...the surrounding area was ever so similar looking in the deep green hills and various trees and sheep. It was beautiful. Never have I seen such green a place before in my life.

From Matamata we traveled southeast to Rotorua which is a popular tourist location. There are a lot of outdoor extreme activity things going on, along with many outdoor sites as well. Rotorua is surrounding a lake and is filled with high amounts of geothermal pools and geysers. We stopped at a park which was filled with these mud pools that smelled like rotten eggs...steam rolling up out of the bubbling mess. There were bungee jumping spots, some sky diving, Zorb balls, air car races, ziplines, gondolas, all sorts of things like that. We also stopped in a place that preserves the Kiwi bird habitat. Apparently the Kiwi bird, Kiwi fruit and Kiwi person all need to be distinguished as such, since there are so many of each in this area. Actually, the nearby city of Te Puke is the Kiwi fruit capital of the world and has hosted the Amazing Race in the past.

We stopped at Okere Falls to do a little bit of hiking around a few tracks (trails) there and encountered some diverse landscape. Its just weird to see a rapid river, big green hills, and then palm trees among several other tropical and non-tropical plants. We drove back up and went up the beach coastline to Mount Manganui, which is a 231 meter tall mountain on the tip of the coast over looking the bay and the city of Tauranga. The hike was good and the view was spectacular. We were wble to see a lot from the top. We got down in time to see a good sunset from the beach as well. A really good day.

New Zealand Hills (video)

Staying with the Hill family was very delightful. They really provided us with some great comfort at a time of need for us. Tomorrow we will head down to Wanganui to stay with the Gillespie family friends of some Covenant people that we know. We are taking a  bus all the way down which might get rather boring at times, but hopefully some of the sights will be good...we will be travelling right past Mt. Ruapehu, or better known from the LOTR as Mount Doom.

Our last day in Fiji went well. We hung out on the beach until it got cloudy and then hung around Pacific Harbour until the afternoon. We then took the bus back into Nandi Town where nothing was liek it was the day before. Sunday everything shuts down because Fiji is a Christian nation. Things were pretty dead so we went straight to find some lodging near the airport and found a place for $9 to give us our own room, with dinner and breakfast included. It was definitely the worst accomodation we had stayed in on this trip...no hot water (which we actually never had in Fiji), no water from the sink, our door didin't lock, the doorway was a bout 5 feet tall and i destroyed my head on it about 10 times, among other shabby looking things about it, and the overall sketchiness of the place...it was pretty run down, but cheap. And it suited us well. Joel and I went down to Smugglers Cove resort where there was a traditional show with dancing, fire dancing and knife dancing...pretty cool. we also saw some guys that we met and hung out with on Mana.

I am really glad to be here. New Zealand, I feel, will be spectacular. Please pray for Joel because he was feeling really sick today, he needs a good boost of energy and a relief from his constant headaches so that he can enjoy our travels.

I am continually learning a lot. There could not be a better time for me to be reading Blue Like Jazz...great book. I have been thinking a lot about the lives of those we have met and their sense of lostness of which I hold the key. Please pray for boldness for me in my faith as I continue to meet new people who are on a search for various types of beauty.

So long for now.
-b garrison